Reed in Romania

Where in the world is Katie Reed?

2005-04-13T15:57:00.000+03:00

That title would be infinitely more awesome if my name was Carmen Sandiego. Didn’t they try to make a TV show about that game once? Anyway…it’s less than 24 hours before I blow this Popsicle stand some people like to call Romania. I prefer to call it the jungle as the guy in the train station said to me yesterday in a very Axel Rose-esque way. But unfortunately, he was mistaken. I’m not coming into this crazy city, but leaving it. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic. It’s weird because sometimes I feel like I just got off the plane and other times I feel like I can’t remember what it’s like to drive my car. I actually answered someone in a meeting yesterday in Romanian.

So, there are definitely some things I’ll miss: the stray dogs (Bill, Cujo, Eddie, and even Oscar and Grover, the mean ones), the crazy comforter swaps, the owner of Café Milano (mmmm, those crepes), tiny elevators, our blue leather couches, plastic money and doing those lovely lei to dollar conversions, the small cars and “anything goes” driving conditions, and of course, my coworkers and this office. It’s going to be really strange not walking up those 100+ steps tomorrow morning.

And, of course, there are the things I won’t miss: ten year old homeless kids ravaging my pockets for money, yellowish brown water, drying my clothes on a heater, pointing and using hand motions to communicate, iceless drinks, my clothes reeking of smoke, and of course, there will always be that ill fated trip to Snagov.

I think I’m ready to throw in the towel on Romania, but I’m ready to see more of Europe. Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be in Budapest, Vienna, Prague, Amsterdam, London and I think I’m gonna throw in Paris just for the hell of it. If I like you, maybe you’ll get a postcard. I’ll post some of my pictures when I get back, but for now, that’s it, la revedere. Peace.

Reed, out

Roll in the cot...

2005-04-06T18:50:00.000+03:00

...because I'm gonna be sleepin at work tonight! Ugh. Only five more days, I can do it. I'm taking a break right now so I don't go nuts and I know I haven’t posted in forever, and I thought it was because my pictures weren’t working, but apparently everyone else can see them but me, so here goes. I’ll just do a quick rundown for ya of some of the fun stuff I’ve done in the past 2-3 weeks.

1 – The Village Museum.
Marya and I visited this outside museum containing all these 17th century huts/villas that were transported to Bucharest from all over Romania. Check out this windmill:

Don Quixote style

And this church:

Scary, I don't go to church, but if I did, I wouldn't wanna go to this one

And me in one of the huts:

Blair Witch 3

I’ve made more references to that movie since I’ve been in Romania than any other time. Hmm…maybe people aren’t so far off with the vampire stereotype and I did see a man with very oddly pointed ears on my way home from work last night.

2 – Temple
My new favorite weekend hangout. Too bad I’m leaving in a week and a half; I could have had some serious good times here. The music is excellent. Yes, it’s dance/techno/house, but it’s good. Real good. It’s not that cheeseball, “let’s turn whatever pop song is topping the charts right now into a really bad techno beat” kinda club. Oh no, my friends, this was total European style clubbing. They did have English songs turned into techno music, but it was mixed SO well. We’re talking “Owner of a Lonely Heart” as techno, and it sounded GOOD. Beautiful people, bangin music, very posh décor, and just all around very UN-ghetto. Here’s a shout out to my Boston girls, you would have loved every moment of this place. Especially Darcy, you can’t beat the selection of European men here. I mean, it’s no Morocco or anything...

Where can I get me summa THOSE kicks?

3 – Attended my first opera/operetta
Danielle, I had to stop myself from laughing for like the first ten minutes after the chica busted out into full-tilt opera voice. I just kept picturing you doing your opera impression and it’s seriously just like that. I think you’re in the wrong profession. I wanna see you break glass someday.

4 – Movies as VIP
Marc and I went to see Million Dollar Baby last Saturday night, but the only tickets we could get were VIPS. For a whopping 500,000 lei (about $15), we got some free drinks and the privilege to sit in these super comfy reclining leather chairs with footrests. Oh, it was heaven. Good thing I liked the movie. Who knew Million Dollar Baby was gonna make me cry like a baby? This would have been a great night, except for the bad Chinese I ate. Shocking, considering I have never seen a Chinese person working in one of these restaurants, let alone actually in Romania. My gung-bao chicken fought it’s lovely way up out of my stomach when I got home. Chum count goes up to 3. I know Danielle's keepin track. Guiness book, here I come.

Now that's what I call a complete movie experience

My next post will probably be a farewell post unless something incredibly amazing happens to me in the next 7 days, but that's somehow doubtful considering I'm living, eating, and breathing Synygy. Until then...let me get back to my software...sigh...

Dude, Where's My Blog?

2005-03-31T14:31:00.000+03:00

I haven't been able to see pictures on here for days and I've wanted to post so bad, but I'm just stuck waiting...

We saw a guy on the subway this morning with A TREE. Ok, maybe I'm overexaggerating a little and it was a large plant, but that almost wins over the sink. Almost.

Everything But...

2005-03-25T07:43:00.000+02:00

"I carried a sink?" shameless Dirty Dancing reference

The kitchen sink? Not this guy. Now I’ve seen some odd stuff go down on the subway. I’ve seen the crazies, the homeless kids, the drunks, the violin players, the scam artists, the overzealous religious newspaper pushers, and countless other types of people and incidents. I was just glad that on this day, for once maybe people weren’t staring at my sneakers with work clothes subway getup, or my blatantly obvious non-Romanian features.

I mean the guy had a SINK on the subway. I think I would have shelled out the maybe $4 it takes to get anywhere in the city by cab rather than cart around a ginormous porcelain object up and down all those underground passageways. But maybe I’m lazy, I haven’t exercised for three months, that’s for sure.

Excuse me, Excuse me, comin through, man with a sink

Tuna Torture

2005-03-23T08:20:00.000+02:00

“We can do this. If you swallow without chewing, it just slides right down.” – Marya

I think I might have been a rabbit in a previous life. What’s up with my face? Marya and I ventured to a new restaurant last Friday night. I think we were the only people there. This has happened to us on more than one occasion so I’m beginning to think we smell or something. The second we sat down the music turned into a medley of Broadway/rat pack/oldies. Hilarious. They were probably like “the Americans are here, put in the CD! Put in the CD!” Anyway, we thought we’d be bold and order the Caesar salad. All the salads we’ve seen here so far don’t look very appetizing, but hey, ya never know until ya try. As we’re waiting, the waiter brought us that evening’s chef special, tuna salad, on the house. We politely thanked him and then sat there debating if we could really eat it. We had bread and, after all, it was resting on a tomato, so we decided we could handle it by combining it with other stuff to get it down. It wasn’t so bad. I’ve definitely eaten worse. I’ll take tuna over pigskin any day.

Steaua - Part Doua

2005-03-21T16:48:00.000+02:00

We left work around 6 last Wednesday for the rescheduled Steaua game. When we got there, the event staff wasn’t letting any more spectators in, even though we had valid tickets. I guess paying money for a ticket doesn’t really mean anything in Romania. Once the stadium is packed, forget it. After attempting to get around the guards and nearly getting run over by a trolley, we gave up and a group of us headed back to our apartment to enjoy the game on TV. I, for one, was perfectly fine with this decision. I really didn’t feel like getting into trouble with law enforcement officials in this city again (yes, again, but that story is for another time and place). We’re going to try and go to a national game this Wednesday, but I don’t think we were really meant to see a soccer game here. Some crazy sporting forces are working against us. That’s ok though, at least my toes were nice and toasty in my warm winter socks.

Bill

2005-03-19T10:02:00.000+02:00

So I know I’ve mentioned all of the stray dogs in Romania. I might actually miss them. No, I WILL miss them. How could I not? Most of them are adorable, and the other ones that want to bite me, ok, I won’t miss them, but whatever. Anyway…so we’ve all named the dogs we see on a regular basis. Marya has Cujo, Marc has Oscar and Grover, and I have…drum roll please…Bill. He’s the greatest. He’s our office dog. He hangs out right out front and he’s usually somewhere in the vicinity all day. This morning when I came in he was catchin some rays. Check it out.

Maxin and relaxin

Then yesterday I saw him sprawled out one of the tenant’s welcome carpets. People were stepping over him to get into the building. Ugh, he’s adorable. I want to take him home with me. I don’t think dogs travel well though, and he might feel a little funny if the only nourishment I have for him in Amsterdam are some brownies…because of the chocolate, of course.

Mallrats

2005-03-16T08:49:00.000+02:00

Now THAT's what I call a purse

Going back to January, on the first night we arrived, we went to the Bucharest Mall. Yes, our first meal in Romania was at Ruby Tuesday’s. Pretty sad, but anyway, getting to the point, this pseudo-mall is awful. It’s super hot and crowded (Danielle, think our worst nightmare of all shopping nightmares), the elevators are very oddly placed (you have to walk like halfway around the mall to get to the escalator that takes you down another level), and most of all, NEVER EVER try to eat there. There’s never an open table in the food court, so you get your food and then stand there like an idiot waiting for people to get up. Mind you, they’re probably only smoking and chatting while your food is getting cold. I get so mad, furious actually, almost to the point where I’d rather not eat because I’m pissed. Too bad I don’t know how to scream “MOVE, CAN’T YOU SEE I’M TRYING TO EAT?” in Romanian. Ok, I would never do that, but still, that’s how mad I get.

We heard about another mall somewhere so we decided to check it out on Saturday. We had no idea that we were missing out. Oh, it’s excellent. It’s not crowded or super hot, the movie theater is cheaper, there’s a good coffee and pastry place and they have some bangin clothing stores. And the best part? A ginormous food court with LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of open tables.

Steaua - Part 1

2005-03-14T23:09:00.000+02:00

We look happy....

Cold. Frigid. Freezing. ARCTIC. A few words to describe our experience at the Steaua (famous Romanian soccer, aka futbol team) game last Thursday. Seriously, I don’t think I’ve ever been that cold or witnessed such a snowstorm in my entire life. I thought I was good to go with Marc’s hat, my gloves and scarf, and a few extra layers. I thought I had been trained for cold sporting events by attending so many PSU games. However, when it’s snowing avalanches and everything gets soaked in like two seconds, nothing helps. It took a good 24 hours to get the blood fully pumping back into my extremities. Needless to say, the game was delayed. I don’t think I could have made it if they played anyway. Talk about fans though; these peeps are TROOPERS. I love the chants too. I can’t even explain them, it’s like they all sing and yell things in this funny low pitched voice, kind of like when you used to set the record player to the lower speed. They had the same tone of voice, but the speed was a little faster. So hysterical. I had a blast just being there and freezing my tuckus off for a little over an hour. It was definitely an experience but not one I wish to relive any time soon. That being said, I’m hoping for any weather above freezing for this Wednesday’s rescheduled game. Maybe I’m being too optimistic though for Romania in mid March. I’ll keep you posted.

but really, we can't feel our toes.

For Me? You Shouldn't Have

2005-03-11T18:19:00.000+02:00

Thanks guys!

Holidays revolving around men don’t exist here. Father’s Day? Forget it. I can’t complain though, for all that Romania lacks in male holidays it certainly makes up for in female. March 1 was some type of “sweetheart” day and the men in the office presented Marya, Raluca and me each with a small bouquet of flowers and some good luck charm thingies (yes, that’s the best description I could come up with). Then two days ago, we’re sitting at our desks and out come more flowers, this time supplemented with a box of yummy coffee/hazelnut white chocolates. Apparently, it was International Women’s Day as I’m sure you already know if you Googled. I’m being treated like a queen. This could be bad. My expectations for the male species will be all out of whack when I get home. Romania has definitely raised the bar. All you Philly guys better look out. I’m comin back with higher standards :)

I see London, I see France

2005-03-09T08:59:00.000+02:00

"I want......that one"

I see a sale for underpants (you have to say it in your head like the rhyme, c’mon, you know you want to). Ok, so I don’t know what you guys do when exiting the subway, but me? I need to buy some fluorescent orange thongs ASAP, or maybe some blouses. Don’t even think about trying anything on though. Everything is sold out of these mall/kiosk like booths where a sample item is usually plastered against the glass with a price listed underneath. You ask the vendor (who probably mans the booth all day) for what you want, and things are sold to you from their stock. These little huts are everywhere and they sell anything and everything; from food to books to calling cards and toiletries. But undies? That’s pushin it. Although, I shouldn’t be complaining because having them around is quite convenient. It’s like the Romanian form of Target, except I can’t physically walk into the store.

"I think I'm in a green mood today."

The term “window shopping” definitely takes on a whole new meaning in this country.

Lost and Gone Forever

2005-03-02T18:54:00.000+02:00

If you haven’t heard already, my wonderful little blue iPod mini got stolen. Yes, stolen. How you ask? I have no idea. It must have been on the subway. I had it last Friday when I left the office, then didn’t take it to Brasov, and when I went to look for it on Sunday it was gone. Someone somehow must have slipped it out of my purse. I don’t put anything past the pickpockets now; my purse was zipped and tucked directly under my arm.

Oh, Sunday was a sad day in Bucharest for Katie Reed. I was in full-tilt mourning mode. It’s so hard to fall asleep now without it and I especially miss it when I’m walking to or from (and on) the subway. :(

But…Apple must have known, because they came out with the 6G mini on Monday. YES. After further scrutiny of all the models, I’ve decided to purchase the silver 6G mini. I figure, someday I’ll fill up the 20G anyway and then I’ll just be transferring songs to and from it using my computer and using it like a portable collection of music. So why not get the mini again? It’s lighter and smaller and I already have some accessories for it at home. Apple’s offering free shipping and free engraving. I want the engraving to be somehow dedicated to the passing of my dear blue mini. Any suggestions? I’m trying to think of a good Romanian phrase. This could take me a while, considering my Romanian lexicon contains somewhere near 75 words.

Poiana Brasov / Bran Castle

2005-03-01T08:49:00.000+02:00

ROAD TRIP. We were off to visit the neighboring cities of Brasov and Bran with Mihai as our non-official tour guide. Marya gets carsick so she automatically claims shotgun leaving Marc and I in the backseat. Now, Mihai had warned us about the winding crazy roads to get to his home town (Brasov), but I didn’t think they could be that bad. I have driven up and down mountains countless times traveling to PSU (R.I.P. my little Shadow). No, this was bad. I’m talking practically coming to a stop on the curves just to maneuver the wheel to turn in the right direction and not hit any oncoming traffic. I think Marya’s face turned five shades of green at one point.

So, we finally make it there and are greeted by Mihai’s parents and brother. His mother had prepared us crepes with apricot jam and a yummy bean dip. So, we talked to the rents a while and then made our way up to Poiana Brasov, a highly respectable town/ski resort. According to Mihai, this was where they all came in high school to “hang out”. Here’s a view of the town of Brasov on the way up to the point:

Chillin at Poiana Brasov

Marya and I didn’t want to ski (she’s terrified of breaking limbs, I’m terrified of skiing in general) so it was off to Bran. For some reason, this is widely known as Dracula’s castle even though Vlad the Impaler maybe stayed here once in his entire lifetime. This castle was mainly used as a defense mechanism to protect Romania from invasion. Apparently some nasty things went down outside this palace causing whole armies of invaders to retreat. I forget the details, but that’s the basic gist. Anyway…it was cool to see.

Here I am in one of the old wells/torture chambers? I’m laughing because it was super creepy in there and Marc thought it would be funny to stick his head in and startle me. It worked:

Can we say Blair Witch? Good thing there weren't any corners.

After that we went to grab some authentic Romanian eats with Mihai and his friend Radu. We placed our orders and the waitress walks by and places a plate of what looks like curly fries on our table. Oh, no my friends, it was pigskin. Yes, you read it right…pigskin. Lovely. I really didn’t think I could do it, but Marc and Mihai were eating it like crazy so I decided it couldn’t be that bad:

Ew

It was gross. It had the consistency of calamari but the taste of…well…skin? Ugh. Never again. We walked around the square in town for a bit and then thought we should hit the road again to make it back at a decent hour. Marc’s iPod batteries went dead, so to keep ourselves amused, we played a movie trivia game. Ya know, we’ll name an actor, you name a movie he/she was in, pretty simple. Teams were boys against girls and Marc’s seen tons of movies, so we thought our chances were slim. It so happens that Marya and I have seen lots of “chick flicks” and teen movies so we used that knowledge to our full ability and pulled off a 20-14 win. I had no idea that seeing stupid movies like “Joe vs. the Volcano” and “Bring it On” would someday eventually pay off. It felt good to win.

Don't Mess with Mike

2005-02-25T23:32:00.000+02:00

"I do NOT like the taste of plastic"

Why does everyone want to mess with Wazowski? For all those not in the know, I received this little stuffed Monsters Inc creature from my employer last August as a token of appreciation for my excellent client focus. I would have preferred a monetary reward, but hey, I’m in Romania as part of an off shoring initiative, so we’re obviously trying to cut corners. I’ve grown close to the green fella (and I think my coworkers were sick of looking at him) so I decided he deserved a trip to Romania just as much as I did. People at work used to tease him and I’d walk into the office in the morning only to find him in various poses. Would you want someone twisting your limbs in every direction and setting you up with props to make you look stupid? I don’t think so. I must thank Tito though for thoughtfully providing him with his hardhat; it really came in handy when the ceiling in our office building semi-collapsed.

So getting back to my point, I thought, at the very least, this European trip would provide him the opportunity to escape from all the torture inflicted on him by his so-called “friends”. I, apparently, was wrong. He seems to make enemies at any Synygy location as you can see above. Paul, our new Systems Administrator, has confessed to being the latest offender. I don’t think Mike appreciates his protective head gear being shoved in his mouth. You better watch your back. Even though he’s only got one eye, it’s a big one, and it’s on you. Don’t forget, he’s in the office over the weekend, and I would hate for anything strange to happen.

La cucaracha, La cucaracha

2005-02-23T13:10:00.000+02:00

More like las cucarachas. That’s right, we’ve got roaches. They like to have parties in my room at night. I heard a noise last Thursday while I was sleeping that sounded like water dripping and got up to scope out the scene. I lifted up my backpack and there she was: the mother of all cockroaches. Ginormous.

I ran downstairs to grab my weapon (my sneaker of course) and on the way back to my room saw another one in the hallway. I killed that sucker then I walked into my room and saw another one near the bottom of my wardrobe. I killed that guy and then on the way to kill Mama Roach, I stepped on another one with my bare foot. I heard his bones crack and then felt a gooey presence on my heel. Yummy. At that point, I was a little pissed and probably a little crazed, so I think I beat the crap out of the Mrs.

So Dawn told me the other day we have mice back in the Ardmore apartment. What’s worse? Cockroaches or mice? Anyone want to weigh in? C’mon, let me see some comments!!! Are people reading this or what?

Change of Pace

2005-02-22T13:37:00.000+02:00

If there’s one thing I absolutely LOVE about my apartment, it’s our cleaning service. They come every two weeks and perform normal housekeeping tasks, like washing the floors, straightening up, taking out trash, washing whatever dirty dishes are in the sink, AND my personal favorite, changing our bedding. You would think that they would just change the sheets. Not in Romania. We get new bedspreads every two weeks. It’s just as good as changing around the furniture. It gives the room a whole new vibe. Marc usually gets stuck with girlie stuff. I think last week’s his was a bunch of women with parasols.

Latest and greatest

The weird thing though is that they don’t change your bottom sheet. Then there’s the towel situation. They take our hand towels (ones we bought personally) and leave us with one super small towel that doesn’t even cover your body. Mind you, our bathroom is right outside of Marc’s room so I either have to put on some clothes to leave the bathroom or hope that Marc’s not around and go for it. So, twice this happened to us and we’ve called for more towels. Last time we got normal towels, but this time…check it out. I love it.

A Princess Di bath towel...who knew?

Valentine Who? Valentine What?

2005-02-21T22:31:00.000+02:00

O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou…Marya?

In Romania, you would have never known it was Valentine’s day. There’s no hype. You don’t see commercials on TV or stuffed animals and candy in the supermarkets. It’s kind of nice that it’s not thrown into your face every ten seconds. What you will see however, are reserved tables in restaurants. Marya and I went to one of new favorite places for dinner, Café Milano, and we were so confused by the live music and reserved tables. We had totally forgotten it was V-day. When we were each presented with a long stem red rose from the maitre de, we succumbed to the fact that we were to be each others dates for the evening. We had a little too much camera fun when we got home that night as you can see. It took us a long time to get that pose and camera angle down. Look how good this one would have been:

If only Marya were fully in it and there wasn't that weird fuzziness

But…this is what we looked like most of the time:

Yes, we’re dorks.

Mimes and Movies

2005-02-17T22:12:00.000+02:00

Marya and I got up early to get some coffee and run some errands on Saturday. While we were drinking our java, we saw all these men with makeup on heading down to the subway station. I heard that mime shows were popular so I figured they were on their way to a theater. Actually, there was a performance taking place in the subway station that we caught on our way to the bookstore. It was pretty awesome, they had five stages set up with a scene on each one. They were the statuesque mimes, you know, the ones that don’t look like they’re breathing and then all of a sudden they talk to you and you jump like 10 feet.

Breathe, I dare you

Actors were scattered across five stages and as each stage lit, they performed a silent skit. Marya and I were pretending again that we knew what the banner said and determined it was underground something. It turns out they only perform in subway stations. You can’t go wrong with a little piece of free theater…it made my day.

Do it , Do it (Starsky and Hutch style)

After walking the city all day again, we came back for a little R&R. Marc and I went out to eat at a truly authentic Romanian place…dancing and all. The bill came out to 800,000 lei but Marc mistakenly left 80,000, which is less than $2. The waiter came running out after us and Marc felt like a shmuck so he gave him a little bonus tip. Then, we were off for some drinks. We opted for the local Irish pub so we could walk home. Upon entering, Marc spots a fellow Synygy employee at the bar. We knew Rob was flying out on Saturday and only staying one night, but what are the odds? So, Marc, Rob and I chilled until bar close (btw, the uh, TV gets uh, very, uh, tasteless? around 1am). Marc and Rob decided to go to a “night club” and I walked myself right on home. I think I saw enough of that at the bar.

Sunday was the usual coffee hangout…then it was movie marathon time. I think we watched Charlie’s Angels 2 (ugh), One Hour Photo, and Donnie Darco, which was excellent, just in case you’re thinking of renting a good indie flick this weekend. Unless you don’t like indie flicks, or Jake Gyllenhall, or backwards movies, or weird stuffed animals, or that girl from Stepmom and Saved, or schizophrenics, or romance, or Maggie Gyllenhall , or the possibility of time travel, OR just movies in general.

Fun Friday

2005-02-16T23:02:00.000+02:00

"Someone's coming, someone's coming, RUN!!!"

We seem to always have the best time on Friday nights and this past Friday didn't let us down. We went to a local Italian place for dinner, then we went searching for a bar, but not really searching, more like walking around hoping we would stumble into one. While we were walking around, I was daring Marc to walk down all the scary looking super dark alleways. One time he actually did and Marya went in a little after while I decided to stand outside and get a photo. All of a sudden they’re both running past me and I see a shadow of a guy coming towards me. At that point, M & M are like halfway down the street and I’m standing there like an idiot with my camera. Above is the aftermath. Then Marc decided he was going to climb up a ginormous mound of snow and do a half decent Elvis impersonation:

"Whole lotta climbin goin on"

We somehow ended up at a casino where we couldn’t figure out how to play anything and I got a little nervous when they photocopied my ID. I know, I look like such a troublemaker, so I completely understand.

Carrefour Crowds

2005-02-15T07:17:00.000+02:00

"I need to stop and take a picture because this is just insane"

I hate crowds. I hate them when I’m shopping. I hate them even more when I’m grocery shopping. Now, if I go grocery shopping at home and I say it’s “packed”, that usually means I have to wait for people to maneuver carts, there’s long deli lines and I have to wait for 10 or 15 minutes to check out. My definition of “packed” takes on a whole new meaning in Romania. Here, my basket is colliding into random hipbones, there are amusement park style lines to weigh produce (yes, here you weigh your produce in a different line before you move to the check out line) and then I have to wait 45 minutes to an hour to pay for my crap. I will never be seen on a Thursday night in Carrefour again, NEVER. Did I mention that I hate crowds?

My First Letter

2005-02-13T12:10:00.000+02:00

Holy long address batman

I’ve got mail! G & Pop (my grandparents) sent me a Valentine's Day card. The pictures she sent are on the wall next to my computer at work. The American currency tucked away in there won’t go very far, but I’ll put it to good use when I get back :)

Coffee Convert

2005-02-11T00:21:00.000+02:00

My dark master

Today is the fifth day in a row I’ve had some form of coffee in the morning. Whether it’s a cappuccino, a mocha, or just straight up old school java, I think coffee has invaded my life. No sleep and loooooooooooooong hours at work have made this beverage one of my new best friends. I hope I don’t get hooked though. Yellow teeth just aren’t attractive.

Sleepy Superbowl Monday

2005-02-09T14:34:00.001+02:00

36 hours with no sleep. Ok, maybe 35 hrs and 58 minutes, but it’s definitely a personal record. Dawn, I might have been able to do THON! (48 hour Penn State dance marathon to aid children with cancer). 12 more hours didn’t seem like it was that bad to go. I could have done it. I think.

We were determined to watch the Eagles play in the Superbowl, even if that meant going to a bar for a 1:30 a.m. kickoff. I was starving; even Marc and Marya were starting to look pretty tasty. We’d eaten nothing but junk all day and were in desperate need for something more substantial. This is Marya and I before food…

"We'll take one of EVERYTHING"

We were a lot happier after some chicken fingers. There were quite a few Patriot fans so us Philly peeps had to hold our own, although Marya was having a bit of a tough time right around the start of the third quarter…

Marya "resting her eyes"

Then it came down to the final few minutes. Our neighboring Pats fans were doin a little trash talking towards the end, pointing at their watches, telling us it was over, etc. We didn’t lose faith though; we were engrossed until that last interception…

Keeping the faith

Leaving the bar at around 5:30, Marc and I decided we were heading back to the apartment to change clothes and go to work. No point in sleeping 2 hours, my body couldn’t handle the tease. So off to the subway it was. I was really productive from about 6:30 to 10:45, when I could no longer function. I ducked into one of the conferences room to put my head down for half an hour…

Pretending to sleep for Marc's photo opp

It’s quite possible I fell asleep for two minutes, until Marc opened the door to take a picture. I’d managed to fall asleep by leaning on a conference table in a room that was probably five degrees warmer than it was outside with the background noise of phones ringing and people talking and he ruined it for a good picture. I should have scared the crap out of him by doing something crazy while he was taking this, but I just didn’t have the energy, obviously.

I passed out around 8 and slept like a baby until 8 this morning, only to wake up and discover that there was no hot water, not even warm water, nothing was coming out of this thing. This is the second time this has happened to us, but today, I was not having it. I decided to wait it out. After all, I hadn’t showered since Sunday morning and I was feelin a little narsty. I turned the shower on even though there was no water coming out and went downstairs for some breakfast. I attempted to eat a yogurt, but it had gone bad (anything with dairy goes bad here in like 4 days) so I settled for some Cinnamon Toast Crunch minus the milk and turned on the tube for some early morning HBO. About half way into Shallow Hal, I heard the water kick on. YESSSSSSSSSSSS. Stop, showertime. (obscure MC Hammer reference, sorry). My morning only got better when I sat next to this guy on the subway:

Put it back on!

He had the greatest Romanian hat I’ve seen so far so you can imagine my disappointment when he took it off before Marc could snap a quick picture. Marc said he was petting it like it was a dog after he took it off. I didn’t notice it and I was sitting right next to him so he could have been totally lying.

Arcul de Triumf

2005-02-06T21:47:00.001+02:00

That white dot in the middle, that's me!

It’s super cold here. Freezing actually. The river outside our apartment has inevitably converted to ice. Yet, we still managed to venture out in this weather to do a little sightseeing and grab some food. Here’s me under the Arcul de Triumf and another shot of the underside. I think it took a good 2 hours for my toes to thaw after the excursion. Needless to say, I spent the night chillin in front of the TV, no pun intended. I wasn't feeling so hot (again, no pun) and Enemy at the Gates was on HBO, and passing up Jude Law, some ice cream and a warm blanket was not an option.

Hmmm, don't recognize any of these names...any history buffs? Dad?

It's All Pretty Nasty

2005-02-05T21:51:00.000+02:00

Way too much fun at Balthazar

Well, I haven’t posted that much about the food in Romania (other than the sack of milk and gogoasa) and I asked Marya what I should write about it. I think her answer of “it’s all pretty nasty” sums it up. This week has been our worst as far as food “mishaps” go. On Monday, we decided to order pizza from a local delivery place. We asked for tomatoes, chicken, onions and peppers. When we opened the lid, the chicken wasn’t in chunks, but shredded. Ok, no big deal. Then we took a bite. It was TUNA. For all those who don’t know, I despise tuna. It’s totally gross. My roommates don’t like it either. According to Marya, it’s not meant for human consumption.

Then, there’s the shoarma. With Arabic influences, it’s like a wrap stuffed with meat (usually pork), potatoes, and pickles and then loaded with condiments (mayonnaise, ketchup, some cole-slawy type thing with cabbage). The first time I tried one at a street vendor near work, I wasn’t too impressed. I just kind of ate around the middle. Then one day we decided to get a burger from a street vendor and same deal, they put all that gunk on it. I ate it, but it still wasn’t very good. I think I’ll avoid the shoarma for the remainder of my stay.

Ketchup on pizza? Of course! Why would I want to eat a pizza that already has tomato sauce and tomatoes on it without ketchup? I mean, it just wouldn’t be complete. Yes, in Romania, you must specify that you would like your pizza WITHOUT ketchup or else it will be lathered or drizzled with good old Heinz. Yummy.

Friday night we decided to check out Balthazar, an Asian/French fusion restaurant. I wore sneakers because of the snow/ice, but upon arrival, I felt super underdressed. Oh well, nothing I could do about it. The décor was the nicest I’ve seen so far in Romania. I ordered a tasty (albeit strong) Pina Colada and some sort of Malaysian chicken dish. The chicken turned out to be kind of fatty, but still tasty. We decided to order desert, and out came…the spoons. With the longest handles I’ve ever seen, we had quite a bit of fun keeping ourselves amused during the 20 minutes it took to get our dessert. It was like Props in Who’s Line. We made antlers, swords, wands (think Harry Potter) and my personal favorite, bug eyes as seen above. We even tried to hang them from our nose.

While the food isn’t the best I’ve ever had and definitely not what I’m used to, it doesn’t matter because we’re having a blast.

Saturday Snow Angel Fun

2005-02-01T13:39:00.000+02:00

Hey now, this is fun! Wait, has anyone seen my phone?

After some much needed sleeping in on Saturday, we went to what has become our main hangout, Via Café, to chill for a little before going to visit our co-worker Mihai’s apartment. Nothing much to say, other than we got to watch some English TV and play with Mihai’s four month old baby Lucas. After Marc took forever trying to score some U2 tix on Mihai’s laptop, it was off to the movies. We knew we had to go early, so why not four hours early? With time to kill, we ate at a Romanian restaurant and then decided to hit Rock and Bowl and the arcade. Lessons learned while Bowling in Romania:

1. The rule of letting the person on your left (or either side of you for that matter) bowl first hasn’t hit Romania yet.

2. Ball size has no direct correlation to level of masculinity. (The men next to us were using pink 5lb balls).

3. My European shoe size is 36. You don’t have to leave one shoe at the desk and they spray your bowling shoes with deodorizer before giving them to you. Or maybe they just thought we were smelly Americans.

4. The woman next to us was smoking Lucky Strikes (aren’t those candy cigarettes?). No pun intended either.

5. Marc sucks at bowling.

After a little Romanian Star Wars pinball, we were off to see National Treasure, in English! I think I’m going through movie withdrawal. I got to watch most of Face Off on TV, but that’s been it. Marya and I have started to download episodes of The Amazing Race, the O.C., Scrubs, Lost, Alias and The Apprentice. Marc rigged our TV to play episodes from our laptops and hooked up his stereo for surround sound. It’s almost as good as home! Anyway, the movie theatres here, surprisingly, are non-smoking and HOT. I mean, uncomfortable, sweating in my jeans HOT. Gross.

When we got out of the cab back to our apartment, we decided it would be fun to make snow angels. Forgetting that I had put my cell phone in my unzippered pocket, I dove into the snow to wave my arms and legs. I didn’t realize it was missing until the next morning. I went back to the snow angel scene to kick around some snow; not that the phone would work now anyway, but it was worth a shot. No luck. Later on while waiting for our Indian food to arrive, we did some detective work. Marc and Marya pulled out their cameras to look at the pictures we took during our snow angel-ing. We spotted it in the picture so went back outside to search some more. Again, nothing. Good thing Mihai had an extra one for work related use that he just gave to me and it was the same one I had before so it’s almost like I never lost it. I just have a new number. Lesson learned: Don’t make snow angels with unzippered pockets.

Snowy Mix = Beer and Cards

2005-01-31T15:33:00.000+02:00

Freezing hands? Whatever, at least the beer will be cold.

Snow started to fall on Friday evening around 6…and it just stopped last night. I don’t think I’ve ever been witness to snow falling heavily for 2 days straight. Needless to say, this weekend was kind of a wash. After aimlessly looking for a restaurant close to the apartment on Friday night, we ended up at an Italian place back in Unirii Square. We thought about going out, but it was just one of those nights where the only thing we wanted to do was go home and get in our pajamas. My sweatpants were definitely calling my name. So we got some Tuborg (equivalent of Yuengling) to go, hence the picture above where I’m carrying them. A good half an hour later, my hands were thawed enough to play some cards.

Marya taught us how to play Slap, one of those fast paced games where you need to slap the pile, kind of like Slapjacks, but way more fun. Ok, we’re dorks, but whatever. I was warm.

"My hand is SO underneath yours."

Got Milk?

2005-01-28T18:37:00.000+02:00

Katie Reed posing for Milk in Romania

Yes, my friends, that plastic bag I'm holding contains milk. The majority of Romanian's aren't big on "fresh" milk; they tend to like the condensed/evaporated kind that isn't refrigerated. Like the kind you would use for baking. Ew.

As you can see, they're also not very big on their cartons either. And a variation of skim, 1%, 2% or whole? Forget it. It's either 1.5% (+/- .5%) or 3%. Never thought I'd see a margin of error on a sack of milk, nevertheless a sack of milk. Good thing I majored in statistics, who knew I'd need my PSU skills to decipher a milk description.

Another Day, Another Lei

2005-01-27T10:25:00.000+02:00

"Thank you for choosing Wendy's, can I take your order please?"

The singular term is actually leu, but then it wouldn't rhyme and sound as cool. Here I am at the office! We have this software installed on our computers so coworkers in the U.S. can reach us by dialing our laptops. That's the video conferencing equipment behind us. We're ready to go! Our first Romanian associates start on Tuesday, so we're getting prepared for training.

What else has been going on...let me see...last night we ordered Chinese and I offered to place the delivery call. Ordering was difficult, she was kind of speaking Romenglish and it's a lot harder to understand people over the phone than in person. At least in person, I can point and make faces. We played Spoons and War (card games) while we were waiting for our food to come. I lost both.

-photo displayed only for the sole purpose of Greg Baran's enjoyment

Ceausescu's Palace

2005-01-26T10:32:00.000+02:00

Me at Ceausescu's Palace

Sunday we checked out the Parliament house, otherwise known as Ceausescu's palace. You can google Ceausescu if you want, but just breifly, he was a communist dictator taken down from power in the late 80's for his corrupt leadership. This building is the second largest in the world, exceeded only by the Pentagon. Michael Jackson was the only person ever to give a speech from the balcony, in which he addressed the crowd saying "Hello Budapest!" (yeah, we're in Bucharest...woops).

My stomach was making the loudest noises during the tour. Of course everyone was super quiet so it sounded ridiculous. The building was cool, but they only showed like 10% of it, so I guess it could have been cooler? It's early. Anyway, I half ate a chicken sandwhich on the way back, at least that's what the label said, but it tasted strangely similar to fish.

It's Laundry Time

2005-01-26T10:30:00.000+02:00

Letters, temperatures, and butons, oh my!

Then...it was laundry time. We managed to get the machine running after setting it to all the right letters and temperatures...as you can see we were thoroughly enaged in the process. Dryers aren't common in Europe, so we had to use the next best thing, our heaters. I can't knock the system though, my clothes were nice and dry after we got back from watching the Eagles game, even if they were a little stiff. Maybe that's why Romanians are so big on their fabric softener. Good to know.

Key...money...CLUTCH

2005-01-25T19:29:00.000+02:00

My first gogoasa

Saturday afternoon we walked the streets of Bucharest again. I decided to try one of the supposedly popular gogoasa (pronounced gogosh) from a street vendor. My choices were cheese, chocolate or plain, so thinking it might be like the yummy Entemann’s cheese danish back home, I opted for cheese. Huge, and I mean GINORMOUS mistake. Speaking of ginormous, you should have seen the dog we saw later on, but I’ll get to that some other time. Anyway, I had eaten the top and it tasted pretty good, but I hadn’t got to the cheese filling yet. I asked Marc if he wanted to try it out and he took a decent sized bite, cheese and all. The look on his face should have told me that it wasn’t going to be pretty, but I took another whopping bite out of this so called donut-like delicacy. EW. It was super salty and totally gross. Good thing Marya got the yummy chocolate one so we know what to get next time. A gogoasa and coffee only costs 20,000 lei which is approximately $0.75. Amazing.

After sightseeing in the Piata Revolutiei, we popped into the Bistro Tormen for some quick eats. However, we’ve discovered that quick eats don’t really exist. A meal takes at least an hour everywhere, if not three.

After a few hours of down time back at the apartment, we attempted unsuccessfully to catch a movie. Apparently you have to arrive super early to get tickets for anything. Yes Danielle, even earlier than I normally like to be there. We ended up following Marc's lead to the Amsterdam Cafe, a place we had read about in some guide books. All I can say is excellent food, faster than "normal" service, casual atmosphere, not overly smoky, and a menu entirely in English. This place was key. This place was money. This place was...CLUTCH. The wine was tasty so we took a bottle to go and went home to try and watch to some English TV. No success. I started feeling ill and knew I was going to get sick. Yes Danielle, I chummed. I think those paprika psuedo-fries really just didn't agree with me. I swear, it wasn't the alcohol, but Dan, you can chalk this one up however you like. Do I still hold the title? ;-)
(most chums in 24 yrs)

Count Dracula & Club Kristal

2005-01-23T17:35:00.000+02:00

"This is thriller, thriller nights...."

SCARY. In all honesty, I don’t think I’ve ever been freaked out while out to eat, but I guess there’s a first for everything. At first, it seemed like we were going to have a normal dinner at the Count Dracula Club. Well, almost normal. I think we first noticed that something was up when some dishes on the menu were listed with very awkward descriptions that didn’t refer to any ingredients. The description of the meal Marc ordered, Renfields Dish, included something along the lines of Renfield being the Count’s slave and crying out “blood is the life” and how his eating habits included flies and rats. Marya and I stuck with dishes that actually had the word “chicken” in it just to be safe.

The fun began upon the departure of the table of 6 in the room next to ours. The lights started changing colors to an eerie blue and Halloween type sounds became our background music. We ordered our drinks and I almost fell out of my chair when our waiter came back and opened Marc’s beer with an overly loud popping noise. That’s when I decided it was time to switch seats. No way was I going to sit with my back facing the entrance so that anything or anyone could sneak up behind me.

All of a sudden, the lights go out and one candle on our table lit the entire room. Marc of course is trying to blow it out, while Marya and I are trying to protect the flame like it’s one of the most valuable things we own. Our waiter told us that Count Dracula himself would be visiting us in a bit. And visit us he did. A man fully cloaked in Dracula gear gave us his meant-to-be-scary spiel. Ok, so it was cheeseball, but it was still fun.

When it was time for our meals, the lights came back and all eyes were on the presentation of Marc’s dish. The opening of the lid revealed a chicken breast breaded and shaped like a rat. He was instructed to cut it in the center and sure enough some red looking juice came spilling out. Hilarious. My dish didn’t taste very good, but since the waiter could tell I hadn’t really enjoyed it, he gave me glass of some type of alcohol. Not sure what it was, but it was tasty. Maybe some kind of brandy? No idea. Well, that brought us to midnight so we decided to get a recommendation from the waiter for our next destination. He suggested Club Kristal so off to Kristal it was.

I always thought Europeans were good dancers, but wow, was I wrong. They dance like my Mom (no offense Mom). They just kind of stepped back and forth and made this push and pull motion with their hands curled into fists. Surprisingly, Marc does a pretty good impression of them. Who said white boys can’t dance? The house music was pretty good though, not really my scene but I couldn’t complain. I was in a club in Romania! The event was sponsored by Kent. We honestly had no idea what Kent was, until the ride home when our taxi driver (who by the way has been driving taxis for 60 years, and he’s probably not even 40 years old) explained that Kent was a brand of cigarettes and he was so surprised that we had never heard of them. He was yelling, “KENT, you know KENT, Tsigare!!” Do we even have Kent back in the states? Oh, I forgot to mention earlier, everyone in Romania smokes. Everyone. Packs are about a dollar. No wonder why they’re so freaking skinny; their metabolism must be through the roof. So anyway, that was Friday night, Saturday to come next.

Our first...

2005-01-21T19:24:00.000+02:00

Vampire bite!

So, we've got a list going of "who will be the first to...." and so far step in dog crap is me, fall on the stairs is me (actually fell up the stairs, but same difference, although we've all had incidents on the "twisting terror" as Marya calls it), and lo and behold, yesterday we encountered our first vampire bite! Shown above is Marya's trash can wound (don't ask), but it's more fun to say she's been bitten by a follower of Count Dracula...speaking of which, we might be going to a place called Club Dracula this evening. Should be interesting.

A little subway story for ya: This morning I was about to get on so I put my pass in the reader and went to go through the turnstyle but it didn't budge. Marc and Marya had gone through ahead of me and they said I looked like a dear caught in headlights. It was a little nerveracking considering the guard pointed at me and sternly told me to stay where I was. At least that's what I think he said. Marya and I have a tendency to magically translate Romanian to English even when we have no clue what they're saying. Seems to work so I think we'll stick with it. I've been trying to speak a lot more Romanian now that I'm getting the pronunciation down for common words so I can at least function in a normal everyday conversation. Most people are pretty receptive to us when we at least attempt to speak in their language. I'm sure that sometimes we're slaughtering it, but at least we're having fun!

Tonight's our first full weekend here, so we're planning to check out some of the night life. It's been a long week and I'm exhausted, but I think I can stay up for a little Romanian clubbing/bar hopping :) Based on our past week, I can only imagine what's going to happen when we're out, but I'm sure it will make for some amusing posts.

Causing a Scene

2005-01-20T10:50:00.000+02:00

"Going up?"

Fitting more than three people in this elevator can be a real challenge. I guess I never really thought about the size of elevators before, but the smallness of this one cannot be ignored.

So for those of you that know me pretty well, you know that I like my diet soda. Well, it's not diet here, it's Coca Cola light. It's similar to Pepsi One, with one calorie. I really like it, I don't think I can go back to diet! Anyway, the point of me telling you that is because yesterday was the first day someone got really upset with me, and it was over Coke light. We went to CarreFour (equivalent of Target, but more like a mini-mall) and I went to get one of these delicious sodas from a pizza shop. I asked her for a regular (for Marc) and a light. So she rings me up for it, I pay for it, and they only bring me the coke light. So I tell her I want a regular one too, she rings it up on the register and then brings me another coke light. I'm trying to explain to her that I want regular, the blue can, but they keep saying they don't have it. Then someone else comes over and explains to me that the blue can is Pepsi Max, and it's more like diet with no calories, no sugar, etc. So, then I ask for the fountain one because I can see that it's there (and I know it is because Marc got one a couple days ago), but they keep insisting that they don't have it. So, finally, I'm like, "then I don't want it". The woman at the register starts yelling and is probably cursing me out in Romanian. Way to cause a scene Katie, like I don't stick out like a sore thumb in the first place. So I just walk away and pretend like nothing happened. Slick.

I ate authentic Romanian food for the first time last night and it was pretty good. I had sausages and fries. They put like a grated cheese on their fries (not melted) and it's awesome. I tried Marya's carne musaka which is kind of like a meat and potato pie and that was pretty good too. We also did a shot of some kind of bottom shelf Romanian liquor that they give to you before your meal. Let's just say it's definitely bottom shelf. Ew. Oh, and I won't give you full details, but let's just say the female waitstaff were very friendly.

Gotta get to work, but first an update on the dogs...one full-tilt charged Marya this morning on our way to the subway. It looked like he was about to tackle her, but he stopped and just kind of sniffed. A little scary. We've named the dog behind our apartment Cujo, he's ok in the morning on our way to work but walking back home is a crap shoot. Last night we started to take the longer, more well lit path to avoid him, but I think Marc is a little upset :)

Buna Dimineata! (Good Morning!)

2005-01-19T10:31:00.000+02:00

View from my room

Temperature: 0 degrees Celsius (32 F)
Time: 10:40 (7 hours ahead of you)
I love it!

I was just answering the three questions I’ve been asked the most since I’ve been here from peeps back in the U.S. to get them out of the way :)

Marc, Marya and I have had our fair share of adventures since our plane landed in Bucharest, Romania three days ago. I must say that the randomness of the stray dogs (and the occasional scares when they trot behind us in a dark alley) account for most of our culture shock. Marya and I probably think it’s a good idea to start walking around the front of our building to avoid such situations, but Marc thinks it’s “more fun” to walk in the scary alleys. I’m just waiting for one of us to get bitten and develop a fun case of Rabies. Pictures on this topic to come…oh, and I forgot, I already stepped in some stray dog crap. Marc’s luggage rolled through some on the way in too, so we really haven’t had the best of luck in the poo area.

The majority of Romanians can speak a little bit of English or at least get the general gist of what we’re trying to say, but the barrier can be difficult at times. We already met a potential friend because I was at a register in a supermarket and apparently the woman was asking me if I had a club card and I had no clue what she was referring to. So I’m shaking my head and saying sorry while she’s looking at me like I have three heads when the girl behind me says, “Say Nu”. So we struck up a conversation and she (Korrin) was telling us how she moved here from Canada to open up a coffee shop, which, turns out, is right near our office. I’m pretty sure we’ll be stopping by there some day this week, so I’ll keep you posted on our new city guide.

One of the most hilarious things I’ve seen so far is Amit (co-worker) open a coke bottle with his teeth. Yes, his teeth, and we’re not talking a twist off. I think you could hear Marya and me gasp from a kilometer away. So, what else? Let’s see…controlling the length of a toilet flush, the tiniest elevators you can imagine, yellow/brown Money Pit-style water, X-rated commercials/advertisements, crazy cab drivers, leaky backpacks…and the list goes on.

Oh, almost forgot, the picture is of one of the views from my room overlooking the Dambovita River. We live in like the Times Square of Bucharest so if you follow that curve of the road backwards, there is a square called Piata Unirii, which is more or less the hub of the city. More to come soon…