My Fulbright Experience

On September 30, I bring to a close my Fulbright grant in Romania, a year that has transformed me both as a scholar and as a person. When I began this journey, I imagined research days filled with interviews, notebooks, and data collection. What I did not yet grasp was how deeply the Danube Delta, […]

As my Fulbright year comes to an end, I find myself saying goodbye not just to a place, but to a rhythm of life I havee grown into. Watching the storks rise into the August sky, I realize I am not just observing migration: I am living it. The Sky Marks the Season In late

Some books are read; others are inhabited. Timpul care se varsă în veșnicie (Time That Pours into Eternity) is one of those rare works that invites you to step fully inside its world. A world of “steppe, waters, and sky,” of windswept horizons and tidal rhythms, of memory woven into geography. I first came across

A Quiet Story of Endurance Lavinia Braniște’s Camping is a quietly devastating novel, one that does not clamor for attention but instead sits with you, observes, and ultimately leaves you with a full heart and a sharp sense of loss. As someone who belongs to the Romanian diaspora in America, my experience of emigration is

July 20, 1969. On this day, humanity set foot on the Moon. What was once a dream, an unreachable light in the night sky, became a footprint in lunar dust. The world watched as Neil Armstrong descended from the lunar module and declared, “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Each year on June 24, a simple yet powerful garment becomes the center of a global celebration of heritage, memory, and identity. The ie, the traditional Romanian blouse, reminds us that clothing can carry stories, protect traditions, and unite communities across time and borders. This is the spirit behind the Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse, a

Saint George’s Day in Sfântu Gheorghe: A Celebration of Spirit, Tradition, and Community In Sfântu Gheorghe, time flows with the river’s rhythm, and so does tradition. While the rest of Romania honors Saint George on April 23, this village in the Danube Delta holds to the Old Calendar, celebrating their patron saint on May 6.

Earlier today, I came across a social media discussion in which someone asked, “What is American culture?” What followed was a wave of sarcastic replies, many simply answering, “What culture?” The implication was clear: that the United States lacks a cultural identity of its own. The tone ranged from dismissive to amused, as if American