Monday, January 26, 2009

Traveler's bag

I have a new apartment mate. Her name is Edita (nice name) and she, just like Marketa, is from Czech Republic. She studies molecular biology and came here because, she says, Aarhus University offers the best research in this field in Europe. I don’t want to be arrogant and/or ignorant so…I will just let myself discover her in time and not put a mark on her forehead before knowing what she’s all about. Playing smart-ass is not for me anymore.

Discovering the things she brought with her, in her bag, from home…made me think how responsible we, as travelers, are, and how our inner comes out in objects we choose to put in the never too big bag we take with us. I was very surprised when Marketa told me that Edita brought with her a pot from Prague. A pot made by Ikea, which is a multinational company and Scandinavian based. What is striking is how, even if the world gets smaller and smaller with all these globalization processes, we still tend to get stuff in our bags which could be bought wherever we would go, made by the same brand and most probably at the same price (especially in the EU).

Than I started to think about my bag…and Marketa’s bag…and other people’s bags…Me, for example, I only take clothes, cosmetics, medicine and a book or two (not to get bored). I never take survival stuff, not even towels…unless my mother would remind me. I don’t know why I do that. I always buy other clothes where I go and wear those, not the ones I take with me, and I always have problems packing. Another example is Marketa. When she came to Aarhus, she came with an empty big trolley. At the begging I didn’t get it, but than it all made sense. Because she didn’t want to have a heavy bag when arriving for the first time in a city she didn’t know anything about, she just took an empty one, which would be filled when she would return. Her parents sent her everything a few weeks later by post mail. On the other hand, Mara came with a bag bigger than mine, twice as big. But I never knew what she had in it. She didn’t have so many clothes, no food, no books…it’s a mistery. The second time we came here doesn’t count…it only counts what you get with you the first time you go to a place you’ve never been before.

I was thinking about making a survey just for my own personal amusement.
So what does your bag look like?!

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

A new year, a new month, a new week, a new day...

Feelings:
I'm half way in my winter holiday and basically starting to think about how to pack and what to get with me back. My long to do list, made just a few weeks ago, is almost covered. Some things happened exactly as planed, others even better...nothing worse. This can only mean that I'm on the right track and the confusion my mind fought with is starting to lay back and watch as I make my way on my path. Since I got home I feel that I am alive. I was starting to become a cold traveller without any notion of stability...a thing which does not define me at all. I was overwhelmed, I still am actually, to discover that I didn't care about a lot of very important things and people (even my parents became just someone I knew and gave me money now). I don't know if this is the age for it, but this is the period with the biggest shifts in my life, and it all started with my decisions in 2008, which broke my regular path and left me unable to make decisions in important situations and allowed me to get carried away. I felt like I should have never returned, than I switched to not wanting to leave anymore and so on :)...all in all I feel that I can't afford to miss other things.

First impression:
The narrow windows of the apartment made me feel like in a match box. The claustrophobic feeling passed fast, when I realised that this is just a matter of "getting used to". I was surprised to find a slightly different Bucharest…one where things look better, cleaner and better organized. The social scene is mostly the same, but now I am confident. There is still a great ocean of black and grey winter jackets, lack of colour, sorrow faces and people that don’t deserve to be sad and broken. Though it makes my pulse go higher and higher, I think I am getting better and tempering myself when things that could be avoided happen, because some people are just too rude, stupid and ignorant. Still, I love the crowed I missed so much.

Holidays:
Christmas was confusing for me and it felt like Christmas only thanks to my family and their/our traditions. Pigs slaughtering...Christmas tree buying...food shopping...gift shopping...Christmas fooding with friends...and at the end of the day my own special - clubbing with Ana :)

It sucked because it could have been much better...but I got drunk as planed...was with my best friends at the passage of the years and woke up with my favourite person on the first day of the year. In the end, this made it better than it sounds :)

Out with the old. In with the new
I could write a thousand lines about what I am doing and what is going on, without catching the essence of things, by being superficial and fake...and I have the feeling that this is what I have been doing. I slightly forgot to enjoy, though I’m trying really hard to remember, and this is sad.

Great achievements in 2008;
I don’t know whether to priorities them by importance or timing…I will just put them however I remember them:
- finished University with a good grade, though it wasn't very tough, it was stressful for me;
- got accepted to a master’s program abroad, which for me means that I can and I will;
- grew up enough to have the courage and shift my life professionally and emotionally, it took a lot of guts from a person who likes stability and roads without bumps and humps, ups and downs;
- decided to live by my age and stop acting like I shouldn't be now – maybe I got a little bit too carried away and now I do/say too many stupid stuff;
- finished driving school, but didn't pass the exam … a thing which I don’t regret because I did something more pleasant than learn;
- saw the most beautiful sun set (on Danube) and the most beautiful sun rise (on the plane to Vienna);
- survived in the great Danish social jungle;
- survived through the greatest moment of confusion in my life – now I will know what to do what it kicks in again;

Resolutions for 2009
Again, as they go through my mind:
- increase my Danish knowledge, because even if I will forget it in less than a month after I'll leave Denmark, it will be somewhere in the back of my mind forever;
- get my driver's license, because I have to finish what I started and it makes me feel handicapped;
- try to keep what I have because I have what I need;
- find a good internship, that my assure a future job for me, that may turn into a career at some point;
- work on some of my body parts - getting fit not loosing weight;
- get a job after I hand in my internship project and start raising money for some slight adjustments;
- learn when to shut up and what is actually important and not (stop getting carried away);
- stop being lazy and start focusing;
- give my best in everything;
- start being social again, because it helps me be me.

All in all, this year I have to learn to be wise.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The flight

I finally managed to find a socket in Vienna airport. I finished the battery on my laptop in Copenhagen airport and I couldn't find a socket there to plug it and charge it. So, because I had nothing to do till 5 am when my check in started I tried to sleep. I returned to the scene of the crime (the exact same place where I slept with the girls in October)…but this time it was different. I couldn't sleep as good as back then…actually I managed to sleep two hours all night…the lack of a sleeping bag…the fact that I had to sleep with my head on my bag and the girls not being there, made things more difficult. Also, this time the airport was very noisy…I can’t recall if there were a lot of people in October, but now it was kinnda full…I guess the holiday thing kicks in everywhere.

Leaving Copenhagen
After check in I headed for the gate…I was happy cause I found out that my bag is going straight to Bucharest and I don’t have to pick it up when I get to Vienna. It was dark outside and I could barely see the planes through the window while waiting for boarding. I also realized it was raining kinnda hard and I got a bit scared. It’s the first timing I am flying in winter and I am a bit afraid…the feelings you always get when you do something new. I didn't realize until we got on the plane how big it was. The darkness hid more than half of its size. It was an Austian Airline’s plane (Austrian Arrows)…mostly with Romanians and Indians on board. I realized I was surrounded by Romanians in the boarding room. At the begging I thought it’s just my imagination…but I looked at their passports…their Romanian appearance was officially id-ed by their passport. I kept wondering if they think the same…if I look Romanian myself just like them…they were looking at me…but I don’t know if it was my staring that bothering them or the curiosity they had to find if they guessed my nationality. When I entered the flight…classical music filled my ears…I guess the captain wanted to keep it traditional Mozart. They were really nice…I would like to fly with them again…they also gave us a tasty breakfast…warm croissant and tea…I sat next to a Danish woman and I could understand most of what she was saying but wasn’t able to answer…I have to work on that too in my poor Danish....it must be pretty important to answer in a conversation in order to make it a conversation.

Now the best part…the actual flight. As I was saying I never flew in winter before…or whatever this weather can be called. It was raining and I was a bit scared as we took off. I thought that’s how it’s going to be all the way…dark and wet. So, I thought I would close my eyes and sleep…but at some point I opened them…and saw the most beautiful thing ever. Nothing can beat this…I am sure. Under the plane there was an ocean of clouds. Land was absolutely nowhere in sight…just clouds…dark clouds…and ahead…at the same line with my sight...the most beautiful sun rise I have ever seen. There cannot be anything more beautiful…above us was all clear and the sunlight of the sun rise was marking a red-yellow-orange line between the ocean of clouds and the light blue nothingness from above. Incredibly beautiful…again I was thinking “why don’t I have a f*****g camera?!” After a while the sun rise ended and there was light everywhere…but a different type of light…it was icy…and just then I realized that the raindrops on the window turned in ice flowers. At some point I fell asleep and woke up hearing the captain’s voice telling us to prepare for landing. The wind was strong and they made some maneuvers with the wings so equilibrate the plane.

Half way home - Vienna airport
I’m actually staying in the boarding area…after security check…so I can’t really see what the airport looks like…but it seams big. My job now, because I’m too tired to read or do something that uses my brain too much, is staring at people. I never actually did that…I think this is the best place if you want to build a cosmopolite image. Some are bothered by my staring and look back…other just pass without turning their head :). I still have about 3 hours of doing nothing. Oh, I forgot! Austria is very green from above…I wonder if Romania is going to be the same. Still, the leafless trees looked so muddy. At the begging I thought there was a flood or something and they were covered in mud…just after my tired brain realized that well…they don’t have leafs in this season…so I just imagined they were chocolate trees, to make it feel nicer.

Vienna – Bucharest
The flight was so full that they were giving away special offers to stay one more night in Vienna with everything paid plus extra money for Christmas gifts…of course nobody was going for that…they were all waiting to go home as soon as possible. Again a huge plane, classical music and very good food…this airline has the best plane food ever…Outside the window the view was different because this time the sun was already up. The glamour now was the rainbow reflected on the clouds. I took a peep on the other side, were the sun was shining directly as saw that everything was golden there. Again the ocean of clouds underneath us seemed to facing a storm as the clouds locked like waves, aggressively knocking in each other. I couldn't sleep, though I could feel that I was extremely exhausted, my heart was beating ten times faster when we went out of the clouds and I could see the land of Romania. Again, because I don’t want to think of it that way I am not going to write about what I saw and what for a fraction of second was in my mind…I only want to remember the pleasant feeling of being home.

Too my surprise, they did not lose my luggage in Vienna.