Downtown

A week ago Saturday, the big girls went downtown with Daddy.

After a pizza lunch, Ava ponders dessert.

Where's Audrey? She just plops down when she's had 'enough'.

"Things will be great when we're downtown . . ."

These boots were made for walkin'

We've heard that the manhole covers are sometimes stolen and sold as scrap metal. I think you could sell them as art.

Reunited

On Monday we rendezvoused with Viki at the arc de triumpf, as she doesn't want to come to the apartment building. The plot thickens . . . apparently our other housekeeper, Elena, has been fired as well. (See the previous post, "Scandal.") The new woman, Petruta, is working "nonstop" as they say here. I'm hoping this will at least ease Viki's pain and hopefully we can convince her to visit us at the apartment.

Charlotte models her new jacket from Viki. It's a bit large, though (it could fit Ava!).

Viki teaches Charlotte to walk . . . she'll stand up on her own, but she's not taking steps by herself yet.

I have so many picture of leaves! I just can't get over the colors: Red, brown, gold, green . . .


Charlotte's chicken pox are much better now than earlier in the week when this video was shot.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our turkey and sides thanks to the Marriott hotel. Two of the teachers from kindergarten joined us for dinner.

Dueling pies: our Romanian guests preferred my version of pumpkin pie on the right. (Ava had three slices.) I used our precious can of pumpkin that we got from our friends that work at the US Embassy and I had to make evaporated milk, but it turned out ok. Charlotte fell asleep before we got to dessert . . . she'll have to try her first pumpkin pie the day after.

Dearest family and friends, we miss you! Hope everyone enjoyed the day wherever you were!

Primary Program

A week and a half ago the Primary put on their sacrament meeting program and Ava said her part by heart in Romanian: "Familia mea creste cind zambim mult." (My family grows when we smile a lot.) My unofficial calling is primary accompanist, so I played the piano during the program. We offered a part to Audrey, but she didn't want to participate; however, she had Ava's part memorized as well!

Turkish Dinner at the Golden Falcon

The Golden Falcon's golden grill.

Spicy meats over pink coals.

The result: Our kebabs.

The funniest part of dinner: after finishing our appetizers, the server came by with a dustbuster and vacuumed up the crumbs. Efficient, but noisy.

The Bloc

One of the major architectural contributions of Communism in Bucharest is the aptly named 'bloc' apartment complex. There are miles and miles of them. Today I visited one for the first time. The bathroom faucet water had a distinct brown tinge . . . I guess the pipes need updating. Today I am grateful not just for running water, but relatively clean running water. (Our water may not be brown, but we've still been advised not to drink it.)

Scandal

When I pick up the girls from gradinita in the afternoon, Ava always wants to know which housekeeper is on duty. So Thursday afternoon I told Ava and Audrey that Viki should be there. The girls eagerly run into the apartment foyer but are not met by Viki. Instead there is Cornelia, the apartment manager, along with another woman. Ava asks "where's Viki?" and Cornelia responds that Viki no longer works here, and introduces us to Petruta, her replacement. Shocked, Audrey starts to cry and prostrates herself on the floor. This isn't just the cleaning lady we're talking about, this is bunica (grandma) Viki.

The next day I ask the other housekeeper, Elena, where Viki is. "Viki nu mai vine." (Viki is not coming anymore.) "De ce?" (why?) "Nu stui." (I don't know). Something doesn't smell right here. There is no way bunica Viki would have left us without saying goodbye.

Luckily, Elena knew Viki's telephone number, so I called with the help of Ava's teacher Catalina, to get the scoop (this story was going to be beyond my Romanian comprehension!).
Apparently, the apartment manager just showed up and fired Viki--for no reason and without notice. There are strict laws regarding the termination of employment here; there has to be a significant cause and then a notice period is required. Viki wanted to come see us, but was told that she couldn't, she just had to leave.

Outrageous. So now I'm stewing about what, if anything, I can do. Viki is looking into getting an attorney. In the meantime, we're not taking it out on the new cleaning lady. We gave her bon bons today.

Varicella (you know, chickenpox)

"Bad news" Chad announced after dropping the girls off the second day at Kindergarten back in September. Well, September passed with no sign of the 'pox in our household, then October, and we were getting close to making it through November, but poor little Charlotte finally succumbed. Since the announcement of the first illness in September, a steady chain of kids has had it, and now our sweet baby. Charlotte is a trooper, though, and hasn't given us any trouble or complaint. So far Ava and Audrey's vaccinations seem to have shielded them (Charlotte was too young for the vaccine).

Party Like It's Your Name Day

Oh, this country loves a good party. The three "Mateis" at English Kinder had a party celebrating their name day . . . this is as big of an event as a birthday party, complete with dancing, presents, pizza, cake, and circus performers.

These rockstar parties are starting to wear Audrey out.

The cake with explosives was a huge hit.

For the circus finale, a snake charmer.

Ava gives the hula hoop a whirl.

Chow hound

La Multi Ani!

Happy birthday Pop Pop, or as they say here, la multi ani! (sorry we didn't get this posted earlier!)
Love you!

Dent Estet 4 Kids

The girls had their first dental appointments today and did great! Audrey even sat in the chair, although she didn't go for the cleaning bit . . . next time.

Charlotte tries out "Mr. Thirsty".

Audrey shows off her pearly whites.

Ava practices her brushing technique in the waiting room. This dental office specializes in children's dentistry. Notice the toys and cartoon playing in the background. They had three aquariums with turtles and fish, a playstructure outside, two playrooms inside and cartoons projected on the walls for the kids to watch while in the chair. Who needs Disneyland?

Tennis Movies

I just can't get enough photos of Ava playing tennis . . . 5 year olds with racquets are so cute (and some of them are really good, and a little bit older). This was shot a couple weeks ago.

La Mandragora

We dined last night at the very pretty La Mandragora restaurant with Emi and Saskia, new friends we met last week during the expat event at Artmark. They speak German (he is Romanian and she is German), so we got to sprinkle our English with Deutsch which was fun. Romania has been hit by the financial "criza" like everywhere else, as evidenced by the empty dining room (although more diners came later on--our 8pm seating was early by romanian standards). The real estate market here also experienced the big boom in recent years and now the bust. (And yes, I ordered my fresh lemonade . . . even though it's getting cold here, you still need to drink lots of lemonade because they turn the heat on so high. We really haven't needed to use our heater in the apartment because there is so much ambient heat filtering in, so much so that Chad still opens the window or turns on the air conditioning to cool off!)

Bucharest Zoo

We enjoyed the little zoo very much . . . highlights included the lions, tigers, jaguar, puma, a white bull, and a huge burmese python.

The girls browse through the pirated knock-off toys.

These pelicans were as big as Ava!

There was a sign outside the wolf exhibit concerning the "bushmeat" problem in Europe. We decided it would be safer to grab lunch at the mall, rather than one of the roadside stands outside the zoo with the rustic looking sausages. . .

Here you see the nice policeman drive away. Chad survived his first traffic stop on the way to the zoo. . . apparently that left turn across the double white line is a no-no.

We couldn't stay away from the newest mall, Palace Cotroceni, for long. Ava did great at its indoor ice skating rink.

Go Ava!

Dinner at La Mama . . . don't worry Audrey, Daddy will help you eat that. You should have seen the dessert.

Balthazar

Our culinary tour of Bucharest continued last weekend at Balthazar, a restaurant with an internationally themed menu: We ordered fish dishes "France" and "Japan". And my chocolate cake was in the shape of a pyramid.

Don't you love the french awning?

I'm so glad we went and saw this. Amazing. Chad, Scott and Ryan would have seen the greatest concert, but alas, rip MJ.

"Oh wouldn't it be loverly." My inner Eliza Doolittle surfaced as we drove through the flower market, I hopped out and bought a beautiful bouquet of giant mums. The street was hopping with vendors and it was almost midnight. Noapte buna, Bucuresti!

Backhand

Ava started practicing her backhand tonight at tennis. Another milestone . . . my baby is growing up! Sniff, Sniff. A huge tent with lights and heat was placed over the clay court so tennis will continue through the winter. I meant to take a photo of the tennis instructor's beer can on the table at the side of the court, but I got sidetracked when one of the kids got a bloody nose . . . I'll have to snap it next time. . . it's either a beer or espresso and you should hear his rendition of "It's a Barbie World" that he sings especially for Ava. She LOVES it.

Envy

Sunday evening we had dinner with the other American family from church. The LeBarges have been here a couple years, the father works at the US Embassy as the economic advisor. Although their three kids are older than ours, the girls sure had fun playing, eating salad with ranch dressing, Pillsbury croissants and pumpkin pie! Ava had three servings. Plus, they sent us home with some goodies they got at the commissary: a box of Lucky Charms and a can of pumpkin (no such things in the grocery store here. Not so tragic for the Lucky Charms, but the lack of canned pumpkin poses a problem for these girls and their favorite fall dessert!) "Mommy, can we eat dinner here next Sunday?"

Your toys are better than my toys.

Romanian Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship

This afternoon I took the girls to the rythmic gymnastics championships here in the land of Nadia Comenici. Audrey watches in awe.

wow.

Ava's favorite is the ribbon twirling.

The event center, Sala Polivaleneta, is in a beautiful, very large park that we had not been to yet.