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