Coolest Vending Machine Idea

In Bucharest, everything except McDonald's and a few gas stations is closed on New Year's Day. So feeling a bit like we just needed to get out of the apartment, we packed the kids into the van and went driving around town. It's amazing how much smaller the city seems when there is no traffic!

A few months ago, we had seen this vending machine at a gas station near school and wondered if it could possibly be for real. So with camera in hand, we took advantage of a day with nothing to do and tried the Just Fries vending machine. The fries actually came out hot and tasty! Wow!

Of course, this is Romania, so the gas station attendant came out and growled at me not to take pictures. (I might steal their idea and build my own? Or perhaps I'm studying it so I can turn it into a bomb?) But still, it was a cool experience - and one I will undoubtedly repeat, maybe even with the camera for the full effect. :)

The American Way to Beat a Rug

In Romania, rug-beating is a national pastime. I suspect if an American's rug gets as dusty as rugs get here in Bucharest we would just toss them and buy another. Nonetheless, the Barbusca family was ready to give it a shot.

We had just bought a rug from a family who was leaving Bucharest. So our old living room rug was expendable. Or so I thought. Chrissy had other plans.

"Lets take it downstairs and beat it," Chrissy said.

"With what?" I said. " We don't have one of those Romanian rug-beating things."

So what do you beat a rug with if you don't have the proper tool? An undersized aluminum baseball bat! We took turns beating that thing while clouds of toxic dust rose from the rug. The dust just kept coming. The kids had a blast (literally) and at one point, we weren't sure it was an item that we wanted to put back in our apartment.

At last a Romanian neighbor came by laughing and said in his best English, "So that's how Americans beat their rugs!"

I guess so.