Q: Age?
A: I’m 17 years old.
Q: How long have you been here in Spain?
A: I was born in Guadalajara.
Q: You were born here, but from the trips you made to Romania, what can you say about life here and there?
A: Well you can tell that there people are poor. My father told me that was due to the moment they left the Second World War. It is different, but people not so much. If you ask for something they help, they are open, it may seem not but they are. The country is growing. But there is still differences between Spain and Romania.
Q: What are those differences?
A: There, cities are not so big. People live more in towns, everyone has their own gardens and orchard and animals, and they exchange with their neighbours, it is like that. Due to the weather, the roads are not taken care of, but it is because it is very hot in summer and very cold in winter. It is more rural. I like it because there is a lot of green, many beautiful landscapes, you can see things differently.
Q: Who do you have there?
A: My mother’s parents, many uncles, some have gone to Germany, United Kingdom, Spain. Not all of them stayed.
Q: Why do you think people leave Romania?
A: The reason is that they are looking for a better life. In other places they earn more and they have more opportunities, there is a broader world. In Romania you can do it but it is more complicated.
Q: In the future if you had to leave, would you go to Romania?
A: No, I don’t like it because I like the city, I like to travel. You can travel there but I prefer big cities, with an airport close to it. I prefer bigger cities, and there are no such things there.
Q: How is your relationship with the people in Romania?
A: I get along with them. We are family, but our bond is not as strong as if I lived there. But it doesn’t affect me much because I am not a sentimental person. We have a good relationship, we talk, but not much. Maybe we talk once or twice a week, for like 20 minutes, we pass the phone between us.
Q: What do you think your grandparents feel?
A: I think they understand it and that they believe we made the right choice. They have six kids, five of them have been outside the country, only one stayed. They traveled a lot and if they see we are doing okay they understand we are here. Although I guess they would prefer if we were there. But they are happy with what we achieved.
Q: Are you in contact with the rest of your family?
A: Yes, we have a group in WhatsApp with my father’s family. We talk a lot, they ask how we are, ask me about an exam, things like that.
Q: How do you think your life developed here, different from how it could have been there?
A: I don’t know. I think life here is more capitalist, centered in getting a good job and things like that. And now I have this mentality. I need to have a good job to have money and be able to live. There, people study but they can have their farm and make money from it. They don’t think that much about money. Here, if you go out, you think about how much you’ll need to spend. There, they go out without thinking about it. They don’t give that much importance to money. As this country is more developed, you are raised thinking about money. There people just think about having a good time with people.
Q: What is the difference in personality?
A: Here some people are more open, but some others are very closed. There, it is like everyone has their own things. In some aspects they are more closed. In some others, such as going away, they are very open.
Q: Did you learn spanish and Romanian equally?
A: Before I realized I already knew both languages. I know how to speak Romanian but I don’t know very well how to write it. But I can manage. At school, once I went to the psychopedagogist because I couldn’t pronounce the “r”, but now I can. Maybe it was because I spoke very little Spanish at home. At home my parents talk to us in Romanian and we reply in Spanish, but we understand each other. I usually speak in Spanish.
Q: What is like your group of friends?
A: Most of them are Spanish, but I also know people from Ecuador, Morocco, I get along well with everybody. I do parkour, a sport with jumps, and in Murcia there are people from all around the world. We share that activity with many different people.
Q: Do you detect differences?
A: Moroccans are a bit more crazy, they think things through less. The ones from the East, like Russia, too, they are like “I try, if I fall, I try again”. The Spanish think more, plan things first and then do it, they avoid danger. The Ecuadorians are a mixture of it all, very impulsive.
Q: How often do you go to Romania?
A: Usually we go during the summer. Last summer we couldn’t go because I had to study for make ups and my father was working. When we go we do activities with the family. We go to the mountain, there are some salt baths, we walk, spend time together, visit friends. Usually I am with my cousins, because they have friends and they are our age, so we get together.
Q: And what do they ask you?
A: Mostly about our studies and the activities we do. They understand that we have lives just like them. What you would ask someone you haven’t seen for a while. It is not very different.
Q: What differences are there in the studies?
A: There it is not common that someone repeats grade. Here if you repeat once it is not that rare. There it is worse seen, also if someone fails an exam. And there when they finish high school they all know english, and here it is not like that, few people know english.
Q: What do you think are the main differences between both countries?
A: Here people are more open, they party a lot. There at night there is no one in the streets. There is movement during the day and it is still at night, and here it is the opposite. They are workers, even though they don’t have much money, they work hard. Here I’ve heard many people in the office saying “they pay me all the same, I can do whatever I want”. There is more ambition there I think, I know families that have created a business and live from it. If they want to do something, they focus on it and make it. Here, people study and then go work for someone else. Not all of them, you can’t generalize.
Q: What are your future perspectives?
A: I would like to study something I like, but right now I don’t find anything that calls my attention. I would like to go out to work and know the world, I don’t want to be still, I want to be always doing something. Have experiences.