10 things I wish I knew BEFORE I moved to Romania | Moving Abroad Ep.30

good morning and welcome back today I thought it would be fun to sit down and do 10 Things I wish I would have known as an American before I moved to Romania let's just be honest here I was a little bit like Patrick Star when I lived in the states let's say I pretty much lived under a rock it is no secret that in the U.S you are not exposed to a lot of different things and I feel like it's kind of its own little world over there there was so much that I learned and experienced living abroad I have done many culture shocks videos talking about things that I was not aware of that I was shocked by when I first moved here and today I wanted to sit down and do 10 Things I wish I would have known before I moved to Romania the first thing I wish I would have known is that Apartments here come fully furnished and in the US this is not common at all the only thing that it comes with typically are appliances like the fridge the stove washer and dryer but it doesn't come with any furniture here in Romania our apartment came with everything that it needed except for like dishes silverware and towels which was so shocking to me not to mention whenever I moved abroad I packed my whole life into one suitcase and brought it to Europe having major Furniture taken care of in our apartment was a huge huge blessing to go along with that the second thing that I wish I would have known you guys are honestly probably gonna laugh at me because this is such an American thing to say there are different plugs for the outlets okay get your laughter out now I understand something that I honestly never thought about or never considered so the day that my husband and I arrived in Romania both of our phones were dead almost dead they were on like five percent there was no way it was going to last us all night and into the next day so we've entered out to a local grocery store to find a phone charger with an EU plug only to find out most grocery stores don't sell stuff like that because it's not a One-Stop shop so we actually had to wait until the next day venture out both of our phones were dead trying to walk around the city finding a store where we could buy phone chargers that was such an experience so just a tip just get a universal plug because you're gonna need it the third thing I wish I would have known before I moved to Romania is that Romania actually has really modern cities I think the mall here in my town is actually nicer than the one back in Kansas City before I moved to Romania I knew absolutely nothing about it only a couple pictures that one of my husband's co-workers had sent us from living cure but other than that I honestly had no idea what it looked like here what the cities were like what the towns were like what the people were like so when I moved here I was pleasantly surprised with how modern the cities are and all of the new modern architecture is mixing in with some of the really old historical buildings which just makes it so cool to walk around and explore okay number four it's gonna sound a little bit silly but honestly in the U.S you are constantly watching your belongings who is following you being aware of your surroundings so when I moved here I didn't realize you don't have to be like that here in Romania it is really peaceful and safe here I honestly feel more safe here in Romania than I do back in my hometown that I literally grew up in my whole life I don't have to be paranoid and constantly staring at everybody to see who is going to get me because it's not like that the fifth thing I wish I would have known is that people are honestly so nice and so genuinely helpful in Romania I have strangers that I have known for less than five hours volunteering to meet their family going to the immigration office so many strangers have gone above and beyond to make us just feel welcome and are so helpful and so kind here so I wish I would have known that before I moved here number six is a little controversial but the term Gypsy has a very Rocky history and has a really sensitive subject for some people so just be mindful of that if you visit Romania number seven is really funny I wish I would have known that the sarcasm is different when people don't laugh at my jokes it's not because I'm not funny it's because the sarcasm doesn't Translate at least that's what I tell myself but seriously the sarcasm is a lot different there are so many jokes that go over my head sometimes it goes over their head so it's just interesting how different the humor is and how different the sarcasm is the eighth thing I wish I would have known is that the government is very slow and in my experience a little bit inefficient at the immigration office they do have an electronic system where you can grab a ticket but I would say half the time the machine's been broken and so people often take handwritten notes and just write down lists of names of who's in line and it's taken me 10 months now to get my Visa in total like that's a really long time let's be honest I don't think this one is just specific to Romania because aren't all governments kind of slow and inefficient number nine it is common to bring your own grocery bag to the store this honestly was so shocking to me when I first got here and I wish I would have known this before I went to the grocery store the very first time we went to the grocery store we were gonna stock up on everything that we needed we had nothing when we moved here as far as food wise you can imagine my shock when I got to the checkout with 17 baskets full of stuff that I was buying and realizing there are no free grocery bags you have to pay for each grocery bag even if it's plastic so it's better just to invest in a reusable bag that you can take back to the grocery store with you each time the 10th thing I wish I would have known before I moved to Romania is that people here are kind of just tired of Dracula jokes in Transylvania the folklore of Dracula came from one of the rulers Vlad as an American this is such a crazy and dramatic story that we have always heard growing up so being in the area where this came from was really really interesting to me when I moved here I had the urge to go blah blah blah every five seconds but let's be honest the Romanians are very aware of that history so you just don't need to bring it up every second this video is just a little bit of light-hearted fun and I'm so appreciative that you stuck around till the end let me know which one of these 10 things was the most shocking to you thanks for experiencing these 10 Things I wish I would have known before I moved to Romania and I can't wait to see you in my next video bye [Music]

Channel: Sierra Marie

Views: 23,265

Keywords: Europe, Travel, Abroad, Travel abroad, Explore, youtube, romania, american

Id: yZGjY1Yayjk

Length: 7min 23sec (443 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 14 2023