Bucureşti & La Gradinita Rasarit

I was in Bucureşti Tue afternoon through Thursday afternoon (11.09.12-13.09.12). I helped out at the Gradinita Rasarit (kindergarten) of the NGO Amurtel during that time. It worked out since I don't know the language--I got counting & color & animal vocabulary lessons (figuring out how to say  "what is it?" was my first order of business wed) from the kindergartners though. I was swinging two of the 5 yr old girls on the swings & one was telling me all these things. I said a lot of "wow!" & "da?" (yes?) and had no idea what she was talking about. But they were unfazed. :) And I had an English/Romanian tea party tue w/ an adorable 8yr old (I thought "gata" meant cake the whole time. Since it's gateau in french. But then I found out that really she was telling me her stone soup/dishes were "finished/ready". Haha). So the kindergarten was fun. Wednesday I saw some landmarks and the city centre...Bucharest is such a mix--on one hand there's old elegant architecture, but then some of it is crumbling & then next door is a completely different kind of architecture (art deco, art nouveau, roman/Germanic architecture, all tossed in together) & then there's a huge shopping mall w/ McDonald's & H&M & Zara, but closed, abandoned-looking storefronts down the block & a few blocks away are box-like apartment buildings.  It's certainly a different feel than where I've been before, though some things remind me of Spain a bit (though not as bright & shiny). It's more subdued than Western Europe and certainly looks much less prosperous overall. There doesn't seem to be quite as much of the drastic economical differences between the people that one sees in NYC and Paris, for example. I'm sure they exist, but I think the gap is smaller. At least that's the impression I received from being in the city for a few days. However the wide boulevards do lend a certain wide-open sophistication to the city (this is true, but amplified when coming from NYC), despite the crumbling storefronts dotted throughout.