We had a crew of Romanians over here a few nights ago to complement the set that we already have, and it further convinced me that I am going to be a complete wreck when I get over to Romania. I cannot speak Romanian whatsoever, and what's more, show no natural ability to learn the language. I mean, six years of Spanish already taught me that my natural linguistic talents are... well... lacking - oh, why bother to be polite about it! I can't speak Spanish! I never could! And I'm even worse now, and I'm trying to pick up some rudiments of Romanian based off of my understanding of the Spanish language. So you see what kind of downfall I'm looking at here. I'm destined to be that hapless traveller who spends three hours at each border, attempting to communicate through a lot through arm-waving and shouting very slowly in English. And I'm already that effortless linguist who finds what he wants to say in the phrase book, is incapable of understandably pronouncing the Romanian, even though it is written phonetically in the phrase book, and must resort to pointing to the entry in the phrase book so they can read it themselves. The world is my oyster.
While we're on the subject, I've also decided that my spare time in Romania will, to a large extent, be spent writing several short screenplays. That way, I'm able to spend a good deal of time working on each script, so that I can strengthen each one, spend some time away from them, and then come back and edit them with fresh eyes later. That's a luxury I've never had when shooting during the school year, and I think that the effort should do me some good. Even if I only get one finished - that's a huge head start once I get to Los Angeles.
By the way, I got a job - I'll be working for a banqueting company. More details as time goes by.