A Romanian Christmas
Monday, December 27, 2010 by Sora Jay
Hey Everybody,
It was nice to talk to you guys on the phone. It makes me remember that you are real people. You guys are all really happy too. Nobody is happy in Romania the way that you guys are happy. Except for maybe the branch presidents here.
We had a branch Christmas party on Thursday, and they dressed us up in the traditional dress of the Oltenia region of Romania. I was going to send you some pictures, but this computer is a little more difficult than I expected so we'll see if I can get it to work. I also have pictures from Targoviste which is the place where the communist leader, Ciaocescu, was executed.
So, for Christmas Eve we did what all the Romanians do, we made sarmale (which is meatbally stuff wrapped up in pickled cabbage and boiled for a couple of hours). During the boiling we played board games and watched church movies. We invited and investigator to it as well and he really liked the movies. When the sarmalele were done he said that they weren't very good, so we just told him they were the American version.
I found out that I'm allergic to basil; I kept sneezing and stuff after we got it out to put it into the sarmale.
Before we did that we went around handing out special Christmas-time church invitations. We handed out all of ours and a lot of the elders' invitations. We met with all of our investigators earlier in the week because we figured they would be with their families on Christmas. When we were handing out the invitations we said 'Merry Christmas' in English to everyone. They all knew what that meant and some people were really pleased when they heard us say it with a good accent. Usually young people said 'thank you' or 'the same to you'.
Christmas in Utah is definitely different from Christmas in Romania. Normally you would expect 'the Christmas Spirit' to get everyone to be nice to each other and happy, but in Romania Christmas seems more like a competition and a really prideful thing because it's so commercial. People are only nice to people they know, and I have heard more people arguing and fighting than I ever have in Romania. Some people came caroling in our bloc and a lot of our neighbors started yelling at them and telling them to go away. We gave them a Book of Mormon and some oranges. They actually sang pretty well.
We visited one investigator a little bit too late because she was way too preoccupied with Christmas preparations to actually sit down and discuss with us. Her daughters were getting ready to go to a party and they were all dressed up nice. I taught the girls the word 'frumpy' in English to describe what me and Sora Ausen looked like.
It really just feels like we didn't have Christmas even though we had lots of parties with the mission the ward and our district. It didn't even snow. Today it is snowing though.
On new years the people usually shoot fireworks from their windows at people on the street, so we aren't allowed to be out roaming that evening.
Love,
Sora Jay
P.S. I will be in Bucharest on Thursday for Zone Training so I will probably get my package then.
It was nice to talk to you guys on the phone. It makes me remember that you are real people. You guys are all really happy too. Nobody is happy in Romania the way that you guys are happy. Except for maybe the branch presidents here.
We had a branch Christmas party on Thursday, and they dressed us up in the traditional dress of the Oltenia region of Romania. I was going to send you some pictures, but this computer is a little more difficult than I expected so we'll see if I can get it to work. I also have pictures from Targoviste which is the place where the communist leader, Ciaocescu, was executed.
So, for Christmas Eve we did what all the Romanians do, we made sarmale (which is meatbally stuff wrapped up in pickled cabbage and boiled for a couple of hours). During the boiling we played board games and watched church movies. We invited and investigator to it as well and he really liked the movies. When the sarmalele were done he said that they weren't very good, so we just told him they were the American version.
I found out that I'm allergic to basil; I kept sneezing and stuff after we got it out to put it into the sarmale.
Before we did that we went around handing out special Christmas-time church invitations. We handed out all of ours and a lot of the elders' invitations. We met with all of our investigators earlier in the week because we figured they would be with their families on Christmas. When we were handing out the invitations we said 'Merry Christmas' in English to everyone. They all knew what that meant and some people were really pleased when they heard us say it with a good accent. Usually young people said 'thank you' or 'the same to you'.
Christmas in Utah is definitely different from Christmas in Romania. Normally you would expect 'the Christmas Spirit' to get everyone to be nice to each other and happy, but in Romania Christmas seems more like a competition and a really prideful thing because it's so commercial. People are only nice to people they know, and I have heard more people arguing and fighting than I ever have in Romania. Some people came caroling in our bloc and a lot of our neighbors started yelling at them and telling them to go away. We gave them a Book of Mormon and some oranges. They actually sang pretty well.
We visited one investigator a little bit too late because she was way too preoccupied with Christmas preparations to actually sit down and discuss with us. Her daughters were getting ready to go to a party and they were all dressed up nice. I taught the girls the word 'frumpy' in English to describe what me and Sora Ausen looked like.
It really just feels like we didn't have Christmas even though we had lots of parties with the mission the ward and our district. It didn't even snow. Today it is snowing though.
On new years the people usually shoot fireworks from their windows at people on the street, so we aren't allowed to be out roaming that evening.
Love,
Sora Jay
P.S. I will be in Bucharest on Thursday for Zone Training so I will probably get my package then.
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