Tuesday, August 19, 2008
what do you think of this?
you think the lady is real? well ... it isn't! that is what technology can do today! guess how movies can look like in the future ... :)
her name ... Emily
you think the lady is real? well ... it isn't! that is what technology can do today! guess how movies can look like in the future ... :)
her name ... Emily
Monday, August 11, 2008
Tranquil Turkey
I just mentioned in my previous post that I had 3 friends coming from Romania visiting and that I took a week off for vacation and we almost made a plan about it :)
well ... screw the plan!!! :)
We ended up going to Nort-Western Turkey only but that cool enough. Started in Safranbolu, a UNESCO world heritage city from there on went to Amasra just for a few hours and had dinner there. On the way to Amasra we heard about this place Cakraz which has much better beaches than Amasra and it is more quiet so we went there ... it was great!!! I loved the place! After, for almost one full day we travelled from Cakraz to Sarikum, about 300 km but it took about 9 hours to get there. The reason ... the curbed road on the abrupt Black Sea coast, hundreds of serpentines and no tunnels or bridges. but the landscape is breathtaking and driving on the edge of the cliff is quite exciting ... finally we arrived at sunset at Sarikum, a small village. the reason to go there: Ecotopia, a camp in a natural reservation. the place is beautiful, there is this lake with many wild birds and the camp was next to the beach and the beach was beautiful and quiet except for Saturday when locals came for picnic :)
A 1 day trip was to the Erfelek waterfalls, 28 small ones on the course of a river, all within max 2 km. Beautiful and refreshing ... did some walking with bear foot in icy cold water, climbed some walls and admired the beauty of the place. on the way back from sarikum we hithhiked and went really well :) ... first hitch hiking xp in Turkey.After more bathing in the very warm Black Sea and chilling in the camp I left back to Istanbul with a day stop in Sinop where there was a Music and Tourism Festival. That was pretty noisy and felt like Istanbul again. I arrived just in time for a live rock concert and it was interesting to see vailed women attending the show and curiously following the performance ...
Finally I left Sinop and for 3 hours before sunset I could admire the beautiful landscape in Northern Turkey again, this time in-land and the mountains where even higher, the water was missing but the landscape was as beautiful.
I feel very positively energized after this week, it was exactly what I needed. And I am glad I didnt go for all the crowded and touristical places.
Please check the photo album.
next is Brazil ... :) in 2 weeks time.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Need a break ya!
These days I was making some holidays plans and after several changes came to a conclusion!!!
I will take next week off and go first to Sinop, the most northern city in Turkey ... there is a camp there and some friends from Romania want to go for it so I am joining as well. After we will go to Capadoccia to see that weird stuff and then reach the south-western part of Turkey. We might go hiking on the mountain next to Bursa, go to Izmir, Pamukale, Bodrum and other touristic places. We will decide on the way where and when we will go, we are very cool about it :)
I drew with the pen on this map the itinerary :)
I will take next week off and go first to Sinop, the most northern city in Turkey ... there is a camp there and some friends from Romania want to go for it so I am joining as well. After we will go to Capadoccia to see that weird stuff and then reach the south-western part of Turkey. We might go hiking on the mountain next to Bursa, go to Izmir, Pamukale, Bodrum and other touristic places. We will decide on the way where and when we will go, we are very cool about it :)
I drew with the pen on this map the itinerary :)
That feels good! Yeaaah! I am quite addicted to travelling but I am bit dissapointed there is no passport stamping involved this time :P ...
I went to Jordan earlier in July and was amazing and realized once again how much I like disovering new and different places! Just love it! And remember please my goal of going to 50 countries for at least a 1 week! I counted and now I am at 11 so still a long way to go! But Brazil is next!!! :D
I am going to Brazil for about a week attending IC for a few days and then taking some days off to go to Rioooo! :P that will make it 12! :D
There was a time when I was crazy about going to Brazil, now I am more cool about it but it's still like a dream coming true. I still want to live in South America for some time, a few years ... I'll see where life takes me ... I have no doubts the bag is full of surprises :)
But now a sad thing which shakes me a bit ... I was initially thinking about going to Eastern Turkey to mount Ararat for example. I anyways decided not to go but today a colleague who heard me talking about going there told me it is not a good idea at all ... with the PKK being all angry and the recent terrorist atacks happening in Istanbul ... the country is not safe in my eyes and Eastern Turkey is said to be the least safe of all regions ...
In July 23 people died in Istanbul as a result of terrorist atacks, first at the US embassy and yesterday near a shopping mall ... wow! It is something really hard to get used to and accept as part of daily life!
But I go on with my vacation plan ...
Monday, July 21, 2008
Al Gore
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Diversity
For about 10 days I moved from the dorm to a flat. I like it a lot, has bosphorus view and it is moder and big. I almost lost count of the nationalities of people I shared for a longer period the same room or flat: Romanian, Greek, Serbian, Columbian, Chinese, Canadian, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Slovak, German, Tunisian, Nigerian, Hungarian and now I am living with Turkish and Argentinian. That makes me pretty international eh? and actually few things surprise me, even if it different I take it as normal.
For example: Turkish flatmate doesnt drink alcohol :) and he prays 5 times a day. The Columbian was taking shower with his underwear on. The Greek was sleeping so much :P. The Serbian was oftenly singing hip-hop songs. The Slovak was a cleaning freak, washing all the dishes. The German was ironing his shirts very often. The Nigerian was very willing to share food ;). The Tunisian was oftenly smoking shisha and smoking in the toilet. The Chinese were drinking warm/hot water instead of "normal" cold water. And so on, and so son ...
At work I interact with very diverse people from all over Middle East and Africa and again I can notice some traits. The Africans (except North Africa) are always busy. The Israelians are very demanding and they argue a lot. The Arabs are quite demanding and action oriented. The Turks ... oooh! the Turks!! no comment! :D
I am not trying to put people in boxes, I am past that phase but I am enjoying all these differences.
Now I cannot see myself living in a place where there is just one type of people, that speak only one language and do things in a similar manner. Then I would feel I am in a box. Diversity is something I embrace and am becoming dependent on it.
Generally I think people should get out of their box and be open towards others, learn to accept them, not judge them, be willing to change, think how they are perceived by others, make more compromises, be sensitive to the things which are important to others etc etc. I think globalization is something affecting everyone's life and there is no way to avoid and I don't think we should. Opposing it will not bring anything good. Of course going to extreme is not good also, adopting all American life-style is not the way forward, values, behaviors, traditions must be kept as well. It is the people who have to become more open-minded.
On Sunday I had Easter and even though I am not into religion I miss the traditions from Romania. It is already the second Easter I spend in a different way, away from home. But I went to a restaurant and ate lamb and then boiled eggs and break them hehe! Though I was not in the same place with my family and friends, we spoke, over the internent and phone :)
All these experiences havent made me less Romanian. They made me more global citizen :P and I love it! And they dont conflict :)
Check this nice picture, expressing diversity. It is toothpaste from Turkey, Ukraine and China. Cool huh?
Friday, February 29, 2008
Interesting stories
hey,
Always when moving to a new place, many things happen in the first weeks until things settle down. I got to visit a bit of the city (had trips of even 1h30' and I was still in Istanbul ;) ), went to some parties, getting more and comfortable with the job, meetings tones of people and so on.
But there are always some experience that stand out of the crowd :)
1. Hairdresser. I decided to get a haircut and went alone to the closest one to the place I live. I went in, said "Merhaba! Do you speak English?" the answer came straight away "Of course my friend!". I got on the chair and tried to explain that he should leave abt 2 cm and at the back to make it natural and I was showing him with my hand. I asked "Do you understand?", he said "Of course I understand my friend!". Next thing he does he takes the machine and starts to cut it very-very small at the back so for a few second I didn't see what he was doing. When I did it was too late, he was making me bold :P
2. Taxi. When coming around 1 a.m. from the airport I decided to take a taxi and I went to the taxi that was closest to walk to. I didn't know that I should have gone to the 1st in the qeue not to the 3rd as I did. As soon as I got in, all the taxi drivers (about 20) came to my driver and started arguing with him. I deducted that they were angry with him that he accepted me and didn't send me to the first one. As he was stubborned they started screaming, heating the car, took the keys of the car and came to me and asked me to go out of the car. I told them I wanted to go with this car and that I don't want to go to the first one. One of the drivers got really angry, that was unacceptable for him, pulled me out of the car and pushed me towards the first car ... Finally I went with the first car and I learned a lesson which is valid for every culture: "don't fight it, play by their rules and forget about what was normal for you". From now on I wil go to the first car ... :)
3. CEELDS (Central & Eastern European Leadership Development Seminar). After 5 years of attending tones of conference in all possible roles the time came to try a new role: external :P
So I was given the opportunity to attend this conference as representative of Microsoft together with Emel and deliver a workshop on "Information, Communication and Technology". We also attended the World Cafe and as you imagine there were people all the time asking about what I am doing at Microsoft, why Vista is not good, why is Microsoft doinf Community Affairs and many-many more ... It was a lot of fun, of course many of the questions I couln't answer but it felt very weird ... one of the OC members came to me wanting to ask me something and started with "Mr. Rosca ..." and I reacted spontanuously "WHAT??!?! Please call me Daniel" :)
Oh oh!
For now things are going well, I like the job, I like the city and I met interesting people :) and today I got my residence permit until Feb 2009! I am a local now!!! :D
Of course, pictures on facebook :)
Hasta la vista!
Always when moving to a new place, many things happen in the first weeks until things settle down. I got to visit a bit of the city (had trips of even 1h30' and I was still in Istanbul ;) ), went to some parties, getting more and comfortable with the job, meetings tones of people and so on.
But there are always some experience that stand out of the crowd :)
1. Hairdresser. I decided to get a haircut and went alone to the closest one to the place I live. I went in, said "Merhaba! Do you speak English?" the answer came straight away "Of course my friend!". I got on the chair and tried to explain that he should leave abt 2 cm and at the back to make it natural and I was showing him with my hand. I asked "Do you understand?", he said "Of course I understand my friend!". Next thing he does he takes the machine and starts to cut it very-very small at the back so for a few second I didn't see what he was doing. When I did it was too late, he was making me bold :P
2. Taxi. When coming around 1 a.m. from the airport I decided to take a taxi and I went to the taxi that was closest to walk to. I didn't know that I should have gone to the 1st in the qeue not to the 3rd as I did. As soon as I got in, all the taxi drivers (about 20) came to my driver and started arguing with him. I deducted that they were angry with him that he accepted me and didn't send me to the first one. As he was stubborned they started screaming, heating the car, took the keys of the car and came to me and asked me to go out of the car. I told them I wanted to go with this car and that I don't want to go to the first one. One of the drivers got really angry, that was unacceptable for him, pulled me out of the car and pushed me towards the first car ... Finally I went with the first car and I learned a lesson which is valid for every culture: "don't fight it, play by their rules and forget about what was normal for you". From now on I wil go to the first car ... :)
3. CEELDS (Central & Eastern European Leadership Development Seminar). After 5 years of attending tones of conference in all possible roles the time came to try a new role: external :P
So I was given the opportunity to attend this conference as representative of Microsoft together with Emel and deliver a workshop on "Information, Communication and Technology". We also attended the World Cafe and as you imagine there were people all the time asking about what I am doing at Microsoft, why Vista is not good, why is Microsoft doinf Community Affairs and many-many more ... It was a lot of fun, of course many of the questions I couln't answer but it felt very weird ... one of the OC members came to me wanting to ask me something and started with "Mr. Rosca ..." and I reacted spontanuously "WHAT??!?! Please call me Daniel" :)
Oh oh!
For now things are going well, I like the job, I like the city and I met interesting people :) and today I got my residence permit until Feb 2009! I am a local now!!! :D
Of course, pictures on facebook :)
Hasta la vista!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
arrivals & departures
2 weeks already passed since I came to Istanbul and it feels like yesterday, as usually time flies so fast ...
Today, my predecesor at Microsoft left Istanbul after almost 1 year spent here; I could feel his sadness and of the ones that have been his friends here; it is maybe the most impressive intern-goodbye I have seen and couldn't help thinking of all the people I have left behind or that have left me behind.
Today, my predecesor at Microsoft left Istanbul after almost 1 year spent here; I could feel his sadness and of the ones that have been his friends here; it is maybe the most impressive intern-goodbye I have seen and couldn't help thinking of all the people I have left behind or that have left me behind. The first times it seems funny but after a while it gets annoying ... all the time moving on and all the time needing to join a new social group among others. I have to admit that these days it is one of the things that is bugging me the most as it is already the 5th time I get to a new place (from Caransebes to Severin, to Timisoara, to Brussels, to Warsaw and now to Istanbul - just to count the places where I stayed for more than 2 months).
I wouldn't be surprised to find among all the AIESECers out there who travel the world and oftenly change places the same feeling of frustration that departures/arrivals bring. Of course moving from one place to another has positive sides as well, one of them is the fact that you meet amazing and so diverse people, I only wish I could gather them all for a beer one night somewhere, sometime ...
To all those special people out there, I would like to tell them that I miss them all !!! And I really hope we keep in touch! Come and visit me in Istanbul!
