Preparing for the Hunt

Hello, everyone. Welcome to my blog, One Man's Search for Dracula, a chilling tale of a lone traveler's hunt for the Count of Darkness.

I doubt anyone other than my parents is going to read this blog, but a little background just in case someone else drops by: I'm American. My wife, the lovely Ioana, is Romanian. She came to the U.S. to get her master's in linguistics, and we followed the typical path that people in our situation do: met, fell in love, got married, and had our relationship and lives torn asunder by the federal government. The INS would prefer that Io return to Romania for a couple of years before returning to the U.S. And by "prefer," I mean "Will deport her if she doesn't." So on July 7, 2010 -- which is just a couple days away as I write this -- she is getting on a plane to Bucharest, and won't be back on American soil for quite some time. Way to go, INS. I feel like I'm really getting my money's worth out of my taxes and representational government and all that.

We have some savings, and my employers have graciously agreed to let me take a six-month leave of absence in 2011 and another one in 2012 if necessary (thank you, Los Angeles District Attorney's Office! Best Friends Forever!!). So, as I turn 40 I am heading off on a crazy adventure: living Romania, which is not even in America, for six months at a time. I'm actually pretty excited for the adventure part of it, and the unique chance to experience my wife's culture and where she grew up. I'm not as excited about the tremendous financial hit, but hey: worse things happen to a lot of people.

Thus begins this blog, about my trips to Romania and experiences there. Although our main plan is to make a living by teaching English to Romanians, I thought that while I was there this would be a perfect chance to tour the countryside and, with any luck, find Dracula. Because it's my understanding that he lives in Transylvania, which we can see on the map above is in Romania. So I'm pretty sure I will find him, or at least a werewolf. Stay tuned to find out!