Michael's Visit to Romania

[MichaelAU]

Buna everyone.

I am planing to visit Romania, and other Eastern European countries, later this year if possible as a part of my Masters degree. I will post my experience from beginning to end, including the planning stages which I am currently in.

If anyone, especially Florin, has any ideas or suggestions please feel free to let me know and I will take them on board.

Ok what I have done so far.
Firstly I checked the situation with Visa's. Apparently being an Australian I don't need a Visa for a short stay. I did this because if it is impossible for me to go there it would be a waste of time contacting people.

I then contacted some educational institutions to see if it would be possible for me to visit as a visiting researcher. So far nothing has come up in Romania but I have received a positive response from a neighbouring country. I will keep trying in Romania but I am finding the email address's listed on the internet are not valid email address. So if anyone knows any valid email addresses for Romanian Universities or is able to put me in touch with Linguistics/Language learning faculties or departments in Romania (Bucharest especially) I will be grateful.

Then I thought I should learn another language as I teach English as a 2nd language and if I expect my students to learn I should learn another language to. So a good friend of mine has been helping me with my Romanian. I found this site and have downloaded all the Podcasts and PDFs (I like it not only because of the good content but also because I can learn the accent). I have used Pimsleur but I didn't like it (my apologies to Pimsleur but I want to learn how to speak like a Romanian speaking Romanian not like an American speaking Romanian).

I have also done some reading on the History of Romania. I find it helps to understand people if you understand their culture and the countries history. It also helps you realise that there is still a lot of Hollywood hype concerning Eastern Europe.

So that is what I have done so far, in amongst teaching part time, studying full time, and working as a mechanic part time.

I am happy to listen to any comments or suggestions, be critical if need be.
Pa pa.
Michael.

[dflorin]

Hello Michael,

Nice to have you here and share your thoughts and experience with us.
I have looked up for you the Foreign Language Faculty of the Bucharest University and I found this site: http://www.limbi-straine.ro
This is part of the Bucharest University, but the university site (http://www.unibuc.ro) is down at the moment (very embarrassing for such an institution)

Please let me know what you are interested in there, what contacts, what languages, I can try search them for you.

Also, I would suggest this topic would be a dedicated thread for your trip to Romania (from planning to the experience there), and name it for example "Michael's visit to Romania". Feel free to create another thread if needed.

Let me know what info you need, I will be glad to assist you, I am quite familiar with all the procedures of the Romanian authorities.

Good luck with your trip.
Florin.

[MichaelAU]

Hi Florin.

Thank you for your kind offer to help, I do appreciate it and I will take you up on it sometime.
I do not mind if this is the "dedicated thread" for my trip. I don't know about this forum software but others allow the moderator to move threads and rename them if needed. If it were possible for you to rename it then that would be enough but if that is not possible I will start a new one as per your suggestion.

I am familiar with the second link you posted, I have tried to contact them via email but the emails keep being returned with a message saying the recipients email is invalid. I will try again and see how it goes and maybe then try something else if that does not work.

Thank you again for your work and kind offer.
Michael.

[MichaelAU]

Buna Florin.

In my planning for my trip I have been searching for prices for different things and have not been able to find prices for things like having a guide to help me around Romania. My friend will help but I do not expect her to be able to be there all the time, so I am trying to find out what it would cost if I paid someone to be my guide say for half a day or a day at a time. It is one of the last things at this stage I am trying to find but have had no success so far.

Do you know what the cost of this may be are are you aware of any websites that have this type of information?

I appreciate your help.
Thanks Florin
Michael (Mihai?)

[dflorin]

Hi,

I found this page. You can try contact those offerers (Andrei or Liviu) and they might be willing to help you.
http://www.infohub.com/tour_guides/bucharest_516.html

I hope you will find a guide.

Florin.

[MichaelAU]

Thank you Florin

You are brilliant. I will pass this onto my friend immediately.
Michael.

[dre_lerouge]

hi here are some linck for those who will travel to romania .............. there ar some good interactive language lessons http://www.linguasnet.com/lessons/home_ro.html http://www.linguasnet.com/lessons/home_ro.html

[MichaelAU]

Thanks for the links dre_lerouge. I will take a look at them over the weekend. My planning has take a back seat for a little while because I have had to deal with alot at home and have not even been able to think any further about when I could even go to Romania. Hopefully next year will be easier and I will be able to visit Romania then.

[MichaelAU]

Buna

I just thought I had better update whats happening concerning my planned trip. I have looked into airfares and they ranged from AU$2000 to AU$3500 since then the AU$ has collapsed against the American Greenback (funny that considering its the American Greenback that's in the middle of the current global economic woes). I am assuming that prices have gone up since I last looked.

Also since then it has been announced that QANTAS (the airline I was most likely to travel with) and British Airways are in merger talks. Considering events that have happened recently in India, Thailand and a few other places I am reconsidering my options with regards to what airline I travel with.

I haven't made any new contacts in Romania since my last post but I plan to get back into that early next year when the Christmas holidays are finished in Australia.

Just in case I don't post again this year I'll pass on my Seasons Greetings now. I hope you all have a great Christmas (if you celebrate Christmas that is) and a fantastic new year.

Pa pa.
Michael.