packages of books

at the moment, i am preparing to move overseas. for the second time. and it takes a lot of work and preparation! it means paring down what i own .. trying to look realistically at what i have, what i actually use, what i need, and what i can give away to people who will actually use it. and, as always .. i have 'rediscovered' that books are heavy! especially if you have a lot of them. with two colleagues who left the country before me, i had quite the little library. well over half of those books have now been given away. probably more like two thirds. and mostly, i have been glad to share!

but the books that i wanted to keep .. how to get them across the ocean? last week i went to send a small package of books in a shoebox, and was told that it would be rather expensive. when i asked if there was another way to send books, the worker at the post office said that there was another option. if the package is under 2 kilograms, they can do the slower, more inexpensive version. so i bought a couple of large padded envelopes, filled them with books, and began. in the last 10 days, i have been to the post office 4 times, each time sending between 2 and 4 packages. in the process, i have become a familiar face to all of the workers in the office (it's not a big office .. 7 people work there, i believe), and have been able to tell them why i came to romania and that it is a beautiful country with good people. sometimes romanians need to hear this .. to be encouraged!

all told.. i sent just over 48 lbs of books for just under $95. basically .. two dollars a pound. which is a fantastic price! and it certainly makes packing easier .. hopefully it is now possible for my suitcases to be underweight and not overweight! now, comes the waiting .. hoping that all the packages do actually arrive. this makes me smile .. hopefully it makes you smile too!

an abrupt transition

this past saturday afternoon it was 32˚C .. almost 90˚F.  nice, typical summer weather. warm, but not overwhelmingly so. then .. sunday morning i wake up and it is raining. the warmest it gets all day is around 21˚C .. 70˚F.  that is a big drop in temperature! and since then, it has continued to rain and be cooler. which is nice autumn weather. but it is so sudden!

change is a natural part of life. it happens to everybody. in all sorts of ways. internally and externally. but, it is nice when we can get accustomed to the idea of change, when we can prepare ourselves a bit. this change just happened faster than i was expecting. and made all the other changes going on just a little bit more challenging to deal with. ah well .. i am grateful that we are going to have a real autumn!

jet lag

at the moment, i'm in korea. which is sixteen hours ahead of where my parents are, meaning that it's 7 in the morning there and it's 11 at night here. in romania, where i have been and will be returning, it's 4 in the afternoon. hard to keep the differences straight.

i arrived here in the evening a few days ago, and neglected to reset the time on my watch. i don't wear a watch, but figured that with all the traveling i have been doing a watch would be very helpful. with the direction i'm traveling, it's really easy to fall asleep and also easy to wake up early, often sometime between 5.30 and 6.30. when i woke up the morning after arriving, i looked at my watch and it said 1.15 in the afternoon. then i was able to find a clock on the wall that said 5.15 in the morning. a few hours later i opened my computer which is still set to romania time, and by that time it said 1 or 2 in the morning. whoa .. no wonder my body is a bit confused! my mind is too :)

but things haven't been too bad .. i've been able to sleep at least 6 hours every night, and go back to sleep when i wake up early at least a few times. and my siblings (who i'm with) like going to bed sometime between 10 and 11 .. which is very nice for my sleepiness. something i'd like to keep up, as a matter of fact .. going to bed sometime around that and getting up a bit earlier. although 5.30 still seems a bit too early if you ask me. (some others wouldn't agree .. but God made all kinds of people!)

and having problems with sleep is well worth it, if it means that i get to see people that i love. and go new places and experience new things and taste new foods and build relationship and deepen relationship and learn and discover and ... mhmmm. good things. although i am glad that i don't always travel. it's nice to have a place to call home. and the place that i currently call home is a place that i miss now. not so much that i need to buy a plane ticket right now, but enough that i will be excited to return, and that i am reminded to pray for people i know who are still there.

(un)settled

so, i've been in romania for almost two weeks now. and i'm beginning to feel a little bit settled. the layout of iasi is nothing like what i'm used to. the roads curve different directions and there are no mountains to tell me which way is north. but -- today i rode a bus and knew where it was coming from, where it was going, and what it passed. so the map in my brain is getting less fuzzy, which is exciting. because i have been so unsettled recently, i've been (re)discovering things i value -- knowing where i am physically in space, my own space, deep conversations. mostly these and others have come to mind because i haven't had them. but my roots are getting enough nourishment to grow now, so i just get to be patient.

about a week ago, i wrote various words in my journal about how i was feeling. and most of them are still true at one point or another each day. (the last two months or so have been marked by my fluctuating emotions -- strange since i usually am even keeled and readily able to find things to smile about.) the words are ... overwhelmed - excitement - frustration - sadness - (un)prepared - fear - impatience - unbalanced - joy - rightness - wonder - anxiety - carried - readiness - heavy - sure - out of place - uneasy - aware - questions - missing - exhausted - hungry - lonliness.

on the more practical side of things, i've been told people wonder what i'm actually doing. getting settled is a big piece. walking around the city until things are familiar and i have a guess where to go when i need fresh fruit, batteries, water, cash, notebooks... looking at signs and being glad when i know a word or two. and -- language is my main focus. so i meet with a language helper three times a week for about two hours and we do various projects. i prepare before and then review what we did (and listen to the recordings i made) afterwords. as i fall asleep at night, i've been having random phrases or words in romanian wander around in my brain. which is exciting -- that i'm remembering some. but not so good for calming down and sleeping. on a good note, though -- i've been sleeping between 8 and 10 hours a night, which is recommended for intense language learning. and gives me emotional energy to face the challenges each day brings.

one day left...

so, i leave for romania tomorrow morning. and have all sorts of tasks to accomplish today before that. (granted, some of my tasks include calling a few more friends, visiting with a neighbor, and spending time with my parents -- and if i'm not careful they become simply tasks instead of time to savor.) and i am getting more excited about actually being in romania. it's been a long time in coming (since i have been thinking and aiming toward romania on some level since october two years ago), and in some senses i'm very ready to be there.

in the process of leaving, i've had opportunity to say goodbye to all sorts of people. family, close friends, church family, neighbors. and a couple people reminded me of a c.s. lewis quote which goes something like 'Christians never say goodbye, but only see you later'. which is true. but ... as a human, when i say goodbye to someone, i say goodbye to the person they are at this specific moment and goodbye to the possibilities of physically being with them for the next little while (for a day, a week, a couple of years..). so, as i mourn all this leave-taking i must do, i get to simultaneously look ahead to what is to come, which is more exciting than i can possibly imagine. but, for now i must hold the tension of saying goodbye and yet being together in God's Body.