Day 67: Paczki!

I have a sugar headache and I love it. I guess there is a strong Polish heritage in this area. We stopped by our local doughnut shoppe and picked up Paczki (pronounced poonch-key). The ones made at this shop are gargantuan jelly-filled doughnuts. I almost couldn't even fit it in my mouth.
(According to the scale at the doctor's office, I'm obese under BMI standards.)

Earlier today, we entered the shop only to find out that they were all sold out, but the baker said he would bake some more just for us from the batch that he saved for himself. He's awesome. Maybe one day, we'll tell you about him. I went to class and came back an hour later, and there they were, sitting in a box, ready for me to eat. Yum.

This whole paczki thing has led Allison and me to lots of discussions on the Catholic traditions for this time of year. She had no idea what lent is or fat tuesday or ash wednesday or really any of the Catholic traditions of Easter preparation. For me, it has brought back a lot of memories of my High School years, when my friends of all different denominations would figure out what they were giving up for lent. Most of the time it was some type of food, like french fries or chocolate. I would just laugh at all of them or volunteer something to do something too like no kissing for lent when I didn't have a girlfriend. I never felt the need to participate for real because I fast the first Sunday of every month. Anyway, I don't think that any of them made it the whole month, ever. I'm exaggerating, but still many of them gave up giving up something for lent long before it was over. My favorite was when one of my friends tried to give up chocolate for lent and didn't even last the first weekend before he was sneeking chocolate here and there. My other favorite would come after Easter and my friends would gorge themselves on whatever they had been giving up. What was the point then?
It also reminds me of the goings on this time of year in Romania. It's so hilarious. Every year around now, you start seeing signs pop up everywhere saying "de post." In the Romanian Orthodox church they call the month before Easter their fast. This fast is what the "de post" is referring to. The bakeries and other food stores prepare special recipes for the Post because members of the Romanian orthodox church are supposed to abstain from eating meat products and some other things during this month. Even though it still has the same Biblical origins, example Jesus fasted forty days and nights, the phrase to fast has taken on a whole new meaning in Romania. They can't grasp the concept that to fast means to abstain from eating and drinking. In their heads, they can eat all they want as long as it has been made "de post," using only ingredients that qualify under the rules of the fast. It makes it really interesting when you are trying to explain to people that on the first Sunday of every month we fast as a church. We say something like, "When we fast we don't eat or drink anything for a day," and so on. Without fail someone always always always asks, "So you don't even drink water?" . . . and sometimes "You don't eat anything?" In my head I'm thinking, "Isn't that what I just said? Isn't that what it means to fast? Don't you read the Bible?" Then, we'd go back and explain it all over again. Well, we got smart and learned a thing or two about their culture. We started using the phrase "Post Negru." A "post negru" (black fast) is what we would call a traditional fast with the exception of drinking water. Aha, this is why no matter who we were teaching they always asked the same question every time we taught about fasting.
Anyway, looking forward to Easter.