Coolest Vending Machine Idea

In Bucharest, everything except McDonald's and a few gas stations is closed on New Year's Day. So feeling a bit like we just needed to get out of the apartment, we packed the kids into the van and went driving around town. It's amazing how much smaller the city seems when there is no traffic!

A few months ago, we had seen this vending machine at a gas station near school and wondered if it could possibly be for real. So with camera in hand, we took advantage of a day with nothing to do and tried the Just Fries vending machine. The fries actually came out hot and tasty! Wow!

Of course, this is Romania, so the gas station attendant came out and growled at me not to take pictures. (I might steal their idea and build my own? Or perhaps I'm studying it so I can turn it into a bomb?) But still, it was a cool experience - and one I will undoubtedly repeat, maybe even with the camera for the full effect. :)

Site of the Week : MediaFire

I am going to start a weekly entry about websites and applications that I find helpful, useful, or just great to waste time on (not that I would do that, but some of you might want to). It will also help me catalog all of the various sites that I want to remember.

My first entry is about MediaFire. If you are like me you have been looking for a way to send large files. Well, this site is it. Not only can you send large files but you have unlimited storage for files. So you can save all your photos and other files and let others share them if you want. You can even upload a zip file of all your files to give your friends the option to download all your pictures at once. And like all of the sites I will post, it is free!!

Let me know what you think.

Stunned

Looking for a way to get the kids out of the house, we decided to go to the new Kika store (think IKEA). So we set out to go to the western edge of Bucharest to find it, but it was closed, even though it was the day after Christmas! But right next door we found a building that looked very out of place for this part of the world. We parked and went inside to find a really nice outlet mall. Now if this was Orlando, Dallas, Atlanta or any other city on the U.S., such a find would really not be that earth-shattering. But this is Bucharest! Inside were cute little storefronts and park benches. There were even stores with things that we actually considered buying. In fact, we did by some shoes. Again, I might sound a little crazy for being so excited, but Chrissy and I generally haven't bought shoes or clothes in Romania in the 5 and a half years that we have lived here, mainly because affordable items are usually of poor quality, such that wouldn't even be sold in the U.S.

Now, the mall wasn't full of fabulous bargains, but the prices really were less than they would have been elsewhere. And the simple attractiveness of the building - inside and out - was a pleasant surprise in itself. It was a nice place to walk around! You can even check it out at http://www.fashionhouse.ro/galerie.html. Now, if only it had a food court...

Christmas Pictures

We hope you had a merry Christmas! Here are some links to pictures we took since starting our break from school:

for photos of our stroll through downtown Bucharest's Piata Unirii all lit up for Christmas

for photos of our church's children's program and Christmas Day

Craciun Fericit from Romania!

The weather bites our cheeks and we haven't seen the sun in over a week (except through the fog that seems to reach from sky to ground), but our kids are counting down the days to Christmas on the "clips" - a string of clothespins numbered 1-24, hanging on our living room wall, where they find some small treat each morning. Our little Christmas tree is up again (and again and again since Gianna has toppled it a few times), Chrissy is making homemade apple butter, and tomorrow is the annual BCA staff Christmas party, where the gift exchange is usually full of American delicacies like boxed cake mixes, cranberry sauce, and peanut butter.

Christmas in Romania is a bustling time, but not nearly as non-stop as it can be in America. We will finish school this week, decorate cookies at a friend's house next week, and then make our traditional family Christmas meal of lasagna, fried cauliflower, and garlic bread. On Christmas night, we usually visit some Romanian friends, whose traditional meals all involve pork, most often mixed with spices and rice then rolled in pickled cabbage leaves -- the national dish of Romania, sarmale (sar-mall-eh).

We want to thank you for your prayers and financial support throughout this year. We are in our sixth year in Romania, where we have helped educate hundreds of missionary children, which also helps their parents be more effective in reaching Eastern Europe with the gospel. You have helped us do this! And statistically, 30% of missionary kids go on to become missionaries themselves. So just think of the seeds you are helping to sow! We love working with teenagers, and we are constantly amazed that we get to do what we do.

You are a blessing to us, and we pray for all of our supporters and prayer partners every day. This December, it is our prayer that the Lord would guide and prepare you for the year ahead, that you would know His faithfulness and grace in an even greater measure. May your Christmas be full of peace and joy, and may your family be strengthened and your walk with God deepened in the days ahead.

Continually in awe of His faithfulness,
Tony & Chrissy
P.S. As 2008 comes to a close and you make your plans for 2009, prayerfully consider whether the Lord would have you stand with us in a greater way. Perhaps you or your church could help sponsor BCA's building fund or possibly become a monthly partner with us as your missionaries.

The American Way to Beat a Rug

In Romania, rug-beating is a national pastime. I suspect if an American's rug gets as dusty as rugs get here in Bucharest we would just toss them and buy another. Nonetheless, the Barbusca family was ready to give it a shot.

We had just bought a rug from a family who was leaving Bucharest. So our old living room rug was expendable. Or so I thought. Chrissy had other plans.

"Lets take it downstairs and beat it," Chrissy said.

"With what?" I said. " We don't have one of those Romanian rug-beating things."

So what do you beat a rug with if you don't have the proper tool? An undersized aluminum baseball bat! We took turns beating that thing while clouds of toxic dust rose from the rug. The dust just kept coming. The kids had a blast (literally) and at one point, we weren't sure it was an item that we wanted to put back in our apartment.

At last a Romanian neighbor came by laughing and said in his best English, "So that's how Americans beat their rugs!"

I guess so.

Peppers For Sale! Free Dacia (that's a car)

We saw this car on the way home from church last week. Tony stopped the van so Chrissy could take a picture, only to find out that the driver was sitting inside reading a magazine.

Looks like he might be on his way home for his wife or mother-in-law to make zacusca, the pepper-and-eggplant spread everyone in Romania makes this time of year. (See our September newsletter for more on that...)

Soon it will be cabbage season, and we'll see Dacias like this one similarly loaded down with varza. We're just happy that apple season is also starting. Homemade apple pie, apple cake, applesauce, baked apple French toast (thank you, Kathryn Greenley!)...yummmmmmm.