Welcome to my home in Suceava, Romania! When I first arrived in Romania, it was definitely challenging to adjust to living in a new place. But, after a few weeks and a lot of support from my new friends here and moral support from my friends and family back in the USA, I began to feel right at home!
The first thing I found difficult to adjust to was the change in time. Romania is 10 hours ahead of my home in California! I had to remember to take this into account any time I wanted to talk to my family and friends back home. Once I got used to that, I had a lot of paperwork to fill out and errands to run. I had to get a visa so that I could legally stay in Romania for the entire 9 months of my grant period, I had to get health insurance, I had to get a phone and I had to find an apartment. Thankfully, my university set me up with some help to get settled.
Right after I arrived, we had some Fulbright meetings and conferences to attend. I went to Bucharest, Romania’s capital city, and Constanta, another city in Romania that is located on the Black Sea. It was a whirlwind of meetings and conferences, but I got a chance to meet all the other people in my program who would be working in Romania. I even made some really great friends!
When I got back to Suceava, I tried to become more familiar with my new home by spending a lot of my free time going on walks and wandering around the city.
