What happens when the ice melts?

I am currently suffering through an incredible euphoria. Somehow, the weather here is so predictable that the school year calendar (standard at all Romanian universities) perfectly coincides with the weather. So as the new term starts this week, we're having sunshine all day and temperatures are creeping up - today it got up to 70 (Fahrenheit, of course).

Last week was the one week semester break, and included the following weather:

Monday: Freezing temperatures, overnight snow.
Tuesday: Snow all day.
Wednesday: mid 50s, melting snow dripping off of rooftops.
Thursday: mid 40s. Nothing special.
Friday: Cold but sunny.
Saturday: Cold but sunny, with rain at dusk. (Not cold enough to snow)
Sunday: mid 40s and sunny.
Monday: mid 50s and sunny.
Tuesday: 60s and sunny.
Wednesday: 70 and brilliantly warm sunshine all day.

I've heard that now that the days are getting longer, the good weather is here to stay. "This is the best time of the year," I was told today. Sweet...

So, what happens when the ice melts?
Feet jump into roller blades and roll through pot-holed sidewalks and empty lots of dirt. Bodies of all ages jump onto bikes and pedal on pedestrian streets. Old people and others lacking full mental capacity roam through lanes of busy traffic while horns honk and cars swerve around them. The cool kids come out to play. Young men don denim shorts while walking dogs. Old men go running in black spandex suits.

Somehow I find all of this incredibly invigorating - not the shorts or the spandex, but the people outside doing things. So even though the old people who stare at me are still staring the same way, I somehow smile back instead of getting frustrated. I think it's just because it's so much easier to be outside now! And I really do love being outside - this country is beautiful!. It's not freezing, my fingers won't fall off, I won't get bruises from falling down icy trails...these things are important.

So as much as I enjoyed skiing and watching the dirt and potholes get covered in the whitest snow, I'm stoked that the ice has decided to melt.

Now, the only problem is the brown trees on Mt. Tampa. When does spring turn green?

Religious Matters

I've been debating whether or not to write a post about religion. Reason against: I don't have much to say beyond my own limited encounters. Reason for: I like the photos.

Photos win. Perhaps this post is more aptly titled something like "Buildings I like: Houses of Worship in Eastern Europe." But getting on with it...

When in Romania, start with the Romanian Orthodox Church (right), of course. The majority of Romanians identify as members of the Orthodox church. It's interesting to see how that plays out in people's lives. For many people, going to church, etc. doesn't seem as pressing as other parts of daily life. Yet people still seem to incorporate their faith by explaining things that happen through a spirituality.

It's interesting to watch Romanians that I know as they visit a church or monastery - they usually light a luminary inside or outside and approach the icons. Usually inside the church there are many elderly people and some young ones as well, coming and going or simply sitting and contemplating. The most noticeable practice outside the church is something I see all the time - whenever people pass a church (walking, or on the bus, etc.) they cross themselves three times. I like watching people on the bus as they clean off the window to see when the church is coming. You have to know where they are, and which buildings are churches, after all! I've only been to part of one service, which was at the Patriarch's Cathedral in Bucharest. There were several priests standing near different chapels inside the church. Groups of people crowded around them in order to be blessed. It was interesting to see how the crowd would move if a new priest arrived. Someone (I think it was a student of mine) told me that services are generally "come and go" like this; services might have a starting time, but the only people who arrive then are the old women. In the hours that follow, more people show up. There are no pews (and relatively few Jews - sorry, that is a joke I swear but maybe not in this context); instead everyone stands. Traditionally the men stood on one side and women on the other.

Other Christian groups I've encountered include Jehovah's Witnesses (they come to my door regularly and one of them knows my name), Seventh Day Adventists (I wrote about this in October) (above left, tall building), Mormons (mostly Americans), and the evangelical Christian student group. Most of these churches have ties to Americans, either directly (having an American minister), with clergy trained in the U.S., or affiliated with American congregations.

Now let's leave Romania. Watching the Serbian protests on CNN this week, I saw the protests at Saint Sava, the huge white "temple on the hill" that is a symbolic landmark in Belgrade (white church above right). I was just there a few weeks ago - it's so strange to think of how different it must be now. When I was there, at the church specifically, there were a few groups of people walking in and out, but inside the main action was the construction (above left). The church is almost completed but there is still some interior work to do. Outside it was just like a park with families playing and abandoned leaflets blowing in the wind.

In Istanbul, there was a mosque - or five - in every possible direction. The Blue Mosque was the only one we visited, if my memory serves me correctly (small photo above right). The Blue Mosque attempts to out do the Hagia Sophia (which was converted to a mosque with the addition of minarets, among other things), and from the outside it definitely impressed me more. But the interior of the Hagia Sophia is just awesome (and cold) (small photo above left). So, like I said. I like buildings.

When It Snows, Photos Say It Best

It's snowing again (finally), and this is why I'm excited:

Above: My back yard in Brasov (sometime pre-now)

Above: Busteni - I'm going up there soon! (Dec. 2007)

Above: Brasov from Mt. Tampa (Dec. 2007)

Above: Brasov, from the walk to the White Tower (Dec. 2007)

Above: Skiers at Poiana Brasov - me soon enough! (Jan. 2008)

Tales from the Train

Last Friday morning my 5 o'clock cross-country train pulled out of the Sibiu train station. Two hours later we rolled into an anonymous station and the conductor left the train. The employees of CFR, the national train company, had gone on strike demanding higher wages. As I sat with the other passengers, wondering what the rest of the day would bring, one woman nicely summed up the general sentiment with her statement that we could be waiting there ten minutes, three hours, or three days. Naturally, some of the passengers made motions to organize a bus ride to our destination, while others crowded around the door to make sure the arriving media crews would hear their opinions. They encouraged everyone to join with invitations of "come, come!" Three hours after stopping we started moving again with the apparent resolution of the wage dispute. So that was that.

The recent surge in my time spent traveling may need an explanation - it's currently semester break. Well not really; it's currently the exam period. Exam period lasts 4 weeks, but most exams are held during the last week of class, or the first two weeks of Exam period. So next week is the actual semester break. But, for most, it's a 5 week break from class or anything related to school. Many students head home as soon as their exams are over, and few are interested in spending this time period learning about studying in the U.S. (interest is particularly low when it comes to learning about standardized admissions tests, which is what I had scheduled for this week). So, I have some time.

One way to fill that time is to plan for next semester's classes. Unfortunately, just like in the fall, I won't know what I'm teaching - or who I'm teaching - until possibly next week. I just hope that unlike in the fall, I find out before the first day of the semester. I'm planning nonetheless.

But last week I went traveling. In addition to Belgrade (below), I hit up Sibiu for a few hours overnight, Timisoara for less than 24 hours but including some sunlight, a trip to their massive mall, and dinner at a Greek place, as well as Bucharest for a whole 3 days.

If you look at a map of Romania, you'll see that traveling to these cities on the same trip doesn't really make sense. That's cause sometimes, that's just how we roll...

But here's my story, in trains:
Thursday night: Brasov to Sibiu, 19:30 - 21:01
Friday morning: Sibiu to Timisoara, 5:00 - 13:00 (delayed half way through for above strike)
Saturday morning: Timisoara to Belgrade 6:03 - 8:54 (one hour time change)
Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning: Belgrade to Bucharest via Timisoara, 15:55 - 5:39
Friday evening: Bucharest to Brasov, 18:50 - 21:27

No, no, that's not a story. My apologizes. The highlights from the train rides include the strike, which Nicole and I (en route to Timisoara) slept through for an hour before I woke up, read a text from Meghan, and realized that we hadn't left the station we pulled into an hour before. With our phones and other passengers we pulled together the story, which included that Cristina's train (Bucharest to Timisoara) had also stopped, like all trains across the country, but hers unfortunately stopped in the middle of a field. (Luckily, she speaks Romanian.) The strike was apparently announced the night before because a few people knew it was going to happen, yet most people on my train had no idea.

Another highlight - the overnight adventure (indeed) from Belgrade to Bucharest. There were a lot of uncertainties heading into this trip - would Meghan and I get into Romania with our temporary residence permits (pieces of paper with writing)? Would I be able to go all the way to Bucharest, even though I'd originally bought a ticket to Timisoara? Would the customs agents check under our seats for smuggled blue jeans? Do we actually need seat reservations even though the ticket agent said we didn't?

Questions we should have been asking were more along the lines of:

Are we waiting at the right track? (A: no)

Does this train go to Timisoara? (A: yes, but only after traveling west for 5 minutes, stopping at another Belgrade station for 20 minutes, then proceeding east toward Timisoara with another 20 minute stop at a teeny tiny station a few minutes outside of Belgrade)

Why does this train take 5.5 hours to travel just over one hundred miles? (A: why??)

What's it like to travel 2nd class overnight on a train to Bucharest? (A: freezing cold or stiflingly hot, depending on whether you've crossed the border yet)

Do we actually need seat reservations even though the ticket agent said we didn't? (A: undetermined)

The Belgrade ticket agent said we didn't need the seat reservations. On the train, we had to buy seat reservations because the conductor said we needed them. We grudgingly scraped together our remaining dinars as they scribbled on official looking receipts and assured us we were all set. As our train pulled out from Timisoara, the Romanian conductors came through and informed us that the reservations were no good. And yet, we didn't have to buy another. That's one of those times when Romania makes you feel good.

As for smuggling blue jeans (or other things), we didn't get accused, although it would have been fun. Basically, the seats on these trains lift up and apparently there's some storage space below. The customs agents checked the seats in surrounding compartments and the ceiling of our car, but left us alone. When one guard came through (I can't remember if he was Serbian or Romanian) he looked at my passport, and saw that we were American. In English, he asked (allegedly), "Do you have anything to declare?" but as I didn't hear that at all, I stared at him blankly, as did my traveling companions. He then looked suspiciously at my passport again, peered at me oddly and slowly said, "Do you speak English?" Oh yes, of course. "I asked you a question." (You did?) "Do you have anything to declare?" Oh oh sorry, um, no.

The last "highlight" was my trip back to lovely little Brasov from Bucharest. Being so close to Bucharest, I've traveled this route many many times before. This train originates in Bucharest (like everything) and heads all the way to Budapest. Nicole was joining me in Brasov for the night, so we bought our tickets together and made the journey to our car. Wagon 1. 1 of, I dunno, 20 or so? The last one was 462, but I'm pretty sure there weren't 462 cars. Our trek to wagon 1 took a good 5 minutes at a fast pace - that's a long time to get to your seat. But sadly when we got to wagon 1, the hallways were crowded and our seats were taken. We peaked next door and found seats in a nearby car, only to be uprooted by a distraught Romanian woman a few minutes later. We considered kicking people out of our seats, but instead found two seats in a car with a few other passengers. I'm not entirely sure what happened during the rest of the trip (I was in and out of dozing after a nearly sleepless night before this), but basically I was woken up 1o or 12 times as our fellow passengers climbed over us to get out of the compartment and into the hallway, and back. In the hallway they joined dozens of young Romanians (mostly men) sipping stinky beer and clustered into piles around suitcases. When they returned to our car, they would stare at Nicole and I, who made no attempt to appear anything other than American (by having a conversation in English). We were glad when the train pulled into Brasov at 21:30 on the dot. Nicole commented that of all her train trips, my "ride from Bucharest to Brasov was the most interesting." I assured her this was not normally the case.

Overall, train traveling this time around was a success. Basically, if you make it to your destination, it's a success. And don't take that as a complaint - I'm just being optimistic. After all, it's not like Amtrak's got anything on Eastern European trains.

Beyond Moravita and the Border

I sort of unintentionally ended up being invited on a trip to Belgrade. So I was lucky. My travel companions had their own reasons to go: living a few hours away, a best friend who lived their for several years, a course a few years ago in Serbo-Croatian, not to mention the exciting election they were all looking forward to. So I boarded the train with them and headed off on my first international train adventure since arriving in Romania.

Belgrade, it turns out, is beautiful (which tends to be my opinion of any city I visit). The people are ridiculously friendly – I felt like someone visiting the U.S., awestruck by the comfortable anonymity combined with the overwhelming approachability of the people around me.

We spent two days (well, one day and half of the next one) wandering around the city, stopping in restaurants for massive meals of meat, cheese, yummy bread, and lots of tomato and cucumber salads. Somehow, being vegetarian became an issue and every Serb I met told me I wouldn’t find anything to eat. But cheese revealed itself as a true staple of my eastern European diet, in every form. Srpska salad, svopska salad, and Greek salad also pulled through once again. But to be honest, I wasn’t there for the food…

Belgrade has this strange combination of feeling like a totally developed city (compared, at least, to Romanian cities) while demonstrating a visible history of degradation. In spite of the fact it was bombed less than a decade ago, its churches, theatres, government buildings, and squares glitter in the sunlight. Families fill up the parks surrounding them, playing with “guns” (twigs from trees) or on playgrounds. The fortress (which we unfortunately did not get to visit during daylight) somehow explains that resilience – its strategic location in a way shows how Belgrade has survived as a city for so long. Yet in spite of all that seeming glory, there are some remnants of bombed buildings.

The thing that really attracted me to Belgrade is the construction that I saw everywhere. This is the same thing that attracts me to Berlin, which is an entirely different city but I think this link is somewhat enlightening. Both of these cities have fluidity to them – the construction signals change. In Berlin it’s on an entirely different scale, but in both cities you can tell that people are not giving up. People have a claim to their city and have somehow created the energy it takes to carry out all those projects.

With those thoughts, here are some photos from the city – mostly street art and sunlight.

Somehow, Cluj

I finally got out. As my train pulled out of Brasov last Saturday, I realized that only once before had I taken the train in that westerly direction. I've been to Bucharest or at least Sinaia somewhere in the range of 10 times, so I know the exact pattern of landmarks and neighborhoods that we pass on the south-eastern train. But heading west I didn't know what to expect except a tunnel or two. The train ride to Cluj was fascinating in itself, but I'll save that for another time because right now I can't get my mind off this university town in northern Transilvania.

I'd heard Cluj described in a way that made it sound no more appealing than any other town in Transilvania and no more appealing than any other university city in Romania. But after my tough winter months in one of Transilvania's loveliest Saxon village centers, I appreciated a number of aspects of Cluj's youthful aesthetic.

The people there look cooler. No lie. They are more stylish, carry themselves in a more confident way. The men don't check out every girl that walks by or try to block your path. The girls walk around individually instead of going everywhere holding the hands of their best friends. The jeans are a little looser and the hair gel is quieter.

The city is cleaner. I personally didn't see any stray dogs. The streets weren't crumbling as much - they had streets that climaxed in 90 degree corners and sometimes even sidewalks lacking a complete cover of cars.

The students study, and even look studious. The tea house was packed with students talking and working on their laptops. The library stood imposingly over a city square, as did the student cultural center.

Apparently, Cluj has benefited from a wealthier local economy. The university was somehow chosen to be the focus of Romanian higher education - this is where you're most likely to encounter exchange students or foreign scholars (though Bucharest could be similar). The medical school is renowned and doctor's offices are ubiquitous. I assume that the students either come from wealthier families or benefit from more government financial aid, because I was surprised to see how many students were out on the town and in the coffee shops instead of saving their pennies for dinner or dorm fees.


The city somehow felt more sophisticated than other Romanian cities. Of course, that could be because we (myself and four other Fulbright women) indulged in things like a sushi restaurant and the massive and brand new mall. But I also got an excellent vibe from the city. I hope to go back soon.

But before that, more travels! On Friday I head far west to Timisoara, on Saturday over to Serbia for the weekend, then back to Bucharest for Fulbright Orientation 2.0. This week is like spring break in January.

"Borrowing the American Dream"

The essay below was written by Anamaria Todor. She is an American Studies student and wrote this essay as part of a final project for my class. I found this piece to be extremely complex and enlightening – and I’m hoping you can learn something about Romanian society from her perspective. Oh, and her flawless English doesn’t exactly detract from the essay either. Her e-mail address is anna_todor@clicknet.ro and she said she doesn’t mind if people contact her with questions. :)

Borrowing the American Dream

At a first glance, the Romanian and American societies seem to have nothing in common. The first belongs to a country with a slowly emerging economy, while the second is over-saturated with both economical and technological development. Still, I urge you to take a closer look. You will soon discover that Romanians share a distorted version of John Locke’s opinion that “in the beginning, all the world was America” (Hochschild, Jennifer – “Facing up the American Dream: Race, Class and Soul of the Nation”). At least culturally, for Romanians, all people still belong to this untamed American Paradise. Romania may never have been America, but Romanians were Americans too. People of Romanian ethnicity believe this to such an extent that they take the right to be the owner of their personal American dream.

Is this irony or just the direct consequence of an erroneous advertising strategy? Analyzing Romanian society from the historical point of view will underline the following conclusion: Romanians still psychologically live in the shadow of the communist threat. A contrast arises between the image of a country still trying to shake off the communist nightmare and the vibrant American dream. Why endure an opportunity purgatory when you can “work hard and play by the rules” in order to “be given a chance to go as far as your God-given ability will take you?” (President Bill Clinton, speech of Democratic Leadership Council,1993; Hochschild, Jennifer – “Facing up the American Dream: Race, Class and Soul of the Nation”). Taking this portrait of the American Dream even further, Romanians omit what Jennifer Hochschild described as the absolute side of pursuing the Dream: “reaching some threshold of well-being” or “a chance for self-respect”. To Romanians, the Dream is mostly a relative concept by excellence, implying not only to reach over the living standards of others but also to leave the others behind. It’s tight competition, that can’t function in an abstract context. It’s literally walking over dead bodies.

You may already wonder why I keep calling it the American Dream and not the Romanian dream or something similar. This is because Romanians don’t really have a national dream. They have chosen to borrow other cultural trends (and indeed it all became a “trend”), go to other countries –especially the USA- and loose their own cultural identity. Let us delve deeper into details.

Due to the Democratic revolution of 1989 Romania should be a country of all opportunities, a new ground. It’s all about clearing away the past and starting a new future. In fact, the Romanian society doesn’t have some of the serious problems of the American one. Let’s take healthcare into consideration. According to Publicagenda.com (“Overview: Health care”), the American society is based on the managed care system, which means that the health care of most people is managed by private companies, or HMOs (health maintenance organizations). The state only covers the elderly through a program known as Medicare and an estimate of 40 million poor people through the Medicaid program. This leads to poor quality and a low range of services, as HMOs try to limit the expenses by imposing certain conditions to the patients: visiting a certain doctor or hospital, buying cheap drugs, for example. Romania, on the other hand, is closer to achieving the well known concept of universal healthcare. The state covers most health care expenses, it gives full coverage to children, old people, the employed and –in less complex cases- even the unemployed at the cost of bigger income taxes. The technological burst has left Romanian medical facilities behind though. Full health coverage renders the state incapable of supplying hospitals with top-tech medical apparatus and sometimes even with vital medicine. As a direct consequence, patients have an unwritten “Bill of rights” in Romania, which is not strengthened by law though. Practically, a patient is free to visit the medical institution he or she likes and can sew anyone from the doctor he is unsatisfied with to the Healthcare Ministry or the State. In the United States, “at least 40 states has passed some versions of” this “Bill of rights”, “but the Congress is still considering national legislation” and “managed-care firms are generally immune from being sued for their decisions” (Publicagenda.com - “Overview: Health care”).

Though the system is not perfect, Romania has never faced such a huge healthcare crisis as the States have. Moreover, it was never a national issue, to affect Presidential Elections (see the New York Times’ “It was Clinton vs. Obama on Health care” article). This is just one small example to prove that the situation is not so grim in Romania. Still, people here choose to swallow up their national spirit and add up to the USA immigration problem. Www.census.org statistics point out that over 367,310 Americans are of Romanian ancestry. Immigration, manifested in huge population movements into America from over the Ocean or from South America, menaces the economical balance of the country, especially in its illegal form. More and more Americans are raising the “unfairness” argument, which states a strong belief that “illegal immigrants use more in public services than they contribute in the local taxes” and “get a better deal from the government than legal citizens” (Kronholz, June. “Stoking the Immigration Fire”. Wall Street Journal, 2007). Immigrants are also seen as culturally overwhelming and as jobs stealers. They offer to work for lower wages and sometimes surpass the employer’s expectations. For example, some Romanians that illegally travel to the USA are quite skilled in their field of domain.

In the end, why are Romanians slowly fading away into the USA cultural mosaic? It may be their desire to forget an unwanted past or their hope for a better living. Or their refusal to see reality from an outer perspective. Or maybe just the colorful postcards, or the blinking text of Internet ads. Can’t we all borrow dreams?

a note on teaching

Well dear friends, in case you haven't noticed, I've neglected to tell you about my teaching experiences here in the grand Romania.

While I'd like to claim that this is a simple oversight to be blamed on my fascination with all other parts of life - alas that is not true.

The thing is, I am teaching first year university students. Five times a week, I walk into a classroom of 30 or more students just a few years younger than me who are paying to learn from me. They are there to learn English and to learn about the United States.

Do I feel qualified? Of course not. And you can understand why...in the United States, this would never happen. I am simply a college graduate, not even qualified for a managerial position at The Gap (which doesn't matter, cause we ain't got no Gaps in Romania). And yet, here across the woods in Transilvania, that's not a problem.

Yes, higher education in Romania is different. I've heard from other teachers (REAL professors included) that cheating, copying, plagiarism is rampant - even among graduate students. But I would hesitate to accept that all Romanian universities are like mine, that all college students are like mine.

I've gathered that the mechanical engineering department, the forestry department, even math and chemistry are very good here. And it's not that the Faculty of Letters is bad...I am just trying to justify the fact that here, I am not just a teaching assistant - I am considered a teacher in my own right.

I guess I can explain my lack of posts on teaching by telling you that I'm a little embarrassed that I'm teaching university classes. My teaching duties include writing my own curriculum and syllabus, making up a course name even. No one checks in on what I'm teaching or how the students are progressing. I feel overwhelmed by my understanding of this sort of responsibility - as I've said, in the States (and at many other universities, even in Romania) I would never be invited to this. All I have to my name is a B.A. in Sociology - not even a minor in American Studies or TEFL.

But right now, I'm a little more confident. I've been reading over the final essays of my students, and I've gotta say, I'm feeling a bit proud of them. It's hard to say whether it has more to do with me or with them (does it matter?), but it seems like they've actually learned something in the past four months.

I remember my first night in Romania, I confessed to Cynthia (a Fulbrighter who trains Romanian teachers of English) that I felt incredibly unqualified. I felt like someone had made a mistake, that I should not be allowed to stand in front of a college classroom. She told me to take advantage of the opportunity - yeah, it would never happen in America, but nevertheless I had the chance to teach university students. So I should make the most of it.

Anyway, now that I'm feeling a little more confident, I plan to write a little more about classroom-related business, including highlights from these excellent final essays I am reading.

"Delta" sounds like "Devil"

Can I just say - Delta Airlines, you are not cool.

For those of you who heard of the difficulties I had getting to Romania, you know why I would begin to have problems with Delta Airlines. It's gotten worse now that I've received a response from their "Customer Care" department. At this point, I've learned that:

1. Delta employees resemble robots in their ability to process information (the kind of robots that are STUPID),
2. Delta employees do not know how to read,
3. I hate Delta Airlines.

Stay tuned.*

*And if you happen to be someone who flew to Romania on Delta, can we talk?

P.S. Flying back from Turkey, my Tarom Airlines flight to Bucharest was 21 hours delayed. We had to wait around at the Istanbul airport (and people can smoke inside this airport) for 14 hours as they pushed our flight back hour by hour. It was excruciating and draining and I was tired.

BUT if asked to compare experiences with Tarom with experiences with Delta, I would describe Tarom as LOVE and Delta as the farthest thing from. I hate Delta Airlines.

Wrapping up Christmas in Romania

Now that the holidays have come and gone, I can share a few observations on Romanian celebrations. The whole Christmas season was overflowing with a recognizable feeling for me. Elements of Christmas here seem to resemble Christmas in the U.S. in some visible ways – and from what I understand, a lot of these traditions are relatively new in Romania. I’ve spent Christmas in the Netherlands and in Australia, and from my experience my Christmas here felt most like Christmas in the States. At the same time, there's an underlying format for Christmas that is Romania's own.

First of all, when it comes to commercialization of the holiday season…well, I’ll just say that Romanians like to shop. Each time I went shopping in December, the big stores were packed. Chocolate is certainly incredibly popular. Aisle upon aisle of Christmas chocolates, disappearing surprisingly quickly. Christmas decorations are also big – heinous tinsel possibly topping the list. Artificial trees are big (I think this is because cut trees aren’t kept in water, so they go brown pretty quickly – and they’re also really expensive), as are tree decorations, and the most annoying: the singing lights. Stockings are available but left on the shelves as most people don’t know what they would do with them.

Santa Claus is hilarious. In one day, a person could easily come across 10 different Santa Clauses. They are really poorly costumed – usually it’s 19 or 20 year old guys with no facial hair, wearing white polyester beards with white elastic bands stretching across their bare skin, behind their heads. It’s not surprising that the only kids visiting Santa are two years old and too afraid to look him in the eye. The phenomenon of Milka Santa Claus is rather scary. Basically, Milka (the chocolate company) sponsors the main Santa Claus in town. Instead of giving candy canes to kids, he gives them little Milka bars. Santa’s helpers hold hands with the kids and they sing songs about Milka. Kids are screaming “Milka! Milka!” before Santa shows up in the morning. It’s interesting.

The Christmas celebrations start on Dec. 6, which is Saint Nicolas Day. It seems debatable, but the Christmas season lasts for about a month, though some of my neighbors still have their Christmas lights on. In Brasov, we had the huge “Grand Illumination” type lighting of the tree on the sixth, followed by several days of carol singers performing. As Christmas got closer, carolers came to people’s doors and sang, and I heard them especially on the train (I also spent a lot of time on the train during those days).

Dec. 25 is not the only “Christmas.” Carolers kept singing for several days (I left the country on the Dec. 28 so I don’t know how long it lasted, but they were still singing then). The Christmas tree isn’t even decorated until the evening of the Dec. 24, so there has to be a lot of celebration after that. Most people spend these days at home with their parents/families. In Bucharest, the city was basically abandoned as everyone went home to their villages. In Brasov, a lot of people who I talked with said they spent these days going from house to house of relatives – one day’s feast at their house, the next day at their grandmother’s, then their uncle’s. So, that definitely sounded familiar.

At family get-togethers, dads bring out their home-made wine and mothers bake traditional pies and cakes from their village recipes. This is actually really interesting – in a discussion about Romanian traditions with a group of Romanians, they all disagreed when it came to Christmas cakes, because all of their mothers are from different villages, so they weren’t familiar with the cakes that their friends have at Christmas.

Overall, the main focus of Christmas isn’t religious, although most people consider themselves Orthodox. Going to church isn’t necessarily a part of celebrating Christmas. Instead, it’s about spending time with family. Gift giving is a tradition for some families, but usually it’s a matter of giving one gift to everyone, like a cell phone for your parents. Of course, some people use Christmas as a vacation, and head to the mountains with their friends instead of going home. A lot of restaurants and cafes are open, but when we were at them we saw mostly young professionals rather than families.

The biggest difference I felt? Saying "Christmas" instead of "the holidays." We had "Christmas Break" instead of "Winter Break." Not that exciting really, but it did remind me of the plurality you don't see here, even in a region full of ethnic diversity (Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, etc.)

I’ve gotta say though, I’m glad Christmas is over. It makes it seem like it’s almost spring!