Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Dawn Cole ('09)

Today was our last day in Cluj, and everyone was feeling a little gloomy as we began to realize that our time together was quickly coming to an end. Add to that the exhaustion and sadness from the previous night–it was Katherine’s last night with us, after all--and we were a shabby looking group I am sure.

The talk on environmental issues was unfortunately cancelled, but the final question-and-answer session with Zoltan proved to be a very good wrap-up of what we encountered in Romania. I am still amazed by people’s attitudes when they talk about the past--even as Zoltan described the oppression and fear of his childhood, he expressed no sense of need for revenge or retribution. It's as if the people are just tired after so many years of suffering and would rather save the energy to try to improve things than complain about things that cannot be changed. I really appreciate this because, although it is so logical, I personally have not encountered this mentality very often.

During the several hours of free time in the afternoon, Laurel and I visited the Botanical Gardens.  An explosion of 600 varieties of roses separated the present from the past as we left the crowded and noisy street and entered a full rain forest. I felt as though I was back in Costa Rica as we wandered through this temporal oasis. We also found statues of Ceres, the god of grain and cereals, keeping watch over traditional peasant gardens from the Roman age.

Zoltan told me later that much of the nearby Romanian countryside used to be covered by similar forest vegetation, but with the expansion and industrialization of cities, much of it was lost. It is hard to imagine that such serenity once existed in those now-hectic spaces stained by years of human inhabitance.

We walked through the cemetery on our way back to the city, and we took time to notice the birth and death dates. When I think of a cemetery, I have the somewhat “romantic” idea that the people buried there represent the “everyman" who worked and suffered alongside everyone else (I guess any concept of someone being “normal” is somewhat romantic in and of itself, but still).  But upon reflection, I realized that with so many people and so little space, and the size and spectacle of the headstones, these were no ordinary men and women.  They represented the elite, the well-connected, and the wealthy.

And again, pardon the pun, even here there is buried so much history. In one place we saw a set of at least eight graves sharing the same name. As we looked closer, we saw that they were all brothers, born in 1916, 1918, 1919, 1921… and they all shared the same fate, dying in 1944, 1945. Of the eight, only one--the sister--was spared. She still lives today, her gravestone just sitting there waiting to be finished.   

For me, this day just showed that the history of this place is everywhere--you just have to look a little closer to discover the story. It all makes me wonder--how aware are people living in these ancient cities of the history of the places that surround them? Does their knowledge of the past increase their sense of nationalism, or are they like the many Arizonans who have never visited the wonder of the world that sits in their backyard (the Grand Canyon)?  How much of their identity as a Hungarian or Romanian is tied to the physical infrastructure and how much is simply rooted in the culture of the people that surround them?  Do Hungarians miss their beloved land lost in the Treaty of Treanon with such passion because they lost those physical monuments that embody the past, or because of the lifestyles and peoples those lands supported?   And finally, just as the forests were transformed first to agricultural lands and then to cities, what will these cities eventually become? How will the complex histories of these lands shape their future?

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Adam Martinez ('09)

Several somnolent Scholars were greeted with a rudely early wake-up call in the form of gale-force winds  at four in the morning. Ultimately, the damage was small: one broken window in Sachi and Emma's sleeping quarters. Needless to say, it gave them quite a fright, and many of us rode out the rest of the storm questioning the structural integrity of each of our small huts.

The morning began again under better pretenses at around eight, when we awoke to the smell of fresh rain and the sound of birds chirping in Romanian. Herded by our responsible chaperones, we made our way to the bus to depart to Cluj. The next few minutes saw us waving goodbye to both the immaculate lawn, upon which the hotel management had forbidden us to tread, and the looming Rimetean mountain, to which the thunderstorm had likewise denied us access. We got settled on the bus and, after a bout of bleary-eyed yet blessedly-brief reflections, took advantage of the opportunity to supplement our meager sleep supply.

The duration of the actual bus ride remains a mystery. Each passenger was either still caught up in the previous eventful night, looking forward to Cluj, or happily dreaming of shower curtains, peanut butter, and marshmallows, three objects that the Iron Curtain seems to have permanently scared out of Central Europe.

We crested the last hill before the city of Cluj, the supposed laundry Mecca of Romania, a detail that was anything but unappreciated by this ragged band of sink-launderers. Unfortunately, we appeared to have been misled, as laundromats were as elusive there as they were in every other city we had visited. Nevertheless, our attitudes were far brighter than our travel-worn attire would suggest, and we marched on proudly, if somewhat odorously.

After a brief stop at the hotel to gather our wits, we were whisked away to the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Babe?-Bolyai University, the premier public university of Romania. Our lecture was on the Romanian economy, and it was given by Professor Michaela Lutas in a stuffy, humid room in which the air hadn't been conditioned until our arrival. By the time the atmosphere became bearable, the lecture had finished and we'd exhausted our questions. Regardless, it was quite informative, particularly about Romania's economy just prior to the economic downturn of 2008.

Next on the agenda was a themed video scavenger hunt in the heart of Cluj. Our gang of Flinn Scholars split into four smaller groups, each of which was handed a themed list of clues. The clues (perhaps objectives or directions would be more accurate) were the same for everybody, things like "Sing a Disney song in a public place" or "Taste an authentic Romanian dessert." The themes, however, differed, and included "Transition," "Contradiction," "History," and one that appears to have slipped my mind.

It's safe to say that this activity became the landmark experience of the day--not to suggest that our later folk-dancing lesson wasn't amazing as well. I'm positive that, during the scavenger hunt, each group experienced a great variety of wonderful things, but the only group I can truly speak for is my own. Our first stop was a public fountain swarming with children. It was here that we fulfilled our "Take a video of your group playing" clue. Several clues later and on our way to checking off the "Take a bus to a public monument" clue, we stopped by a fruit stand for sustenance in the form of a kilo of ripe cherries. The rest of the scavenger hunt was a big happy blur, with our enthusiastic, albeit roadweary, band of travelers proceeding fearlessly onward and leaving nothing but good memories and a trail of cherry pits in our wake.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Matt Rolland ('05)

Days up and down they come
like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some,
oh, but don't turn none away
Everything is not enough
Nothing is too much to bear
Where you've been is good and gone
All you keep is the getting there

-Townes Van Zandt, “To Live is to Fly”

These lyrics were floating in my mind as we left our cabins in Targu Mures. What a wonderful day and night it had been. The bonfire smoke clinging to my skin, the taste of fire-baked apples on my lips, memories of late-night philosophizing and cafeteria sing-alongs in my mind. We were all slow to let June 12 go. But as Townes sang, “where you've been is good and gone.” It was time to look ahead to more adventures further into Transylvania.

Sunday, June 13th saw us rising early for breakfast and a bleary-eyed bus trip. The drive to Torocko, called “Rimitea” in Hungarian, was a bumpy and quiet ride except for the occasional snore. By the time we arrived mid-afternoon, the group was ready for some movement. Despite the oppressive heat, a volleyball game was quickly struck up behind our cabins.

But not 30 minutes later, already overheated, we decided to head to the cool waters of the babbling creek. We threw off our shoes and cooled our toes in the frigid water. The adventurous rolled up their pants and waded to the deeper area of the stream. I say adventurous because wading quickly transitioned into playful shoving, which then turned into light splashing and soon morphed into a full-blown water fight. No one was the loser during the hot Romanian summer day.

Soaked and chilled, we oozed our way to the cafeteria hall for lunch and a lecture. Lunch included a new dish for our palettes: bean soup with sour cream. While the food in Targu Mures presented new experiences in general – pink sausages, white bean soups, sour cabbage – it was good to have our food comfort levels challenged.

After lunch, our Romanian guide, Zoltan Soos, gave a lecture on 'Modern Romania'. Zoltan provided a helpful historical perspective to understanding Romania as a confluence of many empires and cultures; Byzantine, Turkish, Russian, and Hungarian powers had all at some point controlled all or part of what we call “Romania.” Providing a new perspective on ethnic relations, Zoltan pointed out that ethnically homogeneous nations are a relatively modern phenomenon. During the Medieval period, empires usually included ten or twelve ethnic groups. Ethnically charged nationalism is a consequence of the French Revolution and the events of the 19th century.

In addition to being an ethnically complex country, Romania is a country in political and economy transition. Zoltan emphasized that even though modern Romania is a member of the EU, it is a weak and centralized economy. With the highest number of police, army, and secret-service employees, per capita, of any country in Europe (40% of Romanian public expenditure), the Romanian public sector is bound for budgetary problems in the same way that Greece and Spain have suffered during the last year. The government has announced an anticipated 25% reduction in government employee salaries. Watching Romania's response to this budget shortfall will be an interesting mirror to how we are dealing with our own budget problems in Arizona.

The presentation was interrupted by deafening claps of thunder. Heavy drops of rain began to pound the pavement outside the cafeteria. The wind howled through the lace window curtains, like rain on a conga drum. Crowded around like desert rats at a puddle, we stared out the windows and stuck our hands into the rain. Three Flinns even dashed outside to drench themselves in the deluge. With more black clouds on the horizon, our hike to the mountains had to be canceled.

Not to be deterred, the Flinns found a way to make the afternoon memorable. I looked around after lunch, frustrated by the rain. What I saw lifted my spirits as a chaperone. Everyone was playing rain volleyball, reading, playing cards under the ramada, taking group pictures. I smiled, it was almost as if the rain had been a planned activity. If there is one thing this class does really well it is to make the most of any situation, together. Forget most, remember some, oh, but don't turn none away.

When the rain subsided an hour later, we walked the mile into town. Walking through the cobblestone streets, admiring the towering cliffs, the village was a destination unto itself. After the sky continued to clear a bit, about half of the students, myself, Anne Marie, and our two Romanian guides, Zoltan and Unige, decided to hike to a castle more accessible than the mountain top. A cool wind blowing, the mile to the trailhead passed quickly. As we began to ascend the gravel trail, our spirits were soaring. High up on the hill, we could see a silhouette of a crumbling castle. The sun peeked out from behind the clouds, pushing us onwards and upwards. We were soon sprinting up the ridgeline, surrounded by wildflowers of purple and gold. Reaching the first plateau, we exchanged high fives all around and a few hollers ripped out from our chests, ringing out across the verdant hills. On the next hill over, a herd of white, brown and black cattle ambled over the crest, as small as specks of brown sugar and salt and pepper.

After a breather, we decided to push on to the castle. We picked our way carefully down the steep slope, Galen munching on clover and leading the way with Zoltan. The next hill would be the toughest. Heaving and dripping with sweat, we scrambled up the rocks, wondering how in the world the original inhabitants made a daily routine of this slope. After a tiring 20 minutes we emerged onto the grassy crown. I put my hand against the stone wall, dusted with age but still standing for all the world to see. What a view. I breathed in deeply, and then shouted down to the rest of the group to cheer them on. One, and then two, and then three. Gradually, all in the group pulled themselves up to the castle, panting and sweating, but beaming. Everything is not enough, Nothing is too much to bear.

While only half the group hiked that day to the castle, we carried the spirits of the group with us to the top: the spirit of camaraderie, the spirit of challenges met, and the spirit of making days worth remembering. And while words can convey the events, and pictures can paint the scene, each of our individual memories of that day are a souvenir that can never be given away. All you keep is the getting there.

We hiked home slowly, soaking in every turn of the village and moment with each other. Stopping for a bathroom break halfway, I looked up to see a word strung up in lights across the road: “Gonduzo.” I asked Unige what the word meant. She said that is was difficult to translate, but means loosely ”letting your worries go” and was a common word for celebrations. I liked that and repeated the word again. Gond?z?.

As we walked the final stretch towards the cabins, we linked together, arm-in-arm. Compelled by the day and the night, we let our voices ring into the air, “We are the champions....” That's exactly how we felt at that moment: champions, conquerers. What's more, we were excited to be sharing the night as friends and travelers. We were all smiling because, after a long hike, nothing could have been a better sight than to be greeted by our fellow travelers and the warm glow of a cafeteria where the accommodation staff had insisted on waiting for us to serve us up heaping servings of Romanian cabbage and chicken. 

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Anne Marie Norgren ('06)

Saturday, June 12th was an extremely busy day. It was physically exhausting, as we walked around the city of Targu Mures while the temperature was over 100 degrees and very humid. It was also mentally exhausting, as we went to three lectures and a tour and discussed some important and weighty issues in Romania. However, while exhausting, the day was satisfying, as it provided us with more perspectives and viewpoints on the history, culture, and social issues in Romania.

One of the recurring themes of this trip is the obvious tension between different ethnic groups in Romania, including Romanians, ethnic Hungarians, and Roma people. We have attended numerous lectures that discuss these issues, and the latest was a lecture on minority issues given by Maria Korek, former Project Manager for a Romanian organization dealing with inter-ethnic relations. In her lecture, Ms. Korek explained the tensions between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians living in Romania. Before the 1920 Trianon Treaty, much of what is now Romania belonged to Hungary. Therefore, after the treaty, much of Hungary became part of Romania, even though it was home to an extremely large population of Hungarians.

Still today, millions of Hungarians live within Transylvania in Romania. For the most part, they have fought to keep their language and culture alive. In fact, in Transylvania, an ethnic Hungarian child can go to a Hungarian language school or even live in an entirely Hungarian-language town. The reason for the tensions between Romanians and ethnic Hungarians come from the fact that Romania has attempted to get Hungarians to assimilate, while Hungarians have fought to live as Hungarians in the lands that their families have lived in for generations. Ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania are stuck in between two identities: they are not Romanian, but they are not allowed to be entirely Hungarian either. Therefore, they are caught somewhere in between, and there are still many unresolved issues as a result of this century-long tension.

To give a more tangible example, I will provide a metaphor. Imagine that next year the US signs a treaty where (somehow) Arizona becomes part of Mexico. If Mexico acted as Romania did when this happened in 1920, Mexico would then force Arizonans to speak Spanish, teach their kids Mexican history, and follow Mexican norms. Then Arizonans would rise up, gain influence, and establish society of their own—an English-speaking community within Mexico. In response to this, people would ask Arizonans, “Why don't you just move to the US?” And Arizonans would reply, “We didn't move to Mexico. Mexico moved to us.” That is essentially what happened (and is happening) in Transylvania. Just imagine the tensions that causes.

Unlike the Hungarian minority, which has power and influence in Romanian society, the Roma minority, which is probably close to two million people, has little to no influence in the larger society. The Roma, or Gypsies, are marginalized by society and live in extreme poverty. The unemployment rate is 90% among the Roma, which illustrates how little this minority has been able to integrate into society. The strong prejudices against the Roma by Romanians and Hungarians alike further pushes them to the fringes of society, and their situation does not seem to be improving. Ms. Korek pointed out that a change in mentality of the majority is required before the Roma will ever be able to get out of their current dire situation. But only time will tell what form this “change” will take.

After the lecture on minority issues, we attended a lecture on social issues, given by an employee of the Alpha Transylvania Foundation, an NGO devoted to increasing life opportunities for disabled persons within Romania (unfortunately, I was not able to get the lecturer's name). The most striking part of this lecture was the discussion about civil society in Romania, which was a communist country where the nonprofit sector did not exist until after 1989.

Our speaker discussed how nonprofits are forming in order to “fill in the gaps” in social services that government and for-profit agencies cannot address. Yet these new nonprofits still have to fight to be heard by the Romanian government. For example, the Alpha Transylvania Foundation applied for a government grant to run their daycare center, and the government agreed to the grant and signed a contract to give them the funding. However, when it came down to it, the government did not come through, and the foundation was forced to close down the center for a week while lobbying for the funds that were promised to them by the state.

Therefore, as much as the third sector is gaining more weight in the previously-communist state of Romania, it still has a long way to go to be accepted, influential, and supported by the government and by the general public. However, this sector has had some major achievements, and unlike many of our lectures in Romania, this lecture provided an extreme sense of hope. The speaker was optimistic about the possibilities for her foundation and for the entire nonprofit sector in the future, and pointed out that the general public, including the media, is starting to understand and offer to help. She made clear that the nonprofit sector is built using the freedom that Romanians gained after the fall of communism in 1989. And she had hope for the future of the sector, claiming that NGOs are playing an increasingly larger role in Romanian society.

Now that I am reliving the day of June 12th, I feel even more lucky to be hearing multiple different viewpoints on the major issues in Romanian society. In one way, Romania is a very old society, with traditions and culture from the Roman Empire and earlier. Yet in another way, Romania is a very new society, which underwent major transitions in the 20th century that are still affecting everyday life. Who knows what the future will hold?

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Lauren Johnston ('09)

Today we ended our homestays in Homorodszentpeter, a small Unitarian Hungarian “willage” in Transylvania, Romania. Probably the only words to describe this little niche of the world are “freaking awesome.” To put it a little more eloquently, this tiny village is an idyllic paradise, where each inch of architecture and décor and cuisine is marked by flawless craftsmanship and every cow knows how to get home on its own. The people take pride in their traditions, history, and handiwork.

After a pleasant morning of homemade breakfast and strolls around the hills and the dairy, we sat down with Reverend Kinga to talk about the issues that this village faces. She began with the formidable assertion that, “At some point, we must decide what we want really out of life,” Packed in this simple sentence are the deepest questions of morality and values that challenge not only Kinga’s evolving community but our own lives as well; especially at this junction after our first year away from home. Considering that our lives are so privileged with freedoms and essentially sheltered experiences, one can only imagine the depth of tackling this challenge in the midst of such harsh cultural and moral clashes.

With Romania’s recent entry into the EU, traditional communities have in some areas been forced to adopt the values and practices of Europe. Over the past 80 years, the small ethnic strongholds have had to cope with regime changes from monarchy, to communism, to a fledgling democracy. The sheer rapidity and juxtaposition of such richly opposing governments is enough to overwhelm any society that has succeeded in remaining rooted to its practices and morals for hundreds of years. The rhythm of life in the traditional cultural strongholds like Homorodszentpeter has been interrupted as harshly as a stanza from a Bela Bartok composition. While modernization has brought communities together through technology and education, Rev. Kinga pointed out that the most notable changes are pessimistic sentiments towards integration and the loss of cultural and economic stability. Cultural phenomena in the form of television and unsavory vice have overturned the community life as well.

With the constant air of change, Reverend Kinga holds to the wish that her congregation will remain faithful and devoted to the simple joys of an honest life. She hopes that her children will choose to stay in the village and work as farmers. As Matt Rolland mused, for a woman so educated and worldly, this is a rather unique sentiment. I interpreted this dream as a small blessing of hope that the next generation will come to understand where true happiness lies, and pursue a life centered around a deeper peace with the world. As we said our goodbyes in the village, Kinga charged us to find a balance between tradition and progress, and to always have hope that we may find happiness.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer, the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Derek Huang ('09)

This morning, I had breakfast at a local pastry shop with Galen and Blake. The prices were so low, we ended up trying out four or five different pastries. Honestly, I don't know how so many Flinns in our class have stayed skinny. I guess we do a lot of walking, talking, volleyball, and soccer playing, so it probably all balances out in the end. One major lifestyle difference I've noticed here is that the people eat their food in public places, while walking, talking or playing with their children. I've seen gelato cones everywhere on the streets, but not a single gallon-sized box of ice cream on store shelves. I think it's a better way to treat food--not as a guilt-laden, private pleasure, but as a shared one that is soon walked off. A meal is more fulfilling when eaten slowly and with good company.

When we left Alba Iulia for Simisoara, I did not think that we would be crossing any borders, as both cities are in Romania. However, somewhere along the way, we passed into the region of Transylvania, which is mostly Hungarian. Being in an area where ethnicity is a much stronger identifier than nationality was truly a new experience for me. As a scientist-in-training, my first reaction to the new experience was to categorize it, to tag it with descriptions:

European
Romanian
Hungarian
Transylvanian

Which are the most important to the people here? Something I take for granted as an Asian-American is in fact the validity of that very label. I am both Asian and American, with neither canceling the other. This acceptance of not only diversity, but also of plural identity, is what my homestay in Budapest, Máté, said he admired the most about America. Maybe one day there will be people who proudly call themselves Hungarian-Romanian. Maybe this will never happen. It is a difficult question to answer.

After Simisoara, we drove to a small ethnically Hungarian village of about two hundred people, where we were welcomed with copious amounts of strong palinka and a kind of sugar-dusted, hole-less donut. A word about palinka: this Hungarian drink is a type of brandy made from a fruit like peach or cherry. The palinka I'd had up until today were usually very sweet and fruity. The traditional palinka we were offered at the village, however, was much, much stronger. Some of the Flinns slowly sipped the drink. Others decided to get it over with in one gulp. Whatever their approach, there was a basket of sugary donuts nearby to help soothe a palinka-shocked palate.

Then we learned some Hungarian folk dances! I enjoyed this part especially, because even though I loved going to different clubs around Budapest and dancing to modern music, there are aspects of folk dancing that are just more fun. The biggest difference is the feeling of inclusion in folk dancing. Everyone lined up in a circle and held each other's hands while dancing the same moves. By the end of it, we were all soaked in sweat. I had to change into my third shirt of the day.

The freshly cooked goulash and bread at dinner was delicious. The singing and dancing after dinner with the accordion player was fun. Usually I think of tradition as something that binds, guides and fortifies its followers, but here I was reminded that the tradition of hospitality was, at its core, simply the art of having a great time.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Sachi Patel ('09)

Jam sessions complete with dancing, bracelet-making lessons from Dawn, story time about Hungarian history, and intermittant naps--all of this happened just on the bus ride from the hotel to our next stop, Hunedora Castle. One of the things I have most enjoyed about this trip is the other Scholars, since their diversity of talents and intelligence ensure that there is never a dull moment, even on a three-hour bus ride! It's safe to say that by the time we arrived at the castle, it had already felt like an entire day had gone by.

Once we reached the castle, our first priority was lunch, since Flinn and food are essentially interchangeable! Lunch consisted of sandwiches, chips, chocolate, and tons of fruit which excited us all since simple fruit (especially grapes!) has been a scarce commodity during this trip. After lunch, we played a game of soccer that turned into a game of keep-away. Despite miserably losing, I still had fun (since the mere act of playing a game on a castle wall can make you feel like a winner).

The actual tour of Hunedora Castle then ensued. Often I tend to fall into the illusion that the past could never live up to the world that we have created in the 20th century. The castle tour completely dispelled this illusion. Seeing the stolid and creative architecture of the castle that had been built in 1440 made me realize how brilliant the people who made it must have been to have created something so massive without modern tools.

Though the building was made without modern tools I could already see the effects of modern civilization on the building. The gift store was full of Hannah Montana perephanelia and other items that had no real relationship to the actual castle. The extent to which the castle had been modernized made me sad, since I suddenly became aware of how fragile the past is. If the modern century is already leaking into historical monuments, what will be this castle's fate in another hundred years?

Another short bus ride and we reached the hotel we were staying at for the night--Hotel Translyvania--which was located in Alba Iulia. The tour of Alba Iulia was probably one of my favorite parts of the day. This tour was full of visiting old Roman sites that had guards in dramatic costumes who guarded everything, including the grass. Every time one of us absentmindedly stepped on the grass or gravel, a whistle was blown at our entire group! One of the guards let us take pictures with him. When Hugh asked the guard to make the peace sign with him in a picture the guard, looking confused, pulled out his sword instead and let Hugh hold it during the picture; the 'peace' picture turned into a 'war' picture in less than a second!

During the tour we also saw a short exposition that highlighted the effects of car pollution on ancient limestone statues. For one of the first times I saw the tangible effects of our civilization on more ancient civilizations. The intricate statues had become dull and wore-out to the extent that it was not even clear what they had been in the first place. Statues and other things made out of limestone that had stood for hundreds of years had been ruined in half a century by us.

While the effects of us on beautiful buildings frightened me, another thing about the city frightened me as well. Alba Iulia had quite a few stray dogs that wandered around the city, and, since dogs top my list of fears, I was forced to put on a brave face and refrain myself from yelping every time I saw another dog.

After the tour we were given free time to eat dinner. I ate dinner at an Italian restaurant with some other Flinns. At the restaurant our verbal skills were put to a test as the waitress knew little, if any, English. Despite this, we managed to get the food we desired. Our day ended, as most days do, with a short gelato trip! Due to how common gelato shops in Hungary and Romania have been, many of us have become ice-cream addicts in the past few weeks! After the gelato fix we headed back to the hotel where we hung out and talked for a couple of hours before sleep got the best of us. The day, full of eye-opening events, fun moments, and gelato, had finally ended.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Laurel Gray ('09)

"The world was created in seven days.
We won our freedom in seven days.
They shot me on December seventeenth.
I am not sad.
I am happy."

With these words uttered by one man in a small chapel, we begin our journey through a museum of the Romanian Revolution. It begins in the courtyard, where a photograph displays the crowd of 150,000 people that stood in the square now dubbed "Victory Square" in December of 1989. The courtyard is open to multiple stories of balconies, where flowers and cactus ("special flowers for the special people who visit us)" grace the rusting iron pots hanging off the thin rail.

We wander up the stairs to the second story and enter a room with sheafs of newspaper clippings, papers, and magazines organized meticulously onto different shelves. The papers are organized by date and subject, the shelves upon which they rest are categorized by country. This holds all of the texts, materials, and reports of the Romanian Revolution during, before and after the seven days of December in 1989 when the Romanian people overthrew Nicolae Ceausescu.

We are next led into a room where we watch documentaries of the revolution, and then a history on the life of Ceausescu. Like many leaders wreathed in overwhelming power and prestige, Ceausescu was adamant that the people of Romania worship him with a fervor closely resembling the people of China's praise for Mao, or the way in which the people of North Korea today venerate Kim Jong Il. Ceausescu egotism spread so far as to try to alter his own history. Staff was hired to create a new childhood history for Nicolae, one full of heroism and love for Romania and the Romanian people. All of the facts were fabricated, and yet the people still had to learn this history by heart in school, learning to repeat lies. Ceausescu's hobbies (mainly hunting) were celebrated in propaganda videos, and his perpetually youthful face covered huge banners across every city. He and his wife had so many palaces across the country that they were not able to live or even visit each ostentatious building.

Yet still, the United States government was supporting this leader, because Ceausescu portrayed himself as an anti-Soviet communist, a platform which he was rooted to long after the communist era of the Soviet Union ended and the relations of the Soviet Union with the rest of the world were once again relaxed. It is at this time in the presentation of the Romanian Revolution that I become annoyed and angry. I am frustrated, for while I highly value the education I received in high school, I did not learn much of the history, politics, and social upheavals of Central Europe. I was completely unaware of the immense power Ceausescu held over an entire nation, and I did not know of the vast destruction he wrecked over the Romanian countryside, nor of the social upheavals of his reign.

Yet this museum and the information it houses is only a small fraction of the knowledge and discussions we have all received on this trip. It has ceased to be a novelty when I learn of a piece of history I never knew, as it is blatantly obvious that my education, and the education many other youth in the United States probably receive, is biased and incomplete. We learn what others think is important (or even worse, we learn the information that is present on the AP exam), but this is dangerously ignorant. Instead, we cannot consider ourselves "experts" in any particular topic until we study it from multiple perspectives. These perspectives cannot come strictly from a textbook or from a professor in the United States education system, but rather from people of different cultures, nations, and backgrounds. "History is bunk" is something Henry Ford once declared, and in my opinion, this is undoubtedly true until every single perspective of an event is taken into account, and even then the event of the past can be skewed.

So when we walk into a museum dedicated to the Romanian Revolution, and one man is bent on collecting documentation from literally every single country and every major news source from said country, it is clear that this person is determined to create a complete picture of the seven days that defined his life and many of those around him. He does this so that the Revolution is never forgotten, and so that people around the world can be educated about seven days that won a country its freedom.

Again, this is a noble goal, and one to be respected. Yet I am not of this man's generation; I and the rest of the youth are the "new" generation. So when this man declares that the neo-communist party "protects killers. They are free. It is a shame" I am hesitant to give him my full attention and respect for his materials. Yes, I never lived through a communist era and I do not know of the full impact of Ceausescu because I never experienced it. However the attitude of revenge against the persons formerly in power seems to me inherently wrong as the cycle of mistrust and anger will simply begin again.

As one of my fellow classmates pointed out later, this is the exact attitude that defines the current youth in Romania. No one under the age of 20 has a full perspective of life under Ceausescu, and so it is possible for them (and us) to view Ceausescu's reign as "history," a thing of the past. But his legacy still remains throughout Romania. It is present in the attitudes of the people, it is obvious in the pervasive distrust of the government, and it is visible in the huge cement monstrosities that form the old housing projects and apartments. So while the current youth may not know of Ceausescu through experience, everyone is still affected by his past reign. The museum of the Romanian Revolution is another piece in this vast puzzle of events and opinions that has shaped and defined the Romanian people for decades.

Our time at the museum ends with a request to help find materials about the Romanian Revolution from sources in the United States. We gather for a group picture in the courtyard, sign all of our names in a guest book (proof for the museum's donors that people do indeed visit this place), and then file out the door onto the streets. After the past couple of hours, our journey through modern day Timisoara seems unusually bright.

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Blake Thomson ('09)

The day began when I rolled over, grunted at the bright sunlight, and opened my eyes. I was more than slightly surprised to find myself in a genuine Mongolian Yurt next to a couple of groggy Hungarians. Soon after, I was listening to a lecture about competition in the international context given by a professor who had a stint at Stanford for her research. A few hours later I was watching two separate men with Ph.D.'s demonstrate how to manipulate lasers to perform different tasks at the microscopic level. Then I mailed a few postcards and ate gelato amidst a sea of people, hoping to escape the mercilessly hot sun's rays (by Hungarian standards, of course). Needless to say, it's been a good day. But let me explain...

Yesterday we spent the day at a horse ranch in the city of Szeged, where we currently are staying. While there, we had the opportunity to ride horses and practice archery (not at the same time, unfortunately) with a small group of Hungarian students. At night we slept in yurts -- somewhat portable tents used by nomads when traveling, of which two styles were offered: Kazakstakstani (that doesn't sound correct...) or Mongolian, and I slept in the latter.

Depending on how well-versed you are on the topic of yurts (you never know with Flinn kids...), you may or may not know that yurts are not necessarily famous for keeping sunlight out. This fact facilitated our waking up on time for an early breakfast, however bitterly. After a day of riding horses, shooting arrows, and "collecting" firewood (read: walking into the forest and helplessly dangling from tree branches until they broke off), I would describe our smell collectively as "not up to the standards of civilized society." I'll leave it at that.

Anyways, we were all dying for showers and were told we would have about 45 minutes to shower when we got back to our hotel. There were technically showers at the horse ranch but... well, let's just say that we were justified in electing not to use them. So we rushed through our breakfast of meat, bread and yogurt in order to get on the bus as quickly as possible to ensure sufficient time for showering. Galen remarked that this might be our first breakfast of this trip with no salami or unidentifiable sausages present. I replied that this was almost true, with the caveat that vegetarians still needed to be wary of the cheese; it was "bacon flavored," with bits of meat in it. Close enough.

We arrived back at the hotel about a half hour later and parted ways with the Hungarian students, rushing inside to get dibs on the shower. After enjoying a quick shower, we set off to get to our first lecture. The Tisza River separates the area where our hotel lies and the main downtown district of Szeged, so it is about a half hour walk, and a fairly scenic one at that.

Our first speaker of the day, Márta Fülöp, discussed competition in the academic context from an international perspective. She had done research in Hungary, the United States, Japan, and Canada, among others. The results of her work were fascinating. As it turns out, Americans generally view competition in a more positive light than Hungarians do. We also care a heck of a lot more about competitive sports than they do (not everyone can have the Suns, Diamondbacks, Coyotes, and Cardinals to represent their state...). Even more interesting was the fact that Hungarians tend to see competition as a somewhat dangerous reality, one that often leads to immorality and resentment.

The presented research showed that Hungarians emphasize beating out others when competing, rather than improving themselves, while the Japanese focus on self-improvement in competition. Hungarians also associated winning with negative feelings as well; namely, fear (fear) of loser's envy. We all had a hunch that the somewhat recent governance by socialism had something to do with it. Going from a socialist society in which employment is near 100% and no one really needs to compete for anything directly to a free-market economy in which getting the edge on others makes all the difference certainly isn't an overnight process. And it isn't without ramifications.

One final note about competition, a bit of a fun piece of trivia: Hungarians use the English word for "loser," but have their own word for "winner." Ideas as to the implications of not having a word for being a loser until us Americans "enlightened" them? You're welcome, Hungary. With that and the Lady Gaga music they play everywhere, I'd say they really owe us one.

Anyway, after the talk we went out to lunch at the nearby Brnoi étterem (the Hungarian word for restaurant). Can anyone guess what we had for lunch? At the time of my writing this, only 2 blog entries have been posted, and neither of them have mentioned this fact, so I don't feel like I am beating the subject to death: we had fried chicken with french fries and rice. Fried chicken and some form of potato seems to be either the quintessential Hungarian treat or the only safe bet with a group of 17 American teenagers. Either way, the gelato:fried chicken ratio in our diet seems to be getting exponentially larger by the day. I'm not complaining.

After lunch we had our second round of talks, this time at Szeged's Biological Research Institute, with a lecture focusing on biophysics. It was all a little over my head, but the basic premise was that lasers can be used to create very small things with great accuracy. I think. To be honest, as far as I was concerned, about 95% of what they showed us in their laboratory demonstrations was magic.

One researcher wrote the word "hello" on an infinitely small scale on a glass slide. Another researcher fashioned a microscopic 3D object with a different laser. We also were shown a fluorescent light that turned on and off seemingly by magic when it passed into a machine which emitted some kind of gas. I felt like one of the awe-inspired villagers at the beginning of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 100 Years of Solitude, when the procession of foreigners with seemingly magical inventions (like ice) comes through town. I couldn't understand what they were doing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Luckily, Derek happens to be interested in lasers and knows a lot about them (Flinn kids...) so there was no shortage of comprehensible questions, allowing the rest of us to avoid being put on the spot. All in all, a pretty solid set of lectures. And then free time ensued.

Free time began with a beeline to our (by "our" I literally mean all of us) favorite gelato spot for a scoop. Or three, depending on who you ask. Among the most popular flavors are the Ferrero Rocher, the vanilla, the karmell, and the very mysterious mint named "after eight." I think I can speak for all of us when I say that I'm not used to my mint gelato having menthol in it; we all reveled in the oddity, and I'd call that an excellent bonding opportunity if I ever saw one.

I then parted ways with the group, namely Michael by this point, and headed to the 24/7 internet cafe. Upon entering I found that I was not alone, as I was greeted by Ben, Sachi and Allison, and Galen soon stepped in as well. Although the Hungarian keyboards have the "z" and "y" keys switched, as well as hidden apostrophe and exclamation point keys, I nonetheless started my blog entry with a sense of adventure. After typing "verz" and "reallz," along with a "civiliyed," I got Ben to tell me how to change the keyboard to American-style so I could stop abusing the backspace key. I wimped out.

After catching up on email I headed back out to the gelato spot, called A Capella, which by now is our main meeting point. After milling around and eating yet another scoop of gelato, we decided to go out to dinner at a fish restaurant mentioned in our Lonely Planet guide. Michael, Emma, Nesima, Derek, Catherine and I all tried the fish, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Tisza River is filled with good eats.

We then headed out to meet up with other Flinns and Hungarian students at a nightclub, but seeing as it was about 11:30 P.M. and we have to be up at 7 tomorrow, we decided to head back instead. I gotta say, I don't regret that decision.

The opportunity to sleep in a bed in a hotel becomes pretty attractive after waking up to a roof made of felt and walls made of sticks (you read up yurts, didn't you?). So I suppose it'd be pretty responsible of me to go to bed early tonight and get a good night's rest. But I think I hear my fellow Flinns down the hall, and the laughter is so inviting, and it's not really so very late, and everyone is heading in different directions in the next few days and months and years, and after all, we're only here once... right?

Flinn Scholars

Each summer the Flinn Scholars Program takes an entire class of Scholars to Budapest, Hungary, and neighboring Romania for a three-week seminar on the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe. Here’s a day-by-day account.

Katherine Cai ('09)

Today was our first official day in Szeged, and the travel toward the Eastern border of Hungary definitely brought a nice (and warmer) change in weather. We met a guide for a sightseeing tour of Szeged. It is a beautiful small town with a rich history. Destroyed by a periodic flooding problem, the city at one point had 17,000 people left homeless. However, the people of Szeged take a lot of pride in their ability to rebuild most of the city in only four years.

We walked around the quaint walkways to look at the beautiful new architecture of city hall, the library, the church, and the main squares. We also had the opportunity to see some of the original houses that had survived the flood, identifiable only by the very low windows, which had originally been a part of the second floor of the house. After the beautiful tour of the sunny city, everyone ran to the gelato shop on Karasz Street. We all enjoyed a little break, and the most popular gelato flavor was by far the Ferrero Rocher.

Afterward, we took a bus ride to the Opusztaszer historical memorial park. We learned how to make paper and we saw the progression of life in Hungary over the years. We looked at some traditional Asian tents from Kazakhstan and Mongolia - a sneak peek into our living conditions for the night! We stopped for a small sandwich and fruit picnic before visiting the Feszty panorama. This painting is 15 meters high and 120 meters long, and depicts the historical legend of the Hungarian tribes arriving in the Carpathian Basin from the East. The size of the panorama itself left everyone in awe and the grandeur was only exemplified further by the landscape around the painting that highlighted the details of the multiple contributing artists and made the painting seem three-dimensional.

We met up with our contact from Szeged, Panka, and some other Hungarian students from the area. We all drove to the Jurtatabor Horse Ranch, where we were going camping in the traditional Asian tents that night. We all had the opportunity to ride horses and do archery. Michael (Young) and Kata even joined us for the activities! We even found out that we have some superb archers among our group!

We headed back for dinner, and after the Hungarian students surprised us with a juggling act involving seven balls and sock poi. We all tried out juggling and sock poi but we no no match for those guys. We also got a pretty intense soccer game going until it got dark, and then the Hungarian students surprised us again by putting on a fire show using the sock poi! Matt pulled out his violin, and we all enjoyed music and some singing. Some people headed out to take a walk in the dark of the night and explore the ranch and others did some stargazing. We ended the evening by singing a bunch of Disney songs as the bonfire died down and then we retired from the cold of the nights and the pestering mosquitoes to our tents.

Today was another day of learning, but I think it is really significant because it was a day full of those few lifetime experiences and opportunities. Visiting the Keszthely Castle and playing hide and seek in the dark was something that I knew I would never be able to do again. But just today I was able to do archery and experience raw nature with the old-style tents and our "outhouse," which was really just a glorified hole in the ground.

This trip has undeniably already taught us so much about the history, language, culture, and status of Hungary, but it has also fostered those once-in-a-lifetime learning opportunities that just give you the goosebumps. Tonight I saw my first shooting star as I lay out in the grass under the starry clear sky of Hungary with some of my closest friends, and I believe that aspect of the trip really speaks for itself.