In the middle of a conversation about the wonders of Romanian conveniences, a friend asked me "what's colder than the cold water in Romania?" I didn't know, so he told me: "the hot water."

I suppose this is how Romanians deal with the inconsistency of the running water here; make jokes and keep it light hearted.

The same could be done for the sketchy internet connections, the elevators that only sometimes work if you stomp hard enough on the left side of them, the stray dogs that turn mean if you are walking too quickly or too loudly, the muddy swamps that cover entire roads days after it stopped raining, and the mad rush for the front that they like to call "standing in line."

I made it almost two months before these things really ever bothered me, but the inevitable culture shock has hit. The newness has worn off, and now I must adjust to thinking of this lifestyle as "normal" before I can carry on with life in a foreign country, because now that's really all it is, just life.

I find myself missing the little things: friendly waitresses with the "customer's always right" attitude, or at least a "the customer is here so I can make money and is not actually imposing on my socializing time" attitude, takeout Chinese and movie rentals, real salsa, having an oven and a washing machine, heck I even miss Kraft macaroni and cheese sometimes!

I know this is a phase, and that in a week or so I will once again be reveling in the fact that I am living in the middle of Bucharest, Romania. Until then, I thought I should be honest with how things are going over here. I don't want any of you to be too jealous of my crazy European adventures!