I keep posting these because I know, deep down in my heart of hearts, that this is shocking reading material for most Romanians – the fact that people come here, visit here, live here and yes like it here.

So without further adieu, this woman just arrived in Bucharest, apparently for a “cross-cultural book exchange”:

Shopping is like…Brooklyn! No big department stores or supermarkets..just small grocery shops, butcher and cheese shops, and lots of pharmacys. There are Western Unions on every street corner! The subway cars are very clean…I have to mention this because I’ve never been in a clean subway car. Daniela had to go to work today, so I was out exploring most of the day, shopping for food and necessities like soap and matches (to light the gas stove…(still haven’t figured that one out.)

And…speaking of language…I am getting around quite well on my own. I can’t read anything, but I can speak enough to find what I need! I am really happy I took the time to study the language for the past 18 months! All that time I listened to my language CD’s really paid off. I was pulling words out of the air like a pro!

Well there you go! Awesome.

And I found out some Fulbright American is going to be teaching down the hill from me for the next 9 months and his blog is here, entitled “Discovering What I Don’t Know About Romania”, which at the moment seems to be “one hell of a lot” :D

I wasn’t sure Chocolate Chip Cookies were as common in this culture as in ours, most cookies I’ve encountered are in the prepackaged “food-like-substance” category, so Cami helped me to engineer a cultural exchange. Yumm!

The use of title caps for “Chocolate Chip Cookies” just made me laugh.

But aww… apparently The Great Professor doesn’t like to do much walking *snort*:

Bus stops are centrally designed to be every 1000 meters, regardless if the rider population would support stops every 500 meters or every block. Transfers aren’t particularly coordinated; everyone seems to expect to walk 300 meters or so between bus routes. Apparently, no one thinks to themselves, “if the 30 would let me out 200 meters down the block, and the 38 would pick up 100 meters closer to the corner, then I wouldn’t have to trudge through the snow and rain every day;” or they keep it to themselves.

Good luck in getting around my town, especially when it snows PE BUNA (for real) :D

UPDATE: Oh I think I just realized why he’s bitching.  If he’s teaching where I think he’s teaching (on Horea) and he’s living in Grigorescu, he must be walking up all the way to Memorandumului.  Mercy!  If that’s the case, you need to take the 27 bus because it’s a heck of a lot closer because you can pick it up on Dacia right down from the salsa club.

DOUBLE UPDATE: I just realized he’s also talking about the 38, which runs right to Gruia Cartierul Minunilor.  But why on Earth would he be taking both the 30 and the 38?  I thought I was aware of all B-B campuses but I guess not.  Professor, if you read this and you’re living in Gruia, you need to find a street called Rosetti and it’s going to solve all your problems and f-ck the bus entirely.  If you live in Grigorescu and teach on Horea, take the 27.