Daniel Dolinski

The year was 2016 and I became submersed in the traditions of another country, called Romania. For 18 years, ponderous thoughts have rummaged through my mind to finally see what my "homeland" was really like. My mother and father were both from this land that everyone in my Romanian community had talked about. My mother used some descriptions about Romania saying it "bustled with people that held certain values that are crucial to what we believe" and "peisajul este frumos" (which translated to english is "the landscape is beautiful"). However, I wanted to experience my homeland for myself with my own eyes. The airplane ride to Bucharest (Capital city of Romania) was somewhat pleasant due to the fact that we flew over the country-side and it looked like something you would see in a old Italian film with all the pastures and fancy old-style houses. Once we made it to Bucharest, my family and I stood at our family's apartment. This is where I experienced the crowded streets of Bucharest known for many people that did not possess the "Chick-fil-a" customer service attitude that I was expecting. This nerved my mother because she did not expect this type of brashness and rudeness from her hometown. However, we traveled across the country to many different parts to soon figure out that the brashness was only secluded to one city. And once we traveled to the other parts of the country, I became in love with the culture, food, and comradeship. My siblings also became in love with Romania after exploring and experiencing the true values what my mom said Romania was to be: God, family, and food.