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.
Gabrielle Lacy (’11)
June 7th marked by our first full day in Romania. We woke up in Timisoara and our first sights included Victory Square, a beautiful plaza steps away from our hotel. The square was bounded by an Orthodox Church and a theater; the sides were lined with restaurants and gelato shops. We first passed through this area on our way to West University where we spent the majority of our day.
Upon arrival, we received a practical orientation of the following eight days and a general overview of Romanian history as well as a note on some famous Romanians. After lunch, we returned to the West University and attended a lecture given by a local professor pertaining to Anti-Development theory. The idea addresses issues that arise with conventional development approaches and local reactions to large- scale efforts. Later, we were very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet some local Master’s students working in development studies. It was very interesting to hear their areas of study as well as their motivations for entering the field.
We continued these conversations as they gave us a tour of Timisoara.
Many of us chose to visit a restaurant situated alongside a river with the local students, while others found their way to delicious Italian food. But for most, the night concluded with gelato. At the end of our first day in Romania, we were all so very excited to see what our coming days had in store for us.