Wedding
I had the opportunity to go to a wedding last weekend in Craiova. My friends Torrey and Alina were going to do their own "international relations" thing and get married. I've always been a firm believer that you can find love online and they proved me right.
Well, they were supposed to call me sometime over the weekend so I could make my plans. I didn't hear a word. So I texted. And called. And texted and called again. I got a call back at 1:30 pm on Sunday. "Come to the wedding tomorrow!" "Ok!"
So I run down to the Internet cafe on my street and check the train schedules. Excellent. There's a train at 3:35 pm. I text them that I'll be there at 9:45 pm, hurredly pack and miraculously get a cab to the station.
I had five minutes to spare and the lineups were huge! I looked at the board and saw that the train leaving at 3:35 was headed to Arad. "Hmmm", I thought. Arad is in the north, and Craiova is to the south. I rationalised that I would take the train to Arad and then switch to catch a faster train to Craiova. Yes, that must be it. I debated just hopping on the train and buying a ticket on board, but I didn't want to deal with arguing with the ticket seller, so I got into the line.
I nervously rehersed my infantile Romanian in my head, finally settling on "cat costa pentru Craiova?" (How much to Craiova?" I rationalised the lady would tell me the price and then I could say I wanted 1 ticket, thereby sparing me the pain of talking Romanian).
I said my line and she said there was no train to Craiova. The next one was at 8:45 pm, arriving at 2:10 am. I had no idea what to do. By now, the place was empty. I went back to ask the price, which was 290,000 lei. Hmmm...
It started snowing outside. Big clumps of hail. I didn't want to wait at the station for the next train, so I got aonther cab home. The highlight was that I was starving and got a "Plic Carne" from the little kiosk by the front door. It looked like some meat pastry. It couldn't be...could it?
Oh yes! Burec! Well, not exactly real Serbian burec, but close enough anyways. I bought one, ate it while sitting outside, and then bought two more. It was a small consolation.
I went home and got a phone call from Alina asking why I wasn't coming. I told her I might take the 8:45 pm train, but that it was unlikely. I didn't want them picking me up at 2:00 at the train station on their wedding day. I'm going to try to go to Craiova sometime this week/weekend to see them.
2 Comments:
First of all, there are some strange rituals on a full orthodox wedding that you missed if that wedding was a conservatory one. You should go to a traditional wedding before you're leaving romania, these balcanic manifestations are somehow funny.
Another thing: there's something wrong about romanian women. I live in an pretty cosmopolit campus. In our building only there are Canadians (at least one :) ), Arabs of all kinds, Africans, South-Americans and ex-Sovietics (inluding Asians). There are lots of mixed couples, but in those 8 years (that's at least 16 classes and thousands of aliens, both sexes!) I never ever saw a mixed couple where the male is a Romanian.
I know lots of girls hunting down on the internet the Italian guy of their dreams. Then, after the usual chat comes the invitation to Romania... I saw a girl fixing her make-up for an hour before picking one of those guys from the airport. She came back 2 days later telling us there was no sex, that the poor watch he offered her is worthing a fortune and that the italian guy's name is Ali.
Add this to the situation of women here (lower income, lower eduucation, which makes them obedient and ideal for cooking and washing and other domestic occupations), to the large percentage of Romanian girls between the prostitutes of Paris or Italy or Kosovo or .... you got the idea!
As far as I know, it was just a civil ceremony where they signed their names on the dotted line.
A lot of people told me to beware of Romanian men as they would see me as a free ticket to Canada. Sadly, the only people who have asked me if I am attached are taxi drivers, whom I secretly think regard me as an old maid because, at 23, I am single.
My Serbian friend told me of the concept of "Sponsoruze" in Serbia but I can see it obviously applies to Romanians as well. I see beautiful but bitchy looking Romanian girls in expensive clothes driving new, foreign vehicles. Many of these girls have Italian or German "boyfriends". I admit, I feel resentful when I see big German SUVs on the road.
As for my friends, we'll see. She's beautiful and strong-willed so I can't imagine this would be a marriage of convenience.
I've seen the aftermath of Romanian weddings. At a conference last August, the dinner was held at the same restaurant as a wedding party. People were singing and dancing when we arrived and were still singing and dancing when we left. Whatever was giving them that much energy, I want some!
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