Romania: 6 years

After the pandemic quarantine and lock-downs, and being respectful of the current restrictions I have begun to revisit some of the places I spent quite a lot of time at during my first three years in Romania. And oh boy! I would like to share three things today.

The first thing I learnt was planning is okay but adapting is challenging and necessary. I had completely ignored including adaptation as part of my preparation. Moving to a new place is not just a matter of “oh well, it’ll be okay”. It was frustrating and overwhelming. At times so blurry I was so confused about what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. And people asking me what my plans where was just making it worse. I had to keep my calm and it was not easy.

The second one is learning the language is key to understanding and blending. I want to brag here a bit that my friends here say I speak well and sometimes even better than locals. Though the point here really is that in making my adaptation less frustrating, I had to make the effort to connect to this country and its people by learning their language, their way of seeing and saying things. And this brought me close to -not good- but very amazing people.

Lastly (only for today), searching is not over until you find what you want. It was extremely difficult for me to find a job. Wait. Not just a job. But a job that would give me the space to grow. I never asked to be spoiled but respected. Sadly, sometimes you do have to ask to be respected. But hey, I made it! I have completed 8 months in this job and though it feels like 8 years, I’m loving it.

I had planned everything but it was pretty much some sort of: took my luggage and left. If you are looking forward to moving out to somewhere else -city, country, continent, whatever it may be- I would love to hear about it. If you already did it, I want to hear you as well!

Happy sixth anniversary to me.