January 11 - Day Seven

Finally the fog has lifted.  Walking outside to the bus with clear skies above and warm air all around was a much needed relief, and it couldn’t have been a better day for it.  Today was a perfect day for sight seeing.  The town of Bucharest is filled with diverse buildings and monuments that come together to create an atmosphere unique to the town.  The climax of this tour of course was our stop at the second largest building in the world.  As our group goofed around and took an infinite number of picture for what seemed like a lifetime, I was awestruck by the magnitude of the building in front of me and by how far I needed to back up to fit the entire building in the frame.  All in all, the tours showed that even in the heart of Eastern Europe, a town can be filled with beauty.  Shoved in the middle of our tours was enough food to feed the entire city it seemed, and amazing food at that. If I had known about the food-filled feat that we were facing, I probably would have skipped breakfast and paced myself a little better.  But how else could we have ended a day of sights and scrumptious food than with a party at the JCC?  Even now my ears are ringing from the DJ and singing in the basement club at the Bucharest JCC. It was definitely a night and day to remember for a while.

- Ben Davis

In celebrating Shabbat today, our ELM group took the opportunity to explore the wonderful city of Bucharest and enjoy each other's company. In addition to our guided tour through Bucharest and an incredibly delicious lunch, most of the day was an opportunity to shop with friends, have great conversations, and truly relish the time that we have with our group. The day was truly complete after a traditional Romanian feast (with an enormous amount of food!), a Havdalah ceremony with members of the Bucharest Jewish community, and a fun dance party to end the night! While tomorrow is our last full day in Europe, we have learned so much from these communities and will take all of these memories with us back to KU!

- Evan Traylor