Prologue
In the Carpathians, there now lives an immigrant. You know this, because for the past five years, I’ve told everyone I’ve ever met.
“We’re moving to Romania again,” I’ve said, “but this time we’ll be in Viștea de Jos.”
And here we are.
You’ll have noticed that this is not Zike-bike Diaries. The reason I decided to change things up is because, well, things have changed. It’s just Mihai and I now, no kids. Said kids are no longer kids, they’re grown adults, married and living their lives independently of their parents which is the sort of development I tell myself is good and healthy even as I occasionally cry over it.
Also, we’re no longer in Obedin, we’re in Transylvania now. We’re no longer in Pia’s multi-storied dream home with the fountain and enormous strawberry patch, there’s no Alex and Nicolina across the street, no myriad of dogs and cats wandering about as they please. It’s still village life, but there’s a different vibe up here at the base of the Carpathian mountains.
Here it’s just a big, empty place which needs to be furnished, decorated, and landscaped. It’s a house that needs to become and home so we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, some of which I plan on documenting, along with whatever traveling we do, and whatever interesting things occur (which might not be much as I hope to live the boring life of my dreams.)
But first, I have to take a moment to look back at the joyous, touching, chaotic moments of the last weeks I spent in California with those beloved to me, most of whom will be reading this. I have two messages for you all: I love you so much.
Also, please come and visit and don’t be losers like you were last time.
From small dinners to giant chili cook-offs, from lunches at the factory to "team-building" container packing, from the last book clubs to the Memorial, from trips to Grass Valley to the Kwan/Gogosanu/Ionescu crab feed, from the last first aid shift to the last mid-week meeting, we crammed 90% of that in the weeks between February and April. And yet unfortunately, in spite of my best intentions, I somehow wasn't able to get together with everyone before we left which just means you're at the top of my list when we come back to visit.
