why i love romania...

where to begin? that’s probably far too broad of a topic to cover in the space of one blog post, but i’ll see if i can cover at least part of it… i do love this place. it’s quirky & it’s weird, & almost every day i’m here i find myself looking at something & asking myself “is this real life?” like the time i rolled out of bed & walked down the stairs only to find a freshly slaughtered pig on the kitchen table. or when we’re on our way to brasov & we have to wait for 15 minutes for a shepherd to herd his sheep across the middle of a main road during rush hour traffic. or how my neighbors decorated their house for christmas with an ungodly amount of neon blue twinkle lights that flash all.night.long—i can se them flashing through my window even when my eyes are closed. or the brass band that wakes us up on christmas morning playing the same song over & over again every year, playing at every house’s gate until you give them money, & they’re slightly (or maybe not-so-slightly) off key. or the dirty-faced gypsy kids that try to rollerblade on the gravel road in front of our house. or how friends will invite themselves over for a visit & stay for 8 hours. or how once i saw a romanian man selling piglets from the trunk of his car on the side of the road...


romania’s quirky without a doubt, but it’s also beautiful beyond words. i wish i could explain how breathtaking it is, and the pictures don’t even begin to do it justice, but oh my goodness it’s beautiful. the mountains are spectacular, and mountain snow is so perfect that it looks like each snowflake was placed exactly where it is. and when the sun hits it just right, it looks like crushed diamonds, and i think it’s one of the most beautiful things in the whole world.


i could go on, but honestly i think that the reason i love romania as much as i do doesn’t have as much to do with “romania” itself per se, but rather the things that i’ve experienced since i’ve been here, people i’ve met, stories i’ve acquired, places i’ve been, things i’ve learned… like interviewing the president of a gypsy village for the school newspaper, or taking the train across the country by myself as a 16-year-old to stay with a family of gypsies, or the time a romanian woman told me that america was the most dangerous country in the world because there is a volcano erupting on every corner. or the countless hikes, camping trips, bike rides we’ve been on & all of the beautiful places we’ve seen. the precious, precious people that have become so dear to me over the years & who treat me like family even though i see them once, maybe twice a year. the way i’ve been able to see so clearly how the kingdom of God is so much bigger than the deep south & how it’s going to be made up of broken, quirky, messed up people just like me.



-katy