Makin’ My Way Downtown

… walkin’ fast, faces pass, and i’m home bound. *piano interlude*

(I told you from the beginning I was a cheese ball.. I just gave you proof)

We walked about downtown today and it was GORGEOUS. The pictures wont do it justice, but i’ll show you anyway. 🙂

So this is downtown Timisoara, Romania. We went around the main square, saw the beautifully intricate cathedral, and hit up the rose garden.

The Opera House

I LOVED BEING HERE. Everything was so intricate and beautiful, I could’ve stayed for hours.

With my aunt Tabi.

 

With my pops.

She was such a cutie, always after the pigeons.

Today was full of beauty. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am looking forward to more. Tomorrow we are headed to Arad, so we’ll see what pictures I come back with!

How I Ended Up In Europe

Here’s the story:

At the beginning of my school year we were told that the second years’ mission trip was to Romania. I’m a first year at Charis Bible College, and even though it wasn’t part of our requirement for that year, we had the option to go. So I was thinking “Heck yes! Why wouldn’t I?” Buuuut theeeen I decided I wasn’t going to go. Money and getting time off of work type things. So this all happened in.. Novemberish of last year? And in Jan or February of this year, my dad (who’s is an apprentice, or TA, at CBC) told me that my brother is also going to Romania and not only will they be going on the missions trip, but will also be staying a few extra weeks. (Whaaat?? This trip just got even better!) I talked to my hubs and to my boss about being gone for two weeks. Of course, my love was as encouraging and supportive as always (I’ll have to dedicate a post just for him so I can tell you all how wonderful he is), and my boss was super understanding and flexible.

I talked to my dad later that day and told him he can go ahead and have the travel agent start looking for a ticket for me. He calls me the next day and let’s me know that my ticket is bought and it’s for three weeks! And that is how I ended up here in Romania for a week longer than I had planned for. 🙂

Meeting The Fam

I’ve been here, in Romania, for about a week now and am loving it. The first couple of days were mostly travel and the last few were taking it easy. We haven’t really been many places in the city, more seeing family and catching up. Now that I think about it, I never mentioned how I ended up getting here. I’ll tell you all about in another post. 🙂

It’s been awesome getting to know this whole other part of the family here. Everyone is so much fun and they are so inviting. Lemme tell you about em’:

These are my aunts and uncles with my dad. From left to right there is Teu, Adina, my dad,  Tabita, Petru, and Ica. I have one more uncle, Filip, that wasn’t able to make it from Spain. My dad hasn’t seen his brothers and sisters in over 25 years, so this trip has been a lot of meeting family and them reminiscing.

Ever since I was little, everyone always said I look so much like my aunt Adina. It was really nice to FINALLY meet my twin in person. Ha!

Baby Matias! The smallest of the group, and oh so sweet. (When he wants to be.)

This is Manase (Mah-nah-seh). He LOVES to sing. He started belting it out while everyone else was trying to chit chat, so we told him to go sing for the dog. But of course he had to get his book of hymns (his hot wheels coloring book) so he could sing the song properly. I also took a video.

My aunt Tabita and my dad’s cousin Claudia. They are both so sweet. We are staying at Tabita’s and having SO much fun. Her and her husband are more than great hosts, and we laugh so much with their kids (Ovy and Claudiu).

Visiting our great aunt and uncle with a couple of their kids.

 The very popular game of ping pong. The even have ping pong tables in the parks! My cousin Clau is the reigning champion between the relatives. Here he is beating my dad.

It’s been so great getting to know all of this family (there are way more than just the ones pictured). I’m happy to be part of such a loving group of people. I think we’re going to see more of the city tomorrow, so i’ll try to post more soon!

 

Casa Shalom

 

Casa Shalom, or House of Peace, is where we stayed last night. It’s a small group of buildings, consisting of room and a dining hall, provided to missionaries visiting Bucharest. Pretty cool, right? My dad and brother just came from a missions trip in another part of Romania called Cluj, so they got the hook up through some friends from there. Haha. Everyone here is so nice. The woman that runs it went off to Germany before I got here, but I was told she’s pretty cool.

My brother and I explored to property a little bit, so I get to actually show you some stuff.

I was told this dog nips at people it doesn’t know, so it’s safe to say that I am PRETTY happy it was in it’s house.

My brother (Alex) and I call this “the squinty dog.” We didn’t think to ask what it’s name was, and it’s just chillin’ and squintin’ all the time. Hence the name. Ha.

This dog. It was a really good picture subject. It stood still, looked at the camera… but when I put the camera down, it went CRAZY. Started barking and growling and trying to get off of it’s chain.  FREAKED ME OUT. Haha. I’m already not a huge fan of big dogs (that I don’t know), so this only confirmed my idea that i’m right.

Classic Romania… chickens and turkeys. Even in the states, so many Romanians I know have chickens in their backyards. Which I will also be doing when we get a house. Fresh organic eggs?? How can you beat that?

These guys followed me around. It was pretty funny.

I think I’ll end with these. I saw all of these dandelions and a cool looking shed  and couldn’t help but snap a couple of pictures (and have my brother snap one of  me). He’s such a cutie, isn’t he? This picture of him happened because he was being funny and said “I don’t know what to do with my hands.. I shall DANCE with them!” So this is what he does. Ha!

So we only stayed one night at Casa Shalom, but I think it was a good start to this adventure.

I’ll be posting more soon!

Ciao!

 

 

 

 

 

I made it to Romania!!

I can’t believe I’m in Europe right now! It’s so surreal. (Probably because I barely slept in the last 24 hrs. Ha!) Let me tell you how the traveling went, friends, because it was pretty fun. My husband, sister, and I drove up to Houston from San Antonio, and just that in itself was an interesting trip. There was great music on the road, some tasty bubble tea, and a lunch stop to the most Texan bar-b-que restaurant I have ever been to. The WHOLE parking lot consisted of trucks, the decor inside screamed Texas, and 96% of the customers were large white men wearing boots and/or hats. It was the picture of Texas that everyone thinks of. Hilarious. ANYWAY, we made it to the airport. I was so sad to say goodbye to my honey for 3 WHOLE WEEKS. (I’m already missing him like ca-razy and it’s only been a day.) I’m not even in the airport 10 minutes, when I realize that I left my phone at the check-in counter. Classic Bianca. Haha. I got it though! So that’s good. Did the security thing and got to my gate fairly early, only to be told that we will be delayed almost two hours. I started to freak out inside cause I was going to miss my connecting flight, but wait… I checked my itinerary and realized that I will still have plenty of time to make it. (Whew!)

I flew Turkish airlines, and let me tell you, it was VERY nice. They provided so many things, like a pillow, a blanket, a small bag of toiletries, and even slippers. The food GREAT too! I honestly wasn’t expecting it. There was turkish delight (of course) and one of the two meals consisted of minced meat with delicious seasonings, potatoes, green beans, a cucumber yogurt salad, and mozzarella with tomatoes. Breakfast was eggs, sauteed mushrooms, and fruit. And for a snack in between, there were turkish dried apricots. And get this.. on the second flight (which was only an hour) they also give you a meal. There was smoked salmon, a cucumber tomato cheese sandwich, and homemade cherry cake. If that all is only plane food, i’m excited to see all the goods i’ll be getting to eat while in the country. Haha.

So I made it to Bucharest alright. Got to the place we’ll (my brother, dad, and I) will be staying at for the night, called Casa Shalom It was around 4:00pm in the states when it was bedtime here (midnight), but I was so ready to sleep. I’ll tell you more about Casa Shalom in my next post. 🙂 Thanks for reading!

Paleo Chia Seed Bagels

Ok friends.. I had to share because, THESE LOOK AMAZING. I am a (not super strict) paleo eater, so having the option of paleo bagels sounds like heaven on earth! I was missing bagels hard. This is a dream come true!

Hand Lettering + 104 Photographs

So my husband went to Denver a couple of weeks ago on a guys weekend trip. There was a lot of hiking, meat eating, and off roading.. and in between all of that, he took the time to pick out a few gifts for me. (Super sweet, right?) He knows me so well because I think these books are AMAZING.

Let me tell you about each one:

Book #1

104 Things to Photograph

 

This book is a method of checking off a list. Under each space, where a photo would be, is what the picture should be taken of. Some suggestions are literal, where as others are more interpretative. If you want to be punny (see what I did there?) you can be creative with the more “literal” subjects.

Examples of subjects:

•  messy hair
• a bald spot
• incognito
• today’s date
• a long time
• what’s in your pocket

There are multiple slits that can accommodate multiple sizes, and that’s how your photos are held into the album. I have yet to start on this project, and I’m really looking forward to it!

If you’re interested in buying this book, you can do so here.

Book # 2

Hand – Lettering Ledger

This book is my favorite of the two! (Maybe even favorite interactive book ever!) I’ve always been into hand-lettering (even though it never turned out the way I wanted it to), and now I can learn to do it the right way. The author, Mary Kate McDevitt, does an amazing job of explaining what hand-lettering is, what types there are, as well as the terminology. There are multiple pages of practicing the different types step by step, and in addition, there are over 100 pages of blank practice pages! I’ve only scratched the surface of this book, and I’m already head over heels in love.

If you want to know more about this book and look at a few of the beautiful pages (bonus!!), you can go to Mary Kate’s website here.

First Time Blogger

Hi Friends!

You are now participating in the first blog post I have EVER published! I never, in a million years, thought I’d say that. I was very much intimidated with the idea of blogging, thinking I would have to write paragraphs and paragraphs regularly. Let me tell you now, I will most likely not be doing that. Ha! What I WILL be doing is just sharing what I am doing, where I’m going, what I’m eating, what I’m making.. all the goods.  This is going to be a blog about a bunch of different topics that build a life.

I am so very much looking forward to this new venture.

Bianca

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