Last Lecture Tour Stop: Timisoara

Lecturing - Photo by Andreea Serban
 
 22 April, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

Last week I officially completed my Canadian Leadership Grant-funded Lecture Tour of Romanian universities. My final stop, was the city of Romanian firsts -- Timisoara. No matter where I've gone in Romania, I've never heard a bad word about Timisoara. The city is variously known as the first city with electric outdoor lighting in Europe (1884), and was the birthplace of the Romanian revolution against Communism in December, 1989. I can say that more so than any other city I visited on this tour, I had high expectations for Timisoara -- and the city and my hosts there did not disappoint.

My host at the West University of Timisoara was Andreea Serban, a very friendly, young and emerging literary scholar with a particular expertise in Margaret Atwood (in fact, Andreea's PhD thesis on Atwood was recently published, and is very good -- The Call of the Wild: M/Other Nature in Margaret Atwood's novels. Editura Napoca Star, 2010).  Andreea was quite thoughtful in introducing me to some of her colleagues, and even made an effort to introduce me to Timisoara's "Canadian," a nice chap by the name of Wade (a teacher from Nova Scotia currently teaching at a local high school, and exploring the finer points of what Romania has to offer). My lectures themselves, both held on Friday, were well-attended by thoughtful and inquisitive students. It was a pleasure to receive questions from students as well as faculty. 

Timisoara was also memorable for a unique mid-day Spring hailstorm, which I experienced from a restaurant patio on Piata Victoriei. Moments later the sun was shining again, despite the little mountains of ice piling-up below the downspouts of evestroughs throughout the downtown. I'm grateful to Andreea for supplying me with an umbrella on this visit (almost every week I managed to forget something, and in Timisoara it was once again my umbrella). 

I was also happy to meet once again Stefanie V., a German Erasmus university student studying in Timisoara. I first met Stefanie in Baia Mare, when she and two Erasmus colleagues were bravely exploring Maramures. I enjoyed having lunch/breakfast with Stefanie on Saturday afternoon before my departure.

Speaking generally, from my observations and from the people I spoke to (not to mention some of what I heard beforehand), Timisoara would seem to rival Bucharest in terms of its cosmopolitan qualities.  Timisoara is a city I perceive as a place I would enjoy living in -- not too big, but full of cultural sites and events.  It was a terrific end to an enjoyable six-city lecture tour  :-)