Monday 10/17 631pm Bucharest, Romania
Well, tomorrow I leave and head back to Rome and the day after that I head back to Sora. I'm super excited to be going back because I know I'll have a great time where as here, not so much, although it has been ok the past few days. Yesterday, I went walking around Unirii, which is one of the big centers in Bucharest. I went into H&M, which has got to be the biggest store I've ever seen and I also went to another mall closer to the house and bought some headphones, since the kitties here decided to use mine as their chew toy. It was good being able to get out and see at least a little of the city before I leave. While I was here, I did get to try a few things that I probably won't ever try again. A few nights ago, the family made ciorbă for me, which is a Russian/Romanian dish with borsch in it, which is fermented wheat. It wasn't bad tasting, but it also isn't my favorite thing in the world. But I'm glad I got to try and authentic Romanian dish while I was here.
Some funny things have happened while I was here, and I thought I would also share them. Irina, the youngest, is a hoot. She just says whatever comes to her mind, and since she is saying it in English, it just makes it funnier. I was helping her with her math homework, which I could definitely help her with since math is the same in all languages, and she just was no understanding. Ana was also helping, but eventually she just looked at me and said "I think like a chicken!". It was one of the greatest things I've ever heard. Also, Ana and Irina, who are 13 and 11, are just tiny. By the way they look, you would think they just don't eat... and at first that is what I thought too, but boy was I wrong. Those two little girls could be eating champions. I watched in amazement last night as Ana put away 4 rather large baked potatoes with cheese, butter, and tomatoes on them. She then proceeded to eat two pieces of pie and about 30 minutes later, she was eating a chocolate muffin. She also later ate more leftovers. Irina can also keep up pretty well and you would never suspect it from such small little girls. I was wondering why there was barely any food in the house when I got here... it isn't because they don't buy food, it's just because the two of them go through it so fast. There is a joke that whoever eats the most has to do the dishes, and Ana always starts crying because Elena and Diana tease her and tell her she has to do the dishes after every meal. Poor Ana, but she always eats the most, so it is a little funny.
Today, Irina got home from school pretty early and for about two hours it was just me and her, so we looked at pictures of every single animal I've ever lived with. She thought Winston was hilarious with only one eye and she laughed when I showed her Scout in her sailor outfit. And of course, we looked at Bella, Ella, Carter, July, Sunny, and even a few pictures of Sophie (my Sophie) and Sophie (Caitlin's Sophie). And the Chinchilla and the 3 hundred billion dogs I lived with last year. I then told her that instead of saying "good" when you give a thumbs up, you say "Gig'em". I hope she doesn't get in trouble for that one with her English teacher, but I felt it was necessary. I gave her an A&M towel and a porcupine quill and she just now showed me the little keepsake bag she made. I showed her a picture of a porcupine and then showed her a video of the student body with their white towels. I think she was pretty impressed. When I gave her the porcupine quill, I was reminded of the NCIS episode when Ziva is trying to figure out how to the say porcupine and keeps saying porcu-swine or porcu-pig. When the younger girls speak English, they sound like Ziva does, especially when they mess up sayings like Ziva does alllll the time on NCIS ("I think like a chicken!"). If I was staying here, that would definitely keep me entertained for the entire month. Buuuuut, there are olive trees that need harvesting and I'm pretty sure Gavin and I will be the best olive harvesters that ItalyFarmStay has ever seen (we already called dibs on each other for tree partners b/c you need two people for each tree). Apparently it is tedious work and neither of us want to be stuck with Antonello. I'm sure Antonello will just "supervise" and so we won't have to work with him anyways (he is always "supervising" everything which for Antonello means he will watch us work for awhile and then go take a nap). The hard, Italian life.
