Radio România Internațional

Category: Expat in Romania

  • Chinyere Onwubiko, a student with the “Victor Babes” University

    Chinyere Onwubiko, a student with the “Victor Babes” University

    Chinyere Onwubiko is 26 years old and she was born in a city in southeastern Nigeria. She is now in the 3rd year at the “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timisoara (in the west).



    She will next tell us why she decided to study abroad: “I could have studied at home. I have always dreamt of being a doctor. After graduating from high school I wanted to leave the country, because I had grown tired of it. I like adventure and Romania was not my first choice. But I was curios to see what living in Romania was like and then I decided to stay for good”.



    But how did she come to study in Timisoara: “It’s an equally interesting and amusing story. When I wanted to choose a faculty from Romania, I went through an entire list of names. I associated the name “Victor Babes” with the English word “babes”. And I like babies, I love them and I would like to specialize in pediatrics. I was happy to find a school having the name “babes” in its title and I decided to go here. When I arrived in Romania I spent several weeks in Bucharest and people wondered why I preferred a faculty in Timisoara instead of one in the capital city. I answered that I wanted to study in Timisoara because there I was going to work with children. But once in Timisoara I discovered there were no children at the Victor Babes faculty. (She laughs). That’s how I chose to study in Timisoara. And I like it. It is a small and nice city, unlike Bucharest, which is big and crowded, something I actually don’t like. I don’t like to spend much time in crowded cities in my own country either. I like Timisoara. It feels like home”.



    After only 3 years in Romania, Chinyere speaks Romanian very well, although she admits she found it hard to learn the pronunciation of words, the vocabulary and grammar. As to the medical terminology, she prefers using the Latin and Greek terms.



    Chinyere Onwubiko: “Learning the language was the most difficult thing for me. When I arrived in Romania I didn’t know a word in Romanian but I had a very good, nice and efficient teacher. And she made all students in my group work hard. But it was not easy at all, and it’s still not easy”.



    Chinyere says she feels at home in Banat, where people are kind, friendly and openhearted. Asked what she enjoys the most in Timisoara she gave a surprising answer: “It may sound strange but I like the weather. I like cold weather. I was the happiest person in the world when I saw snow for the first time. I think it’s wonderful! I went out and took some pictures and then sent them home. I read about snow in books, I saw it on TV, in newspapers…but never in reality, until I came to Romania. Seeing snow for the first time was an unforgettable experience. I was in Straja where I took skiing lessons. I used to fall all the time at first, but I guess this is the most beautiful thing I have done since I came to Romania. I didn’t know there are such wonderful places in Romania. I had the chance to go on top of the city and get a bird’s eye view from there. Of course, I took many pictures and sent them home.”



    Chinyere left behind in Nigeria her parents and 6 siblings, and she thinks she is the family’s only adventurer. But she enjoys her parents’ support and encouragement and she says she couldn’t do without them.



    After finishing general medicine studies, Chinyere Onwubiko intends to return home in Nigeria: “It’s in Nigeria that I want to live and work. In Romania, in Timisoara, for instance, you have all you need. You have all kinds of physicians with various specializations. That is not the case in my country. That’s why I want to return home. My heart is still in Nigeria. I cannot tell why. I want to go back there and help people”.

  • Per Markussen of Norway

    Per Markussen of Norway

    When Per Markussen decided to come to Romania, his family and friends from Norway asked him what drew him to a country that Scandinavians knew so little about. And once he was in Bucharest his Romanian friends wanted to know why he chose to come to Romania. Per Markussen, one of the most famous international fitness trainers of the moment, gives us the answer:



    “I am here because of an opportunity I got 4 years ago regarding work. When I got this opportunity I was thinking about it very shortly and I decided to take it, to take this opportunity and do it because I am also very curious as a person.”



    Unlike Norway, where doing sports is part of people’s daily routine, in Romania people are less eager to exercise regularly, which makes Per Markussen’s decision to leave his native country all the more curious.



    “That is one of the things, because of this I thought that I had a lot of things to give and to do and also exchange. Because I could also learn the other way around from here. In Scandinavia it’s very general that people have an active life style. Skiing is like a national sports. So for us this activity has been, it’s very cultural and we really appreciate this, we really appreciate the nature, and being out in the nature, we are very proud of our nature and here it’s in a different way. Here you have fantastic athletes like in the Olympics, in gymnastics and weightlifting, and these things. And we don’t have that in Scandinavia, it’s shifted in a way. I have seen for the last years, since I came here 4 years ago, that this is changing. It’s really changing now and we can see that also the knowledge of people in general starting to blossom that the importance of being active for health, and for everything, for the mood and for feeling good. But it takes time because you have a lot of people that are not maybe so into this, could be from interest or information or whatever, and this is what we are working on, to get the knowledge out there and make people understand and feel also the difference of being active versus inactive. “



    In Bucharest Per Markussen holds dance fitness classes based on step, aerobic, house and hip-hop moves. The atmosphere during his classes is great.



    “I really enjoyed to work with people and be with people and I see myself like fish in the water when I teach. I love it, I totally love it, and today I have the same motivation and inspiration as I had when I started with this 20 years ago. In Scandinavia people tend to be a little bit more optimistic and positive on the views of life, in general. I can see there is a small difference here, so when I came here, when I started with these classes I think the first comment I got from my first class, my first class was a Wednesday class, it was a dance class here, one girl came to me and said ‘Oh, wow, I had never any idea that you could have fun while training and feel this good. And that says it, it’s about this. “



    Per Markussen travels a lot both in Romania and abroad to hold fitness instructor courses. Together with Spanish Julio Papi, another renowned fitness trainer, he runs the biggest fitness school in Romania called “Move on”.



    “We work together with this and we cover all the areas of fitness, and we can say well being, and we go in full force with teaching all these different disciplines and always try to stay on top of our games, with having educations and events together. So we work all in Romania and now our school is working internationally so we are invited to other countries to do educations in other countries, we have training for beginners who want to become group fitness instructors or a personal trainer or a cycling instructor. They come to us and we take them to the education, we educate them, and they have to pass exams to be licensed instructors. And then we have educations for already-instructors in different levels, mixed level, second level, third level, and so forth. Many different levels in the way of teaching. That’s why we need to, me and Julio and the rest of our team, we really need to be on top of our game, I’m exploring what’s going on in the world and being up to date with all educations because this world of physical activity changes a lot.”



    4 years ago, when Per Markussen came to Romania, the level of Romanian fitness instructors was inferior to that of Norwegian instructors and there were no modern training methods. In time, things have changed fro the better, also thanks to Per’s work.



    “The level in Romania of trainers it’s going so fast and now we actually have for the first time in Romania we have international trainers, international presenters. Which means that the level has reached such a high standard that these people are being invited to other countries to teach and that is such a big leap and it’s amazing.



    “I love Romania, I love its people, I love the difference. When I came here I was lost a little bit, I didn’t know how to act in this environment. I knew about Dracula, and that’s about it. First of all I came here in the middle of the summer, I was kaput for one month in July, it was so hard for me. When you see birds sitting and they were so hot that their wings were out to the side, I was like that. And it was so hard for me just to get accustomed to the climate but I loved it. And long hot summer nights and new people to meet, starting to learn how people communicate, and what this means and this means…and masculine, feminine…all the differences aside, and how the society works.”



    Per admits that he still has a lot more to learn but he is persevering. He sees himself living and training in Romania in the coming years as well, the more so as he has big professional plans in store.

  • Paolo Profeti

    Paolo Profeti


    Paolo Profeti seems to have been predestined to live in Romania. At least this is what he thinks: “I don’t know if this has any relevance but my best friend for more than 25 years is half Romanian. I was 17 when I first came on a visit to Bucharest. Italy is not far away from Romania, neither geographically, nor in terms how I feel here. Furthermore, I’ve always had an attraction for eastern Europe. I find Bucharest a very interesting and beautiful city and I like living here. You might say I have found a kind of home. It does feel like home here.”



    Between his falling in love with a young Romanian woman and deciding to move to Romania 2 years ago was but a small step. A jazz musician, Paolo Profeti works with Radio Romania’s Big Band, and was part of the line-up for the band’s recent concert together with Richard Galliano, one the world’s greatest living accordionists.



    Here is how Paolo Profeti started his musical career: “I started playing at 13, and after listening by chance to a disc of John Coltrane and Rashied Ali, I felt that saxophone was a very strong instrument. I had caught the bug! After high school, scared at the prospect of having to earn my entire living as a musician, I joined the Agronomy Faculty in Italy, which I graduated, although music was in my heart and in my blood. So I went to the International Music Academy in Milan, then I studied for a short time at the Didier Lockwood Music Centre near Paris and then graduated from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. I have been working with Radio Romania’s Big Band conducted by Ionel Tudor for a year. It is a group of very good musicians. I like that there are so many instrument players in the band, and we all play together. I also like solo improvisation, but being together in a Big Band requires a certain kind of discipline, you need to be very attentive and hear all the other players. There are five us playing the saxophone, 4 trombones and 4 trumpets and, of course, the rhythm section.”



    However, Paolo Profeti’s musical activity is not restricted to his collaboration with the Radio Big Band: “I also work with the Bucharest Jazz Orchestra, a band that has recently celebrated 3 years of activity, and is led by Sebastian Burneci, who also plays the trumpet in the Radio Big Band. Two weeks ago we recorded a live session in a jazz club and this is going to be our band’s first album. It’s called ‘Stories from Bucharest’ and it’s very interesting: the music is rooted in jazz but also draws on hip hop and a reinterpretation of the music of the great composer George Enescu.”



    Let us also note that Paolo Profeti has his own band entitled the Paolo Profeti European Collective and that he is preparing to record an album called “Waiting for Bucharest”, which will be promoted in Bucharest, as well as in Sibiu, in central Romania, and Cluj, in the west.



    Paolo Profeti: “I will start recording this album at the end of March together with a trio of Italian musicians with whom I used to play back in Italy, with Sorin Romanescu on the guitar and Florian Radu on the trombone, as well as our special guests Cristian Soleanu on the tenor saxophone and Sebastian Burneci”.



    A complex artist, with a passion for jazz as well as house music, Paolo Profeti is equally dedicated when it comes to teaching Argentinean tango: “When I was a child, I wanted to be a dancer. This was my first dream. I have been dancing Argentinean tango for about 11 years and I like it a lot. Of course I can’t dedicate it too much time, because I’m so busy playing music, my greatest passion of all, but I believe it’s a good thing in life not to have one single passion. Not to mention that being born under the sign of Libra, I find it hard to focus on just one thing. At the end of March, after I finish work on the album, I’ll go to Iasi with a friend who is a tango teacher, Nadina Cazan, and we’ll both teach tango lessons there.”



    There are many Romanians who have moved to Italy in recent years. But as you can see, there are also Italians who decided to live in Romania, where they feel at home. Paolo Profeti’s composition “Milan-Bucharest, One Way” is quite revealing in this sense.

  • Bashar Barbary

    Bashar Barbary

    Bashar Barbary was born in Iraq and is now studying political sciences at the Bucharest University. His coming to Romania was not strictly about education, but also about having to deal with certain family and social circumstances.



    Bashar Barbary: “I am half Lebanese, half Iraqi. I first came to Romania in 2003, for a short visit, due to the bad political situation in Iraq and particularly because of the war. I went back to Iraq, but the situation there did not improve. I did not like the social life and it was not OK for me to live there anymore. I moved to Lebanon for one year, but people there were also faced with political issues. I returned to Iraq for another three years and I eventually moved to Romania in 2007. My uncle had been living in Romania since the 1990s. I was admitted at the Cambridge School and I studied there from the 6th to the 12th grade. After high-school graduation I enrolled with the Faculty of Political Sciences of the Bucharest University.“



    Bashar has always been involved in educational projects related to politics, as this is a field that he believes is extremely important for the understanding and management of conflicts in modern society.


    Bashar Barbary: “The first language I learnt was Arabic, then I learnt English. As the high school I attended was an international one, all subject matters were in English. I learnt Romanian at work and my friends helped me too. In high-school I got involved in the Model United Nations project, actually I was one of the 250 people participating and I came in first. I was encouraged and included in Model United Nations New Roads, in Greece, with 70 competitors. It was an elite project, for those who had at least 6 years of relevant experience. One of my colleagues, who had organized the competition held in Romania, helped me register and I won the first place again. The third project was run in Antalya and involved the participation of 650 people and, again, I came in first. That success brought me into the world of politics.”



    The education system in Romania is to the liking of Bashar Barbary. At 19 he says he’s started his adult life with activities that he fully enjoys.


    Bashar Barbary: “I haven’t studied in any country other than Romania, so I cannot actually make a comparison, but I like it very much here. Unfortunately, there is too much theory and not enough practice, but theory is helpful too. We are doing things that have had a major impact on history and whose effects are still being felt today. I also have a part-time job, and I work every Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 hours a day. An optics lab hired me when I was 14. So, it’s been 5 years already since I first started working and I like it very much. I am kind of passionate about what I do, not about optics in particular, but I like that I work with many people.”



    Bashar’s Romanian colleagues have become his best friends, and they have helped him integrate quite fast into a culture that is so different from his own. Bashar Barbary:


    Bashar Barbary: “My colleagues were very open-minded. I have never had problems with them being afraid or reluctant, just because I come from a country with problems, where people are at war. There were many jokes in the beginning, but how you react to such jokes is very much about how you are as a person. There are many those who cannot take a joke and get offended. To me it was fine, as many of the preconceived ideas were normal. Actually, my colleagues were very nice and helped me read things in Romanian, when my Romanian was not that good. All in all they have been very good colleagues and friends.”



    Just like any young man his age, Bashar Barbary enjoys every minute of his free time. He likes to travel around Romania, but also to discover Bucharest, the city he is living in:


    Bashar Barbary: “I’ve been to Brasov, Sinaia, Maramures, Constanta …..It’s a very beautiful and rich country, I like it very much. I particularly loved Mamaia and the sea. I like eating in restaurants. Unfortunately I do not have much time for that, because I am busy going to school and working. When I have time I watch movies, I go bowling, just like other young people do. I like Romanian food very much, but I prefer the Arab one. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with my origins, it’s just a matter of taste.”



    Which are the principles that guide Bashar in life?


    Bashar Barbary: “It’s about flexibility. It’s about what we want in life, not just about what we must do. It’s also about how much we are willing to sacrifice.”

  • Matthias Thesing

    Matthias Thesing

    It’s chess that brought Matthias Thesing from northern Germany to Romania. He is actually an international master of that sport of the brain.



    Matthias Thesing: ”I came to Romania for the first time in 1986, to take part in a chess tournament and I stayed in touch with the chess players. Then in the spring of 2008, a professor with the Faculty of Letters in Iasi, in the north-east, asked me if I would be interested to see what life was like at the university. I was hired by the Agronomy faculty as an associate lecturer. I taught German to the students who had to study Russian, French, English or German on an optional basis. I also taught classes at the Faculty of Letters for two years, from 2008 to 2010. Then, in the summer of 2010, they decided to cut state employees’ incomes by 25% and that also affected the foreigners who were working in the public sector. That’s how I came to Bucharest. My friends in Iasi were making fun of me, saying I got promoted to the Capital.“



    Once he got to Bucharest, Matthias Thessing — who in his country studied Mathematics, Physics and Music — was employed by a private German school for two years. At present, he likes to think of himself as being a freelancer. He’s got teaching jobs in several institutions and also teaches German in private. At the same time, he has never ceased to take part in chess competitions, being signed up by a club in western Romania, “Muncitorul Resita.”



    Matthias Thesing: ”To be honest with you, twenty years ago I was a bit envious, as here in Romania chess was not seen as a hobby, but more like a profession. But things have changed in Romania as well. As an international master, it’s hard to make a living only by playing chess. Many have become coaches and they can make money out of that.“



    Matthias Thesing says life is not easy at all, yet he likes it in Romania.



    Matthias Thesing: ”Salaries are too low. Life is fine, but you need to survive. I do not get money from Germany, like other foreigners who come to Romania. And if you have no choice other than to live on a budget, which you make here in Bucharest, that would only pay your rent and food. But it depends on what you want from life! It’s all clear that, from an economic perspective, conditions in Germany are better. But expenses are also higher there. I said to myself that if here all Romanians manage to survive, why couldn’t I? I like it in Romania, because I feel I’m closer to its culture.”



    It’s music Matthias Thesing is interested in the most. He worships the late Romanian traditional music legend Maria Tanase, who was also known as the Charming Bird. He also likes the fiddle songs performed by Romica Puceanu, or traditional music performed by Petreus brothers. He even likes the manele, a musical genre that sprang up in the Rroma communities because, Matthias says, you can put up a fine dance to such tunes.



    Matthias Thesing: ”Here’s what I say: Maria Tanase was my first great love in Romania. Time and again, as I graduated from a musical school and because I can also speak Romanian, I am invited as some sort of specialist in Romanian music. I’ve been to a conference in Vienna, I’ve also been to Chisinau, giving half-hour talks on Maria Tanase’s music.”



    Yet Matthias Thesing’s musical competence goes beyond that. He has no problem speaking about folk music writer and performer Ada Milea, about Zdob si Zdub, the rock group from the Romanian-speaking Republic of Moldova, the very popular pop music vocalist Inna, about jazz vocalist Teodora Enache, and last but not the least, about the rock music legend group Phoenix, one of Romania’s most beloved rock groups.



    For a German, Romania is a somehow exotic country — says Matthias Thesing, who, being attracted to our country, uttered an outright yes as an answer to the question if he had in mind to stay. Until retirement, and even longer!



    SOUNDBITE V.M.: ”I have just started negotiations with a high school in Timisoara, in the west, to work there. So it would be easier for me to pay the rent. I hope to get a teaching job with subsidy from Germany, I’ve been dreaming of that all the time!”

  • Simone Papa

    Simone Papa

    Pursuing a study program in Romania is a good option for foreign students, whether they study the Romanian language or they opt for such widely spoken languages as English, French or German.



    Some of the foreign students decide to take up a study program in an internationally-spoken language, yet most of the students who come to our country also learn Romanian, all the more so since they may have personal reasons for that. One such student is Simone Papa, a young Italian, who took up a study program with the University of Bucharests Faculty of Political Sciences. We asked Simone Papa where he came from, how he heard about Romania and why he opted for coming here.



    “I am from Turin, in northern Italy, close to France, where everybody says were French, but were not. We are genuine Italians, you can have a good meal there as well. Ill be 21 this year, I am in my 2nd year at the university. My ties with Romania began in 2012, I was close to Belgrade, in a town called Kragujevac, and there I met a Romanian girl I got along with very well. She is four years older. I was a senior high school student in my final year, and as soon as Id graduated I decided to come to Bucharest to do my studies, it was an emotional decision.”



    From the very beginning he wanted to study political sciences, a programme that can cover several disciplines, just like he said. Simone Papa.



    “That was one of the main criteria for my option. I thought it was a good idea to go there, I did not have such an opportunity in Italy, except for Rome. But I had my girlfriend Florina here and its here that I wanted to be. I believe the fact that I spoke English helped me, I was kind of good at English in high-school as well. But here in one year and a half I improved my English a lot. If I look into the future, a diploma in a foreign language is better than a diploma in Italian or Romanian. I dont know where Ill be in one year and a half from now, but I very much want to travel to several countries.”




    International academic experience is a big gain for the students who want to further their education in an environment which is different from the one they come from, or who simply want to broaden their knowledge of science and culture. We asked Simone Papa if Bucharest offered him the academic excellence standards he found in other universities.



    “I dont have a hands-on experience, but I can make sense of that in comparison with other faculties. Bologna is very famous, precisely because professors with a practical experience in their field go there. The faculty in Bucharest stands in line with what I would have got if I had remained in Turin. There are positive as well as negative aspects to the system here. Education is a problem everywhere. I sort of scored a success in my baccalaureate exam because I wanted to write about alternative education. I got a bit of experience in that, I got involved in several projects financed by the European Union, Youth in Action being one of them. I really liked the idea of some sort of education that was more interactive.”




    In Romania, they say any Romanian can understand Italian. We asked Simone Papa whether it was easy for him to learn Romanian.



    “It was very difficult in the beginning, but everything went quite fast. Six or seven months after Id taken up learning Romanian from scratch, I could even speak the language. However, in the beginning I said to myself it would be very difficult. I understood nothing, actually, words came all together and although Romanian has more vowels and its nicer this way, we Italians are more musical, still. But now I have begun to speak it quite well.”



    I asked Simone Papa what places hes been to, in Romania.



    “I traveled to Brasov, I traveled to Sinaia, I went further up to Maramures, I reached as far as Craiova. What I want most is to be in Timisoara, Ive heard its a wonderful place. I have a couple of friends who also arrived from Italy and who came here with several international projects and they recommended Timisoara to me.”




    Simone Papa is positive his stay in Romania will benefit him, and not only professionally. And even if he chose a career that would no longer tie him to Romania, he is convinced that memories of his young age would remain unique.



  • Maria Elena Ballestero of Venezuela

    Maria Elena Ballestero of Venezuela

    In Romania when someone taps his or her index finger on the cheek repeatedly this means in non-verbal communication “shame on you”. When you go and visit somebody, you usually bring flowers to the hostess, and when you are invited to a wedding you usually buy a present for the couple. For many Romanians these are basic gestures, but not for Maria Elena Ballestero. When she first came to Romania, 13 years ago, she had to learn not only the Romanian language but also the Romanian history, geography and local customs.



    “The first obstacle was the language. All my energy focused on learning Romanian and I signed up for a Romanian language course at the Cervantes Institute in Bucharest. After 10 years I had the legal right to obtain Romanian citizenship. Of course one of the conditions was to have a very good command of the language. The examination consisted in a dictation and reading test. But they also tested my general knowledge of Romania: geography, history, Romania’s Constitution and the anthem. I was asked, for example, about a Romanian traditional desert called papanasi, a cheese doughnuts with jam topping. Normally you don’t find this piece of information in books. You find out about it after you have lived in Romania for a while. I knew about papanasi, I even knew the recipe.”



    Why did Maria Elena Ballestero want to obtain the Romanian citizenship although that implied a lot of effort? After 10 years spent in Romania she had already become the mother of 2 girls and she wanted to have the same rights as her children and the Romanian citizens and feel fully integrated into the country of her Romanian husband at the time.



    “I was happy to realise that Romanians are a very welcoming and hospitable people, and this attitude was of great help to me, because I felt that people were willing to know about other cultures. I have never felt discriminated against or rejected. The system, and I’m referring to the whole bureaucracy part, is, however, very sluggish. But I was lucky enough that 6 months after I arrived in Romania I found a job in an international company, thus becoming a part of the Romanian economic system.”



    Maria Elena Ballestero has integrated into the Romanian society gradually and her views on Romania have also changed in time:



    “When I arrived in Bucharest I found the city very bleak. All I could see was communist buildings, old means of transport and roads full of holes. I was quite depressed. But I think you can’t help making comparisons when you move to a different country. So, at first I used to criticise everything. Then my attitude changed as I started working, meeting more Romanians, travelling around the country. I travelled to the north, to Maramures, I made a tour of the monasteries of Moldavia, which I’m in love with, I went to the Danube Delta, the Black Sea, I visited Brasov, Sibiu, and so on. Each place has its own charm and people are very welcoming. I have gradually made friends and because my husband was Romanian my adjustment was easier. Unfortunately, seeing how my native country Venezuela has regressed, I thanked God that I am now living in Romania. I never thought I could ever think that. I feel very lucky.”



    However deep down in her soul Maria Elena Ballestero remains 100% Venezuelan because nobody can forget or deny their roots. For Romania she has great affection because this is the country where her children were born.

  • Fang Shuang

    Fang Shuang

    Fang Shuang arrived in Romania in 2005, at the age of 16. As a fresh arrival from the east of China, he enrolled in preparatory courses to learn Romanian, and then he enrolled at the music university.



    Fang Shuang: “Admittedly, Romanian is a difficult language for Asians. I didn’t know anything about it before coming here. Romanian has a difficult grammar. Pronunciation was not that difficult. Chinese is a musical language, with a lot of consonants, but it does not have the sound ‘r’. I worked quite a lot to be able to utter it. I remember that in the fist year at the Conservatory, in 2006, as almost everyone knows, when you study singing, you sing mainly in Italian, and I was not at all optimistic, because I just couldn’t make the ‘r’ sound. But, with a lot of practice, by the second year, I could pronounce it properly. I was very, very happy then.”



    With lots of talent and love for music, the young Chinese expat chose to attend the Conservatory due to the fame the Romanian artists enjoy abroad.



    Fang Shuang: “My parents came to Romania ahead of me, around 2003, and I heard that the Conservatory here is of excellent quality. As everyone knows, there are international level musicians and singers, like Ciprian Porumbescu, George Enescu, Angela Gheorghiu, Nicolae Herlea, or Mariana Nicolescu… that is why my parents decided to send me here to the Conservatory. In both the preparatory year, and also in the Conservatory, every class has been in Romanian. I have to admit it wasn’t easy at all at first. But I am glad that I had very good teachers, who had so much patience to explain things. At the Conservatory we had a mandatory repertoire, which I liked very much. After graduation I learned more pieces, by George Enescu, Tiberiu Bradiceanu and ‘Meeting Again’ by Aurel Eliade, with lyrics by the national poet, Mihai Eminescu.”



    At the Children’s Comedy Opera of Bucharest, where he now works as a part time soloist, Fang Shuang, a baritone, has a variety of beautiful parts.



    Fang Shuang: “We have premiered with Don Pasquale and Hansel and Gretel, and we are preparing Peter Pan, the musical. I can’t wait for that one; it’s going to be great. In Peter Pan I’ll play pirate Hook. Even if I have got and continue to get parts that are fundamentally different from my character, this is a great thing for me to develop my stage persona.”



    His passion for pop music, but also his wish to be successful, drove Shuang towards the Romanian version of The X Factor in 2013:



    Fang Shuang: “I’ve liked singing since I was a kid. I didn’t know anything about opera. I was singing pop music for fun, I love singing it even now. I had heard of X Factor a long time ago. I was less interested in getting to the semi-finals or finals, I just wanted to know how it felt to be on that stage, facing a jury made up of three very important people, Dan Bittman, Delia and Cheloo. I was a great experience.”



    It so happens that Shuang’s friends are mostly Romanian. He spends most of his time with them, when he’s not traveling across the country.



    Fang Shuang: “When I was a student, I used to go to the National Opera of Bucharest very often with my colleagues, to watch shows, but also to learn. As for my own shows and artistic events, I visited Brasov, Sibiu, Oradea and Baia Mare, where I worked with the Municipal Theater and had two concerts.”



    Fang Shuang is in no hurry to say where he sees himself in a few years — here, in China or elsewhere. He believes he best fits the Chinese proverb “Artists live nowhere and everywhere”. But, for the time being, his place is at the Children’s Comedy Opera of Bucharest.

  • Yveline Bonora

    Yveline Bonora

    Yveline Bonora came to Bucharest nearly 9 years ago. She followed her husband, Just, who had set up a restaurant here the year before. At first the two commuted between France and Romania. Then they decided to leave their home country behind in order to set up their own business in Romania. Yveline recalls the early years of her stay in Romania:



    Yveline Bonora: “We came to Romania with a ready-made image of what this country was supposed to be. My family in turn was telling me: ‘What are you going to do there? You’ll starve to death, you’ll freeze to death…’ It was a bleak November day when we arrived, no sun at all. And since I was coming from southern France, this was a big shock to me. My second visit however was completely different. It was in spring. Gradually my preconceived ideas dissipated, one after another. I came to realize Romania was a Latin country, just like France. It was easy for me to fit in, and now I feel good about what I’m doing. My life continues to be a to and fro, mostly because my brothers, sisters, children and nephews are still in France. But I’ve built a life here now. I come back here after each visit to France”.



    Yveline Bonora makes preserve, following a recipe handed down by her grandmother from Normandy:



    Yveline Bonora: “My husband and I told ourselves that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to relocate our preserve business here, so we are making preserve mostly for our friends, and the rest we sell to our clients. Our business has flourished. Our clients now are mostly hotels, buying preserve jars for breakfast or room-service. We also work with a couple of high-end retailers in Bucharest”.



    Yveline Bonora says fruit in Romania are of very good quality:



    Yveline Bonora:“At first I used to shop in Obor market. Then I gradually built myself a network of local producers, and now I deal directly with them. Sometimes we do the picking ourselves, whether we’re talking about apricots, strawberries, pears or quinces, and we always taste them beforehand. We only want what’s best, so that we should get the best preserve possible. We decided to observe tradition and make the preserve in old, copper pots. We stir the mix with wooden spoons and use only fruit, sugar and fruit pectin. We add no preservatives, no colouring agents or chemical additives”.



    Yveline Bonora and her husband work together with a Romanian partner. Their small business has four employees, who bring them great satisfaction:



    Yveline Bonora: “We sometimes ask them to work extra hours, and they do so without fail. When work is scarce we in return grant them a couple of hours off. We have lunch together everyday, which is great for teambuilding. My husband Just has years of experience in the kitchen, which is why he very much enjoys cooking for us, and they are excited to sample all the dishes he makes”.



    And since French people enjoy a good meal, Yveline Bonora and her husband are equally fascinated by Romanian cuisine, whether it’s the sour soups, the mince-meat cabbage rolls or the sweet dumplings.



    Yveline also enjoys traditional music and dance:



    Yveline Bonora: “While I was back in France I attended some Balkan dance workshops for 12 years, it was an activity of our association. I never imagined I would eventually end up in Romania one day. So I also learned about Romania, Bulgarian and Greek dancing. My only regret right now is that I’m dancing less than I used to back in France. It’s harder to dance in Bucharest, but whenever I get the chance, whenever there’s a celebration, a wedding or a folk festival in Cismigiu Park, I never miss it”.



    Yveline Bonora misses her relatives, her friends, the sea and the landscapes of southern France. However she does enjoy her time in Romania. For this reason it was hard for her to tell us what her future plans were. We can only wish her a long and prosperous stay in our country and hope she will continue to delight us with her delicious preserves.

  • Kasia Obieglo

    Kasia Obieglo

    Kasia Obielgo comes from Poland and as far as she can remember, history was her passion. Kasia thinks history defines us all, and fully accounts for what we are today. No wonder then that the young Polish student opted to pursue history studies at Gdansk University. In 2014, Kasia Obieglo was the recipient of a one-term Erasmus scholarship for the Faculty of History at the University of Bucharest. Actually, Kasia Obieglo wanted so much to come to Romania. What did she know about Romania before coming over to pursue her programme of study?



    Kasia Obieglo: ”Most of the things I knew about Romania’s present territory had to do with its outline dating from the Middle Ages, as my main research interest was medieval history. I focused a lot studying that age. My first contact with Romania occurred via Bram Stoker’s novel “Dracula”. It was for the first time when I was fascinated with that country. I also began to study its history, later. It s’ kind of hard to explain that…Romania lies not very far from Poland, yet for us, it looks like a rather exotic country. We don’t know much about it. We hear about Romania a lot, yet there are very few people who really know something about that country. So I found it interesting to get here and see with my own eyes what Romania is like. “



    Nearly two months into her study time in Romania, Kasia Obieglo has been pleasantly impressed with the fact that her discovery of new people and places had a positive impact upon herself.


    Kasia Obielgo: ”I like it here a lot! People are very friendly, they help you a lot, it’s incredible! Most of the time I spent was in Bucharest and it surroundings, It’s true that I didn’t get round to visiting that much. So far I’ve only traveled to Pitesti in Curtea de Arges and in Sinaia, but I hope to go places as much as I can. It’s the landscapes I liked best. Mountains, especially, they are so beautiful! In October, when I saw them, the weather was perfect and I could enjoy some unique scenery. Bucharest is also a place to be, you can see beautiful buildings everywhere, yet most of them have not been refurbished, sadly — although it’s well worth doing that, since their architecture is so special. So I like the city a lot, I can find myself in it, which is wonderful for me. “



    When she was a student in Poland, Kasia Obieglo also worked as tourist guide. She would like such a career for herself when she graduates. Kasia strongly advised us to visit Poland. She things it’s well worth visiting the cities of Gdansk, Krakow, Warsaw, but also the Polish Carpathians. How would Kasia promote Romania, tourism-wise?



    Kasia Obielgo: ”I should capitalize on the landscapes you have, since I liked them so much!…Mountains, especially…I should also focus on people, on traditions, on the cities. There are so many interesting places you can visit here, monasteries, old churches, they are so beautiful…You need to discover them for yourself. There are also the medieval castles, then there’s Sinaia…There are so many things to see! Everybody should come here, since Romania has something to offer for everyone. “



  • Vanessa and Philippe Dupre

    Vanessa and Philippe Dupre

    Philippe is a chef. He comes from Lyon, which gastronome Curnonsky described in 1935 as “the world capital of gastronomy”. With its over one thousand restaurants and bistros, Lyon has one of the highest number of such venues per inhabitant in France. In addition, Lyon cuisine is “exported” both within France and abroad. In Romania, it arrived thanks to the Dupre family, as Philippe recalls:



    “When I got to Romania for the first time in 2004, wishing to visit Bucharest, the country seemed very attractive for my field of activity. This is how I decided to sell the restaurant I had in France to set up shop here. I came again in 2006, I did my research, and found the present venue in late 2007. We opened in early 2009. Unfortunately, the economic crisis had just begun, and the difficulties came along with it, and they lasted about a year and a half. But I kept persevering! It was very difficult to back down in any case. Today we celebrate six years of existence, and I am very pleased. The clientele is 70% French and international. However, we have more and more Romanians, and the trend seems to reverse. I have faithful Romanian customers who love France, love French products, who know my country, they visited it and are very interested in French cuisine. It is great to be able to talk to people filled with such curiosity”.



    In fact, Philippe Dupre has learned and speaks fairly well Romanian:



    “I had to. It was part of my integration in Romania. It seemed essential for understanding a country to speak its language and adapt. I am married, I have two kids, and I thought this place has a lot in common with France — the French school, for instance. There were a lot of factors which made it easier for me to set up in Bucharest: three-hour flight to France, the least of time differences…”



    Even though he’s been in Romania for quite a few years, Philippe hasn’t had the time to travel and visit the country much. He is deeply dedicated to his restaurant:



    “The restaurant is in Romana Square. The décor is elegant, we just changed it, two months ago. The kitchen opens towards the guestroom, which seats about 50. It is convivial. I try to talk to every customer, in so far as that’s possible. We have some things on the menu which are impossible to turn down, I would say — smoked salmon, which I smoke myself, foie gras… traditional stuff. I am a fan of truffles, and when autumn comes, I stock up on Romanian truffles. In peak season in France, early January, I use truffles brought from there. In Romania I have a few suppliers, one in Buzau, another in Sinana. There are loads of truffles, so I get them from several places. Truffles, and mushrooms in general, are wonderful products, very little used in Romania, and hard to find on the market, but all you need to do is get to know the right people”.



    Philippe Dupre has no regrets about moving to Romania with his family. He manages to have a quality of life similar to that in France. If some expats think ahead and make plans after a few years spent here, Philippe sees himself here for a long time to come. In fact, he only visits his native country two times a year:



    “Oh, no, I don’t have any plans to leave Romania. There is no limit or date. I feel good here, I follow closely the cuisine scene in France, and try to do my best to offer it in Romania.”