Surprising rain

It started like another ordinary rainy Wednesday in the cold Olsztyn. Or maybe the universe is preparing some little surprise for today? Just wait and see!

After some funny conversations with my friends from different corners of this round and still flat world, I left work. I made some shopping, and I left for the AIESEC office, to chat with my parents on GT. It rained on me. Calm cold raindrops. It was not warm, as Romanian summer rains are but it didn’t bother me.

I didn’t want for my hair to get all wet again, as it got almost dry again while staying inside the office, so I put my large pink scarf on my head (the picture is on the way!). Until Kortowo station and while I had been waiting for the bus, everybody looked at my head and my tattooed hand. I think I could even sell tickets like in the circus. I didn’t feel bad. Up until now, people were looking curiously at me just after I started speaking Romanian with my friends. Now, the simple fact that I had something unusual for them on my head and a henna tattoo (made by a girl from the United Arab Emirates’ delegation in Global Village), made me to be considered the strange stranger. Maybe it would have been the same if I were black or Chinese or just by being me but in another part of the world. So, it was one of the first steps in preparing for my truly different traineeship.

While waiting for my second bus for 7 minutes under the gray sky, with no shelter nearby, the rain started to drop even faster... millions of huge raindrops made the street look like a continuous river, with a lot of clear bubbles. It was just me in the rain. Singing the songs played by my MP3 player, feeling the raindrops on my back skin and arms (even if I was wearing a pullover and a jacket), thinking about how little we are... human beings with no control and still so much will. I remembered the title on the poster in my room at home and in the office of AIESEC in Bucharest – “We all have the same sky. Do we all have the same horizon?”

I was feeling happy – just me and the universe. Started asking myself what do I really want? What do I really need? Who do I really love? Am I really leaving in a soap bubble or is it just the reality that my soul can perceive?

The bus arrived and took me at the last stop: Brzeziny – my 3 months home. Walking on the way from the bus stop to the sweet pink house, I sang a song I love nowadays; I danced in the rain, in my all-wet shoes. The trees were there for me, dancing by their leaves and branches. I thought that trees could feel the rain maybe deeper than we do. They find in the rainwater all their life and essence and they love the sun as much as I do as well. It was just then when I understood how could Maytrei fall in love with her tree. I felt a bit sorry that I didn’t have somebody to kiss in the beautiful rain, under the dancing trees. But I can’t have them all, right?

I got home and the entire spell faded away. But yet another special thing was to be discovered.

I undressed my wet clothes and put them to dry. Then I went to the bathroom and when I stepped down the little single stair towards the bathroom door, my foot got wet again. What’s happening, I said. Turning on the light and opening the door I could see an enormous green lake coming from the shower tub to my feet. Because of the rain or I don’t know why, the water came inside, through the sink in the shower tub. Green dirty water, stinking like hell. I called the owner to tell her. She informed her husband and they waited for somebody from the sanitary service to come and fix the problem. In the meantime the polish girls arrived home so I went to warn them about the stinky out of order bathroom. They saw on the hole way a frog and started screaming: “Żaba! Żaba!” (frog in Polish). None of us wanted to kiss the huge frog and make it become a prince since we don’t believe in fairy tales anymore, so the frog jumped in the green lake from the bathroom and left us. We couldn't use the bathroom last night.

In the morning, it was all-ok, like nothing had ever happened. The sun was shooing the gray clouds to show its smiley blue sky.

I have to tell you, my friends, it was the most extraordinary rainy day ever! Don’t hesitate to try for your own when you’ll get the chance!

Smiles in Warsaw

In the end of the week when I wrote that sad, gray post, I decided I have to leave the used scenery and the people I get to see everyday, for something new. So I left to Poznan, after all the pushes of Eve.

It was great to meet Asia, the girl I worked with for months but I’ve never seen till then, Protoku and Natali, the crazy VPs from Poznan, Barka, the polish-turkish friend of Protoku and to meet Kamil again, my dear friend who had a sad smile – haven’t found out why yet! They were all some super people that brought me up to good spirits.

I left Poznan with a lighter soul, starting to dream about the IC, were I was to meet my beautiful MC and sweet friends.

So, last Thursday I left Olsztyn for another amazing long weekend. On Thursday evening we participated in the AIESEC International Congress Opening Ceremony. It was full of dances, colors and 2000 people smiling, shouting and clapping. 95 countries together, a whole world in a sports hall in the ambitious Warsaw.

The same night I meet my darling Romanians: my full of energy smiley Mo, my pink Nico, and the opposite Vlad who held me and rose in the air, fulfilling my longing for a Romanian hug. Thank you guys for coming here!

On Friday, there was the Global Village. I dressed in my traditional suit and started visiting the tents. I met many of the people I’ve worked with in the past: ex TN Managers from the time I was matching my SNs, MC VPs that worked on Leonardo, delegates or facis in the conferences I attended... we were all very glad to meet, shake hands and kiss on the cheeks. I must say that regarding the richness of the stands, the GV in IPM in Bucharest was better. Here, the countries were not allowed to bring drinks – no sake, no wines, no nothing and there was no actual food, mostly chips.

I bought a lot of presents for my friends at home. So, don’t be surprised if I’ll bring you some Chinese or Egyptian stuff instead of a white red polish thing!!!

On Saturday we visited the rebuilt Warsaw. It’s incredible how much they achieved in just some decades after the war, taking into consideration the dust and ruins that remained after WWII. Warsaw it’s by no doubt, really ambitious but I have to admit I like Bucharest more. I miss Calea Victoriei and a boat ride in Cismigiu.

In the evening, we went in the bright flat of 2 Romanian trainees in Warsaw (actually one of them is Hungarian as nationality, but he considers Romanian being born and raised in the beautiful Cluj-Napoca). There we started cooking salata orientala, tochitura with mamaliga, carnaciori and omleta and friganele dulci (they are all Romanian dishes – the only chance to understand the words is to taste them!!!). The guests started arriving: Serbians, Polish, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, Russian, Macedonian, German, Croatian and of course, Romanians. They all enjoyed our dishes, watched the Romania presentation and congratulated us for the great evening. The secret was in their enthusiasm and passion for knowing our culture but don’t tell them, ok?

After climbing up in the tower of the Culture and Science Palace in Warsaw – a communist building similar to the House of Free Media in Bucharest, we breath the high air of clean Warsaw and let ourselves towards the train station, and then back to our trainee homes.

It was a full weekend indeed and it’s very hard for me to tell you all in just some lines...

I’m in the middle of my traineeship here and I’m getting reflective when I see there are just some more weekends to spend and so many places to see and people to meet...

Green heart in Krakow

Last week I was feeling of my own the descending curve of the emotional graphic when in a traineeship. I was dreaming for the weekend in Krakow to bring that push on the ascending line back up zero.

On Saturday, after we got in Krakow, after 9 hours of travel and just 3 hours of sleep at night, we decided to leave the Aqua park attraction for a more salty one. We took the bus and went to visit Wieliczka salt mine. We learnt its great legend with Hungarian origins, we wide opened our eyes for the marvelous salt chambers decorated with pieces of salt jewels as enormous chandeliers, sculptures, statues and we walked in the small corridors for more than 2 km.

The next day we visited Krakow with all its churches, castle, university, squares, narrow shopping streets and cloudy sky. In the evening, returning to our dorm, we faced some problems with drunk polish guys that paid us an unexpected visit. We managed to get out of there safe and sane. We met our saver, a former member of AIESEC Krakow in the Main Square at 1:30 am and then spent the night over his place. It was an apartment of 2 AIESECers, where you could tell from the door that is owned by some men. But we felt really good chatting till morning and then sleeping in a rocker’s room, full of black posters.

After the adventurous night, we left for the death place how it was called: Auschwitz – Birkenau. I thought it wouldn’t be as scary as I was preparing for it to be. And in the end it turned out that it was even more. I had some moments, when I felt I would fall in front of those showcases with personal objects of little children or thousands of ordinary, innocent people. We visited the museum and the 2 camps with the torture rooms, the stinky cells, the sanitaria, the gas chambers or the death wall. Even if you don’t get much more information than you knew from your previous readings, it’s the place that makes you realize better the size of the massacre.

I think that going to Auschwitz is a lesson every one of us should take in order to always have in mind what wars and crazy egos can lead to. In a world of natural catastrophes what’s the need of wars? Aren’t there too many people who dye? One doesn’t get any stronger or powerful by bloodbath making.

In the evening, to chill out a bit we went to a trainee bye bye party for an Iranian guy from Canada. It was great to see almost 40 trainees in one LC. I’d love to have more trainees here too but... Anyway, after the short party in the trainee’s flat, we left for a gay club. Everybody told us that there’s great music and they were right. For me that was my first time in a gay club and it was pretty shocking to see how they exchange partners from men in their 50’s to youngsters in their 20’s or the other way around. I have to say the impression was that gay people are more active than straight one.

This was my weekend full of surprises and diversity. I’m preparing myself for a more peaceful one (I hope) in Poznan, where I’ll meet one of my friends and people I’ve worked with on the project but that I will get to meet face to face just now.

Until the next post, I hope my heart will get back to pink...

Romanian Lessons in English

I’m in the middle of my forth week in Poland. I get little cultural shocks everyday but I keep on remembering some stuff from my preparation for becoming a cultural sensitivity trainer. That what we’ll find different in another side of the world is not good or bad, normal or completely absurd, is just different and probably normal for the country and people among which you are.

The one thing that I strikes me most of the days is the English issue so let me just tell some stuff about this topic.

There are not so many people speaking English, as I was expecting from a EU country. It’s very seldom to find somebody who speaks English in shops, supermarkets, banks, train, on the street. Let’s just say it was not very hard to accept this.

The other day we went in a language school office to ask for some information regarding a polish for foreigners course we found on their site (also just in Polish). Shock: the girl over there spoke English so badly, we couldn’t believe our ears. Just greetings, sorry, no, I don’t know and that was about it.

When being in a train, getting a fine for having a student ticket, the conductor tried to find somebody who spoke English to help him. There was nobody who spoke English in the whole wagon (around 45 people). Cool, isn’t it?

At my work people know English but use Polish so we decided to answer in Romanian whenever they speak Polish. That’s how we arose their interest in learning Romanian. Today was their first lesson: the Romanian greetings. It was funny seeing them how the made their best to pronounce “Bună seara!” and not „Buna sera!”.

Tomorrow we’ll teach them the numbers!:)

(For more cultural shocks visit Living Diversity!!! - Romanian SN's blog;)

Rainy Weekend

Castle, 3city, trainees, rain, cold, waiting, photos, clouds, fines, smiles.

If I would have just 10 words to describe the last weekend, I think these would be the chosen ones.
4 girls left to visit another castle. No princesses and no princes. Just empty repainted rooms with thick walls and historical atmosphere. There were many German, Spanish, or Polish groups of mostly old people with guides to explain every little piece of dust in the castle.

Malbork is a beautiful huge castle. The biggest I’ve ever seen, rebuilt after the wars. The Teutonic Knights built it in the XIII century. This fortified castle became the seat of the Teutonic Order and Europe's largest Gothic fortress.

After taking a tour of the castle, bought some souvenirs as normal tourists, and taken pictures with the strange knights in front on the gate of the castle, left for having lunch in town; now called Malbork, the town is the old Marienburg that some of us heard of it in the history lessons in school. We ate Mediterranean pizza in Andaluzia, an Algerian restaurant.

Through the raindrops we left for Gdansk. First stop: the St. Mary’s church where there was a wedding taking place. Simply beautiful. I’m thinking about finding a catholic guy to marry just for having that beautiful catholic wedding ceremony. (Calm down, just kidding!!!). Any candidates?

In the evening we went to Sopot and took a new look at the funny building, drank a beer, went to a club: Atelier. It was so crowded that we were not allowed to enter... on the front door cause from the beach side, nobody looked. Inside, so many people dancing like crazy and hitting you if you dared to occupy some centimeters to move your body on one of the funny songs such as one called “Superman”.

We left to sleep over Alexander’s place (the Serbian trainee in Reuters in Gdansk), in Gdynia. Once we got in front of the block, he realized he can’t open the front door of the block because there was a broken key in the keyhole. That was his first night in that flat, just rented the same day. After some minutes of repeating, “Oh my God, this can’t be happening! It’s 3 am!!!”, a neighbor opened, swearing us in Polish,
of course. The flat was big enough for Alexander and the 4 Romanian girls. The funny thing was that I was in Poland, visiting a Serbian guy and finding posters with Budapest on his walls. I wonder why Budapest and not another city. For any answer, the comments field is available!!!

After a kebab as breakfast in Gdynia, a walk on the stormy beach in Sopot, we left back home, tired but smiley.

Constant Soul

There was the 1st August’s cloudy afternoon. Just got home, escaping from the rain. After some halves of hours Lia returned home with news. There’s a Byzantine music concert in town today, she said. My eyes pressed attention and my ears were asking for more words. It sounded interesting. The concert will take place in the Evangelic Church in the Old Town. The chorus is formed of students form the George Enescu (am I dreaming?) faculty in Iasi (Iasi, Romania???). It was getting more and more interesting.

Andy and me had planed a going out evening with some ppl from AIESEC so the plan was to get to the concert first and then go to the pub. Strange mix of existence: church and drinking place.

Once we entered the Old Town, we’ve seen a group of men dressed in long black robes. Maybe they are priests, we said. Passing towards the church, we started hearing beautiful, strong voices. We entered: a group of around 10 young men were heavenly singing, in Romanian.

There were no complicated church songs... just simple lyrics of common prayers. My heart trembled when I heard “În numele Tatălui, al Fiului şi al Sfântului Duh, Amin”, in the only language my soul could use for praying.

I don’t go to church, don’t believe in many religious customs or so but I trust in God wherever I am. I think that there will always be a connection between what is Saint, my family, my home country and land and me. Those dozens of minutes in a cold, strange and dark church full of saint brought a piece of peace and calm inside of me.

I could speak, write, even think in another language but when it comes to praying, I can just be myself, Romanian.

Romania and other countries

I’ve never thought of this phrase until the weekend that has just passed.
We were in a Reception Weekend, organized by AIESEC Kielce. We had the chance to meet internationals, finally. There were 13 Romanians out of 51 people present in the RW.

It was a strange feeling to be in an international conference in Poland, with people from 17 countries and the language you heard most often to be Romanian. Maybe that’s why Piotr, the LCP Kielce, used to say “Romania and countries”.

After a 10 hours travel, we got in Checiny, in the dorm where we were accommodated. The AIESEC Party started with traditional AIESEC dances, which I so missed.

On Saturday we started visiting: Paradise Cave, Sobkow Castle, palace in Kurozwki and castle in Ujazd. It was interesting to see how the wars affected in such a way the castles that all you can see now are ruins. You might try to imagine how the castles used to look like but it’s not a easy thing to do. Despite their destroyed look, they are fabulous and inspiring. In Sobkow Castle we visited also a stable with beautiful horses that make you remember of the story of Black Beauty. A TV crew showed up and starting interviewing and filming us. We were offered a carriage trip like in the medieval times and started feeling like princes and princesses.

At night, we got in a camping and started to complain about the bad conditions where we had to spend the night: an awful room with metal beds, a dirty blanket to sleep on, just 2 showers for I don’t how many ppl (beside the 51 of us there were other tourists), 3 toilets and a lousy disco where it was a radio station playing.

After dealing with drunken people in the disco, we decided to go to our cottages and listen to some music on a laptop. No chance for any Global Village or country presentation. Most of the people went sleeping early that night. Just some Romanians and Polish people stayed to chat and dance.

On Sunday morning, after the yogurt rich breakfast, we started a discussion on “Strange Habits Observed in Poland”. Many habits came up, most of them observed by more that one different culture. There were mentioned: speeding maniacs bus drivers, no kissing or hugging (the Latin interns miss this the most), no bread on meals (the people from the Balkans are pissed of because of this), men shaking hands without addressing a word, sometimes, beggars on the streets, Polish guys touch the girl when dancing and are very passionate (for the Ukrainian and Russian girls, they are simply unbelievable), all the dishes contain either cream either yogurt, no lunch breaks at work (Asian girls starved on their first day at work), going to the bank office it’s a nightmare (everybody agreed), people don’t speak English: not in banks, international brand shops, museums, on the street (it’s a good start for using body language).

After the interesting discussion, we all left on a little mountain, climbing to the Holly Cross, an old Monastery and took pictures in front of the beautiful scenery discovered from the top of the hill.

Being in hurry for catching the train back to Olsztyn, we missed visiting Kielce, a city in a complete reconstruction with EU funds.
This was the international weekend: discovering another part of Poland, some other cultures, bounding some connections and having interesting discussions on different topics.

During these weekends with just some hours sleeping each night, the train will become my second bedroom for the next months.

Next destination: Poznan!



(for more pictures, Photo gallery is launched)