Those Alien Bastards Are Gonna Pay For Shootin' Up My Ride

Regular life is starting up again here in Bucharest, or at least the new regular life. Things are still hard for everyone, but food still needs to be bought, babies need to be walked and bathed and fed, laundry needs to be done, and so on. I've been happy to be able to do stuff with Gabe again, although I know it's only for a short time.

Strategically placed foot saves me from child-porn charges

Io and I spent most of the day out yesterday. We took Gabe on a long walk and ended up at the "big market," an outdoor farmer's market that I had never been to before. Unlike the U.S. where a farmer's market is usually a one-day-a-week thing, in Bucharest they run every day. They're not a charming hippie throwback; for lots of people they're the place they buy groceries every day.

I've finally gotten to reacquaint myself with some of the Romanian delicacies that I've been missing while back home. I had one of their great street pastries, and yesterday Tania made mici for dinner. I've been searching for Furious Donuts but so far only inferior Sassy Donuts have come my way. But I will persevere. I would walk through Hell for Furious Donuts, so it's only a matter of time.

I saw this "America, FUCK YEAH!" hot dog display at the farmer's market as well. It's weird, but it seems like in the four months that I've been gone American hot dogs have suddenly become all the rage in Bucharest. I don't think I saw a single hot dog the entire six months I was here last time, but this trip I've seen several vendors selling them and some hipermart food court restaurants have added them to the menu as well. I have to say, this display makes hot dogs seem pretty fucking awesome. They may be overselling the hot dog experience more than a little bit.

Yesterday we also made a big purchase for His Majesty the King: his first high chair. He started eating baby food (home-made by Io with a blender) a month or so ago, so his diet is now about half milk and half other stuff. That means it's time for a place where we can conveniently feed him and it won't matter so much if he throws the food around. We went to Auchan and test-drove several models with him, and settled on the one at right. So far he seems to really like it.

Perhaps we are not feeding him enough

I had my own giant adventure this week: driving in Bucharest. Gagi was the only one who ever drove in our family. Tania hasn't driven in like 20 years, and although Io learned how to drive stick while in the States, since she got back she hasn't driven because the car was basically Gagi's domain.

Ultimately I think godfather Ovi is going to take over most driving duties, because someone permanent needs to be in that role and Io is leaving mid-next year. For now, I told them I would do the family driving. First we had to replace the battery in the Dacia, because it's old and went flat during the months the car has been sitting unused. Ovi came over to help us with that, switching out the battery from his ancient, barely-running car into ours. For some reason presumably related to centrally-planned Communist efficiency, the negative lead from our car was too big to clamp onto the post from Ovi's battery. I told him we'd have to get a new battery from Auchan that fits this car, but Ovi just went to his trunk, pulled out a thick piece of scrap wire, and pounded it into the gap between the post and the clamp with a tack-hammer. "Romanians," he told me, "are great inventors." He gave the battery a test jiggle, and the clamp flew off the post and the wire fell down into the engine. Awesome.

Eventually we got it working, though, and I drove Io and myself down to the Real hipermart where we spent an extraordinary amount of money on a bunch of stuff we needed. I had expected lots of problems with driving. I thought the Dacia was going to be an awful car with a really difficult transmission, but it's actually pretty good. The other drivers are still terrible, though, because everyone views the Rules of the Road as more Suggestions of the Road. I was waiting to make a left in a busy intersection at one point, and the guy behind me decided I wasn't being aggressive enough about pulling into traffic, so he just swung around me into the oncoming lane, nearly head-on collided with someone, and then screeched into the cross-street causing people to lay on the horn and dodge him. This is completely normal. Above we see Gabriel wearing a miniature version of the expression I have most of the time on Bucharest's roads.

Tonight we're packing, because tomorrow we leave on a vacation to visit Io's friend Alina in Switzerland. I wasn't sure we were still going to go, but during his last week Gagi made Io and Tania promise that she wasn't going to miss her Switzerland trip because of him. So we're going. It'll be Gabe's first time on an airplane and first time using his passport, and it will definitely be a real test for us as parents. I feel like we got some practice during the Sighisoara train trip earlier this year, so hopefully it will go OK.

Moment of Zen: