Life in Romania

I would like to introduce you to my life in Romania. Please take the time to look for my books I have written, which includes 'The Romanian Way' and 100 ways of bringing up and educating your child in Romania ' which gives you lots of practical tips on how to life as a family in Romania, and make the most of all Romania has to offer a young family. For less than a couple of coffees, I am offering you 8 years of experience distilled into a single book! '

I have several old properties scattered about the country, and a Bucharest apartment. Let me start by telling you how I went about buying a Romanian house.

. It took a year and only by leaving it to my Romanian family did I find anything at all in the end! When I did find the perfect Romanian real estate, you need to deal with the expensive Romanian bank system! It is slow, expensive and the workers only work when they feel like it, or a work appraisal is in the offing... the rest of the time they are certain never to have the right form.

I go every weekend to the countryside, where my grandparents live. I want to share with you the Romania the country and I hope you will also feel my love of Romania and take the time to come and visit here and experience life in Romania.

You will quickly discover that Romania is just one of those places, where it becomes essential to build up a platonic network of women. You will find you need a different Romanian woman where ever you happen to be and whatever you happen to be doing. They will come in all sorts of shapes, ages and sizes and you will find you need and love them in all for what they do to make your life smoother.

There are also lots of apple and plum trees, which are made into Romanian clear plum brandy - which goes surprisingly well when you eat the different cabbage dishes.

The house has gutters, so we can collect the rainwater and use this for washing up, water for the animals or watering the plants.

When I arrived at this house about 6 years ago, technology had not reached here. It had an old radio and the television had only one state channel. life in Romania here seemed to be as it was 50 or 100 years ago.

Inside it has been greatly improved, and now grandma has satallite TV with about 100 channels - and she now enjoys watching the latest Romanian news late into the night.

The Internet was only recently added, as this was so that I could build this site while here.

There are two bedrooms. Each has its own wood burning heater, which keeps thing warm in Winter. In the back is the food store, and a spare room. We don't often use this extra room, as its ceiling is very low.

We also have a separate room for the kitchen. Here is where grandpa likes to sleep near the wood burning kitchen stove.

The Romanian garden is very important. We have improved it, by adding solar lamps. Romanians are very proud of their gardens. There are fruit trees, strawberry plants and some annual plants. Life in Romania is made easier by having our own organic crop, rather than needing to go to the market in town.

We also have a large vegetable garden for beans, tomatoes and herbs for the kitchen.

We have no running water on the property, so we use an outside toilet, which does not need to use any water. All my father in law did, was to did a deep hole, and then build a little shed over it.

I spend a great deal of time looking down the hole and under the lid, as I have yet to believe that a spider won't bite my sensitive parts.

In front of the outside toilet is the place we leave the cow dung. I had the bright idea of adding some pumpkin seeds. Romanians eat lots of pumpkin seeds as a snack, so my grandmother gave me another 1/2 kg of seeds to add... we now have all sorts of different marrows (green and white) and pumpkins (yellow and orange) growning there. They have fed us all summer.

This is where we store all the wood. Every Spring we have a couple of trees delivered. We then use a chain saw and then axes to make them into smal pieces - ideal for the wood burning stoves.

Romanians are also keen on cooking outside, so we also use the wood to cook meat on the barbeque. Life in Romania would not be the same without some roasted pork chops. Of course you also need a beer in your hand while cooking for it to all cook properly - so I am told!

Here are one of our barns. We have two barns and lots of Romanian haystacks scattered across our land.

Getting the grass ready for Winter. I worked all of today, shifting, turning and collecting in the grass into small piles. Grandmother made them into larger piles. Then they are carefully constructed into haystays.

Their beautiful shape, plus a piece of plastic on top seems to keep them dry. My wife, as a child was playing with matches and - yep - you've guessed it - her granny had one less stack in the middle of a very hard winter! She wasn't in anyones good books for a while!

Others use the lake to catch really small fish. It is full of life, including frogs and the occasional snake.

We also have to leave the farm to collect fresh water. We sometimes use a well near us, or we go into the valley and fill up as many 5 litre water barrels as our Romanian car can carry from a small spring.

My ambition to improve life in Romania for the whole family is to dig our own well and so Grandma gets her water directly from her courtyard. It is a dream - but a man must dream! Life in Romania depends a lot on the weather. We lost most of our plum and apple crop in May because of sharp frost. The frost destroyed the new flowers and buds. Recently in Bucharest, there was a storm, which lasted for only a few minutes, but was enough to destroy lots of the trees and flowers in the park.

Romanian traditions , especially when it comes to bringing up children is fascinating. I have learnt so much about what is socially acceptable when it comes to child care. When you marry - you will discover that you marry the whole family and need to learn that they are paranoid about its spine, so while in England we take some care, in Romania, you must treat each child like they are made of glass, and are ready to shatter in an instant!

The Romanian climate determines when it is best to visit this wonderful country. It depends on when you are are able to come and what you want to do here. It is too hot and too cold for most at different times of the year. Check this article out before coming to visit.

You need to take great care to learn these 10 Amazing Facts about Romania which no one will tell you - and the guide books are certainly not going to spend time explaining to you about Life in Romania. By knowing them, you will find you are accepted like a local. It took me 8 years to learn them and I am still adding to them on a daily basis.

There are lots of different Romanian life styles, depending on where in the country you happen to live. Life in Romania can be easy or hard, depending on where you happen to live. I am very lucky, as I have three different homes in Romania. This has let me explore the Romanian country at my leisure.

If you need more information from another view point about life in Romania, check out Romalien - Community For Tourists / Expats In Romania. It has all the latest news about Romania, along with great articles and suggestions, such as about driving in Romania.

Romanian Christmas Carols .

Have you tried to master Romanian customs ? Whatever you do, you are certain to somehow upset your Romanian hosts as their ideas of polite behaviour are different to anyone else's, though they will just tell you they are simply superior.I have written an article to guide you through Romanian etiquette, each point has cost me dearly, so I would love someone to benefit from my many errors and arguments.

Ready to make that final commitment, and want to spend the rest of your life in Romania? Check out the Romanian Education system first! Then you may want to join me and apply for the mysterious Romanian citizenship tests. Before you get a life in Romania, some have been in and out in a record speed, other needed to recite a complete 90 verse Romanian poem, and some were Arabs and so had a tough time no matter what they did!

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