2008 May Gone to tango Texas style

My dear friend Roxana and I have known each other since before we were even born. She has been in my life that long, since our parents also grew up together. Roxi happen to arrive into this world 2 months before me, and I feel that is why she was always the older and more mature one :-) Smarter too!!

Roxana is a committed student which caused her to follow her professor where ever he went. Germany, Netherlands, and this time, I was visiting Roxana in Texas as she was deep in school work. She was following her professor, I believe, who was her supervisor for her PhD. Since Texas is on the same continent as Canada, I did not want to miss out a trip to visit a long time dear friend. Roxi wasn't able to get a visiting visa into Canada, so I decided that I would make our reunion happen.

Houston was pretty, but mostly large concrete buildings which are not my cup of tea. The Rice University campus was also nice, but nothing out of the ordinary when judging a campus for the appearance.

However, while visiting Roxana, I had the chance to hang out with her friends, see where she lives and works. This was definitely my most favourite part of my trip. She even took me to her tango class where she took regular lessons. It was so lovely to see her life and activities in the city. It's hard to fit into a new place when you don't know many people, but she had her little community all figured out by then. I really enjoyed our time together.

We also had a little time to visit Galveston. There, we enjoyed the beach, sun, and the water. Of course, when 4 Romanians hit the beach, all we bring with us is towel and bathing suit. Since it was windy, none of us thought about sunscreen. By the end of our beach day, all of us were burnt like lobsters. I think I may have been burned the most. On our way home, we drove by the Huston NASA station, but we didn't have enough time to go inside. On our final day, Roxana purchased ticket to a performance at her uni, which was wonderful. It was mostly middle-eastern drums, music and dances.

Overall, we had a short but sweet visit together. I usually just surprise her, either in Romania or this time in Texas. I truly enjoy our time together, and even though we have been living on two separate ends of the world, I hope we keep in touch as much as we can :-)



(When I wrote this blog post -Jan 26, 2012- I am also happy to announce that Dr. Roxana Ionutiu has successfully completed and defended her PhD, and now she's trying to fit into the lovely rural part of Switzerland, where now she's residing and working hard in her field)