From Lois

Dear Friends and Family,
It is day 8 or 9 (truthfully I cannot remember), and we just wrapped up the CDI conference at Hagrita conference center. It is truly beautiful here. We are up in the mountains, with the tall pine trees all around us. One of the mountain tops even has a white cross on it. It is from a fable, Emi told us about a knight on a huge white horse that climbed all the way to the top of the mountain and then the horse slipped and died. Sad, but a beautiful story. We got to go to see the Peleis, the castle of the first king of Romania (who was a German), it was absolutely amazing with carved wood, 5,000 weapons from around the world and I can't explain it, you'll have to wait for pictures. We also got to visit Braun Castle, which is an medieval castle that belonged to Regina Maria (Queen Mary) up until the communists took control. It is also the castle that is supposedly the Dracula castle. And you can see where the myth came from, but the funny thing is that Vlad Dracula never lived there, and actually the Transylvania's hold him in high regard as a just and fair ruler that punished those who broke the law, whether they were rich or poor.
I will have more to tell you all later, but for now I need to sleep and pack so that we can move on to Integro camp where we will be hosting a winter weekend for youth.
With much Love,
Lois