Bucharest?

[erbear79]

Anyone ever live in Bucharest? What was your experience?

[vandsmith]

erbear79 wrote:
> Anyone ever live in Bucharest? What was your experience?

my wife and i were really excited about working there! interview went really well (so we thought :) ) and never heard from them - not even to tell us no (which was really disappointing for us, i.e. to not hear back either way).

i can't tell you anything about living there though - i've heard it and budapest are amazing cities!

good luck!

v.

[ffmary]

Budapest and Bucharest are nothing alike. Budapest is grand, has countless beautiful spots on both the Pest and Buda sides, and is generally steeped in amazing culture, cuisine, history, and intellectual energy. Bucharest is a backwater that is a literal mess physically and organizationally. Bucharest is closer in experience to Sofia, Baku, or Tsiblisi. Budapest is, in my opinion, superior to places like Vienna, Berlin, and Prague.

[jessiejames]

I'm afraid I agree with ffmary on this point (except comparing Bucharest to Sofia, which I really liked!) I've spent quite a lot of time in Romania and can honestly say Bucharest is one of my least favourite European capitals. However, I have a couple of expat friends there, both have found partners (male & female) and ended up staying for years, though they still regularly face their challenges and have a love-hate relationship with the city. One is a teacher and seems happy enough with their school.

[tommypizza]

I'm not sure this is still true but they used to loan/assign cars to teachers. I had a friend that worked there...he would leave his apartment at 6am to avoid traffic. A 15-20 minute drive can take 2 hours during rush hour.

[ptf]

They still do the thing with the cars. It's kind of funny to visit the school because the car park is full of identical cars.

I've never lived in Bucharest but it's certainly no Budapest! However it's got a lot of advantages of its own. Cheap cost of living, beautiful country to explore, easy access to the rest of Europe. If you're considering the main international school then I'd say it's definitely worth thinking about, it's a good school. If it's some other international school be a little careful. I have a friend there in a for profit school (it's only for small kids, I'm not exactly sure what age it goes up to) and I know she hasn't been very happy with the experience.

[erbear79]

Thanks for the feedback. I've heard mostly positive things about the city. Unfortunately, the interview process was strange. The Director was in contact with me quite a bit about interviewing. He had to reschedule the first time we set up at the last minute. We set up another time and he never "showed" via Skype, no follow up from him. Pretty rude! I took it as a sign that this definitely not someone I would want to work for.

[erbear79]

@vandsmith - if you don't mind sharing, what was the school? Could be the same one?

[vandsmith]

my interview was with aisb,

good luck, hope they contact you either way!

v.

[reisgio]

Not showing up for an interview with no follow up is completely rude and no matter how much one wants to work for a school, please take this as a sign to stay the heck away from that school and that administrator. International heads have this idea that because there are so many fish in the sea they can treat candidates who fall out of favor like s---t. What this proves is that the head is s---t and his or her ego has gotten too big and he or she thinks that this world is so big his or her behavior won't come back to haunt him or her later. This is not the case. Karma comes back to everyone, even those who are on the top of the heap today. They may not be tomorrow. Especially if more of us out these heads for what they are.

[erbear79]

@reisgio - I totally agree! Couldn't have said it better ... I'm pretty disgusted by his behavior for sure.

[interteach]

I also had a problem with the school contacting me for an interview and then nothing. I know it wasn't my references because I was told they were excellent during my interview. They didn't bother to respond to my emails either. I guess they hired who they wanted but I'll never interview with the principal or director again.

[erbear79]

@interteach - Sorry that happened. It takes a few minutes to send a quick email to someone letting them know something changed. Super unprofessional behavior! I have no patience for it.

[Michelle]

I lived in Bucharest and worked at AISB. This was some years ago when they were located in the middle of town. I loved Romania and traveled extensively throughout the country. I found the Romanians a bit cold but once you get to know them they will give you the shirt off their back. I found that Romanian was easy to pick up on and I could basically understand it upon arrival as my Spanish is good and Romanian is a Romance language. I don't know what it is like today. I was there for three years but this was more than 10 years ago. I would recommend that you go given the chance. The art and cultural offerings were, and I would imagine, still great. I sorry to hear the admin is not what it was when I was there.

[erbear79]

Michelle - thanks for the insight! I should have clarified earlier, the school was not AISB, but Verita School ... a newer one in Bucharest. The philosophy looks great, unfortunately, the Director doesn't seem to be!