15/04/2025
JOBSHADOWING IN ROMANIA
14 December - 19 December, 2024
DAY 1: Saturday, December 14
Outward journey: Le Mans - Charles de Gaulle airport by train, then plane to Bucharest.
Arrival in Bucharest at 7.30pm. We are met by Cristi, who takes us to the Arc de Triomphe hotel, then the three of us have dinner close to the hotel, in a restaurant serving excellent Italian dishes.
DAY 2: Sunday December 15
After breakfast at the Burger Show, we set off for a stroll around Bucharest: a visit to a vegetable market, the Arc de Triomphe district with its gardens, avenues and monuments - the Aripi monument, for example - then we enter an Orthodox church where we attend mass. The faithful are concentrated, standing during the service. They place gifts on a table in the center of the church. From a platform above us, we listen to the chanting of the faithful.
Next, our steps take us to the World Trade Gallery, where we watch an international arm-wrestling competition. A serious and concentrated atmosphere!
In the evening, we meet up with Cristi, who takes us to Câmpulung, a small town 130 km north of Bucharest. We're staying at the Hotel Imperial. We are welcomed by Raymona, a teacher at Câmpulung's C.D. Aricescu secondary school. Cristi and Raymona will be our guides for the two days we spend in Câmpulung.
DAY 3: Monday December 16
Câmpulung lies to the south of the Carpathian mountain range. It's a magnificent site: the small town of around 30,000 inhabitants is surrounded by the first snow-capped mountains of the Carpathians.
Cristi and Raymona pick us up from the hotel for a visit to the C.D. Aricescu College. The school's motto is: “Children are the hands with which we grasp the sky”. This maxim was coined by Henry Ward Beecher, the famous American abolitionist pastor and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of “Uncle Tom's Cabin”.
We are welcomed by the school principal. We successively enter different classes at work, from primary to middle school. The pupils are very involved in the tasks proposed by their teachers. They have prepared songs for our visit. Some of the students are dressed in traditional costume. We're overcome with emotion.
The Gimnaziala C.D. Aricescu School is committed to the well-being and education of its students. It's easy to understand why they chose this maxim.
Cristi and Raymona then took us on a tour of the Arges departmental complex. This is a community services facility for disabled children. The facilities offer quality living conditions, similar to a family environment. Children follow individualized adaptation/rehabilitation programs to recover or compensate for their disabilities. The Arges departmental complex organizes links between school education and its residents.
Our day continued with a visit to the Câmpulung Automobile Museum, where the Dacias of the 1970s/1980s reminded us of the Renault cars that were fashionable in France at the same time.
Our day ended with a stroll through Câmpulung. We were enchanted by the architecture of the houses, the Orthodox churches and the Negro Vodà monastery. Câmpulung still bears the traces of its past as the first capital of the principality of Wallachia.
DAY 4: Tuesday December 17
The last day in Câmpulung is marked by a moment of complicity with the pupils of the NR1 Valea Mare-Pravat secondary school. In the run-up to Christmas, the students are making magnificent decorations for the Christmas dinner tables. Together, we put together wooden discs, fir branches, gifts, baubles and other miniature characters as our imaginations took us. In this festive atmosphere, we sang “Cracium fericit!
Afterwards, we went to the heights of Câmpulung, to visit a memorial to the fighters of 1916/1918, and then met the Orthodox priest of the Flamanda church, who introduced us to the customs of the Orthodox church. He also introduced us to his church perched on a hilltop on the outskirts of Câmpulung.
The end of the day. Our memories, like a viaticum, accompany us on the road back to Bucharest. Cristi concentrates at the wheel of the car. The sun is setting. Silence in the cabin.
DAY 5: Wednesday, December 18
In Bucharest, we stay at the Duke Hotel.
9h30. Departure for a visit to Ceausescu's house, nicknamed the “Spring Palace”. We get there on foot. The villa is luxurious: chiselled woodwork, omnipresent marble, a radiant mosaic in the large swimming pool, silky tapestries. All impressive for a man who claimed to live modestly. On our way out of the palace, we see numerous photos of the heads of state who have been guests at Ceausescu's home.
We meet Cristi again. He takes us to the university district, west of the old center of Bucharest. We meet two of the university's professors, whom he knows well since he himself is a student at the Polytechnic. A professor of physical sciences and a professor of pedagogical sciences. The latter trains future supervisors of young people with intellectual disabilities or learning difficulties. She designs activities adapted to the needs of the disabled.
The day ended with a meeting with members of the “fil voluntar!” association, which works to warn young people of the dangers of the Internet. We were able to talk to them about the organization of their association, the infrastructures in place, and the changing needs of young people. The association also raises young people's awareness of the role and dangers of AI in their education.
DAY 6: Thursday, December 19
Return journey: Bucharest - Paris by plane, then we hurry to Gare Montparnasse to catch our train to Le Mans.
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