15 October, 2009. Sofia, Bulgaria.
At the moment I am in Sofia, Bulgaria, attending the annual conference of the Central European Association for Canadian Studies. Although I am not a member of CEACS, I thought it would be a worthwhile experience to attend their conference and get to know some of the Canadianists from this part of the world. The conference programme itself is impressive, with a keynote address by Dr. Keith Banting from Queen's University among the highlights that I am looking forward to. But my first impressions of Sofia and the organization of the conference, I have to admit, are at present less than positive. Although thieving taxi drivers are not unique to Sofia, they seem particularly well-practised here. And the organization of the conference? Well, let's just say that from my point of view (keeping in mind that I've nearly single-handedly organized an international conference in the past myself), there is considerable room for improvement, particularly in regard to lines of communication and inter-personal relations. Nonetheless, I'm trying to keep an open mind. First impressions are not always accurate, of course, and I still have four days here to come around.
Before coming to Sofia I spent two days in Cluj-Napoca. As I had to get to the Cluj airport anyway, my friend Maria suggested I come down a day earlier to see the city. Well, Maria is a very busy woman, and although she took some time to show me parts of Cluj on Monday when I arrived, our plans to really hit the town on Tuesday were almost completely thwarted by terribly cold and wet weather (it even snowed on Tuesday night). So, a return trip to Cluj will likely be necessary, as I did not get much of an impression of the city.
Stay tuned for photos from Cluj and Sofia in the next day or two...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment