Revolution

It's open. The museum exhibition is finally open!

While walking home from work a week ago, I saw a poster for a museum exhibit about the 1989 Revolution, told through pictures. I was pretty psyched every day when I passed by.

Yesterday, the door was open a crack. I crept in and snuck upstairs. I heard the sounds of wood being sawed and nails being pounded. I quietly crept out.

This morning the door was wide open. Victory! I went upstairs and introduced myself. I was ushered into a room filled with pictures. A few minutes later, an old man came up and asked where I was from. "Uhhh, Canada". He held his hand out and I thought to myself "Please don't let this be a beggar". Turns out he was the museum coordinator. He told me to come get him when I was done so that he could show me a movie.

I was very impressed with the exhibit. There were probably over a hundred enlarged black and white images taken between December 16 and December 22. They even had English captions!

I can't describe the feeling I had when I saw what Timisoara looked like during the revolution. The most poignant was the shot of three tanks in an Victory Square. I recognised soldiers sitting on the railing where I like to sit. I had never seen the square as empty as it was in that picture.

In the window were old Romanian flags with the Communism symbol cut out.

The movie was equally as enjoyable. The subtitles were accurate and save for one speech by Ceaucescu, everything was subtitled in English. It certainly helped to make me understand a bit more what went on during the Revolution.

December 1989. I was in grade three. I certainly didn't know what was going on in Romania then. And yet I saw eight year olds in the crowds cheering and protesting along with their parents.

Makes me realise that I never had to protest for anything. Ok, I was tear gassed in Strasbourg during a demonstration against the US invasion of Iraq and the subsequent Iraq War, but that was mainly a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

I spent a few minutes chatting with the man after the movie. He took a picture of me because he said he likes to photograph all the foreigners who see the exhibit. He told me that there was no cost to view the exhibit, but there was a "suggested" donation of 2.50 euros, which was mandatory. Why not just charge 2.50 euros then? I gave him 100,000 lei (2.50 euros) which I would have given anyways. I just think it was funny that we *had* to give a "donation".

They gave me a pamphlet about the exhibit and invited me to sign the guestbook. There was a huge group of American teachers there that morning! I was the only Canadian though. They asked for me to come back when I get back from Bulgaria. They want me to help with some of the translation, which I readily agreed to.