My time so far

The weather is much improved; it's not been so ugly anymore and the sun's shining every day (though we do get the occasional drizzle). I've not had much excitement in the Forum, as I've been mostly levelling down trenches and cleaning walls. Some coins have been found, mostly by Romanians. And Little Claudio (there seem to be so few names in Romania, that we have to append each repeated name with a descriptor: Museum-Adi, Boxer-Cristi, Creepy-Claudio, and so on) uncovered a beautiful, mostly-intact kiln. I will have to remember to take my camera with me to work on Monday and start taking pictures of these trenches and various finds.

Canada Day was a blast. I wore my "Eh?" shirt (which has a maple leaf forming the point on the exclamation mark) and Kelci, my fellow Canadian, wore a Canada shirt as well. I made poutine for dinner, or the closest approximation of it since there are no cheese curds here but the french fries were made fresh and I made gravy from packets I bought in Canada. The meal was rather successful, and was served with a side of sausage. I also brought out the maple syrup - sadly no gogosi or crepes were made but Lauren very kindly gifted me with kurtos-kalacs, a kind of pastry usually topped with sugar, and it went well with the syrup. There were two large rolls and with my extra offerings of Smarties, Turtles and York Peppermints, it was a tasty dessert.
Lieutenant Dan visited (note: he is not an actual Lieutenant) and brought some friends and tuica just for the Canadians. I shared most of it among the group. The rest of the night was spent playing Rummy and Bottlecaps (played with actual bottlecaps, and points are awarded based in how they land when you throw them), and lots of good conversation.

Friday, July 2nd, we went to Otilia's bar, where I had a small bottle of wine for myself, and it was just a night for casual drinks and hanging-out. Tonight, the 3rd of July, we're all in Zalau for dinner. Tomorrow is, of course, the 4th of July, and there will be a much bigger party and we'll finally get some proper homemade mici. It promises to be a fun time.

I've finished my Socrates book, and I've moved on to one of Ashley's books; it's by Bill Bryson and it's called Neither Here Nor There. It's about his travels in Europe and it's rather funny.

I have to pass the computer on to someone else now, so I'll write again next week.