Yelling at Romanian Women, Cobblestones, and a Man Named Nicu

    So we just finished our second week of language lessons, which means now we have no idea what is going on but we get excited when we hear a vocab word we recognize. We are also able to say who we are, who you are, who they are, what we want/need, what we know (nimic(nothing)), etc. My first real attempt to speak Romanian resulted in me speaking way to loudly and slowly at a lady trying to find out where the bus stop was. She looked at me like she wasn't sure if she should answer or give me a dollar, but she responded in perfectly clear english "What bus are you looking for?" and then proceded to walk us to our bus stop! I felt like I was on one of those commercials where someone steps in and saves the day for some individual unknowingly about to walk in front of a moving bus.
   We also ventured out into the city and visited Lipscan in the Unirii district of Bucaresti. The area was once populated by old antique shops and artisan glass blowers/shops. The walls were covered in graffiti, the streets populated by stray dogs, and the roads all cobblestone. Today Lipscan has undergone a San Diego Gaslamp like transformation. The cobblestones and vintage architecture pave the way for a unique and quaint European setting, while the old shops filled with chachkeys have now been replaced by independent designers, anthropologie-esque clothing botiques (yes this is steven writing, yes I know what anthropologie is, and yes I do have a deep love for a store that sells nothing but women's clothing.), coffee shops, and many great restaurants.
   While there we visited a hat store that is owned and operated by an older man named Nicu. His hats have been featured in advertisements, newspaper articles, and magazines. He was extremely charming and kind and invited us back to watch him make some hats. He determined my head was too large for most hats, (it's not by the way I can't even find hats small enough in the states unless they are child/women sizes). I tried on a cioban (Shepherds) hat, a top hat, a taran (farmer) hat, some awesome fedora's that didn't fit, and some pretty sweet grandpa hats. The hat I really wanted happened to be on his head, but with my head being so large he said it would not fit and unfortunately he did not have the proper material in stock to fashion me one of my own. He also decided that he will come back with me to the U.S. and start a shop there.
   In another news the weather has dropped 30 degrees, we are now driving the Damas (see previous posts) into the next town to get a ride into the city from other team members, and we (by we I mean I) have affectionately named the Damas "Cochran" (Survivor fans, you will understand this reference.) I also had a zipper break on my messenger bag, which drove me nuts, but I was blessed by the presence of a man sitting on a chair outside of the subway stop fixing zippers at 2 bucks a pop!
Cheers-
s