Isabella Pavelea, 51, is from Transylvania, Romania and after 17 years of living in Reno, the Biggest Little City is feeling like home.
The immigration process can be long, she said. “We applied and waited 11 years until we received a letter from immigration saying [we’ve] been accepted,” Pavelea remembers of the initial challenges of making it to the United States.
It took Pavelea, her former husband and her two kids another year afterwards to finish all of the paperwork to move here in 2007. They originally decided to move to be closer to her brother-in-law who lived in northern Nevada. For Pavelea, the change was initally a shock.
“Everybody was so excited. Not me, at the beginning. I was freaked out,” Pavelea said. She described being worried about the language barrier.
However, once she and her family arrived and settled in their new, two-bedroom apartment, Pavelea began taking English and math classes at Truckee Meadows Community College.
“For me, it was difficult to start with pronunciation,” she said. The English she was learning in Romania was more similar to British English.
“I started from zero, from scratch,” she said. She was taking classes at TMCC and taking care of her children at the same time, while her former husband worked at his brother’s construction company. This process was, at times, difficult for her.
“I needed to hold everything on my shoulders,” she remembers.
For Pavelea, there was also a culture shock that came with moving to the U.S.
“What shocked me is everything [is] related to freedom. When I saw [for] the first time people walking around Walmart in pajamas, I was amazed,” she said. Dressing is about self-esteem and respect, she adds.
Currently, she is a Clinical Lab Assistant (CLA) and Phlebotomist at Renown Health. Before she moved to the U.S., she worked with the Red Cross. She’s been at Renown Health since 2012.
Pavelea misses her family back in Romania and Spain, where siblings now live, as well as the food. She misses the pedestrian safety in Romania as well.
Two different types of candies from Romania Pavelea brought to the coffee shop, with the colors of the Romanian flag, called ROM and Eugenia.
For our interview, Pavelea brought with her two different types of candies, both of which she said are popular in Romania. One is called Eugenia - a biscuit with cacao. The other is ROM - it’s a chocolate bar with a rum-cream filling. The colors on both of the packages reflect the colors of the Romanian flag - blue, yellow and red.
She got these candies from her trip back to Romania in 2022, when visiting her parents. Pavelea wants to travel home more often, but flights can be expensive, with many stops.
“It’s very complicated…it’s the waiting time between the flights,” she said.
However, Pavelea, in between these visits, keeps in touch with her family.
“We talk over WhatsApp every single day,” Pavelea said.
As for Reno, the mountains, parks, lakes and the hiking are her favorite parts. And Easter is one of the holidays when she gets together with her family and friends.
“We always get together and everybody brings food,” Pavelea said. They’ve been getting together as a group for 15 years now, she said. The group brings lamb for Easter, she said. Outside of the holiday, Pavelea also likes to make sarmale, also known as Romanian cabbage rolls, as well as Ciorba de Burta (tripe soup).
This is one of the ways in which she keeps her children, and herself, connected to Romania.