Motorcycling

In her comment to my last post, reader/blogger/motorcyclist Sparky asked about my listed interest in motorcycling. I replied at some length in the comments section, if anyone wants to go back to that page.

Sparky, I see your beautiful V-Strom in your blog, "My Thoughts Exactly,"

So, because you asked, here is a picture of my longest- owned motorcycle. It is a 1969 BMW R60US, bought new for $1215 in February of that year from my late-lamented friend and Finnish-American dealer-mechanic Eino Hokkanen of Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. Built in 1968, this Beemer has recently turned 40. I have owned some 20 other machines in the ensuing years along with this wonderful, 7:1 compression ratio, 30-horsepower, 590 cc workhorse. As a result, it only has a bit over 80,000 miles on it.

These pictures were taken by my son Jesse when he and his brother Jamie and I rode to Nashville and back in 2001. The picture above was taken on the 20-odd miles of gravel and dust known as Smoke Hole Road in W. Virginia, but known to us ever since as "The Deer Gauntlet."

Here are the boys' 1978 and 1985 Suzuki 550s at Smoke Hole Campground, site #13.

Preparing to Return

Christmas has passed, and my return to Cluj approaches. Happily, I can report that Shirley McDougall and I have found a round trip for her from Manchester, New Hampshire to Cluj for under $1000, and we have booked her a trip over for the whole month of March.

I cannot wait to introduce Shirley to my Clujian friends, including, among others, our landlords Victoria and Florin Moldovan, my colleagues Mihaela Luţaş, Mircea Maniu, Alexandra Mutiu, Roxana Stegerean, Şerban Agachi, Rector Marga and Prof. Delia Marga, PhD students and teaching assistants Melinda Pleşcan and Monica Zaharie, the long-suffering and ever-helpful Carmen Tagsorean, my excellent Englishline students, and so many more who have made me welcome in their very special Transylvanian town.

In addition, I look forward to introducing Shirl to Klaus, and with the two of them to revisit Maramureş and its monasteries, mountains, farms and pensiones.

Of course, I also hope to make in March a trip to Bucharest, so Shirl can meet the wonderful staff at Fulbright-Romania, including Mihai, Corina, Mihaela, Anca and Loredana, not to mention Victor, and Dan the Taximan.

Finally, I hope that a goodly number of my fellow Fulbrighters will get to meet Shirl, and learn why I hope with all my heart that God grants us every day of that second 35-years of marriage that we promised each other online, last October 6th.

Merry Christmas!

Health and happiness in the New Year to all in Romania!














And to my dear friends in Fellbach!

Ferdi at the wheel




With his parents, Dietmar and Sabine








And Max

Home for Christmas

I have made it to New Hampshire in time for the first snow that looks likely to stay around awhile. More is forecast for tomorrow.

So recently arrived am I that I am mentally still half-in-Cluj. I used half an onion tonight in making turkey salad. The unused half sat on the counter stinking up the kitchen for the next hour, because I knew I had no Ziplock bags in which to store it (in the kitchen in Cluj). When I realized where I was, I opened the kitchen drawer, pulled out a baggie, put the onion into it, zipped it shut, and placed it in the produce drawer in the fridge. And, I am still on Eastern European time, not Eastern Standard time. I have been up in the morning by 3:30 A.M., because that is 10:30 A.M. in Cluj, where I never sleep past 8:00.

My family has been great to see, and Preston gave me a warm and furry welcome, too.


Preston











Work Persists!

Before leaving Cluj I was asked by the folks at the Center for International Cooperation at Babeş-Bolyai University to explore the possibility of a joint master's degree program with the Business Department at Plymouth State University. I have today met with Dr. Trent Boggess, our chair in that department, and we have begun work on the joint degree idea. There is a definite interest here.

I still have to work on my lectures for Finland.

So, though still recovering from a 28-hour trip, I am far from idle.

Tomorrow Shirl and I are going to look at bedroom sets.

Please understand my intermittent posting.

As this blog is about my Romanian Fulbright adventures, I cannot promise a daily update from Stateside. But if anything important, or especially interesting, develops while I am here, I'll let you readers know. Meanwhile, I wish you all a warm and happy Holiday Season, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Chanukah, and to all a loving time, be it in your homes in Romania, or here in the U.S.A.

"The World is So Full of a Number of Things..."*

Today I "taught" Mihaela Luţaş's third-year Englishline class in Regional Development. Only China and Oana from my classes were there. The others are finance majors or economics majors, so I was meeting them for the first time. This time I had a chance to prepare a bit, and though my primary role was to be a "native English speaker" and to answer questions about America, I did have a short lecture prepared on the "Subprime Loan Crisis" in America. I guessed that there might be a question about that, as its name is a confusing misnomer, and as it has been widely seen as the trigger that set off the current recession.

The class was wide-ranging. As is my tendency, I went off on tangents that included my family, Fulbright programs, motorcyles, manufacturing management, conglomerates, the Iliad, and God knows what-all else. At the end, we spent ten minutes on the current financial crisis. I expressed my belief that this crisis was exacerbated by the left-leaning press' desire to make things appear as bad as possible in order to ensure a Democrat's victory in the U.S. elections, and that the American consumers would regain confidence once Obama takes office, and the press starts cheering again. One of the students told me of a DeNiro movie ("Wag the Dog") on a similar theme. I plan to find it and view it during Christmas break.

I hope that Mihaela's students enjoyed their class today as much as I did.
____________________________
*From "Happy Thought," in R.L. Stevenson: A Child's Garden of Verses.

Romanians are Great People Department Re: Computer Mishap #2 - An E-Mail from Pat Hayes (Evan's Dad and Nancy Sherman's Husband)

Hi Duncan, from Pat in Oradea --

Well, we certainly didn't plan to try to top your adventure in retrieving a laptop, but try this on for size:

We made the Tuesday mid-afternoon train to Brasov; more snow in the mountains along the way, but the 3-5 centimeters Brasov experienced early in the day was mostly melted by early evening. We hopped in the first cab we spotted outside the station; the fellow was kind enough to notice Nancy had closed her coat in the door, so he graciously opened it so she could tuck the rest into the back seat with her. He spoke English rather well, so we chatted each other up on the 10-12 minute ride to the pensione that Jeremy had set us up in for the night. He even slowed down a bit to show us a couple of the better sights that he recommended we come back to see in the daylight. Got to our destination, unloaded our stuff, and headed in to claim our upstairs apartment.

Rendezvous'd (sp?) with Jeremy about an hour later and had a very nice dinner with him in a place that served rather respectable Mexican fare, along with lots of other Romanian/Hungarian goodies.

I think we made it back to the pensione a little after 10 and decided to check email before we settled down for the night. A complete and thorough search of the 2 rooms resulted in the inescapable conclusion that the computer (and it's backpack) never came up the stairs with us. 99% sure it wasn't left on the train, nor at the station... had to be in the cab. This was 3+ hours after we'd exited the cab ... didn't know the number or the cab company. Put a real good damper on what had been a busy, enjoyable day. Evan felt guilty because he'd been in charge of the bag, and Nancy felt responsible because she was in the back seat with him and the bag. I felt bad for both of them, and for all of us, because all of Nancy's RO research stuff was on the machine, several of Evan's games + 800-1000 of our best/worst photos from this Fulbright journey.

Nancy got a couple cab co. numbers from the front desk people and called. One of the dispatchers actually put out a call to all the drivers while she was on hold, but no response back. Nancy was quickly becoming a basket case, so she asked me to go back downstairs to the desk & see if we had all the likely/possible phone numbers. The staff (two waitresses and a bartender) was very sympathetic and actually helped me make a few more calls. No luck, tho' a couple did say call back in the morning to see what their co. grapevine may have come up with.

It was a gloomy set of omelets we consumed at breakfast. The morning manager suggested a long shot ... go down to the station and see if you can find the driver. Mmmmm, in a town of a quarter million people, with hundreds of cabs, that seemed ludicrous. But we had nothing else going, so we checked out, trudged over to Jeremy's apartment so Nancy could work on her talk that she was to give that evening at the local American Club at his university.
We followed his directions and took the #4 bus down to the station; decided to check Lost & Found to see if it might have turned up there. I think it was our psychological delaying tactic, as we weren't optimistic about going cabtocabtocab in the parking lot, looking at faces and telling our sad story to any driver that hadn't heard about it the evening before.

The info booths inside & outside the station yielded no help; we couldn't find the entrance to the police station inside the building, and the chap at the baggage holding room couldn't make out what we were after, so he walked us up to the money changer, who I think he was sure knew more English than he did. She did, a little, but she suggested nothing more than to check the info desk(s). Back to square one.

I thought we could both use a coke (or something stiffer??) at this point, so we walked over to the snack bar to survey the drink offerings. 5 seconds later our cab driver was standing there next to us -- he had come back down to the station to look for us!!! He said he had not initially opened the pack, once he'd found it late in the evening (it was still sitting on the hump on the floor in the back seat), but a couple of buddies said go ahead, it's probably not a bomb! Once he saw Evan's algebra book, he pieced the mystery together. He said if he hadn't seen us at the station, he'd have gone back to the pensione, so we probably would have gotten it back one way or the other, but really, we were just thunderstruck that we bumped into him. Right then & there I grabbed him behind the ears and gave him a big kiss right on the forehead... for Nancy of course.

Luciano said he'd been raised right in a good family, and made every effort to do the right thing. He has two sons himself, and knows that youngsters can lose things. What a guy!! He agreed to a photo side by side w/ Evan, so when I get the latest set of them uploaded, I'll forward it along.

Don't know if that tops yours, but we can add it to the Romanian Fulbright folklore, perhaps as another cautionary tale about alertness when traveling, no matter how comfortable you may have gotten with your surroundings.

Nancy did a nice job onstage that evening, got lots of response and questions from the assemblage of 15-20, mostly students. Had another great meal with Jeremy, made it to the train station with, wow, at least 12 minutes to spare, and had the usual rumbley overnight trip back to Oradea... slept off & on, adequately.

Best of holiday wishes to you!!

Pat in Oradea

Busy is Better!

UPDATES: An important footnote has been added to yesterday's posting. Please read it. Also, a three-view diagram of an Antonov AN-2 has been added to "Bucharest," below.

It is fun being busy. I have long said, "Busy is Better." But boy, am I busy! Of course, I am gradually becoming one of that breed that I have labeled "World Guys." I wonder, are all world guys this busy?

As my readers know, I will be coming home for the holidays. It won't be all relaxation. Today I picked up three lectures to prepare during my time in the States. The Finnish Savonia University in Varkaus has confirmed my invitation to visit in January, and wants me to lecture on Global Business. That is among the subjects I have taught in the Plymouth State MBA Program, but I have been away from that topic for several years. So, while home over Christmas, I must plan a few days at Lamson Library.

Then there are my spring courses. I am not worried about Management Accounting at the Faculty of Economics, for I have been teaching that course at Plymouth ever since 1976, have kept up with the field, and have as a teaching team member Prof. Alexandra Mutiu, who is going to be great to work with. But, in the Faculty of European Studies, I will be taking on a course in The American Economy. That is a new subject for me, and I have to learn a lot in its preparation. I am counting on my colleague Trent Boggess to help, for Trent, an economist, teaches a related course at Plymouth State.

Oh, yes, then there is Christmas. My wife Shirley wants a new bedroom set. Shirl is right about our needing a new bedroom set. The one we have was bought (cheaply) at Sears in 1975, and it is ready to retire to a guest room. If we are going to spend our agreed-upon 35 more years together, we ought to invest in a solid set of bedroom furniture. Our present set can go upstairs to one of the four kids' rooms (that are gradually becoming guest rooms as our kids move out).

Phil Desmond, Plymouth MBA and owner of Brown Furniture, are you reading this? If so, the McDougalls are going to need a good solid bedroom set. We are not into high style, but we are ready for high quality. We'll be over before long to see what you recommend.

So, what do my readers have to do for the next few weeks? Let me guess: you are all busy as all get out. Be thankful. Busy is better.

Tons to tell and too tired to tell it. (But I'll try.)

The Holiday Party in Bucharest was good fun. We met a number of former Romanian Fulbrighters, and the wine lubricated tongues, so the gab went on for several hours. Another good part of the trip for me was to visit the Museum of the Romanian Peasants. There on the pedestal holding a musical exhibit was written in red marker,

"Intre ei, ingerii cîntâ Mozart.
In faţa lui Dumnezeu, cîntâ Bach."

"Among themselves, the angels sing Mozart. In front of God, they sing Bach." I like that one.

The ride home launched early Sunday morning, following a 6:30 breakfast with St. Daniel the Cabbie. Dan has been the recommended taxi driver for Fulbrighters for ten years because he goes by an honest meter. As a cabbie in Bucharest, that alone has led to his canonization. But he is far more than just an honest cabbie. He came out at 6:15 on a Sunday morning to take me on a 7 Lei ($2.50, before his tip) ride to the Gara, after we'd agreed to that two mornings before, when he drove me from the gara to the hotel. So, as we didn't need to leave until 6:50, I invited him to join me for breakfast at the Casa Victor.

Once on the train I enjoyed my first daylight ride northward through the Carpathian Mountains to Braşov, then westward across Transylvania to Cluj. Climbing through the mountains there were rugged snow-capped peaks on our left, and the alpinesque villages that I described from my September drive along a parallel road, that being the first Romanian excursion in Klaus with the Sherman-Hayes family. This time I was curious whether one of these Carpathian ski towns was where my PSU colleague Professor Roxana (Dima) Wright, who grew up in Braşov, was a ski instructor when she met Rob Wright, now her husband (and a soccer coach at Plymouth State). Please, Roxana, tell us in the comments, was that fateful meeting in Timişol de Sus? Predeal? Azuga? Buşteni? Poiana Tapului? Sinaia? Or perhaps, all the way down in Crăsina, at the southern slope of the mountains? Or, was it in yet another part of Romania?

Monday

I picked up today my Permis de Şedere (license to stay). I am now legal in Romania for a full year. As faithful readers know, I owe this bureaucratic achievement to the help and patience of Carmen Tagsorean of the Babeş-Bolyai University Center for International Cooperation. Thank you, Carmen. We did it.

Also today I taught Mihaela Luţaş' first-year class, for this week she is teaching in Italy. There were about 35 students present, and after introducing myself, I asked for any questions they had about America, American business, or American education. The first girl to raise her hand asked, "What is a party school?" I defined that term as follows. "A party school is any institution with one of these two words in its name: 'c-o-l-l-e-g-e,' or 'u-n-i-v-e-r-s-i-t-y.'" I went on to explain that the most notorious party school in New Hampshire is the Ivy League school Dartmouth College, and that the difference between such a school and a state universiity is that the students at the state school drink beer, while the students at Dartmouth will drink Scotch. I hope I didn't mislead them too much.

I also took advantage of the opportunity to advance the cause of academic integrity by pointing out that we in the universities are all standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, and that those former students and scholars very likely did not get rich being academicians. So, all they have to be remembered for is their ideas. It is therefore right and proper always to give credit to the creators of any ideas or words of others that we find in our research and use in our writings. Moreover, it is dishonest and unethical not to do so. Finally, I told them that the standard penalty for a first violation of academic integrity in my home university is to fail the course, and that the second offense results in a suspension from the school. I was a bit preachy, but unfortunately, some of my students last week gave me reason to believe that the sermon was called for, and I felt that giving it to first year students might help them make good decisions in the future.

Finally, I told a couple of stories about the great Physics professor at Amherst College, Arnold Boris Arons, one of the best lecturers I ever have known. Arons' lecture on the 19th Century experiments done with horizontal charged plates and a suspended drop of electrically charged oil, I shall always remember. I do not recall if it was Maxwell, or Planck,* or another whose experiment Arons was describing. But I recall that the droplet of oil would move up and down in the electric field with acceleration that was measureable. This acceleration could be varied by adding or reducing the charge on the droplet. But, when Arons told us that the rates of acceleration in the constant electrical field could be made to vary only in steps, not changed smoothly, and thus, electric charge appeared to have a particulate nature, my classmate Ben Bump raised his hand. "Professor," he asked, "aren't you just talking about electrons?"

Professor Arons looked over his pince-nez glasses at the ceiling, stroking his chin, as if considering carefully Ben's question. "Electrons?" he muttered. "Electrons?" Then he turned toward Ben and roared, "Mr. Bump, What the HELL is an ELECTRON?" "Ideas first! Names after!"
_________________________
*UBB Physicist Titus BEU has solved this issue for me: the Oil-Drop Experiment was Robert Millikan and Harvey Fletcher's, and was performed in 1909. Hence, we have understood the electron's fundamental role for only 99 years. I'd say we've done pretty well with it.

Bucharest

A first class sleeper is worth the $20 premium ticket. I slept well for at least seven hours on the train. Come 6:45 in the morning my one compartment mate and I awoke, about an hour before arrival, and had a chat. Turns out he flew cropdusters back under Ceaucescu, both Antonov AN-2s (see another picture in a September posting of such a plane in a Budapest McDonald's Playyard!) and helicopters. So, we did some hanger flying, and warmed to each other. We exchanged phone numbers, and I hope that we will meet again over a beer. (Image from Wikipedia.com)

Casa Victor could check me in upon arrival today, so I had breakfast, then soaked in a tub for awhile, and went to bed until 1:00 PM, then had lunch, and strolled with Charles over to pay a social call on the Fulbright Commission. The day has ended with a good dinner at an Italian restaurant with five fellow Fulbrighters: Charles, David Banville, and the Sherman-Hayes clan. Tomorrow we will visit the Romanian Peasants' Museum and fair, where I hope to find some small cultural gifts to take home to family at Christmas. Then comes the party at the Commission.

Back to Bucureşti

If the Romanian Fulbright Commission has one key strength, it is their ability to weld the American Fulbrighters into a caring community of new friends. Mihai and Corina and Mihaela and Anca and Loredana and all the rest of the staff have kept us in the loop all fall, and have made sure we have been invited to events in our cities, and events in others' cities, as well.

Saturday night, at the Commission's expense, we all are gathering in Bucharest for a Holiday party, where we will join to celebrate Romania's unification, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Chaunnakah, Eid al-Adha, New Years Day, and probably more. This weekend was chosen because it is likely the last one for which we will all still be "in country," for soon some of us will be going home to the States for our holiday vacations.

So, at 10:03 tonight I will again board the CFR's overnight train to Bucharest, and spend my weekly (for so it seems, lately) night being clicked and clacked to sleep. You know, it really isn't a bad way to travel.

Wally's Birthday is a Classy One

My younger brother Walter Allan McDougall was born on 3 December, 1946. If you happen to encounter him today, wish him a happy birthday for me, and ask him why he looks so much older than his senior brother, Duncan.

Today I got to the office in time to have a quiet 3/4-hour to collect my thoughts before teaching a new (for me) case study on Lincoln Electric. I learned from Wickham Skinner some 38 years ago that the hour before class is best spent thinking through what questions to ask of the class. So, this morning I did exactly that, and came into class with an ordered list.

I quickly perceived that about half of the students who had come to class had not read the case. As this case will be one on which the class will later have a chance to write an essay, I marked all students present who were there, then asked those who were unprepared to leave the room. I explained that it was not fair for them to sit there and hear what the prepared students had to say about a case for which there would be a graded assignment passed out next week. They left, clearly surprised to be excused, and not happy about it.

My remaining students then tore into the case with a vengeance. It was one of the best class discussions that I have experienced since coming to Romania.

Happily, I have many bright students. It is a joy working with the Englishline students at Babeş-Bolyai University.

National Day

Buna Ziua Naţional! 1 Decembrie 2008! 90 de Ani!
It is a glorious day in Cluj-Napoca, with a bright blue sky and mild autumn air for the celebrations. I attended the laying of wreaths at the foot of the statue of Avram Iancu, then went into the Ortodox Cathedral in the Piaţa Avram Iancu and lit candles in memory of my parents. As I came out of the cathedral, I heard English spoken, and asked a man of about my age where he was from. "London," he said, "and you're from America." Gary Stallworthy is living in Cluj with his Romanian wife. He asked for my phone number. I hope he calls.

Of course, while returning home, I thought of my British-Romanian friends, Rob and Roxana Wright of Plymouth State University and Campton, New Hampshire.

I had on the Romanian-American friendship pin given me by Mihai Moroiu on my last visit to Bucharest, but was hoping to find a vendor of the colorful ribbons I saw on many coats in the Piaţa. I asked a man in a coat lettered on the back with words that had to mean "SWAT Team Captain," if he could tell me where to buy such a ribbon. At once, in crisp English, he said, "You want one? Take this one. Is not a problem!" He immediately unpinned his ribbon, and I accepted gratefully, and thanked him for his kindness. It reads, "1 Decembrie 2008, 90 de Ani," for it was 1 December 1918 when the Unification Agreements, as mentioned a few days back, were signed in Alba Iulia.

Watching the crowd at the ceremony was most interesting and moving. Veterans were honored, and I could only wonder what the older men, obviously veterans of World War II, were thinking about their country's history. Romania, like Italy, actually fought battles on the side of, and then against Nazi Germany. In Romania's case they fought first against, then later with the forces of the Soviet Union. Romania's history has been fascinating. Being a country of considerable natural wealth in agriculture, oil, and human talent in Central Europe has led to a great many political and military challenges and changes. Romanians have suffered much, and many of them have grown to be stoic and brave. They are a talented people, and are not afraid of a day's work. If Western Civilization has a bright future, Romania will have a bright future.