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Sunday, September 14, 2008

Looking for online partners for Go game

Anyone playing this game? let me know by email if you want to play online some time dan.rosca(at)gmail.com

# posted by Daniel : Sunday, September 14, 2008 0 comments links to this post

Thursday, September 04, 2008

Brazil XP

I remember there was a time when I wanted so-so bad to go Brazil and I told it to some people also. I was thinking it was a sort of heaven where life is good, places are great, people are nice and so on ...

Not much changed since then but my eagerness to go to Brazil decreased. Still, last summer I applied for an internship in Sao Paolo on CSR. I didnt get it but I finally ended up going to Brazil for IC this year. I am very grateful to Microsoft for giving me the chance to go. I have been to tens of AIESEC conference and I cannot say this one was out of the ordinary. What was really interesting was the fact that i was an external and members were treating me so much more seriously than when I was a member myself. Today, as a follow up of IC a member wrote me an email starting with "Mr. Rosca"!!! hahahaha! The really great thing was to meet so many of the people I knew and became friends in AIESEC and beyond. That was truly special!

Of course, representing Microsoft there was special also and I in particular enjoyed talking with people about the work Microsoft is doing in CSR and the impact we are having. I find that the workshop I delivered together with other Microsoftees was one of the best I've ever seen!! No modesty here but I thought it was really good and the reactions of the participants after it were very encouraging in this sense. People came to us and said: "I want to work in this field, what can I do?"

Besides attending IC I also took some time for sightseeing and travelling. One afternoon and a morning I went to Sao Paolo but as everybody knows it is not an exciting city for sightseeing but it was nevertheless interesting to see it, I am glad I did.

And ... after a sleepless CEE party, me, Kais and Andries went to Rio de Janeiro. There Salma, Mada and Jacek were kind of waiting for us. We spent 2 great days in Rio. This city is superb! gorgeous!!! I want to go there again! Actually no! I want to be there now!!! :D

It is a city that has so much to offer: great landscape, wonderful beaches, I can imagine great people :) and so many thing to do and see. The thing that really left an impression on me was the visit to 2 favelas. We arranged with a travel agency to take us there and we had a guide with us, she was very good and passionate about the city and its social issues. Favelas are part of Rio, are the poor areas of the city, well-known for violence and criminality. We experienced none of that but hearing the stories was very impressive ... too many details to give here ... totally recommend a visit when u get to Rio!!

Since I came back I am thinking about when I will go back to Brazil: I want to make a tour, waterfalls in the south, the amazon and the tropical-forrest, the north-western coast and rio again :). that will be in some years probably cause it is costly but I am sure it will happen sooner than I expect! Being positive makes things happen faster :)

pictures on facebook from Rio de Janeiro and from IC, sao paolo and trip

Tudo bem!

# posted by Daniel : Thursday, September 04, 2008 2 comments links to this post

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

# posted by Daniel : Tuesday, August 19, 2008 0 comments links to this post

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.

# posted by Daniel : Monday, August 11, 2008 0 comments links to this post

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 :)

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 ...

# posted by Daniel : Monday, July 28, 2008 2 comments links to this post

Monday, July 21, 2008

Al Gore

# posted by Daniel : Monday, July 21, 2008 0 comments links to this post

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?

# posted by Daniel : Wednesday, April 30, 2008 2 comments links to this post