Last weekend of August

I feel a bit confused and unable to change anything in what and how I am. Though it may not be the best solution…I will just ignore everything and continue playing the game. This time last year I was leaving for Aarhus and saying goodbye to things I still miss and probably never be able to recover and catch up with. This time last year my life changed completely and I became a roomate. Life is different and the way I act towards it changed...

After a great week with horror movies and people I'm starting to love as days go by, yesterday I wanted to stay home and rest. The boys were supposed to return this weekend and I wanted to get ready for their crazy ways. But, 2 hours after going to bed...at around 3 a.m. Alex arrived with two of his friends from their 9 days - 9 countries tour. They were a bit tipsy and wanted to go out.

The Romanian state is continuing to take advantage of my free work...so this weekend I have to work from home.

On Sunday it was my Saint name day, a day a never celebrate because that is my name only in papers and I don't feel related to it. Still I went with Alex to Rastro, in La Latina, which is a street market full of colour  I bought myself a small, short, my new trade mark dress and some rings...and a nice Breakfast at Tiffany's wallet :). We also had Indian food at a restaurant in Lavapies. I loved the market...I will definitely go there again before leaving. I remembered today Irina telling me to visit Madrid, because it's a nice city to see and it hides lots of treasures. I realised that I cannot visit a city I live in, because I don't feel like in holidays and I don't feel like a tourist...I'm even shy to take out the camera. I never visited Bucharest, or Kiev and I never actually visited Aarhus either. If somebody would ask me what are the best things to see in these three places...I wouldn't know what to say. I will never probably see more of Madrid than I get to see while living here...and I don't mind because it already is a special city for me.

Lost in Madrid in August

Even though work at the Consulate takes more that half of my personal time and the boys weren't home this month...I still managed to spend some time out of the apartment. Summer doesn't seem to be as strong as it used to be at the beginning of July, when I arrived in Madrid. The Romanian news announced storms in Spain, but this happens mostly in the East, as I saw on the news here. I can feel the change in the morning when I go to the Consulate...I always think about taking something to cover my arms, but then when get to the never ending metro, I feel like loosing as much clothes as I can. I started using the normal stares at the metro, because since I started working at the Consulate I didn't have any time for running...so I am doing my exercises as I can, when I can.

Soon I will start writing my internship report. My classmates are announcing their return to Aarhus, and the end of their holidays...I still have no idea what I am going to do...my status is pending.

Out with Irina, Alex and others, the usual walking from bar to bar night (every time I'm going out with Alex and Andre we have to enter at least two bars, depending on how long the night is going to be, you never really drink two beers in the same place).

Plaza de Toros, sin corida (Plaza de Toros in Madrid is announced, by a big advertisement in front of it, as being the greatest in Spain. It's pretty close to my house and they seem to have coridas every weekend. The cheapest ticket is 5 euros, the view is bad and they announce you that you have to stand the heat of the sun though out the show. I would like to go, not till the end, because it's cruel, but at least to feel the vibe of the show) + Sushi night with Irina :)

With Andrei, Cristina and Florin at "El templo de Debod" at sunset (this is an original 2200 years old Egyptian construction, dedicated to Isis and Amon, which has been given as a gift to Spain by Egypt in 1968).

In love with Barcelona

The second city in Spain and Madrid's main competition. Full of colour and architectural styles, full of tourists and of noise... We left on Friday with the night train, which looks pretty much like a normal Romanian train...we were a bit disappointed when we saw it and the super uncomfortable night we spent in it, gave us the chills when we were thinking about the way back. We walked through the whole city and though our feet were killing us we kept discovering every corner of the city. The only two little days we had didn't allow us to visit everything on the outside, but we saw kind of everything Barcelona had to offer us. This is a super must see city, but maybe it would be better to visit it off-season to see everything. Catalan is different from Castilian and the people from Barcelona are different from the ones in Madrid...while there, I was thinking again about the remark I made with the differences between Spanish...and I continues to think that every region is totally different and they are a bit divided. The prices were extremely high...especially for museum and other tourist things and they were a bit taking advantage of everything they were offering. The beach was extremely dirty and the water too hot and blurry. I am the kind of person who likes to splash around but this time I didn't feel like it. The waves are super strong and you could feel the depth of the water immediately.

Still we saw the best of Spain and ate the best Paella, Pulpitos and Patatas Bravas in Spain :)

Roleplay

Life is a scene and we are all actors, but unlike those who choose acting as a profession, we don´t get applauses at the end...we get tears of sadness...because everybody knows that once one goes behind the curtain, he will never return for another performance. We all have role models ..usually our parents...who guide us through the script enough to confide that we became capable of choosing only the roles that fit us and we can perform best in. Without realising we play more roles than a professional actor does, but we don´t always fit in all of them. Most roles are common...especially those that lead us to knowledge and financial pleasures...the role of the student, the role of the employee...and here, depending on the profession, differences are made. When it comes to our personal lives...the role everybody is expecting is the role of the husband/wife and parent...but some of us play separate alternative and hidden roles. We all want and like to play someone who is not our usual self...we keep this role well hidden and we blush and get nervous if somebody discovers our secret script. We choose strangers as partners, because we are afraid of disappointing the ones used with our everyday characters. This role is not build on a role model and does not have a script...the script is being written while we perform and this is what makes it the role of our lives...because it becomes unique...not to the world, but to us. I discovered my hidden role a long time ago, but later I found out that the only thing that made it special was that it naturally came to me before discovering that I am actually interpreting a character that already exists...still this is my special role and will always be my Oscar worthy moment...

Lazy Madrid

An empty apartment and the silence of a Sunday. A double bed with a corner covered by the strong Spanish sun. A curtain slowly moving, blown by the hot wind of Madrid. The street under the window is quiet...a woman can be heard from time to time, moaning with pleasure...and another one calling somebody across the street. No footsteps, no cars...just the calming silence of nothing... disturbed by my hamsterish friends, that make squireling sounds from time to time. The air is dry...my lips are constantly dried and I even get nose bleeds here...Andre´s room is bigger and it´s easy to enjoy the breeze on his huge bed...huge comparing to mine. I´m already sleeping in his bed and enjoying the space it offers. Tomorrow Irina is coming and I will have to share my ocean of softness...I had a hard week...and I deserve my weekend of laziness ..I cleaned everything I could clean, except my mind...which keeps creating dreams that are difficult to understand in the morning.

My international studies

I came to Spain because I wanted to improve my knowledge in the international field. My internship is suppose to help me apply the information I learned through my studies. What I didn't think about before was that in this period I am trying to apply the Western style of teaching in Romanian methods of work. It's been a month since I've been in the embassy, between well-trained people. Unlike Ukraine, the people in this embassy are young and easier to communicate with. The work and procedure though it's pretty slow. This month I didn't have so much to work with...just translations, studies, a few meetings at the ministries and culture houses and reading the media daily, for news about Romanians. The problem is that people are on holidays in this period. I was expecting this, but I thought that they would still find something interesting for me to do. Till now I didn't apply any of the stuff I've been learning, but I learned a lot of great new stuff...which also applies to daily life...like paying super attention in everything you do. I begged them to send me to the consulate also...and because I perused and stressed them out they took me there today. The first thing I saw was a priest somewhere close to the consulate’s building, begging for money for the church. The image continued with people lying on the grass across the street in the shadow...waiting to come in. Inside there was noise...a thing that was missing at the embassy. Everybody seemed to be talking at the same time. I realised that I was behind the cashier’s office. They took me inside a room full of papers and registers. A woman greeted me...she said that she knows me from somewhere...and she actually has the same family name as me. She told me to sit and gave me one of the registers...for 9 hours I wrote down numbers and names of people applying for papers to go home. Because it's holidays and they want to go to Romania they realise that their legal forms have expired and they need new ones...and since the Consulate is the place where they are being released, this is where they come. People work together here more, and so the atmosphere is very different. I don't know if I like it more or not...but at least I get to observe the people from the diaspora. They tried to do the whole system by computers, but some people didn't agree, so even if the ambassador thinks that computers do everything, people write down everything by hand.

I will be here for one month at least...I will see...but I don't think I will stay there for 9 or 10 hours everyday.