Now that there aren’t people on three continents tapping their feet and looking at their watches, waiting for me to turn in my LP manuscripts, I’ve gone about the task of re-training my body to sleep past 7:30am. It wasn’t easy, but after a solid week of staying up until…

You know, the supposed ‘culture shock bell-curve’ is a bunch off ca-ca.  Some weeks it feels more like the ‘culture shock perfect storm’.  I’ve suffered another overpowering wave of pessimism recently.  Some of you may have noticed that I have a streaky love-hate relationship with my second home and I’ve…

The latest flip-flop in the Romanian bird flu issue says that there is indeed bird flu here!  They found it in a factory in Brasov!  Swear to god this time!!!  We are all being warned not to eat any chicken from this factory, but how are you supposed to know…

Last fall I was a staunch supporter of Romania’s 2007 entry into the EU, mostly because they could clearly benefit from the resultant stability and I wanted my friends here who are sporting hard-won university degrees and toiling away at shit jobs for 170 euros a month to have the…

Anyone reading this blog from beginning to end all in one go might notice that my attitude toward Romanian drivers, authorities and postal employees is hovering dangerously close to racist. And they’d be right. On a side note, anyone reading this blog from start to finish in one sitting should…

Don’t worry LP editor!  I’m not leaving for a couple months, but I have already started to line up some freelance work and travel for the summer and I’m beginning to realize all the things I’ll miss about being here.  Off the top of my head… Nice people:  If you…

Best big city:  Timisoara Timisoara is how all big Romanian cities should and hopefully will be.  It’s trendy, cosmopolitan, full of great museums and sights of tourist interest, excellent restaurant/bars/clubs that were simply too numerous for me to note for the book and run by an organized, competent and proud…

I’ve been back for three days and am just now feeling coherent enough to post. If you’re just joining us, this previous trip, the longest leg of my road research, was tough. I knew it wouldn’t be a cakewalk, but I didn’t expect it to test the limits of my…

The longest leg of my road research kicks off tomorrow.  I think.  There’s a chance Mother Nature isn’t finished with me yet.  After four days of aggressive snow melting, we were 90% free from the drifts that had pile up over the course of three snow storms the week before. …

I got a sobering lesson on how secure my car and its contents aren’t last night. A friend of a friend was over, who also owns a Dacia 1310. He recently lost or broke the key to his trunk and needed to get something out of it, so he asked…