Good morning, Lupeni.

Sunday, August 29:

My body did not appreciate waking up this morning.  My alarm began beeping at 6:37, and I rolled over and groaned and smacked at it, almost knocking it off the bedpost onto Marit’s head below me.  But somehow I caught it and eventually got down from the top bunk.  I had promised to meet Kadie at her apartment at 7:00 to go running, which was good incentive.  Had it not been for that promise, I probably would have gone back to sleep.

But I am so glad I ran.  As soon as I figured out the building’s front door lock and stepped outside, I knew I’d enjoy the morning.  It’s still raining a bit here, just a drizzle, so everything is slightly soggy and there are clouds drifting along the tops of the mountains, shrouding the peaks.  We didn’t run far—just half an hour out of town, out and back, up and then down, on a gradually-winding road into the hills.  But the view was magnificent, and I loved the familiar feel of sweat trickling down my face, my feet pounding pavement, and the well-known rhythm of my body’s stride and breathing… I love running.

When I returned to the apartment, Marit and Julie were up.  We’re not going to church this morning because of timing issues I guess, but our apartment is right across the street from a Pentecostal church.  We’re on the top floor of our building, so our view is pretty great, and this morning we all stood in the kitchen and watched out the window as the congregation’s members showed up for the morning service.  An elderly gentleman stood at the door, shaking hands and ushering people inside (we started to call him the butler).  Slowly, alone and in pairs, the congregation arrived: mostly old ladies, hair covered with headscarves, walking slowly and gingerly up the stairs to the church, gripping their canes or the handrail tightly as they stepped carefully in their slightly-heeled church shoes.  Old men arrived next, most of them in little bowler hats and suit jackets, greeting each other and shuffling their way past the butler into the sanctuary.  But suddenly, after most of the rather-elderly congregation had arrived, a white van came squealing up to the corner and two young guys jumped out, one with a guitar strapped to his back; they bounded up the steps to the church and vanished inside as well.  Hmm… I’ve always wanted to go to a Pentecostal church, but now I’m even more curious to attend the Biserica Penticostăl in Lupeni...