Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she follows up on her latest article, about true love in Romania. 

The article last week was a provocative tale/research study to see the effects. My goal was to make Romanians and expats in Romania stand up for Romania and fight for Romania. I have not however succeeded in achieving this goal, and that is indeed sad for Romania.
You can see from all my many articles how much I love Romania, and how happy I am living in Romania.

Just four people chose to comment on my latest article on Romania-insider.com, and that is sad news. My idea was: What would happen if an expat in Romania, who has always been writing positive stories about Romania suddenly wrote really negative and pure nonsense about Romania and Romanians as in the article: “Love doesn’t exist in Romania!

I had expected writing the article would have created a real revolution, lots of comments written by Romanians about true love, Romanians doing their best to convince me that love does exist in Romania. None of the above happened, only comments in the tone: you are depressed, got issues, leave Romania, this bitter perspective you got on is not only in Romania it is like this everywhere US, France, Germany, Spain etc…...

How come Romanians are “just” letting me or anyone else write badly about Romania? Where is the “I am proud to be Romanian”, “Romania is my home country and no one is going to write bad about Romania or Romanians” attitude? Where is the fierceness, where is the drive to fight back?
It is there, I feel it every day the love in Romania, but when it comes to the image of Romania, where is the drive to change that? How come it is ok for people in other countries who most likely has never visited Romania to write and talk badly about Romania, how come you can let an expat girl in Romania write such a negative article about Romania without even saying anything about it?

I write positively about Romania, and everybody loves me for that. When I write nonsense and absurdities about life in Romania, that of course are not true, then something is wrong with me, I got issues and is depressed, and again and again, I get the: “ Leave the country/Romania” comment..

I know, I point out another perspective in Romania, which some don´t want to hear, but at the same time you are not in any way trying to change my way or others’ way of thinking about Romania. And I do believe Love exists in Romania.

So let’s take these articles and turn them into power tools for expats in Romania and Romanians, or wherever in the world you are from, or you are at this moment. Be proud to be in Romania and to be a Romanian!
I have decided to make a small step by step guide (let´s keep it simple):

• Live, love and laugh! you are now a Romanian, let that be your mantra
• Every day do something….something else, try it
• Dare to dream and dream big dreams, everything is possible

If the above steps seem a little too much for you to do, then take another road or drive there ;)
I posted the article on my own Facebook page, and got these comments among my friends, Romanian, Danish and people from all over the world …They show support and try to help me through what they believe are negative experiences…sharing constructive comments on what I can and should do, some are theoretical in their approach.

One writes this : “I do congratulate you for picking this sensitive theme, as it continues a question various travelers asked for at least a century : how truthfully do people love this country, this is how people, instead of exchanging feelings, values and honest thoughts, end up exchanging colliding prides, sheer vanity and ridiculous caprice.

A Danish friend of working within IT in Romania, wrote this: “Very brave - admire you for writing this article, and for doing it so successfully and sincerely…. … the 'real' believers are less visible in this picture, they 'have' values which among others are based on mutual respect enabling them to be satisfied with a calm lifestyle and naturally rest in themselves and their relation, in contrast to the narcissists who course consequences to others for temporary personal gains.

By Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe, columnist

Eleonore is Danish, she holds a Master in Security and Diplomacy, Graduate Diploma in Organization and Management and specializes in Corporate Communication & Strategic Development. She is also a Market Economist and a Multimedia Designer and is looking for a job, as a Danish expat in Romania; with a great passion for covrigi, she burns to find out more about Romania, and enlighten the culture between Denmark and Romania. Her weekly columns will give you insights into an expat’s life in Bucharest, written with humor and a smile.