Foreigners never stop giving us lessons about Romania. Anđela Petković is a student at the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Bucharest. The young woman is doing her master’s degree, as a scholar of the Romanian state. It is not the first meeting with our country, during the degree courses being included in the Erasmus + program, which allowed her, for a period of time, to study in Alba Iulia, within the Faculty of Letters.
Anđela is one of the many foreigners, whom I had the opportunity to meet, and who have confessed to me, without any hesitation, that she aimed to settle in Romania. When you have the opportunity to discover such people, you realize, once again, that the country in which you were born is different than many naysayers like to describe it. It is a place full of opportunities, wonderful stories, a place where special, open, friendly people, willing to evolve, live.
Love brought her to Bucharest
The young woman born in Podgorita, the capital of Montenegro, is a graduate of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Montenegro.
Her meeting with Romania intervened due to Erasmus + mobility, which allowed her to apply for study programs abroad. Thus, she came to study for one semester at the Faculty of Letters in the city of Alba Iulia and for another two semesters to study in Turkey.
She liked the Romanian experience very much, so she decided to do her masters studies in our country. She also had an extremely important personal motive. While in Alba Iulia she knew her love, so the desire to return to the country and to share her life with her beloved man was a natural one.
“Alba Iulia, a small but welcoming city and very important historically, has changed my life. There, at the Faculty of Letters, I spent a semester and found friends for my whole life, but also my love. That’s why I came back to Romania. While studying in Alba Iulia, I fell in love. And not only for the beauty of these places, but also with a boy with whom I kept the connection at a distance. After graduating, I decided to move to your country. This time I chose Cluj-Napoca, where I started my master’s studies, at Babeș Bolyai University. I received a scholarship from the Romanian state and had to do the preparatory year first. So, last year I studied Romanian intensively. In the meantime, I decided to change my field and opted for a master degree in political studies. Together with my boyfriend we decided to move to Bucharest, the city where the exact time for Romania is given. We made this change at the beginning of the academic year. There was no point in staying in Cluj-Napoca, given that the major national and international institutions are based in Bucharest”, explains Anđela.
She loves the parks in Bucharest
She confesses to me that, at first glance, she was not too pleased with the Romanian capital. “I was used to Transylvania, the rustic landscapes, the medieval castles … However, over time, I realized that the city has a special charm. I discovered many large and beautiful parks in Bucharest, places where I like to spend every weekend. In addition, I discovered the locals, who at first seemed cold to me, but I had to find out that it wasn’t like that. Moreover, the city offered me many opportunities. For example, I had the opportunity to do a training internship at the Montenegrin Embassy in Bucharest. I have been preparing for three months there and I feel like a mediator between my country of origin and my country of adoption”, says the young woman.
Being a great lover of nature, Anđela has found many places in Bucharest that satisfy this passion. She likes all the parks in the city, but she prefers the Carol I Park, the Alexandru Ioan Cuza Park (i.e. IOR Park), the Youth Park and the King Michael I Park (i.e. Herastrau Park).
“I like to walk through parks, but also to rollerblade near the lakes in these parks, to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the fresh air. I also like Union Boulevard, which reminds me of the hard times of communism. At the same time, this place represents for me something grand, majestic, a symbol of power. I love to walk around the “old city”, which reflects the influences of other countries and cultures. Here, a walk on a certain street makes me thinking about Paris, on another street I feel like somewhere in Austria, and on the other I can discover the Slavic mark. What I like about Bucharest is the cosmopolitan atmosphere, the coexistence of several cultures and nations. I like the fact that you don’t have time to get bored here, the city is full of opportunities, movements, and activities”, emphasizes the Montenegrin student.
Coming to the Romanian capital, the young woman was delighted to find that, although in Bucharest “she lives fast”, she works hard, people find time for social life. “Residents of other large cities lack this ability. I suppose it all starts with the Balkan spirit. This is the case in all the countries of the former Yugoslavia, we work hard, but we also know how to relax,” points out Anđela.
The city that adopted her so easily is extremely friendly with strangers. For the young woman from Montenegro, Bucharest is a mixture of different personalities, in which all people live in harmony. “Maybe it is all because Bucharest has been subject to different influences throughout its history. For me, the capital of Romania is a place where I want to settle. It is a city full of opportunities for both Bucharest and foreigners. Here you have the freedom to express yourself and create. A market that is still young and full of potential which is a great opportunity to grow. If, after completing my studies, I manage to enter the diplomacy, I wish to remain permanently in Romania. Thus, I will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of the society that adopted me. Moreover, I will have the opportunity to lay the foundations of close links with other countries that have things in common with Romania. I mean the Balkan countries,” mentions the young student.
Regarding the education in Romania, the young woman was surprised to find that the teachers have a much friendlier approach to the students, compared to what is happening in Montenegro. In fact, the attitude of the Romanian teachers weighed a lot when Anđela made the decision to do the master’s degree at a university institution from our country. Instead, she says that Romanian education is based too much on theory and too little on practice.
An important piece of advice for Romanians
Anđela Petković has an important piece of advice for Romanians. She urges them to make efforts for the development and promotion of tourism. “Romania is an undiscovered country, unjustifiably ignored and unfairly cataloged because of false stories. Romania does not deserve this to happen. Even though many will accuse me, I must say that most of the blame for everything that happens rests with the Romanians. Foreigners cannot appreciate a country that Romanians always present only in a negative way. Romanians simply do not know what treasures their country is hiding or if they know they are not able to take advantage of all the opportunities that have been offered to them. Recently, I read a work of a foreign traveler, Stanislas Bellanger, who presents the natural wealth of the Principalities, in the 1830s, the unused resources, neglected, ceded to others. The author is sorry that the potential of the country is untapped and this is expressed as follows: “… there is no country better placed than the principalities, endowed with abundance with all the necessary elements for the development of trade, the prosperity of the industry; and no country, despite this, that fell into the deepest apathy. ” Therefore, I think that Romanians are the ones who should, first and foremost, be aware of the huge potential that their country has, and then they will be able to do a fair promotion of Romania’s image internationally,” notes the Montenegrin young woman.
Author: Ștefania Enache
Photo: Corina Gheorghe
