romania 1.1.

I’m catching my breath.

Around me? Construction work, traffic, a setting sun, people hurrying, the sound of an emphatic language that allows for smiles on special occasions, warm heavy air.

Romania? Construction work, trains, free-roaming hens and roosters, waiting, creative line-ups (of varying widths with mysterious and ingenious ways of cutting in, complicity and rancour), waiting some more, mountains and forests that I’d once seen in a dream, trains with personality, corn and sunflower fields, broad skies, poverty and abundance looking at each other across the street.

From a socioeconomicpolitical point of view, Romania is trying to forget bad dreams of a grey socialism by drinking capitalism in abundance. Pepsi and coca-cola fight one another one corner store at a time. Youths in the city dream of Europe, sometimes as a fait-accompli.

From a human point of view, Romania is simply beautiful. It’s beautiful in the faces of the people on the street and in the fields: gypsies with sun on their skin and long and dark eyelashes - Slavic strong lines and clear irises. It’s beautiful in its cities with hurried movements. It’s beautiful in its forests of wind and green.

Today, I’m catching my breath.