Weekend

I moved into the apartment this weekend.

I got some of the French girls to help me lug my stuff over and I met some of my neighbours. A dear old lady down the hall is the "Resident Advisor" and her daughter, downstairs, speaks perfect English. She also looks like the stereotypical cougar, with short red hair and tight tight pants.

She's lovely though.

We were chatting about Timisoara and her cat comes up.

"Ciao, Pisica!" I said (Hello, Cat!)
"Her name is Pussy. I love Pussy"

With her Romanian accent, it sounded like "Poosee"

(Cristi asures me this is a normal name for Romanian cats)

Her mom and another neighbour (both probably over 70 years old) started saying "Poosee! Poosee! Poosee!"

It was all I could do not to laugh.

Adrian, my first Romanian friend (whom I met on the plane coming over here) is back in Timisoara for the next five years and we went out for drinks on Saturday night. he's working as a pilot for Carpat Air. I also conned him into helping me replace all the light bulbs in the place. I finally got to see the full extent of the "damage".

The place was lived in before by university students and they must have had one crazy sex life.

There were condom packages everywhere, in the craziest places (under the bed, in a drawer meant for keys, in the closet), and I found a bag of unopened condoms in the garbage. There was porn in the bathroom (two posters behind the door) and the place was a mess.

I cleaned everything up and it's beautiful now. It looks like a bordello! It's called "Karla's Kasa d'Amore" but it has to be pronounced with an English accent. Karla's kah-sah da-mo-ray.

The bed is also broken (so that explains all the condoms), the matress crap, the stove doesn't work and neither does the fridge and the sunroom missing a good deal of windows. But the place is mine mine mine! I don't have to answer to my boss or anything. My name is on the lease (well, mine and Cristi's) so it's all good.

The walls are light purple and all the furnishing are in wood. I picked up a lot of fabric in Turkey and draped it everywhere, so it looks like an opium den. I have a nargile pipe on the table and vases everywhere. I'll try to post pictures soon (along with the other 600 or so from Turkey and some of a dance recital in Piata Unirii).

I took Stephanie, one of my old roomates, to the sex shop on Saturday. Laure, one of the girls who is living in my old old apartment, is going to France tomorrow to visit her boyfriend. So she's having us all over for dinner tonight and Stef wanted to get her a going away gift, and decided on finding the trashiest pair of thong underwear she could. Since Timisoara has no real lingerie stores, I suggested the sex shop.

There was a lingerie store right beside it but nothing caught our eye. So we went next door (there was a 2m tall inflatable penis with a purple rock star wig on the front lawn) and checked out the goodies.

Mainly lots of vibrators and penis sleeves and a good selection of inflatable dolls. Including lots of fat ones. I was shocked!

We found a pair of black thong undies with shiny pink hearts on it. Perfect!

I can't wait to see her expression tonight!

The man behind the counter must have thought we were hillarious. Showed us his entire collection of toys, making us hold them and touch them. Stephanie was so embarassed but I laughed my head off. We both had a good time though!

The market is back in full swing again and I'm able to buy my beloved Romanian tomatoes again.

Romanian tomatoes are the best in the world. Hands down.

On Saturday afternoon, I went with the two new French interns to the market to pick up some food for supper. I planned on making a tabouli salad. While they bought bread, I headed to the cheese shop.

I hate the cheese shop. It will forever be linked to Hades in my mind.

There are about 10-15 stands inside, each presided over by a very large Romanian lady. When you walk past, she screams at you to taste her cheese. She'll cut off a tiny sliver for you and then let her eyes burn into your skull in an attempt to guilt you into buying a piece. Since I don't have a working refrigerator, I can't buy anything. Besides, you can only get telemea and some other soft white cheese that I don't particularly like that much.

Back to work!