Merhabalar! I think that's the correct way to say hello to multiple people in Turkish. Let's just say it is. Turkish class has begun, so we spent part of last night practicing the first ten numbers in Turkish. I've got 0-6 down, 7-9 are a little tricky, but 10 is just "on" so no worries there. Turkish is fun and our history class is also very interesting, and today's classes were a vast improvement over yesterday's thanks to the welcome addition of a large AC unit to our learning environment. We're studying at the Faculty of History at what I assume is the University of Bucharest (that would make sense, right?). I forgot to get a picture of the university, but here's a view from the university.
After Springtime today, we went to the Palace of Parliament, which apparently is more often called the Palace of the People, a name which was chosen in response to the unintentionally ironic name Ceausescu gave it, which was the Palace of the Republic. It's easier to just refer to it as "that huge building." We weren't allowed to take pictures (for free) inside the building, which is a shame, because words cannot describe how much marble there was in that place. Every wall, column, and staircase was solid marble, and everything that could be gilded with gold was golden. There was also a plethora of crystal chandeliers. All these materials came from Romania, in keeping with Ceausescu's policy of making Romania totally self-reliant. Part of this policy was paying off the national debt, which he succeeded in doing by starving his people. I know hindsight's 20-20, but it seems like he could have given his people food and not built the second-biggest building in the world (the first is the Pentagon, if I didn't mention that last time) on a hill that had contained two of the oldest neighborhoods in Bucharest, using the money that went to gilding the silk curtains to pay off the debt instead. The palace contains over 1,000 rooms, many of which are unfinished now, seeing as Ceausescu died before the building's completion. The rooms that are finished are all spacious, and most of them serve as meeting places for international organizations or political bodies like the Romanian House of Deputies. I think the vast majority of the rooms are unfinished, but nobody seems to be in a hurry to finish them-apparently many Romanians resent the palace because of the aforementioned destruction of neighborhoods. Our guide, a graduate student at what I think is the University of Bucharest, said that people say that the stray animals in Bucharest all come from the families that were forced to leave these neighborhoods for some of Ceausescu's apartments. He didn't seem to believe that, but there is a good number of dogs and cats wandering around, and most of them look well-fed (Mom). Professor Gilson, our Turkish professor (the one who teaches Turkish, that is-both professors are Turkish), was discussing how much everyone hates the Ceausescu, and when someone asked about his wife, our guide laughed and shouted, "His wife was ugly!" Not to beat a dead deputy prime minister of Romania, but I'm inclined to agree:
That's it for today, but so as not to leave you with that unpleasant image I'll include one of the avenue that runs through the center of the city, starting at the palace. It's lined with pleasant, if communist-style, apartments and is wider and (Romanians cannot stress this enough) several meters long than the Champs d'Elysee. Just one of the many comparisons to Paris we keep getting.
from one of the balconies of the Palace of Parliament
from the upper deck of a tour bus
Thanks for reading!
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