In Romania!

Well, sort of...Rachel and I went to Georgetown University where a Romanian author, Gabriela Adameșteanu, was lecturing and reading passages from her novel, Dimineaţa Pierdută. 


It was fascinating to learn more about post-WWII and communism period Romania from the artistic viewpoint of someone who experienced it! We met a professor who has spent a good portion of his life learning about Romania and studying Romanian just because he likes it, a young man who wanted his picture taken with the author and subsequently failed to give me his email address (I will forever have a picture of an unidentified guy), and I even got the chance to talk to the author afterwards about the revolutions in Romania and Hungary (in Romanian! And she didn't transition to English when she inevitably realized it's not my native language!!). Overall, succes!

 It certainly pays to have the Romanian Embassy alert you when there are fabulous events going on in DC! Finished off a great evening with ice cream from a Georgetown establishment.

A Day in VA!

I was very excited to FINALLY get a call from the language service: they needed a Romanian interpreter for a court case in Stafford!! So I did everything I was supposed to: studied up with my dictionary and some of my favorite people in Romania, tried to learn the legal jargon, and even called the court the day before to be sure my case was still on the docket. After all that and an hour drive...Doamna Romanca didn't come. Oh well, it was probably better to have an opportunity to sit and listen to actual cases without the pressure of interpreting. I got the words I should have studied and feel a lot more confident about translating the next time they need me.

Plus, bonus! I got to spend the day with Annie: ate a delicious strawberry chicken salad and then she took me to the Marine Corps Museum, which was a lot more awesome than I was expecting. I have seen it several times driving south from Maryland, always pointing up in Quantico at a 45 degree angle. It was fun to see inside. It also happened to be snowing (yeah, two days after April-esque weather) so we decided it was the perfect cold day activity.

Spending time learning more about a branch of my military and some of their incredible sacrifices for my freedom=time well spent.

Bet ya didn't know the architecture symbolizes the flag raised over Iwo Jima

The flag raised and flown at Iwo Jima