When Dreams are Calling Read Online Free PDF Page B

has
its advantages: you
can be yourself.
There is no
absolute freedom. But when
we are the ones choosing our confinements, then we feel free.
----

7
Leaving the Land of Dracula
    Home,
sweet home, where have you been?
    I
looked for you in lands far in between,
    The
smell of grass, the song I sang,
    The
games I played, the friends I rang,
    You
are still there waiting for me,
    The
same old place you used to be.

No matter
where
you live, who you marry, or how much time has passed, you will always
bear the
imprint of traditions, customs or just day to day habits of your native
land.
You will see the world and perceive the ones around you through them,
because
no matter right or wrong, funny or annoying, weird of just common, they
will
always be a part of who you are.
    A few
weeks before I left Romania, I could not
stop thinking about
what I would miss the most from the land I was born in. What
memories
would I
recount sitting by the fire with my lover, three of his kids, two of my
own,
and eight of ours?
    My first
thought was at Christmas.
    Christmas
in Romania is a time to be with your
whole family, to
cherish your loved ones, to prepare your list for Santa, then to read
the lists
of all the others trying not to lose too much sleep over it.
    People go
to church and pray for the next year
to do a better job
than the current one, as any “next one” does, at least for a while…
    It’s not
so much of a happy time as of a busy
time. Everybody
becomes suddenly obsessed with cleaning their apartments thoroughly,
over and
over again, day and night. The windows have to be immaculate so you can
spy on
the neighbors, the corner behind the library free of dust to look neat
and tidy
and each and every ornament must be cleaned and then placed back in the
exact
same spot. The markets are packed with fur trees, cut more unlawfully
than
lawfully and carrying them all around trams and buses is a pain if not
necessarily for you, then for all the rest of the passengers. The men
are busy
with the grocery shopping, running from one store to the other, facing
interminable queues, and fighting over the best piece of meat in the
butchery
stores just so they can come home and find their wives still not quite
happy
with what they have got. The Romanian women are picky, and how can they
not be,
when their dishes are their pride?
    The most
famous dish found in all the kitchens
around Romania is sarmale , followed closely by cozonac . Sarmale are pickled
cabbage leaves stuffed with a mixture of pork, rice, pepper, and other
spices.
If you never tried them, it might be a good time for you to reconsider.
They
are
delicious!
    The
popular cozonac is a
cake filled with walnuts, cacao, and
raisins. It helps with putting on weight each time without exception
and only
the smell of it can turn you into a hungry impatient beast!
    The
holidays are all about getting stuffed:
firstly, at your house
and then, at everyone else’s. You don’t eat to live, you live to keep
eating.
It is considered an insult to stop before the ambulance comes.
    Where
there is food, there must be music. The
carol singers dressed
in folk costumes go from one house to another, singing till morning,
and people
compensate them with cakes, apples, nuts, and, best of all, money. Each
family
opens its door, time and time again, to lots of groups of singers, some
more
talented than others, but all bringing with them the spirit of
Christmas.
    Each party
lasts until all the wine is over,
usually at dawn. People
dance and sing like demons walking on hot coal and no one goes to bed
before
the roosters wake up.
    The most
popular present of all time, for kids
and adults, moms and
dads, friends and girlfriends, is pajamas. It does not matter if you do
not
need one, or you just do not want one, or you never slept in one.
Pajamas are
always on top of the list of presents.
    Christmas
or no Christmas, Romanians are a
passionate nation. The
problem is that they are passionate about everything