Wyattjourney.com

My photo journal site is almost completely updated. It is my major focus in blogging. Please visit it at www.wyattjourney.com.

Back in the USA

I am back in the states. I flew from Bucharest to Juneau (30 hours) and spent one day packing and preparing for my trip to Washington state. I am now down in Vancouver, WA at my parents house and I am working hard to catch up on my web-site. I will be switching the main enphasis of my site back to the photo-essays and they will be posted at www.wyattjourney.com.

Back in Bucharest

We had a great time in Greece and now we are back in Bucharest. This will be a busy week so I will update the site and comments as I can but likely it won't happen before next Friday when I am back in the states. Sorry.

Greece

We have arrived in Greece for a few days of decompression after our time in Bucharest. Our friend Robyn, from Anchorage, arrived about 20 hours after us. She had been traveling 3 full days due to some technical issues on a plane she was on. I had a friend of mine meet her at the airport in Bucharest and make sure she was safe and happy. Our hotel is about 70 miles from the airport, located in Thessolonica, and so we rented a car and drove up to get her late last night. On the way back to the airport, we got into traffic jam and didn't get back to the hotel until 4:00 this morning.

It is very beautiful here and we plan to take advantage of the area by visiting historical areas and relaxing on the beach. I see that this computer lets me upload photos so I will be posting a few later this week.

Afternoon Breaks

On a campaign it is important to stay hydrated and rested. Each day after our morning classes we have 4 hours to go hang-out and enjoy relaxing. We live far enough away from the apartment that it is almost not worth going back there so we find other things to do. Most breaks begin with a meal. Often the whole team will eat together but sometimes we go separate ways. The meal will often last over an hour. This is a good time to catch up on our students and bond a little with our teammates.

In this past week, being our last, we tried to do things that were on our list that we had not had time for. Dana and I walked to the Botanical Garden of Bucharest and enjoyed walking through this park. They have a long way to go before they become a world-class garden but we still enjoyed looking at at the ponds and a few flowers. They had some turtles in a pond and several ducks. We liked this knotted tree.

On another day, one of our students, Dia, was nice enough to take us to a park and help us rent a boat to row around in for an hour. We had a great time doing that. I spent some of that time teaching Dia how to row. The whole experience made me miss the ocean.

Most breaks end with an hour or so at the Internet place. It is pretty cheep here and it is air conditioned. In addition, we found a place that doesn't allow smoking. This is a rarity in Bucharest.

With sadness, our campaign ends today. We will miss our students and our breaks but we are looking forward to some R&R. I will be traveling tomorrow and can not guarantee that I will have email access. Thanks for visiting.

Romanian Summer Mission Report 6

Geoffrey's Report - It has been quite a summer. As I suspected would happen, the Lord has been active in our lives and our ministry. We see growth in our students, in our fellow teachers, and in ourselves. Some of the growth has been easy and fun and some of it has been painful and hard. We have laughed a lot and we have cried. We have found ourselves as comforter and comforted. We have seen parts of the human spirit that we can rejoice in and other parts that we would rather not even exist. We have seen people return to God and some who have yet to grasp his love. We have had students who have found the missing element of their lives with God and others who have been strengthened by talking about their faith. We rejoice in all of these situations because we know that they are causing the growth.

Earlier this week I had a student tell me that he has been encouraged to leave his apartment more. He sees that there is more hope in the world than he has seen in the city and in his work. Another student has picked up the Bible for the first time in his life and is excited to read what God has to say to him. Many of my students have decided to keep their faith at its current level but I am happy for them as they have allowed themselves to be exposed to the message God has to offer. I pray their faith will increase.

We have been greatly encouraged by the time we have been able to spend with the other teachers. We come from different parts of the states and we all have different experiences in life. From college students to church elder, secretary to professional teachers, the time we have spent together has been special. I have memories of late night talks and game playing. Also memories of exploring the city and stumbling into adventures in the areas outside the city. I now have many stories of laughter in the buses, trains, and metros. This is a reminder that Christians can laugh and in a good clean way.

Every morning before classes start, we have been able to sing, pray, and share scriptures with each other. On several occasions, we've had students join us for that time. Though they came early on "accident", they have all expressed how special it was to them. I think many of them have not seen worship done in this way. It is good they can see a group of people who care for each other as they share in the worship of God. I hope they will "know we are Christians by our love."

In all likelihood, this will be our last campaign report. With the World English Institutes' end on Friday and we are taking a week to do some traveling with another friend from Alaska who has come over for a few weeks. We will return to Bucharest on the 22nd to help with Albert and Lavinia's art exhibit that is being used to introduce the church to others. We will then return to Juneau the following week. We thank you for your emails and prayers. It has been encouraging to share in this ministry with you and hope God will bless our congregation with many more opportunities to spread the word.

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Dana's Report - This summer has been full of many trials, many blessings, and many surprises. As I somewhat blindly stepped into this journey, I took a huge leap of faith, trusting that God would provide me with the way and the means to serve Him in Romania. A missionary can take on many different forms. A missionary can be a child, a grandparent, a student, and, at times, an unsuspecting soul. There is no one special mold that can really define a missionary. The purpose, however, spreading the Word of God, is the over-arching goal that unites all who serve our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Several years ago, when I first started considering mission work, I did not believe I had the ability to step out into an unfamiliar place and share the Word of God with strangers. I had been comfortable talking about my faith with people I already had established relationships with, but it felt difficult to talk about God with people I didn't know. I resolved that my mission field would be in my personal friendships, in my work life, and in any other opportunities that God provided. During these years, I saw my Christian friends traveling to other countries, working on teams to repair churches and orphanages, or praying for those doing mission's work abroad. Again, I felt comfortable serving in the way I always had, helping others in the community, at work, or in my personal life. But God had another plan for me. Through God's intervention and without hesitation, I knew, accepted, and trusted that it was God's plan for me to serve Him in Bucharest. Five weeks later, by God's will, I've done just that.

This morning, my student told me that she can see God working in me to help her. She shared that in our conversations she could feel God's presence and His desire to have a deeper relationship with her. She said that through this course she's been able to see God's love and desire for her, something she has not seen in many years. When you step out of your comfort zone and allow God to work in your heart, you find that God can use you in ways you never imagined. This summer God gave me a spirit of confidence, of strength, and of love for the people I came in contact with. As a result and to His glory, He reached many who are seeking to understand or have a relationship with the Lord. This was one of the many ways I experienced God's work in Bucharest.

The Lord also worked in the lives of the teachers for the World English Institute. He put a desire in our hearts to be closer to Him, to read His Word more, to pray together, to worship together, and to love one other. More than ever, I have seen the power of the Bible and I am reminded that it is active and living, ready to be received.

At first it felt strange to participate in worship using another language or to hear people praying and to not be able to understand the words. But when I looked past my own feelings, I could experience the sincere desire to make a connection with Our Lord. The people I met in Romania are not afraid to ask the difficult questions, they are not afraid to know about the Lord or about His love, and they are not afraid to worship God with their entire heart. The Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to share in this experience and as a result I can feel the joy of knowing that God desires the hearts and souls of every human being.

As I prepare to leave Romania, my heart is open to what the Lord has planned for me in my next mission trip. I know that there are no boundaries when we serve the Lord with our entire hearts. It's only when we look past our perceived limitations and truly start trusting God, that we can actually do His will more completely. I thank you for your support, your prayers, your encouragement, and your love. I only pray that one day you will be willing to step out of your comfort zone to experience how God will use you.

The Four Year Old Missionary

What is a missionary to you? Is it someone who sells all their things and moves to a far-off place that you can't even find on a map? Is it that person who comes to your church with a 2 hour slide-show every couple years looking for money? Is it someone who is well versed in Biblical concepts and extremely outgoing? What is a missionary?

I think we often cut ourselves short when we think of missionaries in the context of the above questions. I think the definition of a missionary is much simpler than we give credit to. A missionary is someone who helps in the spread of God's powerful message. I spend many of my summers overseas talking with people about God. By definition, I am a missionary. I don't think of myself in these terms but the facts remain.

As I sat with a student yesterday afternoon, I looked down and realized that one of my nieces is a missionary of sorts. She, unknowingly, is helping in the spread of the gospel. Tabitha is only four. She was three at Christmas time when she walked into a store, went directly to a notebook with a pen-holder, and proclaimed it as a gift for her Uncle Geoffrey. It was the perfect gift because I am good at not having a pen with me at any given moment. This notebook helped me solve this problem.

Yesterday I realized that the notebook is now full. I have used every page. That is rare in my notebook collection. It is full of drawings, scriptures, phone numbers, email addresses, and scribbles. Probably 98% of the things in the notebook have to do with ministerial things. Without this notebook, I could have not communicated as effectively with my students this summer.

The notebook is ragged and beat-up. The pen died several weeks ago and was replaced with a newer one. Several pages are torn and there are stains in several places. This is no matter. It just proves the worth of the notebook and is a reminder to me of my niece and the contribution she has made to the ministry in Romania.

As I reflect, I think we don't realize how often the little things we do for people can be used in powerful ways. Even the innocent actions of a four year-old can steer people to Christ. Praise God that He can grow an oak with a small seed. (photos will be posted soon).

Rumikub

There is a game that I am totally addicted to called Rumikub. Last summer when I was here I bought a really nice set of Rumi-blocks to play in Juneau. Then I found some friends who were willing to play with me. We played just about every week this past winter.

When we got to Romania this summer, I bought another copy of the game and we have been playing is several nights a week. We have at least one of the interns addicted to it. Some nights we play WAY past our bedtime. We don't keep score and we bend the rules sometimes but it is all in the name of fun.

Last week at our favorite park, we discovered a group of old men playing a version of the game. We tried to figure out the rules but there were doing things we couldn't understand. I will have to try to look it up on the internet. We would have stayed longer to watch but we were kicked out when trying to take a photo. Fortunately I was able to sneak this one in before the great exodus.

The Classics

The past three weeks have been very enriching for us in so many ways. In fact, they have gone so well that we feel as if we've have a years worth of experience packed into a short period of time. Some of our classes are so good that we are certain they lasted much longer than an hour when in fact they didn't. As I've said before, we are growing to love our students and to be entwined with their lives.

On Sunday we had a mixer and around 20 of our students came. The Americans and non-students made the crowd to be around 50 people. We had a great time eating, chatting, and playing games. It was a success.

One of my students is a quality control engineer at a local (famous) croissant factory. We meet two times a week and we have had a good time sharing our thoughts on God and life. He has a very good sense of humor and also a big heart for his family. The other day he showed me his car. He told me today that he wants to take it to the beach soon. I told him that his wife would like that. He told me that his wife wouldn't go. Why not... is she afraid of the water? No, she is afraid of my car.

I plan to keep in touch with Vacile and the other students who will give me their email addresses. I am not always good at writing but I will make an attempt to keep in touch with these friends and encourage them in their lives and spiritual growth.

Good InVESTment??

It started near the beginning of our time in Romania. I casually pointed out a fashion trend among older Romanian men.... The vest. I had a student last year who wore a vest everyday. His daughter claims that he sleeps in the vest. I believe it. She snuck one of her father's vests to school the other day so we could all have our pictures taken in it.

After showing this trend to Dana, we started pointed out vest-wearing men when we saw them. It is sort of an easy version of Where's Waldo. There are hundreds of styles here. We have seen vests in camo, pink, grey, blue, yellow, mauve, green, and so on. They come in various lengths and with differing numbers of pockets. While most vests are worn by older men, we have also seen them on women and younger men. We have also seen "Trainer" vests on little kids. I guess there must be a good reason they wear them. We sure have fun looking for them and commenting on their quality and style. Maybe I should consider getting one.

Our Newest Roommates

We have been working at the English/Bible school for three weeks and we have one more to go. The McPhersons were here for the first two weeks of the institute and when they left, the Browns came to join us. Marcus is an elder in the church in Alabama and also works for University of Alabama teaching computer programming. His wonderful wife Carol is the head office manager in their church in Tuscaloosa.

They had no problem diving into the activity of the campaign and their students have enjoyed getting to know them. It has been extra special for us because every morning we have a devotional before class and the Browns are good singers. We have also enjoyed listening to the Marcus give us wise thoughts about life and spiritual matters.

We enjoyed being on the train with them yesterday as we went to the black sea on the train. 8 hours on a train gave use some good talking and laughing time. Last week, on a bus ride home, Carol made friends with an 84 year old woman who was dressed in traditional Romanian clothing. Although the lady spoke little English and Carol speaks little Romanian, they hit it off. Mostly because of Carol's out-going personality.

It has been a good week getting to know the Browns and we look forward to spending more time with them in the coming week.

Book, Books, and More Books

This weekend we are traveling to the Black Sea for a day of sun and sunburns. We will leave Saturday morning at 7:30 by train and return sometime around 9:00 that night. We are eager for a little relaxing fun after an exhausting but rewarding week.

No doubt we will have books on the trip. One of the best things about summer vacation is getting to read all the good books I want to read during the year but have not had time for. I started the trip by reading a science book called, "Why do men have nipples?" It answered odd questions you've always wanted wanted to ask your doctor. It was a funny book but I can't say I'd recommend it.

My next book was called "Better Off". This is the true story of a man and his wife who move into a community with some minimalites so they can see what it is like to live without major technologies. This is a funny and poinient book that makes one stop and think about what technology does to us. When I got done with it, the book got passed to just about everyone on our team. We all enjoyed it and I highly recommend it.

Next was a book by Rick McKinley of Imago Dei Community Church in Portland, Oregon. The book is called "Jesus in the Margins". It was a well written book about our relationship with God in a world that is less than perfect. I highly recommend it.

I next read a book that I've always wanted to read. The book "Kon-Tiki" was written over 50 years ago and chronicles the true adventure of 6 men taking a raft across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Polynesia. It was an amazing book and I would love to go on an adventure like this.

The next book was called "Looking for God Knows What" by Don Miller. He does a nice job of talking about current spiritual thought. While not as good as his previous book "Blue Like Jazz" I still liked it.

I am currently reading "Sho-gun" but it is challenging because it is an old copy of the paperback book and each time I turn the page, it falls out. I guess that puts a little fun into the reading process.

I am not sure what I will read next. I am almost out of books. I am sure something will come up.

Romanian Summer Mission Report 5

Dana's Report - Being part of a team and family is important to me, both here in Bucharest and in my home in Juneau. The book of Ephesians tells us that we are united in Christ. This unity is essential in encouraging one another, supporting one another, and in sharing how God is working in our lives. This week, God helped me to see that isolation gives a false sense of security and the truth is that we are one in the Lord. I feel He is encouraging me to acknowledge, care about, and participate in this amazing family and trust that this family also cares for me, as I care for the members of this family. In times of loneliness, pain, or despair God is there--calling us to acknowledge that we are ONE in the Lord and that He will provide for us, heal us, and care for us. As God heals the wounds and pain in my own life, He is also giving me the strength to help others so that He, too, can heal their wounds. One young woman, Alexa, is someone who is experiencing wounds in her heart that God is beginning to heal.

I meet with my new friend Alexa on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She speaks fluent English and has taken many exams to demonstrate her English proficiency. Very early in our conversations, I saw that Alexa did not need to participate in much of the grammar studies or the reading practice we do in our individual studies. With approval from our Director, Albert (a.k.a. Geoffrey's best friend, Bubba, who is a missionary in Romania), we decided to spend most of our sessions in conversation.

As a young woman, Alexa is seeking to understand more about God, His actions, and His Word. Alexa's life, to me, seems somewhat of a paradox, as she adamently declares her dedication to a movement called the Objectivism Philosophy. This life style places a significant importance on self-preservation and individualism. Although Alexa states she believes in God, she also feels that people do a disservice in helping others, especially those in poverty. God, however, is showing her that she needs to care for others, showing them love and compassion in their hardships. Alexa took her first step towards helping others this week in her act of helping a disabled man on the subway. Not only did she take a stand for this man, but she has also admitted that she DOES care for others, something she previously stated she shouldn't do.

In addition to Alexa's questions about God, she has been actively seeking a credible source of information. She has had many conversations with her family, friends, Orthodox priests, and will often spend time in monastaries. This week, she was surprised to receive some answers (and some new questions) during our sessions. Alexa, like many people I know, including myself, has questions about how God cares for her or if He calls her to demonstrate His love for people. As I've learned and also believe, God's Word is the place to go for those answers. It is there that we learn about Jesus, His life and resurrection, and how much God loves us and wants us to love others. In Thursday's session Alexa discovered that God DOES care about her and that He is calling her. She admits that she had much thinking to do, and she needs our prayers as she digs into God's Word this weekend. I've spent a lot of time in prayer regarding my conversations with Alexa and ask for your help, as members of God's family, in doing this. God is drawing her nearer each moment and as she experiences God's love she is also experiencing His grace through her faith.

As you can see, God is blessing our efforts here. I thank you for your continued prayers.

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Geoffrey' Report - As Dana and I wander around Bucharest each day, we are struck by the poverty that seems to be everywhere. Entering the Metro the other day we watched an old woman sitting with her hand out in the beggars pose. Her sad eyes asked for money. Walking down the street this week, we saw two little kids with ragged clothes hoping to get a handout somewhere. As we rode the bus to school on Wednesday, we could see an impoverished lady passed out in the middle of the sidewalk, people stepping over her. We can't escape seeing these people and we don't always know what to do. Our American upbringing has taught us to be cautious about who we give money to. What if they use the money for something bad? Despite this, our hearts tell us that we can't pass them all by. We sometimes give a few coins and sometimes we give a little bit of food. These are temporary fixes but they make us at least feel like we have done something. We know one thing, we can't look away. That could be Christ sitting there.

Each day in our classes we deal with an different kind of poverty. This is a poverty of the soul. Our students will often share there feelings about God with us. Sometimes they tell us that they do not know if God loves them or if he even exists. Sometimes they tell us of troubles in their lives and their frustration in not knowing what to do. One of my students this week told me that he wants to have a relationship with Christ but "Jesus seems far away. He seems unreachable and untouchable." Again we realize that we can not ignore the pain or the frustration. We can't just step into their lives and treat their problems and desires as trivial matters. We are obligated to share Christ's love with them. Sometimes the only thing we can do is listen. Sometimes we can share a verse or hope they will allow us to pray with them. The more time we spend with them, the more we grow to love them and see them as children of God. We hope they can hear us share the message of grace and forgiveness. We hope that somewhere in our word they will find some peace and joy.

One student this week allowed me to pray with him. He said he had not prayed any more than 10 times in his life and he had not been in a church in over 12 years. After the prayer, he said that he liked the prayer very much and wanted me to write it down so he could memorize it. He is beginning the steps to a relationship with God and I hope he understood when I told him that prayers come from the heart. They are honest communication with God and can't be scripted.

Another students told me this week that our studies have put a change in her life. She feels like God is calling her back to a relationship with Him. She is seeing that God wants her to bring her son and husband to a relationship with Him too. We rejoiced together in this restoration.

After sharing the concept of total-forgiveness with a student early in the week, he sat there in quiet thought and finally told me that nobody had ever told him anything like this. He said it was a lot to think about. I am sure that his vision of God is one of a distant spiritual dictator who looks for ways to make life miserable. The idea of a loving, forgiving God can be a hard one to grasp. "How many sins of mine will he forgive?" "All of them." "So what prevents a me from sinning and sinning and letting God forgive me all the time?" "When we fall in love with someone (God), we go out of our way to not hurt them. As faith and love increases, the desire to sin decreases."

Another student and I concluded a session by resolving that the Bible is easy enough for the simplest person to understand and complex enough to confuse the greatest scholars. However, it is clear that God wants to have relationship with us. He desires reconciliation and forgiveness. He hates spiritual poverty and seeks to put a stop to it. Too bad man is so good at thwarting His efforts. Spiritual poverty will be with us just as material poverty is with us until the end of the world. All we can do is be tools that God can use to spread his message of hope. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Funny Things Said

Sometimes working with ESL students can have its humorous moments. This week were two instances that allow my student and I to laugh while learning.

One instance involves a man who also speaks Russian and gets the "V" and "W" sound confused sometimes. He read from the book, "Rebecca covered her face with a whale."

Another student was trying to thank me for helping him with this English course when he said, "I will pay you back for this curse."

Each of these students got a good laugh out of the errors when it was explained to them.

Orthodoxy

Romania is about 87 percent Orthodox. Most of our students were raised with this tradition. Many of them consider Orthodoxy their religion but they do not take it seriously. It is more of a cultural expectation. However, since this church is prevalent in the country, most people have some level of spiritual understanding.

The orthodox church is much like Russian orthodoxy and relies heavily on praying to dead saints for help. They pray to icons and relics and light candles for their dead relatives. They also pay the priests to pray for them. Several of my students have expressed frustration that their priests seem more interested in the money than in the spiritual nourishment. However, they are reluctant to look into other faiths because of the fear of social isolation.

There is an Orthodox church building on almost every corner in Bucharest and we have been inside several of them. They are very beautiful buildings. The central church for the Orthodox religion is in downtown Bucharest and I have visited it frequently. It is pictured here.

Getting to Know Folk

Since we are working long hours, we don't have lots of extra opportunities to get to know our students on a social level. This Sunday night we are inviting our students to join us for a little party. We are all eager to meeting their spouses and kids and just hang out a little bit.

This is not the first party we have been involved with. The day before our classes started, we had a get-together in a park with some of our Romanian friends. Some of them were former students and some of them were Christians from the Mihai Bravo Church of Christ. I have known many of them for several years and some of them I met at the park.

I am not much of a party person but this kind of social event is good for me. It gives me a chance to mingle and spend time with friends. The best part for me was when I pulled out my frisbees and got several people involved in a friendly game of catch. The food was also pretty good. We grilled up some meats and had some salad.

Above our park-spot was a mulberry tree. I climbed up into it and shook the branches. I was sorry I had done that because the berries all came crashing down and stained our clothing. I guess that is part of the risk of having fun.

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On another note, please keep our students in your prayers this week. We are starting to have some very deep conversations with them and we are being encouraged daily with their newly discovered understanding of God and his love for mankind.

Animals

There was a lot of interesting wild life on our hike the other day. One surprising guest was a snake that was laying the middle of our path. There are not snakes in Alaska's wild so I had a little jump when I discovered this guy.

There were some cool plants and I saw tons of ladybugs chewing away on many of them.

On our way down the mountain, I had the window open and something hit my head. I asked Mihai if he had hit me for fun and he said that he had not. I looked back and there was a large moth flying behind him. By the time I got the flashlight out, he was gone. I figured he had flown out. Sunday morning after church, Dana climbed in the back of the car and gave a little scream. She had discovered the moth. The colors were amazing and several of us had to get photos of it before rescuing Dana.

Some other animals we saw on our trip were mules, lizards, frogs, mountain goats (not like the ones in Alasa), and lots of colorful birds.

Moldoveanu Peak (2543 Meters)

Saturday was a day of rest for us. After a long, hot week, we finally got a little rain in the city. Unfortunately I missed it because I was on another "adventure" in the mountains. Big Bogdon and I drove for 5 hours with another friend, Mihai, in order to climb the highest peak in Romanina. The last 40 kilometers of the drive was us a beautiful dirt road that paralleled a rushing river. The road was in pretty good shape except for one spot that had a major river flowing down the center of it. With some prayer and good driving, we made it over that hurdle. The road was blocked by a large avalanche near the end. We decided that we had not driven all morning for nothing so we parked the truck and climbed over the blockage.

Bogdon thought that is was only 1 kilometer to the trail so we started on the walk with much enthusiasm. Two hours later we found the trailhead located at the bottom of the mountain. In the valley sat a shepherd's house and there was an amazing waterfall coming off the cliff. We started hiking toward the top. Because we were starting later in the day than planned, we set the goal of getting to the plateau below the mountain peak rather than going all the way to the top. Had the road not been blocked, we would have reached the top without any problems.

It was a hard climb, straight up in parts, but the resulting valley we reached was amazing. All the stresses and worries of the world slipped away as I sat in that high point marveling at the beauty. We could see Moldoveanu Peak above us. Through the valley ran a picture perfect stream.

After an hour of enjoying the scene, we started down the mountain. We reached the road after an hour and then headed for the car. We thought the walk to the car would be a lot shorter than the walk to the mountain because it was downhill. We were wrong. It was still a two hour walk. As we drove out of the mountains, it started getting dark. We made it back to Bucharest at 2 AM. It was a long day but it was worth every minute of it.

People's Palace

During our afternoon break this week, we went to the People's Palace. With the exception of the pentagon, this is the largest building in the world. It was built by Ceaucescu. He was the last dictator in Romania. He tore down 10,000 homes to build this government building. He forced people to work on the building, often without pay. He demanded perfection in the building even if it meant a great expense. While his country starved, the building was built.

The People's Palace was not the only structure built during this era. In front of the "Palace" he had a long and wide boulevard built. This one is several meters wider than the one in Paris. The view of the boulevard from the People's Palace is amazing. You can see a lot of the city as you stand up on the hill.

Most Romanians, especially the ones who lived through it, are embarrassed by the building. It took too much money and too much repression to build it. Since Ceaucescu's assassination following a revolution in 1989, the "Palace" has been turned into the capital building of the country. It holds the parliament and other major government offices.