One of the many perks of living in the Holyland is having visits from friends from the past.  One such example is my friend from elementary school Sharona.  Sharona has been living in Washington DC and was accepted to be a research assistant at the Moshe Dayan Center this summer... which just happens to be at my school!  It was so neat when we realized that we were going to be reunited... I haven't seen her in 15 years, although we have been friends on facebook.  I have some photos of her first week here, but I was able to introduce her to everyone and she has really adjusted well!  A girl named Lisa also was on her program with her, and the funny thing is that Lisa studies in the same department I graduated from at Indiana Wesleyan!  What a small world.

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The Wachtler Girls... Well... About the Wachtlers - I met Jalene (Yael) in Jerusalem last year, and she felt like God wanted her to return to Israel.  She and her sister Jennifer took a big leap of faith, and arrived a couple of weeks ago without return tickets!  They want to stay long term.  I was able to introduce them to several key people and they are having so much fun!  
 
My Romania Trip 07/07/2009
 

I've been back from Romania for about a week now, and I have to say I had an absolutely spectacular time.  I have always felt connected to Romania because of the heritage I have there, and now I feel like I have life-long friends there as well.  
You can see the video we made of Mount Postavarul, where we stayed - near Dracula's castle.  That was breathtaking.  After that I continued on to Cluj-Napoca where I met with my friend Delia.  She and her boyfriend treated me to dinner at a great place on a swan lake!  It was awesome.  Then I headed down to Timisoara where I met the son (Nitza) of the family I stayed with last year when I was in Romania.  He showed me around and introduced me to several friends.  We all stayed up until 4 in the morning laughing, (which was a trend that continued the rest of the time I was in Romania).  The next day Nitza and I boarded the train to Arad, where we met up with my friend Cornelia, and then we headed to the small village of Pancota where I stayed for another 4 or 5 days.  Mrs. Ionita is a cheese-maker and they have about 18 cows.  I didn't get to milk the cows because that is done electronically, but I did get to help sell the milk!  While there, we played games, cooked, hiked, went fishing, played pingpong and soccer (and both Nitza and I got goals)! I also went with them to a wedding in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm!  It was an amazing time... I can't say I slept enough because we stayed up so late every night laughing and telling stories, but it was definitely worth it.  I'll be back there soon, I just know it!