How to spot an American at the airport

a. will be wearing sweatpants, most likely with flip flops
b. will be talking in a loud voice

(Impressions from Heathrow, after standing over 2 hours in the Immigration line along with a United flight)

Flight at 6:40am, and at 5:10 I was still sleeping

Let’s begin with it was Vlad’s fault, it always is.
We over-slept after a long walk in the city. I panicked.
Got to the airport in 10 minutes flat.
Did not cry when I said good-bye
Cried like a baby on the flight
German efficiency landed me 30 minutes earlier in London
Immigration took forever. Arrgh!
Welcome to London, baby!

Things I’m looking forward to when I get home

· Booking my flight back to Timisoara

· Seeing my mum and giving her a big hug =)

· Spending time with my family

· Sleeping on my bed

· Meeting my friends

· Eating halal chicken

· Going out in flip-flops

· Attending college

· Relaxing

Things I will miss from Timisoara

• Vlad, Liana and Marianna
• Going to Unirii everyday
• Waking up to Italian mocha made by Marianna
• Walking (shocking isn’t it?)
• Eating yogurt for breakfast, lunch and dinner
• Late night conversations with Marianna
• Going to Aurora and Flavia on Sundays
• Cooking in the dorm with one pot and pan
• Bierhaus, Bunker, D’Arc, Colisee (enough said)
• Romanian mothers
• Romanian language (I really got used to it, even though I hardly understood it)
• Going swimming in a 28 degree pool when outside it was 15 degrees
• Greek salad at Ready’s
• Super fast internet (3rd fastest in the world)

Things I’m glad to leave behind in Timisoara

· Trying to make the stupid washing machine work every week

· The horrible rainy weather during the last week (8 degrees and rain throughout)

· Crazy drivers out to kill you

· Fried cheese (like Liana would say ‘cancer!’)

· Mamaliga – no matter how hard I tried, I never quite liked it

· Eating vegetarian food

You know a celebrity

People, get out your autograph books, I'm famous in Timisoara!

A newspaper wanted to interview Oana Petrescu and me about our respective exchanges. Oana spent 6 months in Nagpur this year and of course she spoke about cows on the streets. These white people, they can never come up with anything new.

The article is in Romanian, so I doubt if any of you can understand what it says about me. Let me enlighten you, it says that I'm smart, intelligent and charming (I managed to fool the journalist by using big words. Thank god I took a good English class in high school).

I also spoke about how quiet it was here, and that if I had to live in Timisoara for longer than 2 months, I would be depressed.

I have to wait for one of my lazy Romanian friends to translate the rest for me.

Here's the link to the article.
http://papillon-ul.blogspot.com/2010/05/lumea-globalizata-e-chiar-mica.html

My boss trusts me (haha)

Are you surprised with number of new posts I'm writing on the same day? I, the world's laziest person, is actually sitting down in front of the laptop and not doing something more productive like Facebooking.

How did this miracle happen?

Well, my boss decided that I should work from home today.Mistake No.1 !

I woke up at 10am. I don't even remember what I ate for breakfast, maybe some mouldy milk with cereal. (Note to self : please buy some real food. No chocolate isn't food). I dragged myself to the shower, and got dressed in pajamas.

Hey, don't judge me. If I have to work, I might as well be in something comfortable!

Then, I wrote a couple of blog posts. Trying to avoid working for as long as possible. I was window-shopping online for a bit, like I can actually afford $1000 bags. Dream on.

Finally, it was time for lunch. I'm sure the Romanians with their super fancy heels and dresses won't take it kindly to the fact that I show up for lunch in pajamas. Instead,I stayed home and ate some bhel puri for lunch.

Mistake No.2. I added three type's of chutney's for good luck. And within an hour, I was in the toilet.

Damn these Europeans, they got me used to the fact that even black pepper is a spice. I'm going to have some troubles when I get home.

Labour Day on a lake

A newly found friend Gabi invited me to spend Labour Day on May 1st with his friends. The plan was to have a barbeque then go to the lake to get some sun that my skin was craving for.

I was so excited to go to Arad myself, alone in the train. Though I managed to get Vlad to drive me to the train station at 7am. I have a feeling he hates me now.

I didn't think it would be difficult. All I had to do was sit in the train and get off one hour later at a station called Arad. Man, was I wrong!


There were two Arad stations, which confused me. Just as I was about the get off at the wrong station, someone told me not to. It turned out that Vlad met one of his teachers on the train and told her to watch out for me. I had a baby-sitter and I didn't even know it.

My mum is going to be s proud of me. Not only did I manage to clean a fish myself (okay, I did get some help), but I cooked it to perfection. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, my amazing fsh (no photos sorry) with lemon, pepper, mushrooms and tomatoes. Go drool.


After lunch we went to the lake. It was windy and oh so cold, but we swam. Then I fell asleep on the beach. Don't ask me how I did that. It requires special powers.

I finally managed to locate the center

Everyday someone makes plans with me, they invariably choose to meet me either at Unirii or the Center.
Unirii is still okay, I manage to get there without getting lost. But there is a big temptation on the way, the Bega Mall. I almost always manage to take a pit-stop in there. Three floors of awesomeness.

Don't even get me started on the Center. I know it exists, but its like a myth, I've never seen it myself. Until this day of gorgeous spring weather, I managed to wear some gladiators (my feet were so thankful after months of boots and sneakers) and I went in search of the Center.

Some jewellery shop lured me in, then I managed to get myself into a icecream store. Along the way, I got lost. With my barely understandable Romanian, I asked someone where the Cathedral was, and that amazing girl walked with me all the way to the Cathedral. She said it was no problem and that it was on her way, but I have a sneaking feeling that she was scared I'd get lost again.

I finally bought some postcards at the Cathedral.

The statue of the wolf with Romulus and Remus (founders of Rome) in the center

One of the little kids fell in the fountain. Don't worry I didn't rush and help him, I was there in the back laughing and enjoying the moment

Lo and behold, I was in the Center, taking photos like the true Asian tourist I am! It's my favorite part of the city now. I bought some corn on cob and plonked myself on the bench to enjoy some sun.

Poli Timisoara loses (okay, draws the match)

Even though I don’t understand sports or the concept of sports fans, I still wanted to go to a Poli Timisoara (the local team) game just for the experience. Everyone talked about how easy it is to just show up and buy tickets. So it seemed stupid for us to go early and wait in line to buy legal tickets, when we can sleep late and show up an hour before the game.

Well apparently, the people who want tickets do just that. They go early and buy tickets. Or they even buy tickets in advance!

It rained the entire game and the guy in front on me kept getting mad at me for eating sunflower seeds and managing to throw them on his head each time. Romanians have no sense of humour, I tell you.

So that was me in a pointless football game, where nothing remotely exciting happened until the hooligans started burning up something.

Note to myself: Sit with the hooligans next time.

I have found my favourite city in Romania!

After having visited three major cities in Romania, I have a clear winner!
And its Sibiu!
Its in the Transylvania region and it took us about 6.5 hours by train to get there. We got lucky this time and found ourselves in the comfort of a new train.
But (there's always a but), the tracks the trains run on are 20 years old, and haven't been changed since the Communist regime fell. The trains may be able to run super-fast, but aren't allowed to because of the pathetic condition of the tracks.
The journey from Bucharest to Timisoara should take 7.5 hours (according to Google Maps), but in reality it takes over 11 hours.

We took the train from Gare de Nord, which is actually in the west part of Timisoara!
And to get to the station we ordered the taxi ourselves. Quite an accomplishment considering none of the taxi drivers speak English.

Every little station that the train passes, the station master comes out to salute the train driver. So charming!

I've noticed here that a lot of people smoke, especially the younger generation. Unfortunately(from them), but fortunately (for me), they aren't allowed to smoke in the train. When the train stops at a station for longer, you can see the smokers running out to smoke. Marianna (also a smoker) keeps herself busy by rolling up her cigarettes during the journey.

We were invited to spend a couple of days at Liana's parents house in Sibiu. Her mum fed us all day and night. When she found out that I liked spicy food, she gave me a jar of chilli sauce that she made herself!

Coloured eggs for Easter. You have to find yourself an egg, and have an egg fight with your neighbour. The one whose egg breaks, loses and gives the winner his broken egg.
Or, you can be like me and just break the egg on Marianna's head.

Cookies Liana's mum made. They were delicious. Before we left, she gave us a whole box of them

Sibiu was the EU Cultural Capital in 2007, and the city has significant German history as well. So its German name is Hermannstadt

The way to the Cathedral. We went up to the tower and then the priest found out, and asked us very politely to leave

Look between those two white buildings. There is a bridge called the 'Bridge of Lies' because when lovers go there to proclaim their love for each other, its usually a lie

The way to the Clock Tower. We went huffing and puffing all the way up

Views of Pia-ta Mare

Easter in Padurea Verde

What do four people, who have no families in Timisoara, do for Easter?

Correct answer: They make some sandwiches (some vegetarians ones for the little Muslim), wrap them in toilet paper and go for a picnic in the forest!

Since everyone else was away for Easter, or busy with their families, Leandro, Anka, Marianna and I decided to go to Padurea Vedre which literally means 'green forest'.

However, the name is quite mis-leading, it's NOT green by any angle.

We found a skeleton of a dog who we now call 'Bobby'

Cluj and a birthday celebration

Sorry for the delay in posts, have had some kind of medical scare, which is perfectly fine now.
We went to Cluj by bus (sorry haven't got pictures from there). It was quite a bumpy journey, roads were pathetic to say the least. It was like a punishment, you couldn't fall asleep!
I think I love Cluj more than Timisoara, it's bigger and the population is greater as well. Timisoara has its own charm. You can walk everywhere. Everyone asks me if I will ever come back to Romania. I will definitely come back, when I retire and I want the peace and the quiet!

The trains have terribly stinky toilets. The next time I go anywhere by train, I'm buying myself a bag of diapers!

I have no idea how a car from Oregon crossed the Atlantic and landed in Cluj

The Cathedral in Cluj. It seems that most cities here have a Union Square (Piata Unirii and a Cathedral)

If you look closely both these buildings are an exact copy of each other. The left one is a museum and the right one is a Vodafone store (thus better painted) . Damn globalization.

I bet this owner deals in forex

We threw Liana and Ruxi a birthday party on Wednesday night. Marianna did most of the cooking. I was useless and just watching her prepare everything. On the menu was pasta, eggs with onion, peperonata, cake and salame turco (which is this incredibly delicious Italian sweet, but so easy to make!).

As usual we were harassing Vlad. You can almost feel sorry for him in this photo!

Liana began harassing Claudiu too

Salame turco

We tried to spell Liana with chopped bananas

Now its time to introduce people from work!

Gordana, I love love love her sense of style!

Andreaa, her make-up is flawless!

Liana, my buddy!

A special mention to the restaurant 'Ready's' where we eat at during the weekends. That was my breakfast: french fries, fried cheese, salad, pita bread and lemon tea. Delicious!

For Easter Sunday, we are going to the park for a picnic. On Monday, we are going to Sibiu by train and then coming back on Wednesday.
Right now the campus is pretty dead. Everyone has gone back home for Easter. All stores, hospitals etc are shut. We still have a lot of students in our dorm because most of them are internationals. Though the management doesn't seem to care. They won't switch on the heating, and we have to suffer by taking cold showers.
See you later!