Alexandru & Alexandra

MICAN Alexandru of Bistriţa has played a major role in this blog, as he was both my student and sometime tour-guide during my Fulbright Year. Prof. PhD. MUŢIU Alexandra of UBB-Cluj was one of his second-year professors at UBB, and was my teaching partner in the Englishline Management Accounting course at UBB last spring. This past week, the three of us had a chance to renew friendships here at Plymouth State University, where Alexandru is an MBA candidate and a graduate fellow, and where Alexandra came to meet with her PSU/UBB Joint-MBA Program colleagues, and to do research on our methods of teaching accounting, which I can honestly report to have long been a strong point of the Plymouth State business programs.

Yesterday, Shirl, both the Romanian Alexes, and I visited Cambridge and Boston, including a tour of the Harvard Business School. The "dear old halls" of alma mater are, I was pleased to see, as stately and well-kept as ever.

To my Romanian friends, I reiterate: we love it when you visit. Please come to New Hampshire and spend some time with us!

Craciun Fericit!

Postscript: Romanian Visitors to New Hampshire

Shirley McDougall and I are happy to report that already we have hosted three visitors from Transylvania at our home near Plymouth, New Hampshire. In July Lucian BOGDAN, my Teaching Assistant in American Studies at UBB-Cluj, made a two-day side trip to Manchester, NH, on his way home from an American Studies conference in Philadelphia. He and I drove the long way home from the airport, stopping in Portsmouth to see the colonial architecture and NH's seaport, then had boiled lobsters for lunch in Kittery, Maine. From Kittery we came north to Campton via the shore of Lake Winnepesaukee, from Alton Bay to Gilford on Route 11. The next day was sunny and warm, so we rode on my 1982 Honda Silver Wing Interstate up through Franconia Notch to Littleton for clam chowder at the Littleton Diner, then over to the Mt. Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, where the famous WWII economic conference was held.

In August we hosted my former FSEGA student Radu BENCHEA of Sibiu, who flew up from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to visit us prior to heading back to Romania after a summer working as a pedicab driver in that resort city. While with us, Radu also made a three-day rail trip to visit relatives in New York City, so he got to see that not all of America is sun, sand and bikini-country.

This month we have hosted new FSEGA grad Alexandru MICAN of Bistrița, who has been admitted to the PSU MBA Program as a full time student. Alex was one of my guides (along with his friend Dora FAUR) on our long weekend in Moldavia, back in October of last year. Alex has also seen some White Mountain geography during the past two weeks, and has now moved into his own apartment right next to the PSU campus. Alex has played golf with me three times already, and scored his first par on a hole, just yesterday. Is the game of golf really that easy?

So, all my Romanian friends, please take notice: our invitations were seriously given, and your visits will be welcome.

Goodbye, Romania (not "Goodbye Romanians")

It has been a beautiful drive. Shirl, Klaus and I are safely back in Fellbach. We left Cluj only the day before yesterday, and already our home in Romania seems a thousand miles away. Oh, yeah. It is a thousand miles away. But we’re still in Europe, some 3,500 miles from our American home, so are we really going to leave Europe and fly to New England, or are we just on another Fulbright adventure, and will Klaus be taking us back to our wonderful apartment in our adopted city to see our good Romanian friends as he has faithfully done for the past nine months?

Goodbye, Romania! But not “Goodbye, Romanians.” We will keep in touch. We have Yahoo mail, we have our University work connections, and we have our lives to share.

If you get to New Hampshire, please do not forget that our big old house in Campton has a guest room, and we love showing off our beautiful home state to visitors.

Farewell, Latest Lover!

Though it traces its roots to a Jesuit school founded in 1581, prior to 1919 all teaching at the university we know today as Babeş-Bolyai was either in Hungarian or in Latin. Ninety years ago, with the unification that incorporated Transylvania as a region of Romania following World War I, the new Romanian-language Babeş University was founded in Cluj. About forty years ago, under the Communist government, Babeş-Bolyai University was formed by the merger of Cluj's Hungarian-speaking institution of higher learning with its Romanian-speaking one, and together they formed the amazing multicultural, polylingual university in which I have taught this year.

To celebrate the Nintieth Anniversary of there being a Romanian University in Cluj, Rector Marga today hosted a glorious musical event at the UBB Auditorium Maximum. The concert lasted almost three hours, and I wept each hour. First, I was moved to tears by the beauty of the music provided by the Transylvanian Symphony Orchestra. Then came a romantic operatic duet performed by a magnificent tenor and soprano from Bucharest. Then, I wept with emotion at having to leave Romania when traditional folk singers came on stage in their regional finery, and sang Romanian tunes.

I will detail the concert in a later post, for it deserves a full report. For now, suffice it to say, 'tis trrrrue: "We Scots ha'e but two emotions, weepin' and angerrrrr." Today, mine wa' weepin'.

And, to make perfect the event as a cultural culmination of my Romanian Fulbright adventures, during the standing ovation that followed the finale (Brahms' "Academic Overture," which ends with the famous theme known as "Gaudeamus Igitur"), the world-famous Romanian soprano Florentina Văduva tossed a rose from her bouquet to the audience, and I caught it.

Upon reflection, of course it was I who caught Florentina's rose. If this year has taught me anything, it is that there are no coincidences. She was but Fair Romania, bidding farewell to her latest lover.

Final Fulbright Days

We are facing the final days of our adventure in Romania. Yesterday was the final Friday. The highlight of the day was my dinner at Agape with Prof. Marius Jucan.

Marius Jucan is a Prodecan (vice-dean) of the Faculty of European Studies, and founder and head of the Program in American Studies at UBB. He is also author of a number of scholarly books in both Romanian and English, a member of the original UBB delegation that visited Plymouth back in the early days of our cooperation, a veteran of the Romanian Army under Communism, an ardent advocate of democracy, and a brilliant conversationalist. One of his books in Romanian is entitled Maştile libertatii, America în scritorile lui Thomas Jefferson, which translates roughly as, "The Faces of Liberty, America in the Letters of Thomas Jefferson."

Shirley was not up to joining us, so Marius and I enjoyed one of those rare occasions when two guys of sixty-or-so get to have some wine, eat whatever they want without apologizing for it, and talk about whatever comes to mind. I treasure such occasions.

At Graduation with Marius Jucan
Today I stopped by Marius' office and gave him three books on American History that my brother Walter was kind enough to send me for use in my course. Two were autographed copies of the paperback editions. I know that Marius will read them. He is that kind of a man. But I don't know if he will agree with Wally on all that they contain, for Marius definitely thinks for himself.

Walking back to Piaţa Mihai Viteazul at close-to-midnight, Marius and I encountered two young men standing and talking on the sidewalk. It was PETEAN Flaviu and BENCHEA Radu, two of my beloved graduates from the Englishline at FSEGA. I introduced them to Professor Jucan, then learned they were waiting for the bus to take Radu to Budapest where he would catch a flight to Fort Lauderdale to work for the summer. There are no coincidences, only a very small world. Have fun, Radu, and while you are there, look up my son Brian in Miami Beach!

Visit Went Well - Packing Proceeds

Visit went well

Trent Boggess flew to Budapest yesterday after three cordial days of meetings (and social mealtimes) here in Cluj. The teaching team for our Joint PSU-UBB International MBA is gelling, with the next step to come at the end of the month, when Roxana Wright will return to spend a week here to provide training in online course delivery of our specific MBA curriculum. A renewed Agreement of Cooperation between UBB and PSU was signed Wednesday by Rector Andrei Marga, and is now being hand-carried back to Plymouth's president Dr. Sara Jayne Steen, who was unable to make the trip at this busy time of year. After the signing, we were invited to join the Rector at a reception for the Vietnamese Ambassador to Romania over lunch at the Pyramids, UBB's nicest restaurant. (Trent has a story to tell about that event, so I'll say no more about it at this juncture.) On Thursday morning, I presented a talk on the ACBSP's Baldrige-based approach to quality management and continuous improvement in higher education to the UBB Quality Assurance Council, headed by Vice Rector Andrei Marcuş. Then, I took Trent back to the Faculty of Economics, where he bid farewell to our colleagues and to our program partner, Prodeacon Dr. Mihaela Luţaş.

Packing proceeds

After a delightful home-cooked meal with his parents last Sunday, Lucian Bogdan, my volunteer teaching assistant in AE&B this term, and I went to Carrefour at Polus Center (a large shopping mall), where I acquired the biggest piece of hand-luggage I could find. It is a hard-surfaced check-in sized roller-case. It is now full to the sit-on-to-close level with my winterwear and formal suits, souvenir hand-woven wool blankets and Romanian flag (gifts from the Econ-Englishline Seniors), five "Romania" T-Shirts in bright yellow, which I had here for the kids but forgot to give them, my J&M dress shoes, protected on their Rochester Shoe Trees, of course, and everything else I didn't think I'd need before coming home. That monstrous bag is now in the trunk of Klaus. Probably, it will cost me extra on my flight home late next week.

So, today...

It is Friday, and I have stayed in the apartment, ostensibly to work on candidate reviews for The Fulbright Commission of Romania. But I have had trouble staying awake today. A day without meetings? Unheard of! "Rest, old man, while you have the chance," my body keeps telling me.

Tonight Shirl and I will dine with Prodeacon Marius Jucan of the Faculty of European Studies, and head of the American Studies Program. We will be brainstorming further avenues of cooperation between our universities.

The end may be in sight for the Fulbright Year in Romania, but as Mort Sahl used to say, "The future lies ahead."

The Senior Song

Fellow nostalgists ('tis a term just coined) will enjoy my musical gift to the UBB Class of 2009. Click on the link to hear it sung by the Amherst College Glee Club.

The Senior Song
by Jimmy Hamilton, Amherst College, Class of 1906

Strangers once, we came to dwell together,
Born of a mother, wise and true.
Now we're bound by ties that cannot sever,
All our whole life through.
Gather closer, hand to hand.
The time draws near when we must part.
Still the love of college days will linger,
Ever in each heart.

Chorus:

So raise the rosy goblet high,
The senior chalice, and belie,
The tongues that slander and defile,
For we have yet a little while,
To linger, youth, and you, and I
In college days.

We have climbed together up the pathway,
On to the goal where life doth wait.
Where in bright, and beck'ning fields of promise,
Lieth fame or fate.
Born among these dear old halls,
Friendships that can never die.
Strength to keep us faithful and devoted,
To our purpose high.

Chorus

Trent Returns

[Note: the post of June 3, 2009, "At the Danube Delta" has been amplified, in case you would like to read more about our weekend in the Southeast.]

Our last full week in Romania begins today, Whitsunday, which is a new national holiday in Romania, but an examination day nevertheless for some of our Faculty of Economics (FSEGA) students.

For me, the day will be accented by a speech at the Aula Magna at UBB's downtown campus given by Nobel Prize nominee Leszek Balcerowicz, the Polish economist famous for inventing "shock therapy" as a way of converting former Communist Bloc economies into free market economies.

Following that event, I will go to the airport to meet Dr. Trent Boggess, chairman of the Business Department at Plymouth State University, who will be arriving for his second visit to our International MBA Program partner school, UBB's FSEGA.

This evening, Shirl and I hope to take Trent to an early dinner, then to his hotel to give him a chance to rest before a busy week of company visits and faculty meetings here in Cluj.

A Full and Festive Graduation Day: UBB American Studies Program,Class of, 2009

Yesterday I gave my second graduation speech of the year, this one to the graduates of the Faculty of European Studies, American Studies Program. They had given me a day's warning that they would like me to speak, so I prepared brief remarks, which I will include below, just for the record.

With Professor Raluca Moldovan and Prodeacon Marius Jucan, congratulating the new graduates.

Cristina Guglia, the coordinator of the event, also asked me to send my remarks ahead of time for translation into Romanian, so that their parents and guests could hear them and understand what I had said. Rather than do so, I was aided by my colleague in accounting Alexandra Muţiu, who provided the Romanian version. (If any reader would like to have that version, please send a remark with your e-mail address, and I will provide it.)

Remarks made at American Studies Graduation:

Dean Gyemant, Professor Jucan, Colleagues in the Faculty of European Studies, parents, relatives, friends of our honorees, and especially, dear “about-to-be graduates” of Babes-Bolyai University:

I thank you for inviting me to say a few words at your celebration today. Let me begin by thanking your parents for raising such wonderful kids, and for sending those wonderful young men and women to UBB. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with the UBB American Studies students this term.

And thank you, students, for your active participation in our many discussions this semester.

The past few months have not been “the best of times” in America, but that fact has made this semester an especially good time to be teaching a course in American Economy and Business.

Given the excesses and corrupt practices represented by the “Sub-prime Lending” and “Bernie Madoff” scandals, among others, humility has been the only possible attitude for an American teacher of such a course. Yet, in the global financial repercussions of problems that began in America, the global importance of the American Economy was made obvious. Truly, as has been said many times, “When America sneezes, the world catches a cold.” So, for a European undergraduate interested in taking part in the global economy of the coming decades, to have focused one’s studies on understanding America was a sensible choice.

I hope that the three books you have read in our time together will continue to inform your views of America, and of the effects of Prices, “Animal Spirits,” and Central Banks on free market economies.

I hope that our wide-ranging class discussions of both American and Romanian cultures, of their similarity as topographically varied, diversely peopled, and naturally fertile countries, of their differing diversities, and of our shared “human condition” in many of its aspects, will be food for your thoughts as you progress through your lives.

Finally, I hope that you will keep in touch with “Professor Duncan,” the last American professor that you met in your undergraduate years at UBB, and keep him informed as you, no longer children, but now licensed adults, make your own paths in our shared, increasingly connected, and interdependent world.

Again, to you parents, as the father of six, I know what a proud moment this is for you good people.

Thank you, and may God bless us all.

Then, A Spontaneous Fulbright Dinner Party:

After the graduation, at which Charles Harris, Fulbrighter and AmStuds teacher at Lucian Blaga University in Sibiu was a welcome visitor/photographer, Charles, Kathy O., Shirl and I repaired to the bistro across the river from the apartment, and shared a festive dinner, our final dinner with each other for this Fulbright Year.

At the Danube Delta

On 30 May, Shirl, Klaus and I took Cristina Mitrovici on her first visit to the Danube Delta.

It was a full day, and a beautiful part of Romania.

Cristina Liliana Mitrovici is a Fulbrighter based this year in Constanţa, the lovely seaside city and resort town near the southeast corner of Romania. She is from Fargo, ND, where she settled after leaving Los Angeles a few years ago. She and her husband escaped Romania during the 1980s, and have raised their children in the U.S. Now a citizen of the USA, Cristina teaches Spanish and media studies. She is a dear lady of high purpose and strong opinions, and was an excellent guide in Constanţa, starting with her having found us a wonderful place to stay in Mamaia Nord, a beachfront community just up the coast from the city line of Mamaia, which is similarly positioned relative to Constanţa.

Vila Tudor was one of few open hotels on the shoreline this weekend, as the season was to open on 1 June. But here, for 100 de lei, $33 per night, we stayed at a modern motel, in a two-bedroom suite with bath, king-sized bed, cable Internet and cooked-to-order breakfast. Hard to beat that.

Saturday morning I awoke early, had breakfast, then drove into town to pick up Cristina. She showed me her luxury apartment with a view of the Port of Constanţa, then we walked to the nearby cathedral. I could see what a magnificent city Constanţa has been in years past, but unfortunately many of the best buildings on the main square are being allowed to deteriorate. It seems that they are caught up in legal struggles between those from whose families the communist government had confiscated them and the present "owners," and hence no one is willing to risk the money it would take to refurbish them. Such an historic city deserves better. A statue of the poet Ovidius (Ovid), who lived till his death in Constanţa after having been banished from Rome in 8 AD by Emperor Augustus, stares sadly at the decaying piaţa.

Picking Shirl up at the motel, we proceeded north up a bumpy coastal road toward Valcea, where we parked near the port, and on the wharf found lunch, and a boat for charter. Cristina was invaluable in avoiding the "brokers" on the wharf who offered us boat rides at "only 50 Euro per hour." Once we found a skipper, for a fee of 400 de lei (100 Euro) we spent the three hours on the Delta, a Romanian version of an Everglades Air Boat Ride, sans alligators.

The Danube is the longest river in Europe, and is a big one, indeed, where it divides into three main channels and many smaller ones, and innundates a huge wetland reportedly consituting 2% of Romania's total area. The birds are varied (over 600 species), colorful, and very much in sight, and the views from the 150 HP Honda-powered 21' fiberglass boat were well worth the cost.

At the day's end, we stopped to see the archeological site Histria, a small seaport city where Homeric-era Greek artifacts reveal that the port was in continuous use as early as 600 BC. The inlet at Histria was eventually cut off from the Black Sea by the build-up of a sandbar, and today there is a freshwater lake where once there was a sheltered harbor. The site has been abandoned since Medieval times.

(Images will be added after we figure out Shirl's new camera, and/or after Cristina e-mails me a few of her shots.)

To The Southeast for (then with) Shirl

As those who may have been following this blog with map at-the-ready will have perceived, Klaus and I have thus far reported on visits to all major sectors of Romania save the Southeast, where Romania meets the sea.

Today we are in Mamaia Nord on the Black Sea, just north of Mamaia, which is just north of Constanţa. We are in a very pleasant resort-motel called Vila Tudor, featuring its own access to a freshwater lake for fishing, a trail of about 150 meters to a beach on the Black Sea, an aviary, a sand-floored football “cage” (think beach soccer in a tennis court), a cat stalking birds on the roof of a nearby cottage while being screamed at by four unintimidated crows, and a two-bedroom “apartment” with refrigerator and air conditioner (but only luke-warm water, probably easily remedied, but I haven't complained) costing 100 de lei per night. That is $33.

Shirl is back in Romania, and is sitting on the bed behind me. I can see her in the mirror. She looks wonderful. She is almost over jet-lag, after two active days, and two full nights of sleep since her arrival on Thursday afternoon. Yesterday, we set a new Easternmost Point record aboard a chartered speedboat in the Danube Delta.

The First Few of the Last Few (Days)

Last Tuesday afternoon at 4:00, my American Studies students took their final exam. I asked them to write essays on questions relating to any two of the three recent books on the economy that they had been assigned in our course, American Economy & Business. Lucian Bogdan and I stayed at the Sala Einstein to grade the essays, and then went to the apartment to record the grades on my computer. Lucian agreed to deliver the grades to Ioana Hosu at the European Studies Faculty the next day, and took the grading spreadsheet home on his flash drive.

On Wednesday morning, I went to my office hours, met with Alexandra, my colleague and teaching team partner in Managerial Accounting, and drafted a final examination for that course. It was about 2:30 when I got home to the apartment. I had agreed to meet Charles Harris in Sibiu at his American Culture Club meeting that afternoon at 5:00, three hours to the southeast. Charles had offered me a couch to crash on that night, almost half-way to Bucharest, where Shirl would be arriving from Amsterdam at 1:40 PM on Thursday.

I had no chance of being on-time for Charles' meeting, but I rapidly packed, carried my bag, computer and small cooler across the piata to Klaus, and took off southward on E81, the familiar road to Turda, Aiud, Alba Iulia, Sebeş and Sibiu. Once clear of the Cluj traffic, I called Charles, and warned him I’d be late. “No sweat,” he said, “It is finals week, and I doubt any students will have time to attend anyway.”

The ride went well, and I arrived at Lucian Blaga University, Faculty of Letters and Arts, before 6:00. Charles met me on the street. He’d been right. No one had made it to his meeting. “I need to go to McDonald’s,” he told me. Damn. I had eaten a McD’s lunch already this week, and had been looking forward to one of Sibiu’s outstanding restaurants. But I was a good sport. We called our new mutual friend Roxy Fera, Keene State grad that she is, and found her delighted to join us at McD’s. Roxy is having a tough time finding a job since returning to Romania from her four years in Oman, and was nigh onto flat broke. So, we fed her. Times are tough in Romania, and a person in her thirties, even with excellent language skills and a fine education, is going to have to look long and hard to find a job that pays a satisfactory salary.

We dropped Roxy at her old high school, where she would be playing in a basketball game that night, and returned to Charles’ place for the night.

By 4:00 AM Thursday, I was wide awake on the couch. My alarm was set for 6:00. What the heck, I am awake. Might as well take off, and remove all time pressure from the rest of my trip. I woke Charles momentarily to say goodbye, and left for Bucharest.

It was a smooth ride through the slowly brightening dawn, with the silhouetted Carpathian Mountains providing majestic relief to the east. By 9:30 A.M. I arrived at the Casa Victor, Fulbright’s hotel-of-choice in Bucharest, found the perfect parking place available on the street immediately in front of “Receptie,” and found my room already available for me. Perfect. Time for a nap before going to the airport. Before napping, I asked myself whether I should drive Klaus to pick up Shirl, or leave him in the Perfect Parking Place, call Dan the Taxi Man, and have him do the driving. I knew it would be an expensive luxury to take a taxi both ways to OTP, but that perfect parking place had been the ONLY parking place I’d seen in the vicinity of the hotel. I called Dan.

Shirl’s plane was on-time, and she came out of customs looking like a seasoned tourist. You’d think she routinely stayed up all night. We hugged, then rolled her baggage cart out to the lot where Dan had parked the taxi, and was waiting.

Thursday afternoon and night, Shirl slept a well-deserved sleep, declining my offer to take her to dinner at the Italian restaurant just up Porumbaru Street, “Trattoria Verde Pizzeria.” So, I went alone. Calamari fritti. Good stuff.

On Friday morning the mission was to visit the Fulbright Commission, for Shirl had not yet met Dorina, Mihai, Corina, Anca or Loredana, the wonderful folks who take such good care of the Fulbright Grantees, both American and Romanian. In addition, Mihai had arranged for me to be interviewed by a reporter from Hotnews.ro, in connection with my Fulbright year in Romania, and about the new joint PSU/UBB MBA Program.

The meetings at the Commission went well. While I was being interviewed, Christina Mitrovici, a Romanian-born Fulbrighter from Fargo, North Dakota, arrived to ride with us back to Constanţa, where she has been spending her Fulbright Year. By about 1:30 PM, we’d said our final goodbyes to the good folks at Fulbright-Romania, and were on our way east toward Mare Neagra.

Cristina's colleague, whom we met at her University and who guided us to our motel, had made us a reservation here at Vila Tudor. We found it most welcoming when we arrived in Mamaia Nord. We were tired. Cristina accepted a lift back into Constanţa with her friend, so Shirl and I hit the sack, exhausted.

Saturday deserves its own post. Until then!

Conference in Sibiu

East-West Cultural Passage Symposium
Sponsored by Lucian Blaga University
Faculty of Letters & Arts
and
The Fulbright Commission of Romania
Held in Sibiu, 15 May 2009

Panel Topic: Is American Democracy an appropriate model for Romania?

Remarks By Panelist Prof. Duncan McDougall, Fulbright Scholar, Plymouth State University, New Hampshire, U.S.A., presently teaching at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Introduction

Early in the fall term I told my students at UBB-Cluj that I saw Romania and the United States as being much alike as countries with a lot of natural resources and beautiful geography, and both containing many cultural heritages and ethnic groups. I said then that the differences I perceived might stem from the fact that America had a 200-year head start in developing democratic institutions.

Today, I see that opinion as both naive and ethnocentric.

On "Nationality"

Today would have been my late father's 93^rd birthday. His name was Dugald Stewart McDougall, and he was an American of Scottish descent. My three brothers and I are proud of our Scot's heritage, but if asked our nationality, we would all answer unhesitatingly, “American.” The use of “nationality” as meaning “country of family origin” has fallen into disuse in America.

In Cluj-Napoca on Catholic Easter, I was surprised to hear the Hungarian national anthem played in church, and equally surprised by the answer I first heard from the Hungarian-Romanian colleague with whom I attended Easter services at Biserica Kalvaria, the old Roman Catholic Church in the Manastur section of Cluj. I asked her if she considered herself first a Hungarian, or a Romanian. “Hungarian,” she said at once. After a pause, she added, “… though my citizenship is Romanian.”

Since that day I have asked a number of Hungarian-culture colleagues and students, “How do you describe yourself, as Romanian or as Hungarian?” In each case I have been told, “Hungarian.” After a pause, in each case those folks have rethought their answers, and said words to the effect of, “But I am a citizen of Romania.”

I cannot remember the last time I heard an American citizen refer to the land of his ethnic roots as his “nationality.” In that perception, I have come to accept the notion that there is, indeed, an American Culture. In that distinction, I have come to understand a difference between America's diversity and Romania's diversity.

Differing Diversities

In Romania, the people live within borders imposed, in the main, by the victors of World War I. Those who were not of Romanian culture at that time were suddenly cut off politically from their ethnic fellows, and forced to live the lives of members of a minority. An emotional memory, now 90 years old, persists, leaving many of Romania's citizens still feeling like foreigners in their home country.

In contrast, American ethnic diversity stems, in the main, from three historical facts: voluntary immigration, slavery, and the conquering (some would say "incomplete genocide") of the American Indians. The voluntary immigrants from Europe conquered the Native American tribes, became the continent’s majority, and have formed an American Culture of great ethnic diversity: the famous “melting pot” that is America.

But thinking about the American Indians has led me to a new view of American diversity with respect to European diversity.

Julius Caesar rose to power by conquering Europe's “barbarians,” as he called them. In The Gallic Wars Caesar describes many European tribes, separated more by language and culture than by geographic boundaries, for the latter were always shifting as the tribes made war on each other. In America the Abenaki of Maine, the Iroquois of New York, the Cherokee, the Sioux, the Blackfoot, the Piute, the Apache, the Navajo, and many more tribes, were much the same. And today, their survivors are all Americans, and see themselves as such, though a few thousands have retained their native tongues, naturalistic religions, and tribal ways by living within reservations, with borders drawn by others. These ethnic enclaves are known as Indian Nations, and many are legally such, sovereign nations within the United States: “The Sioux Nation,” the “Navajo Nation,” etc.

Thanks to the Roman conquest, the Middle Ages, The Renaissance, The Enlightenment, and all that has followed, the European tribes, or nations, are two thousand years past their tribal lifestyles, yet tribalism persists in residual ethnocentrism and bitterness. What is the solution? I hope not more “ethnic cleansings,” more Kosovos.

So, where does this line of thought leave me on the central question, “Is American democracy an appropriate model for Romanian democracy?” I must say, “Of course not.”

Each democratic society will be shaped by its history and the will and cultures of its members. Else, it would not be a democracy “of the people,” and “by the people.” Should some aspects of American (and other countries’) democratic institutions be borrowed by Romania? Probably. Why reinvent the wheel? But Romanians must make those decisions, and clearly, their governance issues are very different from America's.

Role of the EU

There is another side of the Romanian situation that bears mention here. During my Fulbright Year in Romania, I have come to understand a bit about the most positive and promising geopolitical development of my lifetime, the European Union.

The “tribes” of Europe have finally come to see themselves not as ancient rivals, but as members of a single great civilization, stemming from Ancient Greece and Rome, yet colored by hundreds of regional languages and national cultures. Here the example of American Democracy becomes more relevant. The American does not feel in a strange land when he crosses from Missouri into Kansas, nor are his goods taxed at the state lines. Americans enjoy prosperity or suffer hard economic conditions as One Nation, Under God. Since a decade or two after our Civil War ended in 1865, virtually all Americans have so identified themselves, and gradually we have come to value our ethnic and racial diversity, even as time and television have worked to homogenize us.

The latest expression of the Oneness of a diverse America came in the election of Barack Obama as our President in 2008.

In closing, a short cultural story.

Each year in New Hampshire there is an event called “The Highland Games,” when New England's Scottish-Americans gather to sing “Scotland the Brave,” and to watch huge men tossing the caber. It is but one of thousands of events across America each year that celebrate Americans' ethnic heritages.

At the 2007 memorial service for his grandfather Dugald Stewart McDougall, my son Jesse Stewart McDougall, here present, told us of a big man in Scottish warrior dress that he saw once on stage at the Highland Games. This "Highland warrior" told the audience, “We Scots ha'e but two emotions: weepin', and angerrrrr. I lost a friend two months ago, and it set me to weepin'. For o'errrr a month I was weepin', until finally some fella' came along, and pissed me off.”

Thank you for inviting me to this conference, thank you for the Fulbright experience, and may God bless us all.

Romanian Higher Education and President Hutchins

Final Exam Day

My first-ever American Studies course will end today with a final essay examination. All but four registered students have made at least one appearance in class during the term, and I have been receiving e-mails from others who are desperately seeking the readings (distributed earlier) for their last-minute cramming. If any students happen to read this post before the exam at 4:00 PM this afternoon, I want to remind them that the final exam is worth 70% of their grade, so they are not in the running for a grade above 7 in the course unless they have been participating. However, a thoughtful, well-written pair of essays on the exam could net them a 10 on the exam, and a course grade of 7, even though they have never attended the lectures or the seminars.

Ramblings on Romanian Higher Education and President Hutchins

When I was but a lad, my late mother Carol Brueggeman McDougall, AB, University of Chicago, 1935, told me about her University's president Robert Maynard Hutchins. Hutchins was a rebel among American educators of his time. (See link.) In pursuit of less "practicality" and more pure intellectualism, under his leadership the U. of C. adopted what my mother called "the European model" of higher education. In her time, attendance at classes or lectures was purely optional, and only the final examinations were graded. Students were expected to act like interested learners, self-motivated to read and to think on their readings, then to expound intelligently at the term's end.

Faithful readers will recall that during the fall semester, I withheld judgment on the Romanian system of higher education, which closely resembles that which my mother experienced in the early Nineteen Thirties in Chicago. Today, I see merit in it, especially for those whose pre-college education has been comprehensive and demanding.

I find my students at UBB generally far better-prepared for college than most at PSU. They even write English more competently than most of my American students. And here in Romania, one can use analogies to classical literature, ancient history, or the Bible with positive response from the students, rather than blank stares. I find this fact delightful in my Romanian classes, but sad for my country, for it bespeaks the waning of American competitiveness in an increasiingly English-speaking global economy. And sad, also, because it bespeaks the collapse of high expectations and of academic standards in the public school systems of New Hampshire, if not of America.

I now conclude that the Romanian system of higher education can work very well. I have met too many Romanian intellectuals for whom I have high regard to believe otherwise. And I have enormous respect for my well-read, well-spoken late mother, a product of such a system.

My chief remaining doubt is about fairness. Is it fair that the absent students are granted the same diploma and academic rank as the diligent students? In Romania, one can work full time, earn three years of business experience, cram and squeek through exams, and get a college degree. Or, one can do one's assignments, read a lot, think a lot, broaden one's world view, deepen one's intellect, and graduate three years behind in the business or professional world, with the same degree. Is that fair? Certainly, that question tests Hutchins' view of the real purpose of a bachelor's degree program. One would hope that the serious students will enjoy life more fully.

Continuing my ramble, I now applaud the legendary one-room schoolhouse, in which one educated woman (almost exclusively, in those times) often taught eight grades of primary and grammar school to the American youth of yesteryear, aided in the lower grades by the best of the upper-grade students. With the respect and backing of parents, these teachers gave, and gave, and gave of themselves, and helped America raise generations of literate, hard-working, thoughtful, and yes, morally conscious men and women with a solid grounding in the writings of the seminal thinkers of Western Civilization. Abe Lincoln may have had exceptional talents, but he was no fluke.

In that academic tradition were the Wilmette Public Schools in my childhood home town in Illinois. Our schools were large, our classes 30 to 35 strong, but our teachers were strict, and in control. They delivered. And I do not remember ever having a teacher's aide in a classroom. Of course, if we got into trouble in school, our parents backed our teachers. There was a cultural norm at work: elementary education was important. I do recall that after World War II, when we moved from the East Coast back to the Chicago area, my mother chose Wilmette because she had three sons (later, four), and Wilmette was known for its fine schools. So, perhaps I am again indebted to my mother's caring judgment.

What about high school? Does anyone in America read Homer in public high school anymore? Plato? Caesar? Cicero? Hell, does anyone in a New Hampshire high school have an opportunity to study Latin? Most of my Romanian students read and speak three or more languages. In learning other languages, they have come to understand grammar. My mother and father taught me to speak grammatical English, but high school Latin taught me grammar.

I may be sounding today like a frightful snob to some of my American readers, but I suspect that the American K-12 public school system has at least as much to learn from the Romanian school system as the Romanian system of higher education has to learn from its American counterpart.

Paul Tomiţa Golf Club in May

Golf with Vasile was great fun today, though I did not shine on the front nine. Warmed up, fed, and relaxed, I shot a 50 on the back nine, with two consecutive pars as the only good holes of the day. The very challenging course is much improved from its November condition, though definitely in the European tradition. It reminds me of golf in Scotland. Beautiful views, nasty rough.

Shirl's coming back! (Yay!) I am hoping to drive to Sibiu on Wednesday evening and stay with Charles. Then I'll not have to drive at night (before dawn) to meet Shirl's plane in Bucharest.

At UBB, Prodeacon Mihaela Luţaş has invited me to return next Winterim to teach two compressed courses in January. That is going to be difficult to arrange, but it is something I will consider. At some point I must return to Cluj, as I have learned to love this city. I was walking from the Faculty of Letters lot this week looking at the colorful Renaissance Revival buildings, Eastern domes, and steeples of Piaţa Mihai Viteazul with feelings of my impending loss. But, on the other side, there is the view of Plymouth at night as one descends Ashland Hill on I-93, there is the beautiful PSU campus, there are the White Mountains, there is the Beebe River, there is Mad River Coffee Roasters, and there is home.

Have a good Memorial Day, America! God willing, I'll be manning the grill on the 4th of July!

Bleary-eyed and Out-of-touch

Nancy Sherman is back in-country. I met her at CLJ yesterday afternoon, and drove her "home" to Oradea, where she is going to be spending the next month on her extended Fulbright grant. The original idea was for her to come to the apartment to sleep off her travels, then catch a train to Oradea today. But I love to drive, and she was up for finishing the trip in the comfort of a BMW rather than in a dirty rail car.

So, we headed west. We had a light dinner at the same roadside restaurant where I met the folks with the trumpet violin back in October (See "Half-Told Tales"), and found it as pleasant this time as last.

We arrived in Oradea at about 10:00 PM. It took a bit of finding to locate Kate Palmo's place. Kate is the Peace Corp volunteer who has been working in Oradea this year, and with whom the Sherman-Hayes family had become good friends in the fall. Nancy will be staying with Kate this next month. After a bit of undirected searching, Kate came out to Dacia Boulevard, and walked toward us, until we met up. I towed Nancy's big suitcase as far as the lift door in Kate's bloc, then bid my farewells, and turned back toward Klaus, and home.

The trip home was smooth. I trailed a small van at conservative speeds as the in-a-hurry types roared by us. For fun, I dialed Shirl in the US on my Vodaphone as I drove, achieved a great connection, and we chatted about family business until the phone ran out of Euros. I arrived home in Cluj at 1:09 AM. Not bad at all.

This morning I have spent here in my office at UBB, working on an exam. Now, I am off to Iulius Mall to buy more time on my cell phone!

Tomorrow: Sunday golf with Vasile Tamas in Pianu de Jos! I cannot wait to see the Paul Tomiţa Golf Course in good condition. It should be at its best tomorrow, as there is a tournament there today. I shall report.

Photos by Jesse of our Trip to Sibiu, Pensiune in Raşinari, and ride to Paltiniş

My four beloved visitors are safely home now in Colorado, Vermont and New Hampshire. While in Romania, they took hundreds of photos, so this is but a sampling. To follow the trail chronologically, please start at the bottom of this post, which covers May 14, 15 and 16, prior to my returning for FSEGA Englishline's graduation (see prior post).

Alex's new friends at Paltiniş





























Paltiniş



































Raşinari










Alex














Piper















With Charles and his colleague at the East-West Conference at Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu.










































Architetural Details of Phoenix Pensiune, Raşinari

















Old Sibiu





















Klaus' cousin







Transilvanian Delivery Service Workers


















Natural bridge on hillside in Colţeşti

































Conacul Secuiesc, in Colţeşti. (Recommended highly. I have now taken seven guests there in five visits.)

















































Limmers at Cheile Turzii.





























Cheile Turzii comes into view.
(The Turda Gorge)














Full Klaus













As we left for Sibiu on Thursday, we made a stop at Motoland in Cluj where we found a fine- looking 1995 BMW R1100GS in Red. I am tempted.










Alex, Cally, Melinda, Duncan, Roxy and Piper met for dinner Wednesday night at Gente Pizzeria in Cluj. (Moni arrived later!)

Englishline Graduation at UBB

On Saturday, 16 May, shortly after the kids and I had returned to the apartment from our trip to Sibiu, Melinda Pleşcan called to invite me to ride with her to our Englishline students' graduation ceremony at the Auditorium Maximum in the central downtown building of Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai. I had planned to walk, as it is only about half a mile (750 m) from the apartment, but I gladly accepted Meli's invitation. (Any five minutes with this charming lady is not wisely refused.)

As soon as we entered the buildng, we saw the about-to-be graduates in their caps and gowns, lining up in the foyer. They saw Melinda and me, and spontaneously applauded as we passed by. (Clearly, they agree with me about Melinda.)

Then, in the grand hall itself, we were guided to the front row, where Monica Zaharie was already seated. I do not know that she had saved us seats, but there were two available, so we sat with her. The autumn's gang of three was reunited at the end. It seemed fitting.

Then, I saw Moni's notes. She had prepared her remarks. Oh, oh.

I had been told that I would be expected to say a few words at the ceremony, as, like Monica Zaharie, I had been voted one of the Englishline's "Dearest Professors," which is a rough translation of the Romanian words "decan suflet," which mean, literally, "soul dean." It was a wonderful thing. (And Melinda, too, received the same honor at the Faculty of Business, where she taught in the spring.) I was feeling warm feelings for my Operations Management and Labor Management students. But what was I going to say? And would I be called to say it from the stage, to all the students and parents?

Then, as is so often the case, Prof. Mihaela Luţaş came to my rescue. She came down the row and welcomed the three of us, then asked if she could introduce me as "her best American friend." I told her to do so if she liked, but that I would be trying not to be too personal in my remarks. I felt more confident. One oratorial decision was made.

Then Mihaela and Monica were called to sit on the stage, and the Fonzie of the management class, Flaviu Petean and the lovely finance major and class president, Oana-Maria Pop took over as Master and Mistress of Ceremonies. For the parents' and grandparents' sake, the ceremony was conducted chiefly in Romanian. The first person introduced was Prodeacon Luţaş, then Monica Z. representing the Management program, then her counterpart from the Finance program. Each made short remarks, well received by the students and by the audience. Then a list of all the professors the students had studied under at UBB was read, singling out those who were voted "Soul Deans." And, in spite of my American grading structure, my insistence on proper citations, my insisting that the students buy their cases from HBS, etc., I was so-named and my name was applauded by the graduates. I felt a deep emotion, but I held my composure. I knew I was about to have to speak.

The first "dearest professor" to address the group did so on a recording, in English, from a far land. I heard he was in China. He gave what would have been an eloquent graduation speech, had it been the graduation speech. But it was a bit too long for an English speech to a Romanian audience. "Keep yours brief," I said to myself. Another decision made. It was coming together.

So, my turn came. As I had just come home that day from Sibiu, where I had delivered a talk at a roundtable on "Is the United States an appropriate model for Romanian Democracy," I was tempted to repeat that five-minute talk. But I decided to wing it, instead. As best I can remember, I said,

"Hello, everyone.

When I first came to Cluj last September, I arrived in a car (auto, maşina) that I had bought in Stuttgart. In our family, we give our cars names, and I had named my car Klaus. I drove east through Austria and Hungary to Budapest, then on to Cluj. When I arrived here, I saw a sign welcoming me (and my car) to "Cluj, Kolosvar, Klausenburg." It was a coincidence. It was perfect. And it set a pattern for my year here at UBB. There have been a great many coincidences, and each has turned out to be perfect.

That brings me to the first thing that I want to say to you graduates, and to all the Romanians in the Hall. I have been asked a hundred times when I have met you and other Romanians, "Do you like Romania?" or "Do you really like Romania?"

I love Romania. [The audience applauded, so I did not add what I wanted to add: "You are a smart, loving, caring, hard-working, generous, and justly proud people with great traditions, fascinating history and diversity, strong religion and instinctive hospitality. You are willing to go out of your way for each other and for a stranger from afar. You have made me welcome beyond my fondest dreams, and for the rest of my life I shall consider many of you my personal friends."]

And [ I continued], if my time here brings about no other change, I want you all to change your question of foreign visitors. Please, stop asking, "Do you like Romania?" I want from now on to be asked, "Do you like Romania as much as I do?"

I went on to recognize MC Flaviu Petean for his natural leadership, which I predicted would one day make him President of Romania (The first Maramuresian president?). Then I closed by reminding my students of the definition of "businesslike" that I learned many years ago from a Chinese fortune cookie:

"Businesslike: calm, factual, clear, brief, and honest."

If you live like that, you won't go far wrong.

Finis!













With Dora Faur and Alex Mican, of the Bucovina and Easter posts.

For Dr. Zach

Please review the previous post. Pictures (by Jesse) have been added. (More pictures of the gang will follow with the next story, telling of The Botanical Gardens of Cluj, and our trip to Sibiu.)

First Objective: Check!

The first objective that I had for the visiting clan was to give them an opportunity to understand the meaning of the "land of contrasts" that is Romania.

On Saturday, having met at Ferighy Airport's Terminal 2A, having learned that the bags would indeed all fit into Klaus' trunk, and having "niced" (thank you, Piper) the police into not ticketing us for parking illegally, we drove into the city of Budapest. Then, after determining that our hostel reservation was at a place to which we could not drive, we stopped for refreshment at a small beergarden near a major suspension bridge over the Danube. After one round, with my having a Coke Light, the waitress kindly gave us permission to leave our car there overnight. So our second round was five beers, not four-and-a-Coke. We then found our way to the Domino Hostel, which was clean and quite adequate for a post-flight place to sleep for one night. Its location, on Vaci U., the pedestrian mall of downtown Budapest, was outstanding. All five of us stayed in one room with three bunkbeds for a total of 84 Euro, about $22 each.

On Sunday morning, towing or toting our luggage, we walked from the Domino Hostel back across the Danube bridge to the shady lot where we had parked Klaus overnight. Our next two hours we spent walking in Old Buda, on the hill above the Danube, overlooking the city. That is Alex at the castle in the picture.

Klaus then took us unerringly out to the M3, a flawless motorway heading east. We made excellent time through Eastern Hungary, and had entered Romania at Petea and passed through Satu Mare before stopping for lunch.

Eastern Hungary is quite beautiful, with many very well-kept villages and farms, and not a few forested areas. Deer-crossing signs are common, reminding us of New Hampshire. But, unlike Romania and New Hampshire, Hungary is mostly flat.

At the border we had to wait and be quizzed about the swine flu. All with American passports were being checked. I explained that I was living in Cluj, and that the others had all been screened at the airport upon entry to the EU. They returned our stamped passports, and we were in Romania.

Romania does not disappoint.

From our light lunch at the "Fast Food Shack," we drove to Negresti Oas to have an ice cream at the Regal Restaurant, and renew my special acquaintance with Saint Carmen the Waitress, Savior of Abandoned Computers. She grinned ear to ear when she saw me.

From Negresti Oas we continued east, along the frontier with Ukraine, past where I sang with the drunk Ukrainian musician back in October, and on to a feast and great night at the Popasul Din Deal in Ocna Sugatag. By then, the contrasts of life styles of city and country folk, of dress between younger and older folk, of modes of transport between horsedrawn wagons and new Audis, and of road conditions between newly-paved and treacherous had all become known to our newcomers.

As we approached Sigheti Marmatei, we found ourselves crossing the Sapanţa River. I perceived an opportunity. We reversed course for less than a kilometer, and turned toward the Merry Cemetery, not new to this blog, but certaiinly worth showing to my guests.

On Monday, we started our day with a prayer at Bărsana, and then drove slowly home by the new route that we first discovered when Dietmar was driving Shirl, Ferdi, Klaus and me back to Cluj six weeks earlier. Maramureş. The northern mountains. Northern Transilvania. Finally Cluj, and a stop to change money at Banca Transilvania in the Iulius Mall. Starbucks coffee. Alex at a rotating sushi bar. The chic girls of Cluj.

Need I say more?

View of our apartment bloc from the Roland Garros, a riverside cafe across the Someş Mic.

Projects, Prenostalgia, Progeny and Plans

The big happenings of the week:

1. Mr. Ovidiu Cristian, a doctoral candidate at FSEGA with both business experience and excellent academic credentials, was made project manager of the PSU/UBB Joint MBA Program implementation on the UBB side of the partnership.
2. Mihaela has put Ovidiu in touch with the people at the UBB Media Office, and progress is occurring rapidly.
   
3. A UBB Press Release has been drafted, and should go out Friday to the Romanian media.
   
4. I have become actively involved in two casewriting efforts, both with small companies in Romania. They are very different companies with completely different issues, and that is auspicious from a casewriter's point of view.
5. On Saturday, four American visitors will arrive to spend over a week in the region: my sons Jesse (30) and Alex (24), my daughter Piper (young and beautiful), and our great family friend Caroline Wheeler (also young and beautiful).

I heard this week that both Charles Harris and Nancy Sherman have been granted extensions to their Fulbright grants. Of course, I am happy for them both. Congratulations!

Meanwhile, I am experiencing pre-nostalgic feelings. Last night I had dinner with Monica and Melinda, my beloved fall-term teaching assistants, and it felt a bit like a reunion. We all are sensing that our lives are moving on to new phases. But, both these ladies were central to my early adjustment to and love for this country, and they both know that our friendship is not in danger of fading.

After yet more yummy pizza in the west end of town, M&M came along to the Carrefour Hipermarket at Polus Center to help me pick out some bedding and dishes to equip my apartment for the five people who will occupy it for a few nights in the next week. On the way back toward downtown, I mentioned that I would be driving early Saturday through Oradea on the way to Budapest to meet the arriving McDougall Phalanx. Monica told me that she and Horatius were also headed to Oradea on Saturday. Bravo! They will save bus or train fare, and I will have their excellent company for the first few hours of my seven hour drive to Fereghy Airport!

The four to arrive Saturday and their host have quite a plan for cramming good experiences into the coming week. I wonder how many of our objectives will be achieved!