Sca(red)

If I could name the top three things that have been life changing for me they would be

Religion

Education

Interactive Travel

I think interactive travel is actually just education. Whether you might think it is social (learning to interact with new people) or historical (I go to way more museums and hear more stories about the past first hand when traveling). My couchsurfing host definitely showed me a view on Eastern Europe that I don’t think a history book could.

 “The Red Scare” is something I have heard about all of the time growing up, but never really understood. My couchsurfing host grew up in Romania, was born before 1989 and was a little kid when the Iron Curtain Fell, he now lives in free market Romania. He didn’t ever say that he liked either period more than the other, but he did talk a lot about what was positive and negative about both. First, he talked about how consumerism controls our lives. There are a lot of negative things that happen now in Romania that didn’t happen pre-1989.  According to him, people weren’t so jealous of each other, girls didn’t have eating disorders, advertising didn’t make people feel inadequate, there was no such thing as drug trade or homelessness, and families were stronger because there were less distractions because of material belongings.  (You can’t waste your time working overtime trying to outdo your neighbors and get a bigger TV if there is only one TV available to get). The conclusion he came to was that there are good and bad to all types of governing, but the biggest factor is the responsibility and morality of political leaders. Even under democratic governance Romania still isn’t doing well- the average pay is the equivalent of 250 dollars a month for wages (3,000 dollars a year). Almost everyone I talked to were annoyed/upset/disgusted by the leadership of Romania. A lot of people I talked to (most were young) said they were planning on leaving Romania, which is sad.

In any case, I’m not saying that the U.S.S.R. was a great thing- I know how bad the living conditions were, how it was impossible to leave the Romanian borders, jobs being decided for you, a lot of corruption, etc. I think as “Westerners” we look at anywhere in the East as some scary Russian speaking land, making “their” way of life seem so foreign and alien compared to “ours”. In the end, we will always be more comfortable with the way we were raised, and if you have any recollection of life before 1989 or have taken a class on European history, chances are that the word communism has a negative connotation to you.  It is definitely a topic I want to study more.

            Despite all of the equal-ness and communism, Bucharest has the world’s second largest building (according to square meters). The biggest building in the world is the Pentagon. It was build and called “The People’s Palace” and it now where the parliament meets.

            Romania has actually been one of my favorite places to visit. There is a ton of nature, history, nice people, and a lot of really cool things to do. I thoroughly enjoyed it.