It takes days to make progress

Life in a big city is both energetic and stressing.  There is a constant level of activity that keeps the city going at all hours of the day and night.  One of few good things about living in a large city as Bucharest is the fact that the city never seems boring.  The second best thing is that McDonalds' coffee is really good!  Cappuccino-quality!  (who would have thought!)

 

After we moved in to our new apartment, we more or less spent a couple of days waiting for workers to come finish off a couple of things in the house, like a leaky tub, a broken door handle, and a few other odds and ends the landlord volunteered to have fixed for us.  The first day the workers were supposed to show up, one of them was sick (chest pain!) and the other that came by himself was too inexperienced to accomplish anything.  After being about an hour and a half late, he spent another three hours taking things apart and putting them together because he couldn't fix them.  The following day, the 'main' guy showed up also and after 6 hours most of the things were reported fixed.  Despite the inexperience of the workers, we were impressed with the landlord's level of responsibility and initiative.  

 

When renting an apartment in Romania, one of the things that need to be done, the landlord and the tenant need to go to the City Hall to submit the rent contract for approval and recording.  Renting is, thus, a very official business involving the city, not merely a contract between two people.  With an approved contract in hand, we can now apply for telephone services, internet access, and even use this document to support our application for the visa.  

 

Happy to have the rent contract signed and approved, I proceeded to the cable company to request Internet service hook up.  Before going there, I did call the sales office and ensured the residence is connected to the neighborhood data traffic node,  as well as having ensured that the modem we have is compatible.  At the cable office, the story was a bit different, however.  The phone call didn't matter, I had to actually bring my modem to the tech center across town to receive a sticker of compatibility.  Only then I could apply for Internet access at the office back across town where I went the first time.  From what we've learned about paying bills, it seems we need to go to the individual utility or phone company to pay our bill in cash.  Checks are not used at all, and neither are credit cards. 

 

- C