Friends New and Used

Selling/giving away the vast majority of your earthly possessions can be a daunting proposal.  This, however, was not the scariest part of moving overseas for me.  I was absolutely terrified of leaving behind the wonderful friends and family that Mike and I love so much.  We have, over the years, gathered around us some of the most engaging, intelligent, funny and loyal friends a person could ever desire.  I miss them all dreadfully.   What I am learning, however, is that friends are not a finite resource.  As much I miss the people I love from home, there is a whole world of amazing new people just waiting to be to be found. 

The Birthday Boy

I have been stunned by the outpouring of generosity and hospitality by many of the people in our adopted country.  We are truly blessed to be in the company of such thoughtful and caring people.  Mike has talked in depth about Imre and his wife Zsuzsa and their remarkable family, so I will not say more here. However, I will state that everyone needs an Imre and Zsuzsa in their life. 

Most of the friends that we have thus far were made through Mike’s job.  He is fortunate to work with some extremely talented and thoughtful people.  We relocated to Cluj just a week or so prior to Mike’s birthday.   I don't want to rat him out by throwing out a number, but suffice it say, he is old.  But his firmly entrenched status as “over the hill” is not the point of this story.  The point is that in just over week, the people that we had met a short time before gave Mike a welcome to Cluj/ Birthday party that was replete with presents!  We had at this point in our home, very little in the way of kitchen necessities.  And let me tell you, cooking dinner when all you have to slice an onion is a butter knife is a load of fun.  These people already know us so well, they gave us the most wonderful gift possible:  wine glasses and a bottle of especially tasty wine.  We were also gifted a beautiful poinsettia that brings me pleasure every day when I gaze upon it on my window sill.

It was a wonderful night, filled with laughs, conversation, and a few glasses of wine.  This was my first time meeting Cornel.  He is a friendly and fascinating chap.  He told us all about his family’s tradition of making Țuică and pork production.  After expressing some interest in both of these subjects, would you believe that later in the week Cornell brought us several items produced by him and his family?  There were three types of Țuică, a bowl of meat filled gelatin (which is surprisingly good) and other various items that you just can’t buy in a store.   There were so many items in this goody bag, Mike was unable to walk home from work and had to take a taxi.

Mike enjoying his present
with help from the girls.

During the party, I mentioned to Oana that we were in need of a veterinarian for our two dogs.  Instead of just giving me the information on the vet that she uses, she went out of her way to pick me and my canines up later in the week, and drive us to the office.  She then proceeded to introduce me to everyone and facilitate a great working relationship with my vet and his staff that in my life, has had no equal. 

The things that I mentioned above may seem inconsequential, but to me they mean everything.  The people that we have been so fortunate to meet are proving to be freakishly nice.   As I mentioned previously, it is hard being so far away from the people that you love.  However, if it were not for the distance between us, these new relationships would not have the opportunity to grow.