…you’ve got a ton of home-cooked, nutritious food in your apartment but you’d rather waste your hard-earned money on some overpriced junk food.
…you’ve got a ton of home-cooked, nutritious food in your apartment but you’d rather waste your hard-earned money on some overpriced junk food.
All Things Romania 
Now, I am Romanian, and in my opinion Sam tried subtly to educate us in his known humorously (and a little bit sarcastic) way. Unfortunately, McDonalds and other similar places attract people with some conveniences they offer not only with food. So, Romanians like many others prefer them because cooking home is not only time consuming but it takes effort, too. There is no offence in what he wrote.
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It’s not just Mcdonalds he hates though. Look at his rant last week about Auchan and supermarkets in general, and how those awful brainwashed Romanians (some of who can’t even pronounce the name of the supermarket properly!) were doing unspeakable things like buying kids champagne so that their kids could have a nice time.
Sorry, but there was a time Sam loved everything about Romania. Now he has moved on to stage two of being an expat: he hates those local people who do the god awful things he has run away from. It’s as though he does not like Romania at all, instead he likes his idea of what Romania should be.
It is a perfectly natural reaction for an expat. We should have seen it coming.
And one more thing: why after all these years does he remain anonymous? Scared of being googled?
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You do have a point. At least, as regards that particular post. After reading it, I felt claws protruding from the tips of my fingers and an overwhelming urge to try them out. But then I said to myself that I should be acting like the mature person I’m supposed to be and refrain from returning the swipe. And that remembers me…there is a novella written by Ioan Slavici and called “Popa Tanda” in which we can see how Romanians usually respond to any attempts of teaching them by means of jibes and barbs. Just my two cents on this matter.
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What sucks is Sam’s moronic way if generalizing things. Really, man, stop doing that. It’s like me saying that Americans are fat and stupid. I should know better, I’ve lived here for a while, right? That’s what the rest of the world knows about Americans, right? The reason why people go to McDonald’s or whatever has nothing to do with where they are from. There are some things called choice, budget, trends … now give us a break and stop spreading prejudices!
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Roger Ramjet, I don’t believe a minute that Sam is being disdainful. I feel he is so much part of where he lives that he speaks his mind freely and with no subliminal messages at all…No. Sam is definitely not the disdainful type! I have not met him although i live in the same city of Cluj-Napoca, but I read a lot of his stuff and figured out that his love for Romania is sincere and concerned. And with regard to this present statement, well, i can only say I am definitely not Romanian! Being a foreigner, I feel extremely privileged to be able to eat perfectly good home cooked food and organic food at that. I receive great homemade foodstuff from my girlfriends, such as tomato sauce, tagliatelle, delicious pastries, etc…Why would anyone in this situation go and eat junk food? But what Sam describes is, in my foreigner’s eyes, more and more correct, unfortunately, and I often tell my Romanian friends how crazy it is that they should favor junk over their fantastically good food…The reply to this is: ”McDo and Coke generation” I think…that does not exclude that it is also the case in other developed countries…but we just happen to live in Romania…for the moment!
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Your disdain of Romanians who do not share your enlightened views knows no bounds.
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Actions speak louder than words. For a man who disdains Romanians he has certainly spent a huge portion of his life with them. I think you misunderstand his motivations.
One thing I’ve noticed about Romanians is they don’t use a lot of flowery rhetoric. They tell it like they see it and sometimes in a cruel fashion. I think Sam communicates in that fashion to Romanian, for Romanians. I don’t question his love for the country or he would have left long ago.
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You know your an American when… you are to lazy to go to a grocery store 2 blocks from your home, buy fresh food and cook it, to get in your car drive 2 miles, each way, to buy cheap fattening fast food.
Ed Z.
Phoenix, AZ USA
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Sure, buddy, if that’s what you saw your family do and that’s all your shit ass can afford to buy, then I’m with you … but that doesn’t mean “being American”. And you know what else factors into this whole McDonald’s thing? Education. You retard that don’t know how to spell, you are the perfect potential fit for the McDonald’s marketing strategy.
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