Twoday...

Today was an interesting day – or should I say two days.  Starting from boarding in Salt Lake, then in New York where I am convinced we almost saw 2 fights break out in the security line, on to Vienna and Iasi. All of this totaling a rough 18 hours of flying + layover time.

I secretly have this fear from my last Europe traveling experience of losing my luggage. Well, we arrived at the Iasi airport where we got off the worlds smallest plane with blue propellers on the side, and you get dropped off literally on the runway and get to walk down the stairs like movie stars in the movie. The size of the airport was so comical we went to take a picture, until we heard “NO PHOTOGRAPHS!” coming from an angry security guard. Welcome to  Iasi, Romania!

Back to my fear – we walked in to have them debrief us on how many days, why we were in Romania, etc. , then went to the baggage claim – consisting of a room about the size of your living room with a small table. This indeed was the baggage claim. Everyone was picking up their luggage and WHAT – mine not there? You bet.

Needless to say, I had packed a few of the essentials in my carry on. Subconcious fears I guess.  Hopefully I can get my luggage tomorrow as promised. Although there’s nothing quite like wearing the same clothes for 2 days or 3 (I’m not sure how many days have passed because of the time difference!) I was surprised at how relaxed I was about the whole thing. Normally, you would have anticipated an anxiety attack, small fainting episode, you name it. But no, I had everything I needed in my celestial binder – a whole different topic which I will have to fill you in on later. My motto – thanks to Sheri Dew herself is “I can do hard things”.  And don’t worry I definitely repeated that to myself a few times today amidst the chaos, culture shock, etc.

So, we were picked up by Mario – a woman who is paid by BYU to make sure that we get adequately taken care of. She isn’t with us 24.7, but she helps us out if anything in the apartment breaks down, how to get groceries, a few quirky things about our apartment, etc.

She had paid for a taxi for us and  we all headed back to our apartment, aka SCALA 1 apartment. That may have been one of the scariest driving experiences ever. No sense of traffic etiquette. A few times our taxi was jutting into oncoming traffic, but no it was alright because that is how everyone drives in Romania. Quite hilarious.

After coming back to our apartment, we went out to the store across the street Hala Centrala , across from our apartment called Scala (I love all the Romanian rhymes) and decided to get some good old traditional Romanian food…just kidding. We weren’t quite ready for that and Maria suggested PIZZA. As we sat and ordered, I think it came as quite a reality check when we had no idea what anyone was saying.  This language thing is going to be a bit tougher than I thought.

It looks like 4 of us will be in one apartment, 3 in the other.  I am sleeping on a sweet 70’s couch in the backroom with a giant armour in the room. I have to be carefulto make sure the door is shut otherwise the pigeons will fly in bedroom lol.

A little about the apartment: 2 girls sleep on a double bed, 2 girls on the couches.  We have to open the window up completely in the bathroom after we are done to make sure that mold doesn’t come in. We are on the 6^th floor and our elevator is the size of an airport bathroom. Our kitchen resembles a small children’s play kitchen with miniature accessories. We have an amazing view over the city of Iasi. Don’t worry, you will hear plenty more about it!

I’ve decided to add a Romania quirk for every day – today’s, well there are so many. But, my favorite is the fact that when you are waiting to cross the street,  the countdown is from 75. None of this 10 second crosswalk stuff Utah, we have 75 seconds.

Well, needless to say, we all arrived safe to the wonderful, quaint town of Iasi, Romania. We had our challenges today – the bank putting massive stops on our accounts already, lost luggage, trying to understand 3 currency exchange rates, etc. But it is an adventure!

No pics for today because my camera batteries are in my luggage, hopefully now crossing the ocean somewhere!