Week in Review

As B and I are sitting and relaxing after a nice meal with a new Fulbright friend, we have realized that we have not written a post of our goings-on for some time. Last Sunday was quite rainy and cold out, which made it a perfect day to go to the movies. We saw Milk with some friends at a Multiplex theatre in a local mall followed by some drinks and snacks and a rousing discussion about the American political system. Milk was a great movie and we both very much enjoyed it; Sean Penn does a great job. There were few people (about 10) in the theatre with us and we are fairly sure most of them were American. I am told true Romanians do not go anywhere until mid-afternoon/early evening on Sundays-I think the Romanian friend with whom we attended the matinee may disagree.

Since we hunkered down all weekend, we were badly in need of groceries by Monday. After a quick dinner at a sushi place in our neighborhood we picked up some supplies and headed home. On Tuesday, a friend from the Fulbright program who is stationed in a town a few hours from Bucharest came to stay with us for the night before an early morning plane ride. We had a great time with our friend and took him to a Lebanese restaurant not far from here, which was enjoyed by all. Wednesday and Thursday were more or less normal days for us- research, errands, work around the house, and Romanian lessons. Friday was very cold and B had to get to the archives early, so when he returned mid-afternoon, cold and tired, we relaxed for a while and had a snack. Later we started to make dinner- a simple pasta meal. I opened a new box of pasta I had bought a couple months ago and noticed an odd odor. Luckily, I began pouring the pasta in a plastic container we use for storage when we noticed many of the noodles were in fact molded! It was disgusting and so we had to revise our dinner plans. We were able to have a nice dinner anyway and relax by watching a few episodes of West Wing online.

We started out our Saturday as one should- in pajamas and with pancakes and eggs. Afterward, we decided to go for a walk to get some fresh air. The one Indian restaurant we have not yet been to is supposed to be near our apartment, so we decided to try to find it. We walked about 15 minutes from our place and soon found the street on which the restaurant is located. As we were crossing the street to get closer to the restaurant we realized that the post office we had been to in November at which we picked up our package was in front of us. Not only had we been told by our landlady that we could ONLY get there by car or tram, but we realize now that the taxi that took us there used a very circuitous route! While we may still need a taxi in order to get a package back home, this post office is in easy walking distance- even on a day as cold as today. We also found a very nice, tiny bakery tucked away on the same street. We stopped in and bought a couple of cookies that were really tasty. This place is no bigger than a postage stamp, but the amazing baking smells and beautiful presentation will make you instantly want to try everything they have. They appeared to make several types of cakes and breads in addition to the cookies and we will certainly have to go another day to pick up some items to bring home. The Indian restaurant we were looking for and found is quite beautiful from the outside, even though the street on which it is located is somewhat unattractive. As B and I were headed back to our apartment, we heard a loud bang or boom sound and turned around to see some smoke coming from the courtyard of a nearby apartment block. We quickly walked back to the main road and headed home. Although its likely the sound was merely some type of fire cracker, we had no interest in finding out more about it.

Tomorrow we plan to meet with another friend of ours for dinner and drinks and skype with a friend from home and B's parents. Then, its back to the normal work week grind for us. -S

No Valentine for Copsa Mica, or: How Globalization Builds You Up and then Breaks You Down

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, but always felt a bit too tired at the end of the day. During the communist period, the small industrial town of Copsa Mica housed two industrial plants that, thanks to Ceausescu's complete disregard for environmental concerns, made it one of the most polluted cities in Europe. Things did not improve much with the changes wrought by the revolution and subsequent democratization: one plant, a metallurgy, was sold to a German corporation, while the other, which produced carbon black dye, was sold to a Dutch conglomerate. With the wall torn down, environmental reforms moved eastward, but Copsa Mica still emitted copious amounts of pollution; dark black soot from the Carbosin plant, lead and other metals from Sometra. As a result, the life expectancy in Copsa Mica is nine years lower than the Romanian average (that is already several years below that of most Western nations) and high rates of lung disease and cancer. I remember passing through the town during a journey by train across Romania, and the horrendous stench made the dreary postcommunist industrial scene all the more dismal.

But for all that, the factories provided stable incomes, employing the majority of the town's inhabitants. Taxes from the corporations paid for most of Copsa Mica's fiscal budget each year. The plants, now owned by foreign investors, paid the workers a decent wage, certainly better than what they had made under communism. But that situation has changed. Carbosin has closed, and Sometra, citing a significant decline in demand, has stated that it will fire 50% of its workforce. Thus, Copsa Mica's future has been cast into doubt.

Copsa Mica is an extreme case, but it makes me wonder about the long-term effects of the current economic downturn in Romania. The country depends heavily on foreign investment. What happens if and when that money disappears?--B

Valentine's in Bucharest

Valentine's Day isn't a big holiday in Romania, but B and I decided to do a little something anyway. Luckily, flower stands are everywhere in this city and the flowers always look really beautiful. I have been hesitating to buy flowers here since we don't really have windows, so no natural light with which to feed them, but have always commented on how nice the flowers look, so B actually bought some very nice roses yesterday. The pictures of them (on the tablecloth I bought in Bran) are below:






Today in Bucharest it was beautiful, though chilly, and we decided to go back to a Mexican restaurant that we had tried in December and had a great meal! We also finally had a chance to explore the neighborhood in which the restaurant is located and found a couple of middle eastern markets, which were pretty interesting. It was a nice day for both of us and we enjoyed spending time relaxing and having some sun outside.

Tomorrow we plan to see the movie, "Milk" with some friends and then grab a bite to eat. I have really wanted to see this movie and am very surprised that it made it to Bucharest. I hope the movie will be good, but honestly pretty curious about how Bucharestites will react to a movie about an American gay rights activist, especially since Romanians are already normally chatty during movies! We'll let you know how it goes. -S

Errands and Research

The past few days have been fairly regular around here. After our wonderful pancakes on Sunday, we headed out and saw "The Duchess" at one of the older theatres in Bucharest. It was a nice theater with a large screen. Luckily, it was fairly warm outside, so the lack of heater didn't really affect us until towards the end of the movie. We both enjoyed the film, despite the sad story. Apparently it had rained while we were in the movie, so it had cooled down a bit. After the movie, we walked next door to a bookstore that some folks had mentioned to us called Curturesti- a great bookstore with about 4 floors. The store had a large selection devoted to travel guides to many destinations, as well as a substantial collection of art books. It also had a room devoted to English language books, 2 rooms of CDs and DVDs, as well as typical bookstore holdings. The main purpose for our visit was that we had been told they sell posters and we are in need of some decorations in the apartment. We found a couple we liked, as well as a pocket map of Bucharest and also a Yankee Candle in my favorite scent of theirs-clean cotton. On our way out, we noticed a nice children's lit room and a tea room. This place was great and I have a feeling we will be visiting it again.

Yesterday was a pretty typical Monday- B went back to his research and I ran errands (3 grocers and the dry cleaners) and had my tutoring session. After all of the running around, we were both exhausted and opted to use one of the boxes of Mac 'n Cheese we brought with us for dinner- it was good and comforting, especially with some Tony Chachere's on top- yum! This morning I awoke with very sore shoulders- probably from all of the grocery bags and took it slowly in the morning. B went back to researching and I eventually went to Starbucks to review for my Romanian class over a cappuccino and then went back to the grocery store for some forgotten items. When I returned home, I spent some time working on judging some essays for a contest for Romanian high school students about what they feel the most important human right is (as outlined by the UN- this is the 60th Anniversary of the Declaration of Universal Human Rights) and then headed to class. When I returned, B and I were working on a late dinner (at about 9PM) when the cable repairmen, who were supposed to come at 6PM- cable guys are the same everywhere, I think--arrived. After all of this, we finally ate and are just resting a bit before bed. We have plans to meet with some friends tomorrow evening, which should be fun. -S

Pancakes!

This will be short, but SWEET- I just had to share that after much searching and longing- we were able to have delicious homemade pancakes with real maple syrup this morning! And thank you to Cooks.com-possibly the least flashy cooking magazine/website, but they do seem to always have the best recipes. B and I agreed these pancakes were the best I have ever made. Having pancakes on Sunday morning is something I have missed a lot and so now I am so thrilled to have been able to have that here. It also looks like it will be yet another sunny day, so we plan to take another walk around the city and see what we can find. -S

Friends and Sunshine

We haven't written in a bit, and thought it was past time for an update. This week we got back into our regular routine--I went to do research every day, and S had her tutoring, language classes, and usual errands. After I came home from research and S finished her tutoring Monday, we decided to take a walk down an unexplored street in our neighborhood, and found three sites of interest. First we found a small specialty food shop that also had a cafe and even sold a wide variety of fine chocolates, and right next door was an organic/natural food store. Frankly it didn't have much, but we might pop in there from time to time just out of curiosity. We also discovered a Lebanese restaurant and decided we'd have to try it soon. On Tuesday we both had a pretty rotten day: S was confronted with more than the usual amount of rudeness while shopping, and I had numerous hassles at the archives, topped off with someone attempting to steal stuff out of my shoulder bag. We decided to head to the Lebanese restaurant we found the day before to cheer us up--I think I enjoyed it more than S did (my kebab was delicious, whereas her baba ganoush wasn't terribly interesting), but it did put us in a better mood.

Wednesday and Thursday were fairly uneventful, but on Friday we met our friend Diana for dinner at what has become our favorite restaurant, Karishma (see one of our earlier restaurant reviews). As always, we had an excellent meal, made all the better by our friend's company. We talked about a wide range of issues, from research, to the ins and outs of life in Bucharest, to American politics. After returning home, we capped the evening off with an episode of our favorite tv show, The West Wing.

Friday was also wonderful for another reason--the weather! The temperature soared up to the mid-fifties, and in the afternoon the sun even came out. Today the weather was even better (the temp. was the same, but it was sunnier outside), and we both agreed later that Bucharest is much more pleasant when the sky is clear--it provides a nice contrast to the grey buildings. Even better, we got to enjoy the day with several of our Fulbright friends based in Bucharest. We met them at a cafe on the same street as the National Archives, and after hanging out there for a bit we walked around Bucharest for a couple hours. And based on a tip from one of the Fulbrighters- we actually found Maple Syrup (thanks, Emily)! Tomorrow, depending on the weather we'll either check out a large outdoor market or catch a movie, but so far as I'm concerned, this weekend has been a lot of fun already.--B

Pictures of Transylvania

Here are the photos of our trip to Transylvania this past weekend with the Fulbright folks:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=276320469/a=115918513_115918513/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink

Enjoy! -S