Culture shock & Happy on 1 hour of sleep

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile, I know there has been so much that's happened that I don't have the space or energy to write. I've been here for 2 and 1/2 weeks now,still love it. That was the last time I will type " still love it ' . Because I really don't think that's going to change, I'll just let you know if it does..otherwise assume that I'm still blissfully happy, not saying there aren't going to be challenges and haven't been already, and not saying there won't be downs a long with the ups. But as a whole. I am happy. Which again, I don't think will change. One thing that sucks, culture shock.Yes I'm still feeling it.  So here's my first part of this note...
   CULTURE SHOCK:
There has been a lot of it, which I really haven't expressed..It could be a LOT worse don't get me wrong. But once I saw a note an aquaintance of mine posted and I was curious about it, so i type these next few lines thinking maybe you at home are too.
1st. There is still visible evidence that communists were in control over this country 20 years ago.I will spare you all of the details but trust me. I'd say poverty is probably the most noticeable and most prevalent.

2nd. It's odd, walking down the street one minute youll see a gorgeous mansion and the next something very run down...another thing I'm not used to seeing.

3rd. A language that you only understand about 70 words of  can be ridiculously overwhelming at times. I almost had a random melt down the other night, just because everyone in the car was speaking Romanian and I was looking out the window and everything I saw written on a sign or building was in Romanian. This is usually fine, but sometimes it randomly hits me. It just makes me feel extremely foreign and a bit shocked and overwhelmed. I can't really describe it but it didn't bother me at first, but I think for some reason I almost subconsciously thought everyone was going to start speaking English or something, or maybe I just thought I would get used to it and I haven't yet.

4th. A lot of things look different.There's nothing wrong with that it's just a matter of getting used to. Some things that look different are people,buildings,houses,apartments,food packaging,doors,windows,flooring,sidewalks,beds,light switches etc..

5th. Food. Now before I say anything, I LOVE the food here.Love love love, and it's also my best friend because I've lost about 10 pounds already thanks to it. Number 5, aka food isn't so much the food here it's the getting used to not having the foods that I'm used to.


Now on a different note....

   The other day I got to sleep in, that night I went in to the big town that's an hour away after working at the school, we got home around 11:30 p.m. For some reason that night I could not sleep to save my life, the last time I looked at the clock it was 6 am and I'm sure I didn't fall asleep for at least a half hour after that. I had to be up at 7:30 to make it to the school to work with three year olds all day starting at 8. I prayed and asked God to give me patience that day, to help me be gentle,sweet,and not irritable. I also asked that what I know of the language would come to my mind easily. That day blew me off my feet. I couldn't believe how patient I was,how calm I was. On less than ONE hour of sleep. The language flew so naturally out of my mouth I couldn't believe it, a few times I made sentences I had never made before, putting words together that I hadn't before. It was crazy. At lunch I was completely floored, when I walked in the lunch room ( it seats probably 100 kids..im bad with estimating though so I'm not totally sure ) . When you walk in you can only see the first half of the room. When I came in I was greeted by approximately 50 kids waving,yelling "ciao Christina! " ( that's my name here ) . I almost cried. After lunch it was nap time for the 3 year olds I was with. This one girl got attached over the course of the morning because I kept comforting her when she was crying. Theodora. Gorgeous little sweetheart. When nap time came around I somehow made up a song that basically just said no crying no crying and I kept singing it to her ,amazingly it worked. I was trying to get her to sleep while i was sitting on the bed next to her(they're like all ajoined). I was so ridiculously tired I layed down ( the girl whos bed I was on wasn't at school that day ). I wound up falling asleep holding her little hand,only 3 of my fingers fit in her tiny palm. It might not sound like much but that was one of my favorite moments here so far. When I got home that night it was about 6, I knew I couldn't go to bed yet because it would wack off my sleep schedule. So I tried waiting, well around 8 I was wide awake, definitely over tired. So I couldn't fall asleep til 2. I got less than 2 hours of sleep over a course of 37 hours. Ahhhh it was crazy, but still an awesome day.


 Today I have the house to myself, it's Sunday afternoon and it's thunder storming. I couldn't be happier right now!