Watch -LESS

Yesterday, after six weeks of being watch-less, a state I DETEST and ABHORR, I decided to splurge and purchase myself a new watch. I have been on the lookout for watches for the past 3 or so weeks - previously I hoped to fix my other watch but since batteries are next to impossible to find here I finally realized my best bet was to purchase a new watch.

I'm a fan of the digital watch. I love the alarm, I love the indiglo, I love the stop watch, I love the date. I love having all that at my fingertips. Unfortunately I also have been unable to find a digital watch. Yesterday I found a shop with watches and after much thinking and trying on various watches I made a decision. A very nice bright blue, large faced, fake Louis Vuitton watch. Not normally my style and I couldn't really care less about names, but I'm in Europe and it was 6 dollars so I thought it was a steal of a deal.

2 Hours later the watch broke.
I'm once again watch-less.
And very angry about it.

Nikki Needs

I got this idea off of someone else’s website. I went to GOOGLE and typed in "Nikki Needs” and the following are some of the many needs that came up. I found it funny because although they aren’t technically about me – many of them seem to be.

Nikki Needs a Home (I do. I’m going to end up living in a trailer behind my parents house in BC with mean dogs, wearing snake skin pants and shooting squirrels and marmots for fun)
Nikki thinks Dwight needs to follow his dreams. Mom thinks Nikki needs to get lost.
Nikki Needs Your HELP! This loving senior was dealt the worst of. blows: her pregnant “mom” died of a heart attack, and her “dad” left her. (This reminds me of last May when I was a senior and Dad told me I HAD to come home and he wouldn’t tell me why. All I could think of was that Mom was prego and she just about had a heart attack laughing when I told her that’s what I thought was going on. Turns out my dad was going to leave and go to BC)
Nikki needs to play more and work/worry/fret less over life (Ummmm, I’m pretty good at playing a lot. But I do worry over life a lot)
Nikki needs men around to feel good about herself. She's rather self-absorbed (Its true. OK ESTHER! I admit it – I am self absorbed! - - As for the men – that’s a matter of opinion!)
Nikki needs to be smacked... Didn't her own mother tell the family to smack her? (Just funny)
Nikki Needs to see a Therapist Like Kevin is so she can vent Her Feelings about what happened (I only know one Kevin and I don’t think he sees a therapist.)
Nikki needs a hug (Its true. I don’t get any hugs here.)
Nikki needs a big favor from all her friends, fans and supporters (yeah! I need you to pray that I can find a way to get to Ontario, that my car will work after sitting for 10 months and that I will have money for insurance and gas to get to BC)
Nikki needs a ride home (I do need a ride home. From BC to Ontario on June 5 and from Ontario to BC on July 30)
Nikki needs to be the dominant female (I actually do need to be the dominant female)
Nikki needs to stay with her Mom (I do need my mom)
Nikki needs to be at home with her dad and her friends. (I do need my dad and friends

People I miss

Mom and Dad, Bethany, Vanessa (and Esther I guess), Karmyn, Christy, Sara-Beth, Kim FU-rtney, Steve Geleynse, Rob J, Robyn Hogan, Aunt Linda, Granny, the McCullough's, Alpha Praise, Richard Wikkerink, the Geleynse Family, Nellie Hoogendoorn, Denise Dykstra, ALL the Gerrits', L.Stew, Rebekah Fluit.

A Real Live Nikki Weekend in Bucharest

This past weekend was the first real ‘Nikki-Weekend’ that I have had in a long time – perhaps since last May.

What is a Nikki Weekend you ask? Well the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Random Phrases defines a Nikki Weekend as: A two to four day period in which Nikki spends excessive amounts of time with friends doing various activities.

My mom – and some of my dear friends KNOW that I THRIVE on the aforesaid ‘excessive amounts of time with friends doing various activities’ And this weekend – I did that and I FEEL GOOD (na na nana na na na) And so my greatest weekend yet in a nutshell.

Friday. Staff-Inservice at school. The best staff day yet full of really interesting AND helpful information. Then off to the Merriot hotel with the elementary teachers to partake in their world famous desert bar courtesy of our Director Jenn Lipp. After ‘dinner’ (I’m not eating chocolate ever again) I was off to an evening church service where I learned interesting things about the crucifixion. For example I never knew that yeast was the symbol of sin and that in the vinegar/wine mixture there was yeast. SO when they gave Christ that sip of vinegar/wine on the cross it was another symbol of him taking on/in the sins of the world. After Church I went to Costin’s house for real dinner, a movie and a couple games of chess. (Where I won two out of three thank you very much)

Saturday morning was full of relaxing chillaxing maxing all cool. (No shooting b-ball outside of the school), and some cleaning/shopping. Then off to my friend Julia’s with a group of people for fun and games. Around 10pm my friend David called and I met him and some other school friends downtown to go to a midnight Orthodox Easter service. I’ll write about that in depth later. Arrived home around 2am.

Sunday morning I woke up groaning – knowing that I wanted to get up for church and to see what the Easter Bunny brought me and yet my mind, eyes and body revolted. I did get up, laughed at the fact that the Easter Bunny did come and did enjoy going to church. After church I went to Aimee’s house for a great Easter Dinner and later on in the evening it was over to Tecla’s house for a girls night.

Monday involved me waking up, reading an entire book, going back to bed and then meeting a large group from the church at the park. (The Park is another blog waiting to happen.) Lots of walking around, rollerblading, volleyball, soccer, sitting and talking and just good times in the (semi) fresh air and sunshine. On the way home we realized it was too early to just go home so we got off the metro, and went to the mall for dinner and a movie. We also were very blessed because there are three men on a Short Term Mission Trip here from California and they took our entire group of friends out for bowling after the movie. They asked me if I was good and I said ‘yes’ because generally I am pretty good.... ok well at least not bad. But it was 10pin and I grew up on 5pin AND the floor was very warped which resulted in my whopping score of 60.

A very full and very fun weekend. I love millions of activities and so this past weekend was great. I am tired now – which is why the grammar and sentence structure of this blog is so horrible. Yay for fun and friends!

I almost got hit by a car.
It was close to hitting me not far.
I was on the sidewalk.
Infront of a big block.
And I just about beat the man up.

(By close I mean centemeters and it could have been a serious accident)

Things that made me laugh yesterday

1. One of my students telling me that he had a dream where he shot me because I wouldn't give him my stash of American canday.

2. Riding on the bus and having two Romanian guys talking about me (Look at that tourist) and not knowing that I understood what they were saying.

3. Realizing that the same guys thought I was German. DESPITE the big pin on my chest proudly proclaiming "I'm Friendly" and a baseball cap saying "Redeemer University College" I laughed about this to my Romanian friend Costin and he told me that I do look German.

4. Learning new phrases to say on the bus to people who are talking about me, bugging me or rubbing up against me. "Am Paduc" meaning "I have lice"

Day 4 Seceava

Well, I'm starting to forget my trip so I better post the last day of our trip.

We arrived in Seceava (after probably the WORST train ride of my life) around 4am. After finding our hostel we checked in and then slept for about 4 hours. At 8am our 'tour guide and bus' arrived at the hostel for a day of travelling around to see the famous Painted Monasteries. We went downtown into the city to pay the fee and then realized that our tour was not a tour at all. The 30$ it was going to cost us would only cover the drive, no enterance fees. THIS was a rip-off so we cancelled and hired a taxi driver for half the price.

We travelled around with our taxi driver/ tour guide for about 8 hours. We went to 4 different painted monasteries as well as the black pottery factory. The monasteries were crazy. Painted on the outside and the inside. There were scenes depiciting the lives of the saints as well as bible stories, martyrs and kings.

Make sure you are properly attired before you enter the monastery.

Day 3 pt.B - Sighet

After we finished our time at the Merry Cemetery we made our way to a new monastery that was being built in the area. Once again we asked locals where it was and recieved a very helpful 'over there'. We saw the spire in the distance and walked towards it. It was quite a walk but when we found it, it was amazing.


(this stone path was about 1km long and had a number of the little huts you see in the background)

The place was very quiet, in the middle of the woods down a very long stone path. There was only one person on the property, a fifty-ish old man (I just realized my dad is 50 and I referred to 50ish people as old. haha I hope he likes that). Anyways, I don't know what was wrong with me but I had to go to the bathroom about 500 times that morning so I asked the man where the bathroom was and found out that he was the grounds-keeper. He gave our group a great tour of the work-in progress monastery. He claims it is the tallest ALL WOOD building in Europe. I think its a lie. 1. Because everyone claims there thing is the biggest and 2, because I saw 1 metal bolt, and the basement was brick so technically it is not all wood. He also was very informative about the hermits that live on the property. Yes there really are still hermits living in the woods. They don't talk to anyone and meet together 3 times a day to pray - silently. They don't even talk to eachother. Their only income is people paying them to pray for loved ones. It was very interesting.


This is me sitting in the 'summer chapel' outside. It was very peaceful and I really enjoyed sitting there for a few minutes by myself and praying, reminding myself that God is amazing and that he provides for our needs.

You'll also notice the bright orange pin on my vest. It says "I'm Friendly" and it is my favorite excessory. I removed it from my regular wardrobe in September because it drew too much attention to myself, but I figured a group of 8 tourists already drew a lot of attention so I pulled it out again for the trip. Wearing it again was one of the highlights of my trip. (And Esther, it's not tacky, its unique and cool!)

Other Things I Saw but Don't Have Pictures Of:
Elie Wiesel's Home.
- He is a very famous author/philosopher who was one of few children to survive the Concentration Camps
Jewish Memorial
- To the people who survived the Holocaust. Northern Romania had a large Jewish population before the war and now there are only a few Jewish families left.
Communism Museum
- In an old jail. It was GIGANTIC and full of information, it was really interesting. There was even an exhibit on Richard Wrumbrant - a Romanian Christian who preached the Gospel during Communism and was jailed, and tortured for many years under the Communist government of Romania. (A good Read: "Tortured for Christ" by Richard Wrumbrant - just don't read it before bed)

Day 3 pt.A - Sighet

I think that Sighet was one of my favorite and least favorite places to go. Favorite in that I found some really funny things, and least favorite because it poured (or as my granny would say pooooored) rain the whole day.

I don't even remember when we arrived in Sighet - oh yes, now I do it was around 6am after a harrowing (and according to our trusty guid book -purgatorial) nights journey on the train. At the train station we asked for directions to the bus station and the very (un)helpful locals waved their hands above their heads and said 'over there' with no clear direction given. This was very funny for two reasons. One, because they were just funny Romanian old ladies and two, because my friend Luke kept imitating them in his British-trying-to-be-Romanian accent. We eventually found the bus station and it really was (waving my hands over my head) 'over there.'

We hopped on a maxi taxi (a 12 passenger van used as a bus) and I laughed as the bus driver talked about us in Romanian to his other passengers never knowing until the end of our journey that a few of us understood exactly what he was saying. My favorite line from him was "I'm gonna make these American Tourists wish they had hitch-hiked!" And honestly... he did. What a ride!

We arrived in some village in the middle of nowhere and made our way to the 'Merry Cemetery.' Truely the most unique place I have EVER been. This cemetary is full of elaborately carved and painted tombstones. They are each about 4 feet high and are marked with scenes from the desceased lives. You'd think a graveyard would be a depressing and random place to visit, but wait till you see some of the following pictures!



These tombstones represent very nicely the people whom they honor. In this case a woman weaving. Other tombstones had people keeping their sheep and the inscriptions underneath are witty Romanian poems - composed by the artist - about the lives (and deaths) of the people. These are nice, why are they so funny you ask? Take a look at the next picture:

Yes, you did see that picture clearly. It is someone getting hit by a car. Why someone would choose to have their dead relative honored by depicting a gory scene of their death is a question I often asked myself. One tombstone contained a picture of an old man drinking and smoking with his buddies. The inscription was along the lines of 'For so-and-so who spent his life happliy drinking and smoking, in the end it was what did him in'

And my FAVORITE TOMBSTONE OF ALL:

What is this? It is indeed a decapitation. The body that lies beneath is that of a Romanian man who was shot and beheaded by an 'Evil Hungarian' (and that is a direct quote).

Day 3 pt.A - Sighet

I think that Sighet was one of my favorite and least favorite places to go. Favorite in that I found some really funny things, and least favorite because it poured (or as my granny would say pooooored) rain the whole day.

I don't even remember when we arrived in Sighet - oh yes, now I do it was around 6am after a harrowing (and according to our trusty guid book -purgatorial) nights journey on the train. At the train station we asked for directions to the bus station and the very (un)helpful locals waved their hands above their heads and said 'over there' with no clear direction given. This was very funny for two reasons. One, because they were just funny Romanian old ladies and two, because my friend Luke kept imitating them in his British-trying-to-be-Romanian accent. We eventually found the bus station and it really was (waving my hands over my head) 'over there.'

We hopped on a maxi taxi (a 12 passenger van used as a bus) and I laughed as the bus driver talked about us in Romanian to his other passengers never knowing until the end of our journey that a few of us understood exactly what he was saying. My favorite line from him was "I'm gonna make these American Tourists wish they had hitch-hiked!" And honestly... he did. What a ride!

We arrived in some village in the middle of nowhere and made our way to the 'Merry Cemetery.' Truely the most unique place I have EVER been. This cemetary is full of elaborately carved and painted tombstones. They are each about 4 feet high and are marked with scenes from the desceased lives. You'd think a graveyard would be a depressing and random place to visit, but wait till you see some of the following pictures!



These tombstones represent very nicely the people whom they honor. In this case a woman weaving. Other tombstones had people keeping their sheep and the inscriptions underneath are witty Romanian poems - composed by the artist - about the lives (and deaths) of the people. These are nice, why are they so funny you ask? Take a look at the next picture:

Yes, you did see that picture clearly. It is someone getting hit by a car. Why someone would choose to have their dead relative honored by depicting a gory scene of their death is a question I often asked myself. One tombstone contained a picture of an old man drinking and smoking with his buddies. The inscription was along the lines of 'For so-and-so who spent his life happliy drinking and smoking, in the end it was what did him in'

And my FAVORITE TOMBSTONE OF ALL:

Some More Pictures

I was going to post some more about my spring vacation but today at lunch I found a CD in my mailbox with TONS of pictures from our trip. And By tons I mean 258. Because I do not own a digital camera my fellow travellers (and friends) copied all their pictures onto a CD for me. I want to give you some pictures of ME on the trip.


This is the beggar gypsy girl I spoke about in the previous post.


This man was hilarous. He was dressed like a jester or something wierd and wandered around the town of Sigishoara banging on a drum and shouting 'welcome to Sigishoara'


This is me infront of Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler/Dracula's) house. This is where he was born.

Day 2 - Sigisoara

On day two of our fantastic adventure, Deborah and I split up. I was not exactly thrilled that a 7am train had been booked so my friend Aimee and I decided to opt for a later train at 11am. The plan was to be in Sigisoara until 11pm anyways and from looking at the guidebook it seemed like there were really only a few things to see anyways.

After a great sleep I woke up, did a whole bunch of nothing and then Aimee and I made our way to the train station. Just after we got off the train in Medias (where we had to transfer) we received a call from the rest of the group saying that plans had been changed and that our train now left Sigisoara at 5pm. Our train wasn't due to arrive in Sigisoara until 4pm. FYI I hate two things with a passion. People being late and changed plans at the last minute. So I was kinda upset.

While waiting for the train I made friends with three very old Romanian people. I gave them cookies and we struck up a limited conversation. It was great. It was also great because this Gypsy beggar girl kept bothering me for money and they told her to leave me alone. I had fun with that girl. Eventually I just started saying to her 'no YOU give ME money'. She thought that was hilarious.

Once on the train we looked through the guidebook and realized that there was a cool site that we could have seen in Medias but missed it! I also made a great plan how to see Sigisoara in 40 minutes.

Here is the executed plan:
We get off the train, go to the front of the train station. I ask if anyone speaks English. Ifinds a driver and tell him that we have 30 minutes to see the entire city and that we will give him 10 dollars to take us around. The driver agrees. And so we saw the city within 30 minutes.

Here are some pictures:



This is the famous "Clock Tower" Sigisoara is surrounded by 14 different towers that were part of the original fortification. Each tower is named after an industry. Hence there is the clock-tower, the shoemakers tower and the tailors tower among others.


This picture is for ROB J and J Bax. This is the home where Vlad Tepes was born. Also known as Vlad the Impaler - the man whom Dracula was based on. The clock tower is just down the street to the left.


What a pretty city.

DAY 1 - Sibiu

Day One, Monday March 27.
LOCATION: Sibiu Romania

Deborah and I woke up around 4:30 am on the first day of our excellent adventure around Romania. We hopped on the metro and reached the bus-station in a very shifty area of the city around 6am. After a seven hour bus ride we had travelled almost 200km to the city of Sibiu. (Not the most effective method of transportation)

After wandering around downtown we finally met our friend and fellow coworker (who is from the Sibiu) in the town centre




We met Adalina infront of this tower.

We then walked all the way back to the train station to pick up our fellow travellers who began their journey three days prior to Deborah and I. We then dropped off our bags at the church we stayed at for the night and continued to look and wander around the city.




We (and by that I mean I) really wanted to visit St. Mary's Evangelical Church, because it has the body of Mihai the Bad in its crypt. Mihai the bad was the son of Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler - the person whom Dracula is based on) He served as ruler of Wallachia for three years before he was stabbed infront of the church after attending mass. Unfortunately the church was closed all day. FORTUNATELY we managed to catch a young Romanian man locking up the church and he took us 190 stairs to the top of the bell tower. (190 stairs is alot)





One of the views from the top.

We never did get to see Mihai's tomb. A big disappointment.
Sibiu was beautiful though. It was great to get out of the city and see that Romania is not covered with communist blocks, street dogs and mud.

Coming Soon: Sighisoara

Hello people!

After a semi-refreshing spring break I am back and ready for the last 8 weeks (EIGHT WEEKS!) of school!!!

This past week Deborah and I had the opportunity to travel around Romania. We spent about five days visiting various sites within the country. Lots of time on the train, lots of time seeing the country and lots of time figuring out where we were and where we were going next. I'll put some pictures up later this week.