Learning Romanian

Indeed... the language I said it would be years before I learned; I'm now learning it. Something sparked suddenly my interest in the Latin forum I participate in. There were some comparisons being made concerning the evolution of certain sounds in Romanian from Latin. This caused me to search a bit, and I've now officially begun to learn this very beautiful (that's correct) language, like all the other languages coming from Latin.
I'm learning very much, and enjoying it. Even though on the surface Romanian may not resemble much the other languages, studying it reveals its true Latin roots. Last year, I did the same with Catalan. Now I can use it as I would use Spanish, and the feedback I get from my Catalan friends is amazing; I thank them, as without them, I wouldn't be able to practice much the language. :-) I look forward to getting better at Romanian, and meeting Romanian people, whom I've never encountered before.
Of course, one can not deny its Slavic influence. It's definitely the most different language I've encountered in the family (i.e. within Romance). There were a few things that threw off at first. For instance, the schwa exists in Romanian, as in does in Catalan and French. In Catalan, it's quite common, and so it is in Romanian. But while in Catalan all unstressed <a> are reduced to a schwa, in Romanian that is definitely not always the case. For example, Rom. bună and Cat. bona are both pronounced with a schwa as the final sound. So in Romanian words such as România and maşină, I was tempted to pronounce untressed <a> as a schwa as well, the way I do in Catalan. With the central close unrounded vowel (ɨ), I didn't have much trouble because I've always used it when speaking Portuguese, generally for unstressed >e>(see other posts for its ocurrence in Portugal).
As far as Latin, I continue studying it, and am now reading original texts, both prose and poetry, as well writing a few things.
I have put Occitan on the side for a while now. However, since I'm actively speaking and writing Catalan, when I decide to get to it, it should rather easy to adapt to it, and keep learning it.
I will be at Romanika for the summer.
Bună ziua!