We just got back from watching Euroleague ping-pong (Romania vs. The Czech Republic) and wow… what a spectacle. Okay wait… clearly, these guys were not playing ping-pong (a sport reserved for beer halls and basements?) but table tennis; they were jumping and grunting and there was a crowd. We went out for dinner and mosied on over to the sport hall afterwards to check out this tourney; the hall was completely silent… so we were doubtful that we’d caught the end of the show. Oooooh no – there were clearly table tennis manners that the crowd followed to a T: exuberant cheering between rallies (yes, exuberant) and hush-hush silence during play. We stayed for two matches and I have never been so excited about ping-pong in my life.
What I’m not excited about is the fact that I left the lights on on the Matiz again, and this time (I did this last week too - oops) we had no dirty Dacia man come to our rescue. Tammy and I, taking turns, pushed the Matiz through the parking lot of one of the biggest grocery stores in the city, with only one dude offering, for 10 minutes, to help. Whatever - that’s not a big deal (I think I might weigh more than the mini-Daewoo-woo); we just couldn’t get it started! I tried first, but Tammers had to take over – she’d observed Dacia-dude working his magic a few days earlier. She had no luck either, and eventually we ran out of parking lot and road on which to push our luck. There was a bit of stress in the air, as I’d left Steve and Nik at the mall, and Steve had to get to practice… oops. There was enough time for Arvis, the Lithuanian opposite player, to come to our rescue with jumper cables, and then… no problem. It’s a good thing that didn’t happen today, as Arvis woke up to a fully punctured flat tire, which the guys helped him change this afternoon. The funniest part about it – even Arvis laughed – is that he got shit on by a bird just as the work was beginning. What luck…
We’ve been having an awesome time with Nik here – ya, okay, there’s not so so much to do here but… we’re finding stuff. We sampled some traditional Romanian dessert this afternoon – Papanash (sp?), which are basically fresh, light, warm donuts covered in the topping of your choice. Each of us ordered something different: Steve had the deluxe (whipping cream, ice cream, sprinkles, syrup and ?), I had a regular (jam and thick yogurt) and Nik had Nutella on his Romanian donut dessert. They were delicious… we each got (and gobbled) two donuts, and left with smiles on our faces, satisfied with our choice of traditional Romanian food. Steve has had his fair share of that, and I’ve sampled enough (I think); the traditional fare we’ve been served at The Flora hasn’t been anything to write home about, but these Papanash are. So there you go. Steve might also like me to write home about last night’s bowling victory. When it comes to backgammon and bowling, the Steve and Nik are super competitive, and there’s always a lot of talk. Okay, the bowling alley – specifically the bowling balls – weren’t up to Greek snuff but, everyone made due and Steve came out on top. I don’t remember who won the pool tournament – and that’s not because I had one too many Carlsbergs… wait: Steve and Jim won, and I remember that because Jim was hooting and yelling and victory-dancing. It was funny, and seriously fun. Still no internet here, so time online has been minimal, and I’m feeling a bit cut off from the world. Mrrrrrrr… I’ll finish this blog on a positive note – yoga was awesome this morning – I had a great class and everyone enjoyed it and stuck with it for the hour. Numbers were up and… it just felt great! Tomis has a big game tomorrow – preceded by a big game for the women’s team (they both play Dinamo Bucharest, and everyone hates them), so Nik and I might have a long day at the gym tomorrow. I better rest up………
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