Romanian culture doesn’t tend to be very kind to deviations from the norm, so for many people, T5 is a place where they can go to let loose a bit. Not in the partying sense, but in the sense of free expression.

Last Halloween (which was also my first major holiday outside of the United States) was a great example of T5’s status as a sort of safe harbor for people to be who they want to be. We had party games, a pumpkin carving contest, a costume contest, and a karaoke party.

Simon, a 50-something year old Brit who married a Romanian woman and who now lives in Bucharest, won the costume contest as Bender from Futurama.