Mud and Bingo

Feb 5 2017 We had a few days of melting this week, making realize how dirty a city gets with snow and ice. Saturday morning I had just about enough of a dirty car, so I did go get a car wash. Funny thing, I was alone there, besides the guy washing my car. Because most other people were not foolish enough to wash their car when it is melting. We could not touch the car without mud on our hands. By the time I got home, the careful wash job was , well, a little dirty. Today, it is just a mess. Like every other car in the city. We are expecting more snow as well as cold, so winter is not done. There are no groundhogs here, so we could not even get a prediction of spring. Feb 2 was sunny so we will see about 6 more weeks of winter. We did do our apartment hunts, and found 2 nice central places. One we looked at was nice, but each room had a large mural of a nude, not quite what we were looking for  with missionaries. The University of Utah had some more people arrive this week, I picked some up at 1 am on Wednesday morning. Much past my bedtime. Oh, we did get our visas, which went to the last day before renewal. We now have Canadian health insurance, insurance thru the Church and Moldovan health insurance, for what it is worth, 11,000 lei or so. I did an interview with a media outlet, about my classes. It was fun, as I had no advance warning on what they would ask. It was edited to about 3 minutes and then translated. Here is the link: http://ea.md/afectiunile-mintale-nu-cruta-copiii-afla-simptomele-celor-mai-raspandite-forme-de-tulburari/   So if any are truly bored, look and see. The Romanian is certainly not mine, they were not about to trust a Canuck to try to speak and frankly, it would have taken too much preparation. The surprise for me was how much I talk with my hands. I had no idea. The address of the place was Strada Columna 170. As I got there, in an industrial park area, I found there were at least 40 old buildings all with the exact same address. Yes, that was also fun. Did I mention no signage? So our FHE this week was Bingo, our lesson was topics picked at random starting with B, I, etc. Each group then did a presentation on that topic in whatever language they wanted. Then we played Bingo, no gambling, just chocolate bar prizes. No one had ever played, and all numbers were called in 3 languages. Once I called Z 78, and confused them all, It was enjoyed by all, about 54. Okay, now a bit of explanation of some of the pictures. I have a few of license plates, Here triple numbers are very lucky and # 7 is especially lucky. We see 777 multiple times a day, all are personalized. If you can get triple letters, that is a bonus. the lucky numbers seem to be 7, then 5, then 1, then any triple. From the luck this country has, my theory is that it does not work. Then one picture is  of girls crossing their legs. Most young women at a bus stop will cross their legs, it ends at about age 40, and is never seen in men. When I ask why, they say for stability. Somehow I doubt it , it seems very cultural. Most do not notice they do it.

Nina, Mariana, and Iulia, posed for me on the balcony, It does not do justice to the leg crossing

The couple on the right are the Strattons, they had served a mission in Romania and came back to help the U of U

All are quite intent except Elder Sargsyan at the end, who is very relaxed about the Bingo stuff

Thunbs up at the end, Jake Carter, ex missionary out of Bolivia, here for U of U

The callers, we used cards, not balls

the first of the 777s, often on a BMW or Mercedes

Bonus, triple letters and numbers

All of these cars were on one block, this one is unusual, a mere Opel with a triple number. A 2 is at the low end of the lucky spectrum.
That is it for the week, lots of running around,including Balti, We expect more of the same this week and then transfers happen again.