Marghita Days

Every year on the last weekend of September our town bursts alive for 'zilele Marghitei'. This weekend of festivities first occurred in 1967 and is firmly seated in the towns calendar of events. The main road is cordoned off and filled with food stands and market stalls and fair ground rides. It's a riot and we've been enjoying the most of the sunny day walking around and soaking in the many different smells sounds and tastes. We've been joined at different parts of the day by some of the local gypsy kids who have shared our food and joined us on the rides. We have also watched some children performing dances on stage in the park. It was hard to see over the crowd so Kiki hiked up a tree to get the best seat in the house. We topped off the day with some chocolate covered freshly made doughnuts and headed home - where I am grateful for the lack of the usual main stage and its pumping music. At least this year my windows aren't shaking in their frames!! Here's a little look at our laugh filled day.

Starting School

So we or I should say Cristi finally started school. He was super excited and came running into my room jumped on my bed and proclaimed in English "I wanna go school now" with a great big goofy smile on his face.
Yesterday we had the induction to meet his teacher and classmates and of course in the great style that is Romania we found out which class he would be going into at 22:30 the night before. It seems to have been worth the wait though because his teacher seems lovely so hopefully she is. She is young probably a couple years older than me and hopefully less likely to have and use the "big stick" which his friends informed him the teachers use when their pupils are naughty/non-listening.
Of course his backpack which we bought here broke the first day before he even got to put any new books in but I guess something has to go wrong. The shop keeper looked at me completely perplexed when I took it back to ask for an exchange "what do you want me to do about it, I just sell them. It's not my job to replace it if it breaks - who knows what you've been doing with it at home." This of course frustrated me but made me wonder more what exactly can one 'get up to' with a back pack in their home? (ideas please!)

Today was his first proper day in class and his little face was so scared when I left him and unfortunately I have to admit I fall into the parenting category of weepers on their child's first day of school. In fairness though I think it dredges up too many feelings from the past and how awful it was every time I had to take him back to the orphanage I'm so very glad that is not the case anymore!
Of course when I went to pick him up he was full of smiles and had had fun. Though he thought it was funny they hadn't done any work today and had only played and talked. Enjoy it now kiddo I say, I guess the next few days/weeks will show if he will still enjoy it when he receives the 2 hours of homework most of them will get everyday. What a great education system! It's going to be a crazy year.

Oh and if you want to see the rest of Rebecca's trip check out the album I put up on facebook by clicking here

My lovely cousin or 'Auntie Rebecca' as we like to call her has come to stay with us for a week. It's smashing!! Today we took a walk through the forest on the outskirts of town in the pouring rain. It was refreshing and as we wandered through the greenery and soaked in (literally) the atmosphere I remembered how beautiful and fun these quiet (minus the boys who were pretending to be dogs and barking at the top of their lungs) Sunday walks are especially when shared with family. Although she thinks I'm playing the part of the paparazzi I quite enjoyed recording these moments and wanted to share a few with you - including the new ingenious way we devised for making s'mores when its raining!!