Romanian academia: visiting medieval fortresses and castles and being overwhelmed by sudden nostalgia; wearing ii; eating a bowl of hot ciorba after a long day at school; seeing Queen Marie of Romania as a motherly figure; learning Romanian history; squinting to understand the impeccable writing on old documents; knowing the fact that Vlad Tepes was a vampire is a myth and yet still indulging in the idea that Romanians are descendants of vampires; feeling at home in the ancient villages on the peak of the mountains; reading Eminescu and feeling his heart sickness and reading Bacovia and feeling his sorrow;, learning about forgotten Romanian folklore; collectively hating on amintiri din copilărie because u were forced to read it every year for school; speaking the most colorful Romanian swear words as u try to study at midnight for bac; doing your holiday homework outside while you’re staying at your grandparents in the countryside over summer break and hearing roosters chant from nearby gardens; drinking vin fiert as you’re cuddled up in those thick brown blankets; listening to old Romanian songs that overwhelm you with nostalgia as u clutch your heart and shut your eyes and chant with everyone; old manele sparking energy in your heart and u can’t help but sing and dance; loving every chance u get at dancing in a hora; stumbling across Liceeni on tv and watching it bc why not and starting to recognize familiar actors; ani de liceu somehow becoming the school anthem;, scribbling down in those plain yellow notebooks information old teachers write with chalk on green boards; wiping down green boards full of notes with soaking wet sponges; desks full of carved words and chairs with broken backs; losing your breath as u climb endless stairs of grey stone in old blocks as u carry an extraordinarily heavy backpack; sneaking out in breaks to smoke a cigarette at the corner of the school; lmaking yourself coffee in a kettle; calling your grandparents using telefoane fixe; crying over moartea căprioarei; borrowing classic books for Romanian assignments from school libraries because u can only find classics there; spending hours drinking in every detail on the murals and paintings of old churches;shirts filled with mărțișoare; visiting Palatul Parlamentului; traditional Christmas food; memorizing comentarii la română; the fear of being ascultat by that strict teacher the whole school feared; mileuri on old tvs; liking coliva a little bit too much; bere bucegi; made in romania being the national anthem more than the actual anthem ever was;
I hope you don’t mind if I do my own interpretation (yours is AMAZING btw)
- playing with grandma’s bibelouri and hiding it from her when inevitably you broke one
- watching povești din folclorul maghiar on minimax when it’s stormy outside and picking up a book of basme, legende și povești nemuritoare when the wind causes the TV signal to drop
- growing up to make your coffe on the stove in ibric rather than using a coffe machine, smoking outside before going to work, reading the paper
- collecting books that came with the newspaper
- listening to traditional Christmas carols while doing homework no matter the season
- having a terrible handwriting from trying to keep up with dictare in class
- having an amazing handwriting when writing poetry or short stories at night and dreaming of changing the world
- not allowed to write on books, or fold their pages, or put sticky notes on them, or underlying quotes that speaks to you, so having tons of lists with pages’ numbers and words and thoughts you had while reading
- keeping all your old school books and notebooks for your younger siblings and going through them at Christmas or Easter huge cleaning event, sheding a tear or two at the memories
- finding pressed flowers and leaves in your parents old school books/notebooks
- being proud in history class of your ancestry and culture, yet still judging the present
- trips to Alba Iulia and Sarmizegetusa and Peștera Urșilor every year at school
- during summer breaks visiting old fortresses, museums and palaces, while enjoying the beautiful mountain landscape
- hiking to see waterfalls and learning about the fauna and flora of the area
- romantisizing learning for bac so you can actually do it
- planning your college submissions while freaking over your grades in bac
- debates in literature class over Moara cu noroc and Ghiță’s psichology
- arguing about the meaning behind Riga Crypto and Lapona Enigel
- writing essays in the dead of night because knowing you’ll be scos la tablă if you don’t have your homework is the only motivation to actually do it
- wishing to have more time to read what you want
- browsing the shelves in Cărturești, crying internally because you’re broke and can’t buy one book, not to mention the dozen you picked up
- having your own little garden with tomatoes and cucumbers (more if you live in a house and not an apartment)
- visiting the grandparents and always passing under a tunnel of viță de vie
- playing outside with the kids from the block/village from noon until next morning (most likely prinsa or hide and seek)
- collecting rocks and seashels
- always buying a ie from your trips and never wearing it or dressing in all traditional attire for december first, no in between
- going caroling in your area, drinking vin fiert and eating mandarine and saloane
- painting mostly red eggs on Easter and burning your hair at church because you had to iei lumina
- riding the bike for the aesthetic
- going to theatre and opera on sundays
- listening to old songs (from your parents times) and feeling nostalgic: Pitiș, Laura Stoica etc…
- taking your mother’s suits, or shirts and dresses and wearing them for the vintage vibe
- listening to your father’s theories about daci and secretely enjoying them
- wishing to live in Brașov and Sighișoara or Cluj and Iași
- trying to write like they did on those spectacular documents and not understanding how that was humanly possible
- reading classic literature for fun outside of school
- having old collections of poetry books from your parents/grandparents
- doing a school project on communism and asking around the house for info (maybe even being hiven some heirlooms to show at school)
- binge watching old movies like Haiducii lui șapte cai and, again, feeling nostalgic
- falling in love with legends and stories about haiduci, Vlad Țepeș and myths such as zburătorul
- volunteering to organize the school library that has been a mess for at least a decade just for the knack of it
- coming back from school with a backpack full of mărțișoare and stuffing them on the march first box (possibly giving some of them off to other people as well, so you won’t buy more, but never tell) because tradition
- learning about all the cool traditions that aren’t followed anymore and thinking you were born in the wrong times
- visiting old churces in the mountains when there’s no slujbă because of peace and serenity
- trying to impress your literature teacher by reading Nuntă în cer and Jurnalul Fericirii
- doing extra homework for that teacher you like / getting away with everything in their class because you’re their favorite
- learning that Eminescu used any spare paper to write his ideas and doing the same afterwords
- writing to do lists on your arms so you won’t forget something *and teachers thinking you were trying to cheat on a test*
- actually learning the info for a hard class while writing copiuțe and not needing them anymore
- the study groups being fifteen minutes of sharing info with your friends before a class / casually talking about who’s gonna answer in class so not everyone needs to learn for that day
- speaking rusian/french/german/hungarian better than english
- learning codul morse
- scratching the blackboard with chalk so you can have the attention of your peers
- signing up for the school magazine, that is barely existing, but it makes you feel like a reporter from early 1900’s
phew, that was fun, I don’t want to stop, but I have to 😅
