Before moving to Romania, I had been living in Seattle (for the second time) planning my first tourist trip to Romania when I stumbled across ROclub.com just in time to snap up a ticket to see Iris and Paula Seling live in concert.

So, I went. It was held at the University of Washington and there were a couple hundred folks in attendance. I’m sure you realize pre-emptively that I raised a few eye brows and caused people to nod their friends’ attention in my direction. I didn’t exactly fit the ethnic look of the room. To their credit, two or three people approached me in Romaneste, but all I could do was apologize “noo vorb esk lim bah ro munah” and announce my English requirement. That ended things, pretty much.

Sure, I could quote a few BUG Mafia lyrics, talk trash about your mother, and sing a few snippets of an Iris ballad or two, but basically I couldn’t string together a coherent sentence. I had fun anyway. Iris really got the crowd excited, although I personally preferred Paula’s jazz-based show (not pop!).

I did meet one guy there who spoke to me in English towards the end of the show, but I soon figured out his talk about “teaching me Romanian” would cost me two $100 tickets to the Sonics game. I passed.

Now, after my first trip to Romania, I was planning a second visit because I had enjoyed myself so much and this time I found some barbati roman through online chats who were living in Seattle. I met them in person and had a great time. They marveled at my knowledge of any Romanian politics and my attempts to speak. I marveled at their complete and utter lack of integration.

Ah, here we arrive on your point. I really like those guys and still count them as friends. In fact, Mihai just stopped by Brasov to say hello just a few weeks ago during his vacation to visit his parents in Zalau. Most of all of them will readily admit they have almost no contact with normal Americans. They really stick to each other. When I met Mihai, despite living in the US for two years, his Engleza was as bad as my Romanian is today. Others spoke more fluently, but the idea was the same.

You really have to get out there and dive in. I’d say my weakest point is definitely language because most everyone *wants* to talk in English to me and that leaves me struggling to learn more than normal. On the contrary, Mihai has finally crawled out of his shell after meeting me and is now speaking very well, making friends, and absorbing American culture more and more. Good for him.

Let’s hope I improve my communication skills in the coming months. I’m embarrassingly behind the ball, considering my grasp of how important it is to be able to express oneself intelligently now and then.

In the meantime, I read Komrade KK’s list out loud and you got some laughs here. The big hit was about the inability to count…