One of the more challenging parts of teaching Romania is the relative unfamiliarity of many Americans with the geography of the places in Eastern Europe, especially the Balkans. Having some grounding in 'where' things are happening leads to better understanding of why and how things are happening. Thus, a good place to begin any study of Eastern Europe is to show students a map of the area.This map is simple but provides the general location of Romania in Eastern Europe. Other maps could obviously be used and one particularly interesting one might be a language map of Romania (as it shows the diversity of Romania's peoples as well as the connections Romania has with its neighbors). As the Introductory essay makes clear, Timisoura had almost as much in common withe neighboring Hungary as it did Romania.