Things I am looking forward to:
Driving.
Hearing English.
Seeing family and friends.
Having Andreea in Chicago. Still far away but closer than Romania.
Eating Mexican food.
Playing video games.
Sleeping on a comfortable bed.
Having more than 3 types of cereal to choose from.
ESPN.
Things I am not looking forward to:
24-hour news cycle.
Job searching.
Loss of complete independence and freedom to do what ever I want, when I want.
Reverse culture shock.
Things I will miss about Romania: (List will likely expand once I am home.)
Morning coffee/cappuccino in my kitchen
Seeing Andreea every day. I don’t know how I’ll manage 2 days a week once I’m back.
The pace of life.
Walking everywhere.
The trains. They are dirty and slow but a unique experience every time you use them.
Not seeing any morbidly obese people. If you see an extremely fat person, there is a 99% chance they are not from Romania.
The language. Everyone sounds like they are arguing and it is incredibly difficult to learn but beautiful nonetheless.
The parks.
The architecture. Not included: Communist architecture. It’s depressing.
The churches.
Eating a Langoși. Pronounced Langosh. A simple deep fried breading with cheese in the middle. Cheap and an effective snack. A meal if you get two.
Cheap beer.
Andreea’s grandma and parents.
My small-ass apartment.
Hang-drying your clothes.
Going to cafe bars.
The food!
Teaching.
Things I will not miss about Romania. (List will likely contract once I am home.)
Teaching.
Trash, everywhere, all the time.
Tița. Pronounced Teet-sa. She is the dog that bit me in November. A name scorched into my long term memory that will never be forgotten. A worthy adversary all the same.
The Communist ideas that many people here still hold and use.
The hospitals/Medical care. This is one area that still has roots with communism. Some doctors ask for extra money (bribe) if you want sufficient care taken of you.
The gypsies. Just because I said I won’t miss them doesn’t mean I hate them. I saw a little gypsy boy masturbating in a shop one evening. Enough said.
The lack of hope and progression in the country. Cynicism runs rampant. It is hard to blame them considering their history. It’s sad and it will unfortunately not get better any time soon.
Pesticides.
Romania will always have special place in me. I am fiercely proud of my experience and I would not change a single second of it. The number one thing people say about visiting another country is that they will go back someday, but never do. This will not be the case for me and I am coming back with my girlfriend in 6 months due to her Visa stipulations. My only real regret is that I didn’t take any Romania lessons but it’s all good because I now have a pretty tutor and she doesn’t charge me anything! Another slight regret is that I didn’t keep any sort of blog to record my experiences. I look at it this way: all that typing would have put serious strain on my fingers and hands and in actuality I postponed arthritis for about 10 months so I have no regrets.
For the first 2 months of my time in Romania, I was constantly asked, “Why ROMANIA?!” Basically, “Why the hell did you come HERE?!” I always said it was to do something really cool and have a unique experience. This held true but I knew the real reason on November 3rd, 2010 when I met Andreea. She was the reason, I just didn’t know it when I applied for the job back in June, 2010. She’s my best friend and I can’t possibly imagine my time here without her now. I could go on, and on, but I won’t at the moment. The best part is that she’s coming with me and I can’t describe the pure, unadulterated joy and happiness this brings me. The visa application process was arduous to say the least but completely worth it. The 8 hour train ride to Bucharest for a 3 minute interview at the embassy and an 8 hour train ride back within a 24 hour period of time had an incredible range of emotions and will be one of my fondest memories. I joked with Andreea about 3 people talking to each other about their respective experiences living overseas. One man says, “I went to 5 different countries over a period of 3 months and brought back a key chain from each country, top that!” The next man says, “I went to 8 different countries over a period of 6 months and brought back a postcard from each country, top that!” Then I say, “I went to 1 country for a period of 10 months and brought back a human.” Class dismissed.
dscarroll
