Editor’s note: This is the second in an ongoing series looking at one student from each foreign country represented at Pittsburg State.
Flavius Garmacea’s feet brought him to Pittsburg State.
“I was going to play football here,” Garmacea said. “My last semester of senior year I started playing American football...I played soccer in high school and they needed a kicker/punter for the American football team. They saw me kick pretty hard, so I tried out and I could hit from 50 or 60 yards. The coaches told me I should play.”
Flavius went to a few camps in Kansas City and San Diego and was planning on playing for Pittsburg State. However, he said he gave up and didn’t concentrate enough on school, failing to keep his grades up enough to play.
Since then, Garmacea has been working harder on his grades.
Garmacea is the sole representative at Pittsburg State of his home country of Romania. About 40 foreign countries are represented at Pittsburg State.
Garmacea is from Romania, but his father is an American. His father was in the military, stationed in Germany. Flavius said he was pushed to go to college by his father.
“My dad thought it would be a good idea to go into international business because I could speak five languages,” Garmacea said. “He thought it would be good if I got my master’s. I didn’t really plan to go to college, but I didn’t have a choice. It was either that or I start working at McDonald’s or Burger King.”
Flavius said his first few semesters were difficult, but more because of the transition to living on one’s own than being in a foreign country.
“I had some problem adjusting to the whole college schedule, like taking care of bills,” Garmacea said. “”Before I lived in my dad’s house, but now I have got to manage money, and keep up my motivation. It’s hard to concentrate on school because of that.”
He knew English from watching television in Romania. American movies would be played with Romanian subtitles, which gave Flavius a chance to learn English from following along.
There are a few differences between his hometown of Sântana, located inside Arad county in Romania, and Pittsburg. Sântana is a town of about 13,000 people.
“It’s a similar city, not super rich, not very big population,” Garmacea said. “The towns I come from are kind of the same. But there, we only have Romanians, we don’t have people from different countries. A lot of students travel to Germany for school, but not a lot of students want to come to Romanian universities.”
Flavius said there are not many foreigners in Romania. However, he was well-received in America upon arrival.
“I met a lot of nice people who were really friendly here,” Garmacea said. “In my country, people are not very friendly, not with strangers. So if you come from another country, it is really hard to make friends.”
One adjustment he couldn’t make is to get used to American food.
“The big difference is home food,” Garmacea said. “Everybody eats home food. We never eat at fast food. Probably 98 percent of the time we eat home food. But here, it’s either Taco Bell or McDonald’s because I don’t have time to cook. I had a hard time with that. I put on some pounds. It’s hard to stay in shape when you eat cheeseburgers all the time.”
These days, Flavius is working out, trying to get in better shape, so he can attempt to walk on to the football team at some point. He’s set to graduate in 2011.
Despite his warm reception from American audiences, Garmacea said there have been a few misunderstandings.
“When I tell people I’m from Romania, I’ve had a lot of people ask if it’s in Mexico,” Flavius said. “It’s weird, I know. I’m surprised a lot of people don’t know geography. If I tell them Romania is in Eastern Europe, they’ll ask where Eastern Europe is. I just would think people would know geography better.”
Andrew Nash can be reached at andrew.nash@morningsun.net or by calling 231-2600 ext. 132
