Outside of Class

Since I’m teaching American Studies, most of my conversations with my students are about the U.S. I occasionally learn something about Romania (like bribes for surgeons or free dentist visits till age 18). But I want to get to know the students better, so I’ve started inviting to my house in small groups. A few weeks ago, I had 8 girls over, all of whom I’d talked to outside of class before. So I knew some things about each one already. But it was interesting to be with them in a group, since they have their cliques but don’t know the others very well.

Sitting around my apartment for about 3 hours, they really liked the tortilla chips but barely touched the salsa. They said the veg curry looked like a Romanian dish but didn’t taste like one. And they ate a lot of chocolate and drank pink champagne (it’s for kids, kind of like sparkling cider. Except it’s pink and quite common). We talked about music in the states and what they liked and didn’t like. Likes: Bob Dylan for some, pop singers who I can’t remember for others. They talked about Romanian bands and Christmas songs, and I learned a lot about the village where one of them is from. She is going to take me there some weekend. They have horses and her dad works for the mayor, so it should be a good time.

Today just two students (instead of the 6 or 7 I was expecting) showed up. We had a long conversation about the U.S. and consumption. One of the two, Ruxie, spent last year working as an aupair in New Jersey. So we talked about customer service and how ridiculous it can be. She told me about some of her Romanian friends there who were shocked by Costco’s return policy, so they bought a cake, ate half of it, then took it back and said they didn’t like it. So Costco gave them a new one.

We also talked about Romania. It hurts to hear that intelligent young people have no interest in politics or even in Romania. They don’t see any future for themselves here, even if they aren’t excited about leaving their home. To me, it’s as simple as just start a social movement – there are enough of you young people to reform politics. To them, “one flower doesn’t make springtime.” And it’s hard to do something so idealistic when they don’t have any money in the first place.