Czech woman, 25

Age: 25
Sex: F
Nationality: cz
Education: almost bachelor:) officially finished only high ed.
Occupation: "student"

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
Well, I had impression about Romania and Romanians as my friends told me about those, i mean friends who visited Romania
Briefly, beautiful country, very kind and friendly people...and i thought it is post communist country as ours but that our country is a bit further in way of economy.
frankly, there were also voices, who were telling me not very nice things about Romania and that all Romanians are gypsies and blabla, but i didn't care about that, cause those were all people who had never been to Romania

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
It changed only in a way that i haven't only heard about it but i could have felt it:) I mean about those good references from former visitors.
i fall in love with Romania, Romanians and Romanian language

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
well, hard to say, there were more of them
I guess the best one was with you:) clever, smart, open minded, crazy, creative, speaking Slavic languages, friendly, just wow!!!! well, and there were more nice people of course
For example Petre, we met during festival, young student of philosophy, working as IT programer:)

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
well, not sure if i should write it but ok.. it was with fucking stupid taxi driver who run over two dogs, on purpose.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
life
laugh
culture
friends
warmth
effort
good lovers :)
annoying sellers :)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
pretty
wow, it really depends, they are just women i guess:)


Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
confident
good lovers
and again, it depends...
in general they are more mature that czech men

What is the age you associate Romania with?
29...after lots of shit, mature young lady who never lost her energy and beauty, but during her teenage age she went trough so many stuff- it would give for many many lifes...so kind of old, but still young and no mature enough to go on and on :)


What is the drink you associate Romania with?
palinca si bere

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
dacia
timisorana

Name 3 prominent Romanians
nestor ratesh- i dont know how much is he treated as a prominent person in Romania, but i met him during a conference in radio free europe, courageous guy
Laszlo Tokes - well, he was actually hungarian, wasnt he?
Ceausescu
Basescu
Dan Duta - director of ICR in prague:)


What time of the day you associate Romania with?
morning

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Romania, cannot associate with any


What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
czech rep. doesnt have a sea:)

Italian female, 22

Age: 22
Sex: F
Nationality: ITALIAN
Education: DEGREE IN PEDAGOGY
Occupation: STUDENT AND EVS VOLUNTEER IN BUCURESTI

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I WAS CONFUSED BECAUSE OF ITALIAN’S MEDIA AND THEIR OPINIONS AND IMAGINES ABOUT ROMANIAN PEOPLE.
BUT I WAS SURE THAT THIS IMAGINES WAS WRONG, AND I THOUGHT THAT AS IN EVERY COUNTRY THERE ARE THE “GOODS” AND THE “BADS” ONES.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
YES, I UNDERSTOOD THAT MY DOUBTS ABOUT ITALIAN INFORMATIONS WERE RIGHTS!! THE ROMANIAN YUNGSTERS WHO I’VE MET ARE OPENED PEOPLE, FRIENDLY, HONESTS..ALSO ROMA PEOPLE ARE QUITE, THEY NEVER DISTURBED ME UNTIL NOW..

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I HAVE TWO HAPPY EXPERIENCE OF HITCHHIKING IN DOBROGEA:
THE FIRST WHIT A LOVELY GYPSY FAMILY THAT HELP ME TO FIND THE PLACE THAT I NEEDED, THE SECOND ONE WITH A MAN, WHO ALSO PAYED FOR MY HOTEL’S ROOM....I’VE NEVER MET A MAN SO GENEROUS, AN ANGEL.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
IN TRAIN DURING THE NIGHT WITH A MAN..REALLY ANNOYING.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
IMMIGRANTS
WORKERS
ROMA PEOPLE
CRIMINALITY

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
COLF
SUBJECTION
OPEN
FRIENDLY

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
HARDWORKERS
PROUD
CRIMINALITY (I’M CONSCIOUS TO BE VICTIM OF ITALIAN INFORMATION)

8. What is the age you associate Romania with?

1989 THE REVOUTION.....................

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
NU STIU, WINE BUT ALSO BEER, TIMISOREANA FOR SURE

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
TIMISOREANA.....................
URSUS.....................
DACIA.....................

Name 3 prominent Romanians
EMINESCU
CEAUCESCU
MIHAILEANU


What time of the day you associate Romania with?
FIRST AND LAST METRO (5 a.m and 11.30 pm)

Name the country you associate Romania with?
ITALY

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
I’M CURIOS TO UNDERSTAND IT! FOR SURE ABOUT POLITIC ASPECT WORSE THAN BERLUSCONI IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE..I WILL SEE DURING THIS MONTHS

Polish female, 25

Age: 25
Sex: F
Nationality: polish
Education: master degree in progress
Occupation: volunteer for Cultural Association for Theatre and Origami in Romania

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
My ideas about Romania, how it’s there, how people are, how they live were very blured. Mostly because of lack of competent knowledge. So basicly my thinking about this country and people was a result from what other people were telling me about and also what stereotypes say. Stereotypes: “ Romanian are gypsies / you need to be very carfelul it is dangeorus there / don’t go out alone” etc. People who were in Romania: “the country is beautiful / you have to visit Transylvania / Romanian are amazingly good in languages” etc. Even that I tried to “fight” with those stereotypes and trying to explain that Romanian are not gypsies and the country cannot be so much different than Poland, there is always smth that stays in your mind.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
It has change a bit. Mostly about gypsies – I don’t see as many as I expected to see. I was also surprised about how opened people are, oppened for foreigners and how welcoming they are.
A! the big surprise was that abortion is legal!

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
Romanian girl taking me around Bucharest and showing places and events I would not be able to discover on my own as a foreigner!
Taxi drivers who don’t mind you want to smoke in a car and want to entertain you by plaing “manele” (?) 

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Taxi driver killing a dog for purpose!

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
ambitious
creative
laungage skills
pride and attachment to their own country

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
firm
egzotic
self-confident
opened

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Hmmm, difficult to say, difficult to be objective when you are a woman. It seems like they’r the same everywhere. Ok, maybe Romanian men are more straightforward and self-confident than polish.

What is the age you associate Romania with?
Not sure if I understood… If it is about a year, then 2007; if it is about age, then Middle Ages and communism.


What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Timisoreana si ursus

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Hmmmm, nu stiu…. Maybe Timisoreana and Ursus again... If I can call it “brand”

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Emil Cioran
Mircea Eliade
Nicolae Ceausescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
5 o’clock in the morning, the time when metro start’s working again

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Romania

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Sometimes I have an impresion that polish people have a “polish complex”; Romanian people don’t.

Italian female, 27

Age: 27
Sex: FEMALE
Nationality: ITALIAN
Education: UNIVERSITY DEGREE
Occupation: NATIONAL MUSEUM of CONTEMPORARY ART in BUCHAREST

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
The problem, in my case, is that I had absolutely no idea in my mind about Romania. This is the sad reality. In Italy is very difficult to find someone, who can say the difference between Budapest and Bucharest. I “studied” in the six months before coming here a little bit about this country and I was a little bit afraid about Bucharest because of the bad news I heard from the people around me (like for example, problems with the police, bad conditions of the apartments…).

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Yes, of course! Till now I didn't have any kind of problems! Maybe Bucharest is not a beautiful city; but it has nothing to do with the problems of living here.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
It was in Iaşi, one month ago. I was there for working and I met a family in a cluster. The mother, Mrs. Dana, was so happy to know that someone was in Romania with a fellowship from EU (like me) and wanted to remain here! She proposed to me to stay in her apartment for some days. When I said, that it was impossible for me, she gave me her mobile-phone number and let me promise to come back to Iaşi to see the clusters in Moldavia with herself and her family. It was a discussion of about 20 minutes, but was an incredible experience…

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
Till now, when a very young girl tried to steal from my pocket in the bus in Bucharest and when a taxi driver wanted from me an exorbitant amount of money for two kilometers and for me was very difficult to answer in Romanian.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
Happiness
Creativity
Will of doing
Submissiveness

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
Austerity
Wife
Mother
Female

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Dictator
Kind
Helper
Honest

What is the age you associate Romania with?
1400, the age of Dracula!

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Ţuică

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
only Skoda

Name 3 prominent Romanians
George Enescu
Constantin Brâncuşi
Nicolae Ceauşescu

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Night

Name the country you associate Romania with?
Poland

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
I think the multiculturalism, that is here.

Spanish male, 25

Age: 25
Sex: Male
Nationality: Spanish
Education: Diploma in law studies
Occupation: Student


What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
In Spain the Romanian community is the third bigger of foreigners after Colombian and Morocco. Even if the great majority of the Romanians are already involve in the normal life there are some communities under the normal living standards (begging at metro stations…..). For this reason the image that people have about Romania and Romanians is quite biased. And I have to admit that even trying to be open minded some of those thoughts were in my mind at the moment I was coming.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
It did. At the beginning my feeling was somehow of disappointment. Arrive to Bucharest was like arriving to any other European capital and I was expecting something different. I noticed some different things of course but mostly everything was as at home. Neither the people gave me a different impression. At this point I have to admit that I did not travel so much in the countryside and here in Bucharest my life is in the central area.
With time I discovered a deeper face of the city and the people, different way of living and of understanding life, business and everything. Shopping at Obor, at some flea markets at Pantalimon or Militari, there is where I found the Romania I was expecting.
The only thing I missed is the political behavior of the normal people. I was sure that after the communism people were involved. Instead I found out that no so many people care about what was going on with Basescu, with the ministry of Justice or with whatever other political stuffs. At a political scientist this is hard to see and to admit. Also at the social demands most of the Romanian population has not interest, they do not fight for the normal and basic rights and usually they have a very poor opinion of their country and the people. Most of the people I met dream with Europe and they do not consider Romania as a potential country. Most of them seem disappointed and already bored of empty promises, they do not trust in the political elites and they just accept what the system offer them without expecting great things.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
The woman of a little shop close to the place I live. I think she is the only one who heard my poor Romanian language and everyday she tries to have a longer conversation, she never agrees to sell me two packets of cigarettes, and always put some more telemea than I asked. I know I will remember and miss her.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
One night at Lipscani area. I was walking holding the hand of other guy and some young guys came to us more to scare than to have a real fight. It was nothing important but for me is unbelievable that in a capital city as Bucharest is people is still not ready to understand some basic rules of civism.


Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
- Easy going
- Conservative
- Daring

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
- Submissive
- Accepting to be a sex-toy, very conceited
- Good-looking

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
- Rough, rude
- Soccer
- Ursus

What is the age you associate Romania with?
According to my parents´ opinion, which I share, Romania is very similar to Spain 30 years ago.

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Bere, this is a personal problem, I will answer the same in any other country.

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Ursus
Dacia
Fornetti
Xerox

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Basescu
Nadia Comaneci
Gheorghe Hagi

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
The late afternoon

Name the country you associate Romania with?
???

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Also very personal but for me the night life, even if it is quite ok is very limited in the kind of clubs, music and people.

American male, 49

Age: 49
Sex: M
Nationality: American
Education: Masters/ Communication
Occupation: Communication Planning

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I thought of Romania as one of the smaller satellite countries behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. I imagined it as a rural, mountainous country with many villages. I assumed it was very ‘slavic’ and somehow a bridge between countries like Yugoslavia, Hungary and the Soviet Union.
But, I would not be able to discern the difference between Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary for example.
In terms of the capital, I similarly had little impression of Bucharest (I’m one of those hopelessly guilty of previously saying Budapest/ Bucharest).
I knew of Ceausescu’s atrocities but did not know of him by name.
And in the late 90s I became aware of all the stories in the European and American press about children in orphanages after the revolution.
On a more positive note, I knew of Romania’s showing at the Olympics, particularly the now-famous women’s gymnastics team.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
Very much so…5 trips in 2 months have really opened my mind, particularly to city life. One weekend in the country to see villages as well as a smaller town like Pitesti was a gift—especially to be able and go spend time in a real village. (don’t have a lot of those near New York City)
I feel remiss for not having known how similar the Romanian language and other Latin derived languages are.
I now sense the ‘new energy’ of seeing how quickly life is changing for Romanians (especially from a marketing perspective-- new stores, new brands, and new choices.)
I also am understanding more the impact of 1989: life before it, as well as the death and destruction that occurred during the revolution (a far cry from the Czech ‘velvet revolution’.) To also finally grasp that the revolution was not distant history…that it is a living, personal memory for many, is something I can never fully comprehend.
And I do sense the frustration of daily life—life seems still really hard in Bucharest--the traffic, the hassles, and a government still going through transitions. Romanians will overcome all this, but it is still a time it seems of overwhelming pressure and frustration.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I have had many, in my workings with my local colleagues and their warmth once we got to know each other a little better. I have also sensed that warmth in daily dealings with people I don’t know, but who have helped me…at the airport, at the hotel, in a store.
The best?....my colleague sharing his holiday weekend and having me meet his wife’s 75year old grandmother on her small village farm.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
I honestly haven’t any --nothing that I can say is ‘bad’. (I’ve had more hassles in my home city of New York, or more rude dealings in cities like Amsterdam, Paris or Geneva!)

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
• “A light under a bushel’—people’s inherent passion/ warmth finally surfacing
• Opinionated-- Sharing opinions seem a national pastime!
• Still some lingering darkness and frustration…still much to overcome.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
• A bit shy first, around foreigners, then warming up
• Passionate
• Hard working in the many roles she plays in life

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
Younger/ professional men: (<45)
• Well read, highly optimistic, inquisitive, motivated, hard working
Older/ more blue-collar men (+45)
• Struggling between the old world and the new world

What is the age you associate Romania with?
• Two ages at once….28 and 75

What is the drink you associate Romania with?
Some of the fruit liquors I experienced in the country

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Tarom Airlines
Dero

Name 3 prominent Romanians
• Ceausescu
• Nadia Comedic
• Ion Ionescu (sp?)

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
Another duality…the possibility of a spring’s mid morning 10am), and the waning light of autumns late afternoon (430pm)

Name the country you associate Romania with?
My visits to China keep coming to mind….mainly the rural villages nearby the secondary cities like a Guangzhou….like two centuries living right next to each other at the same time.


What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
Americans seemed to have forgotten what the purpose of our revolution was (1776) …for independence, a better life, for escape from dictatorial power. ….Romanians on the other hand, haven’t yet forgotten the purpose of their revolution.

bulgarian male, 33

Age: 33
Sex: male
Nationality: Bulgarian
Education: Higher Education
Occupation: Administration worker

What did you think about Romania and Romanians before your first contacts with this country or its inhabitants?
I was very curious because I had heard all sorts of stories, mostly unpleasant but as I’m not naturally prejudiced I wanted to have my own opinion of the country and its people.

Did this image change after getting to know a Romanian or after visiting the country? How?
In a way, it did. I was amazed by the architecture of Bucharest. It’s called Le Petit Paris for a reason. I also found its people to be warm-hearted and very friendly. On the other hand, there are certain places that should be avoided there at all cost as they are very dangerous indeed. I was able to get a very real sense of this danger on the way back as well. I think that half of the customs officers were corrupt to the bone and totally inhuman. I do hope that this has changed after January 2007.

Describe in a few words your best encounter with a Romanian.
I met a boy on the Metro who was most helpful providing very precise information on how to get around the city.

Describe in a few words your worst encounter with a Romanian.
No doubt that was on the train on the way back when personally I was not mistreated but I witnessed a horrific racketeering applied to a Romanian girl who refused to bribe the Customs officers and as a result was taken off the train.

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanians in general?
warm-hearted
wild.....
dangerous....
friendly.......

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian women?
very beautiful.....
artistic............
wild...............
seductive...................

Which words come to your mind when you think about Romanian men?
wild............
friendly..................
dangerous..................


What is the age you associate Romania with?
the 80s of the 20th century


What is the drink you associate Romania with?
I can’t answer this question...................

What are the brands you associate Romania with?
Dacia..................

Name 3 prominent Romanians
Chaushesku..................
I’m aware there are many others but can’t name them off the top of my head...

What time of the day you associate Romania with?
3 pm..................

Name the country you associate Romania with?
I can’t answer this question ..................

What is the main difference between Romania and your country?
We are much more peaceful than the Romanians. We don’t have their wild side, which I think is to be regretted. I’d like to be a little wilder. Another difference is their perception of themselves as a great nation while we are facing a situation where more and more people are leaving the country and apart from being geographically small, the population of Bulgaria has greatly decreased over the last years. Right now we are barely one-third of the population of Romania.