Q7: "Are Romanians surprised that you, an American, have come to visit the country? [...]"

Abe asks, "Are Romanians surprised that you, an American, have come to visit the country? Or, more specifically, to visit Iasi?"

Yup. Most Romanians I've met -- really just a handful at this point -- are surprised that an American is in Iasi, and some are surprised that an American would even visit Iasi.

When I first got off the plane at Otopeni Airport in Bucharest, a dozen aggressive cabdrivers chirped "Parlez français?" even though we were arriving from London. When they realized that my French was pretty weak, they turned to English, which most of them spoke very well.

Yet Americans are relatively abundant in Bucharest compared to in Iasi.

Here, the "Education USA" advising center and the "American Corner" library (which has a surprisingly impressive collection) are both run and principally used by Romanians. The American Corner librarian says there's a Peace Corps volunteer in town, but as far as we can tell, we are the only other Americans here. And Kim says that the English and American Studies departments at Universiatea Alexandru Ioan Cuza (where she is teaching) last had an American faculty member seven years ago.

People are usually interested when they realize I'm from the U.S., but perhaps no more curious than they would be about any other distant foreigner. One exception was the guy in his early twenties who ran the skate-rental booth at Ice Mania -- he high-fived me and asked what part of the country I came from.

To finish answering your question, some Romanians do wonder why I've come to Romania, as many don't seem to think highly of their country. According to Kim, about 40% of the population has moved to other parts of Europe and further abroad since Romania joined the EU last January.


### click here to ask another question ###