Random Acts of Kindness

Romania is a country of extroverts. It is impossible for me to go anywhere with my children without interacting with strangers. To date these interactions are, almost without fail, positive. Today I took the girls on the Metro to a friends house and back. Here's a sample of my day.

- We travelled in rush hour on a packed train and I couldn't get off at the stop I needed because there were too many people between my stroller and the door. Everyone in the general vicinity was aware of my plight (probably because Isobel was shouting at the top of her lungs). When we reached the next stop people pushed back the crowd getting off the train, the crowd getting on the train, and lifted my stroller off the train for me. I'm not sure whether to chalk this up as an act of kindness or an act of desperation to escape the volume of Isobel's voice.

- A man helped me carry Isobel in her stroller up the stairs.

- A different man helped me lift Isobel in her stroller over the gate to exit the Metro and offered to help me with (more) stairs.

-On the way home Noemi was staring at the bag of an older woman because it was filled with soft pretzels ... so the woman gave Noemi a pretzel.

- A man offered his seat to Noemi on the train.

- A sweet older woman volunteered to walk Noemi off the train so I could steer the stroller and then walked Noemi up the stairs so I could carry the stroller. She was unaware of our newly perfected system of holding onto the scarf hanging from the stroller:)

- My babysitter volunteered to stay late this afternoon when she saw how busy we were.

I have been overwhelmed with the kindness of strangers lately, not so much because I can't carry a stroller up the stairs, but because it is an enourmous help with language learning. I can't learn to speak unless there's someone to speak with.

TCKs

TCK stands for Third Culture Kids, which is what my children became the day we moved to Bucharest. It is an identity with its challenges and blessings. I read an encouraging post on the topic over at Simple Mom this week.

International Women's Day

Today is the International Women's Day! The flower stalls are in full swing again this weekend. From what I can tell it is celebrated like Mothers Day but including women without children. Flowers and chocolates seem to factor heavily. Here's a link to a little history about the holiday http://www.internationalwomensday.com/first.asp.

Martisor

Spring is here! I went outside without a coat today, so it's official.

On March 1st Romanians celebrate the coming of spring with Martisor (mar-tsi-shore). The sidewalks are lined with vendors selling flowers and trinkets to celebrate the holiday. Here's a link for those who are interested in the history of the holiday. http://www.meetromania.info/uk_martisor.html

Snapshots

I need to start carrying my camera around with me. These early days in Bucharest are full of first impressions just begging to be recorded. Yesterday's snapshot would have been of the Bolivian music group performing outside our Metro entrance ... dressed as American Indians with feather headdresses to the ground.

Home Sweet Home

A teammate helped us through the apartment hunting process and when he saw our options he told us that God really wants us in Bucharest. God had prepared the perfect place for our family to live. Here's a bird's eye view...

10 Things We Love About Bucharest

We have been enjoying our new hometown over the last few weeks. Since we were offline and unable to share all the interesting and exciting things we ran into, I'll catch up with a list ...

10. Buying fresh bread from the bakery around the corner every day.

9. Parks, parks everywhere.

8. Nicer subway trains than Chicago!

7. Flower shops on (almost) every corner

6. Shoarma (our new favorite fast food)

5. Our landlady, Mina

4. Our teammates

3. Our apartment

2. Green grass and growing flowers in February

1. The warm, friendly Romanian people