Becoming Familiar with Oradea

Greetings,

Today was the official kick off to the school year.  Classes begin on Wednesday.  This week has me teaching one class on Thursday and two classes on Friday.  The past few days have been spent preparing, getting the apartment "spruced" up, learning our surroundings, and attending church.

Downtown Oradea is a very pleasant place with some beautiful architecture.  Since Oradea is so far removed from Bucharest, the Soviets left much of the downtown standing.  The good news is that they did not bulldoze the beautiful buildings, but the bad news is that they did nothing to maintain these buildings.  Most of the Soviet building programs happened in those areas that surround the central district.  Below are a few pictures to give you an idea of the downtown and a sense of the architecture.  Reminds one a bit of Vienna.

Opera House

Pedestrian Shopping Strada

Strada in the center of town

Inside Galleria

Emanuel University is about two miles south of the downtown area.  To get downtown, we jump on a tram that costs 5 lei (about $1.50) and it takes roughly 15-20 minutes.  Most of the restaurants are Italian as they were the first group of people to come to Oradea for investment purposes after the revolution in 1989 that removed the Soviets from this country.  We have already eaten at several of these restaurants and last night we took in the fine cuisine of McDonald's.  The burger was a bit dry, the fries a bit cold, but the Coke tasted great.  The inside was much fancier than those in the States.  Internet and beer were also available.  Unlike the States, they wanted you to hang around for a bit.  To give you an idea of prices, our final bill was the equivalent of $7.00.

A beautiful lady in a beautiful park

We attended worship service at Emanuel Baptist Church on Sunday.  It is a large church with well over 4000 members and is the heart and soul of the evangelical community here in Oradea.  A two-hour service highlighted by wonderful singing and music.  It was very uplifting to hear the old hymns sung in a different language.  The words were on a screen so Cheryl and I found ourselves singing in Romanian along with our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We have felt a real peace and calm and vitality during our first week and we know that we can contribute much of this to the prayers of our friends and family--prayer does make a difference and we continue to ask for your faithful prayers.

Things we miss--Cheerios, Life cereal, vegetables (Tom not so much), long and warm showers, salty pretzels, cushy-top queen mattress, kitchen sink and oven, clothes dryer, a car, and all of you.

Things we have discovered--great pastries, great people, lots of walking, true devotion, comfort in each other, and a slower and less scheduled lifestyle that allows more time for reflection and spontaneity.

I ended our last entry with the word "pache".  This is the usual greeting at Emanuel and it means peace or shalom.  I also discovered that it is spelled pace.  In the Romanian language, when c and e are together, it makes for a che sound.

Pace,

Cheryl and Tom