C(h)ristian’s Blog

What is that a C(h)ristian

Since it seems that the title of my blog raised a few eyebrows I feel obliged for a short explanation. It is actually no rocket science. I was asked if it makes any reference to some Christian roots. Well, you see, I guess I got the name based on some Christian, Eastern Orthodox cultural references. Just like that. So, with no pretenses of being religious myself I still carry with me a name with quite strong religious connotations.

But you see, here kicks in the Romanian specificity. Regardless of how my parents may have wished to spell my name(s), the Romanian bureaucracy of that time, decided that registering a name spelled with “Ch” would sound a bit too “Western”, and who knows even allusively subversive. So off it was with the troublesome “h”, deemed to be foreign.

But those times are long gone, and Communism is something that nowadays some talk about with nostalgia, while some others with a sharpened tone. Still having to carry the Cristian name with me, I soon discovered that it was rather difficult to make people remember that my name was WITHOUT an “h”. For reasons of convenience, noticing that people can at least pronounce correctly a rather obscure Cristian than a Romanian bred Ovidiu, I decided to just let it be.

So nowadays I am indeed C(h)ristian. And frankly speaking I do not mind that, as long as it does not turn into something else, like Kristian/Kristjan/Kristián or even more oddly Chistian. I learnt not to mind the little “h” in there, I even started using it randomly.

At the end of the day, what is it really in a letter?

Time for TAPRI comes close

The past few weeks as a stagiaire at CBSS have been a very interesting experience so far. The only problem is that it will not last an eternity. Rather the opposite. Starting April 1 I will be commuting between Stockholm (the new home) and Tampere (to take up the research position offered by TAPRI).

The only problem is that I have no knowledge of the city, nor the university for that matter. All I can babble is Tampere, Tamperella, and even more suave Tampereen Yliopisto. But that is pretty much it. No asunto, nor huone in sight yet, and this is bugging me. I mean, I have not so much of a preference, just the usual: cheap, nice, small, central.

Hopefully this will be solved somehow the coming weeks. It would be rather sad to have to sleep under a bridge, n’est ce pas? So I am open to any suggestions, so to speak. Now I came to realize that I actually haven’t met any people FROM Tampere, that could help my search.