10 Things I won’t miss about Romania
1. No locks on bathroom doors- apparently there are no locks on bathroom doors in most of the places, so you have 3 choices:
1) Don’t go to bathroom,
2) Hold the door all times with one hand,
3) Pray that no one enters.
Even if you have found a place with a lock, most probably there is no paper, so keep your tissues close at all times. On the bright side most people knock before entering… or they don’t.
2. Shaorma la lipie – it is a wrap which contains majo, ketchup, French fries, kebab and vegetables between a thin layer of wheat bread. It was the main food of the interns, since we rarely had time for cooking and our kitchen was not so well equipped. It cost 8 lei (2 euros) and you felt full after this. Compared to McDonalds where you ate for 15 lei (3.5 euros and you did not feel full). Yes, I lived next to McDonalds. The reason I won’t miss it is because it was not healthy. Ok, I will miss it all right.
3. Shower in my apartment - Its hot and its cold, it´s up and it’s down. At first the shower was broken and we had to wash only with the pipe, then we got it fixed, but it broke again, so can’t wait to get to my bathroom, where it does not mold.
4. Waking up at 13.00 working from 18-22 and partying from 22.00-05.00
5. Paying with cash- Ok, it is normal to pay in cash when going to shops, but paying your bills in cash? My generation has never done this. Luckily I did not have to buy a car or a house otherwise I could have carried a lot of cash in a special suitcase.
6. Shops not being open from 8-23 daily – supermarket was open from 8-22 on weekdays. 10-20 on Saturdays and 10-18 on Sundays. Clothes stores are open from 9/10-to 18/19 on weekdays and 10-14 on weekends. Although I have to admit that there are a lot of Non-stop shops and fast food places all around town, but they are expensive and not healthy.
7. Having one key for 5 people- Imagine that every time you want to go home, you have to call and make sure that someone is at home. If no one is at home it might happen that you have to ride across town in order to have the keys.
8. No Internet in the apartment for 2 months - Being Estonian, I consider having access to the Internet 24/7 my basic human right. So it was quite a challenge to survive when the owner refused to sign a contract with the Internet Company. For unknown reasons we didn’t get Internet sticks. On the bright side, I got to see a lot of cafés with wi-fi and spend many hours in McDonald’s hot spot Internet, eating the healthy foods.
9. Electrical Wires everywhere on the streets- Before coming to Romania I hadn’t event thought that we don’t have them in Estonia. Thank god for the engineers who put them underground. Although I have to admit that after a while you don’t notice them anymore unless you take out your camera.
10. THE MOST ANOYING THING- smoking in bars, pubs and cafes- first of all why should people have to be passive smokers? This is really bad for your lungs and made me couch still 6 weeks after arriving. Besides that when you leave all your clothes, hair and skin smell like one big cigarette- hope that this one has changed when I return to Romania in 15 years.
10 Things that I will miss about Romania
1. The people – The 8 volunteers from Greece and Estonia, AIESECers, OSF, ASPR, OSUBB, the Americans, all the volunteers from Predeal EVS training. Specially Keiu, Amalia, Maria, Panos, Manolis, Martin Dimitris, Faisal, Delia, Anca, Roxi, Rozi, Adri and of course the Romanian guys. Luckily we have Facebook.
2. Not worrying about money- This was the most stress-free period of my life considering money. I had cash flow from AIESEC Cluj (European Voluntary Service), my university and my parents. It also helped that I didn’t see how hectically mum and dad spent their money. Girl just needs to do some shopping and she feels good.
3. Freedom- I didn’t many responsibilities, although I was living with Greeks, it is somehow better than living with parents, I don’t have to attend school (but I can) I can attend as many parties as I want (but don’t have to).
4. Freshly baked pastry on every street corner- even when I was walking on the street at 1 o clock in the night I could feel the delicious smell of fresh bread. When back in Estonia you have to satisfy with the refrigerated re baked stuff.
5. The weather- although it was 11 degrees when I arrived in Cluj and for the first month the temperature rarely rose above 20. The last month we had the weather of typical Estonian mid- July. So I guess my summer will be 4 months now instead of 3.
6. Being normal height – it is totally ok to be 1.60 in Romania, most of the girls are around the same height and I am not considered to be short. I don’t have to look to the heights when talking to people and they don’t make funny comments about my height. Since the guys are shorter to they don’t necessarily look for girls taller than 1.60.
7. The center being just 15 minutes from home – If I told people that I live in Manastur, almost all the Romanians made a comment that oh, poor you, it is so far. But I really enjoyed being able to wake up just 1 hour before I had to be in the center rather than 2 hours as it is in Estonia.
8. Speaking Romanian – cefats?, multumesc, cupletsere, unu, doi, trei, patru, cinc, sase, sapte, opt, noua, zece, Nofta buna, Na rod, doi portocale va rog! hopefully I can speak with Lupo and Ioana if I really need to.
9. Mountains
10. Cluj -Napoca – I am sure that if I return some day, it will feel like coming home.
No comments:
Post a Comment