School Update Fall 2025

Here is a quick update about the Fall of 2025! 

After a very eventful summer, Katya went back to BYU right after we came back from Romania, just in time to see her friend and mission trainer get married on Aug 30! Julie Pachev was Katya's first mission companion in Oradea, for about 6 months. Julia's dad is from Russia so Julia also speaks Russian fluently. Her dad is one of the biggest supporters of Ukraine and has been involved in major volunteering projects to help those fighting in Ukraine. 

Katya was so excited to start a new semester, with new goals and plans! 

Katya is living off campus this year, in a condo owned by her roommate's parents. She is meant to have a roommate for her shared room, but she doesn't. They also have a dog. 

I asked Katya to send me her First Day of School Picture. I love it! We miss seeing her every day but I know she is loving her independence. She is still working at the MTC this fall semester, it's a flexible job but doesn't make as much as she would like. She is an actor for the missionaries to practice teaching her. She is majoring in Public Relations. 

And here is Mark, starting his 10th grade! Crazy! He is still at Crossroads Flex which means he has an irregular school schedule with a lot of flexibility. This fall semester he has to be at school four days a week but only for 2-3 hours each time. It's a lot of additional driving for me, but we make do. He is still training at Cameron Moore Tennis. 

Pictures of Alex are missing. Oh!!! It's because he is on a mission! He actually arrived to Latvia around 21st of August and has been adjusting to his missionary life. He is having a major growing experience for sure! We miss him terribly but so happy he is doing what he has always wanted to do and we are so grateful for him. 

Lyana. 

 

Watsons Go to Romania-Oradea

The following morning, we set out to reach our last stop. We saved this beauty of a gem for last! ORADEA! 

This is the city where Katya was "born" (in missionary speak) and where she spent her first 6 months in Romania. 

It is a beautiful historic city close to the border of Hungary, so it was greatly influenced by the Austro-Hungarian architectural designs. The buildings in the old town are gorgeous and it has a typical European small town feel. 

Of course, the remnants of the communistic times are still there in the nearby neighborhoods too. We stayed in an apartment in a building similar to this, just for one night in Oradea. 

Oh, and on the way to Oradea, we came across these golden roofed mansions that were the houses that the gypsies were building. It was a bit surreal to see them and I need to learn a bit more about this whole deal with luxurious houses. 

They were everywhere on this stretch of our drive to Oradea. In clusters.

We dropped off our luggage, changed and went out into town to see where Katya spent months proselyting. 

She was in Oradea during winter months, so it was wonderful to see it in August. Because this was the place where Katya started her mission, she feels super connected with it. I guess in total Katya served in four places with Pitest being her least favorite so she wanted to skip it all together. Otherwise, she was in Oradea, Iasi, and Bucharest. 

Since Katya knew all the missionary habits and usual hang outs, she was convinced we would run into some missionaries on our outing. Sure enough! Not even a few minutes after we walked into the center, we saw the sister missionaries! It's kind of a cool feeling to see those who are still serving in your area after you knew them as a missionary on your mission. 

How could I forget! We were also celebrating Robert's birthday in Oradea! 

The best place to be on your birthday-with your family. We only wish Alex were with us...but guess what! He was actually arriving to Latvia like ON this day! We were almost traveling on the same day through Europe! Crazy!! 

Oh finally--a family selfie in Oradea! 

Of course...what a surprise...we ran into the elders too! We told them to meet us at 8 pm at the gelato place because Brother Watson was going to treat everyone to gelato on his birthday-haha. These elders were on splits actually, so we knew now that there was another pair wandering around somewhere. 

But here is a wild part! This elder next to Mark is from New Zealand. We told him we had just visited New Zealand and stayed in Hamilton where he is from. And then we asked him if he knew Collette--the one who runs the B&B! And he said yes! She is like one of his aunties! Which auntie means friend/relative/something close but yes, she is his auntie! How fun is this!?

For dinner we drove to a mall area close to the apartment where Katya and Julia Pachev (her first companion and trainer) lived in Oradea. We had a wonderful dinner there. Katya and I secretly went inside the store and got a piece of cake, and found a candle to put on the cake to sing a Happy Birthday to Robert right there at the cafe. 

Happy 45th birthday, Robert!!! 

And then back to the Old Town--and all the missionaries showed up! Who could say "no" to free gelato on Robert's birthday??

Together we walked to the church building. All these places were so special to Katya and they felt very special to us too. 

The following morning, we actually didn't have much time to do more sightseeing in Oradea. We felt a bit rushed because although we had bus tickets for the 13:50 Flexibus from Oradea to Budapest airport, we still had to drop off the car at the Oradea airport and then take a taxi to the bus station. 

It was so hectic because although we were given the instructions by Sixt car rental company about where to drop off our car, it was actually very confusing because the terminal that we were directed to was absolutely closed! And we were supposed to park the car and drop off the key at no one knows were..it was weird and we had to communicate back and forth via What's app with Sixt, but finally we figured it out and...hoped for the best.

We took an Uber to the bus station from where we were going to ride a bus to Hungary. Let me tell you, the vibe of the bus station was seriously like a Ukrainian bus station twenty years ago. It was almost funny to me! The bus station doesn't just host Flixbuses that are long distance, it also helps people connect throughout Romania, so they are not all fancy. And neither are people who take them. 

Our Flixbus was delayed actually by an hour! The whole time I was getting updates about its location and for some reason it was running late although. We did not miss it, we got our luggage on it and we found our seats just fine. The seats were really tight for tall people... 

It was about a 4.5 hour drive that was sooooo peaceful and soooo nice easy. Worth every penny not to have to drive and figure out where to go and let a professional drive! The tickets were actually super inexpensive--like 20 euros a person or something. We had to stop at the border, had our passports collected, checked and brought back (who knows where they took them but I guess privacy and all that are not really a thing at the border).

We arrived at the Budapest airport around 6 pm, if I remember it correctly. And almost immediately, the host of our apartment for the night picked us up to take us to his place. It was perfect! We paid him like we would for the taxi, but it was rather reasonable and convenient for us all. 

From the new apartment we walked to the restaurant and had a nice sit down dinner here. Our trip was definitely winding down... We felt relaxed and accomplished. We were also once again in a place where no one could speak the native language and we were back to communicating in English... 

Our flight was leaving at 6:20 am the following morning so we were up at the crack of dawn, just kidding, it was pitch dark when we woke up....the owner of our apartment also gave us a ride to the airport which eased our burden of trying to find a taxi at 4 am! The airport was SO busy! This was August 23rd, Saturday. Thankfully, we had no checked luggage but the security line was still rather long.

Once we were through, we made our way to the lounge as we get free access with our Ritz Carlton card. We actually had to wait in line for a bit as it was opening at 4:30 am. 

It was a great start to our journey home--kids loved all the variety of breakfast food they could get before getting on the plane. And I love how these lounges make traveling just a little more comfortable and luxurious. Sorry, Mark, for the closed eyes.

From Budapest we flew to Paris where once again we had a few hours of a wait. Sadly, I could only get one person into the Air France lounge with me...and Mark volunteered as tribute...since he could eat a lot. We had a good time and made sure to fill up on food-haha. Then reunited with Katya and Robert in time for our flight to RDU. 

What a whirlwind of a trip that was! It was definitely a memorable trip that helped us understand Katya's missionary experience a lot more. It is not an easy place to live in at all and we could see it a lot clearer now. 

Grateful for the opportunity we took to visit this country! It was never on our radar before Katya's mission and now it's part of our family history. 

Lyana. 

 

Watsons Go To Romania--Transfagarasan Road and Cartisoara

After spending a night in Brasov, our next stop was in a very different part of the country--in Cartisoara. 

We spent two nights at this wonderful cottage in the middle of rural Romania. It was probably our favorite place of the whole trip. We made sure we had extra relaxing time while here to do our laundry, to play games and run around outside. We picked up some pizza and even a Fanta and chilled in the gazebo. It was magical. 

This is the entrance to our cottage that had a really cool upstairs. Katya slept downstairs and we had two big beds upstairs. The kids played games, walked over to the stream right next to the house, hung out in the hammock and we did some laundry! 

The house was located in a very convenient location to start our drive on the Transfagarasan road. It was a route that Katya had heard so much about but one that the missionaries were not allowed to ever take. This road is so windy that it is closed for most of the year. Hair pin turns and tunnels, bears and lots of beautiful scenery-that's what we had in store. 

We started our drive SUPER early as we wanted to beat the traffic. IT WORKED! 

We had read about crawling lines of cars and did not want this drive to turn into a five hour ordeal. 

Most of the road is not really crazy, but there is a famous passage that literally is like a cartoon race track, so windy....

Honestly, after Ireland and some insane British roads this was not too terrible, even with a manual car. 

We saw a beautiful lake, Balea Lake, at around 2000 m of altitude, but can't even prove that because I couldn't find any pictures! 

Also, the road is called Transfagarasan because Fagaras is the name of the mountain range right here in the Carpathian mountains. So Trans Fagaras means basically across the Fagaras mountains...not Transfiguration or anything, like I originally thought-hahaha.

Oh yes...and we saw the bears. The bears were not even scared of people at this point. 

Just walking across the road. Cars would stop and stare at them, but they didn't care. They said to not feed them...so we didn't...and kept our windows rolled up.

They do have a bit of a problem with bears in Romania actually. Most of them don't attack people but they have had instances of bad endings when a bear encountered hikers. 

So the famous Transfiguration road turned out to be pretty cool AND suprisingly not so crowded after all. We were finished with our drive by half day because we started early and that worked out great! 

In the evening, we went to a highly rated restaurant in a neighboring village, still pretty in the middle of nowhere. It was a little hard to find as we had to follow some interesting signs and directions. But finally we found it! Here is a picture of the village street as we drove to our dinner place.

The restaurant was popular because it was more like a local farm restaurant with fresh fish and produce. The atmosphere was very casual. It seemed it was like a place to stay and also a place to eat. We chose to eat outside and picked a table. As we were waiting to order, one of the women at a table a few rows away from us started to choke and a guy with her started the Heimlich maneuver! It was a bit crazy as she was "loudly" choking and it was pretty scary. Robert got up to start walking to help, although the guy was already doing things right. But suddenly the lady spit out a huge chunk of meat. And she was okay and everyone sat down like nothing even happened.

It was so unpleasant and actually disgusting that I had a hard time even thinking about food. We got up and moved to a different part of the outside seating area just to get our minds of the experience. For some reason, it really bothered me (and it bothered me that other people didn't like jump up to help or something). Even right now as I am recalling that experience, I am feeling unsettled inside;). 

 After dinner we walked around the beautiful fishing ponds where people could come and try their luck in fishing. And no one else was thinking about the lady choking besides me probably-hahaha. Goodness...

Well, let's not finish on that. We had a short drive ahead of us the following morning! To our last Romanian stop--Oradea! 

 

Watsons Go to Romania--Brasov

Brasov is one of the coveted cities for missionaries to serve in. It is beautiful! It's touristy and historic. And it's actually pretty good in size--approximately 235 thousand people live there. 

It took us a little while to get there because our GPS took us through the rural roads and forested paths basically-hahaha. We passed some massive Gypsy neighborhoods and marveled at their luxury look, got stuck behind the horse buggies and funny trucks. 

 

 Mark was not feeling well the whole day but still did not complain....so when we got to Brasov, we let him rest. I chose to stay in a historic building in this city, meters from the central plaza. We had two apartments actually--Katya and Mark were staying in one place and Robert and I were on the second floor in a different place with a huge kitchen and living room. It was a quirky place for sure! I felt a little bit like I am in the middle a of French city in the mid 1600s.

It was also one of those places where we squeezed in our car on a street to park and did not move it, feeling lucky we got a spot. So we walked from our apartment to the center and found some dinner. 

Brasov's main square is a traditional European square with bustling life no matter the hours of the day. 

After a meal, we had a scheduled walking tour to learn more about the history of the city. 

It was a an informative and entertaining tour led by a native Romanian who grew up in the communist regime and has seen the country transform through the last thirty decades. We learned about the German history of Brasov, the invaders, the bears and all sorts of interesting facts that are very amusing at the moment but cannot be retained long term...

The pinnacle of the tour was seeing this Black Church--built 600 years ago in a gothic style, it is one of the biggest medieval churches in Europe. 

Beautiful night in Brasov. It was getting dark but the streets were still alive with action! 

We got Mark out of the apartment to go hunt down some gelato and late night crepes. We were brave to be standing so close to him! 

Random pictures of Romania. 

The following morning, Mark seemed to be a little better (gelato helped??) so we checked out from our place after eating our leftover fruits and pastries and headed to see Bran Castle! What is that, you might ask? 

The DRACULA Castle! Just kidding....Dracula is not even real...or so they say. 

The abbreviated history goes something like this--in the 12th century a wooden fortress is built but destroyed by the Mongols. In the 14th century, the Saxon merchants build a stone castle as a border check point. Then King Wladyslaw II was enjoying the castle, and Michael the Brave after that. In 1888 the Austro-Hungarian authorities transfers the castle to the Romanian crown, and King Ferdinand gifts the castle to Queen Marie in 1920 who renovates the castle. It later becomes a museum and a national treasure. 

They say not to rush through the castle but let me assure you that you are not even capable of rushing through it during the summer months! It is so popular and busy! The line was enormous to get tickets so we were smart enough purchase them online for a timed visit. 

Was it impressive? Nah...it's pretty small, although it has 57 rooms, apparently, some secret corners and all that. 

Here is the crowd... People from all over Europe were here because I could hear all sorts of languages! That’s how you know you are in Europe:))

Was it iconic? Yes! It was cool to see and definitely a must if you are in the Brasov region. 

The walk up the castle is pretty steep too. Candid picture of us walking up the steep hill...

Here is a good picture of the castle! 

Straight from the Bran Castle we drove to neat town in the mountains where we hopped on a gondola to go up the mountain for some pretty views.  

It was a short but beautiful  ride. And sadly we didn't capture any pictures because we were trying to enjoy the beautiful moment. 

Wait...we did get one picture of the view from the cable ride. 

We went up the mountain, walked around with a bunch of other lost tourists, bought an overly expensive bottle of water to share, took some pictures and went back down. 

Oh, but when we went back to the town, we bought the most incredible chimney cakes!!!! Oh my goodness... I love these things! These were THE BEST!!!!! They are so fluffy and not super sweet and just perfect!

They did not last long....

We continued our drive and stopped at a town of Fagaras not too far from Cirtisoara where we were staying. 

Another cool fortress in the middle of the city! You could tell Mark was feeling a little better as he was posing for pictures. 

We stopped by the grocery store in this town to get us some food for the next two nights and headed to our next airbnb. 

And just an example of what you might see on the roads of Romania. 

To Be Continued...