Belvedere Times

How Does It Compare?

Tudor Voda (EL), Current Affairs Contributor

 I am from Piatra Neamt in Romania and I have been living in Ireland for three years.  I am going to write about the differences between Ireland and Romania, especially about the school system. Ireland and Romania are very different and I hope you enjoy learning about my home country. 

     The town I am from, Piatra Neamt, is a big city in the province of Moldova in the north-east of the country. The city is in the mountains. We have a lot of hills around it and a 2000m mountain called Ceahlau is situated 50km away. The city is in the valley of the Bistrita River.

     Piatra Neamt is full of history. The greatest king of Moldavia, Stefan Cel Mare (Stephan the Great), built a huge castle here. Today you can see the walls; they are part of the history museum. Our city has lots of parks and instead of houses we have apartment blocks. 

     There are a lot of schools but not enough for all the kids. Here the small children start school at the age of seven. School starts at eight o’ clock and finishes at noon and the big kids start after twelve o’ clock and finish at six o’ clock. In a classroom there are 30-35 children. Here the teachers don’t have time to finish the work in class and you have to do it for homework. When you have finished studying you still have lots of homework to do. It can take you up to three hours to finish.

    In Romanian schools the kids don’t have uniforms. The breaks there are shorter and involve a lot of study. During class there are a lot of tests.  If you don’t achieve good marks during the year you will be kept back for the next year.  The school is more strict and you don’t have as much fun as you do here.

     All the schools in my city are orange and yellow. In the schools there are no canteens and everybody brings food from home.  There not many science laboratories and we go there only for experiments. The gym hall is small and cold and has only a few machines. But despite these problems, the best thing about the school is the summer break.

     We have three months summer holidays like in Ireland but there is more sun in Romania.  We often go swimming during the summer and we get a nice tan, but usually friends just hang around together.  In winter it is cold and there is a lot of snow so there is plenty of skiing and rivers often freeze over.

I have talked about my city, schools, holidays, and the history and geography of Piatra Neamt.  Maybe you will visit Romania someday.