Heading home

Well, guys it is time to go home and we are tired!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We had a great time during our layover.  We met people from home so we had fun.  We will be home at around 9 PM tomorrow.  I will finish tell you my adventure story once we get back home.  My best to everyone.

almost home

I have so much to catch up on that the last few days have been a blur.  We road our first train to Burcharest from Targu Mures on Sunday night/morning.  Not only did we ride our first train, but there was gypsy man in there before us.  Here is what happened.  The train has sleeper cars which sleep 4.  When we bought our tickets for the train, I asked about buying the other ticket so we wouldn't have to worry about someone else sleeping in our car.  Adela, our host, said no, that they never put men and women in the same car.  And guess what happened, yes.  Krista opened the car door to our sleeper door and then slammed it shut again and looked at me strangely.  I said what and then she said there is a man in the room.  I said no way.  About that time the conductor came down the isle saying, yes, yes, your room.  We opened the door and the conductor turned on the light.  There slept a gypsy.  How did we know, he had all black on and those shoes that they wear.  It was very, very uneasy for us.  The conductor said that the man would be getting off a few stop down the way, which make us feel more comfortable.  It was funny because Krista and I decided to take turns staying awake until the man got off the train.  So every once in awhile she would nugh me and point to him.  But neither of us got much sleep.   Once he turned over on his side with his back facing us and all we could see was his shinny hiney.  It was not a good night.  Then we arrived in Bucharest, but that is awhole other story.  this is short and sweet, but I will write more later.   

Brianna

We went to a castle today and guess what happened. I was walking around and I heard "Hello, do you know Brianna Dragon?" I turned and what did I see but a little purple and pink dragon looking at me. He said that he had heard about a little girl in America that was named Brianna Dragon and he wanted to go visit her. He said he was thinking of flying there, because you know that Dragons have special powers in Romania; but he knew it was a long way for him to fly. I told him that my granddaughter was named Brianna Dragon and that maybe it was her he was talking about. I told him I would be glad to give him a lift in bag so he could visit her. So guess what Brianna, I am bring you a new little friend. He wouldn't tell his name he said that was a special secret for you and him alone. So Brianna, when MeMe comes home she has a special friend for you. I LOVE AND MISS YOU!!!! ME ME

Headed for Bucharest

It is 7 PM here on Friday night and it is 10:30 Friday morning there. We will be heading to Bucharest by train at midnight. We will not get there until Saturday morning early. I am not sure what we are supposed to see while we are there. Adela has arranged for someone to take us around the town and see the capital and things. I think we are all just so exhausted that we don't know if we are coming or going, even Adela. They have worked so hard to make our visit and enjoyable and educational one. I have met so many nice people. We ate lunch with Adela's family and her husband's family today. The grandmother is 89 years old. She had been working in the garden at 6:30 this morning. She was a very interesting women. She shown much love for us and was very appreciative for all the things she thinks we have done for her family. They grilled us a large meal and made special food for us. It was wonderful. I feel as if I am leaving part of my heart here with these people. I can't imagine how they survive on so little. It makes me realize how very very lucky I was to have been born in America with all my privileges and rights. We went by gypyse houses today. You can not even imagine the types of houses they live in, if they live in a house. Many of them just live out on the streets and beg from people or steal and lie. It is unimaginable. The principal at the school gave us special presents for Mr. Hibdon. They also gave us a flag of the country. It was amazing. At the school today the children sang songs to us. They had large outside activities for them to particapate in throughout the school yard. I have many examples for all to see. Some of these were things that we had not thought about doing ourselves with our students. So we have learned many new educational activities that we can take back to our classrooms. I am looking forward to coming home and giving everyone a big hug. I am sending kisses and hugs to everyone.
Kisha, check your email for a message. I will be home Tuesday. I will try and blog more along the way while in London.

Sadie and Hannah

I forgot to tell you. No, I can not understand most of the people. A few people speak English and luckly the lady, her husband, and oldest daughter that we came to visit speak English. They have made our stay easier.

No, I did not see any vampires. I did see a few bats fly out of the top of the castle though. Do they count. Hope you both have a great summer. Be looking in the mail. Something is coming your way.

Midnight

It is midnight here and I am the only one up, it is the same as home. They do not eat supper till around 9 PM here, so it is hard to eat and then go to bed. I wanted to blog about my trip to Bran Castle and Pesles Castle. It was wonderful. We had to ride in a school bus (van) for over 4 hours. The school district hired us a private driver to take us and 3 other teachers from the school. They had never been there either so it was an experience for all of us. It was funny because even the bus driver did not know the way and got lost a couple of times. But as I say, it was just another adventure for us to see new things. It was a beautiful day, but it is hot here; just like Oklahoma. I was and am really suprised at how hot it is. What is worse, no one has air conditioning in their cars. Everyone was sweating and the men began to stink. Did you know that the women here do not shave under their arms or legs? Nausty!! The other teachers that went also spoke English, so it was great to have a translator for each of us. Laura, teaches Romanian to the younger students. She is really cute and young. Freddy (I can't say or spell his real name) teaches English, Chemisty, and Physics to the older children. Wait until you see their math homework for the 5th grade. You guys will never complain again. I don't think I have even seen high schoolers do work like them. But the good thing is that they don't have books that weigh a ton. I am bring samples home for you to see. Back to the trip. The country side was beautiful. Do you know that you can tell the difference from a town and village by the height of the buildings. If they have large block of flats it is a town. If it has only small houses it is a village. Along the way their were many, many gypies along the road. Do you know that gypise boys can steal girls off the street to try them out for marriage? If they don't like them they can send them back to their parents after one week or less. Many horse drawn carriages were on the roads and people walking. You can also tell a gypy by the clothes they wear. Gypsy women wear very colorful long dresses. Men usually wear hats or all black. They look and act scary. I can see how count Dracula came to be from here. After much drive and admiring the country side we made it to Bran Castle. We saw many other castles along the way. You would look on the country side and see one on top of a mountain. Do you know it cost 4 to 6 lei for pop here? That is about $3 there and the bottles are all glass. It is like we were in the 60s. The castle was beautiful sitting up on the mountain top. It cost 25 lei to take pictures in the castle and another 20 lei to enter. I will explain the exchange when I get back. We had a great guide that showed and explained things great. When we walked into the castle, Freddy said you could smell the history. We later found out that is because the inside of the walls are full of mold from the age of the building. The castle is currently privately owned and the man allows tours. Unfornutely there were no stakes that he impailed people with still up. They had parts of the old wall open for us to see. I was suprised that it is a plain looking castle. No fancy furniture or fancy things around. We did get to walk up a very, very narrow secret passage. They said they found it originally behind the fire place, but the opening was later moved when the queen stayed there. It was very scary and difficult to walk up, because it was so small. There was a rope to help pull yourself up with, because it was also steep. The original well was still there in the court yard. Many things are orginal from the building of the castle. I saw a path off to the side that was roped off and asked what it was. The guide said that at one time it lead to the draw bridge. And when the Turks had tried to invade the castle, they would pour hot coal oil on them to push them back. I have pictures. It is funny also that you can step into what was once two countries just a few yards away from the castle. The top of the castle was beautiful, but it had so many stairs, but what doesn't have stairs in this country. We met some people from WashingtonDC there. They helped us take pictures of each other and we returned the favor. After the tour we went shopping in the village square. I did not see any vampires at the castle, but the guide did say that they had not found one of the vampires bodies that was supposed to be buried on the grounds, so we had better beware.
One sight I forgot to tell you about were the Carpathian Mountains. They were amazing. They still had snow on their peaks. It was breath taking. On the very top of one peak was a cross. It was beautiful. The whole experience was amazing. That someone like me could have been given such an amazing opportunity and all the things I want to tell you about is a bit much to handle at times.
After this castle, they had arranged a surprise visit to another castle, Peleses Castle. On the way there it started raining. But we would not be turned back. Off we headed up a steep hill with trash bags on our heads to cover ourselfs from the down pour. Sound familiar, they said the rain was very unusual for this time of year. We said we brought it with us from Oklahoma. But once we got there we were glad we had made the trip. It was so different from the Bran Castle. It was all decked out is fancy furniture and gold. I can't wait to show you the pictures of the guilded room. The room is covered in gold. They said it was the queens favorite room. I know why since it was all gold. It had stained glass windows and even gold furniture. The other rooms were just as amazing. It was so beautiful that it is hard to explain. There are 70 rooms in this castle and at one time there were 15 servants that worked for the queen. Many of the room were designed by the queen from the furniture to the paintings. She even had a horse room. Horses were painted on the walls. This castle was fancy and fit for a king.
Then it was off to supper. We stopped at a very fancy restraunt in this village. But then again every place we have went to eat has been fancy. We did find a KFC and McDonalds, but we wanted to try something new. Boy have we tried new things. Some I cook for you when we come back, others I wouldn't fix for my dog. How is my dog, Brit? We got home around 11:00 PM. But we got to sleep until 9 this morning.
This evening as I said we went to a concert. It was an instrumental. The concert was held in this fancy building. It had a room called the hall of mirrors. Everything in it was made of gold. It was breath taking. I video taped most of the concert for you to see. It was funny the way they clapped for the people. They did it in harmony and a very exact way. It was also strange that at the door was a small gypsy boy begging for money. Earlier this afternoon when we were shopping, two gypsy boys approached us and said "family, money" over and over with their hands out. Even Laura said she was scared. They would not leave us alone. You could tell they were watching us and looking at our money. It was surprising that they allowed the boy to stand next to the door inside the building begging for money. The whole gypsy thing is a little scary when you listen to Adela. I will explain it all later.
When we got home, her husband had made us supper. So here we were eating late again. But at least I know that after all the walking and climbing I have done, I couldn't have gained any weight. If anything, I had better have lost some.
I have not found any pencils any where in this town. We are going shopping tomorrow before we head off to Bucharest, the capital of Romania. We are leaving here at 1:00 AM and taking a night train into Burcharest. Adela has arranged for us to have some help until we leave on Sunday afternoon for our stay in London. I am not sure when I will get to post again, I know I will be able to in London.
Brianna, I have not found you a pink teddy bear yet, but I am still looking. I think you will like what I found you for now. I will get you a teddy bear before I get home though. I have enjoy shopping today because we found a so called outlet store. I think everything is more expensive over here, even with the low economy.
NO, I wanted Adam to win. What happened. Adam was great. Chris was weird! I don't care if he was from Arkansas, I didn't like him. Oh well, I know Adam will be a bigger hit than Chris in the long run.
I MISS ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep blogging, because that is what is keeping me going for now. Everyone sends their best.

Thursday evening/morning

Here it is 6:30 PM and it is 9:30 AM there. But let me tell you all the things I have already done today. I have shopped till I think I am ready to drop. Oh, yes, I was ready to drop before I went shopping. I can't wait for all of you to see the things I have bought for you. We went walking, yes I said walking, all over town. Now, imagine a town the size of OKC and I am walking from the state capital to the Ford Center. That is just one half of the amount of walking I have done just today. We walked all over. Everyone in this town walks or rides taxis. Adela lives on the 4th floor, so I have had to climb up and down those many times every day. I am SICK of stairs. I have figured out we are a spoiled country in that we are used to riding or taking elevators everywhere. There are no entrances or accommadations for handicapped people. In fact,we have seen only 1 person in a wheelchair. Adela says that handicapped people just don't get out of the house, ever. I can't imagine being in my house all the time just because they don't want to help me. You have to step over door entrance. Every where you have to walk up flights and flights of stairs. I said I am ready to come home to my comfortable life style. If I have learned one thing for sure it is that we are a blessed country that we have so many advantages and rights. We are going to some big concert at a big building in town. It is only held once in this town every few months and it is very, very hard to get tickets. Their principal got front row tickets for us. We are so honored. Tomorrow we go to the school to take part in a fun day. The children are going to be doing different games and things. We are to present about our school and state tomorrow morning , so I will be talking about you while you are asleep. We leave on the midnight train to Bucharest Friday night, your Thursday night. We will be in Buchares for one full day and part of another. We will then fly to London and spend two nights and one day there. It seems like we just got here and are already having to leave, but I am ready to come home. I miss alll you guys. By the way, who won American Idol? I can not watch tv and I want to know who won. I have not even seen a tv since I have been here. It is time for us to go to the concert, so I will go for now and write more later when we get back. Keep blogging.. Thanks for the blog Karessa, Braden, Brittany, Bailee, and the rest of you who are reading this. It means a great deal to hear from you. When I read you blogs I see you and your smiling faces. I LOVE and MISS all of you.

Draculas Castle

I am sorry I did not get to post yesterday, but the computer would not connect. I am only posting a \quick hello since we are going shopping today. We went to Draculas Castle yesterday. It wasn't as scary as I thought it would be but the guide was great. I filmed the whole tour, so you will have much to see. I have taken so many pictures, the principal says it will take you guys the whole year to watch. I have so much to tell you. I will write more later this evening or in the morning for you. It is noon here and you are all asleep there at 3:40 am there. I love getting your posts and please keep them coming. I MISS and LOVE all of YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you Mrs. Johnson for helping the kids keep in touch with me, you don't know how much it mean. I will write more later.

Tuesday

It is now Tuesday morning at midnight and you guys are just getting up or finishing you Monday day. When you go to bed tonight I will be getting up. Confused, trust me not as much as I am . Krista has become the keeper of the Oklahoma watch and is always trying to tell me what time it is back there. I will probably figure it out by the time I get back. Let me begin to tell you how my day went. I was up at 6:00 am on Monday here, that is Sunday night at (I think) 11 pm your time. I couldn't go back to sleep. So they were up moving around so I got up. Adela drove her younger three children to school and then brought me back some wonderful warm fresh bread. Can you tell how delicious it was. After we ate we walked about 10 minutes to where Krista and Shirley are staying at a hostel. It was the busiest street I think I have ever been on and the most interesting. No trucks or large vehicles were anywhere. Cars were parked on the sidewalks and rushing everywhere. I don't think I have ever seen any worse drivers in my life, but that is another story for later in the day. After we got Krista and Shirley we came back to Adela's house. Did I tell you she lives on the fourth floor of a 9 story building with 28 apartments in it. I have walked up more steps in these two days than I have in the last 20 years, but then again that is another story. We then went to the salt mines. Tell Mr. Hibdon that I got as much pictures as I could from the car as we were driving by. Did I mention how crazy they drive, oh that is another story. We first stopped at the place to pick up our tickets for the sleeper train that we are taking to Bucharest on Friday night at 1 AM. That was 75 lei each. Figure that out in dollars. The streets were amazing. People were everywhere and I do mean everywhere. The streets were lined with couches and soft chairs with umbrullas for the people to sit on the streets. We saw people selling lottery tickets, sell the use of their scales to find out how much you weight (for 50 lei), ice cream stands, restrauants (even saw a KFC and McDonalds), stores everywhere and the most fabulous clothing stores. The problem is that we can't figure out the money, so we don't know if we are getting a good deal or not. The we were off to the salt mines about an hour away. Now for the crazy driving stories. The speed limit (or should I say the speed limit they don't have) is supposed to be 80 miles a hour. But that would have been nice. No one gets a driving license until they are 18 years of age. I can understand why. Adela would not have a drivers license in our country for long. She passed on no passing zones, drove right on a person's bumper, went around corners with out looking both ways and then so many other things I can't even explain. I closed my eyes most of the times, because I was SCARED to death and was nearly killed once. She passed a 18 wheeler on a hill, going around a corner, in a no passing zone, with a horse drawn carriage in front of it, and other cars around. Not only did the 18 wheeler that almost hit us hit his horn, but so did they 18 wheeler that she passed. And the driver of the horse buggy yelled things that I can only imagine they meant. Let's just say that we were all praying and saying our good byes, because we thought we were goners. She just laughed and said that as long as she didn't get caught, that she was a good driver. NOT!!!! I have never been more nervous about getting into a car with anyone in my life. So if I die from a car accident you will know why. That was only one incident and this went on all day. I finally just decided to keep my eyes closed the whole time back. I won't mention the words that Krista and Shirley said when this was all going on. We tried to explain our laws to her, but I don't think she thought they were good. I forgot to tell you that over here if you have an accident and it is your fault you automatically loose your license for 2 months. How do I know this, her husband lost his and is getting it back at the end of this month for a fender bender. Now if he is caught driving without a license during that time he automatically goes to jail for 6 months. I don't think I would drive and risk it. No one can get their drivers license until they are 18 over here. They have to take lessons, take a written test, then a driving test, and then get their license. But I don't think that is enough and I think you will agree after you watch the video I took from the back seat of her car.
The salt mines were awesome. We drove into this mine about a mile under ground. The driver of this drove nuts too. There was no room between the wall and the bus, so I don't know how he kept from hitting the wall, but thank god he did. We walked down about a half a mile further in the ground. Remember I said I had walked a lot today. Well, this was just the start, no the stairs down 4 flights was the beginning, this was the continuation. The mine was awesome. I can't wait to show you the pictures. The mine goes back to the Roman time. It has a full play ground in it. Along with a church that has regular services in it. It was beautiful. There was play equipment throughout it. The salt mines are great for the asthma children and helps clear out their lungs. So they want the children to have a good time down there, so they have TV's and all kinds of games and rides in it. I even tasted the walls, and yes they were salt. The floor looked like glass, but it is salt too. When our time was up, then it was the long walk back up the steps. Now, Adela's daughter said she only counted 268 steps, but I think she missed a few. All I know is that when I get back I should have the best looking thighs there are in our school or I won't be able to move and be in a wheelchair until they return to normal. Then we went to the Bear Lake. They wouldn't let us go through the bear cave, because they were working on it, but we got to see where it was. Then we stopped at several stores along the way back. She has made us wonderful suppers of many of Romanian treats and believe it or not they are good. I even liked the one with duck pate in it. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I gave it a try and really liked it. They start every mean with soup, then a meat and vegetable, then dessert.
Now teachers are you ready for how much money she makes a month. Hold your horses because you won't believe it, $300 a month. Her rent is $35 a month for a one bedroom, one bath, and one living room/bedroom. She leaves water by her door for the lady that cleans the steps. It would cost her $50 a month to rent a garage for her car, but she can't afford it. She pays $100 for utilities. The children do NOT spend any time on the TV. You heard me, they are not glued to the TV after school. They are either playing games or on the computer playing games. She has to pay for a child minder for her younger children until she gets home from work every day at 6 PM. They usually have supper around 8:00 PM. Only the oldest can speak a little English, but the youngest can say (and does say) cheese every time he sees a camera.
It was a long day and I am getting tired. Tomorrow we go to the school and teach a lesson and meet the students. On Wednesday, they have arranged for us to go with a group of students and other teachers to visit Dracula's castle. Just what I wanted to go on field trip and watch a group of children on my vacation. Just kidding. I think it is great that they arranged their trip to go along with our visit. We will be traveling on a school bus with other teachers. I will post more tomorrow. I hope you all miss me as much as I miss you.

WE ARE HERE!

We have made it to Romania. It was a long 14 hour trip on the plane. We left Dallas at Saturday, May 16. 5:30 Pm and arrived at Sunday, May 17th @ 9:30PM. The town is big/huge. It was dark but we could tell the place was beautiful. They fixed us a huge meal. I am so stuffed that I thought I would burst. We had a meatball soup, that I can't wait to make for you guys. We had chicken, pork, mushrooms, and then dessert. I hurt I ate so much, but the breads and things were great. We are going to the salt mines tomorrow and then sight seeing. I am not sure what is truly planned, but I am playing along. Shirley and Krista are staying at a hostel and I am staying with the family. I thought it would be good for me to stay with them since they were kind enough to let us come visit. They have 4 children from ages of 7 on up to 12. Brittany, Alina is as tall as you are. She acts like any other young girl. She like Hannah Montana just like you guys do. The boys like Sponge Bob and are into Winnie the Pooh too. One of the boys is very hyper and the other is quiet. Brent, you would like the younger one, he would love to wrestle with you. I am taking a lot of pictures and have already asked many questions. Secondary students are in the 5th on up and they go to school for either 1 or 2 until 6 or 7 in the evenings. There were a lot of people walking the streets at 10 pm. We were all suprised at the number of people on the streets. It is very warm here, not like our warm but just right. It rained on us most of the way here, but once we got here it stopped and the sky was nice. We didn't get to spend much time in London, since we had to rush to the air plane. But I saw one heck of a car they were giving away. The boys will love the pictures of it and want one. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't mind having one myself. I guess I don't have much else to say for now. I am not for sure if I should be going to bed or getting up in Oklahoma, but here it is 12 midnight and they say it is time for me to go to bed since tomorrow is a long day. But then this whole day has been a long day and night and then part of another night. It has all run together. I will blog more tomorrow. I look forward to hearing from you guys.