Radio România Internațional

Category: Expat in Romania

Talia Delgado of Spain

Talia Delgado first came to Romania in 1998 and a few years later, namely in 2003, she decided to settle in Romania. In the more than 10 years she has spent in Romania, she has developed a rich activity mainly related to her job, journalism.

Talia Delgado: “From a journalistic point of view, I found it extraordinary to know Romania and its people through the articles I wrote about them. Also, my social activity here has been rich. For a while I have been involved with the Romanian NGOs and I had the occasion to learn more about the Romanian society, what is working well and what is not working so well”.

As a freelance journalist, Talia collaborated with many publications from Spain, Belgium, Egypt and even Australia: “As regards Romania, I was asked to write articles about the country’s social developments, about how the transition process has unfolded after the fall of the Communist regime, I used to write about children, the elderly, about Romanian workers who chose to work abroad and the reasons behind their decision to do so, about the labor market in Romania that drove so many Romanians abroad. Now I write only about good things. After so many years one can see a change for the better in Romania. It’s not about malls being built everywhere in Romania, it’s more about a change in mentalities. People have started to become aware of the power of the citizens over the politicians. So far, politicians have made the rules. But the Romanian citizens have learnt to say ‘Stop. That’s enough!’ For instance, Romanians have started to protest in the streets more often. When I settled in Romania, I could see a lot of drawbacks from a journalist’s point of view. I couldn’t believe that people were not protesting and asking for their rights. Nobody would take to streets to protest. As of 2011 the street has become an important tool, and people have started to make their voice heard.”

For two years, Talia Delgado worked as a volunteer in the county of Suceava, in the northeast of Romania to later settle in Bucharest where she set up an NGO, with the help of European funds, that focuses on mass media and intercultural communication. Her activity at this NGO included the setting up of an online magazine for young people, that became very popular with the target audience and that brought her three prizes — a Romanian, a European and an American prize.

Talia Delgado: “The dearest prize to me is the one I received in Romania. To be awarded a prize in a country which is not your home country, in a language that is not your native language, is, from my point of view, extremely important! It is a very nice experience!”

At present, Talia is a trainer: “I am a trainer in communication and intercultural communication with Romanian companies that have mainly trade partnerships with Spain and South America. There aren’t many such companies in Romania, but they are big companies.”

In parallel, in an attempt to help the Spanish-speaking expats who want to work in Romania and whose number is growing every day, Talia Delgado created an online portal called hispatriados.com.: “First of all, we urge them to mingle and make friends with Romanians. An expat is prone to saying ‘well, I’ll be there for only 2 years, what’s the use of mingling with foreigners, it is easier to stay in my community who speaks my language’. But this is not the way to understand a country. When you go to a new place it is nicer to mingle with the locals and learn new things from them. And in Romania it is not hard at all to mingle with people. Romanians are very welcoming, they are always open towards foreigners. So, my advice to expats is to go beyond appearances. They should not take into account the image of Romania and Romanians fabricated by the mass media in our countries. They should try to make their own opinion. If they start with preconceived, negative ideas about a country, then their experience will surely be negative. And when you gradually come to get to know the people, to learn their language, you will get closer to their values, their culture and traditions”.

Talia Delgado is an excellent model of integration of an expat into a country of adoption, and her command of the Romanian language is unequalled. (translated by Lacramioara Simion)

10 February 2016
Laurent Jouault of France

Laurent Jouault left the wonderful region of Mont Saint Michel of France to settle in another dream-like region in Romania: namely southern Moeciu, in the Southern Carpathians, a place located between the Piatra Craiului and Bucegi massifs, on the Rucar-Bran corridor.

Laurent Jouault settled in Romania 8 years ago as he married a Romanian woman: “This is destiny. It so happened that one day I decided to leave my job back in France and come to Romania. I came to Romania for the first time in 1997. I visited Romania on and off before settling here for good. Back in France I was the director of a Youth Centre. I was working as a socio-cultural animator, taking care of children and youngsters, organizing various activities, trips and so on, in brief activities for children and youth. This is how I came to Romania for the first time. It was an exchange between Romanian and French youngsters. Once I settled in Moeciu I carried on with the main activity I was undertaking in France. I also animated photo workshops, so I continued to do what I did best, since I am a photographer.”

Against the backdrop of the scenic landscape at the heart of the Carpathians, Laurent Jouault opened in his courtyard, in the former workshop of his wife’s grandfather a “House with Images”- La cabane aux images, a museum –gallery meant to help visitors discover the history of photography, mainly film photography. As Laurent Jouault recollects on his personal blog, on a Saturday, on July 11, 2011, friends and neighbors from Moeciu and from neighboring Rasnov and also from Normandy, came to attend the official opening of the ‘House with Images’. It was a rather crazy idea to open an exhibition in a village at the foot of the Carpathians!

But… “It is an area open to the public, it is both an exhibition and a museum devoted to old photographic techniques. I still work using these techniques and I exhibit here the photos I take. Since I have the chance to live in a village, which is a hot spot for tourists, the “House with Images” gives me the chance to meet a lot of people. In the village, my museum has become quite an attraction both for locals and tourists. This was actually my intention when I set up the House: to make it a meeting place where people should discover things and open themselves to new things, and where other artists are invited to exhibit their works. It is a place where artists can exchange experience on the issue of old photographic techniques.”

Being an expat is not always easy, because you can’t help missing your home country. Laurent Jouault was lucky because his wife is a Romanian from Moeciu, so he adapted more easily: “Opening the ‘House with images’ allowed me to get to know more people from the village and I have made a lot of friends. Not to mention that I am not the only foreigner in Moeciu! There are 2 other foreigners: a Spaniard and a German woman. It is difficult to live far away from your native country. I have managed to have a good command of the Romanian language, although I still make mistakes. But people often congratulate me for my good command of Romanian and are surprised to hear that I am not a Romanian”.

Moeciu is for many Romanians an ideal place for spending their free time, both for entertainment and relaxation. The scenery, the clean, fresh air of the area, the mountain tracks proper for hiking, the tourist sites, the abrupt hills, the chalets and guest houses make the area a genuine piece of heaven. So living in Moeciu is a real chance per se. Laurent Jouault has also visited many other places across Romania, such as Maramures in the north, Bukovina in the northeast, the Danube Delta in the southeast.

Visiting those places was an opportunity for Laurent to capture on film Romania’s beauties: “Romania is a country of contrasts. Contrast is the word that best characterizes this country. It is the contrast between those who drive 4-wheel drive cars and those who drive horse-driven carts. It is the contrast between those who have high-tech mobile phones and those who live in sheer poverty. I can feel here in Romania a sort of dynamism combined with uncertainty for tomorrow.”

For Laurent Jouault photography is synonymous with the word ‘meeting’. It is the meeting between a French guy and his country of adoption, Romania, which he continues to explore and discover through the lens of his film camera. (Translated by Lacramioara Simion)

27 January 2016
Andreas Menzel, a German Expat in Love with Romania

After working for a while in Romania, something that was supposed to be just temporary, Mr. Andreas Menzel, Head of FMC, Pricing & Planning- Telekom Romania realized he could not stay away from this country. He decided to come and work here for a longer period of time and, in just a few years, he has got to know about Romania and its people more than most Romanians do. Listen to the very interesting conversation I had with him on a sunny winter day at the Peasant Museum in Bucharest:

26 January 2016
Father Sava

Today you are invited to meet Father Sava – Stephen, as he is known in society. He was born in far away America. He was raised in pure Catholic tradition but he discovered Orthodoxy in his teen years, as he used to read Russian writers such as Lev Tolstoi and Fyodor Dostoesvky, and also the lives of various saints and great mystics. What is life? Who are we? What is our purpose in this world? These are questions that have always troubled him.

Father Sava: “In high school I used to be a fan of Dostoesvky. I grew up as a Catholic in New Orleans, Louisiana. As I was reading Dostoesvky I wanted to understand the differences between Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy. Dostoesvky was rather anti-Catholic. He insisted a lot that Orthodoxy was the true Christianity and that Roman-Catholicism was a sort of straying Christianity”.

Intrigued by such a statement Stephen continued to read and he even made a decision that changed his life! After graduating from high school he secretly went to an Orthodox church from his region and converted. In parallel he dreamt of becoming a violinist, but he took his degree in accounting. He worked in one of America’s biggest banks, has had a plentiful life, he loved and was loved back. All this happened until he turned 40, when Stephen decided to swim against the current of material life and decided to become a monk. He first joined an Orthodox monastery in the US.

Father Sava: “Reading books about monks and saints, I started craving for monastic life. In 1999, when I was 40, I decided it was high time I became a monk. I resigned my position at the bank in North Carolina and joined a Greek monastery in Ohio, where I stayed for one year and 4 months. In their library I found a book written by the Romanian bishop Serafim Joantă in which he said that, along the centuries, the Romanian society and culture have developed in close relation with the Orthodox Church.”

With orthodox Romania in his mind, the American monk started for Mount Athos. There, a Romanian father named Vasile talked to him for the first time about Oaşa, a small monastery in the Southern Carpathians, a monastery of young monks, most of whom were higher education graduates.

Oaşa became in 2004 the home of father Stephen or rather Father Sava: “I feel very good here, I have a good relationship with the other monks. I don’t feel a stranger. Frequently I feel more at home than I used to feel back in America. I do not intend to leave the Oaşa monastery. It is safe here. I’ll stay here, and I hope to grow more spiritually and with God in mind I hope to become a good monk”.

‘The American on top of the mountain’, who became a Romanian citizen, prays a lot, there are 6-7 hours of religious service at the monastery, he works and he also likes to make jokes and laugh…he says he is kind of a monastic Tom Cruise, given the media coverage he has received in Romania. People have received him with warmth and care and some even asked for his autograph.

Father Sava: “10 years ago, on Christmas day, we had about 20 up to 25 guests. Now we always have more than 200. Most of them, if not all, are teenagers. I am amazed that they choose to come here instead of staying home with their parents. Christmas is a family celebration, but this points to their thirst for God’s word”.

If back in America Father Sava used to sing in a big choir pieces by Brahms, Verdi, Beethoven or Mahler, in Oaşa he sings psalms together with the other monks. At the end of October, he left the monastery to come to Bucharest to participate, at the Radio concert hall, in the final stage of the annual church music contest organized by the Romanian Patriarchate in partnership with Radio Romania. There were several choirs of nuns and just one choir of monks, that of Oaşa. Although he did not win the jury’s grand prize, he was the public’s favourite; they applauded him for quite a long time and the enthusiastic cheers made one think of a pop rock concert rather than of a religious music contest.

(Translated by Lacramioara Simion)

7 January 2016
Ting

In this program you are invited to meet 28- year-old Chinese, Ting, who will share with you what it is like to be living in Romania. Ting has been living in Romania for 8 years and he is currently the owner of a Chinese fast food restaurant called Hao Chi, which translates into English as Yummy. The restaurant is small but customers can relish various types of Chinese food from the early hours of the day. Ting himself is the cook and he is also helped by his mother. His girlfriend is Romanian and she gives a hand whenever she can.

Ting has a family business he is very proud of. But what made him set up a business in Romania? “In my family parents have always said that the boy should go to a foreign country to see what life there is like. My cousin was already here when I first came to Romania, she had her own business and I came to help, but eventually I ended up setting up my own business. Now both China and Romania are my homes”.

Meanwhile Ting is trying to improve his Romanian language, which he still has difficulty in speaking fluently. His effort to make himself understood by his friends and especially his customers is really remarkable. He opened his restaurant about 2 months ago and is doing his best to get things work well.

Ting : “We want to do the best we can for the Romanians. We want to offer them the best Chinese food, fresh and not very expensive. Every morning I wake up at 6, I arrive at the restaurant where I start preparing the food and then I wait for my clients. I am the cook, the shop assistant, I am in charge of food procurement, I do it all”.

His mother is also helping him with the business: “I have brought my mother along to Romania to help me. My father is still in China because he is working, he has not retired yet, but when he retires he will come to Romania too. My mother is not very convinced that she likes living in Romania. Back in China she had lots of friends but she hasn’t made any friends here.”

Ting does not have too much time on his hands. He works from Monday to Sunday, and he starts early in the morning and ends late at night. He never goes on holiday but doesn’t complain. On the contrary, he says this is the Chinese way, they are used to working very hard. If at first, when he set foot in Romania, he wanted to open a leather and jewellery business, he subsequently changed his mind. He decided to offer Bucharesters quality Chinese food at a reasonable price, his clients being the people in the neighbourhood and the employees of the well-known Dinamo sports club, located nearby.

Ting has also made a very interesting confession: Romania, his adoptive country, has brought him quiet: “In Romania there isn’t so much noise like in China. In China there are very many people who speak very loudly. People in Europe speak in a lower voice”.

As to the Romanian cuisine Ting is very fond of the famous Romanian polenta and also of mici — the Romanian minced meat sausages and of the tripe soup, which he compares to something that he ate when in Turkey.

During the day Ting is permanently connected to the Internet, to see if there are any food orders placed online and he also browses through the Chinese sites to stay abreast of the latest information from his native country China. From time to time, when he finishes work at the restaurant and if he does not feel exhausted, he goes out with his friends for a coffee. Most of his friends are Romanian. He is optimistic and hopes that things will work out well for him.

18 November 2015
Amarjit Sidhu

Todays guest is Amarjit Sidhu, who is an aircraft pilot, a journalist, a photographer and a cook. He says that in Romania he feels like home and that this is the country where his best friends are now.

” I was born in India, but I left India in 1982, to go to America. So since 1982 Ive been away from India. First it was in Texas, then it was Miami, Florida, in Los Angeles, Chicago, then New York. So most of the time I lived in New York city…I came to Romania for the first time in October 2010..I came here as I was working for a company that used to cover UN conferences…so wed go around wherever there was a UN conference and cover it as a journalist. We would do a daily newspaper for a conference. So when I came here there was a conference on the Internet, about the governments role in Internet technology, it was a three-day conference at the big Palace Hall…After that we stayed for another two-three weeks to cover some more projects. I have gone to many countries but this was the first time when I was leaving Bucharest, it was towards the end of October, it was very misty and cold, I had tears in my eyes, I don t know why, but literally stopped a taxi and at the Triumphal Arch and I took some pictures there. Then I went back to New York and we published a magazine…in December of 2002 the company went out of business, so in January 2003 I didnt have a job in New York any more. And while I was here, somebody at the UN told me if I want to do a project with photos, so in January I called the person in charge, asking would you still want me to do the project; he said, yes, come! So I came back here in 2003 and the project was for three months…it lasted for five months. “

After years of coming and going, to and from Romania, Amarjit Sidhu finally settled in Bucharest for good a year ago.

“I came back to Romania in September last year, now I feel like Ill just stay here now.. I dont move anywhere. I go maybe for six months somewhere, but I would always come back here. I came as a photographer, for a journalist, and slowly I moved into cooking. I like to cook, I used to cook for my friends here, then my friends said: why dont you just start catering, you know.. I was just going to open a catering company, then somebody from an Indian restaurant told me to come join him…so I joined that restaurant, and from there on its mostly cooking.”

There are no common points between the Indian and the Romanian cuisine as they are totally different from one another – says Amarjit Sidhu, who by the way is mad about Cluj cabbage, a dish where cabbage and minced meat are placed in layers, and cooked in the oven with lots of cream. If in the early 2000 he had no choice other than visit lots of shops in Bucharest, looking for a piece of ginger root, now Amarjit Sidhu finds many of the spices he needs for the Indian food he cooks. Yet he also has a friend who brings part of them from London.

About the Romanians and especially about the younger generation, Amarjit Sidhu says they are curious, open and friendly. He feels comfortable around them. Actually, around 60% of his friends are Romanian; and he doesnt feel too many cultural differences between the two countries.

He has already read poems by Romanias national poet Mihai Eminescu, highlighting his resemblance with Indias Rabindranath Tagore. In the history of world culture, it is rare that see two people who have never met in person or through their readings, but who were so close to one another, in terms of mindset and way of expression. And when it comes to going places, he has already seen most of Romania.

“Almost all the cities, Ive been through them, Arad, Timisoara, Brasov, Cluj, Sighisoara, Baia Mare, Iasi, Tulcea, Vama Veche.. Bacau. Very recently I was in Sibiu and also Medias. Its a beautiful country! You have mountains, really beautiful! It has everything, you have a sea you can go to…if you want to go to the mountains, you go to the mountains, its not very far from here, 200 kilometers, anywhere in the mountains. You know, in India, if you want to go somewhere, everything is far, you know…you want to go to the ocean, you have to go 3,000 miles…so here, everything is very near. The only thing I think you dont have is the desert. This year I was in India in the desert for three months and I don t want to see the desert from now in ten years…its okay.”

In the forthcoming period, Amarjit Sidhu will be trying to get the European flight instructor license for the Boeing 737 flight simulators.

” Im also a pilot. I was an airline pilot for quite a few years, from 1987 to 2002. Well, this was my first thing, thats why I went to the States, it was to learn how to fly. That was the main reason for me to go to the States…thats what Ive been doing, once you love flying, youll always love it, you know…”

But apart from the 8,000-9,000 hours of flight on the record, Amarjit Sidhu also has a windmill he built for a home in India. He will also be focusing on cooking, photography and on the discovery of Romania and the Romanian people.

23 September 2015
Pascal Le Hen of France

Bucharest and Bordeaux are at the same latitude, but they couldnt be further apart. Pascal Le Hen shuttles between them: “Even though the environs of Bordeaux and the south west of France are generally beautiful, and life there is pleasant, I confess that I prefer living in Bucharest, especially on weekends, which are much more lively than in Bordeaux. I am Breton in origin, but I decided to live in Bordeaux for the quality of life. Even so, I am fanatical when it comes to Bucharest. I discovered it over 10 years ago, in 2003, for professional reasons at first. Little by little, I started visiting more often, and one day, around 2005 and 2006 I decided to stay. I was in a continuous to and fro in various countries, I was into cross-border cooperation, but I picked Bucharest as my base because I found the city very pleasant.

In 2010, while the economic crisis was at its deepest, Pascal Le Hen returned to his native country, but came back, and right now he is involved in a couple of projects with Romanian partners. He told us briefly about one of them: “This is a project which we could start around the city of Satu Mare, in northern Romania, in rural development, based on the fair trade principle, which could result in exporting finished products from agriculture, to France and other states.

In the meantime, Le Hen is the head of the Amicale France Roumanie friendship association: “This is an initiative years in the making. A lot was said about the negative image of Romania which the French press was promoting, by generalizing the behavior of a minority of a minority. I told myself this was not normal, especially given the very close relationship between Romania and France, since the times of Napoleon III, so I thought something had to be done. Two years ago, I wanted to see first of all if there are still people open to this concept of friendship between the two countries. We were about 40, and created a small Facebook group. Gradually, a few hundred, then a few thousands joined. If we add the other side groups we formed over time, we have about 13,000 members. Last year at the seaside we saw a great deal of interest. 40 people joined into a founding General Assembly, we set up the association. Most group members are Romanian, many living abroad, but we also have French people, Moldovans, Belgians, Swiss people… we also have North Africans who study in Romania. Our slogan is ‘The Adventure Begins. Our vision is not passé, on the contrary, it looks to the future.

Among other things, the Facebook page of the group features updates on the Romanian press, articles about France from the Romanian press, as well as articles about Romania for France. There are also commentaries and explanations when needed. As Le Hen put it, ‘we dont miss a thing.

Pascal Le Hen: “We start very early in the morning, because the first agency which publishes a press review does so at 3 AM. If we are available, and I am referring to the four of us who do this, we may start even as early as 3 AM. Around 6 or 7 oclock in the morning, we already have all the press reviews, as well as the days calendar.

The association also helps Romanians in France deal with bureaucratic matters, and puts them in touch with people or institutions that can help them. Cases are extremely diverse. In other words, the volume of work is staggering, which does not prevent Pascal from doing everything on time, but also take walks through Bucharest or around the country.

Pascal Le Hen: “I appreciate a lot of places, even though there are many I have missed. For instance, Transylvania, which I have not visited enough. Then I also have lots of small pleasures, like just sitting on a bench in Cismigiu Park in Bucharest. I absolutely love it!

One of the things that Pascal told us he particularly likes is the spontaneity and quality of hospitality that Romanians display towards visitors and foreigners.

10 September 2015
Marco Cassioli, scholarship student at New Europe College in Bucharest

New Europe College is an institute of advanced social-human studies established in 1994 in Bucharest with the aim of creating an international network of prestigious academics. One of the New Europe College scholars is Marco Cassioli, with whom we talked about his academic interests and his relationship with Romania.

“I’m from north-western Italy, from Piemont, the region that is currently home to the largest community of Romanians in Italy. They say there are about 150,000 out of a million ethnic Romanians living in that region alone. In Italy I was a school teacher and I had pupils from Romania, Albania, the Republic of Moldova. I must say I enjoyed the experience I had working with those children. They were all from well-integrated families, with working parents, who wanted their children to study. Romanian children in Italian schools are very good and serious. Maybe they do not spend that much time studying, but they are very respectful towards their teachers, and this is something that we no longer see in many of the Italian pupils.”

Marco Cassioli is a historian and his coming to Romania presented him with an unexplored area.

“I graduated from the Turin University with a thesis on the border between the Duchy of Savoy and the Republic of Genova, which is today’s border between France and Italy. Then I had the opportunity to continue my education with doctoral studies at the Aix-en-Provence University in France. My research topics are the medieval frontiers. This helps me understand geopolitics better, even if we are talking about the Middle Ages. Towards the end of my doctoral studies I was suggested by my friends from the Romanian Academy to focus on medieval Romania, more specifically on the medieval border between the 2nd Bulgarian Empire and the territory controlled by Tartars. That was a hot area at the time, where Genovese colonies had been established, such as Vicinia and Chilia. So, I learnt about New Europe College, I participated in the contest and I got one of the 10 seats of researchers”.

The stage in Romania was very pleasant to Marco, both from the point of view of the quality of the academic environment and all the existing facilities:

“I was very much impressed with my colleague’s knowledge and the academic environment here at NEC. We have been very well received, we benefit from good accommodation and everything else that we need to conduct our research. In this context I must say I’m particularly impressed with the high professional and cultural level of my Romanian colleagues. Some of them are really extraordinary, such as the one from Oradea who comes here every Wednesday to take part in the weekly seminar. He takes the night train to come to Bucharest and then he goes back to Oradea on Wednesday night. These are small sacrifices one makes in order to benefit from the many satisfactions that working here brings: access to bibliographies, to IT Instruments, international databases, Oxford and Cambridge reviews and magazines. This year I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with Bucharest University’s Faculty of Slavic Languages and I took there a course on paleo-Slavic and another one on compared grammar of Slavic languages, to help me make a comparison between the Genovese documents and the Romanian medieval documents hosted by the State Archives. The novelty for me was to compare several sources, Latin, Slavic and Byzantine documents, in order to come up with something new about this medieval border between the Bulgarian Empire, the Tartar territory and the Genovese settlements, who would later become the border between the Ottoman Empire and Russia.”

They say that all Romanians can understand Italian, so we were curious to find out if it’s easy for an Italian to understand Romanian too.

“To an Italian, the Romanian language is a very beautiful one. When I was in high-school and I was studying Greek and Latin, one of my dreams was to be able to speak Latin. But to speak Latin today is not possible, because it is a dead language. My contact with the Romanian language was like the contact with an evolved Latin, and when I speak Romanian I feel as if I spoke Latin with neologisms. Another fascinating thing is this Slavic component of the Romanian vocabulary, which makes it a sort of Esperanto of the European languages. It’s the contact language between the East and the West, and I believe that Romanians are a little bit like their language, meaning that even Romanian cuisine is a mix of the Mediterranean and the Slavic traditions. And I have learnt to speak conversational Romanian, and I like it very much. I feel integrated in Romania, in Romanian society, thanks to Romanians’ generosity and hospitality and this Latin temperament that has made me ask myself: “Am I really abroad?”

9 July 2015
Austin Jesse Mitchell, the USA

He is young, vivacious and a
rock music lover – he has an earring, and sports a massive ring to go with the
tattoo on his hand. Austin Jesse Mitchell is a native of LA, California, and he
was born on December 22nd 1989, when the revolution that toppled the
Ceausescu regime was in full swing in Romania. It is a curious coincidence for
Austin, who, 20 years later, decided within the span of five seconds to move to
Bucharest to play bass in the band Bosquito. The band’s singer, Radu Almasan,
spent a few years in the US, where he met our guest. This is what Austin told
us, speaking in Romanian:

I was brought here by a very
talented Romanian singer who I’d been playing with in LA. When Radu decided to
go back to Romania, I asked him if I could go with him, so we could continue to
play together. He wanted to leave, but it didn’t even occur to him to take me
along, to get me out of my native town and travel all across Europe. When I
heard that, I thought about it for all of five seconds, and said: ‘I want to go
with you! I want to keep playing with you. I didn’t know much about Bosquito,
or about Romania, for that matter. I only knew one phrase in Romanian: ‘The
gentleman is paying’, and that’s about it. I had learned it from a book, and I
thought it would be useful when going to a foreign country where I didn’t know
anybody.

At first, all Austin could do
when Romanian was spoken around him and he didn’t understand a word, was to
smile. On January 1st 2013, his band mates had a surprise for him:
they told him they would refrain from speaking English around him altogether.
As a result, the young American is well acquainted with the Romanian language,
which is why he wanted to do this interview using it:

The first two years when I
didn’t know Romanian were the worst. After that, I started learning it bit by
bit, and speaking it.

In the meantime, he kept to
music:

I’ve had a lot of concerts
since I got here, I’ve lost count already. There are people who really want to
listen to what we play. They missed Bosquito while Radu was in the States.

The young rock musician
doesn’t give any thought to what he would have done had he stayed in LA. Most
likely also music, but of a very different kind:

I don’t think the kind of
music Bosquito makes would be possible there. Many say it is Latino, or Balkan…
It has elements of both, but you can’t peg it down. Of all the music I’ve
listened to in my entire life, there is nothing that can compare with Bosquito.
This is a rock band with many influences.

In addition to music, Austin
Mitchell also writes lyrics in English for Romanian singers or bands. As for
his relationship with Romania, he says he liked the country from day one:

A lot of people ask me: ‘Why
come to Romania, when we all want to go to America?’ They really don’t get it.
When you watch American movies, you think America is some sort of heaven on
earth, that everyone’s having a great time all the time, that everyone is super
happy, and everything is cool. But we are people like any others, and we have
our own problems, our own culture, and a lot of people feel better somewhere
else.

Austin Mitchell feels just
fine in Bucharest, and hopes to provide us with plenty of musical surprises this
year.

18 June 2015
Houda Bechar

Houda Bechar comes from Casablanca, Morocco. She is 21 and she came to Timisoara in 2010, when she was 17 and she had just taken her baccalaureate exam. She decided to go to med school and she is now finishing her fourth year of study at the “Victor Babes University in Timisoara. She would have liked to study in Morocco, but came to Romania, to join her brother who had already been living here for two years.

Houda Bechar: “My first year was amazing, because … well, I didnt travel a lot. Everything was new, so I didnt even feel the time. It was just as if I had closed my eyes and when I opened them I was at the end of the year. Because for me, everything was so new, the city centre, Bega, the University, the parks, everything was so nice here.

We asked Houda what she liked best in Romania so far: “Maybe Christmas, yes. In my country, we dont celebrate Christmas. We have vacation days, Christmas vacation, but we dont celebrate Christmas. So it was kind of cool when we had the tree downtown and also the fireworks for the New Year. Its also good that its a religious thing, because it brings people back to religion. So its good that they have this.

She found it easy to integrate in Romania, particularly in the academic community. Generally speaking, the Romanian society does not seem to her very different from the Moroccan one, because there are many similarities in terms of behavior: “In the first year that you get to the University, there are so many people, coming from so many other countries, and Romanian people in general are nice people. I cannot think now of one Romanian that was bad or mean to me. I mean, you meet people who do want to socialize with you, who dont want to go out with you. But its ok, because after a while you have a group, and you belong to a certain group or you belong with certain people who are very cool, and who have different religions, different backgrounds, a different social or economic statute. Its not so hard to integrate in the society here, neither with the international students nor with the Romanian people.

What does Houda think about the Romanian education system?

Houda Bechar: “So you have the professors, who are good. They are not just some people who come there and just want to teach. They are good professors. You have the lecture and then after they will give you links, or even some of them who have the books they will even give you the books. If theyre in electronic format, or if theyre not already provided in the library. But most of the time its already there in the library. For the newer books, our professors give us the electronic format or give us links so that we can find what we need. I know that in Morocco they do exactly the same, but not for the English system, for example, but in the French system. Then, when you have the labs, you also have your assistant whos there teaching you.

As for the relationship between teachers and students, Houda sees it as quite fair: “A professor is a doctor or a surgeon, for example, he has other things to do as well. But when hes in the class he explains things and every time at the end of the class he always asks whether we have any questions for him, so that he could explain. From a professional point of view, if you just ask a professor, you get the answer. Maybe some professors dont like a specific student, but this is personal, its not professional. I havent seen professors showing it. I havent felt it, really, like a professor whos putting pressure on a student because hes coming from here or his skin colour is this…

During her first year in Romania Houda did not travel much, but later she started to explore the country, and she liked it a lot. She has visited Bucharest, among other places: “Baile Herculane is a really nice place. And Cluj Napoca, which is very beautiful. Bucharest, but I didnt like it. Bucharest reminded me of my city, the city where I was born and raised. Its a big city, there are too many people. In Timisoara its more calm, you have the Square and you have places where you can just go and sit and see people. In Bucharest everyone is just so pressed, especially in the central part, where I was most of the time, because I had things to do there. Everybody is just running, theres too much traffic, too much noise… But it is a beautiful city, if you go there during New Year, for example, as I did, there were fireworks, it was amazing. And we were watching them from a balcony, with some friends… That was really beautiful. But to go there and to live there – no. Id rather stay in Timisoara, or go to a small, calm city somewhere else.

Houda Bechar likes extreme sports, she used to practice aikido, and her favourite spot in Timisoara is the Childrens Park on the banks of River Bega.

11 June 2015
Ikram Acquaviva, Argentina

Although no longer a student, Ikram Acquaviva is a resident physician at the Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest. She studied medicine in her home country Argentina, from where she left for Marseille, France, to follow her husband.

Here is Ikram Acquaviva with a short presentation of herself: “I study medicine, I am a resident in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology. My friends told me about Romania, about Bucharest. And last December I came with my husband on holiday, for two weeks. I like Bucharest a lot.

We asked Ikram why she chose to study in Romania: “I made my research about several European countries to make my residency and there was Germany, but its very hard to learn the language. London, Great Britain, I wasnt interested in because its always cloudy and I dont like the cold. My husband and I are young, and we want to change the country and try to live in another country. We talked about Spain, Germany and when we made our research on Internet we heard about Romania and we wanted to try and come and see if it will be good for us. I asked many persons about the residency and yes, its a good school, its a very good school for medicine. I think its a mix between the French school and the American school, the old school and the new school. We practice a lot, but we have also the theoretical part.

What is Ikrams number one priority: “I have first to learn very well Romanian because we have to speak with the patients and with our colleagues. I speak a little now. Its almost four months that Im learning now and I expect to learn more, I think I need four or five months more to have the good oral language.

Ikram believes doing her internship in Romania will be a valuable experience anywhere in the world, although she is considering staying on and working in Romania: “Im very interested in moving to Romania. Bucharest, I dont know. There are many other cities like Cluj, Timisoara, the big ones. I dont know, maybe during the residency when I go to visit other cities maybe I could move to other cities but Romania is a beautiful country and I think I fell in love, personally. My husband I think, too. He would like to stay here and me, personally, I think I could stay here forever.

We asked our guest Ikram Acquaviva what she likes most about Romania: “The people. At first, I was really surprised by the kindness of the people. Everyone, the taxi driver, the woman in the supermarket, we didnt speak any word of Romanian at first, but they did everything possible to try to understand us even if they dont speak English or French or Italian. But they try and I was very, very surprised. The city also, because we know only Bucharest for now and I think that we have all in Bucharest to live our life well. In opposition to Marseille, where we lived, there are many parks in the city, to have fresh air. We are in a big city, in the centre, but we have many parks, we can walk every morning, we can do sports.

Ikram is very pleased with the way she has adjusted to life in Romania: “We tried also the food when we came first and I was very surprised because it looked very much like German food. There are many beans and sausages, like in Germany. It was very tasty. At first I thought we were always in a German restaurant. The first time I tried every meal so I gained some weight. Its not good for diet, Romanian food. And, surprisingly, we have many other restaurants of other countries, Mexican food, Spanish food, Italian food. About the architecture of Bucharest, they keep the old architecture and make it more modern and thats why I think Bucharest is a great city and a beautiful city as opposed to other countries that destroy the older buildings and try to make new ones.

Ikram Acquaviva says Romania is a place she would like to live in, but she is yet to make a final decision in this respect.

28 May 2015
Tom Wilson, UK

Born in Britain, Tom Wilson moved
to Romania in 2002, after finishing university:

It was 1999
when I first came to Romania and I was just about to start university. Me and a
friend decided that we do a very low-budget trip around Eastern Europe. (…)
Romania back then! (..) It was crazy. Crazy in an amazing way. For me, coming
from the very organised, rigid society of England and to come to Romania you
felt a real kind of sense of freedom in a positive way. Everything was all so
chaotic. You could tell that this was a society that was recovering from a
revolution. But it was brilliant. Everyone I met was so nice. We went to Cabana
Babele, we hitchhiked up to Cota 2000, which is kind of a hotel high way up the
mountain and just the stories people were telling us about the mafia, the
government, bears, wolves, corruption, dodgy policemen, people working abroad…
It was amazing. For me it was like a fairytale, Balkan fantasy world. I’d never
experienced anything like it and I thought it was amazing. So we were in Cabane
Babele, we got caught in a thunder storm, we had to take shelter and I met a
Romanian artist, Vlad Nanca, who still is a very well-known contemporary
Romanian artist, and we made very good friends and he invited me back. I came
back in the year 2000 and I DJ-ed at the seaside at 2 Mai and I never lost the
connection. I met a really good group of friends, I started seeing a Romanian
girl, I had a Romanian girlfriend, and so from 1999 until 2002 I was studying
at University and I was coming back every holiday whenever I could, to meet
people. I think I have really happy memories of Romania at that time. Because
now Romania is a developed country, it’s a European country, it’s in the
European Union. Back then it felt like a kind of post-Soviet,
post-revolutionary crazy place to be in and I loved that. I liked feeling that
I was in this kind of forgotten part of the world.

Tom could never imagine himself working 9 to 5 in a bank
in London, so when he came to Bucharest, he did many different freelance jobs:
he worked as a journalist, even collaborating for a while with Radio Romania
International, as a DJ, and, since more recently, as a film director. He now
makes commercials for international brands. As a film maker, Tom Wilson is best
known in Romania for a documentary first screened at the Transylvania
International Film Festival in 2013. One year later, he won an important
national film award, the Gopo award for best documentary. Tom Wilson:

It’s called The Bucharest Experiment and
it’s partly fictional partly true so you have to watch the film to find out
what parts are fictional and what parts are true because the fiction is there
for a purpose. I used a fictional device to make a point about modern Romanian
society. I made it on nothing. I spent 250 euros making this film and a lot of
time and if you compare that to the budgets of even a small independent film is
going to cost you tens of thousands of euros. Most of the Romanian films
nowadays cost half a million euros easily, so for me to be able to make a film
for 250 euros was fantastic. It was an investment of a lot of time and a lot of
energy, not just on my half, as well as on the half of the ordinary people that
are in it because the ‘actors’ weren’t actors, they were ordinary people. (…)
I’m an outsider in the film world, I’m not connected to all the big producers
and the production houses, so I’m really grateful to all the people that helped
me and that gave me advice, told me where to go, which festivals to apply to.

A promoter of
Romanian arts abroad with three projects financed by the Romanian Cultural
Institute, Tom Wilson also contributed to a directory entitled 100 to Watch,
a listing of the 100 most talented artists in Romania. Having lived here for so
long, Tom Wilson says Romania is by no means an idyllic country. Some of the
things he dislikes most include the Bucharest traffic, the homeless dogs,
corruption and some people’s racism about the gypsy and foreigners. He says,
however, that Romanians do not have such a negative image in Britain as we
might think:

I think,
actually, if you go there, Romanians have quite a good image in Britain. Most
of what you see and hear is created by the media because you have very
unpleasant right-wing newspapers like The Daily Mail whose job it is to create
hatred among people and to stir up this distrust of immigrants because it fits
their political agenda, and that’s horrible. (…) If you actually go to England
and talk to people, I would say they’re not pro-Romanian, they’re indifferent.
Britain is a multicultural society, London is the most multicultural city in
the world from what I’ve seen and you have people from all over the world. (..)
When you actually go to England as a Romanian people just treat you as a normal
human being, that’s what I would like to think. (…) I’d like to think that
people treat Romanians as they would treat any other European citizen.

21 May 2015
Maria Claudia Jimeno (Bolivia)

Maria Claudia Jimeno was born in the far away country of Bolivia. She arrived in Bucharest in 1993.

“I came to Bucharest on a psychology scholarship. I graduated in 1997 and afterwards I took up courses in relational communication, a field in which I am active now and which is my main activity.

Why did Maria Claudia Jimeno choose to stay in Romania and not to return to her native Bolivia, after graduation?

“I did that for rather pragmatic reasons! In Bolivia, all students work during their university years, whereas in Romania, they dont. So, if I returned to Bolivia, I hadnt stood any chance to get a job, with my lack of experience. So, I decided to write a PhD paper, in order to stay longer in Romania, to start working and practice things a little bit, and I planned on returning to Bolivia later. But, in the end, I chose to stay.

Two years ago Maria Claudia Jimeno got the Romanian citizenship, which she considers to be a natural continuation of her path in Romania. In 2001, she laid the foundations for a Personal Development Centre called AMANESER, which brings to Romania modern communication and emotional freedom techniques. In other words, Maria Claudia, a personal development consultant, trainer and specialist, helps people heal their souls.

“I help people to listen to themselves so that they may learn how they are built on the inside, how they get angry and argue with the others, how they can get over some situations so that they may improve communication with others. Most of the patients come with issues related to their relationship with their partners or their children, or with self-esteem issues, and we are trying to make these people happier, help them get in touch with their inner selves.

And how can we communicate with others, so as to be happy?

“Using ‘I. Sadly our communication is the YOU-type: You must do this and that. Why didnt YOU do that? YOU make me angry…This is a dysfunctional type of communication, which brings about a lot of suffering. The first rule of communication hygiene is to adopt the I-type communication: I am getting angry, I wish…I am afraid, I agree etc.

A method largely employed by Maria Claudia is ESPERE (Energy Specifically Providing an Essential Relational Ecology), which she has introduced to Romania. The method was created 30 years ago by the French psycho-sociologist Jacques Salome, who has been to Bucharest a couple of times in response to Maria Claudias invitations. Although she has been living in Romania for the past 20 years and has a busy professional life, Maria Claudia Jimeno is nostalgic about her native country. Shes been trying to visit her family once a year though, and between these trips, she helps Romanians see the bright side of life and find the right solutions to any problem. What are the Romanians like, from a communicational point of view? Maria Claudia would not give a straight answer:

“Each country, each people lived certain events over centuries, and culturally speaking, there are certain landmarks showing at the level of mentalities, of attitudes, of relationships. Romanians lived many years in Communism. This made them more introvert, because Romanians lived in fear during Communism. And fear makes you introvert. But this is valid for any country. Some people are open to talk, to communicate with each other, just as in others there is an exacerbation of negative emotions – people lose their temper quickly, they yell, envy, bear grudges. There are antagonistic aspects that coexist in Romania, just like anywhere in the world. Its about context and intensity. Fortunately I have found a lot of nice, openhearted people who have become my friends. Together with them I have experienced many things, which other foreigners did not have the chance to experience. I have had a nice experience here in Romania. Of course some things got on my nerves, such as the queuing, the bureaucracy …but this was the context then. However its our attitude that makes the difference. This is what makes life happier or more miserable!

7 May 2015
Mariano Castro of Argentina

Mariano Castro is a musician from Argentina who chose to settle in Romania two years ago. Born in Buenos Aires, Mariano is the pianist of a famous band, “Narcotango”, a Latin Grammy Awards nominee in 2009 and 2010 in the “Best tango album” section. The group toured America and Europe, including Romania. Mariano recalls:

“I came the first time in 2009 for a concert with ‘Narcotango’, a really big concert, with around 2,000 people, but I just came for three days. Then I returned in 2011, with another show with ‘Narcotango’. It was also a big production in the Summer Theatre in Herestrau. Among the producers there was a beautiful woman and we fell in love almost immediately. And since that moment we are together. For two years already we are married, we got married in Argentina. We decided to live here. But we’re always traveling to Argentina. Many people ask me why are you here in Romania? Because you like Romania? And I tell them ‘Yes, I like Romania, but in fact I’m here because I found my wife here. I don’t feel that thing of missing so much my land and my tradition. I’m discovering new things, which is really also very nice”.

Mariano’s passion for music was inspired by his grandmother, a tango pianist in the golden years of tango, the 30s, 40s and the 50s.

“I started very young with the guitar and then I realized I would like to play the piano. Nowadays I work more with the piano, because as a professional it gives me more work than the guitar but all the time I play it, because it was my first instrument. There is almost like a law in Buenos Aires that says that the one who plays never dances, and it’s like 90% true. I dance with my hands. I make a sort of choreography when I play, but no, I don’t have talent, just for soccer, a little bit. But not for that. ‘Narcotango’ started in 2003 and I became part of the band in 2007. The intention of ‘Narcotango’ was to show contemporary tango, with contemporary elements, but keeping the elements of traditions, which was lost in most of the new, modern bands. Until now we have more than 30 international tours, we played in different types of places, from very small venues for 10 people to the Lincoln Center in New York.”

As a genre, tango is less popular in Romania. However, Mariano Castro is thrilled with the reaction of his audience.

“Thanks to everyone here, because I really had a beautiful concert. With ‘Narcotango’ we arrived to play in the Sala palatului Concert Hall in a very beautiful concert and now I’m constantly trying to make things because I see tango music growing in some sense, because there is a tango scene, with dancers. There are between 600 and 800 active tango dancers here in Bucharest. They keep the tango alive. Maybe they don’t know the songs, but they understand the feelings and the message”.

Astor Piazzolla’s “The Seasons” in Mariano’s original interpretation was very well received last year, when the piece was premiered in Romania. Performing were Liviu Prunaru on a Stradivarius violin and Gabriel Croitoru on a Guarneri violin. The concert was held as part of the “Violin duel” organized by Radio Romania.

“People received us very nice, it was a great success — these two great violin players playing Piazzolla in such a high level of interpretation. So it was a really great experience for me to listen to my arrangements and this music that I could write with such great musicians and played so well. We must be ‘soldiers’ of music, and that means to be modest, because we must work on the beauty and excellence as well as much as we can. I’m a soldier of music. I try to do my best”.

An honorary citizen of Buenos Aires, Mariano Castro has many projects in Romania and abroad. He also told us about his dream

“For many people tango means the dance, or this tango of the movies, which is kitsch in some sense. But musicians from Buenos Aires, we play another kind of tango, which is much closer to classical music than to this tango of the movies. Little by little I’m making projects and concerts, trying to arrive, each time, to better concert halls. And I hope I can soon come and play at the Athenaeum, here in Bucharest”.

26 April 2015
Foreign Student in Romania

Agnes Kuhn travelled all the way down from Stuttgart, Germany, to study medicine in the western Romanian city of Timisoara. 26-year old Agnes is a fourth-year student with the “Victor Babes” Medicine and Pharmacy University. Timisoara was love at first sight, and that’s why she chose to study here.

Agnes Kuhn: “To be honest, I wanted to study medicine for a long time, since I was six years old, but my average in school was not that good, and for Germany you need to have a very high average so I started looking around, where I can study, in Hungary, in Romania and finally a friend of mine, he came to Romania and he said it’s very good here and I should come to see how it is and how it works in Romania. I was here for a lecture, and I liked it, so I tried to ask my parents, and they said yes, and I liked the city, when I came here it was summer, everything, all the flowers were growing, it was really colorful, Piata Unirii, Piata Operei, then I even saw a German opera, which I also liked, because I’m German, and my dad was here too and he was surprised, he had a different view of Romania and he saw the beauty of it… “

Four years into her medical studies Agnes Kuhn believes Romania’s educational system is very good, at least as far as medicine is concerned, and that, because the practical stage here began earlier than in her home country, Germany. In her attempt to adapt to Romania, what helped her a lot was the fact that Romanians are more open, more welcoming than the Germans, which made it easier for her to meet other people.

Agnes Kuhn: “I think I adapted a little bit, and I think it gave me another impression of other people, it sounds a little bit strange, but where I was living, there were only Germans, there are some people with other backgrounds, most of them are actually Germans, all my friends…and since I’m here, I have met different people with different cultures, different traditions, and we also…for example, in the first year, there was someone from India, someone from Germany, someone from France, and we met, and every time we made a dinner, from each country, you know…and you got to learn different cultures, different food, how they talk, how they behave, so I think it was quite good to come here to Romania. I think I got another experience than I would have had in Germany. “

Although her command of Romanian is not so good for the time being, Agnes Kuhn told us she began to make sense of Romanian better and better, and for her, Timisoara has become her second home.

Agnes Kuhn: “When I‘m going to the shop, I have a shop right around my corner, where I’m living, and they’re always greeting me very nicely, like, ’buna ziua, draga, ce bei?’ and it’s a little bit like family, they already know my name, we have some small talk in Romanian, and I feel like I speak Romanian, yes, and…for example, my neighbors, they’re always very helpful, most of them are very old, they invite me for tea, it’s more like a family feeling. In Germany, we have neighbors, but we don’t see each other, we don’t really know each other, I feel kind of isolated now, because I know how it is here in Romania, maybe it’s not everywhere like here, but where I’m living, it’s like a family. I need it, because I don’t have a family here, I have my friends here but I don’t have my parents here, I‘m a family person, so this is quite a compensation for me, it’s a good experience. “

16 April 2015