First (almost) Week in Brasov

Until I found my apartment, I stayed with the head of the American Studies department, whose flat was on the seventh floor of a building just outside the city center. The views from that high are amazing – mountains in every direction. Her son is going to college in Michigan, her daughter (after studying in Spain, Belgium, and the U.S.) is working in Bucharest, and her husband lives in Spain where he conducts an orchestra. With her family all spread out, I think she enjoyed having me to take care of for a few days.

I had my first day of class last Thursday. I had two sections of first year American Studies students. American Studies is basically like majoring in French or Hispanic Studies at WM, so there is some grammar and so on but also classes on government and culture. My class is special. Because I am American. It's great. This is actually a big year for these kids because it is the first year of the American Studies program (the faculty also teach in English Studies, French, and German), and it is also the first year of the 3 year (instead of 4) undergraduate degree. Most of my students are 19, some are more like 22, and one is in her late 30s (and pregnant, I think). Only 2 have been to the U.S., one of whom did so as a pro skier. She's going to teach me how to ski (we'll see). It's amazing, these kids can speak English so well (and spell better than I can), and they've seen more movies than I have, but they've never read any American books. I think they are accustomed to being told things in lectures and not finding anything themselves. But it's also their first year of college, so maybe that's normal. Anyway, I really want them to be able to read some American stuff, so I’m doing my best to get a hold of particular books.

I have another class on Monday (7:30am every other week!). I have 4 sections of the same class (2 each week), which is for students in the Applied Modern Languages program. I think it was supposed to be a translation class, but obviously I can't teach them how to translate from Romanian to English. Basically I was told to do whatever I wanted with them; someone suggested "communications." I need to get back to lesson planning, actually…

My apartment is in the old center of the city, right at the base of Mount Tampa, which overlooks the city (and is home to the Hollywood-style “Brasov” sign that overlooks the city). I haven’t yet had a chance to take one of the many walks and hikes that start from nearby places, but apparently they will provide plenty of short adventures once I get settled in.

It will be 2 or 3 weeks before I get internet at my place, so in the meantime I have to venture down sketchy alleys and into Irish pubs to get connected.

On Friday night I went to Carrefour to get some stuff for my apartment. That experience was like a cross between the textile market in Bombay and a trip to Wal-Mart: the store was massive, had an entire freezer aisle (both sides) of cheese and every vegetable grown in Europe and the Middle East, and was packed packed packed with people and their shopping carts. The experience exhausted me and I managed to leave the store without buying most of the things I’ll need.

But my apartment is coming along, and soon I will be ready to post pictures of it online (first I need to get a few more things so it looks less empty). Then it will be ready for visitors, so I hope that anyone within any distance of me will visit. When else are you going to visit Romania and have a great place to stay? Oh, and even though I have a good-sized kitchen, Brasov has an amazing restaurant scene. Come try.