To Lafayette and back in 10 days

While B was off on yet another research trip to Suceava in Northern Romania near the Ukrainian border, I seized the opportunity to make a quick journey to see my parents in LA. I was able to find a good deal on a plane ticket and managed to take a lot of stuff back to the US, especially our winter clothes, which would take up a lot of space and weight. This should help us when we return for good in July and have even more to take back with us. I had a nice time at home and it was wonderful to have a little break from Romania. I missed B a lot, but was able to run several errands and stock up on some supplies for our last month! I had a chance to go swimming several times that week, which was great. The weather was quite warm, but it’s amazing what a difference the presence of Air Conditioning can make! It was wonderful to indulge in all of the comforts of home. Dishwashers, clothes dryers, air conditioning, and garbage disposals, Oh My! Not to mention fully functioning plumbing. For about the first day and a half at home, I didn’t even leave the house! On Saturday afternoon, my mom and I indulged in some retail therapy and ran across several good sales in the mall. I also had a mind-blowingly easy trip to Target, where all the things I might want or need were readily available; the aisles were actually wide enough for more than one person and their carts and to top it all the cashier was actually friendly! It’s the small things that can make all the difference. As B was helping me get the bags up the stairs to meet the airport shuttle as I left (at 4:30 AM- a truly unnatural hour), we noticed the wheels on our lightest bag had broken. Luckily, my dad knew of a company that repairs luggage and I was able to get the bag fixed, so we can fill the bag and not worry about the weight of it taking up a lion’s share of the weight allowance. It was also really nice to be able to talk with friends on the phone, sometimes more than once and not have to worry about international time differences and planning Skype appointments. One call was especially important and fortuitous. I received a call from our storage company informing us that they had changed accountants and weren’t able to run the charges for our storage space the past few months! Thank goodness, I was able to give them new and updated information, as well as lots of contact info for the future since they only seemed to have my American cell phone number. Thank goodness I was able to talk with them before they decided to confiscate our things- crisis averted! It was nice to see my parents and of course there’s nothing like mom’s home cooking, especially after we had been travelling so much and eating in so many restaurants. Also, thank goodness for Skype so that I could talk with Ben almost every day, which made the distance more manageable. At the end of the week, it was time to head back to Bucharest. I again had to leave painfully early – darn those 6 AM flights! After a 3.5 hour wait (assisted by a little Starbucks boost) and a very quick visit with my brother in the Atlanta airport, I finally got to JFK for my last leg of the trip- a 10.5 hour flight to Bucharest! While having a direct flight makes things faster and reduces the chances of lost luggage, spending 10.5 hours captive in such a small space is no picnic. Luckily, the flight was not full and I was able to get two seats next to each other to myself and stretch out a bit, which was especially lucky because this flight did not have individual TV screens to choose movies to watch. I got a little bit of sleep on the flight, but was still really tired when I finally got to Bucharest. B came to pick me up at the airport with our landlords--I was so happy to see him! As hard as I tried not to fall asleep during the day, we were invited to meet friends for drinks that night and I knew I couldn’t stay awake that late and had a wonderful nap. I’m still fighting a bit of jet lag, but B and I have been seeing our friends a lot before they all head off to the US at the end of their Fulbright time and we went to a wonderful concert of Roma music Wednesday night. Now we are preparing for our friends Ferg and Sarah to come visit us tomorrow! -S