FOM - I'm starting to show!

I've been having strange sensations, increasing and fewer minutes apart, starting at my stomach and making their way to my heartbeat. I thought to time them to see if they were two minutes apart, til I realized it had nothing to do with contractions and going into labor. They had everything to do with me realizing that I'm actually pregnant and my body is changing. You might say I had a "freaked out moment of being pregnant".

Freaked OUT Moment (FOM), I'm starting to show; began probably sometime this past week. It didn't really hit me til Friday when I realized I no longer fit into my bra. I know, I know... and I thought this before too... how great it must be to be getting bigger and refining that hour-glass figure. But becoming more busty has actually started to make me feel a little uncomfortable. I mean, yes, it's probably more sexy, but I'm just not sure I like it. I find myself tempted to wear a sign that says "It's not my fault they're growing, I'm pregnant."

The other thing that's started growing lately is my belly. I have been in the habit of holding in my stomach, as if holding in would reduce the appearance of what's growing down there. I guess it's part of my struggle to overcome my denial. Anyway, below are the pictures.



I've been trying to figure out why I'm having such trouble accepting these simple and quite expected changes. Yesterday when Nils and I went to the DMV to register our car and update our driver's licenses, I found myself sometimes embarrassed to realize that people might be able to tell just by site that I'm pregnant. EEk!! I don't want that attention. Again, I have to remind myself that on the outside, people see pregnant women and think, "Aw! How cute! You have such a glow!" But in my mind when people look at me (if they even notice at this point that I'm pregnant) the thoughts that cross my mind is more like, "Ack! I'm not ready! Don't look at me like you know something I don't!!" I really need to relax, don't I?

Baby Log - Star Date 092509 - ...So I'll just call you junyah

Nils and I went in for our first real ultrasound today. Nils took a few hours off work this morning so we could see the baby together. How nice is that? :)

To give a little background, from the very beginning Nils and I had a feeling whether our baby was a boy or a girl.... and we weren't shy about it. I constantly referred to the little flutter in my belly as "she" and Nils would often share with friends and family that we thought we were having a girl. This morning when we arose to make our way for the ultrasound, we were a little nervous about being wrong and having to do a lot back-peddling (mentally and to our adoring public)... not to mention figuring out what to do with all of those bright pink and flowery cloth diapers I just purchased on Craigslist.

As an aside, the title of the post refers to the movie Junior with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Emma Thompson.... You know the part... Arnold playing the role of pregnant man 'Alex' says: "I don't know if you're a boy or a gerl, so I'll just call you junyah". Anyway... it was a joke Nils told on the way to our appointment. If we were smarter we would have just called the baby "Junior" until we were sure.

So, the lady performing the ultrasound was super nice with the cutest accent. I couldn't tell exactly where she was from, but she definitely spoke Spanish. It came up that we were going to be moving to Colombia and she asked me if I knew any Spanish. "Bano? Does that count?" She said that word was the most important. ;)

As she started looking at the baby, she kept saying how perfect the baby was. She complimented me on my fluids and skin, saying that it was really easy to see everything because of my state of health. That was definitely nice to hear. The baby was also very cooperative and kept moving so that the lady could measure and get a good look at all the necessary parts. So we're happy to report that our baby is healthy and whole. Even if our baby wasn't, we'd still be proud and happy parents, though it is nice to hear that your baby is doing well. We'll post one of the ultrasound pictures soon (the one that looks the least blobby). I'm not a huge fan of ultrasound pictures just because... well, most of them are either really ugly, hard to tell what you're looking at, or just plain alien scary. Again, we'll do our best to share one that looks the most human.

Well, having made it clear from the beginning that we were interested in learning the gender/sex of the baby (I've learned that not all parents want to know before the baby is born) we first got a glimpse of the face, and then our baby showed "the goods" right away. The lady chuckled and said, "Well, now we know the gender!"
I looked over at the screen and saw a bunch of blobs and one looked, to me, like a little boy part. So I said (thinking of those bright pink diapers at home)
"So, what is it?"
"A GIRL!"
"A girl?"
Looking back at the blobs I had to ask, "How do you know?"
She moved the wand a little more til you could see two perfect bumps... like the top of a heart.
"See that?... Those are the legs (though it looked more like the bottom to me). See that space in between?... Nothing there. "
Wow... pretty cool, huh?

So... Nils and I are psychic. We can predict the future. Of course, it helps that we had a 50/50 chance of being right. More than that, we're just so delighted to be having a girl!!

Baby Log - Star date 090109 - Can I get a lolly?

Okay, so being pregnant still hasn't really hit me. That's the only explanation I can think of for waiting this long before posting about the baby and being pregnant. I know, you'd think that occasional bouts of nausea, or the 1:30am hike to the bathroom would kinda drive it home, but when I look at all the other "really" pregnant women, I just don't see how I fit into their club, ya know? Yep, I'm still not showing even though I'm past the 4-month mark (one reason for no belly pictures yet).


That aside, I still had to discipline myself in finding a doctor and getting all the paperwork done. Finding a doctor out here didn't prove as smooth and easy as I thought. And figuring out all the paper work with Peace Corps, the Department of Labor and the Office of Worker's Compensation proved to be a little more layered and technical than I had anticipated. I'll get to that more later.

But, I prevailed and after being rejected by several doctor's offices (even though they were on the list of approved medical providers and even admitted that they were in the network), I found a great doctor and even have all the documentation and approvals I need for a fully-funded delivery!

I'd like you to meet my baby's doctor.... Dr. Shin:

Now meet Dr. Shin's Staff:

And let me introduce you to Dr. Shin's patients:

Then here's me....

Okay, fine. Those aren't really pictures of my new doctor, his staff and patients (though, that is really my 5th grade picture). Needless to say, I initially felt kinda out of place. To any of you out there who sometimes (or always) feel like you don't fit in, I'm really sorry whenever you feel that way. It can be quite uncomfortable. But I hope you stick it out and have good experiences anyway.

I did stick it out and have been very happy and grateful to Dr. Shin and his amazing staff. Everyone is very friendly and open. They joke with me and make me feel comfortable. They are professional and work with me on billing issues without making me feel like and id-ee-it. (Huge brownie points to them for that last one!)

So, I had an appointment on September 1st for a check up and blood draw.

Slight aside...

Seriously! I don't remember asking for help to overcome my fears of needles and having my blood drawn, but I must have, because this is the 5th time this year. In my whole life, I can only recall two other times having my blood drawn... So in my ENTIRE life I've had blood drawn 7 times, 71.4% of which occured just this year (one even being done in my own kitchen!). And I'm sure I haven't seen the end of it... Keep those arms bare.

Anyway, I did such a good job (well, and of course the nurse did too :). I didn't pass out, didn't flail around and squirt blood everywhere. I didn't even really feel the blood draining from my body (except a little at the end).

So to recap... I called dozens of doctors' offices, got rejected a lot, cried a little, finally found a nice doctor, scheduled a visit, went to the initial visit, felt out of place at first but found out they were very awesome, filled out and explained the payment process for the OSN-34245w323 form to the doctor's office to send in just for the initial visit, filled out the CE-130239-Z5 form for the FECA claim and included all the necessary documents, walked over (Nils was so nice to come with me) to the Peace Corps office and hand delivered all the documentation, received a letter with my claim number from Peace Corps, had a second visit with the doctor scheduled, called OWCP - the Office of Workers' Compensation to find out how payments going forward should be billed from the doctor, was told I couldn't bill anything until after my claim was approved, asked about the issue of pregnancy and that I wouldn't wait 4 weeks, was re-routed to another office, was given another phone number, decided to call Peace Corps, was given some advice about just going in anyway and worrying about billing later, went into the doctor's office - explained that the billing procedures had changed, that the OSN-34245w323 form was not the right form to use anymore and that now the TRS-234-4DR was the new form and the billing address had changed, that it was no longer under ChoiceCare insurance, had the billing lady be very nice to me, talked with the doctor, heard the baby's heartbeat, had my blood drawn, got the doctor's referral for an ultrasound in 4 weeks, paid the co-pay for the visit, went out to my car, called the other number OWCP had given me to talk to the person reviewing my case/claim, talked to him for a minute or less - had him tell me that everything would work out, and drove home.

Can I get a lolly?

Drum roll please.....

I'm thinking this post might need a little backstory before we make the grand announcement.

Let's start with Nils' job. I have been a little behind with posting on the goings on in our lives lately so for those of you who may not be aware, Nils is currently employed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as a Junior Foreign Service Officer for Crisis Stabilization and Governance (DCHA/DG). He started training in mid July. On August 21st, they announced to all of the employees in his training class where their next post would be in the coming year. Some of Nils' colleagues will head to their post country within the next few months. Others may not go til early to mid next year.

Now, how does USAID decide where to send their first-year junior foreign service officers? Well, to be honest, as far as I know, decisions where to send officers for their first assignment is primarily based on what ambassador is accepting new officers into their embassy and what post is large enough to provide hands-on training without throwing the new officer into a full-throttle learn-as-you-go position. Needless to say, when the people at USAID were deciding where to send Nils, they didn't put much weight on his current language knowledge (Russian and Romanian). But, they did take into account his family situation, which was quite flattering.

So.... on August 21st, they announced where we would be sent for our first two-year assignment!
But before I go into that... Let's see, what else can I talk about? Oh, yes. So the other day we were talking to another junior officer from an earlier training class who gave me some very good advice about what to bring and some things to keep in mind when preparing for our overseas service. She had also brought with her a new born baby to her first overseas assignment (well, it was actually her husband's assignment because he is in the State department and she only just joined USAID and her son is now 4 years old, so this was a few years ago). She mentioned things like loading up on baby food and diapers.

Okay, enough of the stories and stuff... So, Nils and I will be going to.....

COLOBMIA! That's right, South America's beautiful mountainous and beachy Colombia! Personally, I had wanted to go somewhere in South America, so I got my wish!

As a follow up to this announcement, it should be mentioned here that Nils and I won't be leaving for Bogota, Colombia until after the baby is born (so sometime after February). There is, of course, a slight possibility that they will request that Nils go early, but he has a pretty good case for staying here longer. Learning Spanish at the language institute, having a heavily pregnant wife (though there's not much to see yet), and plenty to do here can all add up to being able to stay til hopefully sometime in April. Either way, I plan on staying in the US until after the baby is born.

I do intend to follow up with a post about what we think it's going to be like living overseas. I hear it's going to be drastically different from our Peace Corps experience. Anyway, feel free to ask any questions, heap praise and feelings of jealousy....

And finally, here is a little commercial I found on YouTube... For your viewing pleasure.... and maybe a little propaganda ;)

[Voice over - Nice male voice with a slight Spanish accent]

There is a place where people never believed "impossible" was a word. A place where the rivers wanted to be an ocean and the ocean grew weary of its solitude to join the waterfall, the moutain, the snow peaks, and even another ocean. A place where the past lives harmoniously with the future and the word "infinity" is written on the colors of the beach, the mountains, the jungle, and the sky. A place that challenges the imagination every single day. A place called... Colombia.

Comments in Spanish....

[Voice over]

A place where you will be surprised every day in a different way. Where reality can be magical and where happiness is just around the corner.

Colombia, Colombia, Colombia

Summing up Peace Corps - Emily

Peace Corps....
It's never exactly clear, either in your mind or in anyone else's, what exactly the Peace Corps experience will be like. Even less known is the kind of work you will end up doing. For me, I found the work as a volunteer with Peace Corps to be very personally fulfilling. I had the opportunity to stretch myself to expand my knowledge in ways I never expected.

In Peace Corps, each volunteer is given a primary organization to work with to engage projects and help identify and provide for the community's needs. My primary assignment was with Fundatia Centrul pentru Dezvoltarea Intreprinderilor Mici si Mijlocii Braila - CDIMM Braila (Literally translated: The Center for Small and Medium-size Enterprise Development Foundation). The work I ended up doing with them fell under two main categories; projects and trainings. Projects have multiple beneficiaries (people who get something out of it) while trainings primarily served CDIMM.

Projects

• CDIMM website redesign – Upon arrival, I noticed that CDIMM's website was built to be simple and functional. Being new at the organization I decided to utilize my time to learn more about the organization by researching their website and creating a new web design, with a more modern look. As I created the new design for CDIMM, I took advantage of the fact that the redesign provided a platform for an inward look at the company's past, present, and future. I began the design in September 2008 and the project was implemented April – May 2009. CDIMM’s technical support contracted professional made modifications to the original design, but the basic ideas are intact. To view the original website, go to http://www.cdimm.ro/. The new design is not currently posted.

Sample of my orginal redesign of CDIMM's website

• Romanglish/Romengleza Phrase Book – After being in Romania a few weeks I realized just how much I was struggling with the language. I occured to me that while there were plenty of tourist lanugage books available with short-cut phrases for finding a hotel or ordering at a restaurant, there really wasn't anything more practical for those working and living in Romania. So, I put together a phrase book in Romanian and in English that included phrases for talking to your landlord, engaging in conversation at work, etc. I published the first version Romanglish through the office of CDIMM Braila in October 2008. We self-printed about 30 copies. This book was sold to fellow volunteers as a fundraiser for Nils' youth organization. After this first publication I was invited by Nils' organization to print the book professionally and to redesign it to be marketed more towards high school students. So, I created a second version Romengleza, adding sections like "Dating and Pickup Lines" and "Democracy" to attract a younger crowd while also promoting the subject matter of Youth Vision for Democracy (Nils' youth organization). Through a local publishing company we published 500 copies in March 2009.

The original cover design of Romengleza. The design was later modified by the printer for higher resolution of the buildings.

Courses

• Business Start-up Course – In Nov 2008 I team-taught a course presented at the Chamber of Commerce -Braila. During this course, I had fun introducing various teaching methods and innovative styles which enhanced and improved the course.


• Entrepreneurship Course – I team-taught this course at CDIMM and helped develop a more digestable program for the 5-day course. I enjoyed teaching business concepts in an understandable way and had fun exploring business creativity with the class participants.


• Project Management Course – I assisted in creating activity material for this course taught in June 2009 by my counterpart, Dragos. It was fun coming up with scenerios and games to liven things up!
  

Trainings

• Personality Types – I had a lot of fun with this one! After a few months with CDIMM, I thought it would be educational to address the diverse personalities of the people working there. I showed CDIMM Braila’s team members the benefits of understanding different personality types. After conducting a personality survey of each team member, using a modified Myers-Briggs method, I shared the results with the entire group, and lead a discussion about strengths and resouces each personality type brought to the team which would increase efficiency and effectiveness.


• Marketing and Sales Strategy – After the 6-month mark of my service, I was approached by some of the team members about putting together a marketing strategy. So, I put together ideas and materials to help CDIMM Braila look at their marketing and sales efforts... what had been done and worked, and what new things we could try. Putting together some material for them, I then led a meeting in which everyone in the organization discussed and determined possible courses of action for a new marketing and sales strategy. Change wasn't made overnight, but the experience was very enriching.


• SWOT Anaylsis – While CDIMM is very familiar with the SWOT analysis technique, and uses it quite frequently for their own clients, I thought it would be helpful if they conducted an analysis of their own organization. As we went through each Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT), a lot of eye-opening comments were made and the beginnings of new goals came out of it.
  

COMMUNITY PROJECTS:
In addition to working with our primary organization, Peace Corps volunteers have the freedom and are encouraged to engage in additional community projects. The community projects I participated in are as follows:

Viziunea Tinerilor pentru Democratie (Youth Vision for Democracy - YVD)
So Nils organized this youth organization under the Pro Democracy Association - Club Braila, the organization he was assigned to. I got to help out with a variety of projects.

• To start the project off right, I created a logo for YVD. It took a few versions to get it right, but in the end we decided on something like this:
  
• I planned and assisted with classes taught twice a month on various subjects including: Democracy, Human Rights, Children’s Rights, Debate, Mediation, Global Economy, and Leadership. It was a lot of fun really! I think my favorite was for the Human Rights section I collected several real-life court cases involving Human Rights. Then I had the students break up into groups and take the Plaintiff or Defendant position and plead their case. After hearing both sides, the class voted on a verdict. At the end, I revealed what happened in the real life case and the rationale behind each decision. It was tons of fun!


• As mentioned before, I designed, wrote, edited, and collaborated with language translators to create Romengleza, a Romanian/English language phrase book, as afundraiser for YVD. Along with the book, I am in the process of completing a companion audio CD. I never imagined how much work an audio CD would be... I'm still working on it and hope to meet my deadline. I should have it done by the beginning of the next school year (September 2009). Here's hopin'.


• On the theme of fundraising, I provided a follow-up training on methods of local fundraising. It's amazing how creative high school students are!


• Leadership retreat, conducted in Brasov in June 2009. We had the best location! Nils found this hostel that had room for all of us to stay together so we could keep order and so that everyone could have plenty of space to have fun! A local church in Brasov also allowed us the use of their building to do leadership exercises and classes.

Women’s Organization – Sociatatea de Alinare (Relief Society) – Galati Branch
What a joy it was working with the LDS women of Galati! No matter how small their numbers, they were a constant inspiration to me and helped me develop into a more patient and giving person (I hope!).

• I had the privilege of working with organization's president, first counselor and secretary, women who taught me much about facing adversity. We worked together on budgets, goals-setting, events planning, etc.
• I was called as a Relief Society teacher and taught 2-3 times a month on various subject including honesty, self-esteem, service, respecting others, forgiveness, and more. I owe special thanks to Catalina and Tanta for tanslating for me!
• Being a strong believer in Visiting Teaching – a program where women within the organization show care and concern for each other - I worked on improving the overall system by encouraging letter writing, home visits, etc., showing that a little can go a long way when it comes to caring for each other.
• Every two months, I had the great pleasure of going with of the women of the Galati Branch Relief Society to visited a local orphanage. We brought donated snacks, clothing items, toys. We also planned activities; interacted and entertained the children.

Women’s Communication Platform
Noting that there was so much to share cross-culturally, I started a blog called “Among Women” or “Intre Noi Femeile” in Romanian. The blog engaged women from various countries in a dialogue about issues such as family vs. career, women portrayed in the media, feminism and women’s rights, etc. From this blog, a local woman and now friend approached me about the issue of domestic violence. After a few conversations, meetings were arranged and ideas put on paper to begin the process of bringing this issue out in the open. To view the blog to go: http://www.amongwomen.blogspot.com/ or http://www.intrenoifemeile.blogspot.com/

OTHER EXPERIENCE & ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

Grant Writing
In June 2008, I wrote a grant for YVD through the Minnie Grants Walt Disney grant program. While the grant was not awarded (sad), the experience taught me a lot about the grant writing process.

Starting in January 2009, I wrote a PCPP grant with another volunteer, Cynthia Yeh. Along with this grant, I enjoyed creating a budget schedule and daily program for the project.

Website Committee
I redesigned and implemented a new homepage for the Peace Corps Romania website.

Here's the new homepage for Peace Corps Romania's website. I created the map of Romania, designed and did the html for the three separate sections, and simplified the overall look of the homepage.

Of course, I also got to update and improve the overall content of the website as well. While I was on the website committee we also introduced a volunteer network called "Vatra" (which means "hearth" in Romanian).

Romania Moron’s Guide Committee
While not yet an official member, I helped update and edit the Moron’s Guide (a guide issued to Peace Corps nominees prior to entry into Post Country) to get it ready to post onto the Peace Corps Romania website. Talk about a complex site! Once an official member, I continued to help with updating and editing content, assisting in small redesign elements to help simplify the site and facilitate easier edits in the future.

More Pictures??

I still have to get all of my pictures organized. I'll be sure let everyone know once additional pictures of my Peace Corps work experience becomes available.

Closing...
It's hard to know how to measure success. Did I really do all that much during the 17 months I served in the Peace Corps? Were my efforts really effective in bringing about change? While it's hard to know the true answers to these questions since results of often seen several years down the road, it's important to keep in mind that it's up to us to do something good and make positive contributions to the world around us. A lot of people have said to me they wish they could join Peace Corps. But it doesn't take an experience like Peace Corps to do good works and serve others. You have opportunities every day to do something, no matter how small, to improve the world around you. So what are you waiting for?? :)

Hold on Tight!

I know we keep disappearing from our blog and it leaves people wondering, what's going on?? To get everyone up to speed, here is what Nils and I have been doing... I'm just trying to think where I need to start!

May 2009 - My sister Ellen comes to visit us in Romania! We take her on a trip to various parts of Italy and then she and I make a 3-day trip to Paris. Peter, Nils' brother joins us in Rome.

June 2009 - We show Ellen different parts of Romania including Constanta (on the Black Sea) and Sighisoara (in the Carpathian Mountains).

June 12, 2009 - I find out I'm pregnant. Nils knows about it first and is so convinced that I am pregnant regardless of how much I or my sister tell him he is wrong. He is the one who decides to buy a pregnancy test to verify his intuition and... he is right! We notify Peace Corps and are told that I am only able to continue as a volunteer until August or September.

June 18, 2009 - Nils and I go to Brasov for a youth leadership training retreat, the final activity for Nils' project.

June 20, 2009 - On the way home from Brasov, Nils receives the much anticipated e-mail from USAID announcing his invitation to start training as a Junior Officer. Training class begins July 20th.

July 3rd, 2009 - After saying our teary goodbyes and wishing all of our newly-made friends in Romania well, Nils and I head back to the United States via Amsterdam and Minneapolis, MN. While enjoying our 6-hour layover in Minneapolis, we decide to take the metro to the Mall of America. After over 24 hours of travel, we arrive in Logan, Utah around 11:30pm MST. A funny "aside"... while boarding the plane from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City, my alarm clock goes off. I had set it for 3:00am Romania time because we had to leave our hotel via taxi at 4:00am in order to make our 6:05am plane to Amsterdam. So by the time we were on the plane at Minneapolis, it had already been 24 hours according to my Romanian clock. Funny, huh! (Btw, my alarm still works even if I've turned off my phone. It was kinda embarrassing to have it go off while on the plane. Luckily, I still had time to turn it back on, cancel the alarm and turn it off again before they closed the doors and made the announcement to turn off all cellphones and pagers.)

July 3-9, 2009 - We visit with Nils' family and get our things ready to ship to Virginia.

July 9-14, 2009 - We drive to Ellsworth, Kansas to visit my family.

July 14 - 16, 2009 - We drive from Kansas to Vienna, VA (our new home) making a short stop at the Columbus, Ohio Temple. (The Logan Temple is closed for cleaning during our stay, and the DC Temple is closed until July 27th also for cleaning.)

And so here we are, back in the USA. I'll be posting more about Peace Corps and the things we accomplished during our 17 months. I'll also post about Nils' job and what it means for our future. By August 21st we should know our next destination. Yep, as a foreign service junior officer, Nils will be receiving an overseas assignment within the next month. We won't actually leave in August.... We're hoping we'll at least be here in the United States long enough for me to have the baby. Oh, and I'll also be sure to post about the baby too!

Sofia, Bulgaria

And finally we come to Sofia, Bulgaria! For pictures, click here.

Last of our cities, Sofia had a lot to live up to. I came to appreciate stopping in Sofia, seeing it as a means to gently descend from my cloud before heading back to Romania and to work.

When we first arrived in Sofia, a man came up to me speaking in broken Romanian (which was interesting to hear) asking me if we already had tickets to where we wanted to go. We, as a group, had set the trend of buying tickets upon arrival so we could plan our day accordingly. We were planning to only stay the day in Sofia, so buying tickets was actually what we were looking to do. But I wasn't about to follow a strange guy who didn't look very official. I answered him in Romanian and attempted a mix of ignoring him and deferring to Nils. Nils started making his way to the various counters, the man "leading" the way in front of him. The man "lead" us to an agency which apparently sold international tickets. The woman behind the counter spoke some English and we explained that we were traveling on the Balkan Flexi Pass. She said we still needed to reserve seats. She punched a few things into her calculator and showed us the estimated cost for the 4 of us. Not bad... but she came across really confusing at the same time and the lack of customer service skills didn't help. Another problem was that we hadn't yet gotten any Bulgarian currency. So before we purchased tickets, Nils headed off to find an ATM, the "guide" man trailing behind him. The man directed him to the exchange counter, which Nils politely declined and continued his search for an ATM. It's interesting when people are trying to be helpful and yet come across like you have to do it their way. Nils returned and we purchased the tickets. I then asked, to make sure, whether these tickets were for a sleeper car. No, just regular seats. Then I asked how much it would cost if we wanted to return the tickets or upgrade to a sleeper. She replied that she would have to take out the 10% commission. Commission?? I didn't know we had paid commission! Then she proved to be rather flustered as she proceeded to say that out of the 30 Bulgarian Leva, we would get only 20 back. Umm... 10% of 30 is not 10. We said as much and after a few punches on the calculator she came up with a more accurate amount... 27 Bulgarian Leva back. Anyway... we decided to keep our tickets and do a little more checking before proceeding with our tour of the city. A few more inquiries proved that the agency was indeed the only place were international tickets were sold. And... to our surprise, the guy who had been guiding us around didn't even ask for a tip. Interesting.

Not having started off exactly on the right foot, but still feeling somewhat hopeful, we packed our bags into a few lockers at the train station and started off to see the sights. Sofia is a surprisingly beautiful city with many ancient buildings and plenty of history. To learn more about Sofia's extensive history, click here. We some directions and help from a local vendor and a newly purchased map. Maps sure are amazing things! We wondered for a while, sat for a while, watched pigeons in the park for a while, slept for a while.... we were all pretty tired and had slowed down considerably. But one thing I thought timely about our arrival was the fact that it was Orthodox Easter weekend. With the countless churches in the city, we saw masses of people standing in line to perform a Easter ceremony which symbolizes death and resurrection. After receiving a blessing from the priest, and a kind of branch (I'm can't remember of what plant or tree), a person crouches under a table, scoots across and stands up on the other end.

I've noted in Romania as well, and having had it affirmed in my travels, that American culture is much more traditionally diverse. And with this traditional diversity, there isn't a strong traditional culture. For example, Easter in Romania has specific, not just traditions, but actual things you do (midnight candle lighting, attending church, doing the symbolic resurrection rite, etc.), say (Christ is risen/true he is risen), and eat (cozonac, eggs, lamb and anything made of lamb, wine) to honor the holiday. In America for Easter we may have an Easter egg hunt, we may wear new Spring dresses, but it doesn't have the same touch of formality, correctness, and deeply rooted tradition that exists in other places and cultures. Being somewhat familiar with Catholicism, there is a lot of similarity between the rites and religious traditions of the Orthodox but it just isn't as nation-wide as I've seen in other countries. An interesting side note since we hit upon Easter.

We continued to wander, sampled some food (very, very good, by the way) all the while enjoying the slower pace until it was time for our train. The day went slowly and quickly. As Nils looked back at the pictures he was surprise at all the things we really did see while there.

An amazing trip... a good ending. I enjoyed it thoroughly though I have to admit I was happy to be back in Romania where I could finally understand most of what people were saying!