Out of curiosity, we ended up asking Mihaela which ingredients the "House Special" dessert that we tasted at the motel actually contained. Showing her my photo (the same image found on my last post), she was flabbergasted by the image and our questionable description of it. Now, for the moment of truth: the dessert is made from the first milking following the birth of a calf, hence the thickness/rubbery texture. It is mixed with a little egg and a dash of sugar, and VOILA! There you have it! Are your tastebuds tingling? A "delicious" "dessert" (note my quotation marks, both of those words are up for interpretation if you ask me). I will not be making this one at home, folks. I simply do not have a cow in the backyard. Darn.
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| Eat your heart out Harpo Studios. Even the kids in Tutova are sad to see Oprah's final season coming to a close. |
One big highlight from today's clinic visit is that Paola enjoys dancing to the radio! It was so funny to see her smiling and laughing up a storm as we shaked it on the toddler playroom carpet/dance floor. Since Kellie and I's last day at the clinic is tomorrow, the team has scheduled a mandatory dance party in the main toddler playroom tomorrow. Be there. Be ready to bust a move when your jam hits the speakers.
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| Daria - you can either find her boucing around somewhere..... or buried in a pile of stuffed animals. |
In other news, I desperately needed to find drugs in Barlad. Cough syrup that is! Dorel, our driver, aided me in finding a quite fancy pharmacy (blinding bright white lights, a serious looking employee with a legit lab coat on, shelves of medicine up to the ceiling). This was no Walgreens - there were no Sour Patch Kids or Starbusts in sight, not even a "As Seen On TV" aisle. The medicine's box of course, was all in Romanian, so Dorel decided to start up a game of Charades with me in order to help with the dosage instructions. Shaking of a fist, a drinking motion, sipping of a spoon movement, 3 fingers. Got it. Shake well, drink a spoonful, 3 times a day? At least I sure hope that is what he meant. I gave the bottle to Mihaela at dinner to translate just in case. We don't want any hallucinating or cough syrup highs tonight! The babies would not approve of such behavior.
After buying my legal drugs, we went to the high school to sit in on Mihaela's class. Supposedly, her students had been asking her to bring the Americans for a while! I don't blame them. We're just so cool. The school was beautiful - high ceilings, a grand stairway as you enter, very picturesque indeed. The class turned into a general question and answer session that was really quite amusing. From what I could tell, everyone spoke English exceptionally well (the Internet, TV, and movies all seem to be big helpers) and most seemed to want to leave Romania when given the chance. The rebellious teenage years.....even across the globe. In addition, most students seemed to be on the route of wanting to be doctors and were concentrating their studies in the sciences for the time being. Just up my alley!
Following this great cultural exchange and opportunity for the students to practice their English with real Americans (I was asked about the Chicago Bulls, my favorite music and movies, things about my science background as well as my current lab experience), most of the kids walked us to our next stop: dinner! Once again, a very fine dining restaurant in Barlad was visited. I had twisted bread rolls, Viennese chicken, French fries, and an ice cream sundae for dessert. YUM. These places are never hit or miss. It's always a hit for me!
After this delicious meal, we stopped at the town's general supermarket InterEx. I, of course, stocked up on as much Milka chocolate as I could carry and Halls for my pesky cough. Chocolate and more drugs - it's really all you need to survive here in Tutova.
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| Name that baby! It's Petre dressed in full "Where's Waldo" gear and properly hiding from the camera lens. Waldo would be proud. |
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