Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Olivia Marie Valencia (’11)

Sunday, the final 24 hours of our nearly month-long trip, served as the last ditch effort day for all the Budapest activities that we had talked about but still hadn't gotten around to. The morning started with the usual rummage for clean-enough clothes and a trip to the Hotel Medosz breakfast buffet. Groups then splintered off and ventured here and there in the hot and humid weather: some hunted for last minute souvenirs, some relished gelato molded in the shape of roses, and some took one last sight-seeing lap around the city.

After an afternoon of hitting the pavement, we traded tank tops and gym shorts for dresses and slacks and attended our farewell dinner. We were hosted in a local art gallery and treated to live Hungarian-Spanish flamenco music and tasty appetizers and entrées (buttered dough balls and ginger ale, anyone?). As is tradition, Ben and Aubri then presented us with our personalized certificates which ranged from the “first-world daddy” award (Paul) to the “most unlikely to like rap music but actually does” award (myself, as many of my fellow Flinns were surprised to learn).

Those who avoided a crème brûlée coma (or those who succumbed and woke up) wrapped up the night a “Fleepover” (a sleepover Flinn-style, meaning polishing off the remaining cheese-flavored Lays chips and Nutella in our pajamas). Conversations revolved around a month’s worth of YouTube jokes (“put the team on your back!”) and the incredibly fast pace of the trip. We mapped out the various post-Hungaromania travel plans (train trips to Prague and flights to London and Benin) and began our bittersweet goodbyes with those not leaving for Phoenix with the group. One by one, we reluctantly trudged back to our rooms for a final Battle of the Bulge with our overstuffed duffel bags. Although our hotel departure was only two or three hours away, we set our alarms and took a short nap before loading the bus for the last time.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Amy Umaretiya (’11)

Today started with a "find your own way" to the Széchenyi Baths for our first lecture. We heard about the magical healing powers of the thermal water used in a lot of the baths in Hungary. Unfortunately, I sat right in front of Aubri, who handed me the wonderful signed picture of our class and the musical video postcard of Arizona that we had been thanking all of our lecturers with, and my streak of avoiding being the person who had to awkwardly present these gifts at the end of the lecture finally ended.

After the lecture we had free time, which most of us used to explore the baths. Highlight: going into the 80-100 degree Celcius sauna room with Julia and Van and then jumping into the 16 degree Celcius pool. After making our way through the saunas, steam rooms, whirpools, and pools of every temperature we left the bath house to go our separate ways before the architecture tour we had later that day.

That tour was by far the best one we had all trip. Our guide fully explained the significance of the buildings and streets he took us to see, but what's more is that he tied them all into our theme of conflicts and resolutions. What stuck out the most to me was when we came up to his favorite street in Budapest and he said, "Every building on this street represents a different chapter in history." From baroque to gothic to communist to art noveau, every style of architecture spoke of a different mindset, time period, and story. That is a rare sight to see where I'm from in Chandler, Arizona. Though I'm sure the Bashas', Starbucks, and Wells Fargo buildings next to my house have some pretty interesting stories behind them too.

We ended up having dinner at an amazing restaurant after the tour was over. Cary and I went on missions to hoard cherries from the bowl they had on display and Olivia, Julia, Katherine and I had a great time looking at the intricate cabinets. And then finally, at the end of the night, Paul, Jacqui, and Patrick won the trip. Paul for his ability to multitask, Jacqui for her ability to be flexible, and Patrick for his ability to communicate with the group. All in all, a very good day!

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Paul Thomson (’11)

You know, it's one of those things where you hear everyone say, "The time flies by!" and, "It'll be over before you know it!" and you never really believe them until you wake up one morning to sunshine streaming through your window and the sound of a car alarm just outside and you realize, "Hey! It's my blog day!" and then, "But I'm at the end of the list!" and then, "Oh my gosh, we only have three days left." But, time stops for no one on the Central European Seminar, and so it was with this stunning realization that I greeted the day. Good morning!

I am pleased to say that we are (finally!) back in Budapest at the Medosz Hotel. This place, with its high pressure showers (except on floor three...sorry, floor three) and its complimentary towels/soap/shampoos/biscuits/fluffed pillows and its continental breakfast to end all continental breakfasts, has become a sort of home away from home on this trip. It's foreign, for sure, but a familiar kind of foreign and I couldn't be happier about spending our last days here.

Today was a "back to business" day after the reprieve of yesterday's transition, and when I checked my itinerary at breakfast like the resourceful boy I am, I was somewhat distressed to read that we had not one, but two lectures on MY blog day. Welcome back to Budapest! But, I am overjoyed to say that my pessimism was proved a thousand times wrong throughout the course of the day. The lectures were two of the most fascinating--if totally dissimilar--lectures we have had thus far. The first was given by Gabor Bojar, creator of a booming computer software company called Graphisoft. Not only was homeboy successful like wow, but he also knew how to give a quick, concise, and engaging lecture. The business majors ate his entrepreneurial advice up, and the rest of us were drawn into his "success is a competition" motto, too.

We then met up with Geza Kallay for a crash course in Hungarian literature, and--I have to tell you--this was one of my favorite lectures so far. Actually, it's one of the only ones I haven't slept through. No, I'm totally kidding. Kallay was not just knowledgeable, but passionate. He was the kind of speaker that really gets to know his audience and--in so doing--makes them want to listen. The fact that he joined us for dinner and led a game of blind-telephone-short story was only a testament to just how much he really cared about us as a class.

Now, I'm going to be real with you: I am not always the easiest to please. I like my lectures fast but full, my meals nutritious but delicious, and my days to be stimulating but relaxed. Well, I guess today was my lucky day, because I genuinely enjoyed everything we did. Now, I don't really know what tomorrow holds, but I know it's going to be amazing. After all, you're only in Hungary once: YOHO!

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Nick Synodis (’11)

As I write this, the musical stylings of the Dresch Dudás Mihály Quartett jazz up the confines of my comfy and cozy room at Hotel Medosz in Budapest, thanks to my stop earlier today at the Great Hall, where I picked up a metric megszentségteleníthetetlenségeskedéseitekért*-ton of souvenirs (including this CD) for myself and others. Today was a day of transition: Traveling from Romania to Hungary, converting from RON (Romanian New Lei) to Magnum Ice Cream (the official currency of Hungary), and transferring hours on a bus to hours upon hours of sleeping, eating Paprika-flavored Lay's potato chips, and playing "Who's Your Daddy?".

That's right, today we left Romania. Mixed feelings there. On one hand, Romanian currency looks fancy and Romanian restaurants serve copious amounts of delicious mushrooms and veggies for us vegetarians; on the other hand, everyone we met in Romania spoke Hungarian anyway (a side-effect of being in Transylvania, known to Hungarians as "East Hungary"), so it really wasn't much of a change. Nevertheless, it still feels surreal** to only have 4 days left in Budapest. As we discussed in our reflection session on the bus ride home (featuring questions such as "What is your one traveler's 'bucket list' item you need to fulfill before we return home?", "What do you plan to do with your free time in Budapest?", and "What was the biggest surprise of this trip?"), there simply are not enough hours left in the coming days to do everything we want to do, yet, somehow, we have done more in the last 19 days than any of us thought possible. Oh, and by the way, the "biggest surprise" of the trip goes to the van on the highway earlier today that attempted a U-turn (only to realize that the highway--surprise surprise--was split by a median) and was almost demolished by our bus.

Transitions aside, today was also a day of dirt cheap falafel, a day of picnicking on top of Gellért Hill, a day of Julia cutting her hand open with a multi-tool, and a day of late night*** shenanigans out on the town. And on that note, I bid ye "sziasztok," as I just heard a nasty high note on the CD I'm listening to, and it made me a bit queasy (or maybe that's just the falafel).

*Hungarian for "due to your continuous pretending to be indesecratable," but feel free to use your favorite four-letter word to fill in the blank
**Hungarian for "kinda sad"
***Hungarian for "ending before 12:45 a.m."

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Katherine Richard (’11)

June 13th began with a truly atrocious breakfast. Who would have thought that eggplant paste, white bread, and cold slabs of butter would not have been a mouth-watering hit?

The day improved - I promise.

Bogdan Radu (arguably the most unanimously adored speaker of this trip) began the day with a lecture about Religion and Democracy in Central Europe, moving from a discussion of transitional democratic states, to one concerning the effects of religion on political participation. Following him, Cosmina Paul presented topics of the Romanian Holocaust, the Romanian dissidence under communism, and the Romanian Roma minority.

Where Bogdan's lecture was a fascinating investigation of a region that we still know so little about, Cosmina spoke about sensitive issues that have been greatly overlooked in our time here. She spoke of the ways in which Romania has avoided blame for their massacre of Jewish individuals, failing to admit to their true involvement independent of the Nazi Party's well-known practices. She spoke of the ways in which the Romanian people failed to revolt against communist governments unless under the wing of another people's instigation. She spoke of the forced relocation of hundreds of Roma people to a town built on top of a garbage dump just eighteen months ago.

In the afternoon, we followed these lectures with a discussion about minority issues with local Romanian students. This two hour conversation/debate/misunderstanding was, in many ways, a sobering experience, demonstrating potential for vastly distinct world views. Many of us were made uncomfortable and made others equally so. But being able to interact with our lecture material in such a personal way was invaluable - one of my favorite parts of this trip so far.

[These intense portions of the day were followed by some time spent drinking coffee on a terrace and eating together at the Romania farewell dinner. These were both great things, especially since no fried cheese was served.]

June 13th was not an easy day. It was a challenging day and a humbling day. What I write here does not adequately explain this day, maybe because our last full day in Romania was a sobering confrontation of injustice that remains ignored. I wish that we could have learned about these things earlier, just as I wish that we could have discussed them in more depth. But I am grateful that we were able to listen to such educated speakers, and I am thankful that I could experience this day with such an excellent group of people.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Jacquelyn Oesterblad (’11)

If I’m being completely honest, I had a really hard time writing this (which is my excuse for why I’m submitting this twelve days after the trip ended). And I blame this difficulty at least partly on the events of today. Every day of this trip is a “good” day -- I spend every day surrounded by all of my best friends, being exposed to crazy and fascinating ideas. But we’ve also honed our critical thinking skills to a dangerously sharp point. To quote a speaker we had back in Pécs, we American teenagers know how to criticize everything.

And so I had a hard time writing about today because we have been critical of it. I’d like to think that we have made an honest attempt to think critically about every experience of this trip, and that those criticisms in no way detract from our appreciation of this opportunity. This spirit of questioning was my experience of the trip, and the one that I wanted to convey in this blog. But I also want to be completely fair to those who made today -- and this seminar as a whole -- possible. So I will sidestep this problem by saying that today led to a lot of discussion and that we all learned and grew a lot from that. And given that this is the way I choose to define a good day, today was a really great day.

With that aside, my mostly unbiased description of today’s events:

We began the morning with a lecture on the situation in Romania for the Hungarian and Roma minorities. After a short coffee break (I’ve consumed more caffeine on this trip than any college all-nighter ever required) we toured the facility of the Alpha Transylvania Foundation, a private charity dedicated to providing services to the region’s disabled populations. The lecture that followed was one of the most widely enjoyed of the entire trip – after Bogdan’s lectures, of course. Lunch was...nourishing (some kind of salty pork and cabbage rolls, with the vegetarians eating their favorite corn-meal-mush-with-cheese thing). Then it was onto a bus for the drive to Cluj-Napoca.

Cluj was my favorite of the cities we visited -- there’s something very comfortable and livable about it. We spent our first afternoon in the city touring some of the major churches and other sites (and eating gyros and falafel for the five-billionth time) with some students in the Political Science program as Babes-Bolyai University, an experience that resulted in some of the best stories of the trip. The thunderstorm on the walk home was the cherry on top. (Your opinion of rain will decide whether that was sarcastic or not.) I will now abruptly end this because I am already 150 words over the completely unreasonable 300 word limit.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Patrick Martin (’11)

Happy Birthday Shantanu! This beautiful day was spent half in Ti^rgu Mure(s,) and half in a nearby nomad camp. Our tour of the city brought us to three beautiful cathedrals. The first was a formerly Catholic, now Calvinist cathedral in which the only decorations were dozens of crests mounted on the walls representing important Transylvanian nobility, but otherwise the walls were completely white, contrasting with the ornate cathedrals of other faiths we had seen. After the Catholics had lost that church they built another one which we visited second, which was the most decorated church we had seen. Unfortunately we couldn't walk all the way in, but we could see the ceiling covered in depictions of Biblical figures and stories. Our final church was the Orthodox church, which was the most decorated church we had seen and ever saw. The walls were covered with portaits with highly reflective halos that I can imagine being even more brilliant at noon when the Sun would shine through the stained glass Jesus on the ceiling.

The second half of the day was spent at the nomad camp, which involved a short but steep hike up a large hill to a beautiful view. Wild mint grew everywhere, providing a wonderful smell to distract from the nettles that attacked a few of us. Shortly after returning from our hike we were provided with mountain trout for dinner followed by Shantanu's birthday cakes! Our time at the nomad camp finished around a campfire that could not pop microwave popcorn at all and the largest cultural shock of the trip: there are no marshmallows in Romania.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Lily Luo (’11)

I'm woken up at 8 am by a rooster which is 1. quite late by our travel standards and 2. reminds me that we are with are homestays in Petreni. Excited for the day, I'm too enthusiastic with my glasses and break them, which gives me an interesting perspective (or rather, lack thereof) on the rest of the day.

After my delicious homemade breakfast made by Ildie, we attended a Unitarian Church sermon lead by Kinga. The sermon was in Hungarian, so we participated by humming along to the accordion and praying silently. Our own Julia King played a beautiful song called "If I Stand" on the guitar for the congregation. I could hear from her breaking voice that she was brimming with passion, faith, and love. It was quite a magical time and place where people of different faiths--or no faiths--and of different cultures stood together with reflective harmony.

For the next hour, Kinga chatted with the Flinns about a vast array of topics, from gendered difference in assuming leadership, about her worries for her campaign work (I'm sure it was successful, though I have no way of checking the results), about the EU and Romania. She shared her personal experience with the negative impact farming subsidies hard on Romanian agriculture, a point that caught in the web of our collective minds. We also brought the discussion home to the U.S. with border issues. Kinga gently poked fun at us; it is indeed very easy  to criticize Europeans while ignoring the human rights issues in our own backyards.

With much food for thought in our minds, we turned to feeding our stomachs with more homemade dishes for lunch. I had the best vegetable soup in existence, followed by creamy mashed potatoes, cold rice with carrots and peas, fried breaded beef, grilled chicken, and sausage. This was topped off with an unworldly dessert: crepes filled with homemade jam, drizzled in vanilla pudding and chocolate shavings with half a peach. It tasted like heaven on earth.

It was then time to say goodbye to our wonderful hosts and Petreni village. As fun as it all was, nothing quite beats a great big nap following a great big lunch. I slept for almost the whole bus ride to Targu Mures, where we ate a dinner that was diametrically opposed to our wonderful cultural lunch: fried chicken, french fries, and pickles...a classic U.S. American meal, served in Hungary.

At night, we went off exploring the city for a bit, branching off into different groups. My group invaded a playground while Romanians observed our loud American-ness. Finally, we had some group bonding time, consisting of real talk, Whose Yo Daddy, What If, and other nonsense. All in all, a very satisfactory day.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Donovan Lockwood (‘11

Even on our "relaxed" days we do more than any day I would call relaxed back home. Today, we left the Deva Saint Francis Foundation and drove to Medias, an old fortified town. We had a quick lunch, and then we had a little while to explore around. Even though it was approximately 150 percent humidity and in the high 80s. We got a little group together and went to an old fortified church with some beautiful architecture.

After this, we got back on the bus and drove for three more hours. After so long on the bus, a few people were getting a bit stir crazy, especially Julia, who was a self-proclaimed "rage ball" by the end of the ride. Driving through the countryside was great, though. On either side there were rolling green hills and farmland for as far as the eye could see. The houses were few and far between, which was awesome, coming from a place like Phoenix.

Right when we arrived in Petroni, a small village with about 160 people, we were welcomed with fantastic homemade donuts. The hospitality of these people was so refreshing. They were so happy to welcome us into their lives, even though they had never met us before. After the donuts, we met our homestay hosts, and then came back to an excellent dinner of goulash made over a fire. We had a little bit of time to relax before we were taught folk dancing by some of the villagers. I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't very good, but Stella was rocking it.

The rest of the night was really relaxed, with some sitting around, talking, playing on a swingset, and an impromptu accordion concert. I think the part that is going to stick with me the most about this village is the amazingly vibrant community in such a small town.

The trip seems to be winding down, but in a good way. Just sitting around and having a chill night is something that I have definitely learned to enjoy through this trip. It's been great getting to know everyone better, and I'm excited to see what the rest of the Hungaromania 2012 has in store for us!

Flinn Scholars

Each summer an entire class of Flinn Scholars engages in a group study-travel seminar. This year’s seminar, held in Hungary and western Romania, runs from late in May to mid-June. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Ben Lang (‘08)

The day started early, with various Flinns taking runs or doing yoga in the hall. For those who didn't start their day at six thirty, the day began with breakfast at eight. While the cheese and eggs for breakfast left many of us wishing for more hot sauce, or at least some chorizo and tortillas, conversation was as lively as always. We then hopped on the bus for a beautiful drive through the Romanian landscape, alternating between rolling green hills, small villages, and abandoned industrial factories left from the reign of Chacescu.

Our first stop was Hunnedora, where we set out a picnic lunch in the shadow of a castle used since the 14th century. Our lunch was relaxed, only bothered by a few cute dogs looking for handouts. There was a festival taking place and we were soon invited to demonstrate our (lack of) archery skills, as well as take a swing with swords and other weapons. The group then toured the castle, which had been rebuilt at least six times over the centuries. While our guide had some different interpretations of stories we had heard elsewhere, we quite enjoyed the view from the castle walls and the beautiful architecture contained within.

Once we escaped the castle, even making it out of the torture room alive, we headed to Deva. Here we found a shelter for kids having family issues at home or wishing to continue their studies when their parents could not support them. The volunteers at the shelter gave us a tour, and then we were thrown into the yard for hours of playing with the children. Soccer balls, children, and other toys all went flying through the air. After a dinner to recuperate, we headed back out to the yard again to have the Americans get owned by the local boys in soccer and for even more playing and fun. We missed the opening game of the Eurocup, but our game was far more exciting. Even the least children-enthusiastic among us had kids hanging off of them by the end of the day. By the end of the night, everyone was worn out, and while we stayed up chatting for a bit, we soon fell fast asleep in our bunkhouse.