November Gratitude #3

Whaaaaat three weeks of November have happened already? Are you sure? I have no idea where time goes. It's very confusing. At this rate, I'll be back home next month or something. (Just to clarify, I actually won't.)

So this is week three of the things I'm thankful for! You can find week one here and week two here.

View from my apartment this weekend

November 17: Days when my host mom and I get along. The stars aligned and we were both in a good mood. She showed me how to make plăcintă and helped me figure out better washing machine settings (which included translations from Russian to English to Romanian - the machine is German but has Russian and English labels), and then at dinner we stuck around talking for a while about tons of different things.

November 18: Lilo! I miss my little puppy and it's her birthday today!! So I hope she gets spoiled even more than usual (is that possible? Unlikely) and eats a lot of treats. Speaking of dogs, I'm thankful that our dog here is warmer. She doesn't get to come inside, which breaks my little heart, but they moved her up closer to the house and made her a better house, so A. I can play with her now (before I had to trudge through the garden) and B. She should be warm during the winter. I hope! 

November 19: Rainboots. Or whatever kind of heavy-duty boots I have, because thankfully, they work. What does the sun look like? I have no idea. I can't recall; it's been so long. But at least my feet are dry.

Probably colder than I look, even. And wetter.

November 20: Obviously, Becky. It's her 23rd birthday so I'm thinking of her even more than usual, which is already a ton, as we talk almost every day. I love that she can't stand when I don't have Internet for a day and if I forget to tell her when I know in advance, she freaks out and thinks something terrible has happened. I love that we still need each other's advice 5,000 miles away, from serious life stuff to Snapchats asking which scarf matches the outfit of the day. I love that I can count on her to always be either on my side or to have a logical reason not to be. And I love knowing that when I get home in 2 years, she'll still be there ready to be my favorite person in person again. (Actually, she'd better be at the airport to pick me up, or I take all of this back. Just kidding..... But seriously.) 👯✌️✌️

November 21: When people who you haven't seen in a while are just ready and willing to embrace you, figuratively and literally. So many people made today a great day that I couldn't begin to list them all. Special shoutout to my adopted Bunică for always being one of those people. 

November 22: The sun was shining today and that's both a fact and a summary of the day. I had the best sleep I'd had in forever in the comfiest bed, and then woke up and went shopping with two cool PCVs. We were so successful in finding things we were looking for, and it was so much more fun with company. I found the perfect present for my family and successfully navigated the post office in Romanian, so I'm pretty excited about that. Then I got to hang out with some more friends and eat some good food.. It was a very good day!

The menu just said "egg" so I was not expecting this.. But I thought it was good!

November 23: It's the opposite of fun to get up before 5am and walk 20 minutes in the dark to catch a rutiera. I have to do this if I have to be anywhere before noon. And whenever I come back at night, I have to walk back to my house in the dark. But soon this will all change! The bus is going to come all the way to my house now! So I won't have to struggle with bags and mud and darkness and cold to leave or get home, since host mom got her signatures and her support and her votes to make our side of the village a stop on the route. So I am very thankful for that. 

Next week will be the last in the November Gratitude series! Seriously, November, where'd you go?