Last week it was 35 C (95 F)in my bedroom at 4:30 pm while I was painting and scrubbing floors. I looked like I'd been run through a car wash.
This week I have nothing to paint and no floors to scrub (okay, there is always scrubbing to do but we must draw the line somewhere) and its 20 C (68 F) and I'm sitting here in my sweats and a long-sleeved t-shirt. As I type I'm considering whether or not I want to get up and close the window or pull the blanket out from under the sleeping cat. The things that happened between then and now is what this post is about which isn't a very interesting way of introducing the events but I figure if any of you are that picky, you should have tuned out many weeks ago.
Having visited Romania in the summer before, I knew what to expect as far as the heat goes. It was exactly with this heat in mind that Mihai and I decided, back when we were mentally plotting out our year here, that as far as it was possible we would spend the entire months of July and August in the mountains where the temperature peaks at maybe 25 C (77 F) and the nights are blessedly cool.
But the heat pounced with unexpected brutality last Tuesday and the combination of the soaring mercury, the dust, noise and general unpleasantness which necessarily accompanies any home construction project pushed us into making a trip sooner rather than later.
So after securing the basics of the room and garage projects, we took off Saturday morning with Silviu and Pia in tow.
For being such a short distance geographically (about 230 km or so-see map on Casa Noastra), there is a rather large difference between north and south in this country. (Actually, I shouldn't say North, I should say Mid-Country because the Transylvanian Alps dissects Romania more or less in the middle. But whenever I think of going to the mountains, I think of going North so you're stuck with any confusion this might create).
Although Bucharest is in the south most of the culture of Romania is concentrated in the mountains. It's not to say there isn't culture here in Obedin, oh, we have plenty (I think I've described some, yes?). But I'm talking about theaters and art and castles and all of the things that people usually think of when you say culture.
We don't have that here in the South so much. We have dirt and lots of it. We have a distinct accent (er, not the one I personally have which is American but I mean the locals do). For example in Oltenia they say "Da-ţi-mi" when everyone else in the country would say "Dă-mi" because the addition of the "ţi" is superfluous. Is this the Romanian equivalent to "I dunno why you goin' do me like that"? I'm not certain but I have a funny suspicion it is.
So while in the south we've got stray dogs, heat, a funny dialect and dirt to spare, up north they get sidewalks and decent roads which doesn't seem like a very fair division of amenities if you ask me.
In any case, we were looking for cooler temperatures more than anything else so we headed due north to the Transylvanian city of Sibiu which is lovely and clean and full of tourists (when I say "full" I mean I saw five or six people with cameras and a guy in the hotel lobby was speaking French) and advertisements for a local theater company performing Faust. You will not see this in Obedin where we can't even manage to put together a poetry recital for 1st graders.
Yes it started to rain shortly after we arrived but that didn't stop us from heading out of the hotel for a late lunch at a terrific restaurant and then exploring a bit. After all, its June, not January, and we had umbrellas.
Sibiu is lovely but Transylvania is filled with many such cities that are slightly less touristy. However, the reason we chose to stay where we did was due to its proximity to the little village of Viştea which is where Pia's family owns a house and some property and where Mihai spent every summer in his childhood. For many years now Mihai has talked about buying it from his aunt who, when we didn't have the money was most anxious to sell but now that we are poised and ready to purchase, she can't part with it. Lucian has already provided details regarding this state of affairs in his latest posting so I will say no more.
Needless to say, it has several things going for it not the least of which is the attraction of having a place of our own (communal living, no matter how large the house, is never the most desirable situation) as well as a strong sentimental value for Mihai.
It has the disadvantages of lacking plumbing (although it has a well) and being rather farther away from Vaideeni than we would prefer (there is also the disadvantage of the craziness of its owner but I promised I wouldn't say any more about that). I offer a photo just to showcase the region because we have no idea if we will really end up obtaining this particular piece of property.
While we were enjoying the weather and the benefit of lodgings without construction grit covering every horizontal surface, we received a call from Dănuţ and Nohora who informed us they were mere hours away and would be arriving in Obedin shortly. This was exciting news save for the fact that we were no where near Obedin at the time. But we decided we were cooled down enough for the moment and headed back toward home.
The ride south was lovely and cool and we kept thinking "wow, this mountain weather sure seems to go on forever" until somewhere on the outskirts of Craiova we turned on the radio and learned that a cold front had moved in and was due to settle over the area for the better part of the week.
This was terrific news for some of us who still had construction clean up and room arranging and prefer not to perform these tasks in 90+ F heat.
So here we are, back where we started with me sitting in sweats in the new room which of course is lacking numerous fluffy niceties (curtains for example although a bed sheet works quite well in the interim) but its spacious and on the east side of the house and the best part of all is the walk-in closet. I'm happy to report we no longer have a year's worth of clothes for four people crammed into an old bookcase (don't ask, its Romania).
We now have a full house: Norah, Dănuţ and Nohora's grandson, Nicolas who is almost 11 and fits in quite beautifully with my duo.
Lucky for me Nohora and Nicolas arrived just in time to help me scrub the rust off my high school Spanish and prepare to serve as translator as we tour around Barcelona next week.
Yes, Spain in July.
What was I saying about escaping from the heat...?
