The culture I chose to tell a story about is my Romanian culture. My mom’s side is Romanian but I wasn’t connected to the culture and I didn’t know any Romanian. I couldn’t even talk to my grandfather until I started Romanian lessons. This summer we went to Romania for 2 weeks and I learned a lot there. I still felt like an outsider but I could at least communicate in broken sentences with my grandfather. During the trip we saw a lot of churches and old buildings. The European cities were so different than the US and full of history. When we got back it seemed really different. The only Romanian orthodox churches near us are almost an hour drive.
To showcase my culture, I decided to photograph one of these churches. When we got there it was closed off and behind a gate. It was a simple 2 story building that you could never guess was a church unless you looked closely, nothing like the castle looking churches in Romania. I was still able to get some good photos. Sometimes I feel like I’m trapped behind a gate and I don’t know anything about my mom’s side of the family or the culture. Hopefully as I continue learning Romanian and keep visiting the country I’ll be able to step through the gate.