hey hey! I've been in Romania for 3 full days now, so I pretty much know everything there is to know about Iasi and the culture fyi. Ask me anything. Haha totally kidding. BUT I do know there is good gelato, all the food is super cheap, there aren't very many blondes, and I love it. 

We aren't starting any of the teaching or working until next week, so the past few days we've just exploring part of the city. Everyone besides me and my roommate Madeline lost their luggage while flying here because of a mixup with the flights, so it's been a struggle for them trying to get clothes and everything they need. I'm actually super surprised that didn't happen to me considering I feel like I have bad luck on that kind of stuff haha. But other than that everything has been so fun! I haven't even cried once from being homesick, and this is the girl that cried everyday when I went to EFY for a week when I was 15!! #peoplecanchange. But it helps a lot to have such a super awesome group of girls. There's 14 of us total, and we get along super well and love each other already. Well unless they're really good at being secretive about talking crap about me behind my back. 

The culture is a lot different from here, and it's so weird being in a place where not a lot of people speak English. And we definitely get a lot of stares because of the fact that most of us look very non-romanian and are a lot louder than the norm here haha. One thing I love about Iasi is the architecture. There are a ton of different churches, which I love, and the Palas is definitely one of my favorite buildings. 

As for food, some of it is reaaaally good and some is not aaaaaas good haha. We get a stipend for breakfast from ILP for a certain amount of Lei per day that allows us to buy whatever we want to eat for breakfast. For lunch and dinner, there's a catering service that delivers the food to us each day at a certain time. The first day wasn't too bad because it was fried chicken and fries for lunch, and then a type of meatloaf and fries for dinner. The second day was more interesting haha. The lunch we had consisted of mamaliga (unseasoned cornmeal aka stuff I would feed my 10 month old niece) and samale (cabbage rolls with pork, rice, and tomatoes inside. That one was a little better). The flavors are just way different from America, obviously. I'm going to try my best to be open minded and try everything though. As for street food, there is gelato everywhere (totally okay with that) and pretzels. There are a lot of different types of pretzels, and Romanians love them. Which I'm all like ya you keep loving your pretzels bc I'm also totally okay with that. Keep 'em coming. There's a huge grocery store called Auchun that we usually go to, which I'm excited about because they have KINDER EGGS galore and I want to try a bunch of random Romanian snack foods to try as well. 

Oookay well I'm going to try and write often on here, mostly because I know people are just dyyyyyyyyyyyying to know every detail and have nothing else to do with their lives that could possibly be better. 

La Revedere! 

(I google translated that.) 

The Palas

 The Palas, again.

Eating gelato with my roommate Madeline... in front of the Palas.

 Random building I liked.

 A closer look of my gelato because why not. 

With my roommate Emma... at the Palas omg!!!!!!!!! It's like I love it or something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kara