Days 1 & 2

I will spit as much as I can into this blog. Pictures will be included in later blogs, but not this one.

Day 1: There a 4 of us from Texas A&M University working with Tenaris in Zalau, Romania this summer. Valerie, Haegen, Leon, and myself. We left the Hotel Derek in Houston at 9:00 am central time in America, and boarded our first flight to Washington DC. From there we caught a flight to Munich, Germany. The ride there, I sat next to a Moldovan girl named Camelia. Luckily, Moldova's native tongue is Romanian, so she went ahead and taught me the basics. 0 to 10, thank you, where is the bathroom, how much money, God, you are very pretty, would you like to dance, etc. Only the most important of phrases ;). In Germany, I used the restroom in the airport. I was very surprised to see a woman cleaning the urinal next to me as I was peeing. In America, this would be considered strange at the least. Next, we boarded our next flight to Cluj, Romania, about 80 kilometers away from Zalau. On this flight, I sat next to a woman named Marina, who is Italian, but is married to an American man named Kerry. They both live in Rome (or Roma according to her) on the seaside and teach their respective native languages as a job. They were traveling to Romania to see Dracula's castle. I learned many random things from her about Europe. Then, we landed in Romania.

Once we arrived, our buddies from Tenaris picked us up at the airport. (Tenaris assigned each of us a Romanian employee from Tenaris close to our age as a "buddy" for the summer.) My buddy's name is Mircea Bumbu (Meer-chuh Boom-boo). Well, that is a rough translation. He is 25 years old, 6'2, and very laid back. Mircea and Irina (Eer-reen-uh) each rode in a taxi and the 4 of us Aggies split into groups of 2. Before departing for Zalau, Mircea and Irina kissed on the mouth (slightly more than a peck). I put my hand in my pocket to reach for my chap stick, hoping this was the custom for saying goodbye in Romania. Turns out they are dating, so no chap stick was needed. Mircea, Haegan, and I piled into the taxi that was waiting for us at the airport and made our way to Zalau.

The car ride there was a mess. It is about 1.5 hours to Zalau from Cluj, and the road is winding (the Road to Hana on the island of Maui, Hawaii is very similar). Driving is more aggressive, but the roads are not so congested. Alas, Romanians do in fact drive on the same side of the road we do, and steering wheels are on the left side of the car. Mircea is an interesting fellow. He has 2 older brothers and is from a small town (17,000 people) 300 kilometers east of Zalau. People in Romania take great pride in what part of Romania they are from. There are 3 main regions in Romania, I can't tell you what they are yet because I'm not sure. So, Mircea dropped us off at the hotel, we found our rooms, and agreed to meet downstairs for dinner at 6:30 ish, but we could text him before so everyone would know. I was glad he said to text him first, because I slept in until 8:00 pm.

Once we woke up, we got together with some other young (25 years average) employees from Tenaris and went to eat at an Italian restaurant towards the top of Zalau. (Zalau, as well as this region of Romania, is a very hilly country.) We watched the sun set from the restaurant around 10:00 pm (yes they have longer days). At 11:30 pm, they decided it was time to go out. So, we went to a pub. There were a bout 12 of us total now. I may misspell names, but my newest friends are Mircea, Irina, Alin, Alexandra, Luchean, Vlad, Daniel, and one more guy who joined us later, I forget his name though which is terrible because we had a good conversation in the pub later. Or, at least I think it was good: it was loud and his English is poor and my Romanian sounds like Chewbacca. Dinner was delicious. I have never heard so many curse words from someone I had just met, but it doesn't make anyone uncomfortable over here. Many Romanians just perceive the English language being filled with those words to make a point. Thank you, Hollywood.

The pub (Diesels) was pretty small, but had some dancing. It was very fun. Everyone is a good dancer from what I can tell, at least of my friends so far. At 2:15 am, they wanted to go to another bar, but the 4 of us Americans needed to sleep some more, especially after the jet lag. We went home, and slept.

The next day, I drove our rental car in the streets of Zalau. It was easy, except a little uneasy because it was Sunday. On Sundays, all the traffic lights just blink yellow all day. So, all traffic lights now become yield signs throughout the entire city. Very cautious. Then, Alin came and walked us to another new friend's house, Florin. We were to have BBQ! The only thing that caught us off guard was how laid back they were. We started the BBQ at 12:00 in the day. We did not eat until after 5:00 pm. There is no rush on time during the weekends. But, we had a blast.

Now, a few random things from the last 2 days I have learned form my new friends.
Alexandra taught me that spitting in the bushes is not polite, but it isn't the biggest deal in the world.
Vlad taught me it is okay to spit while were are pissing behind an old building at 2:30 am. Vlad also showed me how to cheat at a Romanian card game (2 people playing a 1 player game is a big advantage).
Florin opened his home to us and fed us BBQ, coffee, beer, and pelinka (plum liquor, very strong).
Alin is very clever, and knows that he is clever. He talks a lot about women, but seems to be pretty good at talking to them as well.
Mircea loves to play volleyball, but had bad back problems because of how intensive he played in high school. Him and Irina are dating for 6 months now.

More next time...