Sarmale, YUM!

On Saturday we went to Sora Maria Podaru's to have her teach us how to cook Sarmale. It was quite the adventure! Everything in Romania always seems to be an adventure.....you have so much to look forward to. We got there almost 2 hours late because first, we were waiting for the tramvai......but it never came.......for some reason it wasn't running that day. who knows? as we were waiting (and waiting) for it to come, we helped a little old lady who took a pretty bad fall. the sidewalks in romania are very uneven so you always have to watch were you are walking....... the little old lady said she was admiring my shirt so she wasn't watching the ground which is why she fell. she was scratched up pretty bad, but we took care of her and sent her on her way. after that we found out the tram wasn't running, so we took a maxi taxi. only 5 of us fit in the first maxi taxi, it was already bursting with people, so the other half of us had to wait for the second one.....again we barely fit. there were a lot of hot, sweaty bodies crammed up against each other....it was a very enjoyable ride! you will learn that there is very little personal space in romania. we still had to stop at billa to buy all of the ingredients so that took awhile too. especially since we had to wait in line for about 45 minutes. it's worse than super wal mart on saturday. the other grocery story in Iasi is closed for remodeling so billa is always packed. we finally made it to sora maria's and had a great time learning how to cook sarmale. she is the 1st counselor in relief society and the only member in her family. she is such an amazing lady! the people here are so humble and giving. they will do anything to help you. i admire them so much. we had a lot of fun!!you guys are going to love it here!!!