lady jane stanfield

Hello Guys!

As of 1/27/07, the verbiage for the 2006 trip is loaded on the site. I know that there are still photos missing and I will try and go back and load them before I leave for Thailand on Feb 13.

I finally realized why I was having a hard time finishing and not loading my blog. I associate posting the blog with sitting in a coffee shop. So here I sit, on the 27th of January, with a quickly-growing-cold-cup-of-coffee and loading photos and words.

I have in my hands 3/4 of the blog that had been thoughtfully copied and put into binders for me by two of my special friends in Colorado, Kerry Beebe and Susy Hickey. This will make proofing, editing and reading the blog much easier for me as I move into PHASE 2 of "2006 - The Volunteer Trip Around the World".

Look for the summary of the first month home to be posted by next weekend and see WISH - WHERE IS SHE HEADING?

Thanks for your interest and support!

Thursday, December 21 – Winter Solstice!

Three stops is morning on the way to Tutova – 1) bank with Bernice’s newly working ATM Card, thanks to a phone card that we purchased last night (her bank had seen her first withdrawal at the beginning of the trip and blocked other transactions) 2) Berlin market for yoghurt, chicken and #3 diapers, 3) the stationary store for notebooks on the 4 newest arrivals at the clinic.

Bernice and I plan to spend time on Friday night between packing to update the journals of the individual children that we have spent time with.

Bernice’s 4 had not eaten much of the early bottle, so it would be a long and loud session for her before the noon bottles arrived. Little Paula is still pretty red, but not very complainey. I got the mobiles in to the toddler room and spent a little time with each on the way in. Mirella has become quite a whinger. As soon as any of us go past her door and she is ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT, she begins to cry and insists of being the first one held and taken out. That worked earlier with me, but I felt that at times others needed their special time as well. My wish would be that they move all the mobiles into one room so that once you get one, you get them all. With the non-mobiles mixed in, I may be trying to get the other room settled first, but am constantly bombarded by the mobiles. If it were a perfect world!

As I went down the hall with the first mobile, I noticed that all the little walkers did not have their cloth seats as they had been to the laundry. (Very much needed laundry, I might add). This told me that the afternoon session would most likely have to be in the bigger room once the toddlers went with their teacher. In the mobile room this am we only had one major melt down with Mihaela and I put her back in the crib.

I had a good session with Sylvia standing between my legs. She is getting bolder and even making a few steps. I am encouraged that she is on the brink and it will simply take consistency to get her mobile. We learned today the next team arrives in Romania on Saturday and will be with the kids on Christmas Day, next Monday. I will make sure that my diary entry for Sylvia encourages continuation. Marian also did a few walk steps. He was feeling a little fragile (along with the rest of the group as most of them have runny noses and coughs are becoming more prevalent). Maybe tomorrow. I will ask Bernice to come into the Mobile room with me and get pictures with me and each of the guys!

Bernice is feeling a little low herself, so lunch of wonderful warm soup with lots of veggies and oranges was most welcome. As we were heading out for our walk, Dr. Delia was entering the clinic on her rounds. We stayed for a few moments in order for her to tell us some of the backgrounds on the children. Denisa and Larisa (the 2-month old preemie twins) are from a gypsy family with 7 children about 80km from Tutova. Little Denisa has clubfeet and will most likely have to have an operation. Dr. Delia will try to get her to see the specialist in Iasu in January or February. Crina (the 4 month old – that looks a lot more like 6 months to us) has a sister in the clinic in the toddlers and was abandoned by her young mother. Paula the 3 months old that we called Elf, will be tested for genetic conditions after the first of the year. She also was abandoned. I am sure Bernice will follow up on each of these little girls. I told Mihalla (the country manager) that she would need to check Bernice’s luggage as she leaves Tutova on Saturday morning.

Lots of new stuff this afternoon. Ramona, the former translator, arrived with lots of goodies for the staff, toddlers and the clinic. Thanks to her, there is now a wall mounted TV and VCR in the largest playroom that was playing animal videos by the time we left today. The kids were thrilled with the fresh bananas and the staff also received little goodies. The walker’s cloth seats were back and installed so the mobiles could exercise in the hall. As I was moving non-mobile around, I notice an Orthodox priest (with a parka on over his vestments) entering the building. More apples for the toddlers. He met me in the hallway and pushed an icon at my face. I looked at it and Lily said I was to kiss it. Bernice told me after the fact it had happened to her as well and she was not sure what to do so she kissed it. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to kiss his hand or ring as well. Being a Buddhist, she was afraid she had offended the priest. The staff told her that to kiss the icon was respecting their religion. She was relieved that she had not offended anyone.

Non-mobile room was pretty quiet except for the snuffling noses and the little coughs. I so prefer to be in this room with the music droning and the overhead light off to allow the natural light in through the window. Even though it is cloudy, it gives a nicer light than the fluorescents high above.

Hard to believe but we are low on diapers again. We will make one more stop tomorrow and hope that will last until the next team arrives.

We met Mihalla at the travel agency. I had the perfect finale to today when I found that I had the later fight on Saturday and therefore did not have to leave a day early! YAAAH! We also learned that we would be taken back to Bucharest on Saturday so we don’t have to take the train. I am sorry to miss the train, but am pleased that I don’t have to hassle the taxi from the train station to the airport. THANK YOU ANGELS!!!!!

We went to pick up Gabriella at Myosotis and found that Santa had left a little gift of each of us, lovely Romanian Milk Chocolate. We thanked Gabriella and asked her to pass the message on to Santa for us.

Tonight we had dinner with Helen, her husband Alexandru, sister, Tantsa, Gabriella and Nastasi. It was a wonderful evening full of laughs and good food. Just WAY TOO MUCH FOOD. We even had a special cake with three sparklers and a sip of champagne to celebrate the finale of the team.

One more day with the kids.

Thought for the Day – Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. – Creed for Optimists

Friday, December 22

With sleepy eyes and neither of us feeling 100%, we left for Tutova for our last day. It was grey and very cold and I thought I saw the odd snowflake here and there.

We decided to try and catch Dr. Delia first thing as her day tends to accelerate and get away from her. We dropped off a small token of our appreciation from the team and also some donations to be used to help the clinic purchase car seats for transporting the children to the hospital. The traffic laws have changed recently requiring child seats in vehicles. Mihalla said that the law has been in place for a long time, it is just that the seats are so expensive, the police have not insisted or given tickets if there were no seats. Dr. Delia may be feeling the needs for the seats as the children are no her own and are being transported to and from the hospital.

Bernice then went into the room with the four that was blessedly quiet as we entered the building. A first! I got Marian, Mirella and Mihaela in the toddlers’ room but Sylvia was having a bit of a lie in. Bernice joined us with first Larisa, then Denisa and finally Paula and we took picture of each other with our favorites. Sylvia was finally awake and was happy to be removed from her crib.

Sylvia walked today! Not totally on her own, but she was definitely taking steps towards Bernice with me supporting her around the chest. Unfortunately, Mihaela and Marian were at war at the same time, so our exclamations of praise for Sylvia were drowned out by two howling children.

Yoghurt time for three with Bernice working with Marian and I with Mihaela and Mirella. I think Bernice now appreciates how distractible he is as she inadvertently smeared his forehead and ear with yoghurt as he head whirled around.

After our walk, we loaded all the non-mobiles into the room. They had not had a chance to get out at all this am and were anxious for their time. Ramona allowed me to give her the bottle again and it went very smoothly. What a thrill! I spent time with my first lover boy, Samuel who yesterday and today has finally remembered how to smile. He just captures my heart. Bernice helped with Daniel, Andrea and Daniela. Within 15 minutes, Daniela had thrown up her entire bottle onto her chest and rocking chair.

As I diapered the entire herd of mobile and non-mobiles for the last time, I spoke to each of them and asked that they receive the best Christmas present I could imagine - to go home or to be put in a fabulous foster home as soon as possible.

As we left for the last time, we hugged the three staff available and presented them with some yummy cookies to celebrate the holidays. Although we left with sadness, it was wonderful to know that on Monday, the next team of 13 will be visiting and picking up where we left off. With such a large team, more children should be given more individual time. The most wonderful thing about Global Volunteer is the 17 teams a year come to the clinic so that the children never have a week without people who want to hold, kiss, play and love them.

What will we remember most about our time at the Tutova Clinic? Florin and his little-man ways, traffic cop attitude and happy smile and wonderful hugs? The incessant banging of the wooden cribs with toddlers who weren’t being let out fast enough? The dogs that waited at the door any time we exited for goodies and treats? The yummy soups for lunch from P. Giani?

I know that I will always remember the little song in the non-mobile room, Sylvia’s happy screech, Mirella’s insistent wail if she spotted you and you weren’t immediately picking her up, Marian’s impish grin, Mihaela’s shy way of playing with me and her dancing and of course, little Samuel’s raspberries.

Thank you Global Volunteers for your ongoing commitment to making a difference for the children at Tutova.

Thought for the Day – When volunteering and you are not sure where to help, pick an agency and just do something.

Saturday, December 23 – To Bucharest and flight to London

We both had a very quick breakfast and there was some confusion about if we had to pay for breakfast. Because we weren’t sure, Bernice paid.

We loaded into the bus and went to pick up Mihalla for our 5-hour trip to Bucharest. We arrived at the airport at 12:45 for my 3:40 flight on British Airlines to London. There was no indication of which check in desk to use until 1:30. There was a long queue of people using the only line that indicate BA, and another one for AA at the same time. A pair in front of me jumped the queue and went directly to the AA line, which irritated a young Romanian man in front of me. There was an unpleasant conversation between them that left a lot of emotional vomit in the air. I was pleased I was next so I could leave the area soon.

By the time I got to the front, I was concerned about the weight of my luggage. They seemed more concerned with number of bags instead of weight. My ticket was concerning to them as it was an open ticket and did not indicate the specific flight I was on. They had my name in the system, but they had to take my tickets and speak to the supervisor. It only took 15 minutes, but it seemed longer. Finally, no problem and off I went to the gate, having thanked the supervisor who assisted with my ticket. I had my window seat and I was at the gate at 2:40. There was a 30-minute delay due to fog in London. This wasn’t’ too bad considering that the previous three days, London had major delays and cancellations. By boarding time at 4:15, we were still delayed with no plane at the gate. When we finally boarded, we had a completely full flight. After 30 minutes on the tarmac, they told us that that we had engine problems and we should know within 40 minutes if the engineer could fix it. He did and after another 15 more minutes on the tarmac, we were finally in the air at 6:20 for a 3-hour flight. I must say that BA and the pilot in particular were absolutely the best in keeping us advised as to what our status was and when we would know our next information. WELL DONE BA!

We arrived in London at 7:20 local time and finally at the gate at 7:45. As I sat there looking at the airport, I remembered that the last time I was in Britain it was 29.5 years ago. Our bags took a while, so I took the opportunity to change both my Romanian and South African Rand into Pounds. (I had come across a stash of 1100 Rand in one of my bags that I had forgotten to exchange!)

Tired after a long day, I opted for the fastest way to the hotel, a Black taxi. The Premier Travel Inn is one of a chain and is very clean, modern, and very basic. No cute little soaps and stuff, but there was soap and shampoo containers attached to the walls. There will also be no meals on the 25th,

I opted for a pizza for dinner as I didn’t want to go to the restaurant and the bar would be closing soon. The pizza tasted fine, but was undercooked, so I ate all the good stuff off the top. Typical when I have been away from TV too long, I spent way too much time watching telly until the early am hours.

Entry # 34 – Britain – Chicago - Philly

Monday, January 1, 2007 – Back to the US of A AND THE LAND OF THE PLENTIFUL NAPKINS!!!!!

Late night and early alarm, but I was out, on the bus and at Heathrow at 7am. As I approached to put my luggage through, they asked if I had any matches of lighters in my bags. I realized that I had a book of matches from a hotel in Romania. Luckily I remembered what compartment I had them in and found them quickly. As I mentioned before, the closer to the US I got, the more questions I was asked at airports. I was checked in by 7:10 and was on my way to security. As I approached security, I saw a woman with a lipstick in a little plastic bag and I realized that I had some of those in my carry on. Luckily, I had a spare sandwich size Ziploc in my candy bag, and quickly pulled the three things that I knew that I had in the baggie. I was through immigration and security and on the concourse by 7:35. My flight left at 10:15. I know, I know, way to early, but it sure beats rushing!

I had a lovely British woman as my seat mate (I had the aisle) who was returning to St. Louis where she works for Busch. Directly in front of us was a couple with their 12-month-old son who was not happy, harboring a cold and loudly telling all of us about his distress. The parents were stars and did their best under difficult circumstances. 8 hours between Heathrow and O’Hare.

I landed and wondered if immigration would be different when you have been away for so long. We landed at 12:40 and my original connection would have been at 1:50.

Traveling on 1/1 seems to be the way to go. There have been minimal lines in both airports! Passport control was no problem. Bags seemed to take a long time in coming, but as one person pointed out, I don’t care if it is the last one, just as long as it gets here!! Very wise outlook in my view. I played a game with my vibes to see which one of my bags would arrive first. The vibes said Big Gray would arrive first. It did.

I had answered on my customs declaration that I was carrying food, I had animal products and that I had handled livestock. They just skimmed my form and only when I indicated that I had something did they declare did they send me to x-ray. The Dept of Agr guys x-rayed my bags and looked through Big Gray. Those lucky people got to paw through all my dirty clothes. I had packed all my purchases from abroad into one backpack. They asked me if I had any food and I said candy (of course!) When he took out the backpack, he asked if I had anything round in it. I could only think of the spoons, but as he unpacked it I remembered that I had the Gerivital I had bought in Romania. No issue, he closed it back up and I could go. On the plane they kept stressing about foot-and-mouth disease so I told him my only concern was that I had been hiking in my boots, so he said he would do my shoes. My hiking boots came back spotless on the bottom and as good looking on the top a year around the world warrants.

I had cleared the area and it was 1:30. I rechecked my bags for my connecting flight, just out side the customs area and then rode the train to my terminal. Security in the new terminal was the longest one yet. Take off all coats, shoes off, plastic baggie full of creams, take out the ipod and computer. I had cleared security at 1:50. (I would not have made my flight if I had stayed on the original ticket.)

NOTE FOR TRAVELERS – Even with the airline says it is a legal connection, if you don’t feel that you can comfortably make the connection, do yourself a favor and change the connecting flight. This is especially important if you have to go through customs.

I have been cogitating about the next phase of my life at times with anxiety. I have found when I talk about my experiences, I become alive and very excited about my year. When I am by myself, I become inward and anxious. HMMMM! Guess I just have to stay in action and talking about my amazing year.

At lunch of chicken caesar salad and pear, I sat with a couple returning to Miami and told them about my trip. Mr. and Mrs. Firestone were very cute and enthusiastic and thanks to Jack, I have a name and address for a woman who works for the Attorney General’s office in women’s affairs as a possible contact. See what staying in action can do for you!!!!

In my sack that accompanied my lunch, besides the plastic fork and knife, I had 8 napkins! I still have 3 of them and they will go in my napkin display about my trip.

Annie had requested a current copy of the London Review of Books, a periodical very similar to the NY Times Book Review. The paper has reviews of current books as you might expect, ads for properties both domestic and foreign and usually a small number of interesting personal ads. In London, I found a book that compiled the best of the personal ads into one small volume. The book had wonderfully funny and clever ads, but none that were currently active so you can’t reply to those that sound interesting. I read the book on the plane between England and Chicago. My favorite one was from a lisping Rogers and Hammerstein woman who was looking for a man to share ‘thome enthanted evenningth’! Hysterical!

Today, I sent an email to an ad I found in the British Magazine called The Lady about a wooden yacht that would be circumnavigating the globe starting on Feb 2007 from South England. They indicated that they needed a diarist. By the time I had made Chicago, I already had a reply with some details about the trip, (may be a crew of 5, expect to land in Australia by 2010, no pay but some expenses paid while I am on board, no previous experience needed but helpful, crew will be asked to cook and share night watches, etc) asking for a CV. Hmmmmmmm?

We were delayed taking off from Chicago due to air traffic over Philly. I ended up landing 1.5 hours later than I had been expected, but my wonderful sister and brother-in-law were waiting for me. It was lovely to see them again and to be back in Philly.

I was in the upper bedroom with the window open as it had been 70 degrees in Philly lately. I suspected that I would sleep very well tonight.

Tuesday, January 2, 2007

Right after breakfast – LAUNDRY !!!! YAAAAAAH! One of the things I am looking forward to is clean laundry on demand and the ability to change clothes as many times as I like during the day. I am very much looking forward to my favorite fuchsia fleece tops that I have in storage in Denver.

Reading the Absentee American – Wonderful**

I unpacked the boxes that I had sent to Annie to extract the Xmas gifts that I had sent for the family. It was fun to open the boxes and remember where I had bought stuff and whom it was for. I had also sent a fair amount of my clothes to Annie, usually as packing around fragile items. I will need to fit them into my luggage as I go home.

I will be mailing one more box to myself from here with clothes and heavy things that I don’t want to put in the luggage. I will also mail back to Denver some things from Mom’s estate including three paintings and a set of nesting tables.

Tonight we had our Christmas celebration and Tony had made wonderful roast chicken, rice with cherries and pistachios, gingered carrots and salad. YUMMY!

Xmas – My family has done it again with wonderful, thoughtful gifts and goodies. Some of the many things that I received were coupons for clothes at Urban Outfitters and a massage tomorrow. YAAAH! Zack also received an Urban Outfitters coupon so we have a date to go and spend them on Thursday night. I am committed to clothes that fit me instead of engulf me and in colors other than black and beige!! The gifts that I gave were also well received including the LROB’s book for Annie, Marzipan from Harrods for Tony and the T-shirt for Zack with Nelson Mandella’s prison number.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Breakfast is usually at our own pace and includes fruit, tea, toast or cereal and a very leisurely morning.

Our next routine is to walk Charlie Darwin (the geriatric beagle cross) every morning to the end of the block to buy the paper. His main goal is to find and eat, before Annie can stop him, any bit of food (especially KFC chicken bones). After the walk, we arrive home for Charlie’s small dog bone. Quantity is not an issue for Charlie, just that he ALWAYS gets a biscuit after his morning constitutional.

Today was my massage with Danielle at a health club just around the corner from Annie’s office. It was wonderful. There were lots of little knots in suspected and unsuspected places. I am very much looking forward to getting to Denver and working with Toni Guinn on the various kinks and knots from this year and what they are saying.

Shepard’s Pie for dinner, ala Tony.

Annie trimmed the driest of the dry ends off my hair – Still a little scraggly and dry, I will wait until Denver to see what the dry air does to it and determine how much more needs to come off or be shaped.

After that we began the photo journey of my year in reverse order.

Thursday, January 4, 2007

Doodle day – The bedroom I have is at the very top of the house with a big comfortable double bed.

Having finished the Absentee American, I moved on to Jared Diamonds’ book, Collapse, about how different societies thrived or collapsed when faced with various situations. Very Interesting. Diamond also wrote Germs, Guns and Steel.

Scanning through the NY Times Book Review, I came across 2 personal ads that sounded interesting.

I had an email back from the contact about the yacht asking if I intended to send back my CV. Cogitated about it before bed and had a marvelous dream.

In the dream I was going to my various medical practitioners at the completion of my trip. I was feeling scattered and out of sorts and indicated to Toni Guinn that I had left a part of my heart in each of the places where I had visited. I illustrated the fact by miming taking a bouquet of flowers and taking out one blossom for each place that I visited, leaving the vase very sparse and empty. Toni made me draw in flowers on a landscape to recapture them. As I moved on to my next practitioner, Dr. Kramer, I woke up but I ended the dream feeling that I needed to write back to the yacht group and to take more command of where I was going after my trip. THANK YOU ANGELS!!!!

Friday, January 5, 2007

Up at 5am to begin blogging and working out what to write back to the yacht people.

Face masks – Annie and I cut our two different masks into two and shared the experience.

The orange mask ended up burning my face a bit, so I won’t be using the other one I have in my luggage. We are planning a tea party today to try the new tea that I was given for Christmas and eat cookies.

We also went to the UPS store to get my box, the paintings and nesting tables mailed to Denver.

Annie said it would be a short night for me, as the Annual Mummers Parade will be held tomorrow on Broad Street with car towing beginning at 5am. Normally held on New Years Day, it had been postponed due to rain last weekend. While it is raining today, I feel that they will hold it whether it rains or not.

The mummers are troops of men, primarily, that work all year on their routines, dress in exotic costumes and parade into historic Philly down Board Street. They go right past Annie’s house so they have a bird’s eye view. Luckily, I have an early flight, so we should be able to get me to the airport before all the hoopla begins.

Lana called me to tell me that my car is buried in her garage due to the third snowstorm in so many weeks and it most likely won’t be available tomorrow. Not a problem, all I need is my mail, my keys, some food and the babies and I will be good for a while.

Saturday, January 6, 2007 – 366 days from when I left last year – Back in Denver

Up early to get to the plane and I logged on to the web and Annie also checked the status of DIA. The Denver airport was open and my flight was scheduled to leave at 9:05.

I had a marvelous time with my Sister, as I always do, and stopping in Philly on my way home was EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO BEGIN THE TRANSITION FROM MY TRIP TO HOME. THANK YOU ANNIE, TONI AND ZACK FOR YOUR HOSPITALITY!!!!

At the airport I had no problem at check in, but found that my departure was delayed by 1.5 hours because the crew had arrived late last night. There is a mandatory (and I am very thankful for it) 8 hour rest period for crews before they can fly again.

A very full flight, I had an aisle seat and the movie was The Queen. As I had already seen it, I focused on my book and some meditation to prepare for my return to Colorado.

The smoothest landing I had all year long, probably due to the quantity of snow on the runway, I landed back in Denver, 366 days after I left on Jan 6 last year. I was ready to be home.

Miss Lana met me at the baggage claim and she took the final official photo from the trip.

As we drove to Elizabeth, we missed the exit onto E-470 as we were chatting. I did not get a clear view of the mountains, mainly Longs Peak, which has always been my check in view when I return to Colorado after a trip. When I lived in Broomfield, Longs Peak was the mountain that told me that I was home. I may not feel totally back until I get a good view of my mountain.

Thanks to Kris and Lana’s efforts, the car was ready to go home with me. They did a marvelous job storing Amber for me. She was in a comfortable garage with the battery disconnected and they even had rodent control put around the building so that no little critters moved in while I was gone. She looked wonderful. After a year of only driving twice and on the other side of the road, I admit I was wondering how it would feel to drive again.

(I found out why the Brit’s drive on the left side of the road. According to AAA, during the times when people traveled on horse back, people chose the left side of the road as most people were right handed and were better able to draw their sword when attacked by highwaymen. Interesting!)

Lana had reloaded all the boxes that I had left in her care including my electronics and my valuables, so after a quick house tour and a hello to Reggie, we were ready to go. (Rocket was at the vet’s overnight with a mysterious illness). Amber started right up and my first test was to get down the very rutted driveway piled high with snow and out onto the main road. Amber and I did a fine job and soon, Lana was in front of me leading me out to the highway where I could make my way home.

I think I have finally learned to live in the moment as there are lots of things that I used to have right on the top of my head that are now either gone or in cold storage. I still know my way around Denver, but some of the road names are gone.

We had a short stop at Chick-Fil-A for a kid’s meal. Yummy, my first and probably last chicken nuggets for some time. They tasted yummy. As I drove towards Lakewood and Karen’s to pick up my keys and mail, it was fun and amazing to see what still looked identical to when I was in the state a year ago. I am sure that over the next few months, I will be struck by how much has changed and how much things have remained the same.

Karen was wonderful and welcoming as where her two older dogs, Mercy and Grace, and her new-as-of-6-weeks-ago, Hope. Elsie, her sweet kitty with the striped tail, was very interested in all the smells that I emitted and her old guy Cade, was asleep on the couch. Geriatrics are allowed to sleep as much as they want. Karen has been my anchor and was a Godsend. She handled all my mail, mailing my regular bills and paying things as they came along. She accepted all my boxes that I mailed home, stored some of my personal items (Dad’s wood carvings and my photo albums) and worked with Shane on all matters financial. She mailed me my ballot for voting and was a key member of the cat wrangling team. She was also instrumental in helping Tamera with the management of my town home and facilitating the tenant’s logistics. My year would have not gone as smoothly without the friendship and marvelous support from Karen. Karen sent me out the door with my keys, two milk crates of files that I had left in her care, two plastic boxes with misc supplies and checks, and two accordion folders with all my mail from last year.

Driving to my house, I was very present to how blessed my life is in so many ways. A few things had changed between the short distance between Karen’s and 10879 W. Dartmouth, mainly a new bridge that had been out of service for months before I left. The old neighborhood looked the same, even to the number and type of Christmas lights at the entrance to the community. The house looks the same from the outside. I also remembered that I have new neighbors to my right to meet and old ones on my left to reconnect with and become reacquainted.

It was 6pm and the lights were on to welcome me home. Once inside, it looked the same but I noticed it seemed very quiet. After numerous trips to get all the mail, boxes and luggage in, I locked the door and began to explore my house.

The carpet had been newly cleaned and it generally looked the same. Some of the furniture was in a different location, which I decided to leave until later. I walked through every room to see where things were. I found a few lights that needed new bulbs and several items that need to be repaired, but nothing major. In the kitchen, the fridge was very clean, the oven and stove were very dirty and the dishwasher door would not latch closed. As I walked through, I found some things that seemed to be missing. I decided that I would make a complete inventory tomorrow and contact Tamera.

I had no phone service, so I would try to get to Qwest first thing on Monday and see where we are on getting it reconnected. I hoped Tamera had the reconnect order already in place.

I found that the tenants had put all of my supplies that I had left out for them, back in their original place. As I found a little bit of laundry soap, I stripped and washed the bedding and went through all my mail. With Karen’s wonderful organization and filing system, I managed to get through a year’s worth of mail within 1 hour. Karen is a wonder!!!

I unlocked the closets and peeked in and everything seemed okay. I did not want to get the step stool to open up the attic, so I left it locked. (NOT MY WISEST MOVE AS YOU WILL HEAR LATER!!)

By this time, it was 10pm and I had had a long day, having gotten up at 6pm EST. The cats would be home tomorrow and I was a little anxious but looking forward to seeing them.

Generally, I went to bed feeing a little out of sorts, not totally grounded, but ready to be home and get settled for a while. Everything looks brighter after a good nights sleep.

Wednesday, December 6

Breakfast 8am
Left 8:45 – Lauren in the arms of Memory of a Geisha until 3am was a little slow to arrive
Arrived at the clinic at 9:15

Worked with the mobiles early and we were joined by Andrei and Lauren. Within a few minutes in the room, Andrei had pulled Sylvia backwards which caused many tears from the bumped head. John and Sandy then came in and I went into the Toddler for 50 minutes. Lunch for the toddlers consisted of liver pieces, scrambled eggs from our breakfast followed by cream of wheat. We have noticed that the kids are a little hesitant with any new taste or texture. They seem to love the cooked liver that is great as most of these guys still have some anemia.

Our lunch was watery soup, not very tasty pasta, apple tort and bread. None of us ate very much of it so it went to the local dogs and the leftovers of soup and pasta to the kitchen for the kids.

We continued our pattern of the after lunch walks and during this lunch, we found a small store for Lauren to buy a hat.

Afternoon was the non-mobiles with a special visit from Alessandra, the brittle bone baby who has the loveliest smile.

After work we went into town to find the train schedule (looks like a 7am train for Bernice and I on Saturday the 23rd which will get me in by noon). That should give me plenty of time to get to the airport for my 3pm flight. We also tried to find an internet café as our server is still down at the hotel. We went to three different locations, including the local gambling establishment where Bernice approached two young boys who we suspected would know. No luck. We will ask Manuela when we see her next.

Penny market with Bernice for juice for our entire time, more diapers, diaper wipes and chicken for the kids.

Dinner at Alona restaurant again with Manuela and Stella a student at her HS and her father to discuss the Orthodox Church in Romania. We arrived and had to walk through a St. Nicholas Day party complete with dj and keyboards.

Manuela was going to meet us at 7pm and luckily she sent Helen (the English teacher at the HS) to tell us that the student and dad would not be available tonight. Helen stayed and ate an orange and assisted us with ordering. Lettuce is not in season in Romania so salads usually only have cucumbers, tomatoes and the other ingredients listed. Most of the ingredients are listed separately so it is almost impossible to come close to what the US calls a salad. I found one that I like that has eggs, ham, cukes, tomatoes, onions (not my favorite) and parm cheese on the top. After lots of back and forthing, we finally ordered.

The wines that we ordered came with the entire bottle that was unexpected but not too expensive. The red Lauren and Bernice shared was not well received, as it appeared to have turned or have been stored at the wrong temperature. The white ordered was wonderful and most of the table switched from red to white.

Manuela arrived after her last class and helped me finish by 4-cheese pizza (2 slices of each of the 4 cheeses – rather a fun way of eating 4 cheese pizza). We had not ordered dessert as we had the previous lunch so 3 of us ordered fruit salad. What we got this time was the confection with lots of whip cream, caramel sauce and fruit cocktail chunks. Not at all what I expected, and after a bite, I left the rest. Not my proudest moment of the trip. (I admitted I was tired, cranky and that all I wanted to do was go back to the hotel). I realized that we had ordered fresh fruit the previous meal and what we received was delightful. I now know to order fresh fruit.

We finally left and upon arrival from the dinner unloaded the bus and went up stairs in hopes of internet connection – no luck. May not be able to find it again until I get to London. Manuela said that she would take us somewhere tomorrow.

We did a little more searching in the journals for some of new favorite babies. Most of them were preemies and many from young parents.

Thursday, December 7

What a great day!

Still gloomy and cold when we woke for breakfast, we all benefited from a good nights sleep. Today we were making a special stop on the way to work to pick up treats hosted by John and Sandy for the adults in the wards. Lauren had purchased a Santa suit at the Penny Market that would also be making its debut. Our Romanian failed us again, but Lauren made our desired known in Italian and for a mere 25 RON (around $12), we walked away with 5 bags of little puff pastries.

We then picked up Manuela who was looking very exhausted. Her hours lately have been 7-9, an entire day with us and then classes between 5-8 pm. Plus we found out today that not only does she teach, but also she is the science curriculum lead for all of Barlad. Not to mention she has a family and young daughter and a life outside GV. What a woman!

Next we made an unexpected stop at an office supply store of sorts to see if we could find paper, crayons or other art supplies for the toddlers. We all went in but as the other ladies had it well in hand, I looked around and then left. The store had 4 counters, two that most definitely specializing in office and stationary and the others across the way had items from batteries and clocks, through hair supplies, toys, cosmetics, laundry soaps and ended up with nylons and bras in the final case. Sort of a modified Office Depot/Ultra/Victoria Secret all under one roof!

We were late arriving and also carried dog food purchased by Lauren and last night’s pizza remnants for the dogs. Lauren has become very popular. The dogs were appreciative as you can imagine.

The toddlers were all waiting for us as we were later than usual and John and Sandy jumped in with the art supplies. Lauren and I started collecting babies, changing diapers and putting them in their exercise rooms. I am again with the mobiles that are quickly becoming my favorites. I began with Mirella, our lady in purple, who has been rather needy lately and wanting lots of attention. A little whingey during diaper change, she was happy to be picked up.

Next was Mihaela, who also not pleased with diapers, began her day with two balls in her hands. Next was Sylvia, who is always pleased to see anybody and smiles and gurgles. Finally, my little frog, Marian entirely in green as if you could not guess. All of this took over 30 minutes besides getting all the toys lined up and the equipment in the room. I met John in the hall and he said that unhappiness reigned as they closed up the art class and that the toddlers were wild today. OH GOODIE!

I went in with the group and everything was fine until Mihaela melted down, threw down the two plastic beads she had been playing with and had a glorious tantrum complete with circles on the floor on her back, arching upwards and grimaces of absolute rage. Peace returned after a short cuddle and setting her in the bouncy swing. In her rage she had clunked Marian in the head and also Mirella, so I had two others who needed hugs and cuddles that continued until I left the room. Little Marian needed lots of attention and his head would whirl around nearly at 360 to find me if I was out of his sight. Mirella was also needy and finally I had both of them in my lap, Mihaela in the bouncy and Sylvia bumping her back against the wall. As I left them down to get her, both dissolved into tears. SIGH!

Sandy came in to relieve me so that I could go and relieve John in Toddlers. More melt downs by Marian as I left.

I entered the room to see John telling Florin he had to stay in the room that caused Florin to lift a chair over his head to throw it. I took it from him and turn him to face me to tell him that was dangerous and that he could choose another way to seek attention. Not happy with being disciplined, he took his anger out on the tv. At least it wasn’t someone else’s head. Lots of tears and tantrums as I would put one down to get to another and two didn’t seem to fit in the lap without positioning and pushing. Toddlers are exhausting to me and without Romanian, hard to negotiate with.

Finally it was time for treats. First was the gourmet cooked chopped liver and chicken breasts that Bernice had supplied. Nearly all ate the liver with relish, but the chicken breasts only got limited play. Followed quickly by the cream of wheat and yoghurt soup which lead to food fights with the spoon and upended bowls on the floor. The children were not spanked for the behavior just scolded and cleaned up. Next came the juice bottles, cut up oranges and little bits of cookies. By this time, half the herd had becoming disinterested and was removing their bibs, tracking through the gruel and racing up and down the hall without their socks. Naptime was just around the corner.

We had a good lunch of sandwiches, soup that had been pureed, bread and fruit. Both Lauren and I also supplied sweet treats for snack. By the time we were finished, it was sprinkling but Lauren and I still took our walk. Both Sandy and Bernice stayed back to feed the little twins who are hungry more often and needing lots of attention. They found that one of the babies had diarrhea and now bad diaper rash and they were very upset that the staff be notified to the seriousness of the condition. We are now in search of newborn pampers to try and rectify the situation as soon as possible.

I am in charge of daily supplies. Usually I bring one roll of toilet paper, one roll of paper towels, 4 cartons of juice and two packs of diaper wipes. We will add 2-3 packages of diapers, and two tubes plus one pot of AD diaper cream for tomorrow. We were told today that the kids may not have chocolate, but can have slightly sweet treats or pastries with jam or cheese in them. They also said that they only use 1-2 cartons of juice a day, so I will cut back on the number.

We were to have a short afternoon as we had to visit the adult wards with the treats supplied by Sandy and John before we left a 3:45. John was a hit in the Santa suit and the ladies were charming. The men were a little taken aback when John arrived, but took their share of the treats and smiled. I think the hospital director was happy that we had made the effort.

We left early, as we had to find the pharmacy for the diapers, then to the internet café for our correspondence and finally, meet with Stella for a trip to the Orthodox Monastery and her father, the Priest of the local Greek Orthodox Church. The pharmacy had plenty of diapers, so we all bought at least one pack. The internet café only had 3 machines available, but we all were connected within 5 minutes. All the other machines were loaded with teenagers playing games.

We picked up Stella and then had a 30-minute ride into the woods to the Monastery. It began to look like the woods from the Blair Witch Project and the longer it took, the more we were convinced that we would not make it home that night. The monastery is undergoing a major face-lift and they were laying cement even in the pitch dark. The monastery was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and was lovely and ornate on the inside. The chandelier was absolutely magnificent and the twin candle sticks with the double eagle amazing. Apparently, the double eagle has been used in Romania for the local kings for years. We learned about the legend of how the monastery was founded which included a local peasant and his donkey. Apparently, every evening the donkey would disappear at a certain tree. When the man cut it down, on the stump was a replica of Mary so on this site the monastery was founded.

Only 10 minutes away was the little village for the church. We got out of the bus and walked through a dark graveyard on the way to the church. Stella’s father is the priest and is a friendly rotund man similar to Friar Tuck. This church had two styles of paintings the Byzantine (more two dimensional) and the Catholic (three dimensional). This church was dedicated to St. George (of Dragon fame) and we saw the painting of him being drawn and quartered. The church had the steepest set of stairs leading up the pulpit on the wall I had ever seen. The congregation stands for upwards of 4 hours every Sunday at the services.

The priest showed us the books they use to pray with, the chalice and their special hosts that are actually bread and the special way that they cut them to represent Christ, Mary and all the angels and special people to pray for. After receiving a dried herb that will be used tomorrow to bless the holy water, being anointed with special oil from Greece and some wonderful white wine, we took our leave. It was a wonderful church complete with a painted picture of the current priest on the balcony looking at the sacristy.

Back on the bus, we were very late for dinner and our massages that had been arranged by Ionata for us. At dinner we were told that Bernice would receive a free massage because she was over charged for the last one. She went first, I was second and Lauren last. IT WAS WONDERFUL! I have never had my elbows massaged like that. I sit sleepy eyed to finish about today before I go off to sleep.

I am partially packed for our trip to Transylvania for the weekend. YAAH!

DREAM – moths ate all my business clothes. No problem in my mind and I was happy at the end of the dream.

Friday, December 8 – Last work day for John and Sandy

We have been taking our lunch daily from the hotel restaurant to the clinic in a plastic blue and red box. Today, there was a misunderstanding about our lunch. We were a little delayed in our departure and this would already be a short day for Lauren and I as we were to be picked up at 1:30.

I assisted Lauren by helping deliver non-mobiles to her room and then I played with the mobiles. We had a very quick lunch and then it was time to say goodbye to Sandy and John. It is nice to know that they are just up the road in Boulder once I get home.

At 1:30, Marius in a silver car arrived to whisk us away to Brasov. We left Banca in mist and I suspected that we would not have good visibility until we had climbed to the mountains. We had been told that we would have a driver and guide, but we found out that we would only have Marius. In addition, he had not done this tour is several years, so we were not surprised when he had to ask several times for directions to our hotel. At one point, we were at an intersection and the name of the town we needed had two signs, each pointing in the opposite direction.

The ??? hotel looked okay from the outside and inside it was clean, if a little outdated. The LP was not very complimentary, but then again, they didn’t highly praise any of the lodgings in Brasov. We were at the front of the building with lots of Christmas lights. We left the hotel to walk to dinner along a pedestrian street.

There was a central plaza with a huge lit tree and lots of character. Both Lauren and I ordered a salad and a stuffed cabbage with meat and rice. Both tasted great!

LP had spoken of a miraculous beauty cream that was supposed to take 20 years off you. The founder/creator had died at 90 and looked only 70, or so the story goes. As it was sold in all the pharmacies, we suspected that we would be able to find it. Of course, as with any good miracle cream, there was more than one to use. We made our selection, I with a night cream and hand cream and Lauren with two others plus a shampoo/conditioner. I did a sample test before bed with one side of my face with the new stuff and the other side with the old stuff. We will see how much younger we look tomorrow

Life in Romania

Daily, we pass horse drawn carts with young colts in tandem with their mothers learning to drive. The carts may have a huge load of cabbages, twigs, possibly several people and one day, there was a full-grown cow being pulled by the wagon. (My question – why can’t the cow be walked down the road like the horse?) While cars are everywhere, there will most like be a large percentage of the population that will never be able to afford a car.

Boots and babushkas – We are in the country and not close to one of the major cities. Many of the people live on small farms and grow their own crops – cabbage, cows, pigs, sheep, corn, etc. It is not uncommon to see a little lady in Wellington rubber boots and a scarf or babushka on her head.

Gray skies – winter is here for sure and we have had 95% gray skies and mist. We are in a low valley, probably with lots of streams and rivers. I have remarked that it reminds me of Anatevka from Fiddler.

Smoking – EVERYBODY SMOKES IN ROMANIA from what I can tell. My clothes smell and I don’t feel I will be able to totally loose the smell until I get to England.

Right side of the road – They drive on the right-hand side of the road like in the US. It sort or shocked me to find that I found being driven on the right hand side of the road rather foreign to me. I guess after 8 months in the other lane, it would seem strange.

90% Greek Orthodox - the main religion is Orthodox (and while they say Greek, other people say it is a blend of both Russian and Greek Orthodox)

2% of population Gypsies – This portion of the population is still looked down on by a lot of the Romanian people. Not as nomadic as they once were, in some areas, they have formed a settlement with houses.

Generally small in stature with strong noses, magnificent bushy eyebrows – the first thing that I noticed about the Romanians is that they have wonderfully strong noses and abundantly bushy eyebrows. Seriously, some of the men have eyebrows that could be groomed.

Dark hair/dark eyes – The babies have the most wonderful dark hair and eyes. While I have seen many hair and eye colors, the dark/dark combinations are the most prevalent and are wonderful.

Delicate drains – euphemism on how you do not put your toilet paper down the toilet. That is what the little lidded trashcan is for!

Language – As a former Roman province, they consider themselves Roman, hence Romania. The language has so many similarities to Italian that Lauren managed to be understood in over 90% of her interactions with the Romanian people. Some things were different, but the similarities far outweighed the differences.

Tuesday, November 28

It was lovely to sleep in a little later and arrive for a 9:30 breakfast. This day would end up being very light for us and we were going on an excursion to the village. The rain was a bit of a worry, but we caught the buses at 10:00 and after 4 trips, we had all arrived.

First we had a tour of house built somewhere between 1100 and 1500. It had been turned into a museum and was a tribute to the current owners grandparents who lived in the house. In the bottom level, all the animals were housed. Concealed in the horse manager, was hole about the size of a bowling ball where the valuables would be hidden.

PHOTO OF WALL SAFE

After the war years, when many families returned to the village, a fair number of them found considerable wealth had been hidden in the walls of some of there homes. Some villagers are still living off the proceeds from the finds. The next level had the grandparents’ bedroom complete with chamber pots and tiny or at least very short, double beds. Before electric lights, it was all candles. Even when lights were installed, there was one light that straddled the wall and covered both the hallway and this bedroom.

Down the hall was the best bedroom where you only went for three reasons - your birth, your death or if you were sick. Next to the room was the larder. Up the stairs to the next level, we found the kitchen, an insulated room that acted as a fridge, the outside porch where bathing happened and the butcher room where the pigs were slaughtered (Yes! Two stories up the pigs were butchered). Up the last set of steps to the attic area that housed the workshop and the oven for baking bread and food storage. Fascinating and especially poignant as the grandson of the house was leading the tour.

Next a little time for shopping before we met in the square for lunch. A funeral procession was coming through the square and based on the mourners, we could tell it was for an elderly man.
I found a few little things that caught my eye including the Christmas specialty of Turron, nougat only made in Nov and Dec.

Back in the square and then down the lane to the bodega (wine shop). If you didn’t know where you were going, you would pass most of the locations as they blend so completely into the row of houses/shops. We were treated to wonderful red wine, bread, salami and hams and a fabulous hard cheese. During this stop, we all participated in pouring red wine down our own throats from the wine skin. The aim is to get a thin stream of wine into your mouth, they pull the bag further and further away and count how long you can drink. Early people achieved 8-12 seconds and Pam was the first person and Anglo who broke 20 seconds. The first Spaniard with a high number was Miguel with 25. I accomplished a 7 second drink. The outstanding winner was Bernardo with 52 seconds. Most of us were just a little light headed as we went back to the square for lunch.

Lunch was paella, which I avoided as it may have been the culprit for my runny tummy earlier this week. I ate the bread and dessert that was a lovely ice cream confection. I exchanged interesting book names with Ros from England, Jesus L. and Shannon. We had a fantastic discussion about knowing when you have met the “one”. Two of the four of us have found them. Shannon and I are still looking.

As we had worked and partied so hard the day before, we were treated to an extended siesta time between 3-6

6 – Pedro – Phone session – We worked through 2 scenarios in 20 minutes - Wake up and Throw in the towel
7 – Jesus F. – Pass Out and Scratch the Surface – We had a fascinating discussion about his police work and suicides.

Both these men had wonderful English and great comprehension. It made the time just fly by.

8 – Entertainment – Groups 2 and 3
Group 2 – Fortuneteller –Dani as the fortuneteller with balloon breasts and mysterious ways was the hit. This group tied together many of the facets of PI including taking a toy boy home from Spain, the psychological damage done by too many one-on-one sessions and the birth 9 months after the fact of a very large baby girl named Phil.

Group 3 – What men and women say and what that really means – 4 cross-dressed couples described what the sexes say and what they really means. You can imagine.

As there was time to spare before dinner, Shannon entertained the group with the guitar. A talented guitarist, he played a wonderful melody by a Spanish composer and then a blue composition from a personal friend. Finally, we tried a sing-a-long to a Beatles song, Shake it up Baby. We all started fine, but after the first verse, it was determined that the lyrics off the web were incomplete so we died out.

Dinner – James, Pedro, Jesus L. – We discussed many the wonders of Australia as both Jesus and I had both visited recently been down under. Slight disconnect with James regarding my perception of the inconsistent wildlife laws between the various states in Australia. Once again, my opinions seemed not to be based in fact, but that didn’t stop me from airing my views. I was encouraged to review the US laws that cross state lines before I begin to comment on other countries perceived inadequacies. Thank you! Point well taken.

Tonight is the beginning of the Secret Friend campaign. I am the secret friend of Tracy, who is James’ wife and in my presentation group. We have been encouraged to do nice things for our secret friend from now until Thursday evening. We are encouraged to not spend more than the price of beer. My brain is whirling to see what might be nice for Tracy.

During dinner the other night, Tracy and I sketched out the outline for our performance tomorrow night, a game show based on Jeopardy with all the questions using idioms. Jez had said that if I type it out, we could make copies. I spent some time working on the order of go, stage directions and who would say what. We will have a moderator, tv host, Vanna White, three Spanish contestants and one over enthusiastic stage mother (me). Went to bed late, but had the script done for the group to review tomorrow. We had heard that one of our Spaniards, Jesus F., might be leaving tomorrow, so we may be one short. We will see tomorrow.

Wednesday, November 29

9 – breakfast – received a lovely glass of orange juice with little orange sections decorating the plate. My first gift from my secret friend. It is going to be a great day. Christine caught me and said that Pedro’s secret friend had requested that most of the women go up and give him a kiss on both cheeks from his secret friend. He received all the kisses with appreciation and calmness.

Also during breakfast, I printed off the script that I had developed the night before. After circulation to the group, they decided that they liked the concept and that we might make minor changes during our rehearsal. We were definitively going to loose Jesus F. from our group, so we enlisted the assistance of Rafael or Rafa, who is a true card for our third contestant. He will be a welcome addition to the group. As we will not have him at rehearsal, we will try and have lunch with him later today.

10 – Juan Jo – Catch on, Twist my Arm
11 – Phone session with Jose – Check out, Drag your feet. Our phone session went fine, I was making reservations at his pretend hotel. As we discussed the phrasal verb and idiom, I could tell we were not connecting. As we walked back to the meeting room, I did a pantomime of drag your feet, which I think, finally led to comprehension.
12 – Walked to town with Paloma for our session – clear up, a hard nut to crack – This was my first walk to town, the weather was fine and it was good to move. We discussed her three kids.
1 – Free time – Post cards and delivery of my note to my secret friend.

Lunch was good as usual with more little squeals of delight or clapping as another gift was delivered. As you looked around, you would see people disappear around the corner together whispering frantically. I had been requested to make some deliveries of drinks or notes to different people. Just as dessert was being served, a delegation arrived at my table and all the Spanish men at my table stood up. Suddenly, I was being serenaded by 4, then 6, then 12 of the Spanish men, as men from all the other tables leapt up and made a semi circle around me. It was absolutely charming and luckily, I have a little bit of it on video. The song was Cabrellitos. The basic gist of the song is - I bring to you flowers, flowers of my heart. If I don’t bring you flowers, it is not that I don’t love you, it is because they are not available. (Apparently this is a popular song to sing while you are at University and go to various dorms and serenade the young ladies). I felt truly touched. I have a suspicion of who my secret friend is, but I won’t know the real name until tomorrow. Based on the song, I suspect it is a Spaniard. Time will tell.

At 3:30 the vast majority of our group went into town, mostly to shop for our secret friends, but also to enjoy the fabulous weather and to see the village in sun. I walked with Roy, James and Tracy the back way into the town avoiding the highway. It was charming with country lanes, cats, moss covered rock walls and alleyways and beautiful colors as most of the leaves are still on the trees. One surprising sight was Chinquapin Chestnut trees, just like we had in our yard in Virginia. How well I remember the spiny seed coats that resemble brown sea urchins with nasty spines. My job in Jr. and Sr. High was to collect the green or brown seed pods amidst the fall leaves so that Dad could rake or mow the leaves. Never my favorite job, but seeing them brought back many happy memories of VA.

Roy and I wandered around the village and he showed me many back roads that I had not explored. I picked up some throat lozenges because more and more of our group is succumbing to the cold and I know that someone will need them before we leave. On the way back, I saw more cats and a lovely black Iberico sow that was very cute and posed for a picture. We arrived back just minutes before we were needed at the group activity.

5 - group activity – Write an alternative ending to the Hockey Sweater using random words that the group had developed. Each member of the group was supposed to contribute at least one sentence to the ending, which had to be 10 sentences long. Our verb- piss off, our adjective – cute, our noun - leopard (that I supplied to the selection of words). Our revision of the story went as follows - Our young boy after telling the curate in the story to piss off was sent to a reform school in Brazil where he was trained as a leopard handler. He took a nasty bite in the rear and was nursed by a cute Brazilian girl who later became his assistant. They became world famous and he always performed wearing his favorite Hockey Sweater.

6 – 8 – Group 4 rehearsal for our performance. We had a fun time getting our play staged and collecting all of our props. The three contestants were very excited to don their partial costumes, Cuti with a camo hat, Gerardo with a Mexican hat, apron, maracas and wig and our final contestant, Rafa as our Japanese entry, complete with camera and Japanese/Spanish accent. After 45 minutes we were very ready and relaxed.

8 Entertainments – Groups 4 and 5

As we had had the performance room to rehearse and prepare and the other group had only the last 30 minutes to rehearse in the room. As they were last in the room, they were the first to perform. They were also doing a game show, but they had chosen the dating game. Very cute and amusing, they incorporated many of the inside jokes including the typical Spanish pronunciation mistake for breakfast, (Breast – f**k) and the now expected and requisite Spanish man-dressed-as-a-woman (Nando) with huge balloon breasts and outrageous purple long wig.

Our presentation went very well, but the longer the play went, the more actor improvements showed up during the show. Two of our performers got more and more exaggerated in their movements and expressions, and our 10-minute show was closer to 20. Well received, we trooped back down stairs for dinner.

More secret friend gifts appeared during dinner including sponsored massages by James (who is a sports massage therapist), beautiful serenades by Shannon, huge wrapped gifts including small bottles of champagne and pate and the best the PEDRO poster with every letter followed by a superlative about Pedro. I have a feeling that the Anglos are spending the money and the Spanish are being ultra creative. All will be revealed tomorrow night so we only have another 24 hours until we know whom to thank.

Thursday, November 30

10 – Jesus L. Walked to town for shopping – Run into, Under the Weather – Health administrator - Lovely man
11 – Omar – Lawyer - Sign up for, Weather the storm – a fan of the US, we had a political discussion on the US’s role in the world.
12 – Free time
1 – Miguel – Turn around, Once in a blue moon – Took the back way into town and found a little old man, who told us he used to be a bullfighter and gave us wormy apples

During lunch today, we had several people leaving, one of them was Pedro, who turned out to be my secret friend. I knew my friend was a Spanish man! After lunch I walked back down the lane between the pastures to take pictures of the waterfall that I had visited with Jose Santos.

5 - group activity – Read the last of the revised Hockey Sweater stories. Then Christine had all the Anglos do musical chairs. During the game if you had not found a chair, you were either given a tongue twisters or a difficult word to spell. If you got them right, you could take someone else’s chair and continue in the game. Christine’s point is that even Anglos have difficulty with pronunciation and spelling. I managed a complicated tongue twister but went down my misspelling Samurai. (I forgot the second a)

6 – Conference call Magali, Raquel and Rafael – Radio interview PI/Sex Education/Lonely Hearts club – This was a scream! Magali was the Master of Ceremonies of PI, Raquel a Spanish participant who wanted to find a nice Spanish husband, and Rafa was from the US (Oklahoma where he had lots of cows). I was the radio interviewer on a live talk show and soon we took a turn from our assigned mission. During my interview it was determined that PI in addition to a language school, also a sex education center and lonely hearts club for people seeking a mate. Rafa was hysterical with his love for his cows and complained that PI didn’t have many cows, Raquel looking for a Spanish husband was encouraged by one of the three callers to the radio show to widen her search and consider other men. Magali kept giggling into the phone, but it ended up that Magali would be changing the housing arrangement so that Rafa and Raquel could be in the same house and both of them promised to keep me posted on the progress of their budding relationship. It was very good fun!

7 – One on One – Rafael, but we also added Hazel and Magali for a 4-way conversation.

At this point in the week, some people were repeating who they had one-on-one’s with as we had lost several Spaniards. There was some thing going on for the Guardia Civil and several of them had to leave before the week was over, including Jesus F. I never had a one-on-one with Raquel, Bernardo or Magali, so I tried to sit next to them at one of the final meals to get a chance to talk to them.

8 - Entertainment – Groups 6 and 7 and the entire group of Anglos singing leaving On a Jet Plane. We had been warned that there are usually many tears on the last day of the program and this had some of us a little misty already during the song.

We were bused into La Aberca for our final dinner in town. We were in a lovely room and after dinner, all the Spaniards sang a wonderful good-bye song during which Lourdes danced.

Best Smile – Cuti
Best Laugh – Trudi
Best Dancer – Lourdes
Best Actress – Paloma, I was awarded a 2nd place tie with Nanda (Fernando in his cross-dressing role)
Best Actor – Nando and Dani
Best Improv - #2 – Fortune Teller
Most entertaining Anglo – James
Most entertaining Spaniard – Omar
Most Improved English – Jose Santos

They had opened the town disco for us and we arrived at Midnight. There were several ladies dancing as a group. (I have noticed as I travel around the world that in many countries people dance in groups, without specific partners. I have also noticed that a lot of the world whistle or sing their way through the day. Does that happen in the US?) I was pooped so I was on the first bus back to the lodging and we left the Disco just before 1 am. I was in bed by 1:30 am.

Friday, December 1

We lost a lot of Spaniards this morning during breakfast so our ranks were dwindling. Lots of hugs and goodbyes.

10 – Group Photo and course evaluations
11 – One-on-one with Fermin
12 – Graduation ceremony – we all received certificates.
1 – Lunch – Jose Santos, Sally, Magali

PHOTO _ GROUP

Can you find me?

We loaded on the bus by 2:30 and the ride turned out to be very hot with most of us napping. I spent some time chatting with Shannon and Phil and then after our stop, with Jose Santos. His English has improved exponentially since our first bus ride and he very much deserved his award last night. As we were getting close to Madrid, I looked at him at one point and said that I time was almost over. He said but it is only almost. What a lovely energy he has.

Our party arrived at 7pm in Madrid and many taxis refused our group, probably due to the amount of luggage. Shannon and I shared a cab. Shannon and girl friend will be in Philly in Jan. Hopefully we will be able to meet up at Annie’s

Info from Spain

Spain drives on the right hand side of the road.

The right hand ring finger is the wedding ring hand except for Catalan where it is the left hand.

Common English pronunciation mistake by Spaniards – beaches and b**ches, also sheet and sh*t.

i.e. Da b**ches en Spain r berry berry nize.

What I learned at Pueblo Ingles

What a wonderful experience! It was fabulous to be around such diverse and interesting people. These people were working hard to be better at something and everyone was interested and anxious to help them, while having a good time of course. It was fun to be back in a larger community, and yet have the opportunity to remove myself when I needed.

I had a few surprises during this placement both physically and mentally. Getting sick could have been just a build up from 5 months straight of work with limited breaks, but it was also a signal to me that I might not be seeing things clearly. I have had the beginnings of feelings of inadequacy and nervousness about not knowing exactly what I will be doing when I get home. When I have a moment, I try and look ahead and envision what I want. Nothing is coming right now, which tells me my mind is not quiet and ready to accept input from the universe.

I had several disconnects with people over the last few weeks not only in communication but also in the flow of the trip. In my tired state, they seem bigger than they probably are, but again a signal to me that I am not creating positive experiences for myself.

I leave Spain feeling that I am very much the same person that I was when I left the US 11 months ago. Currently I can list many of the things within myself that I had hoped would grow and mature, but what I see are the judgments and smallness that still remains. I don’t feel I am being down on myself, but I am looking at what is currently in front of me. It is my choice how to view it, and when I don’t select the highest level of self-love, then I get what I create.

Just another example of wherever you go, there you are!

Thank you Spain and Pueblo Ingles. I had a marvelous time and I will be back again!