Tuesday, July 18, 2006

The Domestication of Noelle

Last night after work, I decided it was time to take care of some stuff at home. I did my first grocery shopping since my arrival, vacuumed the dusty mess in the kitchen made by the construction next door (I left the window open to cool the apartment), washed some clothes, and cleaned my room.

Such domestic activities left me with a headache, so I decided I'd call it a night early and get some sleep. Knowing the construction would be starting at 7am anyway, I figured I could get up early and go running. What I didn't know is that sometimes in Romania construction also starts at 10PM.

I was lying in bed, trying to read a book suggested by my econ professor, when I heard a horrible grating noise that sounded like a combination of someone trying repeatedly to start an uncooperative truck and someone dragging a tarp full of bodies down the street. (Yes, I have an overactive imagination.) Over and over, every few seconds, I heard this noise. I figured it would stop eventually and it did, around 10:30. But then it started again half an hour later, along with what sounded like wooden planks being dragged and dropped. And then hammering!

So I went out on the balcony and looked down to see guys working on the building next door. Indeed, dragging and dropping long wooden boards. On top of that, a gaggle of teenagers was hanging out on the benches on the edge of the park, yelling and laughing. I momentarily considered taking out some of the overripe tomatoes that are in my fridge and chucking them at both the construction crew and the teenagers, but then realized I probably didn't want to deal with the resulting retaliation. So I just trudged back to bed and pulled my pillow over my head. This partially blocked out the kids, but not the hammering and drilling, which came through the wall. Oh well, can't win 'em all, so they say.

I don't know what time the noise finally stopped, but I do know that it had started up as usual at 7 this morning, so I dragged myself out of bed and into my running shoes and forced myself to run around the neighborhood for a while. It was painful, but at least I was away from the construction!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I almost feel sorry about you, but now imagine the same shit for a year and then you have more less my experience in BCN. The worse thing is that these assholes just hired 5 guys for a job that could be easily done in a month by 15 guys and at a cheaper price, but I guess these guys didn't make a proper cost analysis.
I suggest throwing some bricks to the teenagers so then they think that were thrown by the workers and after some minutes you have all them dead and then you can finally go to bed, at least until the police sirens shows up in the scene. But for sure they will have to stop working for a few days.

Anonymous said...

I guess this guy wasn’t very domesticated either.
This blog had turned a bit wild and showing new faces of our beloved “Noellie”

Anonymous said...

Hey Noelle,

hang in there, you'll get used to it :)

Let us know how's your internship going. Is it what you expected? How professional things are?

NoellieBellie said...

The internship is going well. I don't want to post too much about it since I wouldn't do that for a "real" job either, but I'll say that working in an ad agency here seems to be like working in an ad agency anywhere, from what I've seen. Except everyone is speaking Romanian. And yes, extremely professional. It's a very cool place.

Anonymous said...

Have you prepare anything for this weekend? Anybody visiting?

Lyndsey Medora said...

Well Noelle, you seem to have missed domestication lesson #467.01:

Never stay home when jackhammers prevent you from enjoying the fruits of your domestic labors.

And probably also lesson #1:

Leave the headache producing labors to your domestic slaves (maid, gigalo, or whoever is willing or owes you favors) and proceed only with domestic activities that:

A) fill your stomach
B) impress your ____ (you fill in the blank with an important person)
C) make sitting at home in your underwear more enjoyable*

*However, always refer back to lesson 467.01.

NoellieBellie said...

This weekend I'm headed out for a shoot... more on that to come!