This year, I walked through more grief than I thought I could handle. There were many moments when I was sure I would break. Sometimes I still feel like I might. This was not a year of gentle transition or peaceful endings. It was a year that felt cruel. I willingly left an ecosystem I loved more dearly than I had ever loved anything. I left a life that had grown thick with meaning and texture. I miss my dog and my old cat Hector with an ache that doesn’t leave. I miss feedin

When Eating Together Was Survival For most of human history, eating together was not symbolic. It was practical. Anthropologists use the term commensality  to describe shared eating, but communities did not need language to understand its function. Survival depended on it. Winters were long. Harvests were uncertain. People relied on one another not because they shared beliefs, but because isolation was not an option. The shared table functioned as social infrastructure. It cr

Immigration is often framed as a decisive break, the before and the after, but that framing hasn't matched my lived reality. What I have experienced instead is a long, unsettled middle. An experience where one foot remains planted in what I lost (or still attempting to untangle from), while the other figures out how to step into a life that is still forming. This in-between space is not dramatic or cinematic. It is quiet, demanding, and persistent. It follows me through ordin

People often ask how I ended up in Romania, and I have trouble finding the words because my brain is flooded with all the reasons . There isn't one main reason or one moment that decided our direction. It was a long process of research, noticing what felt solid and what kind of future felt possible. Romania revealed its welcoming charm and promise of a dream through a lot of curiosity and thorough questioning. A Landscape That Felt Familiar Before It Felt Foreign The Carpathi

When Winter Breaks Open There is a kind of quiet in northeastern Romania that feels older than anything else around it—a winter hush thick enough to swallow sound. And then, as the year tilts toward its end, that stillness cracks with a distinct Romanian beat. Drums thunder in the air, bells shiver, and the whole village wakes as the Bear Dance pushes through the streets like weather rolling in from another age. People often describe the first sight of it as massive brown hid

There are cities that decorate for Christmas, and then there is Brașov — a place that seems to exhale winter enchantment from its medieval soul. As December settles over the Carpathians, the old town begins its transformation. Lights unfurl across rooftops, garlands drape between centuries-old walls, and the entire landscape takes on the soft glow of a fairytale. Romanians put serious, loving effort into creating a festive world, and you can feel that intention in every illum

When College Stops Feeling Like an Option In the United States, higher education is supposed to ignite our passion for deeper learning, potential, and possibility. For many people, it feels more like a locked gate with a price tag hanging off the handle. Families watch tuition climb into numbers that would once have bought two houses. Students do the math and realize they are being asked to mortgage their entire future before it has even begun. Quietly, a lot of people simply

Romania stands at a cultural crossroads — modern in law, traditional in spirit, and still deciding which part of itself will define the future. The Contradiction at the Heart of Modern Romania At first glance, Romania seems firmly part of the European modern project. It is a member of the European Union, bound by human-rights conventions, and home to a young generation that travels, studies, and works across a continent that increasingly values equality. Yet beneath that Euro

Every city and village in Romania seems to be charmed with the presence of cats. They stretch across sunlit steps, curl up on cafe chairs, and nap on cobblestones as if they own the streets. Here, cats exist in a shared space between domestic and wild, beloved and free. They are not seen as pests. They are accepted, fed, and adored by nearly everyone. When you walk down a Romanian street, you’ll see bowls of food left under park benches, tiny shelters tucked beside apartment

When autumn arrives in Transylvania, the air grows sharp and metallic, and the forests shed their color until only the stone of the mountains seems alive. Smoke rises from the first hearth fires, curling above tiled roofs and lingering with its sweet scent in the cold. In the West, this is the season of Halloween I am familiar with - a celebration of ghosts, costumes, and death. In Romania, the same chill carries something older. There are no pumpkin lanterns or suburban tric

Before the word “vampire” ever reached Western Europe and long before Bram Stoker turned Transylvania into a gothic legend, Romanians were already telling stories about the strigoi — spirits that slipped between the worlds of the living and the dead. These were not imagined monsters from distant castles but familiar faces: neighbors, relatives, and townspeople whose souls could not find rest. In traditional belief, a strigoi was not born from evil so much as imbalance. It was

The Keeper of the Flame In every culture, there are keepers of the flame—those who carry the memory of a people across generations, adapting it to new languages, new screens, and new worlds. In Romania, one of those keepers is Corneliu Țepeluș, a filmmaker, storyteller, and cultural ambassador whose life has been shaped by the timeless human pursuit of immortality—not the kind that denies death, but the kind that ensures meaning endures. His work bridges the mystical and the

If you’re carrying U.S. student loan debt and dreaming of a life abroad, you probably feel overwhelmed by the idea of carrying your debt burden into your new life. For many, the burden of student loans feels like a locked gate, barring access to the kind of life they long. It’s common to feel torn between settling financial obligations and following the deep call to build a life that actually feels like home. The prevailing message in American financial culture is this: pay o

In the heart of Brașov’s old town, framed by the Carpathian foothills, stands a monument that has watched over centuries of change: wars, fires, reformations, and rebirth. Locals call it Biserica Neagră — The Black Church. Its stone walls rise like memory itself, weathered and immovable, carrying the spirit of a people who refused to vanish. A Church Born of the Saxons Construction of the Black Church began around 1380, when Brașov, known then as Kronstadt, was one of the mos

Most foreigners arrive in Romania with a D-type long-stay visa in their passport. They’ve spent months preparing paperwork, mailing apostilled documents overseas, waiting for consulate appointments, and hoping they’ve understood everything correctly. What many don’t realize is that there is another way for U.S. citizens and other visa-exempt nationals. You can enter Romania under the standard 90-day visa-free allowance and apply directly for residency from within the country,

Once you realize that life abroad is possible, not just for the wealthy, not just for the lucky — then the next question naturally is: How do I make it real? Money is often the last wall standing between people and their freedom choice. Not because they don’t have enough, but because they’ve never really seen how far what they do have can go. The moment relocation becomes a tangible option, it stops being a fantasy. The next step is to break it down into real numbers. It's no

Walk through any Transylvanian town and you’ll find echoes of another world such as fortified churches, cobbled squares, pastel guild houses, Latin inscriptions, and names like Kronstadt, Hermannstadt, and Schäßburg. These are traces of the Transylvanian Saxons, the German settlers who came nearly nine centuries ago and shaped the cultural heart of the region. Arrival of the Saxons The story begins in the 12th century, when the Hungarian kings invited German colonists to sett

Many Americans grow up believing the United States is the safest place on earth. We picture flashing sirens, neighborhood watch signs, and the comfort of knowing that law and order are part of who we are. And we grow up assuming that many far away countries are dangerous, corrupt, and unpredictable. But as I started learning about Romania, I found the truth is practically the opposite. When you compare the numbers and the everyday lived experience, Romania is statistically sa

If you’re living in the United States on $2,000–$4,000 a month, you know that it’s barely enough to get by in America. You’ve felt the tightness of rent swallowing half your paycheck, groceries that double in price without warning, and a sense that no matter how carefully you plan, one unexpected bill could break everything. But here’s what most people don’t realize: that same income, which leaves you gasping for air in the U.S., can stretch in much of Eastern Europe. The sam

In Transylvania, as November dies and winter gathers on the hills, there comes a night when the old beliefs stir again. Between November 29 and 30, the feast of Saint Andrew, the veil between worlds is said to thin. It is a time when wolves speak, spirits wander, and villagers once guarded their homes with garlic and prayer. Known as Noaptea Sfântului Andrei, this night marks one of Romania’s most mysterious folk observances, a blend of Christian feast and pre-Christian ritua