As I said in the previous post on monday night we had dinner with most of the family. As all but the children were born in Romania (where the family left just over 20 years ago) they were all speaking Romanian to each other. It sounds like a Slavic language to me and when they speak in English it sounds like they could be from Russia or Poland or anywhere in Eastern Europe. They even day 'da' which is Russian for yes. But actually it is a Latin language and is closer to Italian, but with a few Russian corruptions. 'La Casa Romana for example has la-french for the, Casa, Spanish for house and Romana (Romanian). The food they eat is a mixture to, with influences from all over Europe. Geographically Romania is sort of at the cross-roads between the Latin part of Europe and the Slavic part so that makes sense really.
They have a dog called JoJo who is bread for killing rabbits, but he doesn't seem to know the difference between playing and actually killing. If you let him walk next to you he will bite and your heals and jump up to bit your hands. It was a bit scary and they keep him on a very long chain most of the time. Dragos has told me to hit him when he jumps or bits, but I'm a bit wary of doing that as I know positive re-enforcement is a better way to train a dog then with fear. He kept doing it and Dragos brought out a stick to theaten him with, and I didn't like that at all. He's been bread to hunt, and he is young and needs to learn the difference between what he can hunt and what he can play with, but I don't think beating him with a stick is right. Their two daughters don't really like him and are a bit scared of him.
The daughters are 11 and 12, and the oldest helps out a lot in the restaurant. They are on school holidays now so that is expected of them. Its nice to have kids around, makes for more interesting dinner conversation. Although last night they decided to make pizza's for dinner and just as they were about to go in the over a family walked in, then the phone rang and two take-away orders were taken as well. So they made mine and the daughters first so we could eat, then the 10 pizzas for customers then cooked theirs themselves and Anke, the sister. Then we all sat down at a table in the restaurant behind a screen, said grace and half ate, half just sat talking while the customers in the restaurant ate, then we got up and started the cleaning. its nice having Anke around, she's 24 and in grad school so its good to have someone my own age to talk to.
Speaking of cleaning I have never met someone with more OCD then Dragos. That is good in a restaurant, for the most part, but when I emptied the dishwasher trays and put the forks in he said it wasn't good enough. The forks can't just be put in the tray they all have to be turned with the prongs up and stacked neatly. The dishwasher is a small industraial one with 3 trays, one for glasses, one for plates and one for everything else. They have to be set out on the counter with the plate one bottom right, glass one top right, and the extra one top left with the cutlery basket on the left hand side of the tray. The surfaces are all stainless steal and are cleaned with a rubber thing that window washers use to get the extra water off windows. After feeding the chickens I left my muddy boots outside and was told not to leave them next to the door cos they are to muddy, either clean them or take them off further away or the mud will fall off in front of the door and get dragged in by everyone else. There is a place for everything and everything goes in its place in this house! I just hope they don't come in my room, its not messy by my standards, but it will be by Dragos'!!!
I've been putting weed mats and mulch around the trees in the orchard for the last couple of days, so my stomach feels like its doing sit ups. The weathers been amazing, very sunny and actually warm for the middle f winter. I also made my first pizza last night for dinner. Carmen kept telling me to put more toppings on, and in the end smothered it in mozzarella. I told her she was very generous with the toppings and that in most pizza places they don't put as much stuff on and she just said 'you wanna eat pizza or bread?' I also had some home-made grape juice with dinner, that was very nice, and a stuffed pepper with home-made yogurt for lunch today. The Feta is good, and I have yet to try the buttermilk. Maybe tomorrow.
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