Bumpy Rides and Smooth Landings

Silver linings, half-full glasses, roller coaster rides, life's balancing act--all of these could be the title for this entry. The past week has been filled with some of the worst and some of the best experiences ever. Briefly, the bad news items: whopping fine for a suitcase 3 lbs over, trains weren't running at Hartfield, AT&T cancelled my iPhone a day early so I had no service in Chicago, new netbook crashed the night before we left Chicago (staging) for Romania, seated on a totally-full plane next to a family with a screaming 2-yr.old for 9 hours to Europe (screamed when he was sad, screamed when he was happy, didn't sleep, and the parents were as loud as he was), and spent 3 days in a hotel whose restaurant seemed to be connected to a butcher shop--I've never seen so much meat and at every meal. But now for the good news: the heavy suitcase became lighter for the trans-Atlantic flight when a fellow PCV offered space in her bag for some of my stuff, my concourse at Hartsfield was only B, two different kind PCVs let me use their phones while in Chicago, I was able to dash out with less than an hour before our bus left the hotel in Chicago and, thanks to St. Jose, the world's kindest taxi driver, found a place open and bought another netbook and got back to the hotel with ten minutes to spare, after the rather miserable flight (I clamped headset to ears, watched three movies, and drank the complimentary wine whenever it came by), we were greeted in Bucharest early Friday morning by a cheery group of PC staff and volunteers holding a big banner and ushering us to the waiting buses, and I'm now with the wonderful family who will host me for 11 weeks--Mihai, a Baptist minister, Felicia (Fa LEET cha), a vocational school English teacher, and their two adorable little sons, Andre and Stefon, who all love FRUIT! The mantra we volunteers hear constantly is "Patience, flexibility, and humor." So far it's a good coping strategy--with a little help from my friends. ;-)