Today, I DROVE in Bucharest!!!!

Yes! After over a week of looking around and wondering what is going on, I plunged by taking a car to a Walmart-type store across town. It was painless and no cars were damaged in the making of this experience. Praise God!

The driving experience lead to another discovery: I hate shopping in Romania! No, hate is not too strong a word in this case, it is the reality. After a 45-minute wait in a check out lane today, shopping all of a sudden stopped becoming fun.

Though we greatly dislike talking about money, this subject comes up constantly right now as we figure out our budget and live with a daily nightmare called: STICKER SHOCK! Almost everything is more expensive here than is in the States, except labor. Given these prices, pumped up by a 20% tax rate, and a low labor rate, both the government and manufacturers must enjoy a good revenue.

-C