Post Graduation Fun

The day I had been longing for for nearly two years finally arrived: graduation. Grad school was so ridiculously stressful and overwhelming at times that it seemed like it would never end, but id did. praise God for his mercy and grace! It was a nice ceremony, nothing too remarkable or memorable, but a nice ceremony. I think I may have been more impressed had I not experienced the wonderfulness of Biola graduations. The three things that were better about SDSU's graduation: 1) it was indoors, so we weren't all sweaty and sunburned by the end, 2) Tad was able to be there to celebrate with me, and 3) I got a master's degree and got "hooded" on stage. Valencia liked this one better because she got her name called as we walked across.

Following the ceremony my department held a reception in the lobby of our building to celebrate and for our families to meet the other students and the faculty. I met up with my entourage (Tad, my parents, Stephen, Raelene, and Tad's 'aunt' Judy) there and enjoyed some refreshments. It got pretty crowded pretty fast, but we stayed long enough to take a few pictures and for my mom to re-met Charlotte, who was already clinic director when Stephen received speech therapy there at age 4.

From the reception we (minus Raelene, who had to work) went to Casa Guadalajara's in Old Town for lunch. This was an easy restaurant choice because we were all ableto take the trolley and avoid traffic. Lunch was a good chance for my family and Judy to get to know each other a bit better and for my mom and me to share a grande strawberry margarita. ;) The one other thing that was better about this graduation than Biola's was that I didn't have to do a huge move home and say goodbye to my pup for 10 days.


The celebrations continued on Saturday with a trip to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (FKA Wild Animal Park). Some of the anesthesiologists in my dad's department help out the vets at the zoo. As a thank you, they periodically get the opportunity to go on the caravan excursions in the park enclosures. This year the department opened the opportunity up to the family members. And that's how all 6 of us (my family and Tad) found ourselves outside the park at 7:30 am on a Saturday.

I had been on the caravan tour once before when I was about 9 with Braille Institute and was thrilled to get to go again. The 60 some of us in the group divided into 4 different safari trucks and set out for our 2 hour excursion. We had a delightful guide named Amanda who I swear knew everything there is to know about animals that I forget exist if I don't go to the zoo for a while. We saw rhinos, gazelles, Asian sheep and deer, and several antelope whose mating cries sound like belches haha. I took tons of pictures, which can be viewed on facebook.

The interactive portions of our tour came in the feeding of a male rhino named Bo-Poo and a female giraffe (whose name we were not told). We fed Bo-Poo apple slices and the giraffe Australian acasia leaves. Both were interesting experiences; on one hand, having your hand in the mouth of a wild animal, on the other, having an animal's long tongue wrap around your hand. It was a lot of fun, minus the fact that Valencia couldn't come along for that part of the day. She stayed in a kennel near the entrance and was not very happy about it.


After our tour we enjoyed a nice catered lunch of sandwiches, salads, and cookies while listening to a presentation on special equipment for animal surgeries. We had the rest of the day free to enjoy the park. My family spent the next several hours enjoying a jungle carousel ride, watching the bird show, and visiting the gorillas, elephants, and tigers. My parents and brothers headed for home in the early afternoon, and Tad and I stayed for another hour or so. We were really glad we did when we got to see a cheetah cub up close. The day really made me think about how many wonderful things God has created on this earth :).

Tad and I tried to enjoy my "no more school" days to the fullest before I moved home and was a little farther away. Bright and early Monday morning we trolleyed from the condo to County Center to pick up our marriage license. It felt quite a bit like being at the DMV, except people were (generally) a lot less grouchy. License in hand, we trolleyed back to the condo. Tad joked for the next couple days that now I REALLY couldn't back out because he had spent $50 on it, lol.

The rest of Monday we worked on packing my things and cleaning. By the time we had eaten dinner we both needed to see something other than the inside of my half empty condo. Remembering the Coldstone gift card I was given for graduation, I declared it to be time for icecream. This was a good decision on my part because when we got to Coldstone, there was a sign out front that read "Happy Hour: Mon-Fri 5-7 pm. Buy one get one free.". It was 6:00. Yay for free icecream! I got cheesecake with Kit Kat and Tad got Peach Iced Tea (which was INCREDIBLE! I highly recommend it.) with heath bar. A very tasty way to spend an evening. :)

The next day (Tuesday) we had ourselves a bit of a day trip. We left in the afternoon for Long Beach and met Krista for dinner at Subway. Upon completing our meal, Tad said he was still hungry. So, we walked across the street to Taco Bell for caramel empenadas. Once our desserts were finished it was time to go to CSU Long Beach for Becky's graduate recital. I had the pleasant surprise of seeing Karissa and Vanessa there.

Becky's recital had originally been scheduled for Good Friday, but her teacher had advised her to reschedule because there were some things that needed repairing on her clarinets. This was disappointing at first, but turned out to be a huge blessing because Becky's parents were able to come. They flew in late Monday night from the Philippines and were quite jetlagged, but seemed very happy to be able to be there. It was nice for me to see them again too.

Becky looked and sounded beautiful. I was surprised at the end to realize that she had played a 90 minute recital. That's a lot of playing! The reception that followed was delightful as well. There were several kinds of cheeses, smoked salmon, cookies, a delightful fruit salad, and two very rich cakes (one white with berries, one chocolate), plus a variety of sodas.


The next two days were spent moving out of the condo. We were able to load up most of my furniture and things on Wednesday and come back Thursday for the rest of it. It was surprising to me that the move was bittersweet. It goes to show just how sentimental I am and what a difficult time I have with change. I was thrilled to be moving out and getting away from a certain roommate, yet I still felt weird about leaving the place I had lived for nearly two years. Other than home, that's the longest I've lived anywhere. One thing that's for sure, I am beyond excited to share my next home with Tad! =D

*A side note, I created this post on May 23, but did not finish it until about a week later. I didn't predict the future, just took my time blogging, hehe*

Biola Trip Fall 2010

Biola Visit Fall 2010
I was last at Biola in June when I celebrated mine and Becky's birthdays and went to the BYT Cats performance. It was high time to see my friends again!

Thanksto my schedule this semester, I was able to leave right away Friday morning. Tad dropped me off on his way to work at the Old Town trolley station. I caught the blue line to Santa Fe Depot where I purchased my ticket, and hopped on the train. The ride was uneventful. I sat across from an older couple who were on their way home from a cruise. I arrived in Santa Ana (the only station between SD and LA at which I had not been) and met Becky. We grabbed Krista at her place and got lunch at KFC. Quote of the day: Me "Becky, I thought you wore size 8 shoes." Kirsta "I wish I had 8 feet."

After lunch we went to a special shoe store for people with small feet to see if Krista could find some new dress sheos. Unfortunatley she didn't find any that worked. From there Krista went back to prepare for her birthday party, and Becky and I headed up to the Biola area. We had been planning on helping Krista get ready, but Becky's car needed to get taken in to the shop. She dropped me off at Biola and went to the auto repair place.

I arrived about 45 minutes before the Winds rehearsal ended, so first I got tickets for the Winds concert. I got cash from the ATM in teh SUB and decided to see if any of my Comm Dis profs were around. In McNally I ran into our secretary Marty, who was watching an ultimate frisbee game in which Dr. Corey was playing, and she informed me that Matt would have been around had he not had a family emergency that day.

I wrote a quick note tot he profs (which I left in the assignment drop box) and headed back across campus to the music building. I got back in time to hear a bit of the rehearsal and then surprise everybody. I hung out and chatted with people for a while and then Amanda suggested we get boba. She and I got to do some catching up about life and boyfriends, and Becky joined us once her car repairs were done.

Around 4:00 we bid farewell to Amanda, went back to Becky's place so she could change, picked up Jennifer from Hart, and picked up Justine from her house in Cypress. The 4 of us, though running late, managed to make it to Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney just in time to be seated. We were shortly by Raeleen, Emily, and Melissa. It was a fun dinner. Neither Krista nor I had ever been to Rainforest Cafe. Jennifer and I shared cocnut shrimp for dinner, and we all shared a bit of Krista's icecream sundae.

Becky, Melissa, and Raeleen had to leave to do other things from there, but the rest of us went back to Krista's house for games and goodies. Tia and Diana met us there. We played a game called "The Gam eof Things" which was really fun. There's a category like "Thing syou shouldn't do at the circus." Everyone write ssomething, and then you try to guess who said what. While playing we enjoyed mini caramel apples, frozen yogurt and nilla wafers sandwiches, jelly beans, and choclate. Yum!

We finished the game, and then it was time for cake! Funny story about the cake, the bakery had mispelled Krista's name, and gotten her age wrong. By the time we got back to her house it had been fixed though. It was delicious, Tollhouse chocolate chip with lots of purple frosting. Tia, Emily, and Diana said their goodbyes after cake, at which point the remaining 4 of us watched The Proposal. Overall a good movie, though some annoying assumptions about relationships.

Becky arrived close to the end of the movie to take Justine, Jen and me home. Becky and I got back to her place around 2:20 and crashed.

We were up bright and early Saturday (around 9:00) to go to the Vandoren Clarinet Festival at UCLA. Becky was performing in the afternoon with the LA Clarinet Choir. Another of the choir members had offered to drive both of us. At the festival we went to a couple seminars (one on the history of Buffet and Vandoren and one on being a studio clarinet player), did some shopping (I brought cigarette paper, which is for unsticking pads, and a piece by Ralph Vaughn Williams, a favorite composer of mine), and sat in on some performances. I really enjoyed getting to be nerdy and spend the day doing clarinety things with Becky.

Becky and I got back to her place with an hour before we needed to be at Biola for the Winds concert. We lounged around, eating rice krispee treats and discussing the menu for her graduate recital reception.

The Winds concert was great, as usual. The theme for the semester was "Traditional meets Contemporary". Each piece was matched with another, one old and one new, but with similar themes of motifs. Really cool idea. As per usual, we promptly drove over to the Fellers' for the after party. The food was the traditional Thanksgiving wraps and apple and pumpkin pie.

After two very full days and not enough sleep Friday night, Becky and I crashed at her place. The time change helped us get a little extra sleep, in addition to going to the 11:00 service at church. The funny thing, was we ended up 45 minutes late. Becky lost track of time while getting ready, so we headed out a little late anyway. Then I discovered I had forgotten my glasses (I had thought they were in my purse). We turned around for my glasses and went to get gas, since Becky's tank was on empty and we were late anyway. At the gas station Becky discovered she didn't have her wallet. Back to her place we went again. As we were returning for the wallet I realized I didn't have my phone. Upon acquiring both of these items, we went back to the gas station, and then to church.

Even funnier, after the service Krista found us, and told us she had only been there for 30 minutes. When she arrived at church, she thought she was on time, but was somehow an hour late. Still puzzling, we went to a pizza place called Gondola's for lunch and shared a BBQ chicken pizza and a canolie. The girls dorpped me off at the train station with just enough time to catch my train home.

Birthday Celebrations Part 2

In my family, birthday celebrations get spread out over about a month. For exmple, the week I was home after finals and went shopping at Kohl's with my mom, that was the official start to my birthday month. Likely some event or outing that happens in mid July, will also be counted for my birthday. It's kinda fun that way.

Anyway, since Tad works starting in the afternoons Thurs-Mon, he agreed to take me home Thurs afternoon. Before coming up to PQ though we cashed in some of my birthday coupons. We shared lunch at Joe's Crab Shack (they gave me a zebra print cowboy hat to wear, it was interesting) and shared an icecream from Baskin Robbin's.

Tad dropped me off and visited a little with my mom before heading off for work. About an hour later, my cousin Michelle and her sister Kim's little girls Jordan and Madison arrived. I helped the girls make melty bead designs, and then it was swim time. Swimming pools are so much more exciting with little kids in them. I watched Jordan do about half a dozen summersaults and then tossed diving rings for her. Kim and the girls' dad Doug arrived just in time for dinner.

I got up bright and early on Friday to go to the train station. My mom dropped me off a little earlier than I neede to be there, so I had plenty of time to sit and people watch. My ride was uneventful (as some train rides can be very eventful). I sat next to two older ladies who were both going to visit family in the San Bernadino area.

I arrived in Fullerton pretty much on schedule and Valencia spotted Becky immediately after deboarding the train. Lunch was a special treat, we went to The Olde Ship, a very cute English pub not far from the train station in Fullerton. I had heard of this place on multiple occasions while a student at Biola, but had never been. Becky had been one time, and thus thought it would be fun to go again. The large group of people at the bar watching the World Cup definitely added to the atmosphere, as did our sweetheart of an English lady waitress.

We took a bit of time deciding what to have, but eventually Becky settled on the Dungeness crab cakes and I decided on the chicken curry. The food was excellent, and we spent quite a bit of time chatting and catching up. Quote of the day "Is there a capital of the Yukon? Are there even cities in the Yukon?" "Maybe, if you count trading posts and railway crossraods as cities. The rest is well..." "Nothing and snow." "Exactly! I've seen Balto, I know what it's like up there!"

After lunch we went to Becky's (kind of) townhouse. Becky is going to be living there in the fall for her second year of grad school, but is saving money by living with family in Rancho Cucmonga for the summer. For these couple weekends while she was playing in the pit orchestra at Biola, her roommates agreed to let her stay over. (Rancho Cucamonga is a good hour from Biola). I dropped my stuff off in the townhouse living room, and then Becky suggested we go for a walk outside. It was certainly a gorgeous day for a walk. We walked around the landscaped areas of the townhouse complex (which I hadn't seen before), walked around the La Mirada Veteran's Park, and then walked around the block.

We spent about another hour upstairs in Becky's room talking and cooling off, and then watched a couple episodes of friends before dinner. For a second year in a row, we picked Red Robin for our birthday dinner. Krista, Dorothy, and Melissa (another roommate of Becky's and Dorothy's) joined us to celebrate. I had a coupon for a free burger, and since Becky and I had had a large, late lunch, we split a bbq burger as well as a mint brownie shake. yum! Red Robin is definitely one of my favorite restaurants. After having our free icecream Sundaes, Becky and Dorothy took off to get ready for call time.

I rode with Krista to campus and we sat and talked by the fountain until it was time for the show, Cats, put on by Biola Youth Theater. Cats is an interesting show, there is only a very loose plot line; most of the show is individual songs about different cats. I did not know this going in, and spent the first act waiting for the plot to start. The cast gave a great performance though, the singing was good, and the dancing was amazing. I do believe the dancing was my favorite part :)

Krista came back to Becky's to hang out for a bit after the show. Becky opened her birthday gift from me, and we did some more chatting =) Saturday morning both of us slept in. When we did get up, Becky made us oatmeal. I packed my stuff up after breakfast and went to lunch (i get hungry very shortly after breakfast, lol) at Wendy's with Dorothy and Krista. Krista drove me back to Fullerton where I just caught my train. Unfortunately, there was track work being done this weekend, so I had to get off the train in Irvine and take a bus back to San Diego. Quote of the day: Conductor "If you are going to San Diego, you need to get off the train in Irvine and board a motorcoach...motorcoach being amtrak's word for 'bus'" lol

The bus ride went fine, long because of traffic, but decent enough. My dad and Steve picked me up from the station, and the rest of my weekend was spent relaxing at home.

The Beautiful Things

Life is full of beautiful things, including (but not limited to) weddings, friends, music, and small blessings.

On April 24th, Tad and I attended Elizabeth and Matthew's beautiful wedding at the Grand Tradion Estate in Fallbrook. The grounds there are gorgeous, and the weather was perfect for an outdoor wedding. We ran into Christine's family right after we arrived, and sat with them during the ceremony. True to a fairytale wedding, Elizabeth and her father arrived in a horse-drawn carriage.

The reception was held in a big banquet room in one of the mansions on the property. Tad and I had Shirley Temples with our appetizers and took pictures around the grounds. For dinner, we were seated with some of Elizabeth's friends from school and a friend of Matthew's from work. We spent quite a bit of time chatting with Bobby and Emily, though anything Emily or I said to each other had to be interpreted through Tad or Bobby, as I barely know any ASL.

The food, music, decorations, and company were all lovely. After the cake cutting, Tad and I got a chance to talk to the bride and groom a bit, which happened to be the first time Elizabeth and Tad had met. We'll have to find a time to go out with them sometime. =)

One of my favorite parts of the evening was the chocolate fountain, yum! The best man, maid of honor, and fathers all gave beautiful toasts, and then it was dancing time. I actually got Tad to dance a song or two before he started feeling too full from dinner. hehe All in all, we had a wonderful time, and are both very happy for the wonderful couple :D

The following Saturday (May 1), Tad and I made the drive up to La Mirada. We met Becky and Krista for lunch at Cabo Taco (right next to the dollar theater). Tad and I shared enchiladas, and the four of us shared about 3 or 4 baskets of chips, lol. As always when the three of us (Becky, Krista, and I that is) are together, it was quite fun. We hung out in Becky's living room for a bit after lunch before making a much needed stop while int he Biola Area.

Berry Cool

Becky had a concert to get ready for, so just the three of us went. It was delightfully tasty as always! We had some time to spare before dinner, so we went to the SUB to feed Valencia and pick out a game to play. We played several rounds of scategories before heading to Hart to grab Charlotte for dinner.

The four of us enjoyed some good ole In N Out and met Ginger back on campus for the POPS! concert. It was strange for me being in the audience. I've been to everal Winds semester concerts in which I was not a performer, but never a POPS! concert. This year's theme was "The Four Companeros" and was about 4 Disney sidekicks on a journey together. It was enjoyable =)

I was fortunate enough to get to talk to many friends after the concert (Amanda, Justine, Karissa, Beth, to name a few). We were also fortunate that there was an icecream social to partake in :P

Speaking of icecream, one of the small pleasures in life that Tad and I recently experienced was $0.31 scoop night at Baskin Robbins. We went one evening after class and each got the max of 5 scoops, heh. I felt somewhat guilty afterwards, but the Gold Medal Ribbon, Watermelon Chip, and "Wild and Reckless" (a delicious blue raspberry sherbet) were well worth it.

Slightly more important than icecream (but only ever so slightly) a recent small blessing has been that Tad has work again. His first project ended just before Easter, and he then found out that he does not qualify for unemployment in California until July 1, which meant he had basically no income in April. The Lord is good and always provides though, and Tad got called in about a week ago for a "short term project". Fortunately this project has and will involve a lot of overtime, so Tad should be ok until at least July 1 now. Praise the Lord!

And praise the Lord that this semester is almost over! We have been well assured that it gets easier from here, and this is very welcome news =)

5-28 Open Air Market and Lessons at Peris

Morning devotionals on Thursday were out of another Max Lucado book (they are big fans of Max Lucado, I think I should get some of his books, I've never read very much of his stuff) "Grace for a Moment". It described all the things hands do, and how everything your hands do should be ministry.

Cultural experience for the day would be the largest open air market in Bucharest (possibly in all Romania, I don't remember). We were informed that this would be the most likely day we would get pickpocketed, were that to happenon the trip. Thankfully it did not. Since a group of 15 Americans would draw too much attention, and we would inevitably get separated anyway, we divided into smaller groups. I was with Amanda, Andrea, and Sanda (our translator and guide).

The market reminded me a lot of the ones I've been to in Mexico. Jim mentioned later that most open air markets are the same no matter what part of the world you're in. A difference I noticed between the Romanian one and Mexican ones really surprised me though. The Romanians don't barter over prices. I tried on a lot of cute skirts, but didn't buy any because most were way too small for me. It didn't matter much that there wasn't price negotiating because everything was so cheap. I bought 2 mugs and a wooden spoon for 10 lei (about $3.50 American).

After lunch at the team house, it was back to Peris for more lessons. The classrooms are a surprising contrast to the rest of the orphanage. The orphanages receive funding from two departments: child protective services, and the department of education. The department of education does a lot more for the children than the child protective services do. The classroom was small, but clean with desks and a chalkboard and several computers.

We taught the same lesson to two classes: 1st and 2nd grade and 5th and 6th grade. There's a pretty wide age range in the classes though. For our lesson we introduced the children to the clarinet and taught them about musical tempos. Katie Feher made up this amazingly cute story to teach the lesson through, kind of like Peter and the Wolf. It was about a little girl who met a bird (flute) a cat (clarinet) and a bear (saxophone) while walking through the forest. The animals taught her about music, and through what she learned she was able to wake up the queen who had been put under a sleeping enchantment.

I got to be the queen, though I didn't do much, because the little girl didn't yet know enough music to wake her. The kids gave lots of suggestions to try to wake me. The cutest one was to ask nicely, and the little boy came up and asked me very nicely (in Romanian) to wake up. The funniest came from a 12 year old boy named Aline. Aline and his twin Florine are two of the more difficult children at the orphanage, they get themselves into a lot of trouble.

The previous day, when the queen didn't wake up, Aline suggested that they kiss the queen. Fairly standard method of waking sleeping royalty. Well, Katie asks "are you volunteering?" Wrong child to make that suggestion to. Aline got up, walked over, and gave Rachel (the queen on Wed) a very long kiss on the cheek. This story at Night Light Wed night prompted Jim to make the new rule: No making out with orphans.

In any case, since we were a different group of ladies on Thurs, Aline thought he should make that suggestion again. "Perhaps we should kiss the queen" As soon as Sanda translated that I began panicking, oh snap, I'm about to get kissed by a 12 year old Romanian orphan. Luckily Amanda was looking out for me and quickly said "oh, but you tried that yesterday and it didn't work, remember?" Thank goodness for friends! haha

We played several clarinet quartets for them, which they loved and kept asking for more. Florine even told us that he wanted us to play forever so they could fall asleep to music. Then we handed out tambourines we had made from paper plates and popcorn for them to decorate and play with.

After lessons we had more playtime outside with the kids. This was the day I met little Ana. Adorable little 6 year old who's favorite thing is piggy back rides. She doesn't do much talking, the staff said she gets some amount of speech therapy and they think she has some developmental issues. A very sweet little girl though. I also got my hair done by Alina and by Flori (Ana's older sister) and played a very vigorous game of tag with a blonde boy of about 12 (I think) named Alexandre.

When it came time to leave we had a bit of excitement. As we got back to the vans we noticed there was someone in the driver's seat of one: oh, it's Aline, surprise surprise. We all start yelling and running to get him out, and as Amanda and I pull open the side door, he manages to unset the parking break and put the van in neutral. Great. The van starts rolling down the hill towards the lake.

Luckily Stephen had already been in the van and was able to save the day. He pulled Aline out of the driver's seat, jumped into it himself. His eyes near about popped out of his head when he put his foot on what he thougt was the break and the van didn't stop. It was the clutch, he tried again, and this time succeeded in stopping the van. Whew!

This was actually the second time that Aline nearly sent the van into the lake. Several years ago he managed to get it rolling, but with no Stephen there to save the day, the only thing that saved the van from the lake was the tree it ran into.

Anyway, we certainly had a lot to talk about at dinner and Night Light. Ho Seat was fantastically amusing thanks to Elayne. Pretty much everything she says is hysterical, but the winning quote of the night was "I dig guys who don't have all their teeth."

Classic

A random note I included was that our "This is the day the Lord has made" devotional in the morning, really helped me think about my issues with change. *This* is the day the Lord has made. Not just yesterday, or 3 months ago, today, no matter what today holds, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

The trip itself really helped me transition from Biola into the next thing. I had great fellowship with everyone, but it really helped me see that God still does great things and brings great people into my life regardless of where I am.

5-26 Orientation and First Visit to Peris

Once it was *actually* time to get up, we had a breakfast. I discovered a new favorite breakfast delight: Finetti. It's a lot like Nutella, and tastes fabulous on croissants. After breakfast we gathered and had orientation. They purposefully wait to give us all this information until we aren't completely zoned out from jetlag. To start out Jim (or "boss Jim" as we began calling him) led us in a fun and educational Romanian culture quiz game. I did fairly well thanks to some lucky guessing and some general travel knowledge.

A couple interesting Romanian culture facts:

Currents-This is the Romanian term for drafts or breezes and they are supersticious about them. In Romanian culture currents are very bad, they cause bad things and can make you deathly sick. You never have a door and a window open at the same time and in the car, you do not have more than one window open at once, if that. Most places do not have air conditioning, so you can imagine how hot it gets during the summer if you believe currents are evil.

Flowers-Romanians love flowers. There is a specific type and number of flowers for any occasion. General rule, odd numbers of flowers are for happy occasions and even numbers are for sad occasions. Also, when presenting someone with flowers, you hand them to them upside down. That way, when they turn them right side up, they catch the luck from the flowers. To hand someone flowers right side up means you're stealing their luck, which would be a terribly rude thing to do!

After our quiz game, Jen (who is absolutely amazing) talked to us about ministry specifics. She used props to show the tools necessary for successful ministry. Curiosity, forgiveness, patience, proactivity, friendship, and flexibility. Jen told us to think about what we needed to happen in order to count our trip as a success and reminded us that all we are asked to do is love God and love others.

After orientation we had lunch together and then the brass loaded up and left for Rosiori (a town about 3 hours southwest of Bucharest, pronounced "Ro-she-or"). They stayed at the boys' transition house and worked with two different groups of kids down there.

Meanwhile, us woodwinds loaded up and made our first trip to the Peris (pronounced "Pair-eesh") orphanage. Peris is a stark contrast from Bucharest. It is a small farming community with little houses and large fields. One day on our way back from the orphanage we had to stop to let a shepherd and a flock of sheep pass.

Kirsteen, one of the H2H staff members, has been teaching the children some basic music lessons. Our first day they performed some clapping rhythm songs for us. The rest of the time was spent playing with and getting to know the kids. I got to observe a cooking class that another staff member Sanda has been doing with some of the older girls. They made a lemon zest cake. Some of the girls speak Spanish, which they have learned from watching Spanish soap operas, so I was able to communicate a bit.

Oral communication, however, is not needed with these children. They are very good at using gestures, but most of the time they just grab you and drag you wherever they want. If they really want to tell you something, they take you to a translator. Once the children had worn us out entirely, we made the 45 minute drive back to the team house for dinner.

An H2H practice in the evenings is "Night Light". We sit down with Jim and talk about how our days went: things we liked, things we didn't understand, struggles during the day, etc. Then comes Hot Seat. Each person has 2 minutes to talk about themselves, and then everyone else can ask questions, any question they feel like. Suffice it to say, this got very fun by the end of the trip.