In Sibiu and on the way to Cluj!

I slept well, only waking up one time during the night. The next morning I played with my cousin's daughter, Estera. She is so cute.

Then, my cousin and I went in to town, walking many miles to get there in the heat of the day.

The center has changed so much, being redesigned by the Germans. I got a phone number, 01140746974992. Then we met with a guy my cousin was trying to set me up with and had some juice. Then we walked around the town. There were these water fountains that come out of the ground and with the heat everyone was playing in the water. It was so cool on my feet. I also had Gelato and we walked around the city for a while.

I met lots of the kids from previous years.

Eva, me, Adry (from Washington).

My cousin and I having Lemonade (same place that I named earlier).

Around Sibiu.

The next day I left early in the morning. I took the bus to the bus that will be taking me to Cluj. I almost missed the station where I had to get off. I got to the bus station and my bus came quickly. We actually sat in somewhat of a line to get our tickets and on the bus. Some people were ready to push their way in the bus because they had a reservation, but after the bus driver told some people to get off and wait to see if there were any seats, people didn't push anymore.

I got a seat towards the back. There was a girl in my seat but her mom told her to move to another seat. Then they kept moving cause I guess they didn't have a seat. I wanted to listen to music and sleep but my MP3 player ran out of battery and I forgot to charge it the night before. Oh, by the way my cousins told me that this company Dacos will have AC and since it was so hot I was hoping that they did since it was a four hour ride up to Cluj. But guess what, there was some air that was blowing through the vents but it sure wasn't AC. Anyways, sweat was dripping down my back and all over me and everyone was complaining. After one stop we wanted to open the window that was on the roof of the bus, but this old "mos" guy that was sitting a couple of seats in front of me said he didn't like the air blowing on him (maybe "curent) so he got up and closed the window and everyone was yelling at him. But he said that he had a reserved seat and could do whatever he wanted since that was his seat. I almost melted the rest of the way but I made it alive.

My aunt was waiting for me and off we went to her warm house.

More later.

On the way to Sibiu!

Well I get to the airport in Portland and I pass the luggage test (I made sure my bags were under 50 pounds the night before), get my ticket but no seat assignment (great, now I have to hurry to the gate so I can get a good seat). I hurry to security (one stop to get a travel pillow since I forgot mine at home) and make it to the gate way before our flight leaves. I ask for a window seat and he gives me a exit row seat toward the back. I walk around till it was closer to our time to leave. While we were all waiting they annouce that Lufthansa is giving away free magazines in english and german and everyone runs to the shelf. Man you think they were giving away free food.

I get to my seat and it's a great seat. Next to the window and the door. Plenty of leg room. I was sitting next to a lady from Austria who was visiting her daugher in Eugene. Across from us was a couple who had a 6 month old baby and she did not stop crying till we were well off in the air, but at least she slept most of the time. I slept great, got to see a couple of great movies (Goal 2, and Catch and Release), and ate some OK food. It was a pretty good flight given the fact that it was 10 hours long.

We got to Frankfurt in time. I had about 1.5 hours to wait for my next flight. I tried to call my friend but she wasn't home and her mom gave me her number but she didn't answer. I waited to get in to the gate area because once you pass the security there are no bathroom on the other side and there are plenty of people I didn't want to deal with. Once I decided to go in I forgot I had water in my bag so I drank it all before crossing over. Clear. Oh, now I have to find a seat between all these people. I decide to go and check to see what seat I have (hopefully it's a window). Plane leaves at 10:15am, it's 9:45 and there is no one at the counter. Oh, this is a great start. Someone finally comes, everyone comes to the front (remember romanians don't know what a line is). She confirms that my seat is indeed a window seat. I stand to the side, closer to the door to the bus that will take us to the plane. The lady behind the counter yells at a few people to stand in line she also says that only if they dont' have tickets they should be in line since she needs to start boarding (remember plane leaves at 10:15 and it's now 10am). A few more minutes she starts the boarding process, and again people rush to the gate. Crazy people, why can't they wait nicely in line? We're all going to the same plane and we have assigned seats so no one will miss the plane.

We get on the crowded bus to the plane. I meet a man who is going to Romania and will be going on a cruise on the Danube. His wife is sick from the plane food. I ofer a pill that I also took and I feel great. He didn't think she would take so, oh well. We get to the plane and I again have an exit seat, but there is an empty space between my seat and the window. I tried to sleep the whole flight so I can be awake on the ride from Bucharest to Sibiu. We're finally here. I pass passport control, get my luggage and I am out with no problem. I wait and wait. I see someone famous and everyone with cameras and videos run after him, I think it's a soccer player.

Iulian, our driver finally arrives, we find the team, and off we go to the "oven" van. He nicely offered us some water, but guess what it was nice and hot. Oh, well. We drove over to the hotel to get the trailer. I got to see Jill, my old leader. She gave me some encouraging words and off we went on our 6 hour drive to Sibiu.

It took us about 2 hours to get through Bucharest through all the traffic and crazy people who apperantly don't care if they may get hit. So many cars, and in this heat. I think it was about 107 degrees at the time. Remember we had no AC. We were sweating from head to toe. Even the seats were wet.

We stopped in Pitesti at McDonalds, where I managed to eat a salad. Not too bad. I slept a little on the way, but after so many hours we were in Sibiu where I was taken to my cousin's house.

More later.

My adventure begins!

I guess it already began but finally you get to read about it.
So I left Maui about noon on Wednesday July 18th. I got to the airport in time to get on my plane. I asked the nice lady if I could have a window seat closer to the front of the plane.
Lady - "There are no windows left"
Me - "Oh, maybe I'll just stay where I am now"
Lady - "I can give you 16J but there is no window there"
Me - "What do you mean?" (thinking she just told me there are no window seats left)
Lady - "I don't know how else to say it, there is no window there"
Me (think about what she said I realized ...) "oh, you mean there is a wall there just no window"
Lady - "yes"
Me - "I don't care I just want to sleep anyways" ( I only got a couple of hours of sleep the night before)

Well, so I get on the plane and I find my seat. Business class, last row.
I sit down and I feel a little claustrophobic. Seat does not go back since it's next to the wall, and the seat in front of me is a few inches from my face. "oh, I was glad I didn't pay for a business seat"

People come on the plane and I watch to see who is going to sit in front of me. One "bigger" lady sat right in front of me. Then later a "bigger" guy sat next to her.

Here is where the love affair in front of me developed.
guy and girl started talking, sharing a movie dvd player, drinking together, laughing, putting their seats back squishing me, ordering lots and lots of drinks, getting drunk, talking stink about Portland, etc. The flight attendent rolled her eyes at them for ordering so many things.
When the guy got off he hit his head on the luggage thing above, and another lady said "oh, you hit your head" He just walked off the plane rocking side to side while walking.

It was a great thing to watch, very entertaining.

Slept at my parent's house in Battle Ground. They have lots of chickens and goats. So funny, felt like I was on a farm.
Anyways I got a good night sleep and the next day I was ready (well I did have to run to Fred Meyer's to by a toothbrush on the way to the airport) to go.

More on my adventure to Romania.

4 day Birthday Celebration!

Well I finally reached the end of the third decade of my life, and I don't quite feel different yet, as someone said I will now get sick more (and I was sick on my birthday).
I do feel better now and I am ready to become a 30 year old mature woman (What is that exactly? - no clue). I am not married and no where close to it, I do have a good carreer, I don't have any kids (not ready for them anyways, I just work with them), and I have traveled more then most people (my favorite thing).
Anyways I wanted to tell you all a little bit about my birthday celebration.
Friday morning my friend and I headed for Lanai to work for a few hours before starting our wonderful weekend. We saw three kids and headed to the hotel where we were greeted with leis. We were told our room was not ready so we spent three hours in the teen game room sleeping or trying to on the couches in there. When we got our room we were so excited (at least I was, L. went to bed she was so tired) I started jumping on the beds and unpacking moving in to our new place. I was so big and elegant. We also had a great view.









The rest of the weekend we just spent relaxing and enjoying the pool, spa and fittness center. I had three other friends come out. We had two rooms and we all tried to spend time relaxing but one evening we went out dressed up for dinner together. It was good and somewhat out of our price range, but worth it for the fun.

Here are some pictures from our weekend.









Breakfast on our lanai.










Relaxing at the spa.









In front of our room.












Around the hotel.










Birthday celebration at Caffee Ciao at the Kea Lani.










Dessert goodness!

Well, that's it for now. I leave for Romania on Wednesday so my next post will probably be a little before or when I reach Romania.
Have a wonderful day.

Happy 4th of July!

Well as I promised here is a quick update on what is going on in my life.

Busy, busy, busy. That's the main thing happening. I am trying to catch up with work but more work is being added day by day. I have to also get ready to leave for my vacation, so I have to see as many clients as I can and get others to see the ones I can't.

We have 2 weeks till Romania so our team has been working hard at raising money and getting everything ready for that. It makes it challenging when everyone on the team is spread out around the country. One person is in Portland leaving for Maryland soon. One left two weeks ago and he is in California, leaving for Europe soon. One leaves on the 17th of July. I leave on the 18th of July (going to visit family in Romania before heading off to camp).

Camp does not start until August 5th, but we are all meeting in Bucharest on the 4th and going together as a team (first time together) to the camp to prepare it before the kids come.

First week we will have 60 boys from around Sibiu and Brasov area, and the second week we will have 60 boys from an orphanage (the boys have mental disabilities).

We have a fun week planned for them each week. We are making box cars and will be racing them at the end of the week. We are also making kites or Frisbees depending on the week, key chains, scrapbooks or photo albums (the kids will all get a camera per cabin and they will have two days to take pictures of what they want and at the end they will be able to put together a album of at least three picture each. Debbie is still looking for disposable cameras in Romania for us so we don't have to carry them from here but no luck yet. if not we will have to take them in our carryone's which already has all our personal stuff since our other two suitcases each are filled with supplies.

We had a garage sale last weekend and the weekend before making a good amount of money. Praise God. We are still short on scholarships but we are getting there.

I have been real stressed and busy lately so this weekend for my birthday I will be spending time on Lanai at the Four Seasons with my good friends enjoying our time at the pool and spa.
Happy Birthday to me.

Next weekend I have a conference on the Big Island (the last island I needed to visit, I've seen all the other ones) so I will be there until Saturday evening.

July 15th is our packing party at my house and hopefully we will be able to fit everything we got in the 8 suitcases we have.

Well since today is Forth of July, we had a big party in Launiupoko at a friends house eating lots of good food (lots of raw food) and cake (even raw). We saw the fire works and enjoyed time also celebrating birthdays for 7 of us. It was fun.

I am going to leave you with some pictures. Enjoy.











The group at the 4th of July Party.

The Birthday cake with everyone's name on it.

The Raw Food 4th of July cake.

Still Alive!

I know everyone is interested in hearing from me but I have been real busy and I promise since I have Wednesday off I will update at that time.

Hope everyone is doing well.