Armstrongs Abroad: Language & Culture

For the past few months, we've spent most of our time studying Romanian language and culture. As we said in our last post, it's pretty intense, but we are glad we have this opportunity. We had some American friends visit for Valentine's Day weekend, and we enjoyed showing them around the city. We also were excited to attend our church's third baptism service. Last weekend, we were able to take a short trip up to the mountains and relax, which was such a nice break for us. This week, we are starting our 3rd language manual since January, so we are moving right along!

Here are a few picture highlights:

It's cold!

Working hard in language class...

...and on our homework.

Our language teacher's son loves playing pool with Cameron.

Eating sarmale and mamaliga (traditional Romanian foods) with our language teacher Flory and her husband Stefan.

Jessica even learned how to make sarmale! :)

We enjoyed spending Valentine's Day with Jeff & Lauren.

Flory's mom made us "mucenici" on March 9.

Mucenici is a Christian feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, a traditional holiday in Romania and Moldova. It coincides with the start of the agricultural year...Some believe that when the Martyrs were drowned, flowers rose to the surface. As a result, for the date of 9 March, every, year, there is a typical dessert with the same name, Mucenici. The desserts are made in the figure 8 to look like garlands. Others believe that the figure 8 denotes a stylized human form of the martyrs themselves. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mucenici)