going barefoot: my quarter-century

Astazi este ziu mea! Fac doua si cinci, 25.

Well, today was my birthday. The thing about being overseas is that your birthday kind of lasts two days. All the emails and facebook messages come in waves, first from the people in your time zone, then later from all the folks back in North America. It's not a bad deal, really.

In addition to humming John Mayer's "Georgia" all day ("might be a quarter-life crisis, or just a stirring in my soul"), here's how I spent my 25th birthday. In my opinion this was a perfect day full of almost all the things I love, minus a few people who wouldn't fit in the mailbox.

I got up and made some strong coffee, which my roommate still insists is "slaba," too weak. In any case, thanks to our Fall break from school this week, I sipped at a leisurely pace while I spent a little time with Jesus talking about how old I am and how I need to get my life together kind of soon. I topped off a second cup with a few chapters of Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris to help me get in the mood for our girls' trip there next week, then washed my hair AND shaved my legs -- yes, on the same day. All the ladies will appreciate the significance of that.

After helping Bunică shred some pumpkin for pies, I went for a nice stroll in the perfect Autumn weather. While out and about, I sat on a bench in front of this awesome green door and had a phone interview with the newspaper about the elections and my birthday.

green is my favorite color

You can find the news article by clicking here, but of course it's in Romanian. Basically it says that the election is on my birthday this year, I voted a month ago through the absentee voting procedure, and it was a difficult choice but I voted for _____. (Guess you'll have to read the article to find out!) The reporter didn't use anything I actually said in the interview, but the only thing that's incorrect is that I'm not from Atlanta and I'm 25, not 24. Wow, I'm 25. That kind of sounds weird.

not a bad view to see every morning and afternoon

After my nice introvert-friendly day, the real celebration started. In Romania, having a birthday means people come to tell you "La mulți ani! May God give you all that your heart desires." and kiss you on the cheek. Actually, what you do is first touch your left cheeks together, then the right, so it's not an actual kiss. This is the typical way of greeting someone you haven't seen in awhile or who is celebrating a special occasion. Awkward, right? Yeah, believe me, I've botched it up a few times. It's worth practicing on someone safe before you try it in public.

After eating chili and Jiffy cornbread for dinner, I received my guests for a few hours and munched on homemade pumpkin pie, Romanian chocolate candy from my Romanian friends, and chocolate iced brownies from the other Americans. After they left I finished the day by watching my new celebrity crush on the singing competition "Vocea Romaniei" (The Voice of Romania). I like his hair.