getting lost

I recently moved from an apartment in the city to a townhouse in the suburbs. I wouldn't exactly call where I moved a village in the US but to me it seems like a "modern" village in Romania. It is a big change for a girl who lived all her life in a city and in an apartment building.

During communist rule in my country all the buildings were grey and looked exactly alike. After the revolution people felt the need to distinguish themselves from one another. So they began to do little things to their apartments like changing the types of windows and doors or the color of the trim.

But the biggest changes appeared in the new "modern" villages close to the city where people would build their own homes. There you see houses next to one another but with roofs and walls painted in different colors: one house may have a red roof with yellow walls next to another house with a blue roof and white walls. And you will never see a house with the same design and shape as the one next door. The houses now are also very big, something that we did not have under communist rule. After so many years looking alike, the goal now is to be unique and different.

So when you go to a suburb in Romania you will be shocked by the mix of design. I always saw this as normal, but when we were living in Romania my American hubby always used to tell me how ugly it looked. I didn't agree with him then, thinking that it looked nice to see people free to design their home in any way they pleased.

And I still do not agree with him. I like where I live now but in my new suburb everything looks the same. I mean everything is the same!! Red brick walls, gray roofs, white windows, white pillars, all the same height, and with the same type of landscape. Wherever you look you see the same picture. I'm not questioning whether it is nice or not- I have a more practical concern.

One day I came home on a different bus and I ended up in a different part of the neighborhood. I thought I recognized where I was and I knew I was pretty close to my home. There are street signs so I thought I could figure it out...no big deal. The streets are curvy and intersect so, to my surprise the streets signs didn't clearly show me what street I was on. I stood in the middle of the street and looked in all directions thinking I would see a landmark. What I saw instead were lots and lots of houses that looked just like mine. I started to feel frustrated and confused. Are you kidding me?! I was thinking "How silly is it that I can get lost in the middle of my own neighborhood". I picked a direction and started to walk, looking for any little thing I recognized. But everything looked the same so I didn't get to my house. There was no one on the streets to ask. So I turned around, hoping to see a person who could help me. I was back in the same spot, without seeing anybody and was getting disparate about the situation. I couldn't believe this. Finally someone walked by and I asked him where is my street. He laughed and told me that people always get confused here. That sure made me feel better. I didn't seem so stupid! A few minutes later I finally found my house.

I am still a little worried each time I leave my house that I might not return.