13 Feelings An Expat Has When Going Back Home
Going back home – during the Easter holiday – feels like…
Alice in Wonderland after she had the “Eat Me Cake” and grew enormously.
Because everything that seemed big to me when I was a child – my house, my room, my hometown – looks smaller now.
Alice in Wonderland also after she had the “Drink Me Potion” and shrank down to 10 inches high.
Each time I visit my Grandma. When I see her Easter decorated eggs and she complains that I don’t eat enough, I feel like I’m 10 years old again, during the Easter morning, happy that a Robert-Powell-looking-like-Jesus has resurrected.
Coloring the eggs for Easter is an important Romanian tradition. So is eating till you drop
Having a luxury spa treatment of my heart and mind.
Each time I meet with my closest girlfriends. It’s like sinking into a warm bubbly bath of conversation after having an exhausting time apart.
A little dog jumping in the water on a warm summer day.
Every time I meet all my friends. I always have a smile on my face, I feel free and full of energy.
Having a second skin.
Because everything is just so easy to do. I’m on automatic pilot; everybody understands me and all actions seem effortless.
Being a tourist in the town that I used to live in.
Now I notice things that I didn’t see before, both good and bad. What I like the most is the striking combination between the old and the new.
Bucharest, city center
A character in a fairytale.
Because Bucharest still believes in the magic of decorating for each important holiday.
The most famous place in Bucharest, The University Square, decorated for Easter
Walking through an endless Hard Rock Café.
As you can run into a rock performance literarily everywhere, even in a mall. Now that is music to my ears!
A small rock concert and graffiti painting inside a mall
A VIP.
Because two of my good friends manage a bar, where I can actually listen to the music I like and even choose songs for the playlist.
Retro Bar from Craiova, the coolest bar with the best music in town
Watching Madonna’s video “Like a prayer” over and over again.
Every time I encounter a religious symbol in the least common place. You know it’s slightly inappropriate, vaguely related to any true religious beliefs and in fact represents an undisputed proof of how superstitious Romanians are.
A picture with Jesus inside a taxi
An entire 2 stores shop of religious items placed in the center of Bucharest
Watching a Easter Edition of the “The miracle of 34th Street’.
Because every year at 0:00 during the Easter night, when I see people gathered around a church and singing “Jesus has resurrected from the dead”, I still believe there is something mystical and spiritual in the world. I can actually feel an unspoken common prayer lifting up to something or someone in the skies.
People lighting candles at 00:00 during Easter night
The candle light represents the symbol of resurrection
A kid in a candy store.
When I’m in a Romanian library. It’s like every title speaks to me, whispering the intrigue of a good story. And because the words are in my native language, they reach a special place of meaning in my brain, which no other language will ever be able to do.
Ever heard of book bulimia?
A fish in the water, if water was in fact mint-lemonade.
Bucharest is the only place in the world where I could ever find fresh lemonade at all times and in all seasons.
The best drink in the whole wide world
