Job Discussion Forums

[cleicht]

Hello all,

I am an American who has lived in Spain and a bit in Mexico. I am considering applying for a position that would take me to Romania. I know very little about the country.

What are some of the negatives? What are some of the positives? What do Romanians think of Americans? Are they friendly towards them and like them, providing the Americans are respectful?

Thanks,

Chris

[Bebsi]

Hi Chris,

Asking such a general question is not likely to get you many replies, but I know where you're coming from. If you trawl through the other threads, you will find out quite a lot. Read the postings by Mike07 (also posting by Mike03 if you go back a few years), which are usually pretty informative and balanced. I have a few snippets in there too.

In a nutshell, however, I'd summarize as follows:

Pros:

- Beautiful scenery, especially in the centre and north, notably Transylvania and Bucovina.

- Loads of history, especially in Transylvania and Moldavia.

- One of the best ranges of wildlife in Europe, including wild boar, bears, wolves, deer and mountain lion, all roaming free in the more remote areas

- Vast areas of unspoilt natural beauty

- Very friendly people generally, with most under 30s being English speakers (at least a few words)

- Romanians have a strong sense of irony and self-deprecating humour

- Still pretty cheap for services, and certain commodities such as local booze

- Bucharest is OK, with a reasonable amount of things to do

- Nice weather 6 months of the year

Cons:

- Most unpopular government in the country's history, with good reason it would appear (to me as an outsider, anyway)

- Poorly maintained service infrastructure (health, education etc) due to lack of spending

- Road infrastructure is still pretty awful, but improving verrrry slowly

- Still lots of corruption

- Romanians as a people lack self-esteem

- Some people still cling to the communist-era view that money is acquired, not earned

- Goods as expensive as western Europe, while incomes certainly do not match

- Shopping not great but improving slowly

- Summers can get very hot, winters extremely cold for about 8-10 weeks a year


Hope this is of some help

Bebz.