Another semi-lazy and jetlagged day. I forced myself out of bed even though I could have slept another three hours, so hopefully tonight I'll sleep later than 4am. In the morning, Gagi and I took a walk to the OBI, which is like the Romanian version of OSH. Here again I was struck by the difference between Romania and Los Angeles. OBI is about a half-hour walk each direction. Through the snow. In LA I don't think I have ever walked anywhere that was more than 10 minutes away, unless I was specifically going on a walk for exercise. But out here, it's like, We aren't buying anything huge, so we don't need the car, so we walk. It's an hour out of your day, but Gagi's retired and I'm on extended leave, so who really cares? People just walk everywhere all the time, particularly people from the generation before mine.
The OBI was also like a living embodiment of Romania's schizophrenic culture, a collision point between the modern life of the people who live in the cities like Bucharest, and the large number of peasants who live in the countryside. Those folks come into Bucharest to buy stuff, so OBI carries stock for them alongside goods for the city-dwellers. Those things in the photo to the right, probably recognizable to my dad, are wood-burning stoves. (How the Romanians manage to make wood-burning stoves that are themselves made of wood, I have no clue. My friend Chris "Not the Famous One" Klein would probably say it has to do with witchcraft) These were on pallets right down the aisle from high-end bath fixtures and elaborate chandeliers. It's so funny.
This photo says it all:
That's an ad for a power mower the size of a bobsled, and standing in front of it is the donkey that someone presumably brought to haul stuff back to the village. That's Romania in a nutshell.
After we got back and I had my nap, Ioana (who will sleep until 5pm every day if you let her) got up and we all bundled back up and walked to the Auchan hipermart. This was another place that had a weird vague feeling of home for me. We went there so many times when I was here before, and I guess when you're somewhere so new and foreign, any whiff of familiarity is amplified. We picked up some groceries and headed back.
Today is a holy day in Romania, Bobosele (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong), analogous to the western Epiphany. It's also supposedly the coldest day of the year. Different parts of Romania celebrate the holiday totally differently. Here near Bucharest priests throw wooden crosses into freezing rivers and young men swim in and fish them out, symbolizing Christ's baptism by John except with a lot more cases of pneumonia. Other areas of the county celebrate by donning masks and costumes like it's Halloween, I guess symbolizing how the Lord Christ Our Savior was a scary monster. Lots of paganism here in Romania, you know.
I managed to make it through tonight's schnitzel without having to declare a winner, so it turns out that -- like Captain Kirk in the Kobayashi Maru test -- I have managed to turn the ultimate no-win-scenario into a thrilling victory. Yay me. Tomorrow is a big day around here, because right after Bobosele comes the saint day for St. John the Baptist. That is Ioana's saint day (Ioan being the Romanian version of John, and Ioana being the female version fo Ioan). In Romanian culture, your saint day is like a second birthday: everyone is supposed to drop by your house at some point to say hello and give you a small present. We expect to see our godparents Ovi and Cati (erroneously called "Kathy" in previous entries) as well as a bunch of other friends and relatives. And I have been promised chocolate cake.
My unborn son learning to play Titan. I'm so proud.
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