I Come to the Land of the Ice and Snow

Well, here we are finally: Romania. Behind the Iron Curtain. I flew in yesterday through a moderate snowstorm, got back to the bloc, and collapsed for a few hours. Romania is a winter wonderland. It's been a long time since I lived in snowy conditions. So far it's fine. The cold doesn't bother me that much even though the lows have been in the teens. It's been snowing off and on ever since I got here and shows no real sign of letting up.

The apartment is kept pretty warm, though, which is a pleasant surprise given how expensive electricity is here. I guess heating oil is cheaper. So far it's been a pretty relaxed couple of days. Coming back to the Romanian diet actually feels sort of homey in a weird way. My Romanian has gotten slightly better since I left, and Tania (Io's mom) has gotten a lot better at English, so communication has generally been fine. Gagi (her stepdad) and I get by mostly through pantomime and our tiny stock of words we know in each others' language. In a typical day, Tania goes to work and Io goes either to class or to work at the hospital, leaving Gagi and I alone. It'll be interesting to see how this communication goes.

Not too much to report from today. We were supposed to run errands during the day but I fell asleep due to jet lag, and we ended up doing abbreviated errands in the evening. We hit Selgros, one of the Romanian Wal-Mart-style hipermarts, where I picked up this saucy hat as well as some winter boots. Gagi's going to lend me a winter coat, and I bought gloves in the Carpathian mountains last time I was here, so I think I'm now set for winter.

Tomorrow the big event is that Tania is making schnitzel for dinner, and apparently I'm supposed to compare it to Io's schnitzel and decide which one is best. Sounds like a no-win scenario to me. So I may be dead before I get a chance to write again. If so, know that I died with a jaunty hat on my head and a belly full of schnitzel. Can anyone really ask for more?

2/3rds of the way there!