Wednesday, Sept. 23rd
My first day in Cluj! I got in at 11pm at night and had no idea where I was in the city. I headed out in the morning for a walk around and went to this neighborhood up a hill and populated by people over the age of 60. It was very strange but a nice walk…for 2 hours! When I got back to the dorm, I was pretty exhausted from the walk and the traveling the two days before so I lay down from 11am to 4pm.
Here are a few pictures of the hotel room. It is much nicer than I expected!
View of the beds (but I am the only one there - one is my bed and one has been deemed the computer bed):
The bathroom - pretty nice:
The hotel breakfast. I am having toast, mustard, and eggs:
When I got up, I decided I needed to head out again, and this time I figured out where I was, where the town center was, and found a map (yes!). This helped a lot, and it took about 45 minutes to walk to the center of town – the old square called Piata Unirii (where St. Michael’s Church is). The old city center is very nice. Not exactly old town cute but an interesting mix of the old buildings and new things like cell phone shops, banks, and swanky restaurants, bars, and coffee shops. It looks like a fun place and fairly different for Romania (not that I would really know, though!).
I actually think this is about all I did on Wednesday. Hmmmm. Yep, that is all I can remember anyway.
Thursday, Sept. 24th
Wednesday evening I learned that one of the Fulbright people arrived, and we managed to meet up Thursday morning. Her name is Lauren, and she is a photographer. She is a really interesting person and has spent the last 10 years pretty much split between NYC and Barcelona. It is hard to imagine that, but I guess I have been all over the place as well, although I am not so sure Arizona is exactly on the same level as Spain. She had to go to the city center to find her university a meeting, as did I, so we headed out around 11am to check things out. We finally found her university (a single building with a bank in the bottom floor, only identified by a small plaque on the doorwell, crazy!), and I headed off to meet my contact in the American Studies department at Babes Bolyai University.
The faculty (department) of European Studies building:
Yep, American Studies is in there, weird:
The American Studies library, which is really good even if small:
After looking at the apartment, I decided to talk from there to the university to time the distance and get some food (I had taken a taxi from the university to the apartment – really a basement apartment in a house). Once at the center, I decided to just keep walking from there because I am too cheap to spend the $3 it would cost. I know, I know. But, it was a nice walk despite the pounding headache I have had for days. Once I got back and was just getting settled in for the evening, I got a knock on the door. The Fulbright people from Bucharest had arrived, so we all went out to a German restaurant for some food and to talk. I just had a little salad with cucumbers and tomatoes, but it was nice to meet everyone. It is an interesting group of people, both professors and students (more like former students, actually). We will be fairly spread out in different towns like Brasov, Sibiu, Bucharest, etc, so I hope that means I will be able to visit these places and have somewhere to stay (always an exciting prospect). If I get the apartment discussed above, I will have a pullout sofa-bed to offer people in my place. Of course, now everyone has been to Cluj, so who knows if people will want to come back. I would say that two days is probably pretty good even though we aren’t doing the big things like the museums or churches here, which is a little strange. I guess the new economics building (see Friday’s entry) has more to offer….
Friday, Sept. 25th
Today was the first of our two day Fulbright orientation. We went to Babes Bolyai University (henceforth referred to as BBU), to the European Studies department – right where I was on Thursday, so I finally recognized some places! We started out the day with lots of formal talks and introductions by the rector (dean of a program? president??) of BBU, the director of the Romanian Fulbright commission, the cultural attaché from the U.S. Embassy, and people like that. We also got briefed on things like Romanian politics (craziness, upcoming presidential elections in a few weeks, buying votes with chickens, and so much more), health issues to be aware of (huge earthquake coming sometime to Bucharest, mandatory TB tests when we leave and six months late because it is endemic here, rapid packs of dogs, and the danger of bears in the wood), and other such fun and uplifting topics from representatives from the U.S. Embassy via video conference.
Me (and Lauren - one of the other people) at orientation:
Hands-down the most useful and interesting sections were a few quick presentations by former Fulbrighters from Romania to the U.S. and former U.S. Fulbrights to Romania. We were able to ask questions about Romanian students and teaching here – to the Romanian professors. And, we were able to clarify some of the confusing questions surrounding housing, rent, visas, etc. What a hassle everything is going to be!!! I can definitely see why some people might turn one down because it is a bit of a logistical nightmare. However, the commission here does so much to help us out and are so excited to have us. I imagine the situation might be different in other countries. The director of the commission is just in her second year and is very nice.
We also went a tour of the new and huge economics department at BBU. It is separate from the main part of campus and the center of town and was impressive, to say the least. They have 15,000 students and 300 faculty in just that school/department, while the university as a whole has around 50,000, I believe. The newest econ building much more closely resembled the newer American buildings that you see on university campuses today. It is, of course, rather interesting that they show us the new, fancy, and very atypical building, but I definitely see how that makes sense – and they did not try to hide that this was atypical. I wonder if the funding for it came from internal or external sources? It would be great if more resources like this could go into some of the university systems here. At the same time, it seems like so many of the students are apathetic , which is in such great comparison to Cambodia where the students are just itching to learn and excel and work hard for their grades, and I wish a place like that where the students really are eager for more would see more money for things like education. Only one country at a time, I guess….. And, perhaps I am totally wrong about the students here. That is just the image that we got today from the Romanian profs and from the former U.S. fulbrighters. My fingers are crossed that my students will be receptive. I will find out in just a few days.
The new econ building:
We finished the visits/tours with a stop at the University Museum. It was an interesting place (and not really in a good way in relation to museum standards even though it is new). When I have time after orientation, I will look at my notes and pictures (which I hopefully will be able to post!!) and create a post commenting more on the museum. Finally I will be able to include a real “international public history” aspect to this blog, as was the original intention and the claim of the name!
Picture from the museum. Pretty old school set up (and it is brand new!):
In addition to the tours and talks, we had a lunch and a reception. The food was delicious at the reception – things like sarmales (cabbage rolls which I could not eat) and mamligia (polenta) and other Romanian dishes. Tasty, and there was plenty for me to eat! I am hoping that this continues to be the case! I need to be careful though because I don’t want to gain 10 pounds or so like I did in London when I studied abroad. That is no good at all!
I finally am back in the room and need to get to bed. I have had to take care of lots of emails regarding my housing situation and then this since we have been gone ALL DAY and will be gone all day tomorrow, too. One day of orientation left…..trip to Gherla (a big prison during the communist era) and Banffy Castle (it’s a castle, need I say more?). Sounds like fun, but I definitely wearing walking shoes!
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