This is also a reflection of the economy--Romania's economy is growing less quickly than America's, high-paying jobs are scarce, and standards of living are lower. I believe both that Romanians have rejected the high-stress, results-driven culture of late capitalism, but also that capitalism has not embaced them. Both systems have benefits and challenges, but I am grateful to experiance another way of living beyond the U.S.
I have struggled to find any advice to give you all for your own inevitable travels beyond my own anecdotal experience. The more I learn of the world, the less I feel I know about it. But two peices of advice I've been given have rung true throughout this experience:
1. Travel off the beaten path. London and Paris are worth seeing, but they are also well-worn by Americans and feel familiar to us. I have learned more from the rural Balkans about how the majority of the world lives than from my time in any great "capital of culture."
2. People have a greater capacity to figure things out than they think. I was lucky enough to have friends and family who had lived abroad recount stories to me, but if I hadn't had that experience, I likely would have assumed moving abroad alone was off the table even though I'm very independent. Of all the challenges I've faced on Fulbright, nothing was so difficult that I couldn't figure it out with time and questions. Everyone has this ability, and I feel like for the first time in my life, I have begun using my full capacity to figure it out.
Thank you all for the opportunity to meet and share my experiance. I have been very impressed with your curiosity and intellectual acuity, and I am happy to answer any more questions you have after our last visit.
