Do NOT fly with Alitalia!!!!!!

It is hard to believe that today marks the beginning of my 6th week in Europe. I arrived in Bucharesti last wednesday (one day after I had intended). For all you future travelers out there, I urge you to take my word of advice and do not fly with Alitalia unless it is from the US. I booked my flight from Rome about a month and a half ago through Expedia. However, I was not aware of a peculiar policy the airline company has at the time. From what I understood through a translator, Alitalia does not close their scheduled flights despite being full. Thus, I was placed on stand by 3 times! They adhere to overbooking as a perfectly legal policy. I managed to leave on the last possible flight the following day and spent almost 2 full days in the Fuimicino airport. Not only that, the hotel was about a 30-45 mins away from the airport and the airport is a 30 min train ride from Rome. Thus, I thanked them very much and told them I would stay with a friend. However, they refused to reimburse me for the 5 train rides to and from the airport (a total of 55 Euro). Imagine my embarressment when I had to explain to my professor that I would not be arriving on my intended flight twice! after he was already on the way (or at) the airport. It was not until I got to Bucharest that I found out that it was a two hour commute to where he lives. Luckily, he was very understanding and even apologized for not giving me prior warning about the airline.

After discussing in more detail the living arrangement, I decided that it would be best to stay in his apartment throughout my stay. In just a few days, I have become good friends with his fiance and my professor (Andrei). They are a young couple so it is not awkward and they are both students so it is a very informal relationship. Also, I quickly discovered that Romanian may be based in Latin but much of the conjugations of verbs and grammar structure are taken from slavic origins which explains the extra 5 letters and strange accents. (aka I understand nothing!) Every now and then I can catch a noun (no verbs) because it is almost identical to the italian word, not spanish and the pronouciation is taking from a mix of french and italian. Regardless, it sounds very pretty. For this reason, I thought it best to not find myself without either one of them and they thankfully agreed. Please note here...TV is in english with Romanian subtitles (yay!)

A little bit of history helps explain a lot about the initial impression of the city. It is about 500 years old. Before the communist rule, Romania was ruled by an imperial family with Germanic ancestory for about 80 years. Thus, the most elaborate buildings you see were built around this period, the palaces, parts of the university, the public library, large parks, and a couple of the theather and opera houses with most of this being located in the center of town. However, the majority of the residencial areas are grey, simple architecture (almost prisonlike), no balconies and few windows. This is the communist style. (Everyone was equal). Despite this, there is an abundance of construction including an expansion of the subway, condominiums, office buildings because of the big push to be part of the EU. Many systems are being computerized and access to many things is becoming much easier. However, they tell stories of how things were 25 years ago when you would stand in line 5 or 6 hours with vouchers to receive the monthly sugar and oil and when cheese was a precious comodity. It has been very interesting to listen to them. As it turns out, most everyday people cannot speak english. For example, vendors. However, if you have attended a university yes. I feel very fortunate to have Andrei and Iulia ("my roommates") because at least I have someone that can carry a conversation. (else this would be a very long 3 weeks).

Another observation I have made is that despite warnings about my personal safety and that of my things, Bucharest is a very safe city. At night, you can wander the streets and no one will mess with you. Even during the day, no one stares or makes you feel uncomfortable. There are far less homeless people here than in Rome and the gypsies are actually very calm, peaceful people. Perhaps if I was alone it would be different. But typically they try to make a living and do not result immediately to stealing or tricking people as I had understood. They are the vendors of little convinience stores, trash collectors, car washes, ect. It is actually very rare to here the gypsy language as it is only talked at home among family members. I noticed after a couple of days that some gypsy boys occasionally inhale from a paper bag like you would if you were hyperventalating and trying to not pass out. When I asked Iulia if they had respiratory problems, she responded that they are inhaling the fumes of a kind of silver paint as a drug. There are only three classifications that people identify with though it does not impede any sort of interaction and it is easy to tell by the way that you look. If you have blue eyes, blond hair, and fair skinned, then you ar Romanian. If you are the complete opposite, then you are gypsy. If you are dark haired, dark eyes, but fair-skinned, then you are turkish. It is very simple.

One refreshing fact about the people here is that they are not so stick thin. They typically have meat on there bodies unlike the italians. It could be because they smoke less. The majority of the smokers have been men. Plus, they have a large, non-sweet meal for breakfast. yay! And, actually on a couple of occasions such as the supermarket and the mall, I felt as if I was in the US and had to think twice. And perhaps, it is because I blended in with italians in terms of looks and I understood more but it is hard to shake the feeling of being a foreigner. I just look different. It may sound a little funny because I am also a foreigner in the US. But I tend to forget this fact. Regardless the first question everyone asks Andrei and Iulia is where am I from.

I am leaving lab, religion, and food as the topic of another post. (There is a lot to say about these).

Oh, very exciting. This weekend we are going to the countryside about 100 km away to an excavation site of Andrei and Iulia's godparents. (They play a role in the orthodox wedding so they must be decided early on even though they arent getting married for another year). The site is a late Roman milatary fort. Currently, they are uncovering the barracks. So, I will finally get the chance to do some digging. They all laughed about how excited I was to do this and commented that the main difference in anthropology in the US and in Europe is that in the US the students have a very good foundation in theory and here the students have great pratical experience because they are able to carry out each step of a project so theory is learned more through action