Curiosity killed the cat, but it surely served Ralph Polko, the co-owner of Quadra Invest. Thanks to his curiosity, he got to dive in the Philippine Sea, surrounded by exotic fish and turtles, and then got to dance at living room parties in the early 2000 in Targoviste, in Southern Romania.

The green umbrellas of the terrace are blowing under the first autumnal wind that most people seem to ignore. Women are still wearing white, flimsy dresses or lace shirts, men have t-shirts on and they all continue their conversations. No one seems to notice that summer is gone.

Nor does Ralph Polko, who arrives on his bike, wearing a black t-shirt and jeans. Even before taking a seat, he takes out off his bag a more elegant, business-like white shirt and puts it on, on top of the black T-shirt. Just like that. Probably the fastest metamorphosis I’ve ever witnessed, from a guy riding his bike on a Tuesday afternoon, to a businessman attending a meeting. And it’s the shortest introduction Ralph can make about himself, without ever saying the word 'nonconformist'.

The way he speaks, with a strong R in pronunciation, and his light-colored hair are hints that Ralph’s childhood memories must be from somewhere else than here. Blijham, a small village in Northern Holland, close to Groningen, is where you would have found Ralph three decades ago, cycling to school every day, about 4 km away from his home, even through rain and wind.

Ralph - who doesn’t really like his name, because he thinks it’s a bit too generic and always the nerdy character with glasses in the movies - first arrived in Romania at the end of the 90s. As a student of the International Business School in Groningen, he had to study one year abroad and then do an internship for another half year abroad. For the study, he chose the furthest away location- the exotic Macao, in China.

But for the internship, he didn't have a lot of choices, so it was a last-minute call. A very distant cousin was working in Romania, having started a furniture company- more of a decoration and accessories firm in the beginning. So Ralph ended up arriving in the small city of Targoviste. The city, the former capital of the historic Wallachia region between early 15th century and 16th century, was home to 70,000 people and a ruined cinema back in 1999. Was life in a city with running water problems bearable for a Dutch raised-guy in his early twenties?

“We were a very tight team, all young. We spent a lot of time together at the office, but also at house parties, one was bringing tuica (e.n: plum brandy), another one the food, another one the cassettes and we always ended up dancing in the living room somehow,” Ralph remembers. “It was really fun and people were really happy with the little things that they had, in comparison to the Dutch who are always complaining about everything.”

Coming back years later in Romania, Ralph noticed that the complaining had also started here as well. “Now there are more choices, and there is more awareness of these choice, so people are acutely aware of the things that they don’t have, rather than being content with the things they do have. Romania’s opening up has created desire and desire needs to be fulfilled.”

Ralph’s three years older brother Erwan - “now that’s a name!”, Ralph says- was the one who went out first to the other side of the world, in the United States, as a high school student. Ralph, who was then 13, didn’t even want to hear about it. Leaving Holland, no way! Erwan came back and didn’t leave Holland ever since, while the little brother soon got the curiosity bug and the “what else” question drove him out in the world. “Erwan has a dog, wife, and kids; he is following the steps of life and enjoying it. I envy him for that and he envies me for being out there.”

His thirst for travel and discovering new things sent Ralph from Macao to Targoviste, then back to Holland for one year, just to leave again, this time for five years, to Malaysia. Even though he landed in a heaven-like place, it was very far from home. He felt he had missed big life events in his family, so after five years in Malaysia, he started looking for something closer to home.

And just then, there was a stroke of luck. He got an e-mail from Romania, where his friend was reorganizing the company, and he was given the option to be the director of the new furniture company. So in January 2008, Ralph packed everything again and from a life at +35 degrees in Kuala Lumpur, he arrived at the -10 degrees in Targoviste.

The factory, Quadra Invest, was producing furniture mostly for export, and it required a lot of work and a very isolated life. After a year he realized that from loving his life, but not his job, as it was the case in Malaysia, he had got to loving his job, but not his life. So in the second year he started coming more to Bucharest, got an apartment in the capital city, and became more involved in the local market. He eventually moved to Bucharest, where he currently works full time. He still goes twice a week to Targoviste.

He has been living in Romania for five years, and some say that this is the point of no return in a new country. “I’m telling myself that I’m not there yet, because that means I would have to make a conscious decision and I don’t like to make conscious decisions. But I must say, I feel I’ve come closer to a point where things have fallen in their place, the portfolio of the company, the partners, the factory outlet in Targoviste, the international clients. I went from Targoviste full time, to Bucharest full time and any further step is possible.”

By Diana Mesesan, features writer, diana@romania-insider.com

(photo credits: Diana Mesesan)