Saturday, September 15, 2012
Last chance to organize our trip. When Oswaldo goes off to his morning talks I stay behind in the room manning my Romanian cell phone and my computer - the situation room all over again. I settle the transport by car to the Delta, where we already have reservations at the unknown Danube Delta Resort (I thought I was reserving at a similarly named hotel on Booking.com - whoops), and manage to determine our trip to Transylvania, where we'll do daytours with my new friend Bogdan (recommended by some lady in Seattle on Tripadvisor), and spend 3 nights in a castle, also found on Tripadvisor/Booking.com. Elena Klabin comes to the hotel to discuss the northern part of our trip and we arrange her brother in law will pick us up in Brasov for the drive to Suceava in Bucovina, land of the painted monasteries, stopping on the way to admire gorges and lakes in the Carpathian mountains. Our trip finally seems to have taken shape.
I forget to have lunch and when Oswaldo briefly returns to the hotel for his lunch break he is too hassled and hot to do anything but take a shower in preparation for his inaugural afternoon talk at the IIP - the last of the day in that hot room. As he leaves I am still handling calls and later catch a ride to the university with a kind French/British couple. Turns out there are extra talks and I wait for a long time in a side room with plates piled with pastry, which I nibble on while I read a book on my iPhone. Then it's Oswaldo's turn - and what a talk he gives - barely checking his notes, walking up and down in front of the blackboard - he travels a road in his mind leading towards a chosen destination. It's a pleasure to watch, and so funny, in that august setting, to see him 'talk' also with his hands.
A bravura performance and I am very proud of him.
Philosophers can be quite fierce in the way they make their points, and when the questions come after the talk, Oswaldo swats them off, haha, so confident of his position. What a guy!
The pictures, btw, show what I have come to suspect - that I made what Victor would call a rookie mistake when I bought that pink camera in Frankfurt. It takes blurry and overexposed pictures. Won't use that anymore. http://www.flickr.com/photos/siric/sets/72157631545758513/
After closing remarks we're driven back to the hotel to be able to change for the ensuing dinner - again in the university club.
Readers may know I have a big mouth and in the bus going there I cheerily ask a man I think is a German philosopher, whether he thinks the food will be the same as the other night - as in, not for the vegetarians we happen to be. Turns out he's Romanian and part of the organizing committee. When we arrive I see him confer with another Romanian organizer, who then takes me into the room where the many food-filled platters are
and we determine that I can eat as much eggplant paste as I want - and some chopped cabbage, haha - and, oh, there's also some cheese... Of course it doesn't matter - there's plenty of wine and a great dessert
and I get to talk to Jaako Hintikka, who is working on the story of Merrill, his late wife, also a philosopher, who apart from playing competitive bridge from a very early age, mastered the blackjack system, which was known to the casinos where she played. They let her play because they understood she enjoyed the game and never abused it, as in: took all their money. She must have been really something. http://www.flickr.com/photos/siric/sets/72157631545620098/
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