Welcome to our new home

We’ve been in Cluj-Napoca Romania for a little over a week now. The city has a population of about 350,000. Again, everything is different than what we’ve experienced at home, France or India. To us it seems densely populated. There are hundreds of communist era apartment buildings that are either all alike or look very similar. Even the newer apartment buildings have a similar look. Most are out of concrete and have no decoration or uniqueness to them. At first it was difficult because it wasn’t pretty and we couldn’t find landmarks. But we have gotten used to the buildings and are figuring things out.

We are staying in a relatively new 10 story building. The blue on the building is actually a deep sky blue although it doesn’t show up well on the picture. It’s kind of a hybrid between a hotel and student housing owned by the university, located in a park dedicated to sports.

Our studio is very spacious with lots of storage. We have an entry hall, bathroom, kitchen with hot plate and fridge, big room with beds, shelving and a desk, and a small patio. We love our large window that looks over the sports fields and then hills. All of the trees will be beautiful when spring comes.

The first order of business was to outfit our studio. It came with sheets, towels and one roll of TP. We spent 4-5 hours shopping at mega stores during our first two days. Things are different here. They don’t have the plastic that we have in the US. We could get disposable plates and flatware, but nothing in plastic that could be washed. Also, groupings that normally come in sets of 4 in the States, come in sets of 3 here. We ended up with nice and cheap that we are using creatively. Hopefully we can donate to a shelter here when we are done.

The next order of business was figuring out the public transportation system. Cluj has inexpensive taxis, trams (hooked to overhead electricity and on tracks), trolleys (buses hooked to overhead electricity) and buses. But as far as we can tell, none really intersect. Chuck, with his good sense of direction, found his way to the university and his office. Jan, with her lousy sense of direction but ease of asking questions, took a little longer but is getting the hang of it.

Babes Bolyai University, where Chuck is working, is also a good looking newer building. He shares an office with five others, although they are rarely there because of their teaching and other duties. He has been invited to meet with the dean, go to a student internship fair, and is included in the weekly staff meetings. But he is mostly reading since the computer at work is probably at least 10 years old.

Both March 1 and March 8 were some kind of women’s day holidays. The tradition for the first holiday is for any men to give a small gift to all women they know (they work with, they’re friends with, family, etc.) The gifts are small broaches, figurines (½”). They each have a small ribbon hanging from them. The women at the front desk of our hotel showed us one that she received from the man who brings the newspapers. The women traditionally wear them for the first week. We only saw two women wearing them. One of them said it was because her young son gave it to her. Then on March 8, the women receive flowers. Again, not like in the US. We saw only one flower being given in most cases. Chuck asked a male colleague when Man’s Day was and was told that the other 363 days are man’s day.

Last weekend we went to the opera, Rigoletto at the Opera house. The building was elegant in its heyday. But its paint was a bit faded. The voices were really good, as was the orchestra. We really enjoyed it and will go again.

This weekend we are taking a bus to Sibiu, about 3 ½ hours away. We’ll post again soon.