Gotta Love It

Well, here it is, already almost a week since my last post. I am now in the hotel I will be staying at for the rest of the year--definitely an upgrade, besides the internet not working. I tried coming back to use the internet last Friday, but it wasn't working--just lovely. Tyrone and I got a cab to the hotel, tried connecting to the internet with no success, and got a cab back to the other hotel. It was a successful trip to say the least :) That's the way it goes sometimes. It is working now after cutting in and out yesterday. Hopefully, it works the rest of the year.

I should really talk about the other hotel we stayed at. I had some interesting food when I first came into Romania. Breakfast was a bowl of some porridge-like substance with sour cream on top. Many of you know that I'll eat just about anything, but this stuff was too much to handle. The coach asked me, "Mike, do you not like the food?" I thought to myself, "Yeah I don't like it, this stuff is bad!" But instead, I said that my stomach wasn't feeling too great, which was true as well. Then comes out a plate of two meats somewhat like summer sausage and bologna. Not bad if I had some crackers, but not for breakfast. The other days we had eggs for breakfast so that was good with me. For lunch one day we had meat kind of like hot dogs, but it was much softer. It tasted like it needed to be cooked more, but that is the way they eat it I guess. Other than those meals, the food has been better than in Austria. For lunch and dinner, soup is always served first with bread. You always get a salad as well, but it consists of mostly cole slaw, not lettuce. Then they serve the main meal: meat and potatoes. Lately we have had grilled chicken at this restaurant where we have our team meals. Dessert is always served too, which is a plus.

Enough about food. I have to talk about this elevator in the old hotel. This hotel must have withstood World War II bombings and looked like it. There were two elevators, one small and one bigger one. The bigger one was always operated by a worker who only seemed to work two hours a day so the majority of the time it was out of order. Therefore we had to use the bigger one. The sign said that it could hold four people, but we soon found out that was a lie. It's not very fun being cramped in a tiny elevator with three other big guys and getting stuck in the middle of the elevator shaft. Fortunately, we just kept pushing buttons to get to another floor and it started moving again. Great times, I tell ya. Next time we tried with only three guys and it was working fine until we got to the bottom and the elevator door wouldn't open all the way. No worries, we just had to pry it open with our arms. By this time I was about ready to make the trek to our 7th floor room, but we only put two guys in at a time and it worked like a gem. Those are just some of the surprises you get playing ball overseas. Gotta love it.

I will have to take some pictures now that I am settled in my new place. The city has everything you need: grocery stores, bank, a nice mall, McDonald's :), but it has tons of run-down buildings. The center of the city is fine, but other than that it's kind of sad to see.

Well, that is all for now. I hope you enjoyed.