Romanian Mission: Completed!

After a pause from blogging lasting more than one month, during most of which I was trying to spend every moment studying, the Romanian mission is successfully behind me. In the middle of August I quit in the water park and turned my dorm bed into a battlestation equipped with bunch of books, a dictionary, my mobile phone and the internet connection. I dove into studying.

The C2 exam was awaiting me on 14 of September in Bucharest. On the 13th, I said goodbye to all the people that I became friends with in Constanța and left this city that had become my home for three months. After spending a night at a very nice and cheap Happy Hostel (guys, you were great, I am sorry you are closing down), I went for the test. And I am happy to announce that I passed and am now an owner of the C2 certificate in Romanian!

All these people wanted a certificate! From left to right:
Poland, Slovakia, Ukraine, 3× Romania, Spain

Then I was just enjoying. My friend Roman came from Brno and we had a beautiful ride back to Slovakia/Czech Republic through pretty places of Romania. We tasted the nightlife of Bucharest and took some pics in front of the royal palace of Peleș in the Carpathian mountains (they did not let us in due to some exhibition—as if that was more important than us). We spent a very pleasant evening in Brașov, a medieval city with part of the city walls reconstructed and a Hollywood style sign shining over it, passed through Transfagarașan—a mountain pass coming very close to the highest point in Romania—Moldoveanu peak.

Bucharest!

Bucharest: The Unity Square (Piața unirii)

Bucharest: Casa Poporului (The House of the People),
the second largest office building in the world after Pentagon,
Ceaușescus's heritage

Peleș castle

Czech and Slovak tourists in Romanian mountains.
Only socks in the sandals are missing.

The last stop was Sibiu, where we spent another night. Sibiu has a beautiful medieval city center and is becoming one of the most important industry centers in Transylvania. Interesting enough, the hostel in Bucharest was half the price of the hostel in Sibiu (7 euros vs. 12 euros). In Sibiu's hostel, there was a Dutch manager, who lived there for several years and did not really know much from Romanian. That kind of made me feel good about my progress and made up for all those moments when I felt I did not improve at all and that I could not possibly get to the C2 level by the end of the summer.

Then, we set off for home. One thing worth noticing was the tempo of highway building we have seen on our way back. There are huge parts of the Romanian A1 highway that are being built now and by the end of 2013, Romanians want to finish new 550 (!) km of highways. And they are really progressing fast. Might be because of the laws they passed, but it still looks pretty impressive, especially compared to the Slovak tempo of highways' construction.

Anyway, back to the main point. In the beginning of the summer, I set in front of myself a goal. A goal, fulfillment of which I did not really consider probable. I knew it was doable though, so I went for it. From the beginning, I was willing to fail. Failure always have to be an option. For me, it would have been better to have tried and have failed C2 than to have gone for B2 and have won it. But I studied with the idea of success in my mind, and worked my ass off, trying to subordinate my every daily activity to this goal in the last three months. And to my surprise, here I am, C2 in Romanian. A little-big victory of mine that strengthens my believe that anything is achievable and our only limit is our own imagination. I am happy, thankful and keen for more!