From Pennsylvania to Transylvania (and Between)

Time is so weird. It's been 14 days since my last blog post. I have 73 days left until I come home. It feels like I just BARELY wrote in this. But if I waited another 14 days, we will be under 60 days until I am done here! That is crazy. Weight loss programs last longer than that.

I have experienced so much in the last two weeks, which is probably why I have been putting off writing this. But I just need to suck it up and do it. So here it is.

Adventures began with our electrical issues. The electrical box in our apartment would start making this loud crackling noise and occasionally send out sparks. The lights in our apartment would flicker, and it was a jolly old time.

One night I had the pleasure of staying up for the majority of the night while the box crackled and sparked for hours on end. The power went out and was out for three or four hours during the night, which wouldn't have been an issue if it didn't also send an electrical current out that randomly would turn the power on for half a second before going out, which meant that the fridge would beep loudly repeatedly. I guess I could have just unplugged the fridge. But at that point my only thought was concern for the gelato I had in the freezer. Don't worry- I saved it from an early death.


The power came on the next day, but I was sick since I got no sleep. Let me tell you, staying home sick in Romania is rather boring. Especially when the power goes out again. Our landlord promised that electricians would come by that night by 10 PM. Some of my roommates were rather upset about the power loss, but weirdly... I really enjoyed it! Our landlord was SO helpful and that made everything easier. He even left a lamp for us to use since it was dark. We put the lamp on the floor and played card games in the light and listening to music from a laptop until it died.

Maybe it was because the power would go out during thunderstorms at home growing up, but I thought it was such a fun night. I wasn't even upset when a spider appeared on the wall behind us. FYI, in the shadow from the lamp, it looked huge. But I am the designated spider/bug killer in our apartment. Girls Camp prepared me well.

We finally gave up on the electricians when they hadn't appeared by 11. So everyone went to sleep. At 12:30 AM, I am the last one awake. I am laying in bed in the living room when someone knocks on the door. My heart nearly stopped beating. When I looked out and saw two men standing in the dark hallway, the only thing that kept me from panicking was their obvious work uniforms. Still, I woke up the other girls before I opened the door haha. They fixed what was apparently a loose wire and we haven't had issues since! I just think it's crazy that they showed up so late as if that were totally normal haha.

Before I give an update on the orphanage and hospital, I want to talk about our weekend vacation. I sometimes worry that it seems like I'm just on a vacation this summer. That I'm visiting all these beautiful places in Eastern Europe. After all, those are the majority of the pictures that I post. Well, the truth is that if I think of this summer as a vacation, there's no way I'd make it through the full 3.5 months. I already would have reached the point where I think "okay, this has been a really long vacation. I could go home now." But it's so much more than that. So I wanted to preface my stories of our fun adventures with he explanation that I am here for the orphans. I'm here for the children at the school and the hospital. More than anyone reading this needs to know, I need to constantly remind myself. But here is Brașov for you.

We took a bus from Iasi, with probably 15 other passengers. It was a pretty enjoyable ride, aside from the usual craziness that is inherent to the driving system in Romania. (If I had a lei for every time I thought the words "I'm going to die" while we drove to/through/from brașov, I could probably buy my own private jet to bypass the crazy roads). Maybe 3 or 4 hours into the 6 hour drive, someone cut off our bus, the driver slammed on the breaks, and someone's drink flew forward and exploded on the floor of our bus. The majority of us were in the splash zone. It didn't take long for us to discover that the drink was some form of alcohol, so the bus ride wreaked for the next couple hours, while girls in our group attempted to remove the stains on their shirts.

I picked a bad day to wear open-toed shoes.

I can now say that my baseball cap has passed its final initiation rite-- being drenched in alcohol.

Ps. An old man laughed at me when he saw me holding up my hat to take a picture of it that I can no longer fine. Sacrifices.

We finally made it to Brașov and found our hostel. My first hostel experience. It's pretty cool. Much more relaxed than a hotel. Our host mom was the sweetest most energetic woman ever. And she could talk at a ridiculous pace. Anywho, our first day was a site day--- dracula's castle! More formally known as Bran castle. We drove up to Transylvania and took the grand tour of the castle.

First off, I read Bram Stoker's "Dracula" last semester. And let me tell you, in reality the castle is hardly what you'd imagine when you think of "Dracula" or even "castle." It was pretty fantastic though. Not creepy at all. You can form your own opinion with the pictures.

Secret staircase inside!

Quote of the trip-- man to me: "Where are you from in the U.S.?"
Me: Pennsylvania.
Man: oh, so you're a local!
Awkward pause.
Me: No, no, Pennsylvania. Not Transylvania.


Next stop: Râșnov fortress! Another pretty cool place. We climbed to the top of the ruins and saw an amazing view of Romania! Including a flag, billowing in the wind. Basically any tourist's dream photo opportunity.

I even saw some people larping! I think they may have been filming a historical video or something, but I like to think they were larping. Also this guy? He's the weapons master. He was in his own little world, and extremely awkward and slightly morbid sometimes. So wonderful.

The rest of our day was spent back in the center of Brașov, where we walked the streets. Basically, it's the cutest town ever. Smack dab in the middle of the green hills, with the most colorful little old buildings, the typical fountain in the center, gelato carts all over. It is a major tourist hub, so we heard a lot of English, as well as other languages.

Quite honestly, I feel like the majority of my money was spent on food that weekend. Rather than break it down into day by day, I'll just list my favorite foods for you right now. I had this wonderful ice cream cake called Rokoko. Divine. And then this four cheese pizza (but it was with a bunch of unique cheeses, didn't taste American at all.) ciocolata rece-- basically frozen hot chocolate with ice cream in it. So good. I may have purchased three in a 24 hour period. And then pasta and pastries and yeah I could go on. But instead I'll just move on.

We had lots of time to wander the streets of the beautiful old time and visit shops and various food stands. But we also went to visit some beautiful sites not too far away. We went to the Peleș Palas, home to the first royal family of Romania. They made us wear some footies over our shoes, because it was THAT fancy. Also there were no pictures allowed. I just obtained the following poor-quality pictures through Google, I swear.

Turns out I have a selfie on Google. Weird.

I probably should have planned a non-flannel outfit for the palace. Didn't really look like I belonged there.

I'm the one sticking out from the statue of fruit on the left. 

My favorite part of the weekend? Șapte scări. Hands down, THE coolest hike I've ever done. We walk for a while through this beautiful green, hilly region. Eventually the path runs into the thick woods and gets relatively steep. After a long while, we get to the waterfall. NexT step? Climb 7 ladders next to the waterfall in the slot canyon to get up above it. So. Stinking. Cool.

A couple of us rented bikes for a couple hours and just explored the town! It was so stinking beautiful. Also, despite the expression "it's just like riding a bike" implies, if you haven't ridden in a while, bikes are tricky. I may have crashed a couple times. But it was a lovely time in general. Despite pigeons never getting out of the way. Dang pigeons.

We also hiked up to the Brașov sign in Hollywood-style letters up on the side of the mountain. And by "hiked" I mean, we took a lift up to the top then walked to the part where the sign was. I nearly gave my head teacher a heart attack, because I was climbing up all the bars behind the giant letters. She threatened me with "Hannah, if you die, I'm going to hate you forever." And I didn't want to risk her hatred. She's lovely.

See those letters? That's where we went!

View from the letters.

We did hike down, however, and it had its own mini adventures. Like when Morgan and I heard our roommate screaming up on the path behind us. There was a snake in her path and she stood there frozen screaming for me to get rid of it haha. We ran up and nudged it with a stick til it slithered off. I barely escaped with my life.

Also apparently some people speak German as a second language around here. Since I took it for 4 years, I was pretty excited about it when a man coming up the path started talking to me. At first it was in Romanian, but when I told him in Romanian that I don't speak Romanian, he asked about German. When I said "I know a little bit of German," he just went off as if I were a native. I think I actually understood about 70% of what he said, but I just completely blanked on how to reply haha. My favorite sentence.... "Ja, wir haben das....sign.....gesehen."(we saw the sign" in broken, improper German with the English word for "sign." But it was still cool using a bit of German outside the U.S.

Weirdly, I think the ride home was one of my favorite 6 hour blocks of my entire trip so far haha. You know how a dog can ride with its head out the window and be thoroughly entertained by that the entire time? Yep. That's me. I put my headphones in, stuck my hand out the window, and bam. I was set for the ride. We drove through the most beautiful countryside, and I just was in the best mood. I love road trips and wind and Romania.

JUST LOOK AT THOSE HILLS. Unreal. 

Hashtag no filter.

And that was our weekend. Back to reality. But my reality here is still unreal to me sometimes. Sometimes I am exhausted and downhearted from my experiences. But when I take a step back... These kids are teaching me some amazing things.


Xavier, the 17 year old boy in my room, teaches me so much every day. Sometimes he likes to show off for me. He directs me with his eyes to get a specific book from the shelf, grab a chair, put it next to him, sit next to him, put the book in his lap, and watch him work. His motion is limited, so his goal is to rip the page off the remainder of the book. And he does it. The concentration on that boy's face when he works to lift his arm and eventually bring it down to the book. He struggles to grab it and sometimes he misses completely and has to begin the large, slow arc that his arm makes when he lifts it. Sometimes he works so hard that he shakes and sweats. It's amazing. He has to work SO hard to do a motion that I completely take for granted.

He also helps me learn how far I have to go still to become the person I want to be. I often get tired of playing our games way before he gets sick of them, and I need to be so much more patient and selfless. But when that boy smiles at me, oh man. That's happiness. He's the only guy that can make me stack blocks on my head repeatedly, or pretend to be surprised every time he knocks the book to the ground after having me turn away. And man, does he have the pouty face down when he doesn't want us to leave or if I'm busy playing with a different child. He's a pro at sticking that lip out haha.

And then there's "Brittany." She is something else. She is determined to walk. She is 4 or 5 and we are just seeing the beginning of her walking phase. When we first got there, she mostly was pushing a mini stroller around to help her balance while she practiced walking. But now... She is taking more and more steps on her own. She actually screams when she can't be taken out to practice walking in the hall haha.

Sometimes she will walk a few steps and then fall. For those first few steps she has this smile of just pure joy in her face. I remember one time she fell and bumped her head. She cried for a while, and refused to to walk again on her own for the whole day. And I started thinking about it and her and BAM another blog-worthy, unoriginal analogy by Hannah Kruman was developed.

I think in a lot of ways, we are like children learning to walk. Whether it's in trying new things, love, or school. We take a few shaky steps and wham! Down we go. Sometimes it's just a bump or bruise. Sometimes you hit the ground hard though. And sometimes, you don't want to keep trying to take those steps, because the memory of the fall before are more memorable than the fleeting moments of successfully walking. And every time you convince yourself that you should try again, you fall eventually. And the memories of the falls all add up to the point where most of us just give up and settle for a life where you're not really walking/living. Just moving forward by clutching to whatever object seems more secure than your own wobbly legs.

Brittany is brave though. And she wants to walk. She decided that the joy of walking was greater than the fear of falling down again. And the smile on her face and in her eyes tells me that I need to do the same, even when I'm afraid.

And the girl who struggles so much to even breath. Each breath looks like it takes so much effort. How can I not feel blessed when I am with these kids?

Or the babies abandoned in the hospital? We found two babies in incubators. The nurse explained to us that the one girl who was bandaged from head to toe had this rare genetic disorder where her skin doesn't produce collagen. So her skin just has all head open wounds and falls off super easily. It was the most heartbreaking thing I've ever seen. How is the hospital going to care for her? She's alone in the world. No one can even hold her. Not that she has anyone in her life to. But we would have if she were strong enough. 

The thing that broke me down was when the nurse said "she's a fighter though. She had a twin who died last week. She is a fighter though." I realized that the twin was most likely the boy that I saw in there one of my previous visits.

That was the first day that I cried (in front of someone) on this trip.

Basically, things are good. I learn so much every day. I shouldn't put off blogging, and I need to remember to live in the moment. I need to step up my milka bar eating game. And I need to stop analyzing time.


It's a weird thing, time. It is like dreams. They are slippery things. When you think back on your dreams, the harder you try to grab hold of them, the farther away they slip from you. And time is like that too. I find myself counting down, but never wanting to go home. Wanting time to speed up, but wanting it to keep me here forever. And whichever emotion I have at the moment, time seems to do the opposite. In a way, everything is kind of like that. The more you squeeze at something or someone and try to do what you want with it, the more they slip through your fingers.

So I need to learn to just let it be and enjoy the ride instead of always trying to change things I can't control. Someone close to me told me recently, "Don't worry about things you can't control. Just leave that to God." And that's what I'm slowly learning to do. I'm pretty bad at it. And I usually stumble and fall. But I'm not ready to quit yet. I'm going to keep stumbling forward until I can walk. And in the mean time, I'm just going to live.

Stay classy, America.