Rainy Weekend

11 October, 2009. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, Romania.

It's been a pretty rainy weekend here in Baia Mare, but that hasn't stopped me from staying busy.  I had my first full classes on Friday and Saturday, and my students appear to be a good (and hopefully motivated) bunch.  I am generally very impressed with their level of English - most seem to be very competant in the language, so I don't feel I need to spend too much time on language matters, leaving more time to get to the interesting "Canadian Studies" stuff :-)  In addition to "Canadian Culture & Civilization" I am now also responsible for "Romanian-Canadian Relations" and an "Intensive English" class for the francophone students.

As I've mentioned, a good majority of my students are teachers themselves, or aspiring teachers.  Four of the first-year MA students were gracious enough to invite me out for a drink on Saturday night - Anamaria, Cosmin, Andreea, and Robert kept me company with some intriguing conversation over a few Ursus bere (brewed in nearby Cluj).  And today, thinking I'd be spending my afternoon going over my paper that I will deliver next week in Sofia, I was surprised to get an "out of the blue" invitation from second-year MA student Raluca to join her and some friends and family at a cottage about 25 minutes outside the city in the Carpati mountains (the photo on the right is the view out the front door of the cottage).  It was a pity it was raining, but it was a fine afternoon/evening nonetheless.  So although I missed Thanksgiving at home this weekend, I was treated to some Romanian hospitality and had my first taste of mămăligă (or polenta) - a mixture of corn meal and cheese, with a little bit of bacon and sour cream.  I also had a sip of pălincă - a clear alcohol distilled from pears, and not unlike Slovak slivovica.

In the morning I will take a train to Cluj, where I will spend one day touring that city with my friend Maria, before heading onward by plane to Sofia, Bulgaria for the annual conference of the Central European Association for Canadian Studies.  I only hope with this damp weather my clothes (that I just washed early this afternoon) will dry before the morning!