Week One: I have arrived

2 October, 2009. Campus of North University of Baia Mare, Maramures District, Romania

Greetings from Baia Mare, where autumn appears to have followed me. I am told the weather was very warm and summer like right up until my arrival on Tuesday evening, but it's been jacket/sweater weather ever since. The evenings get so chilly that I actually have to close my window, but the trees are yet to show much colour.

My flights and train travel went smoothly, and I now know that when you buy a ticket through Expedia.ca at a "special fare," it means you're flying standby...still, no problems.  I spent Monday afternoon and evening in Budapest, Hungary, where I met my Slovak friend and former teaching colleague, Veronika.  I was glad for the opportunity to break-up my travels and get a good night's sleep before continuing on by plane, train, and automobile.  For the first time ever, I was bumped into "Business Class" on my flight from Budapest to Cluj-Napoca. But as luck would have it, this was one of the tiniest planes I've ever traveled on commercially, and there was no distinction whatsoever in the seating between Business and Economy classes... but I did take advantage of my free lunch ;-)

As planned, I was met in Cluj by a Romanian friend, Maria (who I'd previously met in Baia Mare a year and a half ago at the International Unconventional Meeting of Young Canadianists). Maria is a student in Cluj and was very generous in taking time out of her busy schedule to meet me at the airport.  The original plan was that she would escort me to the train station in Cluj and make sure I got on the right train.  Turns out she had a nice change of plans in mind....  We met her schoolmate and close friend Andrea, who drove us by car to Dej (about halfway between Cluj and Baia Mare). In Dej I was treated to some homemade traditional Romanian bean soup by Andrea's mother. It was simply wonderful soup, and it was an unexpected bit of hospitality.  I said goodbye to Maria and Andrea at the Dej train station and by 21.00 I was in Baia Mare, met by Horea, a PhD student and instructor in Canadian Studies at North University.

My accommodation in Baia Mare is a standard dorm room with a private bathroom/shower....  as I'm alone in a two-person room, I have a free bed, for any aspiring visitors ;-)  My neighbours are young undergraduates, but aside from the occasional loud voice or music, the students are rather tame by Canadian undergraduate standards.

Much of this week has been spent in conversation and planning with Dr. Ana Olos, who has been a big help in getting me here and arranging things.  Dr. Olos has introduced me to a number of people associated with Canadian Studies, the language department, and administrators at the university, as well as the director and some librarians at the nearby Petre Dulfu Municipal Library.  The Petre Dulfu Library is a terrific resource for the city and region, and far outshines the university library.  I met director Teodor Ardelean this morning and presented him with a copy of Paper Talk.  Much to my surprise, he has invited me to speak to librarians and interested members of the public at the library in November in relation to my work on the history of libraries in Canada. The library also runs a small publishing house and Mr. Ardelean, in full seriousness, invited me to research and write a book (in English, of course) on Maramures which he said the library will support and publish.  I sincerely hope I can take him up on this unique opportunity :-)

As regards my duties at the university as a teaching fellow, I will be responsible for two additional half-courses in addition to "Canadian Culture and Civilization" : an intensive English-language course for Romanian students whose second language is French (the programme is tri-lingual), and another on Romanian-Canadian Relations (!!).  I met about half of my Culture and Civilization students this evening and although their knowledge of Canadian Studies is not necessarily advanced, they seem keen to learn.  All of my students are teachers, or aspiring teachers (and I have since learned this is because an MA is required for secondary and high school teachers in Romania, and their choice of Canadian Studies has much to do with the fact the programme is tri-lingual -- most are English or French teachers).  As much of my teaching will take place on Friday and Saturday, and formal classes do not get fully underway until next week, I now have a week to continue to settle-in and prepare.  I welcome this time to rest a little further, as Romanian food has yet to fully agree with my stomach. In time this will correct itself, no doubt ;-)

The weekend ahead should include some shoe shopping, and probably not a whole lot else. :-)

Bună seara (good evening).