Expat In Romania

Gotta be honest here, a 5-month break wasn't what I expected when I wrote about Untold Festival back in August. There are plenty of reasons I haven't been writing, but as I list them off, I can see that none are particularly good... Work - Yeah, everyone works Felt like doing other stuff - Don't we all Ran out of things to write about - No I didn't A little bit blasé about my Romanian life - Welcome to any life It does seem we're at the cusp of something, and maybe I just don't know quite what it is nor how to approach it. Maybe it's not "we", and it's just me, but I doubt it - we're all in this together. 2016 was weird for everyone. In spite of the absence I didn't feel all that disconnected from my Romania blogging. Email has come in fairy regularly from blog readers, and -although I'm hardly going crazy with it - I've been keeping my Instagram updated with Romania themed images. But, this absence has been nagging ...

I enjoy getting emails from readers of the blog. It always leads to interesting discussions. Seriously, drop me a line anytime, that's why my email address is on the sidebar. One particular reader, (Cris T) and I had an interesting exchange recently. The observations resonated with me and I enjoyed our discussion so much I asked if I could post it here. It's edited for length and clarity, and has my own comments interjected throughout, but it should work. The theme is Kitsch , that universal anti-quality of parvenus and superficial people everywhere. We got to the topic in a roundabout manner, first starting at 'Romanian envy' ("Sa moara capra vecinului") and moving to consumerism along the way, but essentially, it came to this discussion... (Me) I find kitsch to be a central theme in Romania. I look at interior design, home decor, and the kind of stuff a lot of people put value on. It's strange how a consumerist society like Romania has still ...