Sleepy

I'm tired. I am in my second week of working f/t nights. Never in my life have I ever had difficulty sleeping during the day. James and Liam are quiet at home. He even put up a shade to make my room dark. I am averaging 4-5 hours a day of interrupted sleep. I have some tea and herbs that I am going to try after tonight's shift. A coworker suggeted benadryl but that destroys me and I feel hungover. I am better off with Palinka or Sangria. I am saving that as a last resort.

I am keeping in mind that it takes a month for the body to adjust to shift work. I am also trying to realize that each day I sleep in longer stretches. The day after my last night last week I had a solid 5 hour stretch and felt like a million bucks. today I slept for the whole 5 hours but woke every hour looking at the clock. I did fall right back alseep though. Initially I could not fall back asleep so it's progress.

I am going to sleep for about three hours tonight before I go in. If I succeed I will have officialy collected 8 hours.

The job itself it fabulous. I love the people, the hospital and absolutely love being a nurse. I have no trouble once I am at work though I am not as friendly as I am in the day. I am a bit slow on the uptake and have no sense of humor. Jokes fly way past me at 4 am.

I'm feeling tired. let's see if I can grab a few hours here...

Where do we go from here?

So our Eurojourney has ended. My original intention for this blog was to keep a journal of our adventures. Now that we are home, now what? Tell me what you would like to read. Should I continue with a life journal? Should this be the logical end of this blog? What do you think?

Statistics, Best and Worst of Europe

During our journey in 6 months we rode on 78 modes of transportation:
41 trains
13 planes
11 boats
13 travel busses
Countless transit busses

We visited 17 countries
England, Hungary, Romania, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Germany, Norway, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Poland and Czech Republic

Were exposed to 14 languages:
English, Hungarian, Romanian, French, Luxembourgese, German, Norsk, Irish, Dutch, Spanish, Catalon, Italian, Czech, and Polish.

Of those countries we were in 24 cities with 12 being major cities (London, Budapest, Buchurest, Paris, Oslo, Dublin, Belfast, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rome, Venice, and Vienna.)

My favorite places:
Homorodszentpal
Amsterdam
Inis Mor, Ireland
Norway
Paris.

The most beautiful places we experienced:
Romania
Inis Mor
Norwegian Fjords
Mont Blanc’s glacier
Budapest
Vienna
Venice.

Peak experiences:
Christmas in the village
Puppies
seeing the fjords
seeing Inis Mor
the kids at Musee D’Orsay
friends
the kids learning
vegan hazelnut ice cream and European chocolate
Date with James in Paris

Difficult experiences:
Puppies’ deaths
Anti-Roma mentality
Feeling burned out upon arrival in Spain (I was so tired of planning everyday then)
Being apart from James.
Leaving.
Traveling alone with the kids. (It reminds me so much of birth. It was wonderful and amazing but difficult too. I’d do it allover again but it was never easy.)
Auschwitz-Birkenau

Unexpected:
My weight loss of 29 lbs despite the chocolate I ate
Liam’s perfect pronunciation in any language
Luna’s math ability
Byron’s ability to do his school work independently
Immense beauty of Europe
James growth as a minister
Deep connections with our friends in the village
Palinka.

We managed to stay vegan most of the time except for chocolate. Being vegan in Romania was easier than we ever expected. There was more TVP in Transylvania than at home! The most vegan place was London where we could get vegan sweets and samosas in the Underground station.

Leaving the Village

After dinner with Csaba, Eva and friends we head home to pack. We are packed and leaving the village. There is always that transition from dreading leaving to being ready to go. That took place after we stayed up late packing and cleaning, repacking and re-cleaning, stressing if our bags would be over the weight limit. We said our goodbyes to everyone earlier in the day. We finished packing and cleaning about 3 hours before we had to get up. We were sad but happy to be seeing our friends and family soon.

Csaba arrived at 5am sharp to take us to the airport. It is cold and dark, about -17 degrees centigrade. I hear a Red Hot Chili Peppers song on the radio that talks of California being the edge of western civilization. I realize we are going back to the west. I dread it. We have been living in between east and west. Not far from here near the Black Sea is where eastern civilization begins. California, the edge of western civilization. Southern California, even better. That which represents all of America or so the television would have us believe. We are returning to the materialistic, capitalistic civilization. The one lacking connection and depth.

Csaba drops of off and we give a sleepy hug to our dear friend and say goodbye. The airport is smooth to Budapest. We arrive in Budapest and our ride is there. We go to the train station where Byron and I left some luggage on our way to Poland and all is there and intact. So far so good. The trip is smooth. Our apartment is very nice. We stay there overnight and spend the day in Budapest. It is nice to travel with James.

In Budapest we come across a kurtos stand complete with Szekley fabrics. Byron and I are watching how it is made. Kurtos is a Szekley pastry. We tour Buda, the other side of the Danube where the Buda Var castle is. James is so happy to be there. The weather is cold but sunny, tourists are few and we are full of energy walking the city. We eat dinner at our favorite Indian restaurant. We have been longing for this place since we were there last. We go to bed and sleep well waking up early to catch our flight. Luna is thrilled that there is ample room in the carry-on box for her carry-on. Silly as it sounds, I think this was a healing experience for her. She was so crushed in London in September and worried so much about having our carry-ons make the correct dimensions. We stop in London and then Los Angeles and then to San Diego where we happily met Grandma and Grandpa.

Eurojournal- More Christmas

After church we go home. We need to give our gifts. Alex drops by with Luna and Liam’s big girl friends, Monica and Alessandra. He brings gifts: a wooden carving he made and chocolate. He spends the afternoon at our place. I successfully intoxicate him. I took pride in that as everytime I offered anything to anyone when they came over they did not take it. Yet we could never say no.

Alex runs home to get something and James uses this time to give some gifts to Micsi-Basci. Dangerous as James has already had some Palinka with Alex and I. Time passes. Alex is back. More time passes. Finally I ask Byron to go see if James is ok. He returns saying that Micsi-Bacsi wants all of us to come over. Uh oh, James is drunk. We go over and when I walk into the door, James comes to me with wide eyes and says, “I’m f*&%ed! I am so drunk. Help.” Misci-Basci and Irene-neni invite us in. Misci is offering me drinks, some sweet rum I think. I take a shot and wonder what the fuss is about. It isn’t strong at all. So I have 2 more at Misci-Basci’s urging. Later I find out that James had 2-3 of Misci-Basci’s palinka and what I drank was not the same. We have a nice time communicating with them. I see a picture of a young Irene-Neni on the wall and ask her about it. She then shows me pictures of her son who died in a car accident 2 years ago and cries. I hold her and listen. They care for their grandchildren, the children of their dead son, while the children’s mom works in a sweatshop fulltime. We communicate more. Misci-Basci asks about America and tells us that he will never afford to travel. It is time to go. Alex is drunk and standing in the corner taking pics of everyone and giggling. Irene-Neni gives us gifts, handmade of course. She embroidered some napkins.

We are back home preparing dinner and awaiting the Christmas carolers. Eva said they would come by our house. The come and we stand in the door. Instead of singing outside the door like in the states an entire crew of high school and college kids come inside. The line never ended until everyone filled up our kitchen. We were packed in well. Eva leads some songs. I am again tearful. This is so sweet. Jingle Bells in sung in English. Byron encourages us to all go along for the rest of the caroling. We hurry and get our coats and hats on and follow them. Luan and Liam find some college friends and that is the last we see of them until we finish caroling in the village. We drop by houses where everyone (except us because we had no idea!) offers the carolers wine, palinka and baked goods. I take a few palinka shots, James does too and so does Byron. It’s Christmas in Transylvania, why not??!! We are all having a great time. There is a party later and we have been invited. Byron ends up at that party and dances with a girl. Nevermind we Americans can not dance at all and the Hungarians are VERY serious about dancing. Quite embarrassing.

In reflection though, this was the best Christmas in my life. I don’t usually like Christmas much for the commercialism and saccharin sweetness associated with it. Honestly it depresses me but being here, it felt so whole and meaningful. I felt such a part of the village, part of the family. Part of the tradition.

Eurojournal - Christmas in The Village

Christmas has been quite magical for us. On the eve, we attended church where the children performed and we said good bye to the congregation very tearfully. It was a beautiful ceremony. The lights were shut off as we sang Silent Night in Hungarian with lit candles. Eva then led the women’s chorus in songs. She dedicated one song to their American friends. I cried the entire song. Csaba let us come to the front to say goodbye to everyone. The women’s chorus gave James and I gifts, amazing gifts. We were speechless. We each received handmade Szekley shirts. What an honor and privilege to be here. Later we went to Csaba’s house to open presents with Csaba and their whole family. It was short but very warm and sweet. I was able to meet both Eva and Csaba’s parents. I connected with Eva’s mother, a very sweet, warm and loving woman.

Christmas day was celebrated with more church. I went and left the kids at home. It was communion. This is done only a few times a year. Again I was tearful. The women come up first to accept the bread and wine. We stand in a circle while Csaba comes to each of us and offers us communion. Nothing like Catholicism. It is more about the community forming, thus the word Communion. It is about eye contact and connection. After we all receive our communion, the men line up and form a circle in the front. While I am in church the women behind me, most in the chorus are fixing my new shirt they made. They are straightening my collar and smiling. Near the end of the service, Csaba says goodbye to us and James gives a speech saying goodbye. Again very tearful. The final song plays and it is time to go. Csaba leaves first, then James followed by myself. I see them going and it really hits me that THIS is the last time we will be in church. I really cry now, walk out and give Csaba a big hug and weep. We form the receiving line and greet everyone coming out. Eszti-Neni is still crying. She was crying before church. We hold each other and cry together. I step back and get a picture of the receiving line, the last one we will be sharing with the villagers. What a beautiful place. What beautiful people.