Romania

It was great going back again this year, but this year felt different then other years. It's hard to explain but it almost felt too familiar. I want to do something different then just walk around and visit family. Although I love my family, next year I want to do some hiking and camping and visit more of other cities too.
Here is a link to our Camp blog for this year so you can read some stories and see some pictures.
http://romaniamission2009.blogspot.com/
Camp was great. The kids were better then expected. I loved getting to work with the girls again this year. The boys were pretty good compared to the last couple of years. We had about 40 girls and 33 boys. We had good weather, not too hot not too cold and not that rainy. Thank God, because the weeks after the camp almost flooded and later it was too hot at least in the cities.
After two weeks at camp I went to my cousin's wedding in Sibiu. I went right from camp so I had to dress all nice and ride in a van with stinky boys and was dropped off at the wedding. Before I go on to tell you about the wedding I want to tell you about my stressful-luggage-almost-no-Cluj-free-ride incident. So I left my luggage at camp thinking D. will be coming to town before the wedding is over and I can get my luggage and ride with one of my relatives back to Cluj since I was going there anyways to visit family. Well the wedding went on for a few hours and the reception another many hours and when it was about 7pm (Cluj is about 3 hours away) some of my relatives were ready to go back and I planned to go with them. I called D. to see if she got back to town, no answer. I called F. to see if he had taken the new american team to camp yet, since I new she would leave soon after they arrived, but he was not at camp yet.
My other relatives wanted to leave by 8pm so they wouldn't arrive home too late, but still no answer from D. or F. now since he was at camp and there is no reception there.
I was stressing out. The wedding was going on till about 10pm. I didn't really plan to stay over night so I wasn't sure how I would get to the Home of Hope since I knew I could stay there any time. Home of Hope is a transition home for girls part of Heart of Hope Ministries.
I was real tired, getting bored because the bride and groom were busy, my aunt and uncle were busy and didn't really know anyone else. My relatives who wanted to leave at 8pm were for some reason still around at 9pm so I called D. again and she was 20 minutes away. I got my cousin to stay a little longer and wait for my luggage and we left Sibiu around 9:30pm. We did great timing and I got to Cluj later that night.
The wedding was beautiful and long. But not as long as most romanian weddings. They sure play weird games at the weddings. They stole the bride and her shoe. It was hard to hear when they explained things on the mike and I was pretty clueless. My cousin was a beautiful bride.








After this wedding I went to Cluj where I visited family and showed my brother the city. That next weekend we were going to another wedding, my uncle. We woke up at 4am to get ready, go pick up the bride (80 km away about 1 hour and 45 minutes) with the worse driver ever, at least at that time. We got there and it was soooo cold. I was there to take pictures, and it was my uncle. My brother was bored out of his mind. He said he would never go to a wedding again, especially Romanian. After the court house marriage we were off back to Cluj (another hour and 45 mintues in a small Dacia) and to the church. The wedding was during the Sunday service.
Took some pictures after and then off to the restaurant. Soooo long and boring. Got some good pictures but since we were related we had to stay till the end.












The rest of the week I sent with my brother and cousin visiting my grandma in the country and in the city with my cousin visiting family.
Sorry, not too exciting, that's why I want to do more fun stuff next time.

Not good at this blogging thing...

Well, I'm sure you noticed that I've been kind of slacking on updating my blog. I really have a boring life and many times I have nothing to write.
Like today for instance, it's Memorial day, I decide I'll work a few hours for those clients who said they would come. I drove to Portland this afternoon for an hour (cause I live in the middle of no where) and waited and waited and my first two kids never showed up. I called them and they forgot. Of course they're having fun enjoying the sun and the holiday, and I wait in the stinky office and they forget. Now I'm waiting for my last one, who I called to cancel but she didn't answer.

A couple of weeks ago I worked at a rehab center in Vancouver for my on-call job. They told me it would be for a month, but found out that they center only has me for the one week. I was thinking, oh well I made some good extra money and maybe they'll find me something else. Nope, I still only have my regular job, which is going well but it's still part time.

I leave for Romania in 25 days from today. We are packing soon and still have some crafts prep to finish. I still haven't found a church so I haven't gone in a while, except for yesterday when i went with my parents to Crossroads. They had a guest speaker who does pottery. It was pretty good.

I watched the entire season of Amazing Race 14 online. They went to Romania and Maui, and many other fun places. It was kind of fun to watch. I really would like to apply to be on it. Maybe I can win the one million dollars.

Well, I haven't been doing anything else fun. Started running (taking real slow since i'm not a runner). I might do a 5k in June for Crossroads.

Well sorry to bore you with my boring life. Hope you're doing well.

Jilda

Visiting Maui

Here are some pictures from my visit to Maui. I'll write about my trip later.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jildav

Coudy day in Washington!

As I looked outside, I saw a glimpse of the sun on the green grass and longed for the warmth of the sun. As I prepared to go and embrace the sun, the clouds took over and it was cloudy again. The breeze whispered in my ear and reminded me of the place I was in. Washington.
In 11 days I will feel the warmth of the sun on my skin and enjoy the humidity in the air. I will love the beautiful view as I will look around the island and remember where I once lived and try to forget the cloudy Washington which will be waiting for me after.

Yesterday was yet another rainy and cloudy day, but also a day of celebration. My friend Heather got married to Tim. It was an amazing day and I was glad to be there even though I did not feel well. My third time being sick. Not so fun. I have a pretty nasty cough which gives me a pain in my side every time I cough and feels like my lung will come out on the table in front of me. Well, after that great picture of my sickness lets go back to the wedding.

The wedding was beautiful. The church was real nice and the atmosphere was inviting. Heather looked so beautiful and full of love. Heather and Tim looked so in love and were so excited to share their blessed day with their friends and family. It rained outside as we drove a few miles to the reception. It was cold but it was a fun place to be. The Swiss (oh did I mention Tim is from Switzerland?) wedding traditions were so cute. One was the mother in law teaching her new daughter in law about some daily chores that she will have to do. She decided on ironing a man's shirt. So she said while you can't see much of the shirt why bother with ironing it just cut it off. So she cut up the groom's shirt (sleeves and back) leaving only the cuffs and collar. So to demonstrate that her daughters and her are practicing this, the men took off their jackets and they all had their shirts cut up. It was pretty funny.

Another was the time when Heather and Tim had to sit behind each other and lift up each of their shoes as they answered questions regarding each other. If they both got it right they would receive a present. (Ex. Who drives better, Tim or Heather?).

Anyways it was a great night and I ended up staying until 10pm. A long wedding for most wedding here in the states. I guess I'm preparing for the weddings I will go to in July in Romania. Now those will be long and I better there will be no dancing at those.

Well I will leave you with some pictures (click on http://picasaweb.google.com/jildav/HeatherAndTimSWedding# )from the wedding and try to get outside to see if I can catch some of this sun that keeps playing hide and seek.

Enjoy

One more boring post!

Well sorry I haven't updated lately but my life is pretty boring.
Now that I'm back in Washington, I don't do much. I've settled back into my parent's house. Bought some furniture form IKEA to complete my room.
I work about 20 hours a week, which is not what I thought it would be by now. I need more hours.
I work in Portland and in Vancouver. When I work in Portland it's about 45 minutes to the office if there is no traffic, which is most of the time since I work odd hours (10 to 6).
I have some interesting clients, but I like it. It's different from what I was doing in Maui, I sure miss the babies.
Here are a few of the things I've done since I moved back.
1. I've got to see a few of my friends and their kids. Everyone has changed over the past few years so it's a little different.
2. I've got together with friends to watch the Bachelor on Mondays.
3. Went shopping a few times. My brother's girlfriend and I had a great time at the mall.
4. Watched my first 3D movie.
5. Watched it snow, rain, get cloudy, and sunny in just 5 minutes.
6. Played in the snow, made a snow man and a snow angel.
7. Tried a few different churches, but I wasn't able to find one yet that I can attend regularly.
8. Got my car from Hawaii. Sunday it will have Washington license plates.
9. I've joined my old Romania team and will be going to Romania in June.
10. I've been sick most of the time.

Well that's my exciting life her in Washington. I will update more when I have more exciting news.

I'm back in Washington!

Well I'm back in Washington. Battle Ground to be more specific. It's cold and ... let's see... cold.
I'm still trying to get used to the fact that I'm so far away from my friends and from anyone... except from my brother and his girlfriend.
I meet my boss tomorrow and I start work on Friday. My first day will be in Portland (I will probably work in Portland on Mondays and Fridays and the rest of the days in Vancouver). I am also looking for work in other places for evenings and weekends.
Well I should get back to drinking my tea to stay warm. I'll keep you updated.