Owlspotting

There is little excuse for being silent on your blog, so I won’t venture into that territory. But I do want to use the tried and tested trick of letting someone else write when you can’t do it. A few weeks ago Elena left a very thoughtful comment to this post. I wanted to make […]

I can’t see the sun anymore—it’s now a smidgeon of light behind grayish clouds, as if it turned away to fluff the pillows and get ready to tuck itself in. I’m not a sucker for sunsets and I’m not one to indulge much in star-gazing or in the occasional open-sky-as-a-parable-for-freedom banter. I once dumped a […]

I’m full. Every once in a while (alright, every once in a very rare while) you get the chance to spend that perfect weekend peppered with just the right amount of food. Saturday was burger time and Sunday–following another lovely American tradition–was brunch time. Just a few days ago I was chatting with Mirona over […]

The booming sound of the giant speakers was pounding us all. I’ve been tortured by concert speakers before, but the warm butter way in which the violin layered itself over the bass sent chills down my spine. People all around me were waving their arms in the air and jumping, their feet touching the pavement […]

My friend Andrei is an awesome photographer. I just thought I’d share that bit of info with you today. You can see a slide show of his work on diversity in mid-Missouri (where we both went or still go to school) here.

Originally published December 2004 in Vox Magazine. === The Intercontinental Divide I had not seen my mother in 314 days since we parted outside her apartment in Targu-Mures, Romania. But on the night of June 4, when she burst through the door of a New Orleans hotel room for our reunion, it seemed as though […]

On Wednesday, Starbucks opened its first store in Romania. Regardless of whether you view the Seattle chain as the incarnation of evil or as a savior of the coffee-hungry world, this is big news for Romania, where coffee culture is still largely domestic. The arrival of Starbucks signals that the coffee wars of Eastern and […]

I am boarding my flight to Romania in a matter of hours. Below are a few of the things I will miss about America (43 is also the number of months I’ve been away from home). Although this is a numbered list, it is not a ranking. I hope that one day I will return […]

November 2005: Washing dishes after an awesome Thanksgiving dinner complete with yummy desert. December 2005: The horrid (and condom-looking) National Christmas Tree, which stands right outside the White House fence in Washington, DC. Scary! January 2006: The Washington, DC studio at its cleanest. This is after the addition of new furniture pieces, a carpet and […]

October 2004: Barton dresses up a bunny to surprise his girlfriend, now wife, Alyson. I had the pleasure of petting this furry creature. November 2004: America votes 2004. This was snapped in the early morning as people were slowly trudging to the polls in Columbia, Mo. Opinions were split. Boone County, where Columbia is located, […]