Multumesc

Thursday, I flew into Bucharest, Romania from Paris, France. I brought my snowboard in hopes that we might be able to snowboard when I arrived in Baia Mare. The only problem with taking a snowboard to Romania, was trying to get the snowboard from my room in my Lycee all the way to Charles de Gaulle Airport. I had to carry my pack of clothes and my huge snowboard bag quite some distance without my own vehicle. Once I arrived at the airport, my troubles were only just beginning. I was in the farthest terminal from the train station and it took me almost an hour to find my ticket that happened to be a paper ticket, instead of the now normally issued electronic ticket. After having gone to 5 different counters, I finally went to the last and only place it could possibly. The worker there from Tarom Air, told me that he did not have my ticket either and that he didn't know what I should. I thought my trip was over before it started. However, after taking another look around, he found it sitting on his desk where he had looked once before, but just overlooked. So, I had my ticket, but my plane was leaving in 30 minutes and I still had to check my bag. Luckily, everything went smoothly from here on out. On the flight from Paris to Bucharest, I played with a little French kid for probably an hour and a half. He came and sat beside and decided that I would be his playmate for the flight. He was probably 5 years old and spoke only French. I fooled him for about 15 minutes by merely responding, "oui," "non," and "C'est vrai," to his questions in French. Then, he realized that I didn't speak French fluently. But, we had fun together for a while.
After we unloaded into the Bucharest airport, I began to realize that I couldn't have been a stranger sight to the Romania people then had I been Chinese. They had no idea why an American coming from Paris would want to go to Baia Mare. The lady at customs hardly believed that my final destination was actually Baia Mare. Baia Mare is a small town in the north of Romania. Spirit of St. Louis airport seemed gigantic compared to the little airport in Baia Mare, but more of that later. The lady who inspected me at the security gate was quite a curious lady. As I approached her, she looked me up and down without the least bit of sheepishness. She was a tall thin woman with long black hair. She looked like she was maybe in her early thirties. While I was taking my computer out of my backpack, my two books fell out of the front of my back. Quickly, she picked them up. She looked at the first one like a child inspecting a foreign food they had never seen. She read the title out loud to herself, "The Memory of Old Jack." Following the title, she said, "yes very old." Setting that book down, she picked up the other. It is an entirely blank red book, so she searched the first few pages trying to find the title, "Northanger Abbey and Pers... Ok. Go through." She couldn't pronounce persuasion, so I guess that was sufficient for her.
The plane was about the size of a regional jet we might have in the United States only a little bit older. I wasn't the least bit afraid because it was full, and I figured, if that many people trusted the plane, I would be willing to trust the plane. I walked from the tarmac into the airport and saw a bunch of people waiting. I was praying that Dorin and Aurelia hadn't forgot about me and I would be in Baia Mare, Romania without a backup plan or a mode of escape. After waiting around for a few minutes, a tall man who had recognized from time here approached through the front doors. Without hesitation, I called out, "Dorin!" I walked up to him, and almost without thinking, just gave him a big hug. Never in my life had I been I felt so relieved to have found someone I had only met one other time in my life.