Chicken Run from the Barbecue!

Wow! It has been a long time since I posted! But, I really haven't had anything exciting to write about though, at least not as exciting as Joanna's experiences! :) Well, I finally had a little something interesting to write about. So here goes nothin': On Thursday I was picked up by my sister to spend a couple of days with her and her husband, and four kids. As always we had a fun exhausting time! On Friday we went to Darien Lake amusement park, this was my second time there this year, the kids had a blast running from one ride to another, to another, to another........ We had our hands full! Esther, she being the youngest is always a handful, let alone when you are at an amusement park with hundreds of people that she could get lost in! :) But despite all of the challenges, we survived our day at Darien Lake! On Saturday evening Jeremy and Trina came to pick me up. They were picking up Trina's brother from the airport, and Bethany's house is near the airport, so they swung by and picked me up. Jordan's flight didn't come in until nine o'clock and it was delayed half an hour, so to kill time we loaded up Bethany and the kids and headed out to play Frisbee golf. Crawling around in thistle bushes looking for lost Frisbees, dodging incoming Frisbee's, running after Esther, and launching Frisbee's as far as you can, pretty much sums up our game last night. :) We had fun though! After the game we said goodbye to all the nieces and nephews, and headed for the airport. We got there early so waited around until finally we saw "Delta" written on the side of one of the incoming planes, and said, "That has got to be him!" Jeremy was by this time hungry, so we discussed where to eat since it was already ten o'clock and all good respectable restaurants were closed. We landed on the perfect place, :: Drumroll please :: " The Dinosaur Bar-b-Que" Yes, the same one the G---'s almost ate at! :) It was ten o'clock on a Saturday night, with people dancing to the live band music, which was blaring through the whole restaurant, motorcycles revving up there engines, the smell of barbecued meat traveling through air... I think you get the picture! :) Well, after having put all of our orders in, we sat there bee-bopping to the music waiting for our food to arrive, when I heard them playing a song that I knew! Aren't you shocked! :0 So, me being me, I started humming along, Trina hearing me leaned over with a shocked expression on her face said, " You know a song they are singing?!?!" Jordan overhearing Trina's question, also asked me the same question. I replied in the affirmative. They were all pretty impressed, UNTIL, I told them where I had heard the song;
As I sat singing along, Trina asked the very important question: "Where did you hear this song?"
"Off a movie." I replied.
She then asked, " What movie?"
" Chicken Run" I replied.
"You did not just say 'Chicken Run'?" came from the other side of the table.
"YEP!" I replied very proudly.
"How many times have you watched that movie anyway?" a question shot out by Jordan.
"Too Many!" I shot back. And so ended my little time of impressing everyone, as small a time as it was it was still fun! :) Maybe next time I know a song that is being played by a live band in a bar, I should just not tell them where I learned the song! :)

Dinner Party (or picnic?)

Tonight was the dinner party,excuse me picnic that the church here held mostly because of Dad being here and leaving in a few days. We weren't suppose to know anything about it but I really don't know how they ever thought that we wouldn't since they talked about it right in front of us several times and we may not understand everything but I know enough food words to know what they are talking about and then I went this morning when they went to get supplies. Sora Aneta had Curtiss drive her to the city of Hateg this morning to meet the pastor of the church here to buy the meat and other things that they would need and if I hadn't already known about it then I would've had to by the end of that since they bought enough food to feed an army and half of the food they didn't need to buy. They got 25 pork chops and at least that many pieces of chicken, ten loaves of bread, several gallons of mineral water and soda and three different kinds of salami for an appetizer. All of this in addition to the twenty pounds of potatoes, two different kinds of cabbage salad (one to eat with the meal the other to have with the appetizer but both some how made it into the main meal) rice pilaf and vegatables that they had. Needless to say we had enough to eat. Thankfully as there was a large group there I kind of hid in the wood word so to speak and so left feeling comfortably full Dad having gotten the brunt of "Frata Mark eat, eat". All in all we had a great time and I think that there are enough left overs to feed all 20 of us atleast one more time. Now I'll tell you about what we are doing tomorrow as I will be too busy to tell you later. We of course will start the day with going to church here in the village and Dad will be speaking again and there will be a few people visiting so that they can see him before he leaves (like the Simions) and then after that we are expected in the city for I believe a dinner at one of the Archers friends home in celebration of a baptism (in case you want to know... Maruis, one of the guys that went last year to the ruins in Deva with us is the one being baptised) We won't be able to make it to the actual baptism because that is happening while we are in church here so we are going to their house afterwards and that will probably last most of the afternoon and then we will head to an evening service in one of the churches that has been instrumental in the Archers being here and from there we will go to another one of their friends homes. So it will be a very full day, but it is better to be busy then board and I don't think that I will have to worry about that while I am here;) I hope that you all have a great rest of the day and that your time in church tomorrow will be blessed.

My Days

While I haven't heard from most of you in a while so I guess that it is time that I wrote some thing to remind you that I am here;) The days here have been quite full with either visiting or doing necessities or doing some fun things together. Wednesday was mostly a day around here with some visiting/making new aquaintances and in the evening Bible class and prayer meeting.
Thursday the Archers were able to go and pick up their long term visas that they have been working toward and waiting for the three months that they have been here this year. Now they can legally come and go in the country until 2013. after completing that we were also able to do a little bit of sight seeing (probably all that we will do while Dad is here). We left the apartment around 9:30 and headed to the city of Deva, the capital of the Hunedoara region, to go to the police station to get the visas. The first stop that we made was the biggest grocery store that is in the whole area which really was amazing since there were several times that I could've thought that we were in a Walmart (except for when we used the bathrooms and none of the stalls had toilette paper). Then after a quick stop at the station we were off to the pizza shop (you will have to ask Dad what he thought of Romanian pizza when you see him). After which we spent some time walking or driving around the city looking for various things that were needed (some of them found and others seemingly not available in the whole country;) I was one of the ones that walked and after gettting ourselves nice and hot we decided to cool down by going to a big stone structure that partly stays cool even on the hottest days, the castle. Now those of you who were on my mailing list last year will remember the castle since Susan, Curtiss and I went there three days in a row either trying to or attending various activities, well yesterday they again were having special days there (I think that we have a knack for going at such a time) and this time something actually happened, probably because we weren't trying to attend it:). The reenactors were back and they did some some period dancing (that I couldn't livened up a bit:) and some sword or axe fighting. I guess that their acting was mostly made up of the guys insulting each other until they would settle their differences in a duel with a couple of dances done in between. I thought it was most entertaining. And then when the knight and ladies were done they had a couple of mimes that put on a show that we saw only a part of so I didn't get everything that they were doing. By the time that they were done most of the castle was closing up and since we had had a long day we decided that it was time to head back. We finished the night off with supper and then some ice cream;).
Today we had a "breakfast" engagment at the Simions (one of the couples that I met last year) and we had a wonderful time with them. I made it out without stuffing myself to such a degree of discomfort, which I am really thankful for. Here is a tip for any one that comes here, chew VERY slowly so that whenever they look at you your mouth is busy chewing and you still have food on your plate other wise they will tell you to take more or they might just put more food on your plate, it also helps if you are a girl;) Mr. John told me that I should eat alot so that when I go home I will be "unrecognizable" and all of you will see how well I lived while I was gone.
We then went to do some shopping for a picnic, that Dad and I don't know anything about, that is happening on Saturday night. Then after coming back Curtiss, Dad and I went and visited with Rahela and her family and I showed them the pictures that I brought with me since they wanted to know what you all looked like and now Dad is out with Curtiss and Mr. Archer fixing the latch on Sora Ergi's gate, Mrs. Archer is preparing some food for tomorrow's picnic and I am reminding you all of my existance:) I think that that brings you all up to speed on the Romanian world, now it is time for me to say Noaptea Buna or Goodnight

English Class

Yesterday we had English classes here in the apartment. The Archer's now have three different classes and they all happen on Tuesday, so it's a full day. Monday we spent the day preparing for the classes. We made work sheets up (yours truly typed them) and Mr Archer worked on the order of what would be done and when. The Romanians have more holidays on their calendar then what I would care to count, (they have some where around eighty) and this last weekend had three days that were considered a holiday for one reason or another, we don't even know what was being celebrated as some of them were just village holidays. And in Romania if there is a holiday there is no work so because of that and the heat English classes were very poorly attended. The three classes are divided by grade and age so that the first group that came at one were six, seven, eight or nine year olds and with them who can barely read Romanian let alone English we spent most of the time just having them repeat after us simple English greetings.
For example Mr Archer had me walk up to each of them and shake their hand while saying "Hello my name is Joanna. What is yours?" and then they were to respond with
"My name is ____." and fill in the blank. Considering the fact that they are very shy around strangers (they wouldn't even look at let alone talk to the Archers for the first month they were here) they did very well and answered me. The second group are about 10-13 year olds and they understand more English so Dad and I were able to understand most of what was going on.
This time Mr Archer had them come up to Dad and I and tell us their names and ask for ours. He asked one of the boys to do it first and he said "no, ladies first" which we all thought was very funny. Some times that slogan does work in the guys favor, but some how I don't think he would've said that if we had asked him to take the first piece of cake;)
but they all did introduce themselves eventually and a couple of them even looked at us while they were doing it.
The last group which is made up of the highschoolers had the poorest turn out, there were only two girls there, was the most enjoyable. They came because they wanted to learn and they speak excellent English so the whole class was understandable. Both girls want to practice their English so I will probably be spending some time with them and we will all learn from each other as they are willing to help me with Romanian.
Let me tell you a little bit about them, Rahela (Rachel in English) as the eldest of seven children, is the second mother to her siblings. Lorena the other girl is almost 16 (we share a birthday) and is one of the easiest people to talk to that I have met over here as she isn't shy and will ask questions and answer them when they are asked of her. So I am really looking forward to getting to know both of the girls better as they are both very sweet and they are the only ones that I have met that are even interested in spending time with me. I would really ask for your prayers as I interact with both these girls and any one else that I meet while I am here that I can be a friend and an example to them.
I hope that this is understandable as I don't feel like rereading it to make sure that I wrote with correct english when I was writing about english class:) Elise feel free to edit if you need to;)

The Apartment

1. I thought that you might all enjoy a few tastes of Romania while I am here and I thought that the best place to start would be where I am staying. The Archers have bought an apartment in the only apartment building in town it is considered a three room apartment which means that it has three rooms plus a kitchen, bathroom and hallway. After being in their rented apartment last year in the city I can see how nice this one is. It has one more room then the one last year (which is good because that is where I am staying) and the kitchen is absolutely huge compared to the other. When you open the door and walk in you are standing in the hallway that connects the whole thing now this hallway is quite large being big enough to have the table and a cupboard sitting on the one side with enough room to get by them and into the rest of the apartment. As you walk down the hall on your right you will come upon the kitchen which is big enough to have more then two people working in it at the same time with out constantly pasting yourself up against the cupboards and walls to get by each other. It has cupboards and counters, a stove, refrigerator and even a microwave!!! The only thing that it doesn't have is hot water so when you do dishes you go into the bathroom (which we will come to later) and fill the dish pan and rinsing pan with hot water and then wash the dishes, rinse them in cold water in the sink and then put them into the hot rinse water before putting them into the dish drainer. Now let's continue down the hall way, next we come to the living room, which is also off the right hand side (this is also where Mr and Mrs Archer sleep on the pull out couch,Curtiss is also sleeping there on an air mattress while Dad is here since he is staying in Curtiss's room) The living room is quite a large room (using Romanian standards, pretty average American size) with an L shaped couch, a chair and a couple of decorative buffet type stands. The living room is also how you get to the balcony where you hang all of the clothes to dry (or watch wedding processions when they are taking the bride to get the groom at his home where he is hiding and all the guests have to try and find him) Now since the hallway is in an L shape and since we went into the living room on the right and the hallway heads to the left we can come straight out of the living room and continue down the hallway. Directly on the right is the bathroom where there is the washing machine and (now get really excited here) a shower with a curtain(!) that you can stand up in without having to hold onto the shower head to bath!!! Now we are getting to the end of the tour since we only have two rooms left. As we leave the bathroom and turn right out of the door so that we continue down the hallway Curtiss's room is on the right and that is where I am writing you from as that is where the computer is and then my room is at the very end of the hall and they have prepared a very nice place for me to live. I feel kind of bad that the Archers have given up an entire room just for me and they put a lot of effort into getting it ready for me. They painted the walls (it's one of the two that they have painted the only other one being the living room) a nice light yellow and they have decorated it with pink. They bought a bed and a wardrobe just so that I could use them and I have a nice little table in there that I can sit at and do what ever I need to. This post has gotten quite long and I hope that you will be able to understand it enough so that you have some idea where I am living. I have to go now as I have spent quite a bit of time in front of this screen and I need to go and be sociable. I hope you all are well and I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Hello from Romania!

Hi everyone we made it safely and in not toooo bad of condition;) We flew out of Dulles at about 5:30 on Thursday and after eating, drinking, sleeping (a little) and watching a couple of movies(Penelope, some of 27 dresses and enough of Horton hears a who to know that I was right when I thought that it would annoy me) we landed in Munich Germany. O before I forget I have to tell you some thing that happened while we were in Dulles. We got on one of the transport buses where they take you from where we went through customs to where our gate was and who walked in but Cuba Gooding Jr. No I didn't get a picture but one of the other ladies there did, and then the guy sitting next to us almost knocked him over when the bus went around a corner and his bag fell over on top of Cuba. Any way back to our flight. Munich was the hardest part because we had a 7 hour wait (which is almost as long as it took us to fly across the Atlantic) before our connecting flight left. And after we had gotten up at 5:00 Thursday morning to drive to Washington and then only getting a couple hours of sleep on the plane I was quite tired so waiting and not getting any closer to our destination wasn't fun. I was actually so tired that I was feeling sick but after I laid down the second time and slept a little and felt much better. After we got on the plane we had no trouble and didn't even have to go through customs when we got to Romania because there were no customs officers there! such is life in romania;)
well I have to go now Curtiss and I are going to go out and see if there are any kids around to talk to. Just know that since I have been here I have seen every one from the church (they were VERY welcomeing) been to a wedding(which I didn't understand a word of except when the couple said "Dah" which means yes) and had a good night sleep:) which was really good! I will try to keep you all updated on what we are doing and remember all the good stories that happen so that you can feel like you are here in a way.

Touch Down!

I just wanted to let all of our faithful readers know, that Dad and Joanna have arrived at their final destination safely, without any problems with connections or anything. Thank you all for your prayers! I am hoping that we will get an more informative update tomorrow, after they have had a good night sleep.

And she's off!

Joanna is now somewhere over the Atlantic ocean! Please keep her and Dad in your prayers as they are traveling. Last thing we heard they were on board and waiting for the plane to take off, and that was at 5:30 so they should be in the air now. They should arrive at the Archers tomorrow at about one o'clock in the afternoon. Oh, and thanks to Trina, here is the long awaited picture of our new hairdo's!

Don't you just love Joanna's? In person it looks even more adorable! Everyone who has seen her has said, " You got chopped!"

The computer over there is really slow, so Joanna has told me not to post to many pictures, because she wants to look at our blog too. But what she doesn't realize is that the only two cameras that we have in our house are hers, (and she took that with her,) and Mom and Dad's. Now, Mom and Dad's would be fine, except, they don't have any batteries for it. Which are essential to running a camera. So, I will not be able to post any pictures for a little while. Maybe I will have to splurge and buy my own camera, so I can take pictures while Joanna is gone.

Goodbye!

I am just coming on to say "Goodbye" to posting on this side of the ocean for a while.
Tonight we have some friends coming over for a pizza farewell party. Dad and I leave at 5:30 tomorrow morning to drive to the airport and then we are suppose to fly out at about 5:30 tomorrow night. I would like to ask for your prayers for safety and smoothness for our flights as you never know what kind of delays or kinks you might run into.
And now so that I can drive you crazy I will tell you that I got my hair cut yesterday and I really like it. Elise will post a picture sometime soon but for now I'll just tell you that it is so short that my beautician had to shave the back of my neck.
There now I have you all mad at me and if you live close enough maybe you will be so desperate that you will drive over to see me before I leave:) I will post and let you know that we made it safely just as soon as I can. Please keep in touch so that I know that you haven't forgotten me! And now to use the words that Jen wrote on my take out box the other day, it's Romania or Bust for me:)

Party Time!

Hello everyone! I know it has been a long time since our last update, but we have been a little bit busy. Joanna has been getting ready to leave us, and the rest of us have been partying. The first big party was Olivia's graduation party, followed by the G---'s pool party, and to top it off was our annual dance recital, which is always a blast. Kelly V--- runs "Be a Light" dance studio, and has an annual dance recital in June, and this year Joanna, Isaiah (my twelve year old brother,) and of course myself, were able to dance in two dances. And no it was not ballet, (I am not very partial to ballet) I like more of the Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers type dancing, so we took tap, and had a blast! Here are some pictures of our dances.

Here we are dancing the opening dance. Now, in this picture you will not be able to see us because we are in the back row.

Here is a picture of the flappers, all of the girls in our class. Everyone loved our costumes.

And here is all of us dancing. We were privileged to dance with the only two guys in the whole performance, and everyone loved them!

We don't really look like ourselves, but this a picture of your own dear authors! Just in case you were wondering I am on the left and Joanna is on the right. A lot of people thought we looked like twins.

Homeschooling Hyatters

This last weekend was the NYS homeschool convention and Dad was one of the key note speakers. Due to the fact that the convention has become an annual event for us (since Dad used to be the coordinator for the whole event) our whole family went. This year it was held in the Rochester Convention Center which has several hotels that are connected right to the convention center and because Dad was a speaker our rooms were provided for us and we got to stay in the Hyatt the nicest hotel there.

Now, picture this with me: a revolving glass door, a circular stairway, crystal chandeliers, bellhops and valets.

Now, picture a family of seven with countless plastic bags, several pieces of luggage, a cooler, a crate of water bottles on top of said cooler, pillows, flippers, goggles and a boogie board.

Okay, now put the two pictures together with the second picture walking into the first and you will have us as we walked into the Hyatt;)

I love oxymoron's and we were definitely one of the best ever and the best of the story is yet to come! (This has all just been the setting;)

It was a comical situation as we all walked from the parking garage to the lobby of the hotel all of us had our arms and hands and shoulders full (I personally thought that it would've been worth the money to see one of the bellhops trying to carry all of our stuff.) Anyway, we stopped to check in at the front desk and were the entertainment for anyone walking through. Then headed to the elevators on our way to the 18th floor (it was actually the 19th floor but everything came down one since there was no 13th floor) along with a lady, who squeezed in with us, on her way to the 21st floor. We got to our rooms and they were lovely and the view from the windows was beautiful, the only problem was they weren't adjoining. So Dad called the front desk and asked if it would be possible to get rooms that were. He was told that "Yes, we could but we would have to move to the 9th floor." So we grabbed all of our stuff and headed for the elevators where we met the same lady who had changed and was on her way to the pool, we all laughed and told her that we never went any where without all of our things. We had a great time hanging out in the hallway of the 9th floor (with all of our stuff plus the two gift baskets that were added in sprawled all over ::Pictured Below::) while Mom and Dad went to get keys to our new rooms. Well, Mom and Dad came back with the news that we were moving to the 4th floor where we could have a suite so we once again piled into the elevators (We moved alot faster this time because the elevator started buzzing if you left the doors open to long) and finally landed in a room that had a bed that went up into the wall in the day time, the perfect room for our family, and we were all very happy. The End;)