Many people tend to think that life in Romania must be difficult at present. All the trials that the country went through during the decades of communist rule must have taken their toll, they would conclude. Also, trying to match steps with the rest of the developed world would surely result in a vicious struggle for survival. Actually, such thinking could not be further from reality. Because the reality is that life in Romania has become easier in the last few years.

For the Romanians on the street, life is closely intertwined with work. They can be busy as bees pretty early in the morning. In general, the working day begins at seven in the morning and ends by three in the afternoon.

However, Romanians cannot think of neglecting their family life. The family still eats together at mealtimes. This is particularly true in the case of traditional family businesses, where all the members of the family work together.

The Romanian economy is going through a period of unprecedented growth. The shortages of the communist era or the uncertainties of the period of post communism reforms are both a thing of the past. The economy is also diversifying into a wide industrial base. The vibrant sectors of industry at present include footwear and textiles, wood products, mining and metallurgy, machinery and machine parts, chemicals, construction materials, oil refining, and food products to name a few. The country is nowadays making a foray into medicine, heavy machinery and home appliance industries. It is also making rapid advances in the sunrise sectors like Information Technology and automobiles.

The reason for providing you with all this statistics is to help you comprehend the extent to which Romania, as a nation, has become industrialized. In fact, migration of the rural workforce into industry has caused Romanian agriculture to suffer.

The inevitable changes that industrialization brings about are yet to be seen in Romania. People here are very friendly and gregarious. They like spending time with friends over a beer or coffee, or simply chatting with women.

Romanians as a people are known to be quite hospitable. They are happy with the progress the country has made since democracy was restored, and feel content with the resulting upswing in living standards. They have their own pace of doing things, and their work habits could appear a little slow to other people, for example the French.

The nice thing about life in Romania is that people there do not love to remain immersed in work. Nor are they strict disciplinarians, like the Germans are. They can be ambitious, but do not like sticking to the rules always.

Romanians like to spend their leisure time during weekends and public holidays with their family and friends. However, such free time is getting scarce with every passing day, as people feel busy, tired or lonely from trying to cope with the exacting schedules of an industrialized society. After all, life in the 21st century is extremely demanding, and the story is the same in Romania, Europe, and the rest of the world.

Even then Romanians try to balance their professional and family lives. They make an effort to improve their work while not getting too stressed. Happiness to them is a way of life, not the result of some achievement. They seek enjoyment from litle things in life, and are thankful to God just for being alive. The joy of life permeates the Romanian psyche like nothing else, and it is this virtue, which makes life in Romania so pleasant.