Tonight I attended a dinner party at my boss’ house. It was a get together themed around Romania, being that her neighbors recently returned from a 17 day package holiday there. We planned the night to consist of purely Romanian food and drink. I made a vat of my famous cauliflower cheese soup, and she made Hungarian chicken, both straight from Pofta Buna (the Peace Corps Romania volunteer generated cookbook.) In addition, we started the evening with a shot of high quality Romanian plum brandy and accompanied the meal with wine imported from Romania (yes, a label that I’d never heard of, but from Romania, is available in Freeport, ME.) After a delightful meal I presented an updated slide show of my Peace Corps experience. It was enjoyable to make the presentation both to my boss and this couple, the latter of which had some particularly insightful comments due in part to their extensive pre-trip reading and limited exposure to the country. When I showed the iconic picture of the town in which I worked, they both immediately recognized the “palace of culture,” a national landmark.

They visited the house of Elie Wiesel (something I was not able to do,) and were impressed with my reports on Jewish life (both past and present) in the country. I guess part of me just liked being teacher, or presenter, again. It’ s enjoyable to have such social events, and I recall fondly the man telling me that he enjoyed living in Brunswick because there was a whole mix of people, not just old folks. Although I grouse about the state of American culture, it is good to see community thriving in some places.