My Experience with "Dis"Orienteering

This is Derek writing, and what I'm about to say may seem like a shock to some of you who don't know me any deeper than my stoic outward appearance:

Since being in Romania, I have personally found the lack of social interaction to be more and more difficult. We have dialogued with many neighbors and we have met a good number of Romanians here, but our social network and our ability to communicate at depth with those inside of that network is quite limited. I have noticed myself, over the past few weeks, growing a deeper desire to have more social interaction. That is a first for me, as 1) I tend to be fine with solitude and 2) in the States, I never had to work for community. We were surrounded by our church, work, family, and neighborhood communities and there was always something going on. So as I've been trying to find more social interaction, it seems metaphorically fitting, then, that last weekend I was able to get my biggest dose of social interaction in Romania yet - by going orienteering. ​

For those who - like me last week - don't know what orienteering is, it is basically using a compass and map to orient yourself along a hidden course in the woods. It's an adult scavenger hunt of sorts, but one that requires more skill than following a tracker on your Geocaching App. Apparently it is popular here, as the culture is much more inclined towards the outdoors and physical activity. I suppose it's sort of like living in Colorado. I'm all good with health and the outdoors, but as far as orienteering proper, it is the last thing in the world anyone who knows me would expect me to excel at. My orientation is extremely challenged. I tend to stare at people blankly when they try to give me directions somewhere, despite having lived in an area for several years. I don't know road names, and I'm generally not observant enough to notice landmarks unless those landmarks themselves hold special meaning to me. But when Ionut, our language tutor, presented this opportunity to me, I was very excited. I love learning new things, but more importantly, it was an exciting opportunity to get to know better someone whom I really respect. We probably know Ionut better than any other Romanian. He has helped us with our language, he helped us get out of our first parking ticket, and he helped us with tracking down our visa documents in the system. But more than all of that, Ionut has helped us to really understand Romanian culture from what seems like a pretty objective position. So when Ionut asked me to go orienteering, I was very excited. I don't think I would have cared too much what the activity was because I enjoy spending time with Ionut, which is why I agreed to the event without knowing much about it. So last Friday, we headed out to do some orienteering. It wasn't too long before I realized that things were going to be a bit more complicated than I had anticipated.

Problem 1: I thought orienteering was a casual thing

I thought that orienteering would be the type of thing that a few nerds got together to do. I don't at all mean that pejoratively, as I am a self-proclaimed nerd. I have LARPed before. I play video games. I was a science teacher. I'm good with groups of nerds because I fit in. But when we got to the orienteering location, there were more than a hundred people gathered in the square. There were several booths and loudspeakers as well as a large number of orienteers who looked like they were in pretty good shape. Other than the typical spandex outfits that 90% of orienteers were wearing, I didn't see too many nerds. This wasn't a club; this was a contest. Not only were we trying to find our way through the woods, we were trying to do it faster than everyone else. When you start adding in the professional photographers, aerial drones, etc - the atmosphere became much less casual than I had anticipated. 

Problem 2:  I thought orienteering was an easy thing 

OK, so we're racing. That's fine. I used to be very big into running and I was fairly quick. In my best condition I ran a 16 mile course through hilly Pennsylvania averaging a 6:30 mile. But that was then, and this is now. I haven't exercised much since having kids, and certainly not in any sort of routine. Needless to say, I am not in great shape at the moment. After picking up the maps for the course, Ionut looked at it and commented on how this was a rather lengthy course in comparison to the norm. Fantastic. And don't forget, this is Romania. You know that route to school your parents took that was uphill both ways? Yes, your parents definitely went to school in Romania - and they have now turned that path into an orienteering rout. We were running up some pretty steeply graded hills for much of the contest.

But not only was orienteering physically more difficult than I anticipated, it was a bit more challenging mentally. I know what a compass is and I know that it points North, but I never had a compass that had the outside rotate and I never had to navigate for real with one. While it wasn't all that difficult to figure out how to point myself in the direction of the next waypoint, trying to think through all of that while you're racing is a bit tough. It's even tougher when there are trees, ravines, brambles, swamps, and rivers in front of you, preventing you from going in a straight line which your compass dictates. And this is all especially tough when you're trying to ensure you don't lose sight of the last physically fit, spandex-wearing guy in front of you who actually knows what he's doing. If you end up not being able to navigate, you need that guy as a fallback. 

Problem 3: I thought orienteering was a group thing

So I didn't really have too much of a problem with learning how to navigate or competing with people who are way better than me. That's fine. But the whole time I thought this was a team thing. I thought that I would be going with Ionut the whole time. But then I found out it was individual. I literally got a 60 second rundown on everything right before the race started. In Romanian. I had no clue if I would be able to find my way out of the woods when I started. 

Problem 4: I thought orienteering was a safe thing (**Note: Our mothers should stop reading Problem 4!!)

As I was walking through the woods, a thought struck me. I remembered reading about bear attacks in Romania before coming over here. Apparently, Romania has a significant brown bear population. I wondered if there were any bears around. I didn't see any bears on my trek, but afterwards I jokingly asked another friend from our language center (Armin) who attended the meet about the possibility of bears. He said there are definitely bears around, but all of the noise from all of the people scares them away. Hm. Good thing I wasn't quietly lagging behind everyone else by myself by the end of the race as the sun was setting in the forest. When I got home I decided to do a little more research. Apparently Romania has 60% of Europe's bear population. That bear population is condensed into about half of Romania - the Carpathian region. If you look at that image and follow the two arms to where they converge - we're right in the middle of that big red splotch. So yes, there are definitely bears here. Brown bears. And while researching bears, I also realized that there are a lot of wolves here as well. 

To provide a bit of perspective as to the density of bears and wolves, imagine that you took ALL of the brown bears in the lower 48 states and placed them in an area the size of Minnesota. Then triple the bear population. Then throw in all of the wolves from the lower 48 states. That would be the bear and wolf density of Romania. But, all of those bears (not sure about the wolves) are condensed into a much smaller region. So take all of those creatures and put them in an area the size of Virginia. In retrospect, my friend's information about the bears wouldn't have really helped me anyway, other than giving me the ability to choose how my demise would come about. Do I want to let the bears know I'm here so they run away from me, only to let the wolves know where to find their dinner? Or do I stay audibly obscured from the wolves only to stumble across a lumbering bear camouflaged by all the lumber? 

In the end I really enjoyed my time orienteering and I enjoyed getting to hang out with Ionut and Armin before and after the race. And I've already been invited to join them again for a different race this upcoming Saturday, which I accepted. This time I'll know how to dress and what to expect. Not sure I'll be buying any spandex in the next few days, though. I probably won't be in better shape, but that's ok. Like my dad always says, "round is a shape." ​