Sidenote: sarmale is a Romanian meal - they're cabbage rolls with minced meat & rice inside. It's great, I ate a million of them here.
Chapter I
So we wrapped up our stay in Groningen and got assessed by Fine Arts tutors. Irina & I went to a Kendrick Lamar concert in Amsterdam. James Blake opened for him, it was great. And literally the next morning - we were gone, and, in quite a contrasting move, ended up in the other corner of Europe - Bucharest.
We arrived at the end of winter. Having adjusted to the relatively mild climate of the Netherlands, we were smacked in the face by a breezy -15 degrees in Romania. To be fair, it was kind of nice to see proper snow again, as that only ever showed up for brief "hi - bye" moments in the Dutch-land.
So what are we up to in Romania? Well, I'm quite proud of this, actually - my girl & I both got jobs! Not as waiters, too - we found jobs we're actually interested in! I arranged a sound design internship in a video game development company here in Bucharest and Irina was to be a media production assistant in her homeland.
Oh, and we went skiing, too. Like a week after landing. So that was cool. The fact that Romania has mountains is a massive +1 from me.
Chapter II
Once we were done celebrating mountains, I started work at my new office. This was not the first time I was here - I came here last June for 5 days for a trial internship of sorts, to see if this could be the job for me. I thoroughly enjoyed the few days I spent at the office and when the opportunity to return came I was quite eager to. Having visited my workplace before coming to it really made that first day less intimidating. I had already met my mentor who I'd work with for the next 6 months in June and met some of the team as well. Speaking of my mentor - lead sound designer Moro - he was absolutely great at being a teacher. The guy teaches sound engineering at a university in Bucharest, so it was no surprise a man who gets paid to teach was great at doing so. In my first week he gave me a book to read and showed me some ear training exercise programs I could use to hone my listening. I eased into work over the course of week two very naturally and by the end of the first month the company had one game that featured several sounds I made.
The company I work for is called Pragmatic Play, and they mostly make casino slot games. I learned that there was a huge and growing demand for these games. The team is made of about 40 people. The office is on the top floor of a business centre, overlooking the neighborhood. It features a rooftop terrace which is lovely for eating or just hanging out, and most importantly, it satiated my obsession with sunsets.
Most of the people at work are really sociable and everyone speaks good English. I'm also priviledged to have spent over a year living under the same roof with a Romanian - my girlfriend has been great at teaching me Romanian. We visited her extensive, non-English-speaking family several times and I've found the few visits hugely improved my understanding and my speaking of the language. When I go to shops they don't even know I'm foreign.
Chapter III
For the first time in my life I'm actually looking forward to going to work. I never dread waking up in the morning (Starting at a comfy 10:00 also helps). I found something this dude on reddit wrote a while back. It went something like:
Do apply for internships because university will only tell you how to move your legs, but you gotta learn to walk on your own.
I've found that to be so very true. I feel like I've learned so much in one month of working here that an entire year of uni wouldn't teach. It might be just my personal case - I think having a personal lecturer at my disposal 2 metres from me was instrumental in me learning this much.
My somewhat ADHD brain is also very happy with the structure of this job. The company releases approximately two games a month - which means I get to work on various projects with wildly different themes - I might be working on an African-savannah-themed soundtrack one week and move to a high-tech electronic style the next. It keeps me engaged and it always feels new.
Here are some more snapshots of my time in Romania.
