Smoke and Mirrors aka RATB

Recommended tune while reading the post: System of a Down - Toxicity

Now I lived to see this. A foreigner actually came to do some research on an aspect of modern day Romania city life. He said he was a student himself which I find hard to believe since he looked 40 and he was doing a study about the the city's transportation system and, oddly, on the presence and influence of mobile phones and the Internet ( I have no idea what the correlation is but if someone is a sociology major, maybe he or she can explain it better). He was kind, polite and mannered and he seemed very thankful that he found a couple of younger people (for I wasn't alone) who agreed to speak to him since no one over 35 would. I wonder why...
He was in for a psychological ride alright.

The mini-interview/discussion/him looking at us like the Holy Ghost when we actually displayed some foreign language affinity and even some interesting ideas, began with questions about the transportation system. Which sucks infernal ass of course since this whole city is built wrong and over-centralized which leads to hellish traffic and overcrowded buses. Not to mention that the metro system just pretty much circles around the center districts. He found the answer satisfactory and proceeded to ask about mobile phones and Internet to which we replied that we're pretty much all wired up over here and in the better part of the cities as well. He found this development surprisingly fast as he was dumbstruck to find free wireless Internet access the second he got into the hotel room. I find it natural.

The true gem of the discussion showed itself after we disclosed that we were political science students. Then the sociological poll aspect was set aside in favor of a deeper discussion about the country at large and it's general development. He found my pessimism (which I like to call extreme realism) a little disheartening especially after I told him that we would have to go through about 3 generations for the "old and dark" influences to fade completely. He seemed to find our characters hopeful enough though and the "Hellenic Angel" by my side kind of reassured him, as she didn't share my quasi-negative outlook, thankfully.

All in all it was a pretty interesting discussion and we left the Dane to seek out more young minds to probe.

Hmm... a 40 year old Dane "student" doing research about Bucharest's public transportation system and mobile phones? Please.

I wonder what he's really doing here...