Romanian trends / realities

This weekend we drove around a lot so I got to notice some interesting "cultural
happenings":

1. Road/highway-side picnicking - lots of people pull up by the side of the road wherever there is a small clearing and have a barbecue there. And before you say, yeah yeah, these are the classical Romanian grill-makers [notice i said picnic] I will tell you they were 20-ish, driving SUVs and drinking Red Bull. Weirdly enough, I think we might be witnessing a mainstreaming/high ending of the much berated grills.

2. Healthy advertising - the buildings where I live are plastered with pictures of fruit and veg. ALL ADS feature a reference to healthy food including the totem from a nearby McD which has been redecorated with pictures of veggies. In stark contrast to this ...

3. Midnight snacking - vendors at my local Shaorma place tell me they have seen a rise in young women, coming back from clubs and stopping over for a quick sandwich. In the US they would do this at the IHop (international house of pancakes) and yes, I do talk to the Shaorma guys.

4. Minimalist suburbia - you want to live in a house not a flat so you decide to get loans you have to pay for the rest of your life and make one. Trouble is there is not much money left for anything else like nice furniture or a garden so you live on mattresses and leave your walls unpainted until he gets that raise.

5. Mall-apathy - you drive to the mall, struggle to find a parking spot only to lounge around and not really visit any shop or buy anything.

hmmmm, this only says to me that young people have no clue their parents are running out of money and the parents-to-be have finally sensed the bitter smell of incoming hard times [as Serban nicely said it in his presentation here]