After working in the hospital all morning, I went back to the office to check my mail and then wait for Kayleigh. She sent me a text later to see if I was coming home and if we could go shopping before her big leaving dinner. Apparently there had been a misunderstanding. I went home and we went out to look for something nice she could wear. When we didn’t see anything, we came back in time to change and do our make-up before meeting people at 5:00 at Keller’s steakhouse. When we got there, only Belinda was on time, so [View Full Entry]

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Today was woman’s day in Romania! It’s a day sort of like Mother’s Day in the US, but for all women! Kayleigh and I both slept in later than we would have liked, so we ate a late breakfast and Kayleigh raced off to meet her drama group at 12. I made plans with Mikkel to hike up Mt. Timpa and got ready to meet him up at the cable car at 12:45. Aside from being a little bit windy, it was a beautiful day, and I was glad to be doing something outside. I got up there a little early, [View Full Entry]

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Today started out like any other day at the hospital, although Sharon finally started working with us. She had originally signed up as a journalism volunteer, but the project director was really irresponsible, and didn’t give her much to do, so she switched to care and community instead. Anyway, one of the kids, Luciano, was especially fun today because when I opened his crib to let him out, he ran into my arms and gave me a great big hug! Then he squirmed around until I let him down, at which point he ran around the room and would burst into [View Full Entry]

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Today at the hospital, I started to change a baby boy’s diaper, and noticed that he was in the process of pooping. I cleaned that up, and then, as I was putting a new diaper on him, he started peeing! Some of it got on me . . . which was awesome, so I just cleaned both of us up and threw away the dirty diaper. Anyway, just thought I’d share that. After work, I met Kayleigh to go shopping. We went down to the new mall by the train station to have a look around. Neither of us saw much [View Full Entry]

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Today I went to work at the hospital until about 12:30, and then went to the office to load some more Budapest pictures. Mikkel came in around 1 and we thought that maybe we could go skiing this coming weekend, so we investigated the prices of some of the surrounding resorts. It turns out though, that just about everywhere is REALLY expensive. AND, not only do you have to pay for a lift ticket, but you have to pay for a certain number of times to actually ride the lift. And then rentals and transportation to the mountain on top of [View Full Entry]

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We got into Brasov from Budapest on the train today around 6:00 AM. Apparently, I was the only one who got a full night’s sleep! Haha, I honestly don’t know how I do it, but I’m not complaining. I guess I really can sleep anywhere. Sara and I took a taxi home, and Elisabeta was already up when I got in, ready to make me breakfast. When I finished eating, I went to take a nice, hot shower (which felt glorious, after my 2 cold showers in Budapest)! Then I got ready and went to the office to work on my [View Full Entry]

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I got up this morning and took another cold shower, but was surprised to find that everyone else was also up at the same time! AND they were just about ready to go by 9:00, so I didn’t mind waiting until 9:30 to leave. Sara, Alison, Leonie, El and I all left the hostel and planned on going back over the bridge to see the Palace and other things over by the river. When we walked outside, we realized it was going to be yet another gloomy day. Thinking about making the most of our time AND because I never get [View Full Entry]

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This morning was not at all a typical travel day that I’m used to. I got up around 7 or so to shower (with only cold water!), but it wasn’t until about 8:30 that other people started to get up. Then, we went out to eat the complimentary breakfast and chat with the other travelers. I was expecting to be able to leave very soon after finishing breakfast, but no . . . Sara and Alison both got very excited over the English language magazines, and sat down to read for a bit. I tried to politely remind them that we [View Full Entry]

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This weekend, Sara, Alison, Leonie and I packed up and took an overnight train to Budapest! It's actually 2 cities (for those that don't know), Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube, that have been combined into one. We left Brasov at 7:30 PM, and arrived in Hungary around 5:30 AM. At the train station, we all went to the ATM to get some Hungarian money, and my card worked! It felt so great to be able to use an ATM again!! The only thing that was open at such an ungodly hour was McDonalds, so we went, got a little [View Full Entry]

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Soooo, for the last week, I've had trouble with my ATM card, and haven't been able to get money out of my account. Apparently my bank shut down all access to the ATMs in Romania because of lots of fraud that has been happening in Romania. They clearly didn't feel that it was necessary to mention this to me when I was opening my account with them and told them where I was going. Anyway, I went all around Brasov trying to find a bank that could take money off my card manually, and finally, I FOUND ONE!! At first I [View Full Entry]

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