Max: “How many people have been on the moon?”

Me: “12. And they were all American.”

Max: “Why? The other countries don’t have the right stuff?”

Afonsi instead of fiance.

Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/WrNDOMq4yVl60HWr2

Map: https://goo.gl/maps/u2X2bMJ4FKB2

GPS coordinates are 47°41’14.5″ N 25°32’48.5″ E
Approximate elevation is 726 meters

This is in a forest. Nearest trail is a muddy cow path going up a hill. The whole cemetery is on a small hill. There are two sections; 26 graves in an upper section, which I call “upper” because it is higher in elevation. There 28 graves in the lower section, maybe 50 to 75 yards away from the upper section. There is one grave surrounded by an iron fence.

There are no toppled or broken stones. Have they been removed? There are large empty sections which tell me either stones have been removed or this has always been a small cemetery.

Two or three graves have the jar remains of candles. One jar has Hebrew writing, but another has a label showing Christian symbols (baby Jesus and a saint?). Some miles away is the famous Christian Orthodox monastery, Moldovița Monastery, so maybe the candle came from there.

There is very little trash except for two plastic bottles. There are stacks of sticks, as if someone had once cleared the place.

Max: “Aki, why is Trump building a wall?”

Aki: Because he wants to keep some people out of America, the Mexicans.

Max: Why? We all have the same heart. The Mexicans just have dark skin.

Aki: Very true, Max. You are smarter than some grown-ups.

Today we were in Sighisoara for the 2nd day. We walked through the old village, which is beautiful — cobblestone steps. We went to the room of Dracula’s birth, which Max loved and I could not get him to leave. There was one “hidden” room” in particular that he adored.

Later, Max dressed up in medieval clothing and looked like an attacking Viking (although there were no Vikings here).

Finally, we visited Saschez (actually our 2nd time there since we stopped there for lunch yesterday and explored a little). We drove down a dirt road and hiked 15 minutes through the woods to an an abandoned castle we could see from the village. It’s called Castle Saschiz and was amazing!

Max’s favorite thing to do today was the Dracula birthplace room. Mine was the abandoned castle–because it is so rare to see such a place in disrepair and will so few tourists (there were only a few others wandering around when we were there).

I think Karolina’s favorite was seeing the countryside. After the castle, we drove a bit west of Saschez on something that became a dirt road. The views were amazing. Stunning greenery. A flock of cows with a shepherd.

On the way home, we drove through the modern area of Saschez: communist-style apartment buildings. Many of the people were outside mingling. Many children were at their old, all-metal playground. Rusted swings and see-saws and one of those spinner things. No plastic anywhere. No sand to break falls. I haven’t seen see-saws in America in decades, nor metal playgrounds.

While in Romania, Max said “I don’t want to wear my ring in town because people are so poor and I don’t want them to feel sad.”  It is a 4 EUR ring from the Vienna Imperial Treasury.

Max passed a tattoo parlor. The models on the sign outside of it had long hair, tattoos everywhere, wore leather, and looked like real bad guys. One was even making devil horns with his hands, like at a heavy metal concert.

Max said maybe they are the kind of tattoos you can wash off because he doesn’t like tattoos. Maybe a tattoo parlor gives washable tattoos 😀

“Can kids get tattoos? I’m just asking.”

“No.”

“It’s not allowed?”

“No.”

“That would be crazy if it was allowed.”

Max wants to type some emojis on my phone so here they are:

👹☠️😰

Today we went to Brugruine Aggstein.

Max got a spiked club stuffy toy that he loves. The castle was really cool… It was not in a very restored state, nothing like Neuschwanstein (which we saw last week), which was part of its appeal. There were some suits of armor in various rooms. Later, Max said:

“If I were an armor architect, I would put spikes all over the armor. And the biggest spike would be two spikes on the head for barging into people to kill them.”

Last night, Max and I first watched Rock ‘N Roll Nightmare (1987) on YouTube. It is absolutely awful, but Max didn’t know that. It had a budget of 50,000 and was filmed in a week. I drifted out of the room into my office. Max kept running into my office, urging me to come watch. There were so many different monsters to see, like these two:

Then we downloaded (The Pirate Bay) and watched Return of the Living Dead from 1985. He loved it. I had to skip certain parts (nudity, etc). I think it’s his new favorite movie. His favorite character from Part I??

TAR ZOMBIE!

Tonight he wanted to watch Parts II and III. We started Part III but had to stop because I needed to pack for our epic 32-day trip to Europe.

We were exploring June Creek Elementary School after-hours. Children had drawn pictures of what they want to be when they grow up. I was reading them to Max. One child said he wanted to be a soldier when he grows up. Max said that wasn’t a good choice (but up until last year or so he wanted to be a warrior/soldier, too):

“You can die very easily, specially if you’re in the first row”  (He means the front line)

He had Minecraft Club for after school. I got there early, about 3:30, and went to the computer lab. I sat with him and we played side-by-side for 45 minutes with all the other children in the room. Max didn’t mind at all. In fact, he even sat on my lap for a time. I was helping him to learn how to craft different items (I had to look them up on the internet). None of the other children were teaching him so he wasn’t able to do much before I arrived.

Afterwards, I asked Max if he minded me being at the after-school program. He said no way, he loved that I was there. He told me that when Trevor is at Minecraft Club, Trevor helps him. I think he only liked me being there because I was teaching him to craft things, but it was so warming to feel wanted by him in front of other children. Many children at his age (including me at that age) are embarrassed to have their parents around their friends or schoolmates.

Max also wants me to go on the Mining Camp with him this Summer. I sent this to KC Lasher today:

Hi KC,

This is Eric Jung. I am Max Blodgett’s father.

Max is signed up for the Mining Camp trip this Summer, which I believe your are leading. Max and I have a special relationship together when it comes to mines. My father and I used to explore abandoned mines and mining equipment all over the southwest when I was a kid, something pretty stupid in hindsight. Although Max and I don’t do that, he’s heard my stories, and we’ve visiting lots of mines and mining camps together. At one point last year, Max even said he wanted to be a miner when he grew up.

Max has been asking every continually if I’d be able to join him on the Mining Camp VMS trip.

Do you have a need for any assistants or chaperones? If not, is there any chance I can tag along in some other capacity?

Eric

p.s. we still haven’t made it up to Fairplay, but there’s supposedly a restored mining camp there. Have you biked/walked any of the Leadville Mineral Belt?

He says mawana instead of marijuana!

“Don’t stop, believe it” instead of “Don’t stop believin'”

Max built a Lego guy that I thought looked like Sinistar. So we named him that. Then I suggested a fight between Captain Skull (a Lego guy we built yesterday) vs. Sinistar. Max says Sinistar is too big.

Max singing, “This land was made from you and me” instead of “This land was made for you and me.”

Max came back from Spring vacation with Mark in Basalt. He was gone 9 days. I think that’s the longest Karolina and I haven’t been with him in many years.

He missed Easter with us, so when he came home, he went Easter Egg hunting, but not before telling me about his egg hunt experience at Mark’s house.

The Jackpot Tree

Max asks why does cancer exist.

Listening to The Lawn Gnome, they said they were mischievous. I asked Max what mischievous means. He says it’s Mischief Night. Mischief Night is a Jewish holiday. They are Jewish gnomes.

Max says to me:

“Tickle my dupcha.”

“Tickle my vuvs.”

When Max was younger, we were at the fish section Whole Foods, staring at the dead fish on ice. They were whole and dead. Max asked, “What happened?“