anecdotes from team botmania

THE CANDLELIGHT MOMENT

the day before yesterday, we took a short day trip to sinaia, which is a ski-resort town about forty-five minutes away by minibus. darling and i both had to pee before we got on the minibus, and were displeased to find that the station only had those female urinals. we dealt with it, though, and went upon our merry way. but then we both had to pee again once we got there (we had three cups of coffee each that morning), and, after the last experience, we were prepared for the female urinals, but this is not what we got. we got female urinals sans electricity! they hand you a candle when you go into those dark, disgusting cubbies with their dark, disgusting holes in the ground. it was all sort of romantic, really.

'PUSSY' KISS KISS

we ended up taking the fast train back to brasov, mainly because we didn't want to stand up on a minibus (the seats were full). right after we entered the compartment, a cute, young romanian guy handed me a back of potato chips and said 'you want?' well, yeah i want it! okay, so then he left for a while and we chowed down on the chips. but later he came back and said 'speak english?' we told him we were from the states and he nodded and smiled, then sat there for a while and got up and left. when we disembarked the train, he said 'bye bye! ciao! pussy!' and then blew us two kisses. kristen and i looked at each other and then at ronen. did he really just call us 'pussy?' oh my gosh! we were mightily offended. later, we were recounting the story to an english friend of ours who used to live here and she laughed and said 'well, you know pusi means little baby kisses, don't you?'

oh! that's actually pretty endearing, and not at all offensive, like we imagined. poor guy, probably doesn't know why we looked so horrified.

WEREWOLVES

yesterday, we again decided on a hiking day, only the sunshine has left us and now it is cold and rainy. we wanted to hike up to where the brasov sign (very similar to the hollywood sign, except is says 'brasov') is, and then take the cable car down. we walked through the rain and mist for a good hour and a half or more. we couldn't even see fifteen feet in front of us. we ended up in this terrifically creepy field bordered by dead, black, gnarled trees. kristen posed as a vampire by one of them. then we found an old abandoned house and went inside. we were exploring around the back of it when these two wild dogs barked at us. they were probably werewolves. or weredogs. it turned out that we were right next to the cable car station, so we went there. the dogs followed us menacingly. we saw an empty restaurant inside and heard voices, but we knocked and nobody answered. there were probably only vampire ghosts in there. we got freaked out and rapidly retreated down the mountain, where we found a market with spinach!

BLING BLING

our hostel bosts the only jacuzzi in an european hostel. unfortunately, the jacuzzi is in a private room. well, the private room (finally!) cleared out last night, so maria let us use the jacuzzi, as long as we paid for the hot water. kristen, two english girls who are both named laura, and myself all climbed in the jacuzzi, which is the size of a small bathtub, and squished ourselves in there. we also brought gold medallions, champagne, and a video camera, and then we made a rap video.

COLD KIDNEYS

the hostel is owned by a charismatic romanian family. there is maria, the primary owner, who talks faster than anyone could possibly think and gives the most brutal backrubs imaginable. then there is silvie, her daughter, who can't stop dancing and laughing, and diana, the other daughter, who is shy. and greg, the husband, who likes to muss people's hair. one day, darling, ronen, and myself were all lying by the empty pool in the sunlight and silvie started yelling at us for getting our kidneys cold like that on the pavement. then later that night, maria pulled our ears for getting our kidneys cold on the pavement (silvie told her), and then she knocked me on the head for unintentionally letting my kidneys show under my pajama shirt (which was riding up). she says that i shouldn't blame anyone but myself when i get sick. i love this family.

okay, aussie dude is done with the net, so i ought to peace out too.