Anyone living in Romania?

[romaniabound]

That says it all really. Looks like I could be heading there this year with family and am nervous about it. Would like to hear from anyone that does, or has, lived there.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Buna! Ce faci?

That's quite a tough one. Do you want me to ask my Romanian friends who live outside Bucharest? Your Romanian would come on in leaps and bounds if you could find some sort of toddler group, too. There is a tradition of farming children out with grandparents for early childhood, especially if they live in the country or somewhere nice (so can't think what they're all doing in Pitesti!). Could you try asking on www.mami.ro ? Even if you ask in English, I'm sure you'll get replies.

[romaniabound]

Bine multumesc Mrs Schadenfreude!

Yes please if you could ask that would be great.

Funnily enough I was just looking at mami.ro again today after you recommending it way back at the start of this thread but need to work out where to put my question.

I have asked a couple of people here but they are all older with grown up kids and look a bit blankly at me. I wasn't sure if I am just thinking too western European expecting there to be these activities. Plus it's knowing where to start to look when it's not exactly village church playgroup scenarios.

Right off to browse mami.ro.

Thanks again.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

E o placere! I will email friend tomorrow. I met other Mums in the park - no-one I would say I became really friendly with, but it was human company.

You need to get out of Shitesti regularly. I found Transilvania just the ticket and we went to Brasov or Sinaia most weekends, just to get away from the greyness of Bucharest. Sibiu and Sighisoara also lovely, Targu Mures has its good points (wonderful stained glass).

I am off to Paris on Monday week and am getting ever so slightly stressed about it all.

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

Buna seara, doamnelor. Another website which used to be good a few years back is parinti.com sau .ro. I don't think there's a toddler group tradition in Romania as there's not much need for it - people are friendly enough that you don't need the organised structure for it, plus grandparents etc.

I was born in Pitesti! Much prefer London, though

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Cristina - imi pare rau for your birth misfortune!

Romaniabound, you will know you've arrived when it starts getting chilly and someone chastises you for not having your child appropriately dressed! (Friend is getting back to me, btw.)

[mamaloco]

Hi romaniabound,
There is a Francophone group in Pipesti. Association Francophone de bucharest (AFB). They have a branch in Pipesti as there are a lot of them there. They do have a bbgroup ("les petits loups"), and activities for mums (you said that you can speak french, ins't it?)
see details at www.Bucarestaccueil.com activites then activites sur Pipesti.
Contacts laurence Droulours 0746791351 or Agnes Pitiot 0727609408.
They meet every tuesday at 10h at the "alliance francaise de pistesti"

and have 2 blogs
bonneadressesdepipesti.unblog.fr
ecolefranpitesti.unblog.fr

There is two english web groups in bucharest (may be more):  groups.yahoo.com/group/bucharestmoms/ (general infos)
and /bucharestbabes (baby groups)
where you can find all nationalities expats mums who can answer your questions.
There is also a spanish assos but I don't know their details.
Hopes that helps

[mamaloco]

My daughter is in a romanian gradinita (private) she does piano, music, singing, english, german, dance, painting, modelling from 3 years on, after a year she is fluent in romanian. It is worth putting them there.
They might have problems adjusting back to UK school afterwards, but won't be behind.
if you are worried you can keep up with Cbeebies (very good website) and homeschooling on top to make sure they know enough (they start reading and writing a year behind UK, I think, but are well prepared for it) and the level is high as they go to school everyday from 3. What they will gain is for life.

[romaniabound]

Lots of replies here. Thank you all.

Thanks Mrs Schadenfreude very much for asking your friend and good luck for your move to Paris. Hope it's not too stressful.
Funnily enough we are off to Sibiu this weekend and I think weekend getaways are going to be the way to go.

I have already been reprimanded for underdressing my daughter. Bear in mind it's been about 25C here, yet the Romanian nippers are all in tights and woolly hats and gilets and my hardcore little Scot is bouncing around in t-shirt and shorts!

Cristina the astonishing, thanks for confirming what I had suspected about toddler groups. Wow - didn't expect to hear from someone from pitesti on mumsnet!

Mamaloco - thank you for all your information on the French groups in Pitesti - that is great and much appreciated. I thought there must be something more organised for the French community, right enough.

Thanks everyone I am feeling a lot more chipper at the prospect of keeping the whirlwind entertained for the next three years!

Multumesc

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

RB - small world!

Curentu', ma.

[Kekke]

Hi Romaniabound!

I've just seen this thread. I'm also living in Pitesti (for my sins!). I'm a Brit and pregnant with my 1st baby. If you are struggling to fill up your days and fancy a coffee, then let me know - I have plenty of time!

[romaniabound]

Hi Kekke,

Another Brit in Pitesti? Well I never. I would love to meet up. Send me an e on [email protected] and we can arrange something.

Really nice to hear from you,
Romaniabound

[romaniabound]

Seeing this thread revived this morning, reminded me I have been meaning to post again and say thanks to you all for your help and info.

Thanks Mamaloco for the contact details for Alliance Francaise - your info was spot on. I have now joined and they are a really friendly bunch and my little girl is enjoying the petits loups, although there are not many of them at the moment!

All in all I am feeling very positive about being here. The first few weeks were quite a shock and I am so, so pleased and relieved to be so positive about things now. Last week I walked down my street and could see the snow capped mountains beyond the Pitesti architectural monstrosities and said to myself: 'beautiful!' and that is an adjective I never expected to use in conjunction with Pitesti.

So thanks everyone. MN really is the business.

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Hope you have managed to meet up with Kekke - I love a happy ending!

[romaniabound]

Bumping this thread to ask for more info!

I have been in Romania for about a year now although have been home in Germany this summer to have baby no. 2. I am heading back to Romania next week but over the summer my DH has been transferred from Pitesti to Ploiesti.

So new town, new start for us.

Don't suppose there is anyone in Ploiesti or with insider knowledge of it?

Would be grateful for all tips.

Thanks!

[WomanAtTheWell]

Hi there
Can't help with info on Ploiesti but just wanted to say Hi to everyone in Romania. I'm just over the border in Moldova but am pretty sure I'm the only MNer here - if anyone ever fancies a trip to visit your poorer neighbour you'd be welcome!

[romaniabound]

Hi Woman at the Well,

How is life in Moldova? I have seen you posting about being there before (maybe on this thread??) and have thought to myself wow, that must be a lot harder than Romania.

My DH would love us to visit Chisinau or whatever the capital is called. Sorry I am being thick about the spelling but my Romania head has gone to pot over the summer back home.

Take care,
Romaniabound

[MrsSchadenfreude]

Ploiesti...mmm! You do love your shitholes, don't you! Advantage, I think is that it is not that far from Bucharest and also well on the way to Tranbsilvania!

I did some work in Moldova for a bit - used to fly up on Scare Moldova and stay at the Hotel Jolly Allon when we were trying to open an office there. I did eat one of the best things I have ever eaten in Chisinau, in a restaurant called Barracuda. It was called Limba Corsarului (Pirate's Tongue?) and was utterly divine. Aubergine, nuts, cream cheese, I think, and garlic. They wouldn't give me the recipe. Also depleted the cellar in La Bunel on one occasion...

[MrsSchadenfreude]

bugger...

[hblush]

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

I've only been to Ploiesti in passing. Not a great place but, as MrsSch says, at least it's that bit closer to Bucharest.

[WomanAtTheWell]

Hello again. Got back yesterday from two days in Iasi dosing up on 'western' luxury! Moldova's ok - we live in a little village so it's full on no proper roads, well water (although I do have a pump to my house) on-an-off electricity and basically stuck when it snows. But people are incredibly friendly and ridiculously generous. Chisinau is getting better I think (we've been here 3 years) and things are getting easier to get hold of. The big pain is that we still have to get a visa each year - next week we'll have to spend two days in Chisinau queuing up to be prodded by doctors and get endless pieces of paper stamped. Will have to look up Barracuda!

[romaniabound]

I know Mrs Schadenfreude - Dh's company work in the most salubrious locations. My consolation is half an hour to Otopeni / Baneasa and the nice parks in the north of Bucharest, plus much closer to Brasov which I like a lot. Pitesti was close to nowhere and took us in to the wrong side of Bucharest too.

Plus I am obviously a hardened Romanian now as I am getting a car when I get back (after swearing I would not drive in Pitesti as the local driving was so wacko). And hopefully the plumbing will work better in the new house too after our adventurous plumbing in Pitesti.

I am such a wimp Woman at the Well after reading of your conditions in Moldova! Can I ask what took you to Moldova - sorry if that is too personal and please feel free to ignore the q but I am interested all the same!

[MrsSchadenfreude]

I looked on driving in Romania as Wacky Races. You just had to join them! I was supposed to be going to a party in Bucharest last month but couldn't get the leave. So will look at coming out in the spring.

I quite liked Chisinau - clean, no stray dogs, some surprisingly good restaurants.

[WomanAtTheWell]

I salute you for driving in Romania - I do drive here but there isn't quite so much traffic (the first time I drove in the village one old guy took DH to one side and asked if he knew I'd taken the car!). Chisinau is ok but we're about 2 hours drive away and with 3 DCs under 6 I don't make it that often. The other bonus to the restaurants is that they're all pretty cheap, as is the wine

romaniabound - I'm as much a wimp as anyone else believe me! the shortish answer is that we work with the local church here helping with aid projects (eg feeding the elderly/housebound and also development projects like supporting micro-enterprise and youth empowerment schemes). Moldova seemed to be somewhere we could use our skills and we were invited to come by the local church leaders after they'd met DH (I was in the UK with the kids when he came to visit initially so didn't get to visit until we actually moved here!).

[romaniabound]

Hmm yes the downside of driving in Romania ... you come home and still drive like a Romanian .

Wow Woman at the Well - how much of a shock was it for you when you arrived? I also stayed at home while DH went on his 'look and see' visit. He came home and told me Pitesti had 'some of that south European flair'. This past year I have been wondering where he had spent his southern European holidays before he knew me??? Flair and Pitesti are not words that often occur in the same sentence. And I can only imagine the Moldova shock was much much greater.

However my Romanian teacher informs me Moldovans make great chocolate. Is this true?

[WomanAtTheWell]

Err not sure about the chocolate - there's a company who called Bucaria who make a lot of chocolate but whether any of it's nice is another matter .

It wasn't too much of a shock as I'd known we'd probably end up somewhere like this, also I'd spent some time in rural Kenya (although that was pre-DCs). Some things are not all that different (apart from the snow obviously!).

How is your Romanian? Mine is woefully lacking in grammer although I can have a good chat with someone if they're a bit patient. DD1 has started to correct me (she's 5). I only had a few lessons at the start so other than that it's just what I've picked up - but then there aren't many other English speakers around so to an extent I do just have to get on with it (or hide in the house).