Speaking English in Romania

Anyone who has traveled abroad I think has experienced this feeling or at least parts of it.

try to speak in foreign language. it's obvious you aren't from there. draw attention to yourself. get flustered. revert to speaking native language. draw more attention to yourself. finally get what you were after. whew! thank goodness that's over. move on. try to handle it better next time.

It gets better over time and with experience.

It's part of my job in the Peace Corps to speak English;
Yes. It limits my Romanian learning, but it also helps me maintain my sanity at times.
I'm quiet on trains, buses, maxi-taxis, and on the street mostly because I think I can blend in.
As long as I don't open my mouth no one will know :)
My Romanian accent is decent, but the melodiousness of Romanian is something I haven't yet mastered.
I don't want to draw attention to myself, but I've gotten used to the glances when I speak English.
My Romanian friends I think are still getting used to it...

Here are a couple recent examples:

1.) I absolutely hate going to the post office because the ladies who work there all stare at me with a scowl, but I brush it off because I have no idea what is going on that day or in their lives to judge them by a facial expression. That being said, they still terrify me. I was standing in the posta, on a rainy Monday after class, waiting to pay for my electric bill when I ran into my friend Dana. Dana had a wierd look on her face...our eyes met and for something reason I could tell she didn't want to speak in English. We talked in Romanian for a minute, and then we both paid our bills. Dana offered me a ride home and immediately began speaking English when we stepped out of the building. Apparently the people at the post office scare Dana too, and she didn't want to draw attention to the both of us by speaking English.

2.) Another incident happened on Saturday on the way to a restaurant in town. I had invited a high school friend out to dinner to practice her English because I'm helping her prepare for the Cambridge exam. While walking to the center there was a group of boys ahead of us. One happened to be my student so I said hello, and then Ioana and I continued our conversation. One of the other boys in the group began teasing us about speaking English. This doesn't bother me in the slightest, but it bothered Ioana and she felt the need to defend me. I appreciated it, but I'm not at all affected by the comments of an 8th grade boy.

I try to speak Romanian as much as possible to be sensitive to the country in which I'm living, but I will never apologize for speaking my native language. Romanian is a nation which in my opinion has excellent foriegn language programs, has many people working abroad in various countries that speak different languages, and Transylvania is even home to many native Hungarian speakers. I suppose I just assumed me speaking English wouldn't be that interesting.