This past week Mihaela and I were conducting an EducationUSA workshop in Baia Mare, a town in the northernmost region of Romania, Maramures. The workshop was three 8-hour days of seminars for high schoolers and university students interested in studying in the US. While fairly tiring and stressful at times, it was a very rewarding week.
The university students were pretty quiet and reserved, but the sessions I had with the high school students were wonderful. They were a great group of kids; very engaged and thoughtful, and I never felt like I was talking to the wall for four hours at a time. We had some great discussions, and it was great to watch them work through the process and really "get" what I was trying to teach them. A few of the girls were particularly enthusiastic, and I had some great conversations with them outside of the workshop. They took me to their favorite coffee shop after the final day of the workshop, and made me promise a place for them to stay when they come to see me in Seattle. :)
It snowed on Wednesday. It was absolutely delightful sitting in my warm hotel room watching the huge flakes falling, but actually being out in it wasn't so nice, because it pretty quickly turned to brown slush. Thursday morning, however, when we crossed the Gutai mountains on the way to Sighet to do another presentation, the snow was white and flakey and at least a foot deep. Out of the mountains and in the countryside outside Sighet (where the driver pointed across the fields and said "There's Ukraine"...!!!) the snow was replaced by rain and fog, which certainly had its own charms.
Once again, it was wonderful to see another region of Romania. Somehow, though, this time it was strangely comforting to come back to Bucharest. This place has a way of charming the unsuspecting, I suppose!