Orient til you drop

My time in Bucharest was really great. I had a different preconceived notion of Bucharest, but the stressful taxi ride revealed a city that at least superficially looked modern and glitzy (I could still see semblances of what they used to call “The Paris of the East”). The hotel was nice and there were other Fulbrighters there, so I had a much more enjoyable first night in Bucharest! The next morning we all met to walk to the Fulbright commission offices and had a long, long, long orientation day.
The American Embassy speakers who came to brief us on economic, safety, health etc issues were interesting but also somewhat terrifying. The public safety office of the American Embassy was warning us about using credit cards and told us that a colleague of his had recently used a credit card at a restaurant and shortly thereafter found an $8000 charge on the card. He also warned us against using ATMs that were not large bank ATMS connected to a bank, and I broke out in a cold sweat as I tried to remember the ATM I had used in Cluj (was it a real bank? Was it connected to the bank? Are they going to clean out my account?! But it was a Raiffesen, I checked later, phew).
The health officer made me feel like I was entering Sierra Leone in the 90’s. As she warned us against drinking tap water, instructing us to wash produce with bleach (augh! I ate an unwashed peach the day before!), warning us against rabid packs of dogs that roam Bucharest, and telling us about bears that still kill hikers regularly, I had to check my fear and remember that I had been in Romania before, way out in the mountains, in fact, and never had any problems eating the food (including peasant-made plum brandy and raw pork skin once: my stomach is made of cast iron) or run-ins with wildlife.
The rest of the day was fast paced and full of meet and greets, but the group isn't unmanageably large, and everyone was easy to talk to.