Lauren has a social life!

Phew! It has been an utterly exhausting and exhilarating weekend! The week has been draining, too, as evidenced by the fact that it has taken me until Thursday to write about last weekend! Anyways, so I finally hooked up with the local Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs). Yeah!! I met Angela first, a sweet girl from LA who has been working with the Sibiu branch of AIESEC. I met her and some other PCVs and their Romanian friends for dinner on Friday night at a pizzeria/cafe overlooking the liar's bridge. A great group of people, all of whom have interesting stories to tell. After dinner, we went to a "shisha" bar ("shisha" = hooka in Arabic, I am told), all done up in Moroccan style with red and gold pillows, stool, and lambskin sconces on the walls. We smoked cappucino-flavored tobacco in an elaborate setting, complete with very sweet, and very inexpensive frozen mixed drinks. I wish I had a picture of it -- the Shisha, not the drinks!

Afterwards, a few of us headed to Chill Out, a club in town. Most clubs are built into the old wine cellars of buildings, so it's as if you were drinking and dancing the night away in Dracula's crypt-like basement. House music is the m.o. here; though they play "oldies but goodies" (read: 80s and 90s music) on Sunday nights. A rather neat experience, even if the music wasn't my style.

On Saturday, I went to the annual Pottery Fair in town, with potters and vendors from all over the country selling their wares. Everything was so inexpensive! Even the large baking pots, which had a completely utilitarian purpose. It amazing to think that I still came home with my backpack half-full of hand-made pottery, and spent less than $9. I met my friend Gabi there, who is the marketing director for the ASTRA Museum in town. A nice guy, and we spent about an hour wandering around the different potters, looking at styles, and what makes them unique to each region of the country. Like, for instance, I learned that the lovely green, blue and brown pottery I had been buying was of a Hungarian influence, and not "traditional" Romanian decoration. Oh well, they're still pretty.

Saturday night I went to the movies for the first time. I went with Angela and Robert, her wonderfully gay Romanian hairdresser (I have an appointment at 4pm today!) to see "Monster-in-Law". Not a bad flick, and it was nice to finally find the movie theater. I was pretty tired afterwards, but I was talked into going to a new cafe/bar in town called "Go In". It's brand new, clean, and serves up a great cappucino. One of the nicest places I've been to so far. I even talked my coworker, Cristi, into having our business meeting with the ASTRA marketing staff there the other day. If any of you come visit, (hint, hint) we'll be sure to have one of their delicious cappucinos or hot chocolates there!

Come Sunday morning, I was exhausted! Two evenings out on the town! Whatever happened to my weekends of doing nothing? Alas, I had to get up in the morning to meet "the gang" to play baseball! 14 people, mixed American and Romanian, playing baseball in the field. Okay, so it was actually softball and a lot of the rules had been bent a little, but it was still loads of fun. My time lost (boo-hoo) 16-18. Oh well. It was still a lot of fun. I wish I had remembered to get photos during the game, but I'd rather be participating in my life than observing it. Sorry mom, you're just going to have to live with that! (I'm second from the right in the back row.) Can you tell how many Americans and Romanians are in the picture?

Okay, and the last pictures I wanted to publish were of my cute little pension so you could all see where I live. I live a Pension Ela, with Ela, her husband, son and German Shepard, Lassie. I'll get pictures of them soon, I hope.