December 2010
1 post
That Week I Went to Bucharest
wanderlustress:
I was on the fence about visiting Bucharest. So, as with all my major life decisions, I turned to the Simpsons for guidance. That evening’s particular episode featured Lisa Simpson attending Springfield’s Romanian Film Festival.
I booked my ticket that night.
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November 2010
4 posts
English is funny →
“I wanted to tell you that English is a good language because it’s easier to learn. And I want to ask you why do people make up weird names like hot dog or runny nose, or even smelly feet? Because a hot dog should be a dog that’s hot and a runny nose should be a nose running, and a smelly foot should be a foot that has a nose on it. Do you get these? And do you have a nose on your...
October 2010
8 posts
"You can learn many things from children. How much...
And on the flip side, learn how to be a kid again. I spent most of today sitting on the floor in my apartment, playing arts and crafts in preparation for the week, watching Six Feet Under and eating peanut butter. It seems that teaching little kids has brought me down a few notches in maturity level when I’m not in school (just ask Stefan if you want details) and has brought me back to being...
Iowa's Reputation
At the beginning of the school year, I was discussing with some of my 6th graders about where I come from in the U.S. Iowa is a very difficult word for them to say because of the way you pronounce an ‘I’ at the beginning of a word in Romanian, and it comes out sounding like “yeo-wa”. One of the kids raised his hand and said he had heard of Iowa before. Thinking that he was...
Kids Say the Darndest Things
A couple of weeks ago, one of my fifth graders came running up to me,
“Teacher, teacher!** Did you go to the concert last night?”
“Mmmm no, what concert might that have been?”
A pause for a look of disbelief on her face to register, “Why, the Guns and Roses concert, of course!”
For my kids, it is difficult to imagine that as an American, I don’t...
Back from Oblivion
So it’s been awhile. I’ve been promising for some time now that I would update this thing and seeing that it’s now October 10 and we’re already a month into the school year, I figure it’s about time.
It’s been busy. This summer I was all over the place, from travelling in Romania to the U.S. to the UK and back to Romania. Then I moved into an apartment in...
September 2010
1 post
Fall of 1989 →
July 2010
1 post
5.08 am. Business class lounge at Henri Coanda airport in Bucharest. Their early morning offerings consist of six bowls of potato chips and another six bowls of cookies and wafers with various fillings. You stay classy, Romania.
It’s been awhile, Romaniac, I know. I’m on my way back to America for a few weeks. To catch you up to speed, I’ve moved from Sibiu to Bucharest....
June 2010
4 posts
Born in '89 →
One of these days I’m going to post something other than links and quotes, as I have a backlog of photos and things to tell you all! However, not just yet. In the meantime, check out my friend Lauren’s photo and oral history project, part of her Fulbright experience this past year.
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees,...”
– F. Scott Fitzgerald from The Great Gatsby
In honor of yesterday’s summer solstice and the impending close of the semester—I promise that more (topical) posts are coming soon.
The Dreaded Current →
With the temperatures climbing ever higher, I felt it was high time that I post this again.
Who knew? →
Nick Kristof, a favorite columnist of mine from the New York Times, has been writing recently about the very recent death of his father. In his father’s obituary in the The Oregonian (linked above), I learned that his father escaped from Romania (or at least, what used to be part of Romania) in 1948 by swimming across the Danube. Nick Kristof is a prolific writer, thinker, educator and...
May 2010
12 posts
American Culture Club of Sibiu →
Check out the American Culture Club. We’ve been busy!
Those Romanian Filmmakers... →
they get me every time…
The Jimmy Williams Fund →
I’d like to share with you an excerpt from something Jimmy wrote before he passed away. They are inspiring words and I return to them almost weekly whenever I am discouraged by the amount of progress (and lack thereof) here. I hope that you, too, may feel inspired by these words, wherever you may be. “If you are reading this today it is because I have passed a threshold, while not...
So it's been awhile.
Yeah, I know, I know. I sort of disappeared for awhile. I had a crazy couple of weeks and I just couldn’t keep up. Then I had some time last week, but I left Sibiu without my camera cord and had no way of uploading photos onto my computer. And I mean, who wants to just read my ramblings? Pictures make things more interesting.
So, as a happy birthday present to my father, who is wondering...
April 2010
10 posts
“Had I the heaven’s embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver...”
– W.B. Yeats
“A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases, it will never...”
– From Endymion by John Keats
March 2010
28 posts
încotro: romanian visial survey 2009 →
The second edition of Romanian Visual Survey gathers some of the best visual works produced in 2009 in Romania and by Romanian visual artists in general.
This year’s selection includes the work of 49 visual artists active in the field of photography, graphic design, illustration, painting and digital animation, among others.
Although it is representative of the Romanian visual universe, the...
Pre and Post Revolution →
Check out these photographs from a French photographer. He spent some time in Timişoara a couple of years ago, focusing on people who were 25-years-old at the time of the revolution, and those who are younger. He also inserts himself into every photograph, creating an interesting juxtaposition of outsider and the photographer becoming part of the subject. Be sure to read the information section,...
The Teaching Life →
This is tough. The government has to dig itself out of debt so that things don’t get any worse than they already are. The money has to be cut out from somewhere. But teachers get paid next to nothing here, along with a lot of other professions. That said, don’t we want to pay our teachers well so that they can concentrate on educating the future leaders of this country? The same...
