Grocery shopping has been an experience. We’ve discovered that you can’t necessarily go by the picture on the bag, as when I bought what I thought was coffee creamer only to find that I had a bag of “breakfast beverage” made from ground beets. Milk may actually be yogurt, and yogurt may be a liquid. There is no such thing as half & half or French vanilla creamer. Some words like “corn starch” do not translate, we learned when we had two clerks on the grocery aisle giggling at us.
Life is slower at times. We spent 20 minutes waiting on a tram while the driver got out and beat the doors with a hammer, and we were supposed to be across town. It was a challenge to set the alarm clock with the instructions in Romanian but written in China. We finally figured it out by trial & error (woke at 2 am a couple of times and almost overslept for church).
There are no real fast food restaurants, even though there is a McDonald’s, which serves adult drinks such as beer. It’s okay to smoke in buildings, and most people do. Coffee to go is served in a 4-ounce plastic cup only half full and lukewarm. French-fries are excellent, and we now consider them one of the main food groups. Pizza is served with ketchup, and mushrooms are fungi.
Learning the language has been interesting, and whenever we ask a Romanian to help with pronunciation, they have us repeat the word 4 or 5 times until declaring that we have said it correctly (even though we said the same thing every time). The other day, a lady approached us at the tram stop to ask about the automated ticket machine, which we couldn't answer. She began laughing and apologizing at the same time. Most of the time, people will simply repeat their question in Romanian, only a little bit louder, as though we didn't hear, although we tell them we don't understand Romanian. Sort of reminds me of how we treat immigrants in the United States!
Through it all, the Lord has been teaching us to depend on Him every step of the way.
“Show me Your ways, O LORD, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5).
