I didn't notify people that my weblog had been updated after Christmas, so be sure to look at the archive if you are interested! Check out the NEW photo gallery pages, too.
It was great to be with my gazda (host) family in Ploiesti for the Christmas season. They are so good to me and I really enjoy them. I passed up their offer of a road trip to Sighisoara (a beautiful city I've been dying to visit) to come back to attend an agency meeting that wasn't very nice so I wish I had stayed. But on the train returning to Targu Jiu I met a young woman who is one of the handful of astrophysicists in Romania. You can count the Romanian cosmologists on the fingers of one hand, so serendipity stepped in again and gave me a remarkable experience and hopefully a new friend. I'm glad Ana said I could use her picture. Many of my most treasured relationships in this country have been sparked by sheer coincidence.
I stayed home on New Year's Eve and watched movies, toasted the new year with a glass of wine at midnight. I prefer a lowkey celebration, since staying out all night isn't for me now, actually it never was. It seems like the perfect time to reflect on the year and think about what might come in the future. I like the idea of re-evaluating how my life is going and whether I am doing what I want and enjoying it, maybe see what I might do differently. I always expect some sort of brilliant epiphany or insight, but it never comes and bonks me on the head when I'm waiting for it. I have had lightning bolts of inspiration and flashes of second sight into future opportunities, but they come unexpectly and are always unsettling. I spent the last few days in my apartment, and finally had time to sort photographs, write a bit and work on the computer. I'm getting ready to start reading some of the books that have been sent to me (thanks, Lucy!).
It's been cold and icy outside, sometimes even with thick fog that looks and feels just like ice fog in Fairbanks. The icicles on my drying rack were getting long and dangerous, so my upstairs neighbor came and knocked them off for me so they wouldn't fall and hurt someone, or ding the cars parked under my window. It's almost too slippery to be out walking, and I'm nervous about falling again. A vacation to somewhere warm really sounds good right now, and my friends in Alaska are doing just that. But here I am, shivering in the freezing cold. At least my apartment has central heating, many people here are almost as cold indoors as it is outside.
My dear old friend Irene sent me a five-page handwritten letter, along with yet another envelope full of news clippings and hilariously funny stories. It really brightens my day when I get something in the mail, so thanks!
Photos: The old men still play chess in the cold! Cici with me at the train station. The Christmas market. Ruff with his Christmas stash of bones. The holiday table. Filling up the wine bottle in the cellar.
Anna the astrophysicist