A year ago, I wrote about why I chose Romania. I wrote about democracy indexes and homicide rates, immigration pathways and cost of living. I wrote about the Carpathians reminding me of the Appalachians, about history that was still being lived instead of preserved behind museum glass, and about choosing my home carefully because I couldn’t afford to uproot my life over again. I still believe in all of that research. Maybe even more than I did then. But a year is long enough