In My Heart There Rings A Melody...

Good evening, my friends! It is 5:15 pm here, and we've had a very great day so far! As I said yesterday, we are staying at Hotel Melody, and ever since we checked in the line from that hymn has been stuck in my head! Word associations!

This is what it looked like out our balcony door this morning:

Very rainy and cold! We got up and breakfast at the hotel at 8 this morning. There was a lot of stuff that we would consider typical, bread for toast, cereal, eggs, sausages, etc. But there were also some interesting things like a cold cuts spread that included raw bacon! I had a croissant, an apple, and some bread.

And Turkish Coffee. It was DELICIOUS! And very strong. And not flavored. Which I usually make my coffee sweet, and I don't drink unflavored coffee, but this stuff was great!

Then we all went our separate ways to get ready for church and met at about 9:45 for church.

We went to Biserica Baptista Speranta Oradea for church, which translates to Hope Baptist Church of Oradea. It was a great service that was very similar in structure to what I'm used to. There was a time of corporate worship, followed by the message. The children were dismissed to their kids' club just like in the states. We sang some songs that I knew, like Shout to the Lord  and Communion Hymn by Keith and Kristen Getty.

The sermon was based on Acts 16:11-15 about Lydia. The pastor spoke with such passion as he shared what God had placed upon his heart.

After church we headed to Restaruant Capitolium for lunch. OH MY WORD. This place was like the coolest place I've ever been. It seriously looked like a scene from a movie. As did our waiter, who was just precious.

The Nice place settings at Restuarant Capitolium

The name was imprinted on all the dishes

This sign lets you know that you receive a free portion of soup with a regular portioned meal.

 Lunch took about 3 hours, which, apparently, is common for Romania. No one was in a hurry, and we were served a few courses. First was a fish egg spread for bread. Then we had soup. Most of us got chicken soup, and it was delicious, and a huge portion!

For the main course, I had kiev de pui (breaded chicken with cheese and spices) and cartofi piure, or mashed potatoes. It was really really good, but after the large bowl of soup I got full pretty quickly!

We came back to the hotel, and Addie, Tiffany, and I changed out of our church clothes and decided to do some walking around. It was really cold, so it didn't last too long. We stopped in a patisserie on the way back and got a rol ciocolata, or roll of chocolate for dessert to split.

It was very good, but very rich, so we're gonna to share it with the rest of the team, as well!

Our team meeting went really well. The three of us girls learned more details about our portion of the trip! I don't know how much internet access I will have from Wednesday to Wednesday, but i'll try to post when I can, and if not, fill you in on all the excitement once we're back in Oradea.

We went to a pizzaria for dinner. We ordered a pepperoni pizza and were served a pizza with pepperoni, onions, green peppers, and something else. I picked them off and ate it, but the flavor was just a little too strong for me! Not to mention the fact that smoking in public places is commonplace here, so my allergies and asthma were not having a good time.

Well my friends, I think I'm gonna sit here with my book for a little bit and try to mentally prepare for the days ahead!

Thankful that smoking in public places is banned in the US,
Ali