We have been spending most of the week getting accustomed to Bucharest. We have learned how to ride the metro (quietly), the bus, and the trams. We have also had an interesting taxi ride. Additionally, we have learned how to say a few words, get around, and buy things we need using a money system that is in transition. Our main ministry thrust this week has been to help Lavinia and Bubba with whatever they have needed assistance with. Dana has been an especially big help with little Bogdan while Lavinia gets the English Institute going. We will start our teaching duties on Monday.

Yesterday after spending time at the Cook's apartment, Dana and I headed out alone for a little tour of downtown and some of the historical areas of Bucharest. They have turned on all the fountains and they look wonderful. We also walked down to the People's Palace and marveled at how big it is (it is the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon). We will tour it within the next few weeks. We then headed to a beautiful park near downtown and enjoyed walking the backstrokes seeing old houses and buildings. These times are allowing us to get a better feel for the city.

While on our walk, we had two experiences I've never had in Bucharest before. While beggars are a typical part of the Romanian experience, I've never had to deal with and that were aggressive. Yesterday near the fountains we had two 12 year old boys who would not leave us alone and were getting in our personal space. It got a little scary and I was saddened that no Romanian citizens around us helped us in any way. Later, Dana had an old, crazy man spit on her. We are not sure it was on purpose but it wasn't pleasant. Dana is taking all of this in stride. We understand that there are going to be things here that we are not used to and may not want to be a part of but it all goes into the pot of experiences makes us more knowledgeable. Don't worry... we were never in danger during these events.

I may or may not have a chance to post for the next few days because we are going to take a short side-trip to the mountains before the institute starts. I don't know it there will be Internet access up there. Good day.