Timisoara truly is home for me now.
Even though I had a bad case of homesickness last night. Although, in all fairness, it was due to the fact that my apartment has no hot water. I had hot water on Saturday and then magically it stopped. I'm bitter. And my apartment is quite empty. Sure, I "Karla-ised" it and it looks great, but I'm sick of listening to the same CDs and reading my same four magazines over and over again. I have no TV and I'm waiting for my North American laptop adapter in the mail (lost in one of my many moves over the past month). At midnight, laying on my hardwood floor because it was truly the coldest part of the apartment, all I could think about was going home, where I could speak English with everyone, I had air conditioning and people don't give secret looks of horror to their friends when they see me walking in flip flops. (I'm sorry, but no matter how Romanian I try to act, I will never ever adopt their penchant for wearing high heels everywhere).
Anyways, It's really feeling like home here. Walking down the street, I see friends in cafes and I stop to chat. In a dance performance last week in Piata Unirii, I saw Sandu, the teacher I worked with on Newtech. I took pictures of his daughter's dance performance and she looked absolutely beautiful in her costume (pictures coming soon). The lady at Fornetti knows I like four telemea fornettis. Another lady, with a high blond bouffant, at the market searches through her fruit pile to find me the best pears. (In all honesty, they're either hit or miss but I don't dare go to another seller now). The lady at the grill with a mouthful of gold teeth knows I like my chicken burger with tzaziki, not mayonnaise and absolutely no ketchup.
Onto happier things. The weather is gorgeous now, especially since I work mainly indoors with air conditioning. The temperature is hovering around 25 degrees with a nice breeze. It's only May, so I'm dreading what August will be like. I'm starting to get a tan, something which will shock everyone who knows me. A weird Romanian version of the farmer's tan, as the outsides of my arms are brown while the insides are still white. (I know I've posted pictures of myself, but I bring the concept of "moniter tan" to new levels. I'm even paler than Swedes, those who live in darkness half the year). The mosquito bites are fading, so it no longer looks like I'm a late-stage leprosy victim.
Only problem is that I have almost no summer clothes. I assumed I would be leaving in March, or April at the absolute latest. I brought plenty of sweaters and cardigans, but almost no tshirts or tank tops, and the only shorts were for running. I'm living in the few skirts which I shoved in my suitcase at the last minute, but that's it. I can't buy anything because:
a) as I am not a size 0, very few things fit me here
b) clothing is notoriously and disgustingly expensive (clothing in Bucharest was 1.5x the price of clothing in London)
c) everything is in polyester and rayon
d) our Benetton store (my favourite) closed for renovations
Tonight, I'm meeting with another expat. I met a
Norwegian through his blog and we're going out for coffee tonight. I'm looking forward to it!
