1. Hannah York Interview, History 150 Spring 2016, Conducted by Brooke Sellars, Relocation of Geographies, March 23, 2016.

2. 1. I conducted this interview in person, in my dorm room at JMU. I did not edit it a lot at all, I kept it mainly the same as when it was recorded, besides where I trimmed one part out when Hannah could not remember what she going going to say. When planning this interview, I made sure there was a day that Hannah and I had free time so we could record the interview in person. I recorded the interview on my phone on the app “recorder”. I prepared a quiet space by conducting the interview in my dorm room, making sure all background noise was turned off and muted and my roommate was gone for that time.
   2. Hannah Grace York. Her parents had been living in Romania for two years before her and her brother were born. Her mom went back to America to be her and her brother (twin). They were born in the UVA hospital in Charlottesville, VA. When they were 7 weeks old her parents went back to Romania. She had lived in Romania for the past 18 years. They were in America for a year and ever since she was in 2nd grade, they would visit America in the summer every three years. She moved to America in June 2015 to go to college, James Madison University.
   3. Romania is in southeastern Europe and the majority of the people are poor. The Carpathian Mountains divide Romania into two different parts, Transylvania is a historical region in central Romania. 89% of the 23m population speak Romanian while 7% of the population speak Hungarian or Bulgarian, 2% speak German. 90% of the country’s people are ethnically Romanian. Other ethnic groups that live in Romania are Hungarians, Roma (gypsies), or Germans (Germans as a result of WWII.)
   4. Transcript:

BS: Before moving, what was your childhood like in Romania?

Hannah York: Ok so my childhood it was normal, I mean like I grew up in a, like my family is from America, so we celebrated all the same traditions and stuff but it was also different because I was in a foreign country. So like in public I had to speak Romanian like when I went to the grocery store or something I had to speak in Romanian, so that was really different than living here. But also, I grew up in the city and so that’s also kind of different like I used public transportation a lot. I don’t even have my drivers license either [giggled] because in Romania you can’t get it until you turn 18. So yeah I used public transportation a lot which was good because I could be really independent and so that was nice.

BS: How did you feel when you visited America each summer?

Hannah York: Okay well I felt like it was a foreign country to me, even though like technically I’m American I was born in Charlottesville, it just felt so weird to like always hear English. I also, it was really funny to like go into a grocery store and see like all of these options, there is so many different kinds of cereals here, and its like really hard to know which one to choose. [Giggled] But yeah I enjoyed coming to America because it was fun to see my grandparents and my cousins but I also, I felt like I was just like on vacation and I didn’t feel like coming home like Romania has always been home to me so yeah, it felt weird but yeah I don’t know how to describe it, I guess like its a lot cleaner here too [Giggled], and that was something that always really surprised me. The air was a lot fresher too. And so yeah it was nice to come and see people, but I was always really happy to go back to Romania because that was home to me.

BS: Why did you decide to come here to America? What was the major deciding factor?

Hannah York: Ok so, the main factor for coming to America, was for college. Cause my sister had come to America three years before me and she went to college here and so then when me and my brother, cause I have a twin brother, when it was time for us to go to college, we thought about going to other countries but it just made the most sense to come to America because we had grandparents there, family that could help us while my parents were back in Romania. So yeah that was the main reason why I decided to move back here, for college and I’ll be here for four years and I don’t know where I’ll go after [giggled.]

BS: What were the biggest differences you’ve seen between Romania and America?

Hannah York: Ok so, as I mentioned before, like the English obviously like Romania in public, you don’t really hear a lot of English, and so it was, my hears aren’t used to like hearing English in public so like when I came here like I felt like I was eavesdropping on peoples conversations, because I just heard so many English all the time in America, it was really odd. And then also people are a lot friendlier here in America like costumer services is a really big thing like if you, say you don’t have like change at a store, like in America here that’s okay, like they have change to give you like you have to give them a fifty dollar bill they’ll have enough change to give you. But in Romania if you try to pay them with big bills they get really mad because they don’t always really have change which is weird because they should, I don’t know why but they don’t. And so they’ll get mad at you and like make you go break the money somewhere else so that they don’t have to use like change or something. So yeah costumer service in Romania is usually like the costumer’s fault if something goes bad but while in America the people like doing the service usually take the blame for it instead of blaming the costumer. So that’s one of the biggest differences that I’ve seen between the two countries.

BS: What areas of your life got easier, what areas of your life got harder?

Hannah York: Ok um well I think I’ll start with harder, for me it was hard moving here because all my, all of my friends were in Romania, oh and other countries because they moved as well but like that was hard to come here and not really have friends, at first. Like all I had was my cousins and my grandparents but I didn’t even know them really well and so that was really hard, I felt like I had to start over pretty much when coming here, um and then also, being away from my parents was also really hard too because it’s a seven-hour difference so it can be hard sometimes to call them.

BS: What areas of your life got easier?

Hannah York: So I think the biggest area of my life that got easier was, I mean I was able to speak in English in public now so like I knew Romanian because I had grown up there my whole life but like its still easier to speak English because that was my first language and so it’s nice when I’m ordering something like that I can speak in English. So I feel like that got easier, and also just I feel like life in America is a little easier because like I don’t know, its like you have a lot of things available in grocery stores and things in general and so like that was really nice, we didn’t have to be like ‘oh we can’t get that here’ in Romania but in America like I don’t know I feel like you can buy anything [giggle]. That’s definitely one way it got easier.

BS: Can you describe what it was like to transition from Romania to America?

Hannah York: Yeah, okay so the transition was pretty hard just because, like I said before, I don’t know, this country just felt so foreign to me, even though technically it’s a passport country, it was where I was born but just like not growing up here, there were a lot of things I missed out on like pop culture references that I don’t really understand, so like sometimes I’m like my friends here at college will be talking about something that was really popular when they were all in middle school and I just don’t understand that reference at all and so sometimes I feel a little like on the outside because like I didn’t understand all those references but then I usually just laugh about it and be like ‘guys I don’t know what you’re talking about!’ And they’ll be like ‘oh you Romanian’ [laughed]. So like definitely now its easier.

BS: How did you adapt to the new culture?

Hannah York: Now its easier, but at first it was like I felt really awkward a lot of times. Okay well, I feel like just getting to talk to my friends here at college and be like, share like part of my life with them and have them share parts of their life and like how our lives have been different and stuff like that’s like a way to adapt and just like noticing these little differences as well so that like I can appreciate both cultures and not just like right one off as being wrong but like they’re both different but both have like special things to them and both things I want to take from both cultures.

BS: Are you happy or sad about your decision to come here?

Hannah York: That’s a really good question. To be honest at first I was really sad, like I really mixed Romania and I didn’t, I really didn’t wanna be in America but I think that was also because I didn’t want to like it in here, but now I’m happy here, I’m really happy with the college I picked, I love JMU and I couldn’t really imagine myself anywhere else. So like right now I’m content and happy where I am but I do wanna go back to Romania, at least to visit but maybe not to live but definitely to visit my family.

BS: Is there anything else you would like to add about this experience?

Hannah York: I guess all I wanna say is like I feel like growing up in a different country has really been a blessing because I’ve gotten to experience a lot of other cultures and have an appreciation for global, like the whole world and yeah if I, I wouldn’t want it any other way, I’m glad I got to grow up there, even though it meant like sometimes feeling a little lost and not really knowing where I’m from exactly, I feel like growing up there has given me different experiences and those I’m really grateful for to have that and yeah.

Conclusion: I think the interview went relatively well, she was very open with her past and present experiences in Romania. I think if I could do this differently, I would try to think of more questions or some way of making this interview longer since it did not hit the 10 minute minimum. I stayed to the script well, when she finished talking about the question, I would just ask the next one to keep the conversion going. I actually wish I could have though of some positive divergences to add to the time and to the conversion. I overall think this interview went very well, Hannah shared a lot of good information on her transition from Romania to America, the only problem was not hitting the time minimum.