Millie buys an iron

Hi all,

We are just delighted to hear from you through the wonders of cyberspace! Over here we have been attending sessions called "Information Technology" that will bring us up to speed on all that's available through computer resources. When these sessions are at the end of a day, my brain just lets some of it spill over onto the floor ---like the water in my wash machine. There is much to absorb in this International Curriculum, one spin-off of which is to appreciate what it feels like to be a student again.

Meanwhile, life in Romania just gets more interesting every minute. Buying an iron ---now there's an experience. By the miracle of Latin roots, we were able to determine that the clerk wanted us to pay for the iron and the alarm clock separately. After that we were quite baffled, and the more puzzled we looked, the faster the speed of her Romanian. Ed did manage to distinguish the word "guarantee' and a security person came to our rescue pointing us in the direction of the "guarantee" cue around the corner. We debated the pros and cons of waiting it out; as it turns out the acquisition of a guarantee is a serious matter. The clerk officiously took the iron out and plugged it in, pointing and chattering in Romanian while all I could do was give him the ubiquitos thumbs up and hope that it didn't mean something bad in Romania. He filled out papers, I signed them and then the stamping begins. The Romanians LOVE stamping stuff. (When you leave a grocery store, there is a stamper at every exit. Of course, the first time we had no idea. Ed sailed right by and the stamper had to chase us and then try to find which bag we put the receipt!!) Anyways, so then this guarantee clerk starts all over again, this time with the clock, setting it, turning on the radio, the alarm..... stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp.

Sunday morning about 8 of us took a lovely walk around one of Bucharest's lakes, after which we went to the farmer's market where you can find the best tasting nectarines in the world. We are going to be so grateful for those Romanian lessons as I am about tired of playing charades with all these wonderful, patient folk. They are a sweet, gentle people and one elderly babuschka-clad woman even gave me a kiss when I bought 5 sunflowers. Of course, I had asked for one sunflower, but didn't have the heart to return four of them after she had (supposedly) misunderstood me. Anyway, five sunflowers grace our living room table.


We really are enjoying ourselves. The city has many beautiful sections and we'll try to get some pictures across the web soon. The faculty at the school is genuinely wonderful and we have had dozens of social events already. Tonight the "arts" faculty is off to dinner followed by a jazz club downtown. Tomorrow we get to meet the students who will be new to AISB this year. It's a whirl, in a good way.

Love to all,
Millie