Bucharest: It's So Old It's New

Technology is a wonderful, terrible thing.

I say this because I just finished Skyping with my family. If you haven’t skyped before it’s just as well because it brings several elements of technology together to make a person worry (yet again) how they look and what they might have dangling from their teeth or nose. Skype is apparently a “program” that “turns” your computer into a "videophone." Please don't ask me how. It might be demonic... or some sort of black magic. Or, if I was in a better mood, I might call it a miracle. Regardless of whatever voodoo that makes it all work, one thing is true: I could see and hear my family and now I miss them worse than ever!

And they could see me. Of course, being that technology is a two-edged sword, I could also see me…in a little box in the corner. This quickly became a problem because my eyes continually focused down on the box making me aware that I was slouching or my hair had poofed up funny because of my slouching or my t-shirt had bunched up around my throat as a direct result of slouchiness…and so on. So I spent as much time desperately trying to not be aware of my “slouchifiedness” as I did watching my family.

The connection was wonderful, although a bit blurry...At one point I just sat and watched my husband and daughter work on a computer "issue" that Meghan was trying to solve...I had nothing to say…so I watched them do their thing 7 time zones and 5,317 miles away from me...and they seemed so normal...not distant or foreign at all.

We got to talk about 30 minutes...which is WAY longer than the 12 of the previous night...and here is the news:

They went to some local "infirmaries" and prisons. There were no prisoners there. One of the prisons they want to go to, called Jilava, has flooded (it’s underground) and they won’t be able to use it.

Sometime during the day Kevin had an Italian Chocolate…which he described as basically a liquefied, warm Hershey bar. Meghan had a milkshake, which she said should have been called a “frothshake” because…well, you can guess why.

The biggest surprise for Kev was how modern Bucharest had become…he had visited on the anniversary of Ceausescu’s overthrow and execution and saw a country of bare shelves, old cars, and people who were hungry. In fact, Kev’s team passed out Bibles and their truck was mobbed when people realized what they were doing. This trip, there are packed stores, BMWs, and electronic billboards. He even saw in IKEA by the airport. And if you have an IKEA…You definitely won’t pass for a post-WWII communistic-ravaged city.

Wondering where they’ll find the 1950’s for their movie at: marcyjoybryan@gmail.com