Romanian Chels

The rest... of the beginning...

Finally! We drove up the hill to Herghelia and I was very curious about how my home was going to be for the next 11 months. Being so exhausted all I wanted was to know which room I had and which bed I could crash in. Dropped my stuff on my bed and then joined one of the guys to eat. I think that we had some noodles salad and bread. We prayed standing up and I am not use to that, but that is very European and most everyone here does before they eat. I asked if there was butter… ok, wrong question to ask when the food that I will be eating for almost a year is going to be Vegan. My mind wasn’t thinking. Yeah I know it’s crazy! I mean I could be a vegetarian easily if I had to be but vegan… now that’s a whole new level of eating…


So I went to my room and found out that there was more than one bathroom for all of the girls to share. The girl I guess was just talking about in her room so I was very relieved. So instead of sharing with 13 girls I would be sharing with 3 which is hard enough. I unpacked and wasn’t sure what I would find since Melanie packed my stuff but I soon found out that I didn’t have the things that thought I did have but I survived. It would be great if I could of brought my room with me, but I guess being a missionary is using the little that you have and tuffing it out. I met Olesea, my only roommate that was there at the time and found out a little bit about her from the English that I could understand. And she told me that she had to go back home and she would be gone for a week. And my thought was sweet, I hope my other roommates don’t come for at least a couple days so I can have the room to myself, and my wish came true. I had the room to myself for a week and it was a great week I really needed that time to be alone and to just think. And man did I ever…

The second night everything really hit me and I just bawled like I have never bawled before. I missed home, Mom, Mel and everyone else soooo much. I really needed a hug from someone who loved me but I had to settle for the only stuffed animal I brought which is my soccer bear. And he did the best he could... lol


I think that everyone needs a good cry now and then to just unload anything and everything. I felt a lot better after and fell asleep quickly. The next couple of days did get a little better though. I started to get to know the girls in the other rooms and they opened up to me with love, hugs, and kisses and that’s really what I needed.

There is only one other girl (sylvia) that is here from North America and she is from California. I am happy that we got to share a little bit through the couple of e-mails that we sent before coming here. It was nice to finally see what she looked like and how she was. Having her here brings me a little bit of home. Even though she is American it’s the closet to home that there can be. Without her here it would be a lot more difficult than it already is. It’s nice to look at each other and laugh when hear something that is very foreign to us, which does happen a lot. There are 28 of us students in the program and most of them are from Romania. For non-Romanians there is us two North Americans, 1 African boy 3 guys from Bulgaria and a guy and a girl from Ukraine. I thought there would be a lot more people from all over Europe but I guess that only so many people find out about this school and it is mostly advertised in Romania.

So, my first week schedule was pretty relaxed bc they knew that I would be very tired since it is 9 hours ahead. And wow I have never been so tired in my life. I slept as much as I could but I could only sleep so much bc people are always everywhere talking and making some noise and since the kitchen is right below my room I hear the blender or pots banging, it really sucks! I love my sleep so much ! They said that it takes about a week to get use to the time difference but for me I wasn’t feeling normal till the third week. The first 2-3 weeks we had different speakers come from the States and tell us about their mission schools and/or experiences but I couldn’t stay awake so I don’t know what all they did talk about… what, I was tired!
After the speakers left we started a normal schedule , and boy it’s such a long, packed day. It’s 5:00am (that when they like us to get up but only few people do to study) until 9:30pm, yeah it’s insane! But if any of you know me you know that I love my sleep and of course I don’t get up at 5:00am, it’s so dark and the stars are still shinning! I usually get up at 6:30am and that is hard enough for me. So a typical day for me is: 6:30 wake up, Breakfast 7-8pm, Bible class 8-9, Romanian class 9-10, health study 10-11, work 11-1, lunch 1-2, more work 2-4, bible study 4:30-5:30, massage class 5:30-6:30, Supper 6:30-7, free/study time 7-9, and 9:30 lights out go to bed. It’s so weird bc I have never in my life gone to bed so early but since we start our days so early and they are so busy by 7pm I already want to crash, and even sometimes by lunch I wish I could be done for the day.

I really can’t believe that I have been here for almost 2 months, it has seemed like so much longer and so much has happened. More info and adventures coming soon.

I miss and love you all.

posted by Chelsita @ 7:16 a.m.