First impressions of Baia Mare

Buna ziua!

When asked by people why I wanted to come to Romania this year, both back home in England and on arrival here in Romania, I can’t really give a succinct answer. I felt strongly drawn to the project when it was advertised on the page of my sending organisation, and although I did read up on the project before making my application, I didn’t have any particular idea about what living in Romania would be like or possess any knowledge about the country, its customs, the people who live here etc. These are all things I hope to discover during the course of the year 😀 For now I definitely feel Romania chose me first rather than me choosing Romania first-in answer to an interesting question my mentor asked me.

A week and a half has already passed by: so far, so good. Obviously we are still in the starting phases of living  here in  Baia Mare, abroad in a new country but compared to my move to university three years ago, it’s been a pretty smooth transition (passing quickly over the fact I still have not learnt how to pack lightly…seriously questioning my decision to bring my rug out here (although it has been put to use). This is largely in part to the very welcoming and helpful staff at AIST who have taken great care of us, providing us with accommodation, food for the first few weeks, a tour around some key places in Baia Mare, bikes, help with setting up bank accounts and getting phones (feel like I’m slightly cheating at starting in a new country-kudos to friends who had to do everything themselves).  We have also been given mentors, who we’re going to see most weeks, so I think we’ll definitely going to be very well looked after here in Romania…I’m hoping to gain more independence at the same time, however.

The last week has mostly been filled with a lot of paperwork and admin (in other words, it’s not been the most stimulating of activities) but soon, we’ll start working with the children and planning for our first activity-hoorah!  I’ve enjoyed  finding out about the non-formal styles of education that we’ll be employing this year. We had a team-building day on Monday at another location within the district of Baia Mare, which was situated in the hills and next to a lake: it was a good way to get to know the team from AIST out of an office environment. Unfortunately the weather was too cold on Monday (after being at a sizzling temperature when we arrived a week and a half ago) to visit the lake, but I’m hoping to go walking there tomorrow.

It takes some getting used to having so much free time-this last week we’ve only been in the office around 4 hours a day although this will increase and I think we’ll be more tired once we start working with the children so be glad of the time to rest once we finish work. It’s a strange feeling after the constant reading and studying at university (Classics, I already miss you but look forward to studying you stress-free whenever I want to this year) but I think I’ll get used to it. I’m not one to sit around, so have already been jogging around Baia Mare, signed up for dance lessons (why not try something new if I have the time?!), found a small English-Romanian speaking church community to try and am on the hunt for a choir.

Last Friday we had our first chance to get to know some of the Romanian culture (there’ll be many more opportunities for this throughout the year 🙂 )  as Onoriu took us to a choir festival, where participants from Romania and other Eastern European countries were performing. The choral competition was in the memory of Liviu Borlan, a composer who has links with Baia Mare so all the choirs had to include one of his songs in their programme as well as an international song (sometimes this was in Latin, other times a modern European language). Although rather long and in a very hot hall, I really enjoyed listening to the music and we were rewarded at the end of all the choral singing by a short performance of traditional-style dancing by some of the Roma who live in the area, which was good fun to watch.

Yesterday we had our first flat meal together-Pavel and Julia made a Russian apple cake, Joan and her friend Helena made a lentil dish with rice, and Clare and I made two salads. I’m hoping this will become a regular feature, as we’ll be able to share food from our different countries together  (our flat is made up of 3 German girls, 2 English (myself included), 1 girl from Denmark and two Estonians (who speak Russian)-a great way to know more about each other’s cultures and traditions!

Until next week…la revedere!