Uniquely Romanian

 On Saturday the Stoicas (Radu's mom) invited us and the sora missionaries over for lunch. We ate in their living room, and there weren't enough seats, so Sora Stoica just watched us eat standing up, making sure we liked it and that it was okay. She didn't eat herself at all. She was a very formal host. We had coirba de legume (vegetable soup), mamaliga (like a moist and non-sweet, grainy homemade cornbread- really good), sarmale (pickled cabbage wrapped around chicken, vegetables, and rice, and boiled, then stored in these little ceramic pots- some with cabbage leaves, others with purple grape vine leaves), bread from a bag, and tort cu mere (apple cake). It was all delicious! The Romanian thing to do is to sit around and talk for a long time. The sisters even had a spiritual thought to share, but they allowed awkward silences until conversation got going for about 2 hours until they finally did the spiritual thought right before they left. They wanted it to be the last thing, I guess. Conversation was so fun, and it worked, interestingly enough, with Sora Stoica speaking in Romanian, and us speaking mostly in Romanian, but with a little bit of English, and we could understand each other and have funny conversations. By the end of our time, we had pulled out all 3 of their family photo albums, laughed at a picture of Radu in a rooster outfit, seen all the pictures of her daughter Andrea at BYU, and discussed all the different food in Romania. I even brought up farming where I lived and goat cheese came up, so they offered me some sheep cheese that was alright. I was the only one brave enough to try it. :) It just looked really bubbly. I love trying new things. I think everyone should do meals like the Romanians- keep the food coming, and you might as well just stop all the clocks. :)

 I also found out that Romanians don't like to sit on the ground because it makes girls go infertile. Oh man. No wonder the nurses used to get mad at us, but now they just laugh at us. Once you've lost your fertility, I guess there's no going back. :) Hee hee.