On numerous occasions, Romanians, mostly young and educated and part of a slowly emerging middle-class, have told me how they want to leave, or how their countrymen make them sick or embarrass them, or how the poor national attitude drives them positively insane. Some of these people are my friends, among a small number of whom I really trust and like very much, and some are strangers I’ve just met. For instance, a 20-something woman recently asked me several questions about the United States and its work hours, salaries and opportunities for advancement. Unlike most Romanians, she not only asked about our “big” salaries but also costs of living, thus evaluating the whole equation.
     “In Romania, we don’t like to work hard,” she said flatly. “We are lazy people. We like to complain about low salaries and not having money, but we would never want to work like you Americans. The boys are the worst, so lazy, and not very ambitious. They just like to drink and have fun. And girls, well, we like to look pretty, and I guess we are better workers, but we don’t like to work a lot and always want to take holidays.”
     I was stunned but appreciated her candor. Of course, there are many exceptions to these wide generalizations. I’ve met numerous Romanians, particularly in Bucharest and a few other places, who work American-hours for much smaller salaries (though good for here) and who try their best to succeed, despite the odds and a difficult system. But I have to say that the young woman’s comments, while simplistic, are not far-fetched. There is also a factor of ignorance and the huge fact that Romania was liberated only in 1989 from a vicious communist regime. But so were other countries. There must be more to it.
     One day last summer, while living with a Romanian host family during my Peace Corps training, I was waiting for a bus with my host mom and her young daughter. A few drunk guys walked by — this at 8 a.m. Then a driver pulled a crazy move but still honked and yelled obscenities at a passing motorist, displaying anger that is so common. I mentioned that sometimes when people cross a street, even in a marked crosswalk or at a stoplight, drivers don’t stop or sometimes even speed up.
     “This is Romania,” Silviana said, using another common phrase. I said that maybe it will change with time, perhaps by the time her daughter becomes a mother.
     “No way,” she said. “But maybe when she is a grandmother, or a great-grandmother.”