The last days of September were a busy time in Viștea de jos. We started off with a couple of day trips to Brașov and the ASTRA village museum near Sibiu. The ASTRA museum is an open air museum which showcases traditional Romanian houses, churches, workshops, and other buildings from
When I was young, Santa Cruz was just a sleepy little surf town with a population somewhere between 30 and 40 thousand. That means it wasn't significantly larger than Făgăraș (population 34K) is today. There's something very charming about Făgăraș (pronounced fuh-guh-rash) with its
After 30 years of waiting, my sister finally visited Romania. In all fairness to her, she's not a long-distance traveling enthusiast, and as anyone who's ever traveled to Eastern Europe knows, there is no quick and easy way to get here. So I understand why
As if last week's work of jarring food and cleaning Silviu's kitchen wasn't enough, we also built the greenhouse. So that it doesn't sound too dramatic, I should say that about a month ago a crew came and laid the foundation so
Before each trip to Craiova, we eat all of the fruits and vegetables in the kitchen so we don't return home to bunch of spoiled food. Since the south of the country grows especially tasty produce, on the drive back home we stop at the roadside stands to
When the Gogosanus were in Romania last summer, they went to Alba Iulia and recommended it to us. Despite it being only 40 minutes northwest of Sibiu, neither Mihai nor I had ever been, but Stephanie and Joe's visit seemed like the perfect opportunity, so one rainy Tuesday
Last week, instead of bemoaning the idiosyncrasies of the American school system, I should have properly introduced Stephanie and Joe, which I will do now. Here is the backstory in a nutshell, one week late. The friendship between Mihai and Stephanie goes back to 1994 when they worked together at
"Let August be August." * When America began sending kids back to school before Labor Day, that was my reaction: let August be August. The summer is only just past its peak, and it feels unnatural and somewhat cruel to put children in classrooms when autumn is still so
August has arrived in Obedin with a vengeance. To be clear, August in Craiova is always hot, but the dogs of Obedin manage to take it to a whole other level of misery. To escape the heat, they sleep, and when dogs sleep all day, they've got nothing
Last month as we sat on the patio, resting our sore muscles from hours of wood chopping, Marian looked around and said, "This house is missing a dog." I understood exactly what he meant and in theory I agree—a dog would be a wonderful addition. But on
Before the world was bloated with transport trucks, trains, and airplanes, everything humans ate was locally sourced. Thousands of scientific studies, plus our own common sense, has taught us that sourcing locally is a pretty good deal for both our bodies and the planet. While I know that winter will
The evening before we left for Craiova, we had Nicu* and his family over for dinner. They were officially our first guests which seems hard to believe since we've been here almost three months. While I don't believe in the notion that a house must be