School Days

September 15th is the first day of school in Romania. As you can tell by the umbrellas and soggy --wilted bouquets of flowers, this particular September 15th was cold, damp, and dreary.

Unlike schools in the US, Romanian institutions of learning begin with much pomp and circumstance. Students, parents, faculty, staff, local government authorities, and camera crews from around the city assemble outside for an opening ceremony which includes songs and speeches.

The festivities began with the playing of the national anthem. It rang out with themes of struggle, pride, victory, bombs bursting in air, etc.

One teacher turned to me in the middle of it: "It's too long. We can't even remember the words".

Then the brief speeches began. Refer to the previous entry for the Romanian definition of brief.

The teacher turned to me again. "This is an election year. All those people will give speeches today because they want their big smiles on TV. Next year no one will come."

The ceremony ended with an older student and a younger student mounting the stage. The older student carried a small treasure chest. She opened the box and retrived a large golden key. After a few words she passed the key to the younger student, who spoke a few words to the audience and promised to carry on the sacred tradition of learning.

"This is not supposed to be part of the opening ceremony, " the teacher said. "It is only done during graduation. More nonsense for the cameras. I think that little boy is the son of somebody important."

With that another song was played, applause followed, and the children were ushered, soaked and dripping, into the school.