Alex the sous chef, cooking away a delicate dish of sausage, red pepper and pasta!

The recipe was inspired by Alex's mom, Kathi.  Alexa is gobbling up this dish.  Nice to have a homemade dish in another country.  The ingredients here in the stores carry a lot of the same food that you would find in the U.S. or Canada, so it's not as frustrating as it was when we were in Peru a few years back!  

Several deaf members from Bethel Church sang a song on Sunday.= (yesterday).

Both of those men are deaf brothers.  The one on the left is Daniel while the one on the right is Benjamin.  They both know a little English, so they helped with translating some of the Romanian signs!  We are grateful for them.

Leader of the deaf church, he was real friendly when we came in and greeted us immediately. He is a very good teacher.

Alex trying to explain how he met Alexa and on what the purpose of their trip is.  He had plenty of help from the members as they would give the correct sign for concepts that he attempted to gesture.  

The one with the white veiled bandana is the hearing mother of two deaf boys and two hearing girls. She is just learning sign language. The lady in black on the right is the wife of the leader, hearing also and signs well and knows English. She is a teacher of a deaf school that we will be visiting.

Trying to say something.  Good luck figuring it out!

Alex chatting with several people in regards to where deaf churches and deaf schools may be on the map (see on white board).

Our apartment in Timisoara is on the 8th floor so we always go down/up this winding staircase! 

Our most reliable transportation on a daily basis. The "autobuzul" takes us around town and wherever we needed to be. $1.50 LEI (around .50 USD). The bus stops right in front of our apartment complexes so its a nice, short walk.

Downtown Timisoara.  Here are the rails for the trams.  We haven't used them because the bus routes are perfect for us.  You can see that it's cold and icy!  Doesn't stop us or everyone else from walking around town, though!  In the U.S. or Canada whenever it's cold outside we'd not see a soul on the streets, - because everyones in their heated cars!  

Old Town.

The walkway between the Old Town and Plaza Victory.  Can you find Alexa in this picture?  

Attack of the pigeons! (Luckily, no white stains)

The building straight aheads the "Opera House".    

The statue in the middle is from the legend of Romulus and Remus (not sure of spelling) where the two babies are left in a forest and they have a wolf as their mother, drinking from her milk.  

Eastern Europe!

We found a McDonald's here in Timisoara, Romania and finally was able to upload pictures using our lapotp!  Here are the pictures of our flight and the travel to Romania.  Some of the pictures were taken with our iPod touch, and some with our normal camera!  

The plane wing of our plane from from Buffalo. 

Europe-Bound!  One of the last bits of American food is in Alexa's hands, even though we can't remember exactly what it is.  Maybe a bagel.  

Downtown Buffalo.

This is a picture of the screen that were put in front of each seat in our international plane.  The plane left Dulles (IAD) and would go all the way to Copenhagen, Denmark, where we would change to Warsaw, Poland.  The reason why we picked Warsaw is because it offered us the cheapest way into Eastern Europe.  

This is the GPS of what it looked like only a few minutes after takeoff.

Around five hours later, we were almost over Iceland.  It was an overnight flight, so we couldn't see anyting out the window!  

Copenhagen Airport.  Good luck checking out the European scenery in this picture!

Finally, to Warsaw. There, they spell it "Warszawa". The total trip took us around 13 hours.  We were exhausted by the time we got here because we left around 11 am Eastern Standard Time and got here in Warsaw around 11 am, while it was like 7 am in EST... Those who have experienced this kind of jet lag will understand me, and if you haven't, it's tough on the body and the mind!  :)  We had to stay at a cheap hostel in Warsaw to sleep for a couple of nights to recover!  We did get a chance to walk around a little in the city and take in some sights.  Nice city!  Poland is definitely an economically and culturally strong country.

Of course, you'd find the most popular American coffee company in Poland.  (Hint: look to your left)

We are glad that the Romanian language is not as complicated as Polish!

Old Town Warsaw.  This entire place was rebuilt after it was bombed by the Nazis.  

Warsaw's largest building.  It glows purple every night.  Very weird sight. 

Of course, you will find the most popular American fast-food chain here in Poland.  Big one!  They served a burger with a hash brown and bacon in it.  Tasted very good. 

Finally leaving Warsaw.  It was so hard to find a train or a bus out of this city - we struggled all morning, but finally made it.  There is a name for this food, but we can't remember - it's Zakablana or something like that, ha.  Some kind of bread with cheese/mushrooms and ketchup.  Cheap train food!

On the train to Budapest, where we would take the next train to Timisoara, Romania.  There is no direct route from Warsaw to Timisoara so we had to go to Budapest, Hungary and change route there.  This train was an overnight train.  We actually had to sleep in that small room with two other people.  We slept on the "top" bunks while the other two people slept on the chairs where Alex is sitting.  Overnight.

We had to wait around five hours in Budapest for the next train, so we decided to take a stroll.  Nice city.  Many European cities look like this.  

We decided to enjoy a coffee at a Burger King, since it was close to the train station.  And of course, we ran into three deaf Hungarians.   What made this special was that the three deaf hungarians in the picture above are Christians!  How awesome is that for us to randomly run into three deaf Christians?  We talked and walked around for the entire stay in Budapest, and they stuck with us until the train was moving.  Awesome three men!  Their names are Carol, Laci, and Urban "23". They told us we should visit their church services in Budapest on a future Sunday, and since it is only a train ride away, we told them that we would.  We are looking forward to that.   

On the train from Budapest to Timisoara.  6 hour ride from around 3 pm to 9 pm.  Takin a nap!

Finally to Romania!  The sign for the Romanian border is actually out the window, but the seats are only the reflection of the window.  

Still a long way to go, so Alexa took a few winks.

Finally to Timisoara, Romania.  This is our first stop of our research trip in Romania because it is at the most Western point of Romania - at least the biggest city in the west area.  We were offered a free stay in this apartment by the very friendly Blaj family, who we talked about when we were visiting them at a Cincinnati hospital.  It is the same family with a 4 year old deaf son, Beni.  How amazing is it that God provides things like this?  Their apartment is very nice and located close to the city center, so we are able to explore this area easily.  We will be going to the deaf church this Sunday and meeting a teacher for a deaf school soon, so hopefully the research and collaboration parts of our trip will pick up quickly very soon!

Timisoara in the snow.  Pretty city.  McDonald's!  :)

Alexa is used to the winter - she is Canadian!  She's standing in front of a canal.

Our current activity - learning the Romanian language!  We have three methods of doing this - with an app we downloaded on our iPod Touch, a Romanian-English Dictionary, and a Romanian-English Phrase Book.  Somehow, one word at a time, we'll get a little better handle of this language.  It's important because we really have no way to communicate with hearing Romanians if we don't know their language.  Deaf people are much easier to communicate with -  but we want to talk with BOTH people so we need to know both.  Also if we want to teach deaf orphans, we need to teach them how to read/write in their language, so we are like little kids all over again, learning their language.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!  Keep on praying for us!  Keep on encouraging us, because we do need it.  Keep on donating financial support, because it makes it possible for us to live in Romania.  We love and miss you, family and friends!

Canadian Christmas

The Christmas Tree - they do it up here in Canada!

Christmas morning.  We woke up around 7 in the morning!  

Coffee, gifts, and chocolate.  Can it get any better than this?  

Alexa's parents, Lynn and Leo.  Lynn's got the toaster she wanted!!!

Alexa's younger brother, Andy.  He is currently serving in the Canadian Army.  He's hyped about the classic of all Christmas gifts - socks!    

Some trinkets from Iowa!  

Wanny, the family cat.  He enjoyed playing with the wrappers!

Ooo a big gift

Alex enjoying his new iPod Touch!  He will use it in Europe to take additional pictures/HD video

The other cat is Silver.  She's usually shy.  

Later in the day, more of the Gulkas came over to celebrate, and this is what Lynn had laid out for all of us!  Delicious food!  We gained a few pounds, that's for sure.  

Lynn's speciality - bacon-wrapped rye bread with horseradish.  MMMM

Father and Daughter.  

Leo made this awesome nativity set by HIMSELF!  The clay figures were already passed down in the family but he did everything else, from the rocks to the tree and the manager itself.  

The world was never the same after this.  

The parents

On New Year's Eve, we all went out to a nice restaurant called "Moxie".  Good food!!!  

It's less than two weeks away before we go to Europe.  Keep on praying for us as we prepare for this huge trip.  It's a little surreal to think that we will be soon out of our comfort zone and into a strange new place.  But every time we get nervous, we have to think that we have God on our side and that we are doing this for the deaf orphans that are abandoned - that if we don't go there, then nobody will be able to help the deaf orphans.  That's what motivates us.  And we always need your support through donations, prayer, and encouragement.  And we have gotten PLENTY of all of the aforementioned from many of you.  We love you all!!!

Happy New Year!

- Alex and Alexa