Expat In Romania

Of all the habits and baggage that one assimilates by moving to a new country, embracing Culture is the final threshold before 'going native'. Someone can learn a foreign language and still remain far removed its associated culture. It takes an amalgam of shared local experiences, relationships, and a daily dose of local customs before culture is assimilated - and incorporated. But I'm just scratching the surface here. There are countless other micro factors involved. And because we're dealing with a qualitative question, measuring the 'amount' of culture is at best subjective, and this preamble is, at best, casual. Though born here, I've been gone so long that, very often, seemingly obvious cultural references go right over my head and I have to turn to my traditions consultant/girlfriend for guidance. This is especially the case where music is concerned. I confuse Enescu and Porumbescu , I have no idea what the lyrics are to the most popular campfire so...

There's this bullshit petition that's been floating around on twitter. An update to Romania's laws on stray dogs is going to result in the euthanasia of Romania's stray dog population. The animal activist set is in an uproar. In other words, in a country where a significant number of people survive on subsistence wages, and where they suffer the added indignity of being attacked by flea-bitten strays, this is the primary focus of the international civil society. I'm not going to link the actual petition because it has zero merit, but I'm going to address the absolutely false, misleading, and pretty much insane claims that it makes, one point at a time. Let's start with the law itself. It defines a several new provisions to an already existing 2001 law that deals with "ownerless dogs" aka. 'Maidanezi' in Romanian, aka. Strays. I'm not going to put every single bit of it, just the clearly relevant aspects of it. Also added emphasis in b...

One of the posts I wrote at the end of last year predicted that 2013 was going to be awesome . It was. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was a solid 9 - because nothing is ever perfect. I achieved some personal goals I didn't think possible a few short years ago when I was still freezing my ass off in Toronto: traveling to some of Europe's most beautiful cities, catching my favourite DJs at music festivals, and learning to drive stick - an essential skill in any car chase. I said I would walk on hot coals, and, in a sense, I did as I adapted to a new role at work and became more friendly with the Romanian language and with life here. I also said I'd stand up against injustice. But did I? We, the people, are treated with as much disdain as ever: Bankers are in cahoots with drug cartels. Politicians are creating self-serving laws while they spout lie after lie, and governments are spying on their citizens with impunity - and protecting aforementioned banks. That's only the ...

The price was too good to be true. Organic Bresaola for 10 lei/100grams (about $3). It was imported from Italy and based on the number of ingredients (beef, salt) the claim seemed legit. The best by date was listed as the day after, but we planned on eating it that evening, so that would take care of that. When I opened the package I immediately recognized the smell of ammonia. Maybe it was something else too, but in any case, it wasn't the smell of meat gone bad and that was somewhat more disturbing. Because I had to work and do other things the next couple of days, I wasn't able to return it. I wondered whether they were still selling it or if they were using the packages as chloroform rags now. On the third day I went after work and looked around until I found somebody. I stumbled upon a middle aged lady at the dairy section, updating prices. "Excuse me, I'm looking for the deli department manager." "We don't have any managers working in the even...

I get it now. I understand Romanian drivers and their follies. It's something I thought would never happen. All it took to shape me into a Romanian road rage machine was one month of driving around Cluj and a 400 km round trip. I'm kidding about the rage part. The idea of driving in Cluj was intimidating. Last time I'd driven manual shift was almost ten years ago when a co-worker asked me to drive her and her newly purchased, Pontiac Firefly  home because she had no idea how to do it. So of course I stalled that little bastard all over the place. Little surprise that the idea of driving along busy and narrow European streets was unappealing - especially after years of driving automatic on wide, North American roads. But I managed. Stalled an average of once per trip during the first week, and then a couple of times in the second week, and now, a little over a month later, I sometimes stall at stoplights when I forget I'm driving stick and leave it in gear when I rel...

I was walking through the piata today when this amazing business plan came to mind. Here's what happened. As I stood at one of the fruit stalls, picking through a mound of plums, the lady in charge interrupted me. "Sir, I can't sell just a few plums." "Why not? I'll pay." "I'm prohibited" I loved this. It's not a business reason, it's simply a whim. That one sentence sums up a lot of the local business mentality. I imagined a boss who gave her the serving scoop and who told her, 'make sure you don't sell 'just a few plums, now, hear?' "How many do I need to get?" I asked. "Half a kilo." "Sorry, I really don't want half a kilo." Disappointed, I put the ones I'd picked up back on the display. "You can get some from the neighbour," she offered, motioning to the stand behind, "she'll sell them piecemeal" "Okay, will do, thanks." So, while the f...

G (who asked that I don't use his real name) and I met this past summer when he was visiting Romania. We talked over drinks and I was struck by his keen sense of observation about the way things are going in Romania.When I sent him the following list questions, he didn't shy away from formulating very pointed answers, and I'm grateful for that.   1. You moved away to Australia as a 6 year old. Do you remember what you first liked about the new continent, and what you missed about Europe? I moved to Australia when I was 7.5 – left Romania when I was 5. I spent a year in other European countries where my parents both worked as Engineers before we eventually received permission to migrate to Australia. Before leaving, we had been living in Germany for almost two years, where I had finished kindergarten and first grade in primary school. I had friends the...