Cutest handmade mug EVER. Found at Pebs in Brasov. |
I have about five blog post ideas floating around in my mind, and yet this post is not one of those ideas. I am going to work on getting those posts out, but I thought I'd take some time to write about my week. As the weeks go by, I continue to feel more comfortable, and settled, into my roles here. From the beginning, I've felt comfortable, but I'm pretty amazed at how that has continued over time. Anyways, on to the week in review...
Monday: I actually stayed home on Monday morning due to not feeling the greatest. While in Bucharest over the weekend, I woke up feeling dizzy in the mornings. This continued on Monday morning so I decided to have a slow and quiet morning at home. I made my way to Veritas at noon in order to have lunch with everyone. Then, it was time for Kids Club.
Such a sweet, sweet boy. |
After Kids Club, I went up into the citadel for Monday Night Supper. I usually arrive early since I just go right after Kids Club. I got to spend time with a friend's baby while dinner was being prepared for the group. Then, I enjoyed the company of the other ex-patriots (Americans, Canadians, a German, a Brit...the cast of characters change from time to time) while eating a delicious meal of salad and tortellini, followed by a slice of southern hospitality pie (yes, that was the name of it). And to finish the meal, we enjoyed a lovely hot cup of apple cider. I always forget to take photos at Monday Night Supper...one of these days.
After Kids Club, I walked home with Brittany (Romanian Studies Program student) and Jenny (volunteer from Germany). Brittany and I have supervision each week, and this week it fell on Tuesday. As a supervisor with the Romanian Studies Program, I meet each week with the student(s) to review the week, see if they need anything (information, resources, etc), and basically do a check-in regarding their internship. Following supervision, we had a Skype meeting with Brittany's professor, which was nice. After they left, I made dinner, my famous one-pot pasta, and worked on planning and preparation for the rest of the week.
These boys were ready to party! |
Most of the birthday kids! Some were absent :( |
Puppet show time! |
Kinga presenting the cake! |
Coziest slippers ever made. |
When the cleaning was finished, I was on my way to do some shopping with my pal, Timi. She's one of the high school volunteers who helps at Kids Club, but she also goes to the Nazarene church. Oh and she's in the It Takes Courage program that I co-lead on Thursdays...so we spend a lot of time together. She's fun. Anyways, we went shopping because I needed some slippers! The ones I ended up with (pictured above) are so insanely comfortable. After making that amazing purchase, we went to Kaufland (the large grocery store in town) to grab a few things. Then, it was time to head home. I made dinner (leftover pasta), worked on my Romanian homework, did some planning, and went to bed.
Thursday: Like Tuesday, I started my day with Romanian class. I spend the majority of my Thursdays at House on the Rock, up in the citadel. After Romanian class, Adela and I plan and prepare everything for It Takes Courage, which takes place in the afternoon. We head down to Veritas for lunch, and then back up into the citadel for It Takes Courage. We have a group of 17 high school students who come, which is a large group! We hang out for a bit, and then we always get things started with some type of game.
As I've mentioned before, ITC is a program that I co-lead with Adela, which focuses on building character in high school students. And it's all done in English. These kids are pretty cool, and I love spending my Thursday afternoons with them. We've been talking about empathy over the last two weeks, and it's been really good. We've had some good discussions, and used various games and activities to help develop empathy. We also watched a really good video, which I posted above because I think it's a good reminder for all. After ITC, I headed home, I think...I can't remember. Oops.
Friday: Every Friday morning, I make my way to Veritas for staff devotions at 8:00 am. This is always an enjoyable time for me. Obviously, we have devotions as a staff and spend time talking about how the week went in each of the programs (kids, teens, special needs, elderly, etc). We end devotions by praying together for praises and needs related to our programs, but also related to our personal lives.
Usually, I would go from devotions to meeting with the Kids Club staff in order to do some planning, but not this week. A lady came in to speak about essential oils, which I know a little bit about, but it was still nice to sit in on. I learned some new Romanian words for different plants and fruits so I can definitely say it was educational. After that meeting, I was supposed to have a meeting with Brittany (RSP student) and the Veritas social workers, but we rescheduled it for next Friday.
After lunch, Brittany, another Veritas volunteer and I headed up to Roberta's house to watch a movie. Along with supervising Brittany, I have also been leading her seminar (weekly course) while Dorothy has been away. During seminar, we discuss various social work topics, as well as covering cultural topics. This week, we watched a film called "The Way I Spent the End of the World" or "Cum mi-am petrecut sfarsitul lumii", which is about a Romanian family during the revolution in December 1989. I watched this film when I was here before, when the other student watched it for her seminar class. It's an interesting film, and I would highly suggest it. After the movie, I headed to House on the Rock for Ceai and Chat. Again, I know I've mentioned this before, but Adela and I host a Ceai and Chat event once or twice a month. Basically, it's just a time and place for local teens to hang out on Friday nights. Sometimes we have a theme for the evening, host a movie night, or just hang out. This time, we watched Back to the Future II. They had watched the first one a few weeks ago due to the date of the future being near. Once the movie was over, we all hung out for a bit and then headed home.
Well, that about covers it. Hope you enjoyed this week in review. Stay tuned for posts on my adventures with Jessica during her visit, my time in Turkey, an updated Currently post, and some other things :)