First Impressions

Buna! (Hello!) I've been in Romania for two weeks now, but I hadn't been able to do anything that I signed up for until today. One of the babies at the orphanage potentially has measles, so the government wouldn't let us go in to any parts of it until today. All eight of us were able to go visit two apartments that house the kids that are almost ready to be put in a foster families. Today was also my first chance to visit the children at the hospital. My group got to see 3 and a half kids today! One baby, one has bad burns, another has cerebral palsy (we nicknamed him Caleb), and the fourth had a woman with him and seemed to be doing okay. We played with the first two and helped stimulate Caleb by holding his hands and showing him books. I gave a wooden car to the last boy that we saw. He didn't have much with him and he seemed happy to have it.

The Hospital

It's been hard not knowing when I would be able to visit any of my kids for this long, but I love them already! I am so excited to meet them tomorrow! While we haven't been able to do much here in Iași other than explore, we had the opportunity to travel around Romania a little bit. We took a bus to Brașov, which is where Bran/Dracula's castle is. We visited that castle, Peleș castle, and Râșnov fortress on a tour through the hostel that we stayed at. The hostel is called Kismet Dao, and it was great! Comfortable beds, free breakfast, towels, and sheets, and really friendly staff! AND THEY HAVE A DOG, which was probably my favorite part. Here are some of my favorite pictures from this adventure:

Bran Castle

Inside Bran Castle

The view from Râșnov

Râșnov view

Group picture in Brașov 

The Black Church

Peleș Castle

Rope Street- one of the narrowest streets in Europe!

Thanks for reading! Sorry I haven't writted anything really about how Romania really is, I promise I will in my next post. I've just been so excited to be here and to be able to go to the orphanage tomorrow!