Constanta and the end

I'm back in America. I have forgotten how to use my own cellphone and am surprised by how much water is in toilets. Goodness, two months can do a lot in terms of causing culture shock to your own home!

Friday night was my last night. It was quiet and nice. We went out for pancakes, alex brought cake, and then we went to the park to dance in the fountain, which ended up being anticlimatic because they turn the fountain off at night. But I'm still counting it. I also got to go say bye to my bartender friend at musik. He's the nicest, and is going to be my facebook friend!

Then we headed back to our house to change clothes and head to the train station to catch a 2:30am night bus to Constanta. Long story short, we spent the first 2 hours in a row on the floor of the aisle leaning on each others legs. Then we spent the last 5 hours in the stairwell of the bus.  Somehow, Hannah and I both managed to sleep the majority of the busride, and besides a bruise on my back, we escaped unharmed (though I did almost fall out of the bus once when it stopped without me knowing).

Then to the beach! Lots of seaweed and topless women, but beautiful nonetheless. We spent the day sunbaking (as they say in Australia) and swimming. Then that night we went out with the hostel for a drink. We were by far the youngest there, but it was fun listening to others adventures. Then Hannah and I attempted to go clubbing but failed miserably, and ended up eating Shoarma instead. So still a win!

Sunday we spent lounging around. Constanta is more a quiet town that wasn't hit hard by the communists, so it's really peaceful. We went to a coffee place and got lunch, then off on another transportation adventure. We got kicked out of the bus we wanted to take because we didn't make a reservation because we dont know romanian. Then we got tickets for the train, but were told "no seats". Somehow, we sat in reserved seats without being kicked out for close to 3 hours. We spent the final 4 hours in the area in between cars. It was somewhat spacious and not at all as gross and shady as it could have been. By this point we were all tired and giggly, so it was a fun trip. Especially the part where none of us fell out!

We got back at around 11:15 to Ana forcing us to eat dinner. I said goodbye to her, then walked Hannah down to the taxi stand for my tearful goodbye with her. I slept for about 3 hours and then off to the airport! Where 20 hours of travel later, I was back in Philadelphia. What a lot of traveling!

So I guess this is the end of my blog =( These two months have been the most amazing of my life. I met some amazing people, made some friends that will be in my life forever, learned a lot about physiotherapy, and learned even more about myself. I wish I could give justice to how much this trip meant to me in words, but I really can't. It was just incredible.

For the last time, Alyssa out!

te iubesc!

Last day =(

So the past few days at Hospice have been great. I've gotten to treat my own patients, Ionella's been there, and my physio has been super nice to me and sad that I'm leaving. This week we worked with a little gypsy girl who I'm told is 10, but is the size of a 3 year old. She has a lot of problems, but she's a sweetheart, and they've been letting me treat her alone because she's so laid back. She's super adorable. A few times, Anda even left me alone with the girl to treat her. I felt like a real physio!!!

Yesterday I had a moment with Ionela that almost made me cry. She knows I dont speak romanian really well, so whenever an adult comes in speaking romanian, she tells them I dont speak. I keep telling her "un pic," which means I speak a little! I gave her a hug goodbye yesterday and told her "te iubesc," which means I love you. She lit up and smiled and I told her See! "Un pic romaneshtay!" she looked up at me sand said "super good!" i almost died of happiness. I'm going to miss these kids.

Today, I had to say bye to Anda. I thanked her for all she's taught me. She told me that the kids, no, OUR kids were going to miss me a lot. She said that she knew I was going to be a great physio someday. We talked about how this is only a small aspect of physio, but I really believe this experience has pointed me towards the direction of my future. I really have enjoyed working with special kids. There's something so rewarding about this, it's addictive almost. I know one thing is for sure though, this experience has been the best summer of my life.

Now I'm waiting for my last dinner at home before the six of us volunteers that are still here go out for dessert and fountain dancing. Then it's off to the beach for the weekend with Hannah and Suzie before I make my long trip back to America. There will be a lot of crying before that happens. But thankfully, I've kept myself in check for now!

Projects abroad love - Hannah and I

Suzie, Ana (our host mom), and me!

See you in America!

te iubesc,

Alyssa

Life lessons learned

I cannot fix everyone. Which is kind of what I want to do as a physio. But I need to keep remembering that everything is not perfect, and I am no miracle worker.

So today I got taken with my physio to get two of the hospice children new wheelchairs. There is this week long thing happening in Brasov where this non profit organization brings donated wheelchairs to countries where it is hard to get a chair. It sounds like a great idea, and don't get me wrong, it's better than nothing, but it really isn't a great thing for the kids. One of the boys we brought today is 17 and has muscular dystrophy. He needs a chair with a back rest and a head rest and something that will hold him in. But the people working this clinic dont really know the kids and weren't very nice and were pretty condescending to the romanians, like my physio who actually knows these kids. I was offended by this lady, and I was sad that she was american because I don't want to be categorized like that. I know I don't know everything. And I'm not about to act like I know a kid who I've talked to for 30 seconds better than their own physio who sees them every day. Andrei was frustrated and wanted to leave and didn't want the chair they were trying to give him because it was uncomfortable and not good for him. And it was frustrating to me to watch that. This kid is going to have such a short, good quality life. Listen to him and give him a way to move around.

It made me want to do more for these kids. There's a girl we're working with this week who is being put into foster care after her week in hospice because her dad is abusing her. Not that that doesn't happen everywhere else in the world. It just crushes me. These kids are all such wonderful, charming personalities and they deserve the best, yet no one is willing to give them that chance. As much as I love working at hospice, I'm somewhat glad my time there is coming to an end. Most days, the kids rejuvenate me. But then there are days like today where it just makes me sad.

And the lesson learned: I can't do everything and fix everyone.

te iubesc,
Alyssa

Seven stairs

A few days ago, some of us decided that we wanted to not be lazy anymore and since we are in the carpathians, that it would be a good idea to check out the mountains. So we asked Dani for help on how to get to 7 stairs, and off we went at 11:30am on a bus to the mountain. I discovered this was where we took the hospice kids for our barbeque, but I had never walked around there.  So we began our way up the trail, being told it would take us an hour and a half to get to seven stairs.

Along the way, we found the little waterfall area, so Brittany and I decided it was a good photo opp.

Almost exactly on time, we arrived at the ladders. We stopped for a picnic near some 11 year olds memorial cross, which made us feel really safe. We all traded sandwiches like fourth graders in the cafeteria and sat and  chatted for a while. The ladders, that started here went through a gorge canyon thing. There was a line for the ladders, and we felt a little unsure about the safety and stability of the ladders, but we all decided that we would feel like fails if we got up there and didn't get to climb the ladders. And if so many people had gone already, it had to be somewhat stable. So on we went. The following picture is hannah and my feet on one of the little balcony walks above the first ladder. About every 3rd plank was missing. SUPER SAFE.

There was one ladder that was about 12 meters high. It was only bolted at the top and the bottom. It shook a lot! Here is Olga and Matt on the ladder.

So once we got to the top of these super safe ladders, we couldn't figure out how to get down. We sat and took a chocolate cake and cookie break. The we saw some guys and asked them where to go. They seemed nice and Romanian, and spoke some really good english, so we started up hill with them. We realized about 40 minutes in that they were going all the way up before down, so Hannah and Matt headed back down, and Brittany, Olga and I went with the bro's up the mountain. It was a LONG hike, 7 hours of walking total, but it was totally worth it. Here is us with a donkey at the top!

And here was the lovely view on top of the first mountain I climbed to the top of!

So once at the top, we left the Bro's and headed down the mountain the three of us. We found a good, safe trail that only took us under two hours to get all the way down on! We met up with Hannah and Matt at the creek, ate some cookies, stuck our feet in the water, then called cabs to get home. And by home, we went to the restaurant to eat our weights. Hung out there and ate some good Romanian food for a while, then went home to shower and have a super good night sleep! It was an excellent, safe and wonderful day!

Today was souvenir shopping and carrefour shopping, so quiet day! And then back to work tomorrow for my last week!

te iubesc,

Alyssa

Can I hear the cowboys?

Yeeeeeeehawwwww!

So this week was camp at the hospice. This means that there were about 30 children there each day from 10am to 2pm to play games, do crafts, and be normal children. There were some volunteers who came over from the UK to help run camp, so that was pretty cool, though they didn't talk to me much because I knew the kids and they didn't and they were kind of clicky. But anyways, not the point.

The theme of camp was the wild west, and there were three teams: the sheriffs, cowboys, and indians. I was a cowboy, with some of my favorite kids (if I was allowed to have favorites, that is). We did a lot of arts and crafts, dancing, games that involved balloon popping. I came to the office each day after work and somehow got called out for being at camp due to my braided headband, bracelets, or warrior princess-ness. It was a fun week, and was great to see the kids let loose! But today was kind of sad leaving because even though I have a week left, I wont see most of these kids again. And they are all just amazing.

my contribution to the fence we painted!

The rest of this week has been uneventful. One day, we went to the brintex. It's basically this super shady warehouse turned mall that containes a bunch of 20' by 20' glass cubes that are actually stores. We bought belts that say super bine. That was an exciting day. One afternoon, some of us went and sat in the park and played cards at one of the chess tables. Monday night we sang spice girls at karaoke and I was told I was a good singer (hah!). One night we loitered in a mcdonalds and chatted. It's been pretty calm, but fun getting to know people even better, and have random conversations with them.

Tomorrow we are going to seven stairs canyon for some hiking and picnicing! I'm excited!!!

te iubesc,
Alyssa

Sighisoara

Noapte Buna!

Because Jack Sparrow hangs out at Tapas...me, hannah and Olga

Yesterday we went to Sighisoara for the medieval festival. Since I am such a good planner, I looked up the trains and such, and decided we were going to take a 6am train. So there, 10 of us ended up at the train station at 5:20am, chipper and ready to go! I thought there was 11 of us, so in my sleepy state I got 11 tickets, but it was fine because they were less than $5. The train looked like a place where people would be killed, and going through a pitch black tunnel for like 3 minutes had me really nervous, but three hours we arrived, unharmed, in sighisoara!

Sunrise from the murder train

We started the day in a coffee shop, and then went to the main part of town. We wandered the medieval festival for a while (think renaissance fair). We climbed to the top of the clock tower, went to the torture room museum (which was disappointing, i was hoping for some excitement!), and climbed 177 steps to the top of the mountain to wander through an old german graveyard. It was a nice, chill, relaxing day with some awesome people.

It's crazy to think I come home in two weeks. I've fallen so much in love with this place that it will be weird to return home. Since I've done a lot of the travelling I've wanted to do, I'm really just enjoying the people I'm here with. They're all amazing in their own ways, and I really hope that even though we're scattered around the globe, that we can all stay in touch. I feel like these are the people that will change the world one day.

Tomorrow starts camp at hospice, so no physio this week, but a lot of love and a lot of fun with the kids. I'm really excited to see some of the children that I haven't seen since week one!

and here are some sighisoara pictures!!!

Because there were obviously bagpipers in the medieval times

pretty german graveyard

his shield says "dracula"

This way to Athens!

te iubesc,
Alyssa

Day at the mental institution

Today, ten of us took the day off of work and instead went with one of the projects abroad supervisors to work the day at a mental hospital. We brought peaches, bananas, wafer cookies, and cigarettes for the 150 people who live there. And without sounding corny, today was probably one of the most meaningful days I've had here.

First off, let me explain the institution since I wasn't allowed to take photos. 150 people live there, between the ages of 18 and 80. Some are bed ridden, some are not. A doctor comes twice a week. There are 2 nurses and 3 caretakers. They live 8 to 10 in a room. Some rooms have very few windows. The bathrooms are flooded. Since there is so little staff, the tenents are kept heavily sedated so that they are not violent. Family and visitors never come, and the people who live here are never let out. Basically once you're in the hospital, you die there. Romania believes these people can not function or work in society, so they are left here. And you can imagine, I'm sure the living conditions make these mental illnesses even worse.

Some of the volunteers cut hair or gave the ladies eye makeup. The people at the institution were so friendly. All they wanted to do was shake your hand and see someone from the outside world. It broke my heart. We first handed out fruit and snacks, and then were brought outside. You could tell a lot of the volunteers felt very out of place, which I totally understood. There was a mad sitting on the far side of the lawn trying to open a banana and stimming crazily, so, after making sure it was ok, I left my group and went over to sit with him. He didn't speak to me, I'm not sure if he could or not, but I could tell he heard me. I told him my name, talked to him, and tried to calm him down. I could tell he was nervous. At first, I went to open his wafers and he swatted my hand away, but slowly I gained his trust and he let me help him sit up, and even walked with me around the outside.

There was another man who I became buddies with that I somehow managed to communicate quite well with. I taught him that 2 thumbs up was "super good" (because in romanian, they say super bine) and he asked me if I had a baby, and I guess thought my reaction was funny because he kept asking. As I was leaving, he gave me the two thumbs up and said super good!

Otherwise, I was just trying to talk to as many people as possible and smile a lot. There was another girl who came with us that works for Project abroad in the netherlands. She used to volunteer here last year and did the same kind of day trip to the institution and loved it, so PA here waited for her to visit on holiday to take our day trip so she could go. She was super sweet, and kept telling me she could tell I was enjoying myself there. But on the other hand, half of the volunteers there with me, on separate occasions, asked me if I was ok.

I'm not sure what kind of vibe I was giving, but it seems to have been similar to what I was feeling. Part of me was completely broken hearted. I didn't want to believe that a place like this existed, that a culture thought this little of people who have illnesses that they have no control of. It kept making me think people I know, and how they could have been like this if they were just born into this community. But on the complete otherhand, I was so at home there, and all I wanted to do was make these people smile. I was just feeding off their energy and enthusiasm and I couldn't help but smile. One man told me that my smile was beautiful. That was probably one of the most sincere and nicest compliments I have ever gotten.

So yes, that was my mixed emotional day. Thank goodness my friends here are willing to give me hugs and tell me I'm awesome. That does seem to make things like this better. It's weird, these moments where I am so unhappy with how Romania handles something are the moments where I don't ever want to leave, where I know I'm going to be crying when I leave. There's something so pure and special about it here, and so many things that I want to help, which in turn are helping me.

te iubesc,
Alyssa

My not so awesome new placement and my so awesome new roomie

So. Friday I went to my new placement at the nursing home. And it was probably the worst day of my life. First off, I took some sketchy minibus to the village of sacale, and then walked past a bunch of construction to Christiana. There was no one there who spoke english, so a nurse handed me a paper with exercises on it and brought me upstairs into a room with 2 women. She pointed to the both and said exercise and massage and then left. So I got the idea that I was expected to treat. Now granted, I haven't had an ounce of physical therapy training except for what I've learned here. And I speak zero romanian. So treating old ladies is very difficult when you don't understand what is wrong with them medically and cannot instruct them. I did what I could with these two ladies, which was next to nothing, then went back to the nurse to ask for the physio. She shuffled me back upstairs into another room and said massage. This kept happening, and I felt super out of place and uncomfortable and frustrated that I couldn't figure out some sort of solution to the problem I was having. I did talk to one tenant for a bit (the only person in the building who spoke english) and she was telling me how frustrated she was that they never let her out of the bed. Not an ideal situation, but not one that I could really help because I'm actually not a physio. I began texting with Brittany, one of the journalism volunteers and one of my best friends here, and she told me to leave, that it wasn't safe for anyone. I asked one more time if there was a physio, and they said no, and then I went back to the office to beg Razvan to not make me return. So that was my awful placement day.

I spent the remainder of friday moping around the office trying to recover from my traumatic experience. Basically, the office became packed as the day went on, so there was little work and lots of socializing, and then we went to get milkshakes and hang out. So it turned into a better day!

Saturday we had this great plan to go hike a canyon, but it was suppossed to be rainy and everyone was tired, so we scratched that plan and stayed in Brasov. About 10 of us met up and went to the skinny street, st katherine's gate, and the citadel. I feel like in the first month I was here, I did a lot of the traveling and big things that I wanted to do, so now more I'm just enjoying the people. It was nice, we went up to the citadel and took a boat load of pictures and explored, got lunch at the irish pub, and just hung out. Then we all split to go home for dinner.

And then my new roommate came! Her name is Suzie and she's from france studying medicine. She's super nice and we get along great, which is good because before she got here, I had already decided we were going to be best friends. We ate dinner, talked about life, and then went back to Republicii to meet up with everyone for Kate and Jill's last weekend night. It ended up that Suzie was tired, so Brittany, Matt and I walked her home. On the way back, we decided the bar we had been sitting at was too loud, so we got pastry baked apples and sat outside and talked. It was super nice.

Today we slept in and then went and wandered the town so I could show Suzie where she lives (since I am such a pro at this city!). We met up with a bunch of the volunteers for lunch at a place that had a table that looked like a boat (which obviously we took!). Then we took a mass carrefour trip to buy chocolate and fruit, and then went to the bakery and sat in the park. Tonight we went and got chocolate pancakes. There are 20 volunteers here right now, though 3 are leaving tomorrow to go do archaeology. So many people! We haven't had this many at once yet! Thank goodness that most people who come to a foreign country to volunteer are easy to talk to!

Tomorrow it's back to Hospice, which I've never been so excited for. Some of the kids that I had the first week I worked will be back this week, so I'm looking forward to seeing them!

I promise I'm going to start writing more. I just feel unexciting because Romania is now like home, and I feel like it has become almost routine. In a strange way, it's a super great feeling.

te iubesc,
Alyssa

Lions and Tigers and Bears OH MY!

So let me begin this post with the conversation I had with a stray dog...

After chocolate pancakes, it was about 10:30 and I decided I was going to walk home. I crossed the street into the park, and 3 seconds later a stray dog was running towards me. It passed me, then looped back behind me, then ran around in front of me. I said hi to it, froze in my place, and asked it to please not eat me. He listened, ran off to stand on 2 legs and drink out of the water fountain (I wish I had my camera at the ready!), and I decided that the dog was my cue to take a cab home.

This week has been fairly unexciting. Monday we did a lot of physio. It's great having someone else at my placement. We've been teaching each other a lot. She's been showing me how to do sports massage, and I've been showing her how we work with the kids. It's working quite well!  Tuesday, I got shown my new placement. It's in the village of Sacale, which is 2 busses away. It's an old people's home called Christiana, and they seem really excited to have me. It will be a VERY different experience, but I'm looking forward to it. I start officially treating on Friday. Today we had a BBQ with the kids, so a pretty slow and uneventful day.

BUT. after buying a 70 bani nectarine (Bani is like cents, so parts of a lei. 70 bani is about equivalent to 23 cents), I met up with some of the girls to go to the Brasov Zoo. After an adventure getting there, like usual (I wish there was some way to actually learn this crazy bus system!), and not being able to actually find the entrance to the zoo, we were in, for 3 lei. It is crazy how close you can get to some of the animals, and the tiny bars they have separating you from their teeth. If I had a death wish, I definitely could have touched a tiger. There was the cutest baby deer who was licking my hand. I wonder if customs would take him away if I tried to bring him home...

Here are some animals!!!!!!

te iubesc,
Alyssa

Brasov weekend

Lots of pictures to follow =)

Friday was a short day at work because Anda had things to do. I just spent the morning with the kids. I found out that one of the boys likes to repeat english that he's heard on TV shows. he really like american gladiators and fear factor, and really understands what the descrition ""crazy" means. So I logged onto their computer and put on the show wipeout, and the entirety of the day center watched an episode. American TV win!

A new volunteer came to work at hospice with me. Her name is Lisa and she's from the UK and is super nice. I'm really excited to get to know her better. That night we went to fondue for the high schoolers last night, and I skillfully got the phone number of the waiter who wants to come hang out with us (specifically, one of the other volunteers!) We were sleepy, so it was an early night.

Saturday, we slept a bit and then took the bus to Poiana Brasov. It's a ski resort town, but in the summer they have one of the lifts open, so we got to go to the top of the mountain. It was a very hot day, so it was nice to go up in altitude! The highest point was 1800m, and took a pretty intense rock climb to get to! It was gorgeous. I also may or may not have taken pictures of random people we saw on the mountain. But it was really awesome because the weather was so nice, people were having picnics and it was super cute!

We got lunch in Poiana and shopped around for souvenirs, then went back home and napped and hung out for a bit. Last night was sergiana's for dinner where I got german beef stew which was absolutely delicious. Then we went to Musik cafe for drinks and to hang out. I talked to some of the volunteers I don't know as well, so that was really fun. Every single person here is so interesting and has a story, and I'm having a lot of fun discovering that.

Today, we stayed in Brasov to do some of the little trips we hadn't made it to. We started at the first Romanian school. It housed over 100 students with one teacher in the fifteenth century, and was where the first book in Romanian language was printed. And this was the printing press they used.

Our guide told us that it took over 2 years to make one book, since every page had to be done separately. It sounded like an incredibly intricate process, but was really neat to see some of the early books and literature.

We popped into the church next door. It was gorgeous and painted and ornately decorated. Nothing like at home!

Then we climbed a bunch of stairs to the citadel overlooking Brasov. I love the rust colored roofs of Brasov. I wish our homes looked this appealing from overhead! This view, which I feel like I have now seen from all angles, just continues to take my breath away.

After a delicious dinner of stuffed tomatoes and peppers, greenbeans, and lemon soup, our host mom Ana brought out traditional clothes from Maramures, where she grew up. This is an area in the northeast that still has tons of folk traditions that have been passed on through generations. We had a little photo shoot, and Ana said that the pictures were her souvenir to remember us! Besides the fact that she tied the skirt on super tight to the point where I thought I may pass out, it was a blast. Pictures can describe this better...

our host mom dressed up too!

Tonight, we stopped by the bakery and popped into the resturaunt by out house that we never made it to. So basically today I have eaten twice my weight. And I was worried I wouldn't like the food here!

te iubesc,
Alyssa