Wow! The messages keep rolling in. Sadly, no marriage proposals in this batch :P

From a reader:

Your initiative is simply wonderful and I greatly admire your attitude. I wish more of my fellow countrymen followed your example. Bravo! I’ll be looking for your book.

From a reader:

Servus, Sam, I just recently discovered your blog and love it.

From a non-Romanian reader:

I’ve been travelling in Romania on and off since 2001 and have met many wonderful friends and had many “interesting” adventures there. Reading your blog has been like reliving my experiences all over again, there is truth in your words and it’s refreshing to know that there are others who can see the funny side to what most westerners would consider “bad society”….they just don’t see it do they ;)

From a reader:

Hi,
I’ve just read the interview with you on impactnews.ro. Very inspiring and you made some good points.

From a reader:

I love your blog man! And thanks for all the free advertising of our country :D

From a reader:

I love your blog. Have you written a post about village dogs yet? About the fact that they all choose to bark AT NIGHT and it is TERRIFYING when you’re all alone in a village.

Yes indeed I have and you can find it here. Although I only lived in a village for a short while, I was lucky in that there were no scary loose dogs running around :)

From a reader:

Hi Sam! Am gasit blogul tau si mi-a placut enorm!

From a reader:

Ciao! Am citit azi un interviu cu tine. Mi s-a parut foarte cool.

From a reader:

Buna! Ti-am citit blogul, mi s-a parut foarte amuzant, pana cand am citit si articolul in care vorbeai despre diferentele dintre americani si romani. M-am intristat si mi-am dat seama ca ai dreptate.

Don’t be sad! :)

From a reader:

Hello

I stumbled across your blog the other day and I think that’s one amazing story (how you learned Romanian). Your Romanian is probably better than mine! I’m Romanian myself but I lived in Canada most of my life.

And just think, I learned it in only 37 easy steps! :D

From a reader:

you are bloody awesome!
i wanna read your book

From a non-Romanian reader who has been living in Romania for years:

I have received your book(s) and I want to congratulate you! You’ve done a splendid job, it’s a great read :) I’m glad you wrote about the Romanian culture and customs. It is definitely a valuable source of information for anyone living here or traveling through this beautiful country.

From a reader:

just returned from Romania, visited mom and dad outside of Focsani. guide helped a ton!(Married to Ro girl helped too!) SamR you ROCK!

Wow, thanks to all of you for all of these wonderful comments, as well as to the two fans I met in person this past week. I also got a chance to appear on local TV here in Cluj to discuss the book (video will be posted when I get it) so a lot more people at least got a chance to hear about me and my message.

Now you might wonder why in the world I’m posting all these nice messages and whether my head is now inflated to super dimensions :P

No, the truth is, as I’ve said many times before, both on the blog and in multiple interviews (see the sidebar on the right for those) that I want to foment a revolution in this country.

I don’t mean a revolution with guns and tanks and presidents but one of thinking, to change the mentality of Romanians both home and abroad, to believe that there are already many wonderful, positive things about this country and that Romanians themselves, including yes just “little old you” and “little old me” can actually change and improve the things that need changing and improving.

That’s it, really. First, permission to actually care about this country, to actually be joyful to live in Romania or be Romanian and say without irony or half joking that this is one awesome country.

And secondly, that the problems that need fixing and the issues that need addressed are not some far-off pie in the sky dream that will never have any realistic chance of coming true, but rather something that is indeed possible, and yes it can be done by people without tons of money, or hundreds of influential friends or family members, or political connections or any of that.

Romania has had a tough history – I know that. Every elderly person I meet is a survivor, sometimes of some pretty amazing trials and tribulations. It surely wasn’t easy to be Romanian 100 years ago nor during World War 2 nor doing the Communist period nor during a lot of the poverty of the post 1989 era. I’m not saying it was. I look at it as a long winter, where the ground was hard and the winds were cold.

But now it’s springtime, and everywhere I go I see flowers blooming. I see good people opening businesses and getting good jobs. I see good people raising families. I see students attending quality universities and getting a solid education. I see good people and their children, outside my bloc, laughing and playing. The ground’s a little rocky and the soil’s a little depleted, but the flowers that have survived are amazingly tough. And my goodness, they sure do bloom beautifully when given the chance.

Yes I know that Romania is still full of corrupt, stupid idiots. But literally every day I keep meeting more good people, and every day I encourage them and let them know that they’re not alone. It’s why I posted the messages above. And soon, very soon, there’s going to be more of us than there will be of them. And all the stupid, old thinking, quarrelsome, whining, complaining Romanians get older and wield less influence every day while every day we get stronger. That, my friends, is and shall always be my message and I am so very happy to play my small part in this :)

Thank you one and all for the kind messages, emails, blog mentions and links, tweets, and face to face words. But remember, as “big” as I am, I can’t do it alone. I need your help too! So never, ever give up the hope.

O ROMÂNIE FRUMOASA E SARCINA TUTUTOR!

UPDATE – From a reader:

Also thank you very much – for your blog and your postings. Your writting is like the speech of a foreign coach for a team that feels at half time that the game is lost.

Yes! You can do it!!!