In Romania

As I type this in the internet cafe in Brasov (it has a cedilla style thing under the s so you say it brashov) Hannah is next to me typing an epistle to everyone she has ever met and Zoezoe is opposite me behind the computor. We went to a church this morning where they provided headphones for an english translation- very handy as my romanian is not all that good.

Today's lesson:
I am-sunt
You are- esti
He/she is- este
We are- suntem
You (pl) are- sunteti
They are- sunt

Hannah and Zoe are both very brown and possibly very tired as they have been doing lots of exciting things and claim to have been nearly mauled to death by dogs yesterday, the phrase 'mad dogs and english (ladies) go out in the midday sun' has just popped into my head. (claim! It's actually true - it was very close - I had to do a lot of reasoning in Romanian with the owner of the SIX BEASTS to avoid being mincemeat!) the number of dogs involved in this story increases with every retelling.

We caught a crazy minibus from the village into town this morning, my favorite part of it was the HUGE smash in the front windscreen with cracks covering half of the window. I think I'd prefer to travel in the back of the horsedrawn carts only the potholes and drivng skills shown by the car drivers puts me off somewhat. Everybody is very friendly and patient with me and my general stupidity.(frannie's not done anything too stupid yet - though i'll keep you posted! She is wearing a very cool skirt though that i am trying not to covet!!Hannah) 'tis my one from the fair trade shop in Cardiff, I will lend it to Hannah so she can wear it as well.

I passed the year, as did both Hannah and Zoezoe so we are now grown up nearly 4th years, watch out if you need to visit a welsh hospital as a patient anytime soon.

Stand-by for further updates as the week progresses and we have more inspiration.

Fran (and Hannah a bit)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lazyness is next to godliness?

Once again I find myself in the position of doing practically nothing for most of the hours in the day. Today started at about 11 o'clock, got to work for 1, and spend the afternoon at work (the whole 5 hours that I work a day) doing so little I can't believe they're actually paying me to do it.

I'm not sure if this is a blessing from God, or whether I should be weary of some punishment about to befall me?

Vix

What is Hannah wearing?

On many of my recent visits to Hannah's room during her absence, I have noticed a particular abundance of clothing. Strangely, it appears all the clothes she normally wears, including lived in jeans, pj's etc, are all remaining in her wardrope? It really does beg the question, 'has Hannah been wearing any clothes?'. I'm tempted to believe that right now there is a naked British girl, walking the streets of Romania, with only a pink flowery bag to provide any sense of decency.

Disturbing to say the least; I'm just glad that camera isn't working.

Vix

Exciting Purchase of the week

Forgot to inform the world in previous post...
Whilst holidaying on the beach in Romania i bought a bright pink flowery bag thing!
It is obviously Beautiful and doesn't at all clash with any of my many pink flowery tops!
All quite bizare....;since when did i become a girly girl who wore pink??!!! ARGH!!!!!
All i can say is its a shame that no computer in Romania has the ability to upload photos from my camera so i can't show you the bag in its full glory!!

Actually have worked!

Bizarrely managed to get a job, and did work 4 days this week. Crazy! Also will be working all next week, although trickily doubled booked for the majority of it. Not quite sure how that will all work out. I will endeavour to keep you all updated.

Am currently exhausted, due to excessive lack of sleep-age. The Heathfield Rd house turns into a sort of refugee camp over the summer months, during which the general homeless come to get rest, or more commonly, disturb ours. To be fair, lack of sleep mostly related to my own self absorbed stresses, not really blameable on any one else.

Anyway, time for a nap I feel.


Vix

Moving On...

Well beach was great! We are nicely tanned (the burnt bits are receding into quite a nice brown colour!)

We've spent all morning packing everything up...we are leaving our humble abode in Bucharest behind.

The next challenge is getting all out tonnes of baggage toBrasov via metrou, bus and minibus!!
Oh the joys

Love you all
Hannah
xxx

Job, more information

As I sit and write (type) this Vix should be on her way home from work as she got work at lunchtime.

I'm getting a new car tomorrow (Wed) which is really exciting as mine keeps leaking water from the radiator. Also, I've just tidied my bit of the room and found things that disappeared months ago...cufflink things for example, missing since Sept. To complete the list of good things, I handed in my essay last week and I'm going to Romania next week.

However, every silver lining must have a cloud, the washing line broke earlier dumping all the bedsheets in the flower border and most of the people who drive down this street could do with improving their clutch control, especially when reversing early in the morning.

Sweating like a ... (fill in with your own simile)

Fran
xx

Job

The general job/lack of saga continues. Thought I had a job for four of the five days this week, however, on turning up this morning I realised it is actually for next week. Nightmare.

Life continues eventless and moneyless.

Vix

Accents

At church yesterday someone told me that they were suprised I was English, as I have an American accent!!!?!?!
This is not the first time I've been told this since I've been in Romania this summer, however, this time was made worse by the fact that it was an English man who said it!!!!

I do NOT have an American accent!!! GRRRRR!!!

Eight Project Free days....

Well, feels like a long time since i updated this (i really do seem to be the only heathfield girl with anything happening at the moment) - various internet disasters have prevented my blogging activity for a while! (so this means this is going to be an essay!!!)

Summary of how zoezoe and the Hannah lady have been spending there project free time:

Day 1 Sat: We found an exciting little park that we'd not been to before and ate lunch there. Then we watched the wimbledon women's tennis final with some english guys that we met via a friend. Then said english guys took us for our first KFC experience - apparently EVERYONE has eaten KFC (is this true??) (there i've mentioned it now guys - it really did happen!!!)

Day 2 Sun: We went to the international church where the english guys have been working for the past 8months. It was great to worship in english and hear a sermon in English, and not have to concentrate so hard on understanding the words, thus being able to concentrate on the meaning and application more. Oh we also ate Romanian food in a Romanian Restaurant with the English guys. The restaurant was quite exciting - the roof opened and closed and there were chickens and ducks in cages everywhere!

Day 3 Mon: Mountain Adventure 2 - Uphill, Busteni - Babele
Zoezoe and I decided it was about time we went up the mountain the traditional way (rather than our previous cable car cheat!) So we scaled 15m wide mini-glacier type things, edged our way slowly along the tiny mountain ridges and bravely stepped off the edge of a thin snow overhang onto the rock below! Most embarrassing moment was being caught mid-change between trousers and shorts by the only man we'd seen all day! (yes i was dancing on the mountain side in my pants! Oops!!)

Day 4 Tues: Babele - Omu - Bran and onto Brasov
Was rather suprised to wake up and find my legs to be pain free...the night before they had been in agony! So off we set across the mountain top to reach the peak, Omu 2507m. We arrived much faster than expected and after a quick lunch decided to set off on the 6hr trek down the mountain to Bran (the place of Dracula's castle). This seemed like a good idea at the time, we'd finish a day early and all that....2hrs in my legs began to shake and be in generally a lot of pain! The paths were really really steep and my knees weren't made for such trauma! With the help of two big sticks that zoezoe found, we eventually made it down the mountain - and even then we had a 2hr walk into Bran!!
In Bran, we ate a filling meal of good old meat and potatoes! Romanian cuisine is immense!!
We then got the bus to Brasov, where i'd cheekly phoned up the place i'd worked in my Gap Year and got us a bed there for the night!!

Day 5 Wed: Brasov
Spent the day hobbling around in Brasov, helped with day care at the house (its a charity that works with children and young adults with disabilities). It was great to see everyone again, they have a new lady organising the day care now, and she has such a heart and vision for the place, its so exciting to see!! In the evening we got a minibus back to Bucharest ( the driver kept telling me off for putting my feet on the seat...ooops!!)

Day 6 Thurs: Don't remember much from this day apart from Pain, my legs didn't really understand why i'd made them climb a mountain, and being annoyed at the internet not working!!

Day 7 Fri: The most typically english picnic you've ever had....
We met up with the English guys in the park, and found a bit of grass by the lake to sit and eat our picnic on. All was fun...lots of banter! (how i miss being mocked for my crazy ways!!)
Then rain began to fall...but being britis, we decided to stick it out and finish our game of cards!
Then we packed up and went off to play the most craziest and impossible crazy golf you've ever seen!! It was made even more crazy and entertaining by the torrential thunderstorm that decided to start as we all began the 4th hole!! Some holes were actually impossible to get the ball in the hole, others seemed to have no obstacles at all - so we had fun making human obstacles (all very well until certain people called zoezoe decided to whack the ball into my ankle!) We were all drenched by the time we reached the 5th hole and continued to hole 18 in grand form - i even put in a shock hole in one!! Crazy!!

Day 8 Sat: Shopping
Zoezoe made me go to a shopping mall!! (no joke - this was actually zoe's idea not mine!)
I bought my first clothing purchase of the 9weeks so far.
We also bought ice-cream.
Then i phoned up the internet place - and HURRAH!!! The internet works!!!!!


Planned for next week is a trip to the seaside! yay!!

Love you and miss you girlies
xxxx

The good, the bad and the ugly!!

The good
Projects are finished and submitted!! Praise the LORD!!!
We are now officially FREEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

The Bad
Its official - All hope is lost, the washing machine will never come. I gave in this morning and went back to the old handwashing technique!
(I have a picture of me in my washer woman outfit but the computer's being STUPID so won't let me load it up!)

The Ugly
Well this was going to be a beautiful picture of momma cockroach - the evil cockroach master who by her call, lured TEN cockroaches into our bathroom the other night - I killed them all but then had nightmares!

Also where are you guys? What are you doing? Are you still alive?

I miss you.

Love and Hugs to you all, with an extra special one for vix

Mwa xxx

Photos from Romanialand

Ok attempt to load up photos is underway..can't work out how to get the lay out how i want but you get the idea


This is the Danube...the land you see is Serbia!!
We passed this as we were on a long hot train journey back from Timisoara





Below left: Zoezoe and I in the rose garden
in Timisoara. Beautiful!

Adventure One (Photos to the right):

On top of the mountains in Busteni! Yes we did cheat...we took the cable car!

Summer

After a brief return to normal Cardiff weather- coinciding with the start of Wimbledon as is tradition- the halcyon days of summer continue uninterrupted.

Germany have just beaten Argentina in the quarter finals of the World Cup, much to mine and Lou's satisfaction and Andrew Murray is through to the 3rd round at Wimbledon. As can be seen from this we are spending much of our time in front of the TV.

I actually had to do some work yesterday as I lead a seminar but it was all over by lunch allowing me to carry on making my dress (now finished.)

Vix has started working 3 hours a day (just about, she finishes early most of the time) and Lou is back in the hospital of doom. Vix and I shocked her earlier by coming down to say hello to her LUNCHTIME visitor in our pyjamas... Rachel loved it!

I feel an explanation of the nightwear worn in this house will clarify why Lou was embarrassed, Victoria was sporting a very lovely bright green t-shirt saying "make trade fair" and some pink dotty pyjama bottoms. I, the picture of beauty and elegance, was wearing huge baggy surgical scrubs bottoms not quite tied up enough and a grey vest. Lovely!

On a trip to shot in the dark last night I discovered where many of the people we see in church socialise, I recognised a fair number of the people in there. Obviously as it's a coffee shop rather than a pub or bar it is ok to visit with friends, especially ones of the opposite sex.

Fran
xx

Adventuring and Doctoring

Well no one appears to have blogged for ages!! Obviously having way to much fun without me!

Weekend: Overnight train trip was very exciting - triple bunkbeds on the train!!
We had a lovely weekend in Timisoara - its an beautiful city with a fairy tale church right in the centre of town!

(Look!! I've managed a picture!! i'm in shock!!)


Then we went to stay with some contacts of zoezoe's who run a charity with street children in Arad (1hr from Timisoara). We went to meet the woman at the train station - she was surrounded by a mass of gypsy people (its probably very politically incorrect to call them that)! It was awesome! We later went and played with abandonned babies in hospital and went to a gypsy "village" (about nine houses) built around the above ground gas pipes. We went with the woman's daughter who is a medical student and was treating some of the gypsies who had cuts and burns. So i got to hold bandages and stuff which was exciting! But it was sad at the same time to see the conditions in which the families were living - never seen anything like it before in Romania.
We are thinking about going back up to Arad to do a bit more work with the charity there in one of our free weeks at the end.


Doctoring quote of the week:
Consultant "what are you doing?"
SHO(very proudly) "I'm talking to the english students about Eminescu" (Eminescu is a famous Romanian writer)
Consultant "Why aren't you working?"
SHO (very very suprised) 'Working!!??!!"

Hilarious the SHO seems to have an aversion to work - he never quite seems to know what he is meant to be doing or which patients are his! That's going to be me soon!! Haha - Hospitals beware!!!

Anyway our consultant guy is away for the next two weeks...so two weeks free to er...uh...Work on our projects of course!!!

We had a lecture this morning on Cystic Fibrosis from the world's number one CF consultant from Imperial College London, UK! It was truely informative and joyous! Zoezoe and I were proudly presented to him at the end, he asked us what our project was on and I was like "er well its just a project i don't know er...um... we're just writing a load of rubbish really" then we ran away!

Think thats about all for now.
I'll love you and leave you.
Hxx

To amend a lie.

To be fair, really haven't been leaving the house all that infrequently, as have been attending many many internationals events. Including hilarious pool party, and various sporting competitions which would have been more hilarious should I have attempted to take part.

And...today Mim and I had the pleasure of one of Frannies open days which was a lot of fun! It's always good to have a little look inside the place where a friend spends a lot of their time. Was cool.

Vix

Actually have job!

Crazy, crazyness. Since dispatching dentistry and no longer spending my days in the hospital of doom, have taken to leaving the house infrequently.

However, I now have a job! Albeit part time, and in telesales...Beware the general public!!!

Vix

The Longest Day

Yesterday was a long hard day in Romania-land.
We completed FIVE activities yesterday (its a new record)!!!!
Generally we don't like to set ourselves too many tasks in a day - lest we fail and then we feel sad. But as yesterday was the longest day of the year we thought we'd go for it!!

1. Hospital placment
Yes this counts as an activity...and in fact yesterday we were in for over 3hrs!! And did lots so thats a definite big activity point for us!!
2. Lunch in the park
This too counts - especially the getting to the park bit - which involved one very very squished bus journey. Everything here seems to take three times as long as it does in the UK!
3. Swimming with two girls from the christian union. That was a definite add to the list of Romania experiences activity! The grubby yellow slime round the water line and all over the bottom of the pool and the hilarity of trying to get a swimming cap on my head (and then having to be seen in public) all brought joy to the day!
4. Dinner at susan's house (though getting to her house could be counted as an activity in itself - it was quite and adventure!). Proper meal with meat in (my Iron levels are being filled up well out here - enough to survive another year in our house i reckon!!) and lots of fun company. Much hilarity playing PIT which involves lots of shouting and mean tactics!! Heeeheee I love it!!
5. Phone conversation with the non-stupid, very beautiful vix! With the added joy of further serenading from the fobbit! Yet again i endured the stares of Romania's watching a crazy english Hannah lady getting very excited during the conversation.

As a result the Hannah Lady is incredible tired today and will hopefully sleep well in her bed on the train tonight as she travels to the beautiful place of Timisoara with her companions zoezoe and whitters.

love you
xxx

Fatty Europian girls!

The girls of this house took one for the fatty white girls of the west this evening. Had many varieties of Chinese food with many tiny tiny asian Chinese/Taiwanese girls.

Must say Fran, Lou and Mim sitting opposite me took up about the same space as the eight chinese girls sitting next to me. Funny thing is Lou and Mim are particularly tiny varieties of Western girls. Work that one out.

Vix

Counting Sheep

How do you count sheep?

Random question I know but zoezoe and I made this bizarre discovery:

I count sheep by imagining them jumping over a gate one by one.
Zoezoe counts sheep by imagining a field of them and counting all the sheep in the field.

Weird...i just assumed that everyone counted sheep like me, but zoezoe's way makes more sense than my way.

Hmm....How do you people count sheep?

Other than the sheep discovery...we have been sweltering away here the last few day, but its the kind of heat thats too hot to sit out in...tricky!
We are thinking of going to an outdoor swimming pool sometime this week...but we need to do research and find out which one has the least number of naked people at it! Also tricky!

Love you
Hxxx

Apology for failure

A house apology goes out to the Fathers of the girls of this house for our general lack of appreciatiation. Apart from Mim who was inspired to run out and get a card for her Dad, to celebrate Fathers day, when he announced that he was to visit yesterday, no other Fathers of this house have yet recieved a card.

We do all love our Fathers very muchly, we know we're rubbish.

No more to be said!

Vix