Former students one year time lapse

Today's focus is on my former students and also those who were members of a Big/Middle/Little Sisters group that I started which evolved into a girl empowerment day camp run by the girls. It was an amazing experience for me to see how these girls handled such huge responsibilities during my Peace Corps service. It was an even greater honor that the students took the time to see their old English teacher during my past two visits to Romania.

On my August 2013 I was able to gather a group of former students together to climb up the mountain in our town, Mt. Magura.

Me with the kids at the base of the mountain.

It always makes me feel so good leaving those kids in the dust.

All of us at the World War I Heroes' Monument

The view of Târgu Ocna from the top of Magura.

Free berries!

The lake at the top of the mountain.

Of course my naughtiest former student climbs up the top of that cabin.

Serenity

Carutza!!! This is a horse drawn cart, sans the horse.

The monastery at the top of Magura (you can't go far in Moldova without hitting a monastery).

Cow at the monastery!

The mural painted on the ceiling of the entrance to the monastery.

WWI Heroes' Monument

 So I decided to have a more exclusive event where only girls who took part in the Big/Middle/Little sister day camp could come. We went to a former Big Sister's cabin on the outskirts of town to have a BBQ!

Walking with the supplies.

Starting the fire

Prepping the chicken

The amazing view from the cabin

The girls going through their Comic Con swag.

Mees monitoring the fire.

I am REALLY into whatever I am telling them.

Yeah that's a great idea, have the vegetarian make BBQ chicken for the girls LOL

"What is Mees doing?"

This is what happens when you give the camera to the kids.

"Is the food ready yet?"

Looks good to me.

The sisters. I'm so happy I got to teach both of them. The one in the yellow shirt I had the privilege of having English class with all 3 years of my service.

I just thought this was a cute pic of me.

Dessert! Of COURSE it's smores!!!

I taught the girls how to roast marshmallows how my dad taught me...slow rotisserie style until they get nice and golden brown on the outside and deliciously melted on the inside.

Too much fun around the fire.

THAT'S an excellent smore. For my non-American friends (you're killing me smalls!), a smore is a concoction of a roasted marshmallow and a piece of chocolate sandwiched between two graham crackers (basically butter biscuits).

If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face.

Of course she wanted to mix marshmallow with bbq sauce :)

Nom nom nom

I think I did a pretty amazing job of fulfilling the Peace Corps goal of teaching American culture to people of other cultures :)

As a last good bye I had a few girls over to my friends house to make chocolate chip cookies, reminisce, and get dressed up in the traditional Romanian costume I got (it's from the region of Moldova)

Then I went back to Romania in September 2014 and was able to meet up with my former students again. All of the ones who I had met with were from the Big/Middle/Little Sister mentor program. Can you believe that even 3 years after the program ended the girls still wanted to see me? Our first meet up was the now annual hike up Magura.

Selfie at the top of Magura!

The lake at the top of Magura again.

Selfie with Alba Ca Zapada (my favorite pastry from the bakery in town...it translates to "Snow White").

A priest working at chopping wood.

Where people are able to stay if they want.

Me and my girls in front of the monastery

Me and the girls pulling off a Titanic in front of the WWI Heroes' Monument. At night, the lights turn on really bright and you can see them lit on the top of the mountain from town.

I heard a weird bug right when the pic was taken...yeah, I'm a 5 year old.

We made it to the bottom! That's Mount Magura behind us.

So after a few days I had another student get-together. Since I now officially suck at planning, I didn't really have a game plan once I got the kids together. Luckily, these girls were down for hopping on the next train wherever it went.

Selfie on the way to Comanesti!

We made it!

I found TWO Rottweilers just like my mom's.

We found a great cofetarie (bakery) with TONS of delicious sweets.

Nom nom nom

For my Bengali friends, these rival mishti for me :)

In a gazebo!!!

The girls on opposite ends of the group are sisters...it was so great to teach so many sibling pairs.

Selfie outside the train.

One of the girls was able to do adorable teeny origami on the way home

Look at our welcoming party!

I was able to hold one!!!

 One last visit with the girls was needed during this trip. So I did the best thing I knew, organize a walk around town.  Everyone in town goes on a "plimbare" (walk) in the evening btw.

These former students were unable to get enough of my selfie camera.

I couldn't believe these girls grew up in Târgu Ocna and had never been to my favorite place, the Armenian church in town! I was trying to open the doors and was like "Maybe there's a secret word! 'Kardashian!' Nope, it didn't work."

It's totally morbid, but this cemetery fascinates me. I'm so glad the girls are weirdos like me and we were able to enjoy it together.

This cat was SO cute. He just ran up to us from the road, through the gate, and right to us like he was our best friend.

He even has a stub tail like my little Romanian cat Peter.

Cuddling with a cat in front of the Armenian Church...heaven!

Cat hugs are the best!

Look at how cute he is!

This other cat wasn't having us.

But this guy was ALL over the attention we showered him.

Then we had to walk home.

But not before Mees Monica pet more livestock.

And finally, me with my favorite Romanian sign ever.



So that's my post on the time I spent with my former students during my past 2 visits to Romania.

Târgu Ocna Orphanage one year time lapse

Again, I have fallen lapse in updating my blog, but here goes an interesting attempt to keep y'all up to date on my travels in the most entertaining way possible.

The focus of this post is the orphans that I held a photography course with in the town I was stationed at in the Peace Corps. A later post will be of these kids' amazing photography work, but let me introduce them first.

So the following pics are of my visit to the orphanage in August 2013 after not seeing them for 2 years. I was such an amazing reunion:

I brought back bracelets from my trip to Hawaii for them.

And of course, brought them plenty of Comic Con swag!

Me giving out presents

Kids playing with some toys that my friend donated.

Ninja Turtle Swag!

Me with a girl who wasn't there during my Peace Corps service

Kids super excited over all the goodies

And this creepy mask was Comic Con swag that the kids loved to mess around with.

The were freaking each other out so much

Even the littlest one put it on

And of course they busted out the Twister game I got them.

Great practice for colors, left, right, and body parts :)

These are all girls who I had tutored and done the photography course with

Catching me at a rare moment where I wasn't yelling at the kids LOL

So much fun with them

Best pic we're gonna get :P

This is the first time the kids saw me blonde and they all wanted to try it out.

It was fun to let them play with my hair

Some of them can totally pull off blonde :)

She's loving life as a blonde

Even the littlest one got REALLY into it

Then I made another visit to Romania September 2014 and visited the orphanage no less than four times during my week long visit, and the kids were still telling me I didn't spend enough time with them.

Of course I give out In 'N Out hats and stickers to the kids

Just before we play "Down by the Banks of the Hanky Panky". They LOVE that game

Captive audience

The final showdown

And of course Twister gets busted out again. The littlest ones played first

And very soon ended like this

Then the older ones played in a much more coordinated effort

Seriously LOL

 

This video is for all my Indian friends...they can see how much I did in teaching Romanian children about a very important aspect of Indian culture ;)

 

 After a couple days absence, I headed back to go with the kids and the Nun who takes care of them to the park.

The walk on the way from the orphanage to the park.

Their little legs are too short to walk that whole time

Fetele mele (my girls!)

We made it to Margura Park

Selfie on the play set!

I had to say bye to them too soon to go and see former students that same day (I had so many people who I had to catch up with).

I don't have any pics of the other visit I made where I played volleyball with the bigger kids and had so much. I get way too competitive. I was on the team with the youngest of the group, and we named our team, brought it in regularly to cheer for ourselves, and basically made huge jackasses of ourselves. I made sure to get in an English lesson and taught them that "Fii Atent!" means "Get it together!" and "Poti" is "You got this".

Then I went over for dinner my last night in Târgu Ocna and had the hardest time saying goodbye.

She was just so CUTE!

When I saw this little girl I just started screaming "It's a tiara!!!" like Amy Farrah Fowler (she even let me wear it)...btw, great photobomb by one of the older girls.

Spaghetti made by the Mother Superior who is from Italy...delish! 

The Romanian Nun serving the kids.

The Mother Superior serving the kids.

The little boy said "You didn't get a pic of me!" so I obliged :)

Delish salad!!!

Like, seriously.

 It was so hard to say goodbye to those little faces. The little ones were all getting ready for bed (and by that I mean running around playing in their bedrooms) when I said goodbye to them. The older ones held me back to play some games and see me a little longer. Then the Nun let them walk me to the corner so I could head home since it was so late. So many hugs were shared...kids saying "Nu te las sa pleci!" (I won't let you leave!).

One last pic with gașca mea (my crew)

 

Please feel free to contact me if you in any way want to help this orphanage. I can send you more information on them as it is an amazing place full of lots of love.