Radio România Internațional

Category: Expat in Romania

  • Ivan Vazquez of Mexico

    Ivan Vazquez of Mexico

    Ivan Vazquez is a software engineer, and he hails from Guadalajara, Mexico. Before moving to Romania, he worked in Germany for two years. He has been living in Bucharest for only half a year, but Ivan is not going through his first Romanian experience. He speaks the language fluently, and he says he feels right at home here.




    He told us about how he got here:


    “I came to Romania a few years ago, eight, I think, I came here for my work, and I first lived for a year in Timisoara. I learned the language there, in six or seven months, because I liked it. Then I went to Mexico, I had some things to do there, then I came back to Bucharest. I came here mostly for my job, but I chose to stay here because I like it better than Germany. I opted for Bucharest because my company is based here. Maybe in a couple of years Ill move to a smaller town, but right now I am good here. It is a big city, and it is true that, because of the pandemic, I havent done much in 2020, but it has a lot of events, and nice people. The weather is OK too, its a bit hot in the summer, but normally it is good weather, we have sunlight, parks, greenery, and I think it is a nice town.”


    Ivan says that the good life in Romania is what made him stay here. We asked him what he was lacking in Germany but found when he moved here:


    “This is an interesting question, because I know that a lot of Romanians want to move to Germany, and I often get the question: Why move here, instead of staying in Germany? My answer is simple: I like your culture much more. In Germany the culture is much more, lets say square, more serious, more straight, you feel like youre a tourist all the time. It doesnt matter how long you live there, all the time you feel like a tourist, like a foreigner. Here in Romania, the culture is closer to that of Mexico, people are kind and friendly. By the time I spent a year here, I already had ten friends, but in Germany I spent two years and I made friends only with some foreigners, people who were not German. You can feel the difference, and I think it is very important to feel happy in the place you live.”




    Ivan is just now discovering Romania, and he appreciates the natural scenery. We asked him what he appreciates aside from the friendly locals, and about Bucharest in particular:


    “Generally, I like the weather better in Romania, it is a little hotter. I just got back from Vama Veche yesterday. I like that we have the beach available after a two and a half hour car ride, but we also have the mountains close by, such as Brasov, or Sinaia. Nature is beautiful here. In Bucharest there are plenty of technology companies, and numerous opportunities, if I want to change my job or evolve. It is easier here, where there arent that many companies, or where they are not so many in smaller cities. In Germany they dont have all the companies in the same city, as in Bucharest, and if you want to change your job, you have to change your city, and this is not ideal for me.”




    Our guest this week feels great in Bucharest. However, he does not rule out the possibility of moving to a smaller city at some point. We asked him what shortcomings he sees in living in the capital city:


    “A smaller city, such as Timisoara, Cluj, or Brasov may be better suited for a family. It is quieter and cheaper there, and if I have opportunities for a job, I think it would be ok over there. It is cleaner, there is less traffic, and I think that people are friendlier in a smaller city than in the capital. Everyone says that people over here are not the friendliest. I myself dont say that, but it may well be true. The there is the scenery in the country, I love the mountains, I love nature, and Bucharest is just a very large city. Maybe in the future Ill move to a city that is large enough to have everything, such as bars, restaurants, and events, but a tad smaller.”




    Given the distance to Mexico, Ivan does not get to visit there too often:


    “Oh, yes, I visit my family and friends only once a year, for Christmas, New Year, and my birthday. I spend three weeks there, and then I come back. I go on vacation to Europe, because its close by. I miss the food mostly, because it is awesome over there, and we have many kinds of foods, not just the tacos and burritos that they know over here. I miss my world, I have friends and family there. In any case, it will always be like this, it doesnt matter where you live, youll always miss your friends and family. I chose to live in Europe because it is safer, less dangerous than Mexico. I feel very safe here.”




    In the end we asked Ivan what he would change in Romania, and if he sees himself living here for the long run:


    “I think the biggest problem in this city is the traffic, parking, there are enough cars already. Of course, everyone wants a car to drive, to go to the countryside or the seaside. It would be great for all the new buildings to have an underground parking lot, so that the streets are not full of parked cars. I noticed that they are working on the buildings downtown that dont look so good, I think they are renovating. You cant really change things in a large city, and all capitals have the same problems, but I still think that Bucharest is mostly OK. I dont know if I see myself still here in a year or two, but Ill definitely be somewhere in Europe.”

  • Expat in Romania

    Expat in Romania

    “My name is Keisa Loci, I am from Albania, I have come to Romania to study the piano at the National University of Music in Bucharest. It was a great opportunity for me to be able to come here.”

    In Albania, Keisa Loci studied music for about 16 years. She arrived in Romania in 2015, with a scholarship provided by the by the Romanian state through the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Since 2016, Keisa Loci Keisa Loci has been a student with the National University of Music in Bucharest. Keisa first took up a one-year preparatory course in Romanian at the University of Bucharest’s Faculty of Letters. She told us she grew fond of music ever since she was a child.

    “My father plays the guitar and ever since I was a child I used to listen to him play; it sounded so beautiful to me and I wanted to be like him and be able to play like him one day. Music was more like a hobby for my father, as he works with the US Embassy in Albania. Mother has never had a job, because she didn’t have to, she was always with us, which for us mattered a lot because she taught us so many things preparing us for life. We also have a 16-year old sister who studies violin and I am really happy to have a mother who is also a very good friend.”

    On her mother’s side Keisa Loci also has Romanian roots.

    “The story is fascinating. My mother’s grandmother was from Romania, she was Aromanian, Ioana was her name, she married an Albanian and eventually, she settled in Albania for good. Mother did not have the chance to know her grandmother, but around the family, grandma’s story met our ears more than once. We also met a cousin of ours, who came to Romania before us, she is pursuing a doctoral program in medicine with the University of Galati. My grades were very good and I also liked Romania so much that I decided to come and study here. Anyhow, I had heard so many things about famous Romania. I have always liked its mythology, the people, the culture, the music, I have always been attracted to this country. People seem sociable, albeit a bit cold, sometimes, but then again, that depends on who you meet, it happens in any other country. I feel fine in the society I met here.”

    Keisa Loci is very busy with her studies and she also has a part-time job at a Bucharest-based international company. She works in the customer service department, so she hasn’t had much time to travel the country.

    “I would like to visit Brasov, Timisoara and Sinaia.”

    Her preferred pastimes are going out with friends and reading J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter. She is also passionate about foreign languages. Besides Romanian, she can also speak Italian and English. And she has also become acquainted with the Romanian culture:

    “I know about Caragiale, Eminescu and Enescu. Enescu is a great composer, and for us, musicians, he is a genius. It’s difficult to play his works. I played Enescu’s Toccata for piano, it is a very beautiful piece. It also has elements of traditional music which are similar to those in the Albanian tradition. I had the opportunity to play Enescu’s Tocata in the 1st year.”

    Keisa Loci is now a 3rd year student at the National University of Music in Bucharest. Here she is next with her plans for the future:

    “I would like to further my training in music, to be a pianist and give concerts in other countries. I want to play on international stages, I want to keep learning and get to know other cultures. My dream is to go to the US, the land of endless possibilities for those who study music.”

  • Hadi Faour of Israel

    Hadi Faour of Israel

    Instead of a university from Tel Aviv or Haifa, Hadi Faour he chose the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacology in Oradea, in north-western Romania. Hadi is enchanted with Romania, a country, which, he says, is very well known in Israel.



    Hadi Faour: “Many people from my country actually come to Romania to study medicine; a family friend suggested to me that I go to Romania and see how it is. I came to Romania, I tried in many universities and I got accepted into a few and after a while I picked to study in Oradea. It was a little hard of course coming to a new country but I met many people like me coming from different countries and studying medicine so that made it easier. And Romanians were welcoming and that helped me a lot, actually.”



    One of the reasons frequently cited by young people from abroad who come to study in Romania are the fees, which can be much lower than in the West. Also, Romania has a good tradition when it comes to medicine.



    Hadi Faour tells us about the differences between the education system in Romania and that in Israel: “At first, when I thought about studying medicine I also thought about studying in my country but in my country we had an age limit which was 21 and when I started I was 20. Also, we have fewer places in the country for studying medicine.”



    Since he arrived in Romania six years ago, Hadi Faour has had a lot of contact with Romanians and is impressed with the people he has met here. Hadi Faour: “They are very welcoming and the country is beautiful. There are many places to see. I visited many places as well: Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Arad, Maramures. Every time I visit a city I see something new, something different than in other cities. If I had the chance to visit a place one more time I would definitely visit the Carpathian Mountains and Maramures. It was a great experience for me studying here and getting to know people and getting involved actually in activities in society. We have organised a foreign students organisation here in Oradea, we have organised a cultural festival which was attended by over 1,000 locals from Oradea.”



    Hadi Faour has some advice for all those who are considering choosing Romania for their studies: “I suggest people to come to study in Romania because it’s known for teaching medicine. It’s a great country with very kind people.”

  • Kristina Piškur of Slovenia

    Kristina Piškur of Slovenia

    Kristina Piškur studied political sciences. She is 28 and is from Ljubljana, Slovenia. And when she came to Romania she did not know much about this country: “I came to Bucharest in September 2015. I worked with an NGO that was performing clinic animation in hospitals and was involved in activities with children. I shared an apartment in Bucharest with several volunteers. It was an international team with whom I worked for one year. In that period of time, I met with Romanians who were a great inspiration for me in relation to youth work. I understood what ‘youth work meant and I wanted to discover more about this domain. Then I was presented with the opportunity of moving to a rural area, where I am now living. I like it very much. I felt accepted right away, people were very welcoming and so I decided to stay. I was also curious to see how I can integrate into a totally new community.



    After the experience of almost two and a half years in Romania, Kristina Piškur intends to stay here for a longer period of time. She is convinced that, in a society, change starts at local level. That is why, in her capacity as a youth worker, she teaches young people to have a critical mind and get involved in civic activities: “I like many things here in Romania and I can see that there is still a lot to be done. Slovenia and Romania have many things in common, the experience in Romania is quite similar to that I had back home. When I say that there is still a lot to be done in Romania, Im referring to a change in mentality. I can no longer put up with hearing people complaining that there is nothing more to be done in Romania, that they lost all hope. Actually, this means that the country needs a more powerful civil society. And here comes in youth work. Civil society is formed through education, through direct action, which is already happening, but this action must be further developed.



    The purpose of the Curba de Cultura Association, for which Kristina Piškur works, is to help rural areas in Romania develop. Through the projects they run, they intend to make it easier for young people to cope with difficulties, to help them in the learning process and to increase the opportunities offered to those who need to make a change and have a better life in the rural area they are living in.



    Kristina Piškur: “We are working in this rural area with 9 foreign volunteers who come from different European countries. These people are involved in informal education activities with the local schools. They attend the English or French classes, providing their knowledge as native speakers. Besides making classes more dynamic, the volunteers involvement helps children and young people open their minds. For instance they meet an Italian who is vegetarian for the first time, they understand what being vegan means, why vegans dont eat meat and milk. They have a strong inter-cultural experience. In January, I hope to be able to start a project, which intends to bring together young people from the locality and members of the Local Council, for them to have a structured dialogue.

  • Hadi Faour of Israel

    Hadi Faour of Israel

    Our interlocutor today is called Hadi Faour and comes from Israel. He arrived in Romania six years ago to study medicine. Instead of a university from Tel Aviv or Haifa, he chose the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacology in Oradea, in north-western Romania. Hadi is enchanted with Romania, a country, which, he says, is very well known in Israel.



    Hadi Faour: “Many people from my country actually come to Romania to study medicine; a family friend suggested to me that I go to Romania and see how it is. I came to Romania, I tried in many universities and I got accepted into a few and after a while I picked to study in Oradea. It was a little hard of course coming to a new country but I met many people like me coming from different countries and studying medicine so that made it easier. And Romanians were welcoming and that helped me a lot, actually.



    One of the reasons frequently cited by young people from abroad who come to study in Romania are the fees, which can be much lower than in the West. Also, Romania has a good tradition when it comes to medicine.



    We asked Hadi Faour about the differences between the education system in Romania and that in Israel: “At first, when I thought about studying medicine I also thought about studying in my country but in my country we had an age limit which was 21 and when I started I was 20. Also, we have fewer places in the country for studying medicine.



    Since he arrived in Romania six years ago, Hadi Faour has had a lot of contact with Romanians and is impressed with the people he has met here. Hadi Faour: “They are very welcoming and the country is beautiful. There are many places to see. I visited many places as well: Brasov, Bucharest, Cluj, Timisoara, Arad, Maramures. Every time I visit a city I see something new, something different than in other cities. If I had the chance to visit a place one more time I would definitely visit the Carpathian Mountains and Maramures. It was a great experience for me studying here and getting to know people and getting involved actually in activities in society. We have organised a foreign students organisation here in Oradea, we have organised a cultural festival which was attended by over 1,000 locals from Oradea.



    Hadi Faour has some advice for all those who are considering choosing Romania for their studies: “I suggest people to come to study in Romania because its known for teaching medicine. Its a great country with very kind people.



    That was Hadi Faour, who came from Israel six years ago to study medicine in Romania.



  • Gustavo Hernandez from Uruguay

    Gustavo Hernandez from Uruguay

    Gustavo Hernandez comes from the capital of Uruguay, Montevideo. There, he was the owner of four restaurants serving local cuisine, the star of which is grilled beef. When he came to Romania, he continued his passion so today he is the owner of a restaurant specialising in Uruguayan cuisine. We asked Gustavo what made him think this type of restaurant would be successful here: “I wanted to open a restaurant in Romania to show how we work with beef. Uruguay has the world’s largest consumption of beef and is the biggest exporter of beef. In my country, the cattle are bred in a natural environment, on pastures, stress-free, so their meat is very good.”



    Gustavo Hernandez also told us what brought him to Romania: “Love, I think. My wife is from Sibiu and we have been together for 14 years. In Uruguay, I used to own four restaurants. Because of the daily stress and the political changes in Uruguay I decided to come to Romania to look for a more peaceful life. The lifestyle here is more relaxed. Romania is also very good for business. I first came for a trial period and everything went great!”



    Our interlocutor told us more about his life in Romania compared to Uruguay: “Politics has changed a lot in Uruguay, it’s a matter of safety there. It wasn’t because my business failed that I left, but because of safety problems. Romania is a quiet, safe country, you can walk freely on the streets and you’re in no danger. The business environment is also very good. We want to expand. We started with one restaurant, we built a really big grill. We use wood for the fire, although normally you would use coal for the grill. We like to cook the beef on a wood fire, in front of our customers. It’s a completely different taste. That way you don’t lose the essence of the taste of beef.”



    Gustavo has two children, a 5-year-old girl called Sofia and a 2-year-old boy called Emilian. Gustavo loves Sibiu, but has also fallen in love with all the other places he has visited in Romania:


    “I liked everything: Constanta, because I also come from a seaside city, Montevideo is on the shore of the ocean. I liked everywhere I’ve been to in Romania. Everything! Then I came to Bucharest and I thought it was great. I don’t know why people complain it’s crazy, for me it’s great!”



    In his restaurant, Gustavo cooks grilled pizza, grilled vegetables, and of course, grilled beef. He also makes typical Romanian dishes at his customers’ request. We asked him about his favourite Romanian food: “Minced meat rolls in pickled cabbage leaves and tripe soup. In my restaurant, where I also cook, I have two Uruguayan chefs. In fact, I love all Romanian food. You have extraordinary dishes! Great cuisine!”



    Having already become Romanian, Gustavo speaks good Romanian but sometimes mixes it with Spanish, which is quite similar to Romanian.


  • Sharon Scabin of Italy

    Sharon Scabin of Italy

    Sharon Scabin is an Erasmus student with
    the Ioan Alexandru University in Iasi, north-eastern Romania. She first came to
    Romania while she was a student of the University of Padova, and the University
    of Iasi organised summer courses for those who wanted to learn Romanian. Her
    first experience there was a very pleasant one, hat is why she has taken every
    opportunity to come back:




    At the University
    of Padua I was learning Russian, and when I realised Russian was not really my
    thing, I started looking for something else. I had some Italian friends who
    were working in Romania, and they suggested I should learn Romanian. I realised
    right away that I liked the Romanian language and literature and I wanted to
    study it. I’ve also learnt something about the Romanian education system, which
    is quite different from the Italian one. For instance, although in Romania
    students spend less time in class, they are so well prepared. Also, the
    bibliography is much more comprehensive than the one used in Italy. In Italy,
    education focuses more on what is happening during classes. As I said, I think
    Romanian students are better trained than the Italian ones and when I saw the
    bibliography for the first time, I was a bit surprised. I then realised that
    the most important thing for the Romanian students is reading, and debates in
    class focus on what they have read. In this way the student feels included in
    the life of the university.




    Learning Romanian,
    Sharon has also started to read major Romanian authors:




    One love at first
    sight for me was Mircea Eliade. I first heard about him at a conference in
    Italy. An extraordinary professor had a course on Mircea Eliade and cultural
    diplomacy. I loved it and I wanted to learn more about him. This is how I
    started reading his works. I liked his writings so much that I decided to do my
    graduation paper on him. I called it Cosmogony in Mircea Eliade’s Work. So now
    I can say I love Romanian literature even more. And the opportunity to walk
    around Iasi, a city where great writers like Mihai Eminescu, Ion Creanga, I. L.
    Caragiale also used to walk, feels me with emotion.




    Sharon says that
    she also loves Romania because of its people and that Iasi has become a second home
    to her.

  • Youcef Kadri of Algeria

    Youcef Kadri of Algeria

    Youcef Kadri is a young Algerian passionate about IT&C. He speaks fluently several widely-circulated languages and is currently working for a call center in Bucharest. We asked Youcef Kadri how his Romanian experience started: “I am a team manager in a call center in Bucharest. I did my studies back in my home country, Algeria, where I focused on hardware maintenance. I came to Romania after I tuned 18. Romania was the first country I ever visited and it so happened that I fell in love with it right away. I remember it was in winter and I was traveling to Orşova. I was so amazed by the landscapes. I really enjoyed the sight of what I saw. I couldn’t believe that I had reached Romania!”



    Youcef starts work very early in the morning and is very busy during the day: “I wake up at 5 a.m. and sometimes at 6 a.m. At 7 I go to the pool for a swim. I work until 6 p.m. Then I go home where I cook and clean the house. At my work place I have managed to adapt quite well, there is no big difference between the atmosphere here in Romania and that in Algeria, because I work with very young people. We get along very well. We make jokes, at the weekend we go out together as a team and each Saturday we play football”.



    We asked Youcef about his favorite place in Bucharest and what other cities of Romania he has visited so far: “I like Bucharest as a whole, but my favourite location is the Cişmigiu park. I have been to other parks as well but Cişmigiu has something special. I would like to revisit the park in Craiova which I heard has been refurbished. Each park has a positive impact on the body and the soul. Of course, each park is different and what matters most is the time when you visit it. Bucharest is a green city as compared to other cities from abroad. I have been almost everywhere in Romania, I have seen the mountains and the Black Sea Coast.”



    Besides his passion for sports like swimming, diving or snorkeling and football, Yousef is also interested in gastronomy. He cooks Algerian dishes as well as Romanian dishes: “I like to cook. Romanian sour soup is not that different from what we have in Algeria. And we also cook polenta. Almost all the traditional Romanian cuisine is similar to the Algerian one. The ingredients may be different but they are combined in almost the same manner. Especially the polenta, the cabbage rolls and the sour soup”.



    Youcef Kadri has also shared with us his impressions on his interaction with young Romanians: “We respect each other. In general, interaction is influenced by each individual’s personality. Wherever you go, you will find both good and bad people. I have noticed that the Romanian young people speak fluently several foreign languages, which I really appreciate. They are active people. The people I have met have received me very well in Romania. Of course, in the beginning it was a little harder, as I was coming from a different continent. People didn’t know much about Algeria, they thought it was located somewhere in the desert. Later, when they had come to know me better and had become aware of the principles that guided my life, we started to get along very well.”



    Youcef Kadri is still in love with Romania and never misses a chance to talk to everyone about the pleasant experience he has had over the past years in Bucharest. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)

  • El Shaiah Hodor of Lebanon

    El Shaiah Hodor of Lebanon

    At 23 El Shaiah Hodor decided to leave his native country for a better life in Germany, and his ways brought him to Romania where he took the name of Doru. He only intended to transit Romania, but what he discovered in this country made him remain.



    El Shaiah Hodor: “Back in the 1990s I was transiting Romania, I had a 48 hour visa, as I was heading for Germany. I liked Romanians, I liked the country and so I decided to stay in Romania. I have been living in Romania for 27 years. I made friends very quickly because many people were speaking French. I am a Lebanese and, as you may know, French is like the second mother tongue for many Lebanese people. I lived in a building near the Academy of Economic Studies and so I made friends with many students studying economics. I liked the people very much and so I decided to stay and live in Romania.”



    He learnt Romanian quite easily as his friends helped him a lot. In the beginning he managed to obtain a 6-month visa on condition he made proof of the fact that he could provide for himself. Then he started a family.



    El Shaiah Hodor: “In 1993 I met my future wife. We got married, we have children, we have a house, land and animals. We have everything we wanted. I have my own business. I like Romanian people. Here I have more friends than I ever had back in Lebanon.”



    In Lebanon he used to work in constructions, but, like in many Asian countries, Doru could cut and style hair, so he opened his own hairdresser’s salon.



    We asked Doru how he adapted to the Romanian cuisine and which his favorite dishes are: “I like the Romanian bulz, a dish consisting of polenta, cheese, home-made sour cream and a fried egg. I do not eat pork but I like stuffed vine leaves with minced beef or mutton. I also like the Romanian sour soups. I generally add more spices, because that’s how we eat in Lebanon, we usually add many spices and condiments.”



    Despite the fact that he feels at home in Romania, he has his family and friends, Doru has one regret: “At present, after 27 years of living in Romania, I still don’t have Romanian citizenship. I have been married for 21 years, my children have now grown. This is my biggest regret, given that some time in the future I will have a Romanian grandson or granddaughter, but I do not have Romanian citizenship.”



    Nevertheless, El Shaiah Hodor or Doru, by his Romanian name, feels he is a Romanian citizen and not many people could guess his origin. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)

  • Peter Hurley of Ireland

    Peter Hurley of Ireland

    Peter Hurley says he fell in love with Romania forever in 1994 when he first visited the country. He learnt to speak Romanian perfectly, he wears Romanian traditional costumes quite naturally and in 26 years of living in Romania he came to the conclusion that Romanians have extraordinary positive energy despite the many difficulties they have been facing. Peter has also persuaded his relatives from Ireland that Romania is the best choice for living one’s life, so, upon his advice, one of his sisters, a nutritionist from Dublin, spent a year and a half in the Danube Delta as a volunteer. She enjoyed her stay so much that later she returned to Romania together with her husband, this time as a tourist.



    Here is Peter Hurley with details on his first encounter with Romania: “I could say that I have spent more than half of my life in Romania. My granddaughter, who came here to see me 2 years ago, told me that I looked more Romanian than Irish. That’s what I believe myself, I think that I have become a Romanian. When I came to this country, I didn’t know much about it. All I knew was that I wanted to emigrate and go to any country in Eastern Europe. At that time, a friend of mine, an Irishman, was working in Romania and asked me if I wanted to go there too. That happened more than 22 years ago when we were both very young. It was only later that I looked for the location of Romania on the map. This urge to go and live in Eastern Europe materialized in the summer of 1993, when I went to Prague for a few days. It was then that I realized that I knew very little about the world I was living in, because I had never asked myself what was going on behind the Iron Curtain.”



    After having worked in advertising for 15 years, Peter Hurley decided to set up an intercultural association focusing on traditions, and he started to promote Romania, a country that became his second motherland. So, in 2010 Peter Hurley managed to set up the first intercultural festival in Romania called “The Long Road to the Merry Cemetery”. He used all his savings to organize the festival, which made quite an impression, especially through the symphony concert given on a meadow in Săpânţa by 120 artists from Ireland, Scotland, Spain and Romania.



    Here is Peter Hurley back at the microphone: “I thought that I could do something here, I could promote Romanian culture myself. So, in the first 15 years of living in Romania, I did was I used to do back in Ireland, namely advertising. It was in the past 6 years that I took up things that I really believed in. At the beginning of this new experience, when I decided that I should promote Romania, I asked myself how that strong spirituality could be born out in the Romanian space, and I realized that its roots were in villages. That’s how the idea to hold a cultural event in a village crossed my mind, in 2007, when I was still working in advertising. It was a memorable evening, when I met Nicu Covaci, the leader of the band Phoenix, who told me about the resemblance between Dacians and Celts, about the similarities between our cultures. It was then that I thought of exploring the similarity between the Irish and Romanian music as part of a cultural event. Since 2007 I have been looking for a concept to suit our ideas. And in 2009 a famous Irish composer, Shaun Davey, composed an extraordinary piece inspired by the inscriptions on the tombstones in the Săpânţa cemetery. And since Shaun Davey is considered the most important living Irish composer, and his music, inspired by the Săpânţa epitaphs, was highly appreciated, I thought I had to do something to promote it”.



    The 7th edition of the festival entitled “The Long Road to the Merry Cemetery” will be unfolding between August 14- 21, starting from the concept “The United States of Maramureş”. Peter Hurley says that in an impressive and remarkable community effort, all the 63 villages in the Maramureş Area have mobilized to bring their contribution to this festival, each contributing a smaller or greater event. The festival will give participants the opportunity to discover the authentic values of the Romanian traditional village, Peter Hurley added. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)

  • Humberto Miquilena of Venezuela

    Humberto Miquilena of Venezuela

    The Venezuelan Cultural Week hosted by Bucharest this year started with the inauguration of the Exhibition featuring paintings and drawings by the talented and creative Venezuelan artist, Humberto Miquilena, who is living in Bucharest and is currently building a promising career in this country. His paintings are about places in Venezuela, a country where colors are different from what he discovered in Romania. Born in Caracas, Humberto Miquilena is now living in Romania, a country he has become very fond of and which drew him closer to what back in Venezuela was just a hobby.



    Humberto Miquilena: “Music and painting, for me, back in Venezuela, were just hobbies, since my job is that of graphic designer. I used to paint and play the guitar in my home country when I had inspiration. I cannot say what happened when I came to Europe. It was a revelation, a kind of magnetism that drew me to art. The first country I visited was Italy, a country with a huge culture known for its famous painters and sculptors. Before coming to Romania I did a little bit of reading on this country. It was very interesting to discover that it is the only Latin country in Eastern Europe with an Orthodox population. There are many things that draw you to this country. The truth is I feel at home here, I told my wife that I speak 70% Romanian and I am 30% Romanian.”



    Humberto Miquilena believes that Latin Americans and Romanians have a lot in common, and he speaks nicely about both cultures: “I like this country very much, I like Romanian humor which is similar to the Latin American humor. The Romanian language is similar to Italian but, to me, it is more like Spanish. Spanish has 5 vowels while Romanian has 7. Pronunciation and spelling are different. Also the climate is different. When I meet my friends, we make jokes about the concept of ‘staying in the draught’. We do not think in terms of draught. In Venezuela we leave the windows open because it is very hot. I remember the first time I came here in 2011. In was in Rome, there were 14 degrees C outside, and after two hours, when I reached Romania, the temperature was minus 1 degree C. I had never experienced such low temperatures. Thermometers read 11 degrees in Buenos Aires. Also the food is different, it is influenced by the climate. In Romania dishes mainly consist of pork and vegetables. And Romania is a culturally-rich country”.



    Tavi Colen Band is a Romanian pop-rock band born out of its members’ passion for music. Humberto Miquilena joined this band almost 2 years ago: “I met Tavi Colen about two and a half years ago, before joining the band. He was looking for someone who played the bass guitar. I had told some of my friends, who are musicians, that I could play the guitar and sing. Nobody knew me. A friend recommended me. I joined the band and have been playing with them for 2 years now. It was fate. It was difficult in the beginning, because he has a very good voice, he is one of the best singers in Romania. He combines traditional music with rock and classical music. I used to play rock and roll back in Venezuela. It was easier. Here I had to learn Romanian traditional songs and a little classical music. It was a challenge for me, but I think I’ve made it.”



    Humberto Miquilena’s experience in Romania has helped him develop. He feels he is lucky because he met many people who believed in him and appreciated his talent. He is a Venezuelan but is now living far from his country of origin and he believes he needs to offer something to the country that received him. In his opinion, Romania is open to the arts. Humberto Miquilena believes that his coming to live in Romania was not an accident, nothing happens without a reason. He thinks Romania has something luring that he cannot explain in words. He likes walking in Bucharest and taking photos of old buildings. He is thrilled by the co-existence of old and new buildings and he is enjoying everything that he’s experiencing in this country.


    (translation by Lacramioara Simion)

  • Steven van Groningen of the Netherlands

    Steven van Groningen of the Netherlands

    Steven van Groningen is a former professional athlete, a rower in the Netherlands’ Olympic team. He is a representative of the 5th generation of bankers in his family and is married to Valeria Răcilă, an Olympic champion and a member of Romania’s rowing team. He met her in Los Angeles at the 1984 Olympic Games. Since 2002 Steven van Groningen has been the president of Raiffeisen Bank Romania and he has been living in Romania for more than 15 years.



    Listen to him now as he shares with us his first impressions about Romania: “I first came to Romania in November 1985, but not as an expat, I was visiting the parents of my fiancée. It was in 1993 that I first came to Romania to work. At the time I worked for one year at the National Bank of Romania and then I worked in a Dutch bank. Ever since I have been living in Romania as an expat. People in Romania are very friendly, openhearted, they speak many foreign languages, they are not reticent to foreigners and this is the most pleasant thing to discover here as an expat. I have lived in other countries too, but the situation was not always as here”.



    Steven van Groningen confesses that he learnt the Romanian language easily, being helped by the fact that he studied Romance languages in school and that he is married to a Romanian woman: “I studied Latin in school but back then I never thought I would ever need it in life. I started to learn Romanian on my own in 1984 when I fell in love with a Romanian woman to whom I am married today. This year we will celebrate 30 years of marriage, so I had quite a long time to learn the language, which is not very complicated. What helped me a lot is that the Romanian language is a phonetically spelled language.”



    The big passion of Steven van Groningen is photography. He likes to travel a lot and Romania boasts a lot of beautiful places: “I love to travel around the country, as Romania has many beautiful places to visit. I am trying to go to the Danube Delta once a year and to Transylvania several times a year. My wife was born in Bukovina, which is a very, very beautiful region. I would like to travel more but I do not always manage to do that. Bucharest also has many interesting places to visit, from a cultural or an athletic point of view. Expats cannot complain that they don’t have anything to do here in Romania. If we talk about food, I find the local products or the organic products interesting, the good quality foods that are produced locally. I do prefer to cook at home, but if you want to eat out, Bucharest has lots of nice restaurants, like many other cities across Romania. I don’t eat much meat, but here in Romania most dishes have meat, so, if I do eat meat, I prefer to know how the animal was raised, fed and cooked. The region of Bukovina boasts a lot of good food, so I guess it’s better to eat regional dishes than to buy from a Bucharest supermarket.”



    Steven van Groningen cannot imagine life without sports, running or competitions: “I run a lot, especially in Herastrau Park, and I also cycle a lot. I have recently covered 110 kms on my bike, but I decided to put the bike in my car and drive up to the outskirts of the city. The roads around Bucharest are good, but drivers are not used to having cyclists in traffic, but that will change in time. I can see that more and more sports events are being held, which is a great thing”.



    In 2010 Raiffeisen Bank decided to promote and support the bicycle as a means of transport by launching the program “I love Velo” in partnership with the Green Revolution Association. The program allows the free rental of bicycles by the big corporations in Romania.


    (translated by Lacramioara Simion)

  • Patrick Ouriaghli of France

    Patrick Ouriaghli of France

    Patrick Ouriaghli has a cosmopolitan spirit and he settled in Romania for philanthropic purposes. He is the director of the Association “Workshops without borders” set up by his wife Raluca. Here, marginalized people, people without a home or a job, can benefit from professional re-training by working in several small social enterprises developed as projects by the association. For Patrick Ouriaghli, the decision to live in Romania was both objective, stemming from the wish and possibility to help these people, and subjective, Bucharest being the place where his wife lived and where he was to start a family. That is why adapting to the Romanian society was very easy.



    Patrick Ouriaghli: “Adapting to Romania was very easy. The only difficulty for me was the winter weather, as I was born in the south of France. But leaving winter weather aside, the people I met made me feel good at personal level. At professional level, there are many challenges and many things to be done. You always have something to discover and learn, and the project you are involved in is continuously growing. It’s really thrilling. There are few associations and social enterprises that operate in the field of social and professional reinsertion. Our objective is the make those people who are marginalized or excluded or who, for various reasons, are unable to find a normal job in a normal company, active again. After a period of professional training and employment, these people can get hired in a normal company, even a famous one. From this point of view, we are not alone on the market, there another 11 such associations in Romania. Together, we have created a consortium called RISE, the network of social insertion enterprises in Romania. These enterprises have a similar purpose, namely to help those people who are currently considered a burden for the society become active again”.



    For instance, one of the projects of the “Workshops without borders” is about recycling advertisement banners and turning them into bags. The bags are made by women in a difficult condition who, in this way, acquire further skills and also obtain a salary until they get hired in a normal company.



    Patrick Ouriaghli: “For us, it is very important not to turn our backs on some members of the society who, although today are not able to integrate into a normal company, with a little training and confidence, they can turn into qualified and efficient human resources. In this way people become responsible and no longer depend on the system. These people themselves find it hard to believe that they can improve their social status and become responsible citizens. But it is also our job to help them regain self-confidence. That is why we have developed certain economic activities that both benefit the environment, such as waste recycling projects, and boost social solidarity, such as the projects related to computer donations. We also have this project related to banner recycling called REMASH as well as an organic farm. All these are positive activities and the people involved in them are proud of them. In this way they regain self-confidence”.



    Passionate about his activity at the “Workshops without borders” and perfectly integrated into the atmosphere of the capital Bucharest, Patrick Ouriaghli is not going to leave Romania too soon: “I have lived in several countries, my wife has also lived for several years in Paris. But at a certain point we will go either to France or to another country, we do not know for sure now. This is not a clear priority now, at present we are living in Romania and we have a lot to do here”.



    The activities at the “Workshops without borders” combine ecological projects with humanitarian ones and the professional insertion actions offer a labor contract for a determined period of time of 24 months, an activity in one of the following fields: recycling, IT maintenance, logistics, packaging, handling of goods, cleaning, transportation, manufacturing as well as customized services such as counseling, guidance, training and mediation, for finding a job, together with NGOs, partner institutions and companies.

  • Joyce Easton of Scotland

    Joyce Easton of Scotland

    When she first came to Romania in 2006 she didn’t find the country attractive. Her children were very small and when they visited Bucharest’s Old Town they discovered it looked like a construction site. Her husband works for the Petrom company and she had to come to Romania quite frequently. When her older daughter went to college, the family decided they could move to Romania, with their younger, 15-year-old daughter having to change school. How did they find the idea of moving to Romania?



    Joyce Easton: “We weren’t too worried because we’d visited many times before, so it was a new experience and I think that over the years things had begun to develop a lot, so we were quite excited. We weren’t worried about coming because we knew where we were coming to, and perhaps for my daughter, a new school maybe was the challenge and I worked as a physiotherapist in Scotland so I wasn’t going to be working so that was a bit difficult for me as well.”



    But Joyce has adapted and shared with us what she did to occupy her time:



    Joyce Easton: “ I have a little dog, when I was by the park, so I enjoy walking him in the park, I have tried to get involved with a few charities, I haven’t recently but before Christmas I was doing volunteering one or two days a week for Casa Sperantei and working with a physiotherapist there, and I tried to be involved a little in the school, if there’s anything happening was the school, my Romanian license..[laughs] I know many words but making sentences of them was a little bit more of a challenge, but my daughter Ioana is trying very hard and I am going to continue until I leave Romania”.



    We asked Joyce about her favourite activity in Romania:



    Joyce Easton: “Mmm, eating, I love all the restaurants, a big variety, and I also like doing and finding out about the local culture, so I like to go to the markets and once a week to do some shopping for vegetables and things, and also I like to do some cultural things, obviously if there’s an opera, because it’s very affordable here, and in the UK it’s very expensive, and some music things that again, I find Romanians are very cultured people”.



    Next Joyce will tell us what she would recommend to a potential visitor to Romania:



    Joyce Easton: “I think the countryside is beautiful I haven’t traveled very far north but I’ve been to other places Sinaia, Sibiu, we’ve been skiing in Poiana Brasov, and it’s very different to the city, so it’s a beautiful countryside. There are things that people don’t known if they don’t come to Romania, like the very thriving wine industry which we had an interest in before, so we like to eat out and as I said the culture and historical buildings are great to visit and ballet, opera, music and all things I was interested at home but it was quite expensive, so there’s lots to do for someone visiting.”



    Joyce’s daughter has adapted to living in Romania and has found the right activities to dedicate her time to:



    Joyce Easton: “She loves the shops, she likes fashion. It’s similar but there’s slightly different things because there’s many developing Romanian designers, things are a little bit more affordable, so she’s quite interested in looking at different small boutique shops that designers are trying to do. And she also enjoys going out with her friends. I think it’s a safe environment for a teenager, I feel, compared to back in the UK, so they have quite a lot of freedom. So she, at 15, 16 is beginning to maybe go out in the evening with her friends until a little bit later, and things. The old city, I think, is a great environment, you see an old lady with her dog sitting having a coffee, there will be young people out, teenagers, families. There never seems to be any trouble. I tend not to go in the city much after 1 or 2 in the morning, but I don’t feel threatened in any way, I use the underground, you know, I am happy to walk around on my own, whereas (I’m from Scotland) I wouldn’t want to be out in the city after maybe ten or eleven o’clock”.



    Joyce also referred to several other differences between the Romanian and Scottish cultures.



    Joyce Easton: “As an expat I don’t feel threatened at all and I think the other thing when we visited, when the children were younger, at the beginning, simple things like they seem to have quite a lot of respect for older people, there seems to be that culture, people would get up and give up their seat on the underground, which never happened at home.”



    Is she were to mention something that she dislikes in Romania, Joyce would say car parking and driving which are real challenges.

  • Gilberto Ortega of Cuba

    Gilberto Ortega of Cuba

    Gilberto Ortega recalls with clockwork precision the day when he set foot in Romania: July 11, 2006. For him it was a day that he will remember forever: “Coming to Romania, where I have been living for more than 9 years, meant to change my life. The culture in Romania is completely different. And, as a rule, it is very important not to forget the date when you move forward in your life”.



    A percussion virtuoso, Gilberto came to Bucharest per the advice of a well-known Latino music singer, Analia Selis, an Argentinean musician and an expat in Romania: “She needed a percussionist and so I was offered the chance to perform. I came to Romania, I liked it and I decided to stay. That was it.”



    But adapting to Romania was no easy task for Gilberto. In the course of the 9 years he has lived in Bucharest, Gilberto Ortega has accomplished many things including proficiency in the Romanian language. It was a considerable challenge for him but he is now a fluent speaker.



    Gilberto Ortega: ”When I came here, Analia Selis met me at the airport from where she took me directly to rehearsals. I didn’t even know where I was going to live. The first word in Romanian I learnt was ‘boss’. Then, little by little, because I was performing only with Romanian musicians, I started asking what certain words in Romanian meant. I had a copybook in which I wrote down various words in Romanian. So, I eventually learnt Romanian. Actually, I had to”.



    Gilberto Ortega is a fighter and a winner, as his life story, as much of it as we could find out, shows. Although he was born into a family of musicians, his mother wanted him to study law. But Gilberto insisted on studying music. As a self-taught artist, Gilberto said 60% up to 70% of what he learnt is the result of his individual work of knowledge he acquired from his musically-gifted relatives.



    Gilberto Ortega: “From 1998, when I started my professional career, until 2006, when I came to Romania, I worked incessantly. This was my life, this is all I could do: music and nothing else!”



    In his home country, Gilberto performed traditional Cuban music, and has toured almost 25 countries: “I have been to many countries. In 2000, I went to Japan, then to Mexico. In Europe I went to Italy, France, Germany, Belgium. I also went on tours in Canada, the Caribbean Islands, Chile, and so on. I have traveled a lot until I reached Romania.”



    Gilberto’s travels have taken him across Romania, too. has also traveled across Romania. His favorite cities are Sibiu and Brasov, in Transylvania, and Timisoara in the west: “I like the location of Brasov city, right at the foot of the mountain. In Sibiu I like the architecture very much. I have performed a lot at a jazz festival in Sibiu, so I like that place very much”.



    Gilberto Ortega has performed alongside Romanian pop music singers such as Pepe, Stefan Banica Jr., Andra, Alex Velea and Connect-R. He has also collaborated with bands such as Mandinga and Bosquito. Last but not least Gilberto has performed alongside the Radio Big Band conducted by Ionel Tudor, on the stage of the Radio Hall.



    Gilberto Ortega: “Performing with the Radio Big Band is a great experience. The Big Band’s musicians have a very high level of proficiency. And the conductor Ionel Tudor is very good. I have learnt a lot from them. Which is why I intend to continue to collaborate with the Radio Big Band. Performing with them is a really special experience. We play jazz music and other different genres. For me this is a very special thing!”



    Drumset, tumbadora, bongos, timbales…these words may sound strange to us, but for Gilberto Ortega they are his favorite “working instruments”. He plays all these instruments here in Romania where he enjoys living.



    If Gilberto were to change anything about Romania, he would make winters milder, as he finds it kind of hard to cope with minus 15 degrees C during winter days. For the rest, Romania is dear to him, be it for the simple fact that it is here that he saw snow for the first time in his life. (translation by Lacramioara Simion)