I came back from a vacation that we spent in Romania and this would be a summary of my impressions:
Now that I think about it I don’t really care about these impressions anymore, therefore this post is erased.

Thanks for the interest!!

The great tenor passed away on September 6 2007. A sad day…

Dacă vi se pare că nu-i aşa, luaţi-vă o zi de concediu şi aşezaţi-vă, preţ de cîteva ore, pe o bancă din centrul unui oraş în care nu vă cunoaşte nimeni. Lăsaţi acasă telefonul mobil, nu vă cumpăraţi ziare şi ţineţi ochii larg deschişi privind lumea din jur. La început e greu, aproape imposibil, apoi, uşor-uşor, o veţi simţi din ce în ce mai aproape. Vă va curge prin vene, vă va face să redescoperiţi mirosuri din copilărie şi sunete uitate.

Robert Turcescu.

O ultimă amintire: sîntem în centru, la o terasă de pe lîngă Inter, bem bere la halbă, eu am vreo 22 de ani, el vreo 28 şi plănuim să mergem undeva în munţi. Sîntem ex­trem de serioşi, stabilim traseul (mai era şi un al treilea

cu noi, nu mai ştiu cine), logistica, deşi ştiu prea bine__

şi ştie şi el probabil — că noi doi n-o să plecăm nicioda­tă împreună undeva, că sîntem total incompatibili, că eu voi fi mereu complexat de inteligenţa şi forţa lui, iar el plictisit de veşnicele mele tăceri. Dar stăm cu capetele aplecate asupra unei hărţi, şi deasupra noastră fîlfîie în vînt copertina de la Societe Generale, şi e un soare puter­nic de primăvară, şi noi sîntem încă foarte tineri.

“Marele Mircea” de Mircea Cartarescu.

Une des blogues les plus connus dans le 514 vient de s’éteindre. C’est dommage, il etait un de mes favorits.

A Romanian wave spent over Cannes this year:
Cristian Mungiu got the Palme d’Or and Cristian Nemescu (may he rest in peace) won the Un certain regard prize.
Congratulations and keep up the good work!!!!

For some time me and my wife have been talking about the possibility of returning to our home country, Romania. It would be nice to be in Romania (I’m not using the expression “back home” because I have been living here for such a long time I don’t think I can call Romania home) and the high demand for IT professionals would raise the odds considerably for both of us. We have been talking about it for a while now and in a certain way we have started preparing for this. Except that it is starting to take on a weird feeling…
This weekend I talked to a friend of mine from Romania and I was surprised to find him happy (I know, it sounds horrible to be surprised by people being happy, but in that part of the world happiness is the exception to the rule). Things were going pretty well for him, to the point where he brought up the possibility of returning, after congratulating me for 15 years for leaving the country.
Things are going well over there. My friend spent quite a lot of time to tell me about the 9-figure investment by a major European corporation into Romania, about how everything is changing, how the dinosaurs so far in control of the country will be obsolete, etc… All very nice.

Except that right now I get the feeling that moving over there right now is buying shares in a bull-market. Not a comfortable feeling…

All is quiet on new years day,
A world in white gets underway.

I’ll take a break from writing over here. I’m pretty busy and I don’t get much sleep, all this adds up. I’ll get back to writing somewhat later, when I’ll have more time.