So Mario called tonight while we were at FHE and we're into the orphanage tomorrow. There were mixed reactions from the group, which was a little surprising, but understandable. I'm not sure how everyone is going to like it, but I myself am elated. I keep seeing Alex's explosive grin and joy noise when I think about going back. And how I'm just going to attack him when I get in there. And how I'm going to ask Larisa a bunch of silly questions and see the silly stuff she does. It's going to be crazy silly fresh. Plus there's all new orphans and stuff so word! I'm trying to find the opportune time to request to go see Mihai and some of my other kids. I don't know Teo (my ticket in) that well. In fact I think most of the Psychologists probably think I'm a little weird for trying to do certain things the other times I was here. But I'm wow really excited.
Brasov was fun... and getting there just about gave me PTSD. I missed the train from Bucuresti to Brasov, because it was time to board and three of the girls were not where the rest of the group thought they were going to be. So I told everyone to get on the train and if they were there to send one person back to the platform to get me. It seemed like a good plan in my head. I ran around to the entrance of the train station back to the platform and to the waiting area and McDonalds and then back to the platform. I looked at my clock. I asked one of the ticket checkers in front of the platform, "Trenul pleaca acum?" ("Does the train leave now?") and pointing to a swiftly moving train she answered with a tone of disbelief, pity, and matter of factness, "A plecat." (it left). So like the man who doesn't want to wake up from a pleasant dream I ran after the train. Somehow I forgot that I was not superman and when put into a " more poweful" competition with a locomotive I would go down like a forgetful skydiver.
So I called Mario, our cultural informant and she told me I needed to get a stamp to change my ticket. There's something you should know about the trainstation in Bucharest. It has probably 50 ticket booths spread out over 4 central locations. Something you should also know about Romania: If you don't know how to say exactly what you want, you will get an earful of impatient condescending instructions. I suppose this is what a Mexican immigrint goes through every day. I went to casa de bilete (house of tickets; sounds like a state fair attraction doesn't it?), a woman told me to go to the next booth, because she couldn't help me. My train left without me, can I get this changed? I said in my best Romanian. She said no, you have to go to the information desk. I went to the information booth in the middle of the train station. She told me to go to the ticket house. I went back to a lady right next to the one I was at. A guy came up to me in line and asked to see my ticket and said he could help me. Then he introduced me to his friend that said he could change my ticket for 20 RON or approximately 8 bucks. Not so fast Shmecher! I thought and told him to hold on a second, which really meant I hope I never see you again. I then saw that there was an information booth in the ticket house. They showed me on a calculator the number 1517. I didn't know what that meant so I talked to someone in the next section of ticket booths with the number 15 over it. He gave me some attitude and then told me to go to number 1,2,3,4, or 5. I was like WTF does that mean? So I walked a little bit further and stood in line for another ticket booth and then looked up and saw the numbers and finally found number 4. I waited in line. You know like when you're about to pee your pants and there's like 10 people waiting for the same toilet? Yeah that kind of feeling. But then I looked around and saw there was an older lady asking to go before, because her train left in 10 minutes and another younger lady who seemed to be equally desperate. So we let them go ahead. It's hard to see others when you feel like you're fighting to keep your head above water, but when I saw that alot of people were in the same boat as I was, my attitude seemed petty. When I finally got to the front of the line, I chose my words carefully. I explained my situation the best I could. Mind that at this point, I didn't know how much I was going to pay or if they could change my ticket, what type of train I would be on. They have trains that take 3 hours and some that take close to 10 or 12 to the same places. I also didn't know if I was going to have to spend the night in Buc., which I am not a fan of in general, because of its "I'm going to eat you alive" atmosphere. I was kind of desperate mentally at this point. She took my ticket, stamped it and gave me another ticket. She asked for patru si cinci zeci, and I thought she said patru zeci, or 40 lei, which I started to pull out. A couple people around me pointed that it was too much. As I handed her the money, I thanked everybody for being patient with me, because I realized that they were probably waiting with similar anxiety. A couple people to my right gave me some gentle reassurance. As I walked away I saw that my ticket was for 3:30 (2 hours from the time I got it) and that it was the second highest class of train, so I would only be there 3 hours after the group got there. I walked outside of the train station to wind down and was overcome with gratitude for a minute. It was like being untied. It was like finally collapsing with a smile.
Our time in Brasov was great. Brasov is beautiful. There were concerts every night that we could watch from the street and I got time to spend with different members of the group. It was really cool to meet people in the hostel too. It's always a party in the hostels. Some of the girls had a hard time with that. I think I disappointed some of them, because I can adopt the irreverence pretty quickly. Everyone's a free spirit in these places and it's pretty fun to get to know them. I met a dude from spain that's gonna let me come eat pig ears with him some day and a lady from Belgium and some girls from Australia who watched the Simply Red concert with us. And a computer programmer from Texas who will eat just about anything went with us on the castle tour and we talked about how if we lived there, we'd probably have sword fights every day.
I'm feeling more connected to the group. I think we are all very bright and capable and loving individuals. I worry about the group getting along sometimes, and wish I could do more to promote that. I also wish I could be more than I am sometimes. It's difficult fitting into my role sometimes. I'm not a natural leader, I suppose. I second guess myself. I don't know what to say sometimes. I remember our facilitator Rayna, and I looked up to her so much. She made me feel like I could do this thing when I felt like I had no clue what was going on and she didn't act like she knew everything, even though in many ways I felt like she did. I don't know a lot (sometimes I pretend I do), but I love the children here and the people in the branch and am beginning to know the people in the group.
I can't really express the anticipation connected to this next statement:
9 hours and I see my kids face to face.
Brasov was fun... and getting there just about gave me PTSD. I missed the train from Bucuresti to Brasov, because it was time to board and three of the girls were not where the rest of the group thought they were going to be. So I told everyone to get on the train and if they were there to send one person back to the platform to get me. It seemed like a good plan in my head. I ran around to the entrance of the train station back to the platform and to the waiting area and McDonalds and then back to the platform. I looked at my clock. I asked one of the ticket checkers in front of the platform, "Trenul pleaca acum?" ("Does the train leave now?") and pointing to a swiftly moving train she answered with a tone of disbelief, pity, and matter of factness, "A plecat." (it left). So like the man who doesn't want to wake up from a pleasant dream I ran after the train. Somehow I forgot that I was not superman and when put into a " more poweful" competition with a locomotive I would go down like a forgetful skydiver.
So I called Mario, our cultural informant and she told me I needed to get a stamp to change my ticket. There's something you should know about the trainstation in Bucharest. It has probably 50 ticket booths spread out over 4 central locations. Something you should also know about Romania: If you don't know how to say exactly what you want, you will get an earful of impatient condescending instructions. I suppose this is what a Mexican immigrint goes through every day. I went to casa de bilete (house of tickets; sounds like a state fair attraction doesn't it?), a woman told me to go to the next booth, because she couldn't help me. My train left without me, can I get this changed? I said in my best Romanian. She said no, you have to go to the information desk. I went to the information booth in the middle of the train station. She told me to go to the ticket house. I went back to a lady right next to the one I was at. A guy came up to me in line and asked to see my ticket and said he could help me. Then he introduced me to his friend that said he could change my ticket for 20 RON or approximately 8 bucks. Not so fast Shmecher! I thought and told him to hold on a second, which really meant I hope I never see you again. I then saw that there was an information booth in the ticket house. They showed me on a calculator the number 1517. I didn't know what that meant so I talked to someone in the next section of ticket booths with the number 15 over it. He gave me some attitude and then told me to go to number 1,2,3,4, or 5. I was like WTF does that mean? So I walked a little bit further and stood in line for another ticket booth and then looked up and saw the numbers and finally found number 4. I waited in line. You know like when you're about to pee your pants and there's like 10 people waiting for the same toilet? Yeah that kind of feeling. But then I looked around and saw there was an older lady asking to go before, because her train left in 10 minutes and another younger lady who seemed to be equally desperate. So we let them go ahead. It's hard to see others when you feel like you're fighting to keep your head above water, but when I saw that alot of people were in the same boat as I was, my attitude seemed petty. When I finally got to the front of the line, I chose my words carefully. I explained my situation the best I could. Mind that at this point, I didn't know how much I was going to pay or if they could change my ticket, what type of train I would be on. They have trains that take 3 hours and some that take close to 10 or 12 to the same places. I also didn't know if I was going to have to spend the night in Buc., which I am not a fan of in general, because of its "I'm going to eat you alive" atmosphere. I was kind of desperate mentally at this point. She took my ticket, stamped it and gave me another ticket. She asked for patru si cinci zeci, and I thought she said patru zeci, or 40 lei, which I started to pull out. A couple people around me pointed that it was too much. As I handed her the money, I thanked everybody for being patient with me, because I realized that they were probably waiting with similar anxiety. A couple people to my right gave me some gentle reassurance. As I walked away I saw that my ticket was for 3:30 (2 hours from the time I got it) and that it was the second highest class of train, so I would only be there 3 hours after the group got there. I walked outside of the train station to wind down and was overcome with gratitude for a minute. It was like being untied. It was like finally collapsing with a smile.
Our time in Brasov was great. Brasov is beautiful. There were concerts every night that we could watch from the street and I got time to spend with different members of the group. It was really cool to meet people in the hostel too. It's always a party in the hostels. Some of the girls had a hard time with that. I think I disappointed some of them, because I can adopt the irreverence pretty quickly. Everyone's a free spirit in these places and it's pretty fun to get to know them. I met a dude from spain that's gonna let me come eat pig ears with him some day and a lady from Belgium and some girls from Australia who watched the Simply Red concert with us. And a computer programmer from Texas who will eat just about anything went with us on the castle tour and we talked about how if we lived there, we'd probably have sword fights every day.
I'm feeling more connected to the group. I think we are all very bright and capable and loving individuals. I worry about the group getting along sometimes, and wish I could do more to promote that. I also wish I could be more than I am sometimes. It's difficult fitting into my role sometimes. I'm not a natural leader, I suppose. I second guess myself. I don't know what to say sometimes. I remember our facilitator Rayna, and I looked up to her so much. She made me feel like I could do this thing when I felt like I had no clue what was going on and she didn't act like she knew everything, even though in many ways I felt like she did. I don't know a lot (sometimes I pretend I do), but I love the children here and the people in the branch and am beginning to know the people in the group.
I can't really express the anticipation connected to this next statement:
9 hours and I see my kids face to face.
2 comments:
Oh, Robby. First of all--I heart the title of the post. Sorry about the drama with the train! Reading this made me remember how Romanians did seem especially hostile to the poor American kids trying to garble out their strange tongue. I remember thinking, geez, I'm trying! Give me a break! The ladies who worked in the corner store by Podul would always roll their eyes when I tried to ask for things. their were some awful teenage boys at the hospital who would follow me around asking me questions and would bust up laughing when I said either Da or Nu. I don't know how I could have been mispronouncing monosyllabic words of affirmation or negation but apparently I was. I hated on them for awhile but then decided I was being ethnocentric. "Behaving in a wretched manner to Americans" is a HUGE Romanian cultural value so I have to respect it. :) Also: YAYYYYY for seeing the kids!!!! It will be hard for me to read those posts but I am so happy for you! Give them all a big hug for me!
I am so proud of you Robbie! I hope you are having a good time and cant wait to hear more.
Love you,
Amber Moss
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