Paste Fericit!

Hello everyone! It has been a week since our last entry, so it is time for an update. This past week we resumed our normal schedule. Work in the archives for me has been hectic but very fulfilling. This came to a screeching halt on Friday, however: all government offices were closed for the long Christian Orthodox Easter. I had to write an abstract for a conference anyway, so I worked on that while S enjoyed some coffee and a book at Starbucks. Later that evening we met our friends Diana and Chris for dinner at an Italian restaurant that is actually part of a chain here in Bucharest. The decor was vaguely reminiscent of what you might find in an Olive Garden--kind of kitschy, loaded with false memorabilia--but the food was good, and I really enjoyed talking shop with our friends.

Yesterday started out not unlike many other Saturdays! We headed off to our favorite brunch spot, where S had a bright idea. As yesterday was the day before Easter, most people were at home with their families. And we needed to buy a new hand mixer to replace one that broke, as well as a fan for when it gets hotter, we decided now would be the perfect opportunity to head to Baneasa and do some shopping. As we might have mentioned before, Baneasa is a suburb north of Bucharest. In addition to the two airports, Baneasa boasts the large Western-style homes of the expat business community, as well as those of some of the more successful Romananian entrepreneurs. It therefore is no surprise that Bucharest's IKEA is located in Baneasa, along with a shopping mall and a few hyper-markets. We had never been to an IKEA before, and since the stores in Baneasa were likely to be less crowded we took a cab over. I have to say, IKEA was a very interesting experience. For one, all the signs were in Swedish, with a Romanian translation in smaller type. All the books in the furniture displays were by prominent contemporary Swedish authors, and the cantina sold fresh Swedish food (like a cake topped with lingonberries, and of course Swedish meatballs), and beyond the checkout you could even buy Swedish food to take home. Clearly the chain takes a great deal of pride in its origins! We saw lots of cool furniture and accessories, but since we wouldn't be able to take any of it back to the States with us, we decided to continue on and visit the Baneasa mall.

When S and I walked in to the Baneasa mall, the first thing that struck us was how much like an American mall it seemed (even down to the food court, which incidentally had in addition to the usual fast food one finds here: a Quizno's). After walking around the mall a bit we realized that it was connected to a Carrefour hyper-market, as well as two different electronics stores both similar to Best Buy. In the Carrefour we found the mixer and fan we needed, and decided after that to get something to drink and then head home.

After resting for a bit back at home, we decided to head out for some Indian food for dinner. Before we headed off, we made a quick stop in the bathroom and just as we were ready to leave, the pipes backed up through the grate in the bathroom floor. It was a disgusting mess, to say the least. We eventually mopped up the water and our landlords managed to fix the pump. Crisis averted, we went to one of our favorite Indian restaurants, Haveli, for dinner. S ordered the dal mahkni, and I had lamb do-piaza. Both were excellent. We had to hurry home from our meal, however, because our landlords had invited us to attend a midnight Easter service at a nearby church. It was very beautiful. A large crowd gathered in the street outside the church, holding candles. Romanian Orthodox hymns were sung, followed by a brief sermon. At the end the church bell rang, signalling the priests and monks to return to the church, and the crowd began to walk back to their homes, candles in hand. Our landlords were kind enough to invite us to have a traditional Easter dinner with them, and so I got to have even more lamb (this time roasted), as well as something called drom. The best way to describe drom is that it is rather like a Romanian version of haggis, only without the oats and with very different seasoning. In other words, a meat dish made from the "dirty bits" or internal organs. I'll say this: eating it was a unique experience. The most delicious part of the feast, however, were the pastries. First, there was cozonac, a kind of sweet bread with swirls of a spiced nut mixture. We also had cozonca cu mac (cozonac with poppyseeds), a kind of caramel tort, and best of all mimoza, a specialty of Geta's mother. Mimoza are pastries filled with fruit jam and a sort of rich custard. They were fantastic! Unfortunately, I started having some coughing spasms thanks to my allergies, and so S and I headed back downstairs for bed.

So remember when I said the pump was fixed? Well, "fixed" is a relative term. After being in the shower for a minute this morning, the pump broke down again, with results similar to yesterday. After two hours of tinkering around with it, our landlords fixed it again--we'll see what tomorrow brings. Due to the holiday, nothing is open today and very little will be open tomorrow. Certainly no plumbers will be available until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. The archives are closed tomorrow as well, so at least if it does break down I won't be in a hurry to go somewhere!

Paste Fericit (Happy Easter) everyone!

--B