5-30 Jim's "Revolting" Reveolution Tour

You'll see why the H2H staff nickname it the revolting tour by the end.

Breakfast was special this morning. Friday night they told us to be in the dining room half an hour before we usually were, or we'd miss out. The surprise was a H2H tradition: bomblets! Omelets made in freezer bags. You put the eggs, cheese, and other desired omelet ingredients into a freezer ziplocks, mix well (done by squishing, rather fun actually), and drop them in boiling water for 15 minutes. It's amazing, easiest omelet I've ever made, you should try it!

Once our bomblets had been consumed, we took advantage of having all of our group back together again and had rehearsal in the dining room. lol After lunch we headed out for Jim's tour. We started at the music hall in Bucharest, which is beautiful. Jim started off by telling us about Romania back 200 years ago. They were a strong nation economically thanks to agriculture and flourished artistically.

It was at this point that it started raining, which made things more exciting. But you can't have a trip to Europe without a little rain. We walked the couple blocks from the music hall to Revolution Square. On one side of the square is the old palace, which is now an art museum. Jim explained the events of the revolution to us.

After WWII the Russians took control of Romania. The people were miserable, forced to live in the enormous block houses and work 13-14 hour days. In the sixties Ceausescu, a Romanian with a 4th grade education, rose up and offered that he would lead Romania for the Russians. He promised that under his leadership the people would flourish again and prosper the Russians more than they were at the time. The Russians agreed and pulled out of Romania.

Work conditions did grow better for the Romanians. Ceausescu built thousands more block houses and set up a strict routine for his people. They would get up, go to work, come home, watch an hour or two of TV with their family, and then get to bed early. TV consisted mainly of Ceausescu giving a speech with the same 5 points every night.

Things changed for the Romanians though after Ceausescu spent some time in North Korea. He came back a different leader He began referring to them as "my dear children" and increased the length of their work days.

At the start of the revolution Ceausescu had been giving a speech about a week after a massacre of praying people in a town in the north. The square was so packed with people that there was hardly room to move. A group of people began shouting about the massacre, and because there were so many people, the secret police weren't able to reach them to silence them. The whole square became an uproar. Ceausescu and his wife were airlifted out and tanks came in, blocked all exits and opened fire. Mass chaos. The buildings in the square still have visible bullet holes in them. A couple of the buildings have been patched, making it look like scars.

The Ceausescus were caught and tried as enemies of the state and were executed Christmas Day 1989. That's within my lifetime. It's incredible to think these things happened while I was alive. It was a very disturbing day for me, I can't even begin to imagine what life that way would be like. I wonder now what things are going on in the world that we will only find out years from now. My mom said that they knew things were bad in Romania, but they didn't know any more than that.

It breaks my heart that there are things happening in the world, in Sudan, North Korea, Afghanistan, and so many other countries, to innocent people, that I won't hear about for another 10 years. By the time we hear about them, they'll be over, and it will be too late to help.

"Sometimes God breaks our hearts to show us a piece of his." Jen Schroeder

We spent a little time in Revolution Square and then drove past the People's Palace so the brass could see. Our final stop on the tour was the Church of the Patriarch. The Patriarch in the Eastern Orthodox Church is sort of like the Pope in the Catholic Church. Each country (I think, don't quote me on this part) has their own Patriarch. The Patriarch lives in a house behind the church. It was a gorgeous church, but it's sad how dark these old European churches feel.

At the conclusion of our tour, we broke off into several groups for some free time. My group went to the mall :D

The mall we went to happened to be the largest mall in Erope. Rnadom right? Who would have guessed that Europe's largest mall is in Romania? Not me! It wasn't set up too different from an American mall. The things that stood out were the very European styles in all of the store windows and the smoking. I hated the smoking. I don't know if I could ever live in Europe because of that.

We got to do a little souvenir shopping, which consisted of us crowding around one little kiosque. The rest of the time in the mall, I was in this Walmart like store called Cairfor or something like that. I bought a great deal of chocolate. Our shopping complete, we headed back to the team house for a bbq (done inside thanks to the rain) and hot seat.