Romi From Romania

There is a sandwich chain in London known as Eat. and it competes with McDonalds for the number of outlets in one area. In one branch near Liverpool Street Station works a young woman, Romi, whose favourite sandwich to restock is the Chicken Salad. She considers it the most aesthetically pleasing and wonders what it would be like if she could afford a fresh one.

Romi is from Romania and she would like to let everyone know that she knows all the jokes that can be made in relation to her name and the name of her country. In fact, Romi has often considered climbing to the top of the Gherkin with a megaphone to let everyone know. While she is up there, Romi would also let everyone know that Eat. sells soup, pies and salads in addition to sandwiches.

Romi arrived to London from Romania two years ago and would be happy to anyone that she is quite proud of the position at Eat. even though it is lowly paid. Romi would say that she is happy because she gets to meet so many well-dressed English people. Romi won’t talk about it but she was disappointed when she noticed that the customers are predominately white. For her first week working there, before she knew better about London, she wondered where all the people in her neighbourhood got their sandwiches.

To keep her day interesting, Romi gives small discounts to customers that she perceives as cute and handsome. Romi hopes that when they look at the change they will notice this discount and then they would notice Romi. At night, in bed, Romi does wish that they would notice her without the discount but she does admit that so many of them seem to be in a hurry and making someone on the other end of their phone hurry.

When Romi isn’t working, which she wouldn't like to admit is very little time, she browses Romanian websites and updates her Romanian blog at her local internet café which is operated by a Hungarian man. The Hungarian man gives her internet for free as he is aware of her minimum wage. Due partly to this, Romi is proud to tell people that Romania borders with Hungary. It is also because she thinks it will give people a better spatial sense.

The money Romi saves from free internet and by eating stale bread, she saves at the bank, although Romi has become slightly scared by banks in the last months. Romi won’t admit this fear to anyone but she suspects many others have the same fear. Nevertheless, Romi enjoys her savings, she hopes to have enough to go back and visit Bucharest sometime. Romi would make sure people know Bucharest is in Romania.