http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzcuBbztn-0
I'm proud to be Romanian!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Back on the blog...
Haven't been writing for a while...I can say I've been completely lost in Damascus, somewhere in between the new and the old city, trying to become part of such a mixture of everything, trying to be me and at the same time to respect the rules of a completely different world, trying to understand and act alike.
What have I learned so far?
Firstly, every time you are trying too hard to do something it's never going to work as you like...so you just have to be more relaxed, to enjoy the process and not think too much of the result. The process as it is might be much better and useful.
Then, you need to be a very good observer...especially here. Listen...watch...try to understand... try to pick up words that sound familiar...try to learn new words and use them every time you get the chance.
Thirdly, enjoy your time...enjoy being lost... enjoy the struggle to have a normal dialogue in a language you've never heard before, a language that sounds like something you've been studying but it is nothing like that... enjoy being different and respect the differences you see in the people around you...never judge! This might become your biggest mistake.
No matter how far you are from home, you can always find a family that can make you feel like home no matter the language they speak, the culture they come from or their religion.
However, I think the most important thing that I've learned in the past two months is how to treasure my independence and my freedom. And this has nothing to do with religion, politics, family, rules, government, society...this is all about myself!
The song that ends my article is composed by one of my best friends, Fadi G. Al-Naji. It is probably the best symbol of what the past two months have taught me. Thank you Fadi!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkYlra0IURQ
What have I learned so far?
Firstly, every time you are trying too hard to do something it's never going to work as you like...so you just have to be more relaxed, to enjoy the process and not think too much of the result. The process as it is might be much better and useful.
Then, you need to be a very good observer...especially here. Listen...watch...try to understand... try to pick up words that sound familiar...try to learn new words and use them every time you get the chance.
Thirdly, enjoy your time...enjoy being lost... enjoy the struggle to have a normal dialogue in a language you've never heard before, a language that sounds like something you've been studying but it is nothing like that... enjoy being different and respect the differences you see in the people around you...never judge! This might become your biggest mistake.
No matter how far you are from home, you can always find a family that can make you feel like home no matter the language they speak, the culture they come from or their religion.
However, I think the most important thing that I've learned in the past two months is how to treasure my independence and my freedom. And this has nothing to do with religion, politics, family, rules, government, society...this is all about myself!
The song that ends my article is composed by one of my best friends, Fadi G. Al-Naji. It is probably the best symbol of what the past two months have taught me. Thank you Fadi!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkYlra0IURQ
Friday, September 3, 2010
Damascus, Damasc, Dimashq
First three days in Damascus... It's crazy! It feels as if I'm in another world...Why do I feel like home then??
Damascus - the oldest city in the world - is somehow lost in between past and present. You can read all the stories of the past on the walls of the old city and you can feel as if you are part of the history yourself.
I will still be lost here for a few days until I settle down, find a house and start university...
Damascus - the oldest city in the world - is somehow lost in between past and present. You can read all the stories of the past on the walls of the old city and you can feel as if you are part of the history yourself.
I will still be lost here for a few days until I settle down, find a house and start university...
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
"Cairo Time" (2009)
Eventhough my trip will start in Syria and I will be in Cairo in a couple of months, this film is definately worth watching!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orXcdLwtVRY
He who had not seen Cairo had not seen the world. Her soil is gold; her Nile is a marvel; her women are like the black-eyed virgins of Paradise; her houses are palaces; and her air is soft, as sweet-smelling as aloe-wood, rejoicing the heart. And how can Cairo be otherwise, when she is the Mother of the World? ("A Thousand and One Nights")
Cairo Time is a love letter to a city intertwined with a love story about a woman. It began when Syrian-Canadian writer/director Ruba Nadda first visited Cairo with her family many years ago. Returning a decade ago with one of her sisters, (and no longer under the protective eye of her father) they had memorable adventures. “The city was beautiful and the people were beautiful,” Nadda recalled. Having lived in Damascus, and subsequently traveled the world, Nadda never forgot the grandeur and the chaos of this ancient city that was originally settled in Paleolithic times. Sitting at the border of what was once Upper and Lower Egypt, the area that was to become the metropolis of Cairo has played host to the Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, the Ottomans, Napoleon, and the British and is now one of the most densely populated cities in the world. “I remember the city being alive. It’s gritty and historical and seething with humanity and I just had to capture it on screen.” Truly, a journey through Cairo is a journey through time and it awakens your soul.
Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), a magazine editor, travels to Cairo to meet her husband, Mark (Tom McCamus), a UN official working in Gaza, for a three week vacation. When he is unavoidably delayed, he sends his friend Tareq (Alexander Siddig), who had been his security officer for many years, to escort her throughout the beautiful and exotic city. The last thing anyone expects is that they will fall in love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orXcdLwtVRY
He who had not seen Cairo had not seen the world. Her soil is gold; her Nile is a marvel; her women are like the black-eyed virgins of Paradise; her houses are palaces; and her air is soft, as sweet-smelling as aloe-wood, rejoicing the heart. And how can Cairo be otherwise, when she is the Mother of the World? ("A Thousand and One Nights")
Cairo Time is a love letter to a city intertwined with a love story about a woman. It began when Syrian-Canadian writer/director Ruba Nadda first visited Cairo with her family many years ago. Returning a decade ago with one of her sisters, (and no longer under the protective eye of her father) they had memorable adventures. “The city was beautiful and the people were beautiful,” Nadda recalled. Having lived in Damascus, and subsequently traveled the world, Nadda never forgot the grandeur and the chaos of this ancient city that was originally settled in Paleolithic times. Sitting at the border of what was once Upper and Lower Egypt, the area that was to become the metropolis of Cairo has played host to the Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, the Ottomans, Napoleon, and the British and is now one of the most densely populated cities in the world. “I remember the city being alive. It’s gritty and historical and seething with humanity and I just had to capture it on screen.” Truly, a journey through Cairo is a journey through time and it awakens your soul.
Juliette (Patricia Clarkson), a magazine editor, travels to Cairo to meet her husband, Mark (Tom McCamus), a UN official working in Gaza, for a three week vacation. When he is unavoidably delayed, he sends his friend Tareq (Alexander Siddig), who had been his security officer for many years, to escort her throughout the beautiful and exotic city. The last thing anyone expects is that they will fall in love.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Queen Noor...
“... I've seen it around the world, in the poorest countries and in countries riven with conflict, ... It is women who are the key to breaking out of poverty, breaking out of stagnation. ... It's women who can contribute to achieving real security -- not bombs and bullets and repressive governments.” Queen Noor of Jordan
"...Am vazut aceasta in toata lumea, in cele mai sarace tari si chiar in tarile dirijate de conflicte... Femeile sunt cele care au cheia pentru a invinge saracia si stagnarea... Femeile sunt cele care pot contribui la adevarata siguranta - nu bombele sau armele sau guvernele represive..." Regina Noor a Iordaniei
"...Am vazut aceasta in toata lumea, in cele mai sarace tari si chiar in tarile dirijate de conflicte... Femeile sunt cele care au cheia pentru a invinge saracia si stagnarea... Femeile sunt cele care pot contribui la adevarata siguranta - nu bombele sau armele sau guvernele represive..." Regina Noor a Iordaniei
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
"Around the world"
There are journeys that never end. It is just their beginning that is marked somewhere, sometime and since then they follow their own way aiming too far...To a place that not even the traveller knows.
“Around the world” will be the itinerary of such a jouney...a never ending one. It will be the reflection of the lost worlds retrieved by the passion and imagination of a child who is always lost in the rapsody of the fall.
And the pathway will be always different because – “You should leave the beaten track behind occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do, you will be certain to find something you have never seen before." (Alexander Graham Bell)
"Around the world" va fi itinerariul unei astfel de calatorii. Va reflecta lumi pierdute, regasite si redate prin imaginatia si pasiunea unui copil mereu intr-o rapsodie de toamna.
Iar drumul va fi mereu altul - " Niciodata sa nu mergi pe un drum batatorit, pentru ca el te conduce doar acolo unde au fost si ceilalti." (Alexander Graham Bell)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)