A few days overdue, but here nonetheless...

These last three days have been rather pleasant, as the weather has gotten a lot better and there’s been a lot more sun. Today less so, but it's ok.

I’m not sure if it’s the sunny weather or a better disposition on my part, or simply my getting more used to the city, but I’m starting to notice the finer details of things and seeing them in an overall better light.

My first impression of the city, I have to admit, was of its grayness, the dirt (litter and dog poo), the old people and children requesting money on the street, the amount of unfinished construction, the advertisements plastered all over the main boulevards, the seedy casinos, the stray dogs, and a generally uneasy feeling, on my part, of being out-of-place. This is not to say that from the beginning I wasn’t noticing the architecture and the more beautiful aspects of the city, but it was harder to focus on those things, especially when things like the adverts and casinos seem to assault you from all angles – the glaring lights from the McDonalds, about a five minute walk from my house, run all night.

But this city really is beautiful. People often say to tourists in New York that it is important to look up, because that’s where the city’s interesting details are, but if that’s true of any city I’ve been to, it’s here. Above the adverts, and casinos, and dog poo, you get the arches, the balconies, the intricate rooftops and you get a better idea of what things must have looked like at one point. Then there are beautiful houses, buildings, and churches that occasionally seem to come out of nowhere as you turn a corner and really catch your eye. I suppose, particularly, if you are not used architecture like it. I’ve really started to enjoy the walk between the apartment and the OvidiuRom office, where I’ve gone about seven or eight times now. I walk mostly on Calea Victoreii, one of the major boulevards. Around six-ish the sun reflects off of the bigger buildings in such a way that. they become illuminated and kind of pop out at you.

The museum of national history (the office is just around the corner from here).

The University Library.

By the way, I don’t think I mentioned how pleasant the fifteen minute walk through Park Herestrau Marica and I had on the way home from Suzanna’s. I keep trying to find a time to go back…maybe even for a run. :)

Ok, on to what I’ve actually been up to.

Saturday

On Saturday, I was woken up relatively early by a phone call from my uncle letting me know when he and his friends would be picking me up from our designated spot, across the street from the Howard Johnson (Dorobanţi). Around 8:20, a car containing my uncle and his two friends, Florin and Theo, pulled up. Florin, I had met two days earlier on my uncle’s first night in town. I think I got along well with both of them. We then drove to the Politechnica – Polytechnic Institute – where there was to be memorial for a colleague and University professor of my uncle’s, Irina Athanasiu. My uncle and these two friends of his had been the primary organizers of the memorial. It was attended by her students (past and present) as well as several members of the larger business community associated with computers technology and computer research. Irina had, I learned, I huge impact on the development of computer technology in Romania. The event was also to be the first time many of my uncle’s colleagues from university reunited. Several of the ‘Computer Science’ (called something a little different in Romanian) faculty spoke, as well as my uncle and several of his colleagues. Ultimately other attendees contributed as well. Overall, I think that it was a really tasteful and moving event that did a good job of making an outside observer really see how important this woman had been, not only in her field, but to those whose lives she had affected.

After the memorial, and an hour or so of mingling, the primary organizers and speakers, as well as Irina’s brother and sister-in-law, all went and had lunch at the top of a fancy hotel along Boulevadul Unirii. The Boulevard was created as a part of Ceaucescu’s larger city planning project and leads up to Casa Poporului (house of the people), as it was formally known, now the Palace of the Parliament. I took several pictures from up there and had a clear shot of that monster of a symbol of megalomania…I mean, building.

Casa Poporului in the distance rising above several unfinished buildings in southeast Bucharest. The building is the second largest governmental building in the world – behind the Pentagon.

After the lunch, where I attempted to untangle the political diatribes of my uncle’s friends and his favorite professor (who spoke a little too fast and in language a little to complicated for my meager, but growing, linguistic skills), there was a get together of members of the businesses community that had benefited from Irina’s input. That’s when I took my leave, hitching a ride with this favorite professor.

That evening I was treated to a birthday dinner by my uncle. We were accompanied by Florin, his wife, and Theo – who all toasted me and helped me celebrate my 24^th. We ate, actually, at a fancy restaurant called The Golden Blitz, well known for the fact that Romanian President Basascu likes to dine there on occaision. Val and I split a portion of Icre and of Bulz (a mixture of mamaliga – which is corn maise – sheeps cheese, and ham) and I had some pretty good sarmale afterwards.

Afterwards, they took me home so full that I could barely say thank you.

That night I met up briefly with a friend, Alex, and his cousin and cousin’s girlfriend/fiancé/wife (Alex, you will have to correct me on that one, because I never asked). I met Alex about three years ago in Maastricht, when I went to go visit Chardy, who some of you know, and we all had a good time out there. Alex was in town for a night and so I got to toast to my birthday one more time, which was really nice.

Sunday and Monday (Pesach or Paşti Evreiesc – Jewish Easter as they say here)

On Sunday, I spent the morning around the house and around midday was picked up from the house by Didi. Didi, and his wife, Şeli, are the parents of my father’s friend Dan – Dan is Jill and Lynn’s father – the close friends of mine whom I often refer to as my pseudo-sisters. So in a sense, these were my pseudo-grandparents and it was really nice to see them. We walked over to their house and after a good lunch at a restaurant right next to their building, we chatted for several hours.

The next night, after I spent some time at the office, Didi again picked me up from my house and we went together to the Howard Johnson, where the Romanian Jewish community was to celebrate the first night of Passover.

It was an interesting event, to say the least. The whole thing is sponsored by the Lubovici, a much more religious sect of Jews that at one point set out to bring the disillusioned post-war Eastern European Jews back into the fold (obviously this an extreme simplification of who they are, but I don’t think it needs much more explanation in this context). They, however, did not lead ceremony, and attended their own ceremony somewhere else in the hotel. In addition, there was a separate room for the Romanian Jewish Community and the Israeli and American ex-pat Jews that currently reside in Bucharest (rumor has it, from those that wandered around last year, that they Israeli/American room is much better :)) . A man, who I believe was the Lubovici Rabbi, did at one point come and give a speech at the beginning, in what I think was Yiddish, although many of the older people around me said that it was impossible to understand him and it must’ve been a Polish-influenced Yiddish or something of that linguistic family.

Although it was often difficult to hear the Rabbi, the meal overall was really good. The string of Romanian and then Jewish foods (like we have at Passover at home) seemed to never end. I kind of wish there had been less of each item – or that I had been able to realize there was more food coming at the beginning. It was interesting to see what the Bucharest-Jewish community looked like – at least those who attended the seder. Mostly, there were people above the age of fifty – but there were actually a few young people around. An interesting note, I happened to sit next to a woman who worked at the Jewish old people’s home and it turned out that she went to high school with my mother (as they say here, ‘ce mica e lumea!)'

Muţi (their friend), Didi, Şeli, and I at our table at the seder.