The PST Daily Grind

It seems as if the days are getting longer. We're all dragging a bit now, as our minds are set on our sites and jobs. Everyone's just simply ready to go. Lethargic is the perfect word to describe the atmosphere nowadays. People are starting to skip sessions, leave early, show up late, etc. The technical training sessions are beginning to become tiresome and repetitive.

However, on a positive note, we had the political officer from the embassy some in and talk to us for about 90 minutes yesterday during HUB training in Brasov. He gave about a 45 minute talk and then opened it up for questions. I think that we all found this particular session quite valuable.

A few of us sat in the piata in Brasov yesterday during our lunch break, ate gigantic schnitzel sandwiches and did some people watching. We saw a camera crew following around some family, an old lady with blue hair, Korean tourists, and lots of skin. It was a hot one in Brasov. It's amazing the pictures you can get just by sitting in a public place for awhile. I'll be posting some of them one of these days.

After training, a bunch of us piled into the maxi-taxi for the ride home to Codlea. We had a bit of a run-in with some older people on the MT who insisted on keeping the windows closed due to fear of the dreaded "curent". We tried to negotiate with them as we stewed in our own juices, but could not convince them that a bit of fresh air would not cause them bodily harm.

At this point you may be wondering just what in the hell "curent" is? In a nutshell, the older generation in Romania believes that a breeze of any sort will make you ill, give you a toothache, etc. There's also some superstition about evil spirits in the air or something. As a result, and particularly during summer, any mode of public transport inevitably turns into a trip to the hot box. Ocassionaly, you may get lucky and not have any crazy bunicas on the bus/maxi-taxi, thus gaining a reprieve from the madness. It doesn't happen very often though, as public transport is dominated by pensioners.

The "curent" can also come into the home, so you'd better not leave the windows open godforbid. Quite frequently you'll see people walking the streets with cotton balls in their ears, most of them being bunicas. My friend joked that he was going to have an orthodox priest bless bags of cotton balls, sell them on the street and make tons of bani (cash). Sounds like an ideal economic development project to me! :)

Although one may encounter the ocassional exception, most people under 30 do not buy into the "curent" phenomenon. So, like many things in Romania, the "curent" will pass in a couple of generations. Until then however, we'll have to keep fighting the myth while we sweat our balls off.......



Yesterday was Victor's birthday. He turned 49 and we all wished him La Multi Ani while chowing down on grilled pork, mici and Polish Sausage. The concept of grilled Polish is new to them, as they usually boil it. After some hard lobbying by yours truly, Ica and Victor tried it and found out that grilled beats boiled any day of the week. After the consumption of mult (a lot) tuica and beer, Victor revealed his hidden talent for singing. He was belting out traditional Romanian favorites for about an hour! Ica and I enjoyed the serenade!