Bună ziua, I’m Chrystin. I’m a doctoral student in Gonzaga University’s Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies (DPLS), and I’m currently spending a semester in Timisoara through an Erasmus+ exchange at West University of Timișoara (UVT).
This site is a home for my field notes. Some posts are practical, travel and daily-life observations. Others are more reflective, trying to capture what this experience is doing to my thinking, my assumptions, and my sense of what leadership looks like in the real world.
One of the hardest parts of philosophy-based study, for me, is reflection. Not the piles of reading or competing theories, but reflection. Slowing down long enough to notice what I’m taking for granted, name the tensions, and make meaning from what I’m experiencing in real time. Writing here is how I am practicing that.
My background includes years of work in high-tempo environments, where decision-making, uncertainty, and human dynamics are not theoretical. That lived experience shapes how I read leadership and how I move through unfamiliar places: I’m curious, practical, sometimes overwhelmed, and always paying attention.
What you’ll find here:
- Stories and observations from Romania and beyond
- Honest reflections on transition, identity, and learning
- Leadership and philosophy in everyday life (not just in textbooks)
- The occasional logistical reality check, because travel is glamorous only in movies
Thanks for being here. I’m writing to remember, to make meaning, and to pay attention to what this season of life is teaching me.
(Everything here is written in my personal capacity. My opinions are my own, and occasionally they are about bathrooms and luggage.)
Field Notes From Abroad 