I woke: Snow Surprise! and last day of school!!

Tuesday morning I awoke to snow. It was snowing; soft bits of dust.

All over...

That morning, was the beginning of a long but festive day.
The day before, I went and saw a class give a Christmas presentation to their parents. They dressed in the appropriate Christmas apparel and presented about the history of Christmas in Romania and sang carols.

Then I went to another school and saw more caroling, and dancing goats dancing to the beat of a drum...and they were tall and were made of trash bags...or they can be made of hay.

The next day! That LAST DAY OF SCHOOL! (okay, not my last day, but the kids')
I saw little kindergartners sing and dance!! So cute! and they had to say a poem too but some can't speak well yet, so it was way cute. P.S. That little girl is a goat, and she was a sad sad little goat who wanted out of the costume. Awww. I give her credit for keeping it on (a brave face) until the very end.



Then scary Santa was bashing on the window from outside and came in to give all the kiddies their gift from Santa. In Romania, there's Saint Nicolas who comes and leaves a gift in your boot on the 6th of December, and then there's Santa Clause who comes and leaves a gift under the Christmas tree on the night of the 24th. Ergo, you need a Christmas tree. In general, people here have sobas/ceramic stoves or a heating unit in apartments (no chimneys).

Those were the small kindergartners ages: 3-4.
THEN: I went to Mastacani and I watched 8th graders read an epic poem about Christmas, and I took lots of pictures. More like I gave "trained" students my camera so I could be in the pictures =)


Muahahahah

Then we were playing in the snow =)

I don't even know if the kids had class...maybe it was recess, maybe not, but oh well, I'm not their teacher.


See! Not the photographer! I'm being photographed!


When it got too cold: Run to the Soba! Warmth warmth!

Pictures pictures with all. What would we do without my digital camera?
,

Kapow! In the head! But I still love the kids.

To top it all off:
The teacher's van slid backwards when at the intersection to the highway.

Instead of lending then a hand, I decided to take pictures. Watching teachers and school principles push a van is funny. I'm terrible.

Let the good times begin! -11C tonight! But there's snow!! Hurray!

It's not Winter in California when...

o You can see your breath in your bathroom and kitchen.
o You are stepping on an iced puddle at 10:50am.
o You can still see your breath at 11am, and again starting at 4am.
o You have to burn wood every single evening, and sure it's fun, but it has to be done!

There's some others, but here's a video of the first snow I've had in Romania, and I think ever. I've seen and felt hailing a few times in my life, but never fluffy cottenlike snow. I was staying over at Mihaela's that weekend, and her block's heating was t-shirt and shorts weather.
Blocks all have their heat controlled by the city (some apartments can adjust how much heat comes in through the radiators, but not at Mihaela's place). You can hear her asking her son if he's "cu minte" (which means have you been "of mind" or have you been good?) and in the background you can hear him say "da" (which means yes!). =) Dragos is way like my godbrother Evan.