New Year's Eve at Bucharest

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Dear Readers,
I hope you are all having a great time together with your family and friends! The holidays are always a time that first start being stressy because of Christmas shopping and university/school stuff, but then and up being a very relaxed time. Most of us are just hanging around - also because we cannot move anymore because we ate too much... No matter how homework or we have we have to be honest to ourselves - we do not do very much. I think that is quite okay though because we need some time to calm down and later our brain turn off.
I have some ideas about what I wanted to post that I will do that the following weeks. For today I wanted to let you know something different: Have you ever thought about spending New Year's Eve in a foreign country? I did and this year I finally made those dream real. Something just attracted me to go somewhere. It has been a very spontaneous dicision. I found a cheap flight to Bucharest and tought: "Bucharest? Hmm, never been there. Why not, sure people there know how to party and have a good time and I can visit yet another interesting country." (Making it seven countries visited in 2012) For all who are not that familiar with it: Yap, Romania that is the country were the Dracula stories were made up. (You might have heard of Vlad Tepes) Transilvania, and so on...
To Julia: Too bad you could not manage to join me you are really missing something!
On Saturday I could not get any sleep so thrilled and also worried I have been. After all this is also my first chouch surfing experience, same for my host he is doing that the first time too. (In case you are interested in ding that one day I we could talk about that.) Sunday I had to get up at four o'clock in the morning, get to the train station, get to Vienna...
At about 1 pm my plane landed in Bucharest a city two million people call there home! That is one of the trips did not plan in any way. I forgot that there is a different time zone (leading to missunderstandings with my host), did not inform myself about the currency (Romania is not in the Euro Zone), ... When I turned on my phone I recieved a text message from my host starting with "Hey Bro" telling my that he was waiting for me at the arrival area. We took the bus to get to center and had a nice chat. He is 24 year old Turk who started his master (comparative politics) here two months ago. He has a strange kind of humour but we get on very well with each other. I have to say at this point that I was really pleased having someone who knows a city that - to be honest - was not very appealing to me at first. Although, I love adventurous trips I did not feel secure or safe at all on the way to his apartment. I saw a lot of great building and villas. Big, with French/Italian looking architecture. The apartment buildings, however: Comminist buildings, all look the same, grey, brown, run-down. I, as a guy, would never ever - not even at day time - have set foot in that kind of area on my own.
Still, his apartment looks very nice! We had Turkish breakfast - at dinner time - and a lot of Cay! Orcun is great - we talked just about anything. The idea of becoming raped or killed slowly vanished from my mind - yap, I had that feelings. We went out to meet another couch surfer from. Ala, an Arap from France. Metro looks very nice. So clean, is it new? I felt like some of the Romanian people were looking at me. Do I feel look like a foreigner? Oh my God, do I look like a tourist? I felt so uncomfortable! We met at a Cafe. Had another cay. Chatted. Went to change money. The Christmas decoration looks stange, it is a bit too colourful but it works great here. It brings some colour to the all-grey buildings. Back to the apartment. Dinking cay again. Listening to world news (all English with Romanian subtitles), listened to music. I was so tired, but could not sleep.
After a shower we hit the road at about 10 pm. We went to the old town, looking for some clubs and bars. A mind-blowing experience! I started to like it hear. The buildings look very nice and there is one bar and one club after another. There is something for every taste! (Yeah Fiona, there are Irish Pubs too!) ;-) We enter a bar called "Il Bordello". Great place, nice music, I loved the decoration. The Romanian beer tastes great. Unfortunately the waitress was very slow and unfriendly. So we went after a while and took a taxi to HardRock Cafe. Were are the seat bealts? No seat bealts? I don't want to die here in a yellow cap. Are there no speed limits? The guy was driving much too fast! At least we could negotiate a good price.
The HardRock Cafe is a great place! Very comfy lighting and decoration. Orcun knows one of the girls working there, Christina. Such a lovable person. The waiters are great. They are hilarious and extremely friendly. We immediately made friends with them. Marius, Sergiu and Alexandru. Marius tought me some Romanian. Some dirty stuff, of course, that I will not write here.
I love it! Yes, I am drunk. I love that place. Bucharest turns out to be an interesting city for me. I love it. We went to bed at... uhm, I don't know. I think 3 am. We had some local food before that. I can't remember the name, but it was very cheap. Kind of kebap. Well, that's a lot for now. I think I will post some other stuff this week. Todays NYE and I will be shouting the count-down one hour before you. I wish you all a Happy New Year!
(I will add some photos...)

Added comment from Posterous:
I have to add something at this place: I really started to like that place! I have made friends with some nice people I will definitely meet again. I also realized that people were not looking at me because I was foreigner. That was just my imagination - it was me being worried - it was me going through the first stages of the culture shook theory! ;-)

NYE was great! It was kind of an underground party at an old warehouse with a water tower. It was for a good cause - the want to renovate the water tower for the community, because they don't have any cultural things in that neighborhood... They have some good ideas for that like making it to a library and such. It will be finished in March.

Hope you all had a good start in the new year!

Thanks for reading,

Alex

Now I know it's right!

Last Thursday night I had been wandering around at Jakominiplatz, the main square and the little streets around there together with Kathy. I have to admit that our final destination was the Molly Maloon's, but that is not so important now. As we were walking we glanced at all the beautiful light arrangement that decorate the streets. They look great and walking there is very romantic! Still, it felt not right to me. I was not in mood for a that romantic lights, nor did it feel like Christmas time has begun. It did not feel right to me at all! The same way it was not right to me that a lot of shops started selling Christmas stuff already beginning in October. (I don't want to say it, but maybe even September!)
Yesterday, however, something great happened to me – again. It happens every year. As I was driving with my car from my hometown to a nearby city, where I was invited to a Christmas party form the Red Cross team I work in, I heard a certain song on the radio. What happened then happens to me every year about that time: The song starts playing and exactly in that moment it gives me goose pimples!It spreads from my neck down the spine, to my arms and my thighs. The song is called "Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)" by Melanie Thornton.

In that very moment I know that Christmas time has begun for me. Not because it was December 1, but because I heard that romanticizing song. It changes something in my mind that makes me love that time so much. The romantic candle light in the living room, the smell of gingerbread, oranges and cinnamon and, yes, also the lights that decorate the streets. That song makes me feel that now I know it's right! Most of you will also know that it was originally created for the Coca-Cola Christmas campaign (the one with the trucks). The jingle was already used in 1996 and 2001 the song was created by Melanie Thornton and others. In that year the singer died in a plane crash.
Today, in the morning, in my hometown, as I woke up in my bed it also started snowing thick flakes and it kept snowing the whole day. On the radio they play Christmas songs all day and my Mum had decorated the house so lovely. This one goes to Kathy: Now you know I am no Grinch, I love Christmas, I adore it!

Pink - Try

Where there is desireThere is gonna be a flameWhere there is a flameSomeone's bound to get burnedBut just because it burnsDoesn't mean you're gonna dieYou've gotta get up and try try tryGotta get up and try try tryYou gotta get up and try try try

Sorry, but I just had to post this. I haven't been listening to the radio for some weeks now and therefore I don't know what's in the charts right now. Most probably you already heard this one, but I just came across it and since I like Pink very much I turned on the speakers loudly. Let me say this: It's once again a song that fits totally her reportoire and I just fell in love with that song - it's simple but yet gorgeous!

Funny how the heart can be deceivingMore than just a couple timesWhy do we fall in love so easyEven when it's not right

Not to mention this great music video. Two hot bodies moving in this symbiose between love and fight and the colours are nice. I think they took the idea of this Indian spring festival (festival of colors) called Holi, which is celebrated by Hindus.

Leaving Europe's Waiting Room

I don‘t know if you have already found out yet, but our university provides us a lot of very interesting events that we can visit, most of them are free of charge. There‘s a weekly newsletter that informs us about them, as well as the mailing list from the ITAT. Last Thursday, for example, there was a guest lecture on the ITAT at 5 pm, which was held by an interpreter. It was about The Court of Justice of the European Union. I was curious about it and called two girls from my Turkish course which were just as spontaneous as I was and so we went there. She gave us some insight of how this institution works and what her work day looks like. Although, it was more for graduating students - I think we were the only first semesters - it was quite interesting for us too.

The same day I found out, once again (I read it in the newsletter the other week), that there was this conference about the EU enlargement in the Western Balkans which I was curious to hear, since I‘m very interested in the Balkans. But you had to sign up for that a week ago, so I immediately sent a mail to them if it was still possible that I could visit  it and they answered that they would be glad if I‘d come.

Here are some facts about it:

The main topic was „Leaving Europe‘s Waiting Room. Overcoming the Crisis of EU Enlargement in the Western Balkans“ and it was a three day-long conference starting on November 9. It was organized by the Centre for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz. The goal was to reflect about the EU enlargement, particularly in the Balkans, and to give some (young) researchers the chance to present there work on that topic. 

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I arrived there at 2 o‘clock to register and I had to give them an identity card in order to get some headphones for the interpretation. The whole conference was held in English, but the President of the Republic of Macedonia, Gjerge Ivanov held the keynote speech in Macedonian and so it was interpreted into English. The rector of our university, Christa Neuper, held a speech too. Along with the director of CSEES, Florian Bieber and the dean of the law faculty, Joseph Marko. Then there were presentations and discussions moderated by Adelheid Wölfl, who writes all the news about the Balkans in Der Standard. At 16.30 I had to leave, because my German course started at 5 pm.

The next day I went there too and again there were some very interesting presentations, but at that point I have to say one thing: Although, most of the presenters hold a PhD or at least a M.A. they did not all speak English very well. In fact, it was quite hard to understand some of them. There was a Spanish lady from a Spanish university and you could actually here where she was coming from. Then there was a Greek man who held a remarkable presentation (with some nice pictures that made it a bit funny too) about Bosnia and Kosovo, but unfortunately it was hard to follow him because of his Greek accent - and actually I think he used some Greek words sometimes, because I really couldn‘t understand all he said.

Well, in the coffee break I felt a bit lost as a first semester student in that round of high-ranking people. Lucky me, I met a very nice girl, Katarina, who is from Slovenia. She was standing there alone just like me and I thought she was a student too. In fact she just finished university and is now working for a non-profit organization in Bosnia and Hercegovina (Think tank Populari - populari.org). We had a nice conversation and she gave me her business card and said, if I ever was in Sarajevo I should give here a call.

It's been a pleasure meeting her and it would be a pleasure for me to meet her again, since Sarajevo is one of those cities, that is still on my list of places, I would love to go to!

Nevertheless, it was quite an interesting experience for me - especially on Friday when the President of Macedonia was speaking, because I, as a language learner, had the chance to actually hear a speech that is simultaneously interpreted!

At some topics it was a bit hard for me to follow, but when participants asked questions it was easier to understand the connections. I liked the speech of Ms. Ristic and Pëllumb Kallaba, because those were some thought-provoking speeches! (Those two were actually the ones who spoke the best English) The reactions of the Kosovar men were a bit expected by me, but also interesting. I only stayed until 1 pm on Saturday, because it was just too much information then, so I went out to eat a pizza and then I met with Diana to study for English. I didn‘t go to the Sunday program, because I already took benefit from the information I heard and I still had to study for English.

(If you are interested in the agenda visit or want more detailed info visit: http://www.suedosteuropa.uni-graz.at/en/event/2012/conference-leaving-europes-waiting-room-overcoming-crisis-eu-enlargement-western-balkans ; pictures taken from that page too)

Obama wins the 2012 elections

I have to admit that I did not carefully follow the American elections of this year. In 2008 I've been much more enthusiastic about it and I really informed myself about the political parties and what they were presenting. I have stayed up almost the whole election night (you have to keep in mind the time zones) and I was really happy that Barack Obama won the elections. I have been overwhelmed by his speech that time! This year, as I mentioned before, the elections were only of marginal interest for me. However, I read that President Obama was very fast in organizing aids for the cities that got hit by the hurricane and that he was still being the first one in surveys.
In general I just hoped that he would make it again, because I think he definitely is a likable person and he would probably make sensible decisions - as he actually is the most powerful man in the world. Although, America does not always leave a good reputation in most people's heads the US are a powerful nation. Nevertheless, President Obama earned lots of critics concerning the reforms he carried out - or the things he promised and could not keep - and the once so brightly shining and loudly shouted phrases about "CHANGE" and "YES, WE CAN!" have all but vanished. The critics, however, should keep in mind that he took over the position at a time when everything was more or less left at it's worst point by his predecessor - that is at least how I would say it, but I can be mistaken.
 Finally the only real piece of American election I saw was his victory speech from November 6, I found on the homepage of Youtube yesterday. It is again a nice one and I could not think of anyone who would not let out a sigh when he said, " And I wouldn't be the man today without the woman I married twenty years ago. Let me say this publicly: Michelle, I've never loved you more!"
No matter what you think about it maybe you want to watch this one:

Here are some quotes I wanted to pick out:

"We are an American family and we rise and fall together as one nation!"

To his daughters: "... and I'm so proud of you guys, but I'll say that for now: One dog is probably enough!"

End of course about the American dream at the end:

"I believe we can keep the promise of our family. The idea if you're willing to work hard it doesn't matter how you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn't matter whether you're black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight - you can make it here in America if you're willing to try!"

The Nasty Squirrels

Yesterday I had another funny night! First, at five o'clock, Julia and I met at Diana's apartment to study for English a bit, it was hilarious and we found out about some of our weaknesses too. Then we wanted to do something special: After talking weeks about it, we finally managed to go to the quiz night at the Office Pub. Although we arrived there at about seven o'clock we didn't get a table - no problem we just moved over to the bar and found just the right number of stools for us. There the bar tender - Spencer - happily welcomed us and explained the rules of the quiz. We listened carefully since we are the so-called "Virgins" and ordered drinks - Guinness, of course, and Cider, which is a mixture of beer and, as we would call it in Austria, "Apfelmost. (We also order some crisps - the honey barbecue flavor tastes great!) During the time we made ourselves comfortable Spencer gave us some useful hints on what's important to know for the quiz. But he also kept us entertained with jokes and "magic tricks" (he made us rub our breasts in order to "magically" move a straw on the bar move...). He's a very nice person!

Who we are: The Nasty Squirrels

* Julia

* Diana

* Alexander

* Sabrina

* Kathi

* Elisabeth

* Jasmin

Then it was about to begin and we were really excited and also baffled by the questions. They were really difficult and covered questions from almost all topics like music, general knowledge, movies, sports, geography, chemistry, politics, ... I think we were quite good at politics, because we knew a lot of the American presidents.

I can say that we really had a great time and we constantly spoke English and made a lot of jokes which has been a great experience! The best thing was that we actually knew a lot and gained enough points - so we won second place among the virgins! Isn't that great?! We almost couldn't believe it! We won a round of shots and of course we got the glory and besides, we made a name of ourselves: The Nasty Squirrels

Spencer seemed to be very proud of us and this quiz really brought us together - we promised to meet again next Tuesday...

Yesterday night

Dear reader,

Yesterday we went out for (last) supper with my roommate Constanze. She's been at the Office for International Relations of the University of Graz for a practice for three months. Today she is going back to Dresden, Germany. That she leaves makes me a bit sad, because she's been a very funny person and we came along with each other pretty well! I'm very curious now, how will become my new roommate, how he or she will be and of course there's the fear that it could be a messy person.

Actually, I wanted to tell you about tomorrow night, because it was quiet awesome and that't also the reason why I couldn't really concentrate in the English and Turkish lesson this morning. First we met with Alex (from Canada) and Nina (from Austria) at "Glöcklbräu" at Glockenspielplatz. Then Alfredo ("the Spanish guy"), Basti (a friend of Nina), Johannes (my other roommate) and Helena (a Macedonian girl) arrived; altogether people Constanze met here in Austria. Ah, and I forgot Severio, "the Italian guy". We had a good time there! It's been quite an hilarious supper and also quite "multi-lingual". Alex and Helena spoke perfect German, but we all changed between English and German and no one really sticked to one language. Later on we exchanged Spanish, Italian and Macedonian insults too...

By the way, I can really recommend "Glöcklbräu" to you! They've got there own sorts of beer, which are very good, and the dishes are delicious and portions are pretty big. The dishes are typically Austrian and you feel very comfortable there. I had "Käsespätzle" I could fairly it them up, but they were great. As a desert I had "Topfenknödel" (is it quark dumplings?) with raspberry puree. I really thought I was going to burst after I ate up everything!

Afterwards we wanted to go to the Office Pub. I didn't expect it to be so big! But that was around 10 o'clock and Tuesday is quiz night so we couldn't find a place. So we went to "Molly Maloon's" an Irish pub in Färbergasse. It's a very nice location! There I also found out what a "pitcher" is... Normally I don't drink that much - I felt that very early.

I also got to know a very nice Irish guy (from Cork) who is studying Music/Guitar here in Graz. There's also two friends of him who came here to visit him: Olivia is from The Bronx, NYC and Lisa from Ireland too (Dublin). I had a very nice chat with Lisa, who is a teacher for singing. I asked her what she does and if she was teaching a show choir and if she knew the TV series "Glee". She said yes, she's having her own glee club and going to competitions with them and she started laughing, because we found out that we share the same passion for that series! She also told me that she met the Glee cast in a pub in Dublin! - Can you imagine that? She went to the toilette and when she got back she just ran into Santana! They where staying there the whole night, singing and dancing and the got really drunk!

I exchanged phone numbers with them and maybe we'll meet again this night.

We got back somewhat after midnight - so I haven't had enough sleep last night, but it was a great night and I met so many nice people!

Maybe you wanna join me.

Enough for now,

Alex

Felix is going to jump from 36 km height!

I'm know following the Mission Stratos since almost 11.30, which means I'm not sitting in front of the TV all the time since then, but because I'm not really into doing anything today it's quite nice to have a relaxed day. Although the start time has been changed very often the programme is quite interesting, because you here a lot of very interesting facts about the mission itself, as well as genaral facts about everything around it.

Now the capsule started and and Felix Baumgartner is going up.
I am so excited! Must be a great moment in Felix' life!
If you're reading this and got interested: Turn on you TV. ServusTV. Or try servustv.com for the life stream - but I think the server just shut down.
35 minutes and he has already reached 12.366 meters!
You can see the Earth is a ball!
Unbelievable!

Going to the cinema in Graz

I'm quite sure that most of you out there love going to the cinema, but what if you want to see movies in foreign languages in Graz? Well, maybe you know the KIZ Royale? This is propably the first adress to see movies in their original language. They play English movies as well as movies in Italian, Spanish, French - they even played a movie in Farsi once, if I remember correctly!! It's also not just mainstream cinema - they tend to show movies which may atract only a smaller audience.
You'll find it in Conrad-von-Hötzendorf-Straße 10, that's almost opposite the tax office and not to far from the crossroads at Grazbachgasse. 
On Monday I've been there again and watched "To Rome with Love". The movie was quite funny altough the German subtitles have been very anoying. The movie has been in English and Italian. I know both languages and I understood everything quite well, but the subtitles are just distracting!
The movie itself has been hilarious and a bit weird too. The characters are great and you just love to follow their stories in the movie. The character I loved the most is the one played by Penélope Cruz. She's playing a prostitute that - by chance - got in the hotel room of Antonio, who has just arrived from the province with his girlfriend Milly. But, as Milly got lost in Romehairdresser looking for a hairdresser he introduced the stranger to his relatives, who are very formal people. - As you can imagine, a lot of hilarious moments follow...

Then there are like four other storylines: 
There's, for example, Leopoldo Pisanello who is just an avarage, boring guy. From one day to the other, however, he becomes famous, out of nothing and he's suddenly chased by paparazzi, who want to know about every single detail of his everyday life.
Another loveable character is Jerry (Woody Allen) a retired opera director who just arrived from the States along with his wife Phyllis to meet their daughter's Italian fiancée, Michelangelo. Michelangelo's father, a mortician, turns out to have a great singing voice and so Jerry wants to promote him. And there is the famous architect who meets a young man that just lives the same youth the he lived.
Never forget Milly, Antonios girlfriend, she's got lost in Rome and found herself in the middle of a film set, where she meets her favourite actor, who tries to seduce her and then she finds herself in bed with ...
Agh, maybe you should just watch the movie, else I would end up writing this the next hours. Conclunding, I would say that the movie is very funny and a little bit confusing at the same time - which is quite normal for movies directed by Woody Allen, people told me. There's also a lot of moral in it, you'll see some places of picturesque Rome and it's always great listening to some Italian. I do recommend watching this movie!
Here you'll find the programme: http://www.uncut.at/graz/kizroyal/
Enjoy watching it!!