Looking Back...

Coming up on the two year mark, it’s hard to imagine that I only have 3 months left. Given I have not been back to the Motherland since I left two years ago, I am ecstatic to go home. If it weren’t for that one key factor (never going home), I truly believe it would be beyond difficult to leave. As I’ve mentioned several times before, I like life here. I have made new friends, new hobbies…essentially, a new life. Regardless of any frustrations and negative aspects…even if had all been negative, it would still be hard to leave because nevertheless, this has been my life and let’s be honest…change is hard.

I’m sure I’ll have many more reflections to come before I leave but looking back, I started to think about all the opportunities that I have encountered. So far… in 2 years I have:

*Fallen in 0 holes in the streets of Cȃmpulung

*Pooped my pants Once

*Received 1 dog nip

*Found a cat in my house Twice

*Gone through 2 pairs of Yak Tracks

*Probably eaten 3 pigs entirely on my own

*Slipped on ice numerous times but have only fallen 4 (first into a giant puddle of slush, second carrying my wood, third trying to rapidly sprint up my front steps & lastly, trying to catch snowflakes on my tongue)

*Owned 5 pairs of long underwear

*Hosted 7 visitors from home in four rounds (Megan, Mom & Dad, Missy & Brittany, Meghan & Lindsay)

*Studied 8 Jehovah Witness magazines in Romanian

*Hitch hiked on 9 encounters

*Used 10 cubic meters of fire wood

*Been to 11 Countries (Romania, Ireland, Hungry, Poland, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Greece, Austria, Germany and Turkey)

*Had at least 12 successful sewing encounters (zipper replacement, crotch patch, slipper repairs, hemmed pants, duvet cover fixing & holy socks)

*Drunk approximately 18 liters of homemade booze (țuica, afinata, palinka, vin, etc.) but lets be honest…it was probably more

*Finished reading 19 books (that I can remember) and quit 2 (A Thousand Splendid Suns, Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle, Middlesex, Breakfast of Champions, Bury Me Standing, Atrocity at Auschwitz, Santa Cruise, Night, 19 Minutes, Balkan Ghosts, Dracula, The Painted Vail, some Bulgarian spy book, 112 pages of War and Peace, Siddhartha, Pillars of the Earth, Innocent Traitor)

*Listened to 20 “This American Life” Podcasts

*Taken 21 four hour round trips on Maxi Taxis to Suceava for packages

*Posted 55 Blog Entries

*Slurped 99 bowls of Ciorba Radauțeana

*Maybe (keyword being maybe) taken 336 showers

*Spent Hundreds of hours on trains

*Used Thousands of matches

*Experienced ∞ awkward moments