internship day26-madly.

How could I be so stupid.

What was I doing?

When _____, things are complicated.

In Suceava, the 28people bus with me standing for 3hours sweating like a fish, Dani arriving with the bike, walking, silence, churches, questions without answering, the bar, silence, walking, silence, phone calls, finding hostel at 0 a.m., walking, silence.

In Cluj Napoca, so far my favorite,

we saw the city, the colourful houses, the pebble roads, the first pouring rain, meeting Marius, sharing culture, thoughts, perspectives, couldn't pronounce "r", Iulius Mall with a Starbucks, city view from roof, Botanic Garden, walking, the first movie Inception, almost falling asleep, rude conversation(I should forgive), apartment like Adela's, sleep on a real bed and without waking, big and cheap turkish breakfast, meeting Vlad, Catholic church, Orthodox church, ceremony, talkings....

The city was grey and I love it so much. It was open, young, and bumping.

My impression was blurred. Everything was grey, and wet. And I was madly in love with the people beside me.

No pozes.

Mostly we talked.

And that was so far the most enjoyable talking here in romania.

On the train, I remember only the wonderful moments.

Dani's smile, the girl asking if I need help, the old man seeing me looking for Dani, all the scenery....

Though, when ____ involved, things are complicated.

Marius asked me if I were Jose, would I consider staying?

For sure, DA.

I made some stupid words without going to the brain.

These are the things that I absolutely need to get rid of.

How I love this place.

I've always known that I am easy to get used to things.

But I didn't know how flexible I am.

Today coming back from the train station, a guy asked me how could he take the bus to Patrick University, in Romanian.

Nu stiu Romana, I said.

Englez?

Da.

Where can I take the bus to the university?

Nu stiu, I am sorry.

I should have called Mada or anyone else to help.

It was almost ten. The buses stop at ten. Everything stops at ten.

I should have. And that means I haven't become a Romanian, cuz they are always so helpful.

Always regret when things already happened.

Plans are steamering.

-Cluj, Timisoara, Brasov....

-London.

I should meet him.

internship day21-explore.

quickly notes.

I was peeing and I thought about yesterday in parc Copou we interrupt the IK weekly meeting.

I said that Taiwan does not have traditional wedding. We don't have our speciality.

NO.

I was totally wrong.

I told some people that Taiwan is an immigration society and that makes us no much tradition.

What was I thinking??!!

Tradition is the old thing but it exists in our every daily life.

Exactly due to the fact that Romanians having their traditional wedding makes our wedding special.

From our perspective, we are westernized.

We wear white dress and sometimes go into the church.

We do some small actions such as exchange of wine and bride will give sweets to guests.

I guess it's only because that in my years in Taipei I've only attend one wedding in eight years.

My memories of wedding all come from my uncle and aunt.

But, from their perspective, we are special, only because of their special makes us special.

Things are relative.

When I was peeing, I realized this.

internship day20-Working abroad.

The weekend me, Jose, and Janet, we went to Suceava.

We sent Jacquline in the train station.

Oh I forgot to talk about the leaving of Jacquey.

She came here one week after Jose.

She is from Brazil.

Among her internship, she had been through some problems with the negotiation between AIESEC and the House of Fairies.

She complained.

She adopted herself to the bad situation.

On Friday, She told me and Alexandra that she came here a person and she went back another.

Indeed, she was.

Among the people in my project, she is the one I interact the least.

For when I arrived here, she is bothered by the circumstance. And then the weekend she went to Switzerland.

We've been together to Braşov that weekend.

I like her. She is the kind of good sis.

Alexandra from her kindergarten said that she spent a lot of time with the kids and she was always there when they were in need even though she didn't speak roman much.

And kids turn more to her than to Alex.

I should be like her.

Ok turn back to Suceava.

oh it's about five. I should meet mada at five in union square.

Will continue later.

ba.

Internship day20-Romanian.

About language.

I learn a lot in my 20 days.

Ade said I learn fast.

I said that's because they are like français.

But in fact, it's not the answer, for the words I know and the sentences I learned are nothing close to français.

Most of the reasons come from Jose, the guy from Porto Rico.

He knows español, german, français, english, italian.

And he i so much eager to learn more.

I admire that attitude, a lot.

So, this is one of my expectations here.

I want to learn roman as much as I can, even just to a poor a level.

I want to help those who speak roman in their whole life.

I want to ask for direction from those who have learned englez but not yet willing to speak out.

But most important of all, I would very much like to add language element to my nonverbal interaction with the kids.

Yesterday on the little bus coming back from Suceava, the old woman sitting next to Janet talked with her.

She was curious about us, our culture, religion, and why we were here.

She spoke some englez. She asked where do we live in Iaşi.

Janet answered that we rent the apartment.

She didn't understand. Jose didn't know the word in roman.

The lady said sorry that she doesn't understand much englez.

Jose said,"nonono, we feel sorry that we couldn't speak romanian."

Yes we are here. So we do as much as we can to adopt ourselves.

Now even to people around me, I start to say short phrase in roman.

I like that, a lot more than I thought I do.

Internship day20-Emptiness.

Today is the most empty day of my working in Penilla.

They are all gone.

My favorite kids.

Giovani, Elena, Andrei, Maria, Daria, Alexandra, Lasvan, Alexandru, Ioana.......

The teachers I used to work with are out on their vacations as well.

I see those little faces as usual.

But, I cannot remember their names.

No, I never know the little ones' names.

I always play with the big ones.

Now they are seven and are about to go to school.

Today I saw Edy cry.

He never cried. He is the most special child of mine.

He always watches as other children are playing.

He is the observer, sitting next to the teacher, watching kids play.

He seldom talks. But it doesn't mean that he is shy and not energetic.

Edy has some special traits that are different from others.

He is smart, close to you, and mature.

Today I saw Edy cry, when his father was gonna left him.

I miss him held in teacher Ștefania's arms every morning when I arrived.

They are the perfect match.

People here come and go.

Kids grow up and parents take them away to a higher educational institution.

Otilia showed me a lot of the pictures, works, and videos of her children.

She was full of smile when she showed me these.

That was the first day of my work.

I didn't know then that they are her first graduation children.

Today I felt empty when small group crying and shouting out loud in the colorful ball room and small playground.

We never played in the small playground.

Today we got only 12 children.

What did she feel?

What did she feel when she has to read them story and hold them in her breast?

I felt empty when Lavinia today did not stick by my side.

I felt empty when I realized that this place, for the kids, will only be their short stop on their long way to adults.

They come here since 2 or 3. Some stay only for a week, some for a month, some for a summer, and still some, they stay long enough as to remember their play mates, and their teachers.

I asked Otilia if she thought the children left would remember her.

She said to me yes. She is 30 now, and she still remembers her teacher in the kindergarten.

I would say yes, too. I still remember my teachers.

But what about me?

Will they remember the girl with a different looking, coming long from Taiwan, spending two weeks with them?

I doubt that.

I feel sour on my heart.

On Friday I left later than usual.

Giovani left in the noon.

We said goodbye. He hugged me and gave me a kiss.

I was a bit awkward. How could I?

I should have hug him for thirty minutes and give him one hundred kisses.

He is so smart. He was the leader of the big group. He and Elena were a pair.

They fight. They laugh. They speak about secrets. They take turns to stay on the little toy bicycle.

Do he even notice the significance of leaving?

Do they know what does it mean by saying goodbye?

"Baba" is one of my favorite Romania words.

But on Friday, I didn't say that when I watched him walk out that door.

I didn't take the big group's pictures.

Nor did I take the photo of those who left on the vacation.

It's sorrow.

Now the six-year-olds are Ștefinia and Sorana.

Next wee Ștefinia is gonna leave also.

She is the cleverest of all. She is so sweet and thoughtful.

She alway tried very hard to think about a word in English to send her thoughts to me.

One day she didn't wear her blue glasses.

I asked her where it was.

I looked at her. She was thinking deeply and breathing deeply.

And she told me,"glasses, house."

I was so happy, so so much.

So, things go on like this.

People change and grow.

They start to know things. They start to understand each other and get socialized.

They learn all the way till they died.

Every day, my children are older than yesterday.

Every step, they are not the same.

Beautiful people...it's all about giving a damn!

Alexandra Birladianu's Blog

This is not "Just another WordPress.com weblog"

Beautiful people… It’s all about giving a damn!

30072010

India is full of them!… And when I say beautiful, I don’t talk just about the way they look…

Today was just another life lesson for me. I get that a lot in India lately, from the people I work with, from the people I see on the street, from my flat mates, from children, from friends, from lovely “Didi” that helps us maintaining the apartment clean, and the list goes on!

There have been so many moments in my life when I didn’t really appreciated where I come from, my parents or my sister, my friends, my leaders and colleagues fromAIESEC, my friends from Ghana and generally whatever life sent on my way. I didn’t appreciate to the fullest the challenges, the happy moments spent with people I love, the opportunities, the advices, and the love. There were moments I didn’t know how, there were moments in which I was blind; there were moments in which I mistook the good for bad. And I complained, I bitched about it, I was angry, I was sad, depressed, annoyed… and generally losing my time and energy…

Today was a beautiful day and I was lucky, very lucky to be part of it. Right now it’s one of the very rare times in which I find it very difficult to express how I feel. Today,International Days of Caring was celebrated by Alcatel-Lucent employees in NCR, India, and being part of it was just amazing.

The volunteers, my happy self included, together with the children from Faith Foundation, spent the day in an amusement water park. You might say it’s not such a big thing but thinking about the fact that these children have so very few opportunities to enjoy themselves and genuinely smile… for me it was just heart breaking. At a certain moment in time we watched a dancing performance prepared for us by the children. They were amazing. I know, I use the world a lot but right now I feel it’s the most appropriate one.

I was looking at them dancing on the stage and I couldn’t help thinking about how this world with look like if children of the world would have chances, real chances to learn, study, enjoy, achieve, develop… and smile! And there are so many children that don’t have that chance! And it’s just heart breaking. Among these children could be a Gandhi, an Einstein, a Nadia Comaneci, a Nash, a Doris Lessing, and the list can go on… But these children, these beautiful smart children never stand a chance.

I love what Faith Foundation is doing in Delhi. I hope there are more and more Faith Foundations in this world. And I respect the company I work for a lot more because of this CSR initiative, which takes place all over the world. And I respect my colleagues from work a lot more for their involvement. I have never seen such commitment from people like I see in India. This is beauty at its purest form! Giving a damn about the world you live in.

Our world is so cold and pathetic at times… Life isn’t worth living if you don’t give a damn. I just want to thank to all my friends and all the people I know, in India and Romania and any other place in this world for giving a damn and doing something about it! Thank you. I might have this AIESEC attitude but I really believe that we can make the world a better place! By giving a damn and acting accordingly!

Thank you India!

Me happy!

internship day19-Suceava.

I need to say about the talking with Daniel and the trip to Suceava as well.

About the learning, expectation, and so on.

Due to the transportation situation, I get a lot of time to walk.

While waking, I think about how my life has been changed by this internship.

Every day, every moment, there are new things come into my mind.

Every new person I meet gives me new perspective of the world and people living in it.

Will spend a night writing these.

Maybe tomorrow, cuz we not yet have the appointment tomorrow night.

YET. We always pop-up with some accidental activities.

Oh and one more thing.

Dani is a person that has two fish on his face when he smiles.

Like Lasvan, his eyes are blue grey like the morning lake.