The Larger Family Unit

The lack of emotional security of our American young people is due, I believe, to their isolation from the larger family unit.  No two people - no mere father and mother - as I have often said, are enough to provide emotional security for a child.  He needs to feel himself one in a world of kinfolk, persons of variety in age and temperament, and yet allied to himself by an indissoluble bond which he cannot break if he could, for nature has welded him into it before he was born.  ~Pearl S. Buck

Did I already mention that we met  up with my cousin Tali in Budapest?  A series of fortunate events took place and made this all possible.  I hadn't seen her in five or six years and when we found out we were all going to be in Europe at the same time, well...

It's great to travel and see new things and try new food and all of that but when you do it in the company of those whom you especially love, its just that much more marvelous.  So here we are: Dan, Marcy, Tali and Anand (no, not Johnny Depp) being drug all over Transylvania by the Traveling Ionescus (plus Silviu) and for the most part, having a ball (I think. I hope).
And by the way, I've discovered I am far less adept at taking decent photos of people than I am of buildings which tend not to move or stuff food in their mouths at just the wrong moment so, er, sorry.

Silviu wondering to himself why he ever agreed to be the extra driver in the second car...

Ye gotta git yorself some ceramic busts...

Heading to the river for an afternoon of swimming and relaxing.  It was a nice break from driving and traveling.

Someone turned 13 while we were in Sighisoara.  A teenager and he's not ashamed to be seen with us yet.

Tali and Anand are off for a great adventure in India and elsewhere.  I definitely think they should do a blog, don't you?

Transylvania Sighişoara

Dracula Is Not the President of Romania.
I saw that on a t-shirt once and it made me laugh.  But just for the record, he's not.  And just for the record, Vlad Ţepeş, the 15th-century Wallachian ruler, was the figure upon which Bram Stoker apparently based his nefarious, blood-sucking character when he wrote his book.  And just for the record, the grandfather of Vlad Ţepeş was Mircea Cel Bătrân. And that concludes the history portion.  Don't expect any more from me because I'm not that cerebral.  I don't try to learn anything when I travel, I just eat and take pictures of the pretty things I see.
You want cerebral, read a book.
But let's face it: if you go to Transylvania, you can't get around the whole Dracula thing.  You'll find the image of Vlad Ţepeş on coffee mugs and key chains, on dinner plates and playing cards and any other item that can be ruined by the cheesy practice of copying that rather unattractive face onto it.  The idea of seeing his beady-eyed representation while taking my first sips of morning coffee does not seem a pleasant prospect.  And I'm sure the idea of his likeness showing up on a refrigerator magnet is enough to make Vlad Ţepeş roll over in his grave. Except that he's not rolling or do anything else of course because he's dead (really, he's dead) and neither he nor Bram Stoker have any idea the kind of kitsch the rest of us 21st century folk are subjected to on their account.
As far as possible, this post is Sighişoara, birth place of Vlad Ţepeş, sans kitsch.
You're welcome.

Mulţumim

So my parents are here.
If I celebrated Christmas then I guess their arrival would have been just like Christmas in September.  But I don't so it wasn't.  It was just like my mom and dad coming with a lot of suitcases filled with stuff for us, around which they had tucked their underwear and socks.  Who needs to observe the Feast of Saturnalia with pine trees in the living room when you can have this instead?
They brought books in English for me and new shoes for the boys.  They brought us unscented lotion and vegetable peelers that function properly.

They brought us coffee from Tony

And music books from Winn

We celebrated their first night by opening a bottle of Italian wine from a case that Sorin brought two weeks ago when he, Ioana, Paul and Sergio visited.  I saved some for just this moment so that I could drink it with my dad.

We got a super cool package from Mia and Carlo and Michael and Lisa and now we have our first fly swatter and the kids got a "taste" of Santa Cruz that they had been missing.

And Luci gets to wake up in the morning and say "I'm going downstairs to see my grandma."

Mostly what we got was the warm fuzzy feeling that doesn't come from the tangible but rather from the knowledge that we've got a great set of friends and we are fortunate to have them in our lives even if they don't come to visit us like they promised.
But really, thanks guys.
We're stoked.