Interview in Graiul Maramuresuliu newspaper, 17 April, 2010

19 April, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

I was interviewed by local Baia Mare journalist, Anca Goja, during the 4th International Unconventional Meeting of Young Canadianists. Here is the interview, translated into Romanian in Graiul Maramuresuliu...

 

Easter in Sibiu, and back to Baia Mare for the 4th International Unconventional Meeting of Young Canadianists

Panoramic - Sibiu from Council tower - Evangelical Cathedral
 
13 April, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.


The Easter holiday has already come and gone, and Spring is fully sprung. I spent the Easter weekend in Sibiu, with Veronika who joined me from Slovakia. I'd heard a lot about Sibiu, so after failing to organize a lecture stop there, thought Easter would be a good time to venture to the city.  Without too much trouble (thank-you Raluca B.) I managed to rent a Skoda Fabia, and Veronika and I braved the rough Romanian roads, travelling south through Cluj and eventually arriving in Sibiu.  Our travelling weather was superb, and the sun was still shining well into the evening on our first night in they city.  Lucky thing. It poured rain for half the day on Saturday, putting a cool wind and damper on the Sibiu sites.  We stayed at a very nice little bed & breakfast hotel -- Ela Hotel -- conveniently located within walking distance of Sibiu's historic and scenic old town.  On our drive back on Sunday, we made a stop in Alba Iulia, where on 1 December, 1918, the union between Transylvania and Romania was announced.


Barely back in Baia Mare two days, the 4th International Unconventional Meeting of Young Canadianists got underway on 8 April.  Two years ago this meeting was my introduction to Baia Mare and Romania, so it was something of an anniversary for me.  This time, however, I wasn't the only Canadian present -- Canadian participants this time included Joe Blades, Janet Paterson, Jacques Rancourt, Michelle Gadpaille, and the Ambassador of Canada, Phillipe Beaulne. Participants joined us from around Romania (Cluj, Iasi, and Bucharest), Hungary, and Czech Republic. It was a good conference, which would have been perfect if not for the general disinterest of our own Baia Mare students (a few did participate, mind you, but not as many as I had hoped or encouraged). My francophone colleagues at the university, Crina Bud and Dana Puiu, did a fine job organizing this event, under trying circumstances.


Tomorrow morning I head out on my final tour stop: Timisoara, another city well-spoken of.

Tour stop: Suceava

First lecture, Romanian-Canadian relations, Universitatea Stefan cel Mare, Suceava


6 April, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

When I first began organizing my Romanian lecture tour, I blindly emailed several "Canadian Studies" scholars at universities across Romania. The very first, and by far the most enthusiastic response I received was from Professor Evelina Graur at Universitatea Stefan cel Mare in Suceava. Professor Graur immediately embraced the idea of my visiting Suceava. She proposed multiple lectures, and insisted that I spend some extra days in in the city so she could organize a tour of Bucovina monasteries for me.  Professor Graur did not disappoint.


After a rare late-night Saturday social call, I departed early by train on Sunday morning.  As the train pulled away from Baia Mare station I remembered that I had not packed my camera (later I discovered I'd also forgotten my umbrella, as it was raining when I arrived in Suceava) (the week before I should mention that I forgot my dress pants, and had to lecture in Oradea in jeans -- I fear I'm becoming the "absent-minded professor" I swore I'd never become!). But upon confessing this oversight at my arrival in Suceava, Professor Graur insisted I shouldn't worry, and that her assistant would take care of it (thank-you Oana for graciously lending me your camera!).  As it turned out, Professor Graur had thought of everything, and was most generous, treating me on Sunday evening not only to a tour of the recently renovated and quickly expanding university, but also an umbrella, Bucovina tourist literature, fresh fruit and water in my dorm room, copies of recent publications from the Universitatea Stefan cel Mare relating to Canadian Studies, and a fantastic dinner at what might be Suceava's best restaurant, Da Vinci, with her husband (the university rector) and lively friends. Evelina's generosity and hospitality continued throughout my visit -- all day on Monday I was treated to a tour of Bucovina monasteries, guided by friendly and equally hospitable Oana, a PhD student. I'd heard and read a lot about Bucovina before this trip, and was not disappointed by what I saw first hand (Bucovina, by the way, was the home of some of the earliest Romanian immigrants to Canada). With Oana and a university administrator (turned driver for a day), I visited four monasteries on Monday (Dragomirna, Putna, Sucevita, and Moldovita), as well as the village of Marginea, home to unique black pottery.  The weather was absolutely perfect for this journey, and the scenery and company was perfect.

On Tuesday morning/early afternoon, I delivered my first lecture to a healthy group of undergraduate students and faculty, on "Romanian-Canadian Relations."  As I told my story about growing-up in rural southwestern Ontario eating Romanian rosca grapes, a student spoke up and said that her grandfather regularly made wine from such grapes -- the next day this same student generously brought a bottle of homemade rosca wine, which we all shared (the fragrance of this wine is the very same as the fragrance of the grapes, and the flavour is similar as well). After my lecture on Tuesday, Evelina and Oana took me to Voronet monastery. Once again, the weather and company was delightful.

On my third full day in Suceava I gave two lectures to students and faculty at the university -- one on Native-Newcomer Relations in Canada, and the second on Aboriginal Performance in English.  As with most of my audiences in Romania, there was considerable interest in the history and contemporary situation of First Nations in Canada.  After toasting three successful lectures with some unique rosca wine, Evelina again treated me to a superb meal at Da Vinci restaurant, along with Oana and colleagues from the Faculty of Literature. All in all, my time in Suceava was terrific. and I commend Professor Graur for her first-rate hospitality.

I departed Suceava on an overnight train, arriving in Baia Mare on Thursday morning just before 7am....  just in time to return to my dorm room, wash my clothes, and begin preparing for an Easter trip to Sibiu (and a brief rendezvous in Satu Mare)...  more on that later....

Tour Stop: Oradea

Mihai Viteazul statue -- Oradea


6 April, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

Two weeks have passed since I was in Oradea already. My neglect in updating has come not from lack of anything interesting to say or report, but from sheer busyness. As I'll write more about later, I've been to Suceava and Sibiu since my travels to Oradea....

My journey to Oradea involved my first instance of relying upon a bus for travel purposes (the only train to Oradea from Baia Mare would have dropped my off in Oradea at 5am, or something like that). Although almost all Romanians I've talked to say that traveling by bus is "better" than traveling by train, I've become accustomed to the trains here, and feel more comfortable/trusting of their schedules. Traveling by train is much slower than one might expect (the infrastructure of Romanian railways is lacking, I'm afraid), but I can conveniently check schedules online and buy my tickets ahead of time at the CFR agent across the street from my accommodation in Baia Mare.  All this to say that I was a little hesitant to take a bus to Oradea, as my only other experiences with buses in Romania involved a long/uncomfortable ride on a minibus from Budapest two years ago to Baia Mare, and a bus that never materialized (thus I ended up taking the train anyway). My journey to Oradea also involved a minibus, but I had a better seat, and the early hour (departing at 6am) meant that I was able to sleep for a good portion of the (bumpy) drive.

Upon arriving in Oradea, I was met by Professor Lia Hantui and a colleague from the Faculty of Letters at the University of Oradea.  After a short tour of the university campus, I spoke to a good-sized crowd of undergraduate students and some faculty. Professor Hantui and a colleague then took me out for a fine lunch (at an awkwardly decorated restaurant, which we all had a laugh at), and later introduced me to two graduate students who took me on a nice walking tour of Oradea.  Perhaps because of its location in northwestern Romania, closer to Hungary and Austria (particularly during the Austro-Hungarian Empire), Oradea is architecturally rather different from other cities I've visited in Maramures and Transylvania (although I've since visited Satu Mare, briefly, and could detect some subtle similarities to Oradea -- again, the Hungarian influence, perhaps). My walking tour was very pleasant and helped to familiarize me a bit with the city (which I was rather impressed with).  I'm grateful to Professor Hantui and her colleagues and students for showing me such warm hospitality.

The following day I met Professor Liviu Cotrau from Universitatea Creştină Partium, a relatively new private university funded by the Hungarian government. Although Professor Cotrau apologized ahead of time that he feared "not many" students would attend my lecture (as it is a small university), there appeared to be more students at this talk than at any other talk I've given on this tour.  Even better, these students were not shy and had several questions for me after I finished (I've discovered that Romanian students in general are rather shy to speak-up with questions or comments, for whatever reasons). Perhaps this is a not-so-subtle difference between students at a private university, versus those at public institutions, or perhaps the culture of education at this institution is just different (for cultural/linguistic reasons, perhaps). Whatever the reasons, I was very impressed with the my audience and hosts at Universitatea Creştină Partium.

With some time remaining before my departing train to Baia Mare (see, I'm more comfortable with the trains!) I walked around Oradea by myself, snapping some more photos (as part of my tour the previous day was in dark/evening conditions).

Tour Stop: Cluj-Napoca

17 March, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

I just returned from my third tour stop -- Cluj-Napoca -- a city I've been to before, but nonetheless enjoyed visiting again.  I spoke to an almost full room of students at Babes-Bolyai University. Similar in some ways to Iaşi, Cluj is a lively little student city, and is considered the cultural capital of the Transylvania region. As seems tradition with my visits to Cluj, it was raining and cold most of the time I was there. But at least having been to the city briefly in the past, I had a better sense of my surroundings and spent more time walking about.  My talk went quite well, and inspired some good questions.  I am grateful to Professor Michaela Mudure for arranging matters at the university and with regard to my accommodation.

Trying to stay out of the wet weather, I dropped into a bookstore and noted two interesting books on Romania that I plan to invest in (I didn't buy them in this bookshop, as English books are VERY expensive in Romanian bookshops).  Leafing through the first of these, Romania: Culture Smart!, I was pleased to read support for a few of my own formal and informal observations of Romania and Romanians.  The second noted text, Along the Enchanted Way, was priced at more than 100 lei, which is as much as I paid for evening's accommodation in central Cluj....  But as I say, I intend on picking it up.

Tour stop: Iaşi

A great man and his library

15 March, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

On March 2nd and 3rd I visited "Al. I. Cuza" University in Iaşi, the second largest city in Romania, located in the northeast. The train journey was once again very long, but quite scenic, cutting eastward across the Eastern Carpati mountains.

I quite enjoyed Iaşi, particularly it's student atmosphere. Al. I. Cuza University is a focal point, thus Iaşi is very much a student town. It is also the celebrated literary home of Mihai Eminescu, Romania's favourite poet son.

In addition to my lectures and a short tour of the university grounds by Professor Rodica Albu, I was treated to a lovely visit to Galevriile Anticariat on Strada Lăpuşneanu. The proprietor, Dumitru Grumăzescu, and his young friend (an emerging artist from the nearby Republic of Moldova) entertained me with stories of bibliophilism and proudly displayed the smallest books in Romania. I recommend all visitors to Iaşi with even the slightest interest in rare books visit Mr. Grumăzescu.

Later today -- off to Cluj-Napoca.

The First of March; and life on tour

1 March, 2010. Universitatea de Nord din Baia Mare, camera șase, cāminul trei.

Happy First of March to everyone. March 1st is celebrated by Romanians, in sense, as the cultural beginning of Spring. And the weather over the last week has certainly supported this sense. Winter would appear to be nearing an end quickly in these parts....

I began my "Canadian Leadership Lecture Tour" last week.... 
 [With apologies to Bob Seger...] 


On a long and lonesome railway,
East of Oradea
You can listen to the engines
Moanin' out it's one old song
You can think about the woman,
Or the girl in class the night before
But your thoughts will soon be wanderin',
The way they always do
When you're ridin' 16 hours,
And there's nothin' much to do
And you don't feel much like writin',
You just wish the trip was through.... 
 
Here I am, on the rails again,
There I am, up front the class,
There I go, playin' lecturer again,
There I go, turn the page.

Seriously, I'm no rock star. But maybe I can now begin to understand some of the emotional/social ups and downs of touring. 'Cause dang, train trips through Romania are long and lonesome!!  :-) 

I completed my first lecture dates (gigs, if you will) last week in Bucuresti (Bucharest) at the Embassy of Canada and the University of Bucharest. I consider both to have been a success, particularly my talk at the Embassy, which was attended by members of the NGO community who work with Romani (Gypsy) populations and the assistant to at least one Parliamentarian. I spoke on "Native-Newcomer Relations" in Canada, focusing on the historical and contemporary experiences of assimilation, integration, and accommodation. Although the historical experiences of Native people in Canada and Romani people in Romania are very, very different, their contemporary treatment and situation are much the same.  I learned a lot through the course of preparing this talk and from the responses of my audience. I was pleased to learn that Embassy staff also considered my talk a "success."  My audience at the University was more informal, consisting mainly of graduate students with an interest in Canadian Studies. I spoke with them on the subject of "Romanian-Canadian Relations."

Bucharest itself was a welcome change of scenery for me (until now I have been confined in my Romanian experiences largely to Baia Mare and the Maramures region). Although I did not have a lot of free time, I was able to maximize the little I had with the help of some very hospitable locals (thank-you to Marilena D. for putting me in touch with Raluca S. and Ramona D., and to Professor Bottez for securing the help of Andreea-Catrinela L.). Each helped me to see and understand a little of Bucharest, for which I am very grateful.  In terms of typical tourist stuff, I hit the "must sees": the Palace of Parliament, and parts of the Old City. Bucharest is somewhat reminiscent of Paris, a major exception being the hoards of stray dogs (a factor throughout Romania, but particularly prevalent in Bucharest). The strays don't appear to be at all dangerous, and in fact I was struck by their above-average canine intelligence. I guess if you're a dog in the big city, only the smartest will survive -- I laughed out loud at one particular stray that was clever enough to use the pedestrian underpass at a busy intersection... how many pet dogs would think of that on their own?!

On my trip down and back to Bucharest (from Baia Mare, by train) I had lots of time to think and observe. Traveling through the centre of Romania, north to south (and back again), by train is an interesting experience, as I could observe the varied landscapes and geography of the country.  One unfortunate commonality throughout this (otherwise beautiful) varied landscape, is the over abundance of strewn garbage and plastic bottles that clearly plague this country.  Romania, from my point of view, has a very serious litter and waste problem on their hands -- particularly the plastic bottles, the predominance of which simply blow my mind.  Find a way to make money off of carelessly discarded plastic bottles in this country, and you will very, very quickly be a very, very rich person. This is a problem that needs to be addressed seriously. And fast. Plastic, after all, isn't going anywhere fast, and the number of discarded bottles here appears to be growing by the minute. I wish I'd taken some photos to get the point across of just how prevalent these bottles are.  It's a real shame.

I depart for Iaşi in the morning, again by train. 
Here I go, turn the page.