Tuesday, April 12, 2011

destul de happy

Things that have been making me quite happy as of late:

1. Hugs! You don't get a lot of them here, and they don't seem to be the kind where you can really hang on a while (I suppose it's not being close enough yet to anyone for that?), but you can side-hug me at this point and send me over the moon. I think I can count on one hand the number of hugs I've gotten since I've been here, but every single one of them has made me very happy. The best one, interestingly enough, was from a random dude on the street. I was hanging out with a friend one afternoon and she pointed out some people on a corner with a 'free hugs' sign (in both English and Romanian!) and I was so excited that I ran across the street and indeed received a free hug. And it was a real one, too, all holding-tight, none of that 'patting you across the twelve inch gap between us.' The Southern side of me rejoices!

2. Yellow flowers. When we came back from the conference (in the mountains) this Sunday, Bucuresti had turned full-bloom. My roommate gave me white-yellow flowers her mom had brought back from the countryside. And then yesterday on the way to my lesson I decided I would buy flowers from one of the women selling them on the street. I ended up accidentally getting three bunches of them instead of one since I didn't know the word buchet (bouquet), but for five lei (like $1.30) for all those daffodils sounds good to me. For the record, I had to look that up--I don't know types of flowers or have a favorite, I just like when they're yellow (and/or white). And they're making my room smell so nice!

3. OSCER. As mentioned, I was at a conference all weekend. I don't write much at all on here about what I do with work, and I do wish I could write more. It's tough because discipleship and that sort of thing is personal, and while I can decide how much I want to share about my stuff, clearly I can't broadcast other people's. Still trying to figure out how or if and what I can do with that here. Anyway, we spent three days talking about the vision for the movement, a lot about discipleship and evangelism. It is exciting to me to see how much they all love God and students, to hear about the sorts of things God has been doing among students for the last twenty years. So thankful and excited to be a part of this. And looking forward to working with OSCPi (OSCER in Pitesti).

4. And uite, pot sa scriu in romana. Ma bucur ca, in sfarsit, pot sa comunic cu oameni. Stiu ca, tot timpul, spun ca 'nu pot sa spun nimic!' si 'n-am rabdare deloc!' Dar e adevarat ca, putin cate putin, mai invat. La conferinta, peste trei zile vorbeam in romana. Cand m-am intors, am fost foarte obosita. Dar si ma da energie pentru ca, hey, se poate! Toata lumea e extrem de incurajator--ma ajuta. Deci, o sa vedem... poate sa cand vine vara (daca vine, inca e atat de frig!) o sa avem conversatii si lungi si profunde. Haha, pai asa sper. Sunt optimista... o sa vedem. (Forgive the grammar mistakes.)

Basically that means, hey look, I can write in Romanian, I can actually communicate. Finally! I know I'm always going on about how I can't say anything and that I don't have any patience, but it's also true that I'm learning more and more, little by little. At the conference I spent three days speaking in Romanian and by the time I got back I was exhausted. But it gives me energy just knowing I can actually do it some. And everyone is super encouraging which of course helps. So we'll see. Maybe when summer gets here, if it ever decides to as it's about fifty degrees outside right now, I will have long deep conversations. Or... haha, at least I hope, I'm being optimistic here... We'll see.

Also, the fact that that took about five minutes to write as opposed to thirty. Yes!

5. And last but not least, Isaiah 54 and James 4. Knowing that God is listening. I'm not talking about resolution, but kind of like God saying, I know, I hear you. You just have to trust me. And being very very thankful for a response that changes nothing but reminds me of the direction in which I am to go.

4 comments:

  1. Heh... you're Romanian is quite good so far. If you want I can correct the little mistakes in your text to see what you've done wrong...

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  2. your Romanian... my English is really bad :))

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  3. THAT was a real nice post!!

    GrandPa Mark

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  4. of course :)) i think i see a mistake already... it should be imi da (in loc de 'ma da', nu?) sau si-mi, asa ceva. corect?

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