here’s a few things I’ve experienced about the culture in Romania so far. I hope they give you a giggle 🙂 I love it here!
very fast drivers. like scary fast. the 2nd day of ministry, Nathan, Philip, & I were on our way to some Roma villages to hand out clothes and shoes and our driver was driving SO FAST! I was in the middle of the back seat between the two of them gripping the seats in front of us. our driver thought it was hysterical how terrified I was in the back seat. & only the people in the front seat have to wear seat belts so that’s fun too haha
here’s me and my girlies in the car in greece 🙂
manual cars. yep. these people are zipping down these roads while SHIFTING GEARS which I honestly think is low key impressive. also even tho everyone drives kinda crazy there’s no dents or scratches on the cars which I think is REALLY impressive.
park anywhere. cars are literally parked on curbs and then other cars parallel park next to them which confuses me bc then they can’t get out ???
horse carriages! yes! every once in a while we’ll see a horse carriage on the road which I think is super cool! also one of the lovely gals on my team LOVES horses. we made a joke about how she wants to do horse ministry in Romania heheh
allllll the doggos. there’s stray pups all over the place! we met some locals and they pointed out one dog in particular that they had named Sunday bc — get ready — they had found him on a Sunday. we give him lots of snacks and water and he’s just so darn cute. apparently he’s not a big fan of pizza but loves sandwiches haha. so yeah Sunday is basically our squad dog now.
everyone is skinny! which literally blows my mind bc all they eat is bread! OHMYGOSH we found the b e s t place for breakfast that serves these pretzel things but they’re covered in honey. I know I know it sounds kinda weird but I SWEAR it’s sososososoooo good. & they also have these lil rings of bread that are full of melted chocolate and those SMACK too 😉
wedding dresses. in the city there’s literally a wedding dress shop on every street. so yes, I’m waiting on my Romanian man to come find me 🙂
city life. there’s stuff happening in the city ALL THE TIME! we’ve been here for a week and there’s already been a huge concert festival and street race. so yeah that’s kiiiinda sick if you ask me! we live about a 15ish minute walk from the city where everythingggg is which is so awesome!
KFC. that’s right. there’s a Kentucky fried chicken right down the street from our ministry house. one of our team leaders is from Kentucky and our ministry host, Raul, jokes about how stepping into KFC is like a lil slice of home for her. I’m actually sitting in KFC right now using their wifi to post this blog haha
stuff is SO CHEAP compared to the US. the currency the people in Romania use is called lei, and every $1 is 4 lei. we usually get a budget for 20 lei ($5) a day to spend on food, but it really does last. one day our team all pitched in some money and were able to buy a chicken for lunch! like a whole roasted chicken! and it was only 10ish lei. so don’t worry folks there are no hungry racers here 🙂
here’s my gals anna & emi feasting on a chicken
Cairo, Romania is ONLY 12 hours away from Greece! we got the opportunity to spend 2 days down in Greece as our “adventure days” (I’m posting a blog on greece very soon so stay tuned hehe)
there’s chickens. one of our neighbors has a rooster than CONSISTENTLY starts cock-doodle-doo-ing at 5:30am every. day. we’re still trying to come up w a name for the rooster so let me know if you have any suggestions!
smile. I guess I just have a habit of smiling at strangers when I walk by. most of my squad is like that, as well. & we’ve all noticed how when we smile at local people they just kinda look at us and don’t smile back. someone asked Raul about it & he said that that was part of the reason we were here — to give these people hope!!
safety. i has read that Craiova was kind of unsafe & was a little nervous about it before leaving. but honestly I haven’t really felt threatened at all! one time my team was in line for pizza and one of the locals told us we should put our backpacks on the front. we did but I definitely didn’t feel like I needed to! I know that we are a target bc of where we come from. so yes, we still say cautious and yes, we still feel safe.
bikes & scooters. those are BIG in Craiova. kids are scootering everywhere. there’s even skate parks!
OOOH I HAVE A STORY ABOUT THE BIKES HERE! okay so some friends and I were walking home from dinner and these two boys, probably like 15ish come zoomin by on their bikes and this older man came out of NOWHERE and one of the boys almost hit him w his bike. he swerved and stopped, and the man swings his briefcase and tries to whack this kid w it while he pedals away. so I’m watching all of this happen and I’m laughing but also confused. like that kind of stuff just doesn’t really happen where I’m from?
it gets really cold. & then really hot. which is a lot like the weather in NC but still haha. it’s always super cold in the morning when I wake up. but by the afternoon when we’re doing ministry, it’s h o t. layers are a racer’s best friend when it comes to figuring out how to dress!
people are nice! one of the pizza places we go to has one of the sweetest ladies working there! she doesn’t speak a ton of English, but she’s always so friendly and kind and also blows us kisses hehe. the other day after some friends & I got our pizza I went back up to the window and told her how she always makes our day when we come get food from there! I told her how our whole squad knows about her and really appreciates how nice she is! even though I’m sure she didn’t understand all of what i said, she was so happy to hear how much we appreciated her and gave us all hugs! so I encourage you all to encourage others bc it really makes a world of difference! 🙂
now for some pictures!
here’s a picture of the view from one of the windows in our team’s room (yes we are all sleeping on air mattresses on the floor and yes they are actually very comfy!)
here’s our beauuuuuutiful staircase in our mission house. even though it’s gorgeous, it doesn’t have any handrails! & i’m so surprised that i haven’t taken a tumble down these bad boys yet bc i’m so clumsy haha
here’s our lovely staircase from the outside 🙂
thank you all so so SO much for your support & for reading my blogs! y’all are amazing <3
God is good!
Maddie Chase
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maddiechase.theworldrace.org
