British Council

Delphine made a tonne of French friends though the Centre Culturel Francais so I thought I'd pay my local British Council a visit. I imagined a warm welcoming circle of Anglo and Aussi staff, English books, maybe links to the expat community.

The doorway was guarded by two Romanian men in uniform. I started to push around them when they said something to me in Romanian.

"Umm...British Council?"
"It's closed"
"The door is open and the sign here says that it's open"

They reluctantly let me in. I saw various posters advertising England on the walls so I thought this might b a good start. Upstairs, I met three ladies who were moving furniture up the stairs.

"unintelligible Romanian"
"Is this the British Council?"
"Yes. But we're closed until October 1"
"Oh. What do you do here? Are there any British people who work here?"
"No, only Romanians. And we manage the library"
"So there's no expat community in Timisoara? What about the Centre Culturel Francais? There's a huge French expat community"
"Yes, well, we're not them. Goodbye"

Lovely. No expat community at all, save for those unfriendly too-good-for-everyone Mormon missionaires.

And before anyone jumps down my back and says things like "You're in Romania, make some Romanian friends, don't stay with other anglophones", I *do* have experience living in foreign cultures and I can and will make local friends. However, it's always nice to have someone from a similar language or background there once in a while for support. Marcus was a godsend in Sweden and I had my fellow Mt A students in France. The other interns are either in the same cities or cities with thriving expat communities. Four of the interns are in Belgrade, two in Sarajevo and two in Dhaka. Rob and Maud are in Sofia and Bucharest respectively, two cities who *do* have thriving expat communities. And here I am, alone in Timisoara.

Don't get me wrong. I love the city and I love being here. It feels like home and I've only been here for 4 weeks (as of today). But my life is a monotonous routine:
wake up
walk to work
work
walk home
go to the market
make dinner
watch tv
sleep

No embassy parties, no meeting with C-grade horror film directors (*cough* Rob *cough*), no ritzy sports complexes for Canadian expats (*cough* Marc and Per *cough*), no country capital. In a way I'm glad because life here is simple. I can get around by myself. I can order food in a restaurant. I feel self-sufficient. In fact, I feel Romanian. I live like everyone does. I wanted the Eastern European experience and I got it. But I just wish that sometimes I had someone like me to experience it with.