"They're Taking the Hobbits To Isengard!"

After saying goodbye to Emma's family in Chicago on Tuesday, we have finally arrived in Lugoj, Romania for atwo-week stay with her Aunt and Uncle's family, the Olariu's!

Lufthansa is amazing. After seeing the beverage cart go by the first time, I lamented to Emma that we could not afford any "premium" options. Later, we realized that some people were getting wine with their dinner plates and not being charged so we quickly asked the slick German flight assistant if these drinks were free. "Of course they're free, " he replied, surprised and somewhat disturbed by our question. "This isn't like, United, or something."



As I tend to process life through the blogs and youtube videos I devour in my spare time, I couldn't help but compare his response to this classic clip of Novak Djokovich. Now that I've rewatched the video, I no longer see the connection, but the clip is too good in its own right to not include it here.

Premium beverage options included in the cost of airfare isn't the only great thing about Lufthansa. Everyone on the plane has a little TV screen with hundreds of movie and television options. Emma and I had both brought several books for the trip and we had much to talk about since we would be landing in the mother country in only a few short hours, but the luminescent glow was too much to resist. The televisions rendered us incapacitated to the outside world of fellow passengers with interesting stories and perspectives. Normally I would take this opportunity to talk about the deplorable aspects of our media-obsessed culture, but how can I ignore the fact that without this plane flight and Lufthansa I would not have been able to see "Wrath of the Titans" followed by a German television show about a German actress learning to kayak down a class V waterfall? We did happen to sit next to several college students who were from--you guessed it--Wheaton College--headed for a four-week stay at a camp for orphans in the Ukraine, which just goes to show that you can never pass through the Chicago area without seeing someone connected to Wheaton.

....

We spent part of our seven hour layover in Dusseldorf taking a train into the city and walking around. I don't know much about Germany yet, but here's what I do know: lugenbrezels (pretzels) are amazing, and much cheaper outside the airport. We didn't really know where to go--hence the reason that I'm talking about lugenbrezels and not something actually interesting--and I'm glad that our next stop in Germany will be with friends who can guide us around.

....

Emma's cousins Manu and Deliah met us in Budapest and drove us 5 hours to Lugoj. The sun was just beginning to set as we arrived in Romania. We saw a gypsy family at the border--how did we know they were gypsies? The response I've heard from Romanians when asked how you know if someone is a gypsy is that "You just know" and I suppose now that that makes sense--and asked Manu a little about them. No one calls them the politically correct term Roma, but the other common names, while not entirely sensitive, are not meant to be derogatory. I'd like to learn more about the gypsy culture while we're here. Apparently some of them live in elaborate mansions. I asked Manu where they got all their money and he told me "digging for gold." Manu also told me after I asked what a cow was doing by the side of the road that cows are sacred in Romanian villages and should be bowed to in reverence. Note to American students on short-term missions trips to Lugoj: do not trust Manu.
...

So much to say already. I fear that Emma will tell me that I picked the most inane aspects of our trip to write about or that I will spoil actually being present in this place by writing so much. I'll try to be a more scrupulous blogger in the future.