Author: Conrad
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Our Real Vacation
Though it only lasted three hours, our short stint in Munich during a layover on the way back to the States was sweet and relaxing. We arrived at Marienplatz just as the shops were opening and there were few people. The air was brisk, but we warmed up walking to the coffee shop, and then…
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Last day picture montage
“You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” —Margaret Thatcher We’re sad to be leaving, but we’ve gotten so much done in the past two weeks that we feel we’ll be comfortable on our next return home. We agree that this trip was best spent running around and preparing the…
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Second–to–Last
It is now the last day here. We have only minimal obligations—thankfully—due to our diligent–but–hectic schedule. Vio has one appointment and I need to pick up a few things for the return (along with cleaning the apartment), but otherwise, today should be relatively relaxed. Yesterday however, was nuts. It was the only day that we…
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Reflections
As this trip nears its inevitable end, I can’t help but dwell on the things that didn’t happen. We didn’t make much personal progress on the adoption process, we never had time to even visit an orphanage; the kitchen isn’t finished, we didn’t really relax, etc. But as I reflect on these things, I realize…
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Old friends
Despite all of the new friends we are making (even the human ones), our old friends are what really make this city home. We are eternally indebted to them for welcoming us into this crazy chapter and making themselves available to us while we scamper about, trying to set things up. Vio’s brother, Dan, has…
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New Friends
Our third day in Cluj took us all over the city, mostly walking. Thankfully my calves are starting to warm up to constant motion. I feel that they’ve partially atrophied in the past six months only walking to and from the car and sitting all day. We found a great little boutique in one of…
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First day in the apartment
Well we survived the first night, and now we’re into the morning of the first day. Yesterday we went out and bought a new mattress and some pillows so that we wouldn’t be sleeping on the floor, and they were quite comfortable. The building we’re in has central heating (very uncommon in Romania) so we…
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Zelda’s Books
One of my favorite projects here in Cluj has been supporting a program called Zelda’s Books. It’s the brainchild of a close friend of ours that works as an after school program to teach kids how to read English. We weren’t able to stay to read to the kids this day, but we were able…
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…in true Altmann fashion
Things we forgot: • Vio’s jeans • Conrad’s belt • Conrad’s laptop charger But we did bring a crockpot… Well, it’s been less than 12 hours of arriving (including sleeping) and we’ve closed on our first apartment. Given, we had done some research before we arrived for this particular apartment, but seeing it sealed our…