May 27

This morning, we got up in good time, ate breakfast and showered. By ten we were on the road to the market in Arad. When we arrived, Oma discovered that she had never been to that market. It was pretty jank. Basically it was just a bunch of tables piled with used clothes, and a lot of people with blankets covered in random items. There was everything from clothes, to laptop computers, to old cassette players, to fresh produce. For the most part, it was simply junk that people didn’t want for themselves. So they brought it to the market and tried to sell it. I found some old keys that looked like they belonged in a castle. I thought it looked like a nice cheap souvenir, but the guy wanted $7 apiece for them! So much for that idea. A sister from church has a trailer there that she sells drinks and what we call elephant ears in America. Basically, they were flat, deep fried pieces of pastry. You can get cheese, chocolate or salt on them. I got chocolate on mine and it was delicious! Then we moved on to another market. This one was considerably nicer. There is a shop there that sells Romanian crafts. It was exactly what I wanted. I loaded up on gifts for people at home. Then we walked around the corner and discovered a stand selling purses and sunglasses. I noticed a beautiful pair of aviators that were actually sturdy. All the ones I’ve found at home that weren’t expensive have thin wire frames. I always end up bending them. I figured that these would be just as expensive. So I asked the guy, who surprisingly knew English pretty well, and was informed that they only cost 10 US dollars! I couldn’t pass up that deal. Now all I need is a few more things and I’ll be done shopping. Basically I just need chocolate. Hannah Dietrich deserves chocolate, since I missed her graduation open house. Then we headed off to another market where Oma visited her favorite purse shop. She quickly found a purse and purchased it, and then we headed back to Antioch. When we arrived, we had to hurry and pack. Shortly after arrival, Philip hands me a handmade clock that has a map of Romania from the older boys, Katarina (the little girl who is about 6) gives me a little clay whistle in the shape of a bird, and Etta (I’m not sure how to spell her name) gave me a beautiful horse decoration. With some difficulty, we managed to get everything packed safely into our bags. Then it was time to say goodbye. I managed to get a picture of everyone except Etta together. Then we said goodbye all around and piled into the van. Timothy, Tobias, David, Christian,  Adrian, and Berto(I think) all came with us to the airport. When we arrived at the ticket counter, they informed us that each person could only have one carryon bag. Since we each had a backpack, purse or murse along in addition to a carryon suitcase, we had to fit our personal bags inside suitcases quickly. It was a mess. We couldn’t just let them take our carryon suitcases because they were packed full of fragile items. Nevertheless, we got it done. Then we said goodbye to the boys and headed through security. They stood and watched us until we were through, and turned to wave. Security took forever, even though there was no line. I’m not sure what their problem was. Since Opa’s artificial hips set off the metal detector, they took him into the private room to search him. The officer made him take his pants AND HIS UNDERWEAR, down to see his scar. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Opa was not very pleased. We finally made it through and headed upstairs to our gate. When it was time to board, I was appalled. There are no seating assignments on this airline, kind of like southwest airlines. But unlike Southwest, there is no order to the boarding process. People pushed and shoved their way into the line from the side, or pushed past you from behind. We all boarded a bus that took us out to the plane. Then we repeated the pushing and shoving to get on the plane. I was carrying Opa’s suitcase and mine and people were trying to push past me. I finally got fed up and just started making use of the suitcases as battering rams and shoved back. I was thoroughly upset by the time we found a seat. I got our suitcases in the overhead bin and sat down. I couldn’t believe what I found when I sat down. My knees were touching the seat in front of me. By pressing myself as far back as I could in my seat I could just barely get space between my knees and the seat, but if I sat normally it caused my knees to push into the seat in front of me. I’ve never seen that before. It was a very long hour and a half to Dortmund. Upon arrival, we just sat still and let the cows push and shove their way off the plane before even getting up. We were the last ones off the plane. We found our bags without mishap and met Ernst and Elizabeth Pfister right outside the baggage claim. They loaded us up and we headed home. The German roads are very nice and Ernst was driving around 155 to 160 kph. I love speed. We arrived home after about an hour of driving and had dinner. I was quite hungry by then. I was also tired, so I headed right to bed after supper.