all mixed up

this week is too hard to describe in pictures. mostly because i met A LOT OF extraordinarily different people, some of whom i hadn't talked to in years. one-on-one, my favorite interaction method (with me pretty much talking non-stop) is not really conducive to taking interesting pictures, especially when it happens on the same terraces over and over (hello, bulgakov and casa tiff!). also, some of my friends categorically refuse to appear on this blog, out of their own valid reasons. duly noted.

it's not that they overstate the readership of the blog, more that, of course, it's disconcerting to have one's face floating on the internets just like that, without a worthy story attached. these are the moments when i question why this thing even exists at all, (except "because i can".)

the questions are the same and the answers are the same. seriously.

so: people i met this week:
- my friend florina who finished a PhD last year and had fascinating stories about how research is being conducted in romanian academic departments...also her stages in london and paris
- giulia, for absolutely ruinous shopping
- one of my former students, for an impromptu drink and an absolutely impromptu chat re: life decisions
- my friend mirela who is an interpreter in brasov, on a work visit here - we revisited old TOO OLD memories of university years
- my friend alexandra and her 2 year old ioana, for a visit to a park in my neighbourhood that i had no idea existed. also the first time in my life i had the chance to see ioana, but i trust it went well :))
- lari's roommate alexandra - on two different occasions, both of which should have involved us attending cultural events (concert/reading) and both of which ended up with us chickening out and going to some bar to drink lemon beer.
-ovidiu.it was raining. we were pretty much as per usual.
- sonia, to check out a benetton outlet on the outskirts and the above mentioned reading that didn't happen.


and the only pictures i got:

i made pancakes then got out of the house to go out and as soon as i was within safe distance from home i started reflecting on whether i left the oven on under my new non-stick pan. that became sort of the theme of the evening...the answer was no. (carmen to taxi driver: " number XXX, please, it's the big block of flats...and if you don't see smoke and flames ahead that must mean i turned the oven off when i left")

lari down with a cold and panicking about her body temperature. also i took a photo of her project on the computer, which looks glorious, and she's like "you're not putting that on the blog!" ugh.

giulia trying on some pants at a helofita. i like the mirror decoration!

i took this photo for giulia, because it's so representative of the cluj of her childhood

at some point i was out for drinks in a bar with this dog. his name is zuzu and he likes to catch flies.- actually he caught 2 while we were there

this is the kids park @detunata, where kids play in exhausting ways and make/break their mothers' whole social life.

 alexandra and sonia just met at this...meant-to-be public gathering where people were supposed to come and read out loud from the texts of (poet/playwright/novelist) gellu naum. we didn't join the gathering because we are shy, but this is to show we came prepared! instead we laughed for about half an hour at a couple taking photos of themselves/each other and the statue of matei corvin (see background). then the girls talked for like another hour about their respective PhDs:))

found cotton candy in the park at night! and then -as if!- we exercised for about 2 minutes on the twister/stepper/other park machines, to compensate :))

there was dancing going on in the gazebo, and this flower carpet outside, for whatever reason.

 c.