Ikram Acquaviva, Argentina

Ana-Maria Cononovici, 28.05.2015, 15:19

Although no longer a student, Ikram Acquaviva is a resident physician at the Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest. She studied medicine in her home country Argentina, from where she left for Marseille, France, to follow her husband.

Here is Ikram Acquaviva with a short presentation of herself: “I study medicine, I am a resident in the department of obstetrics and gynaecology. My friends told me about Romania, about Bucharest. And last December I came with my husband on holiday, for two weeks. I like Bucharest a lot.

We asked Ikram why she chose to study in Romania: “I made my research about several European countries to make my residency and there was Germany, but its very hard to learn the language. London, Great Britain, I wasnt interested in because its always cloudy and I dont like the cold. My husband and I are young, and we want to change the country and try to live in another country. We talked about Spain, Germany and when we made our research on Internet we heard about Romania and we wanted to try and come and see if it will be good for us. I asked many persons about the residency and yes, its a good school, its a very good school for medicine. I think its a mix between the French school and the American school, the old school and the new school. We practice a lot, but we have also the theoretical part.

What is Ikrams number one priority: “I have first to learn very well Romanian because we have to speak with the patients and with our colleagues. I speak a little now. Its almost four months that Im learning now and I expect to learn more, I think I need four or five months more to have the good oral language.

Ikram believes doing her internship in Romania will be a valuable experience anywhere in the world, although she is considering staying on and working in Romania: “Im very interested in moving to Romania. Bucharest, I dont know. There are many other cities like Cluj, Timisoara, the big ones. I dont know, maybe during the residency when I go to visit other cities maybe I could move to other cities but Romania is a beautiful country and I think I fell in love, personally. My husband I think, too. He would like to stay here and me, personally, I think I could stay here forever.

We asked our guest Ikram Acquaviva what she likes most about Romania: “The people. At first, I was really surprised by the kindness of the people. Everyone, the taxi driver, the woman in the supermarket, we didnt speak any word of Romanian at first, but they did everything possible to try to understand us even if they dont speak English or French or Italian. But they try and I was very, very surprised. The city also, because we know only Bucharest for now and I think that we have all in Bucharest to live our life well. In opposition to Marseille, where we lived, there are many parks in the city, to have fresh air. We are in a big city, in the centre, but we have many parks, we can walk every morning, we can do sports.

Ikram is very pleased with the way she has adjusted to life in Romania: “We tried also the food when we came first and I was very surprised because it looked very much like German food. There are many beans and sausages, like in Germany. It was very tasty. At first I thought we were always in a German restaurant. The first time I tried every meal so I gained some weight. Its not good for diet, Romanian food. And, surprisingly, we have many other restaurants of other countries, Mexican food, Spanish food, Italian food. About the architecture of Bucharest, they keep the old architecture and make it more modern and thats why I think Bucharest is a great city and a beautiful city as opposed to other countries that destroy the older buildings and try to make new ones.

Ikram Acquaviva says Romania is a place she would like to live in, but she is yet to make a final decision in this respect.