And Takes Half Damage

Easter is by far the biggest holiday in Romania. This town is going positively ape-shit with Easter preparations. It's like Christmas in Union-Made Planet Earth High Place 53 Only In Downtown LA, only worse. The local church has set up bleachers across the street for the overflow crowds. At right is a photograph of the line to get to the bakery at Auchan. All of these people want to buy cozonac, the traditional Romanian easter bread.

Although the stores are jam-packed, you can't really do any other business this week because lots of people take time off work to prepare for the holiday. You're supposed to have a scrupulously clean house for Easter.

Tania and Gagi are having people over for the holiday, so it's been a somewhat madcap series of preparations here. They bought an entire goat which they butchered themselves using knives and a hatchet (remind me never to upset my mother-in-law. You would never even find the body). The organs go into soup and other dishes that I will be avoiding like they were poisoned, and the meat gets cooked and served.

An entire punchbowl filled with hard-boiled eggs

The weather's been pretty gorgeous this week, and the trees have coats of leaves and flowers which really makes the city look a lot nicer. The streets are usually filled with people out for walks and kids playing. There aren't any soccer fields nearby, so everyone kicks their soccer balls around the street, which also double as parking lots. There's simply no room, so the kids just kick the ball WHAM into the cars when someone misses a pass. Nobody seems to care.

Mass hysteria

Gabriel has not let all this distract him from his dedicated program of crying. At least it provides some stability in my life. I keep trying to explain to him that that duty runs the other way, but he is impervious to logic.

I am taking a crash course on Romanian Easter traditions so that I at least have some idea what is going on tomorrow. Expect pictures!

Moment of Zen: