Decameronul lui Boccaccio

Incredibil, Boccaccio descrie perfect pitzipoanca zilelor noastre înca din anul 1350.

Căci tot ce-a fost virtute, cu sfiiciune tăinuită în sufletul doamnelor de odinioară, azi se preface la noi în găteală și podoabă; iar cea care-și atârnă pe ea veșminte mai bălțate și mai înzorzonate se socotește mai vrednică de prețuirea și cinstirea semenilor ei, fără a cumpăni că și un măgar, de s-ar găsi cine să-l împopoțoneze, ar răbda pe el mai multe găteli decât oricare femeie și că, deci, nu-s nici ele mai vrednice de cinste decât e urecheatul.
Mi-e și rușine a spune, căci tot ce-i împotriva lor se întoarce și împotriva mea; înzorzonate precum sunt, boite și pestrițe, ori stau țepene ca niste stane de piatră, mute și nesimțitoare, ori, de răspund când le-întrebi, îți dai cu socoteala c-ar fi fost mai bine să tacă.
Și încă umblă a-ți dovedi că numai nevinovăția e pricina care le face să nu știe a lega o vorbă cu semenele lor sau cu barbații cumsecade, și sărăcia-n duh au botezat-o cinste, ca și cum n-ar mai fi pe lume alte femei cinstite decât acelea care nu știu să șadă de povești decât cu slujnica, cu spălătoreasa sau cu brutărița. Dacă firea ar fi rânduit cum lasa ele a crede, de bună seama într-un alt chip ar fi găsit cu cale să le scurteze ciripitul.

Fragmentul de mai sus e extras din Decameronul lui Boccaccio scris între 1350 și 1353 (ziua 1, povestea 10).

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Why French?

I wonder why is French the first language printed on all Romanian ID cards (upper part, title area). Is this a joke? Why is the first word on our ID cards a French word? Why not first Romanian then other languages?

Then is it really necessary to translate the Romanian "Carte de Identitate" to "Carte D'Identite"? To my knowledge, Romanian is a Latin language, same as French and Italian. We are likely to understand each other, and words like the ones above are easily understandable by French, Belgian or Italian people (in case you need to show your ID when travelling within EU countries).

I would rather use Romanian as a first language, simply because the ID card is to be used by Romanian people before others. I would use German as a second language, since the words are very different (Carte de Identitate - Ausweis, Loc nastere - Geburtsort), and definitely need translation for people who travel to Austria, Germany or Switzerland without a passport.

I've always wanted to blog about this, but I just couldn't find this amazing image.

In german Inter-City Express trains, there are special wagons where it is forbidden to make noise. You are not allowed to speak, you have to mute your mobile phone and be as quiet as possible. Due to the perfect isolation from the outside, these wagons are really quiet although the trains reaches speeds of over 300 km/h.
These special wagons allow you to work like magic.
My friend Kevin actually used to say that he worked better on train than in the office, during his remote visits. I agree, they are really nice :)

Rhein in Flammen 2009

Yesterday was a great day! We went out in Rheinaue Park - Bonn, to have a barbecue and watch the fireworks. If you ever come around Bonn in May, look out for "Rhein in Flammen". It is one of the things you must see before you die.
450 000 people attended this year, as Radio Bonn reported today. What a splendid day!

Please share your opinion

Hi guys! I need your quick help on this one. It only takes a minute, and it's fun: I'm trying to participate into a photo competition, and I need your opinion on which photo looks better on a specific area.
Please leave a short comment, by choosing the BEST for each of the categories. You can also vote for each section using the links.
I need your votes until Monday evening, 30th of March!

Diying nature:
Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Photo 3:

Photo 4:

Quickly vote here for this section.


Rich vegetation:
Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Quickly vote here for this section.


Formerly desert area, not anymore
Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Quickly vote here for this section.

Thanks a lot for your help!

Carnival in Cologne

Just a little after the Cologne carnival, I thought I should share some pictures.




I wonder a carnival like this would be seen in eastern European cities. Are the citizens of Bucharest for example ready to have a 3-day marathon with costumed people everywhere singing and dancing on famous Romanian hits?

Chocolate fondue

 

Today was the first time I've heard of chocolate fondue, and was really curious to try it.
How to you eat it: pick one fruit piece at a time, with a little fork, and dip it into a mixture of warm black and white chocolate. Then watch the small chocolate drops falling along your fruit, let it get a little cold, and then enjoy its taste.
Damn delicious!

German Punctuality

The purpose of this post is not to offend Deutsche Bahn in any way - I am sure they do a great job coordinating all those trains, but rather to inform anyone reading this how to actually plan their time when traveling in Germany.

5:30 AM - It's Monday again, and the alarm clock buzzes the beginning of a new week. I wake up ready to face it, happy that I live in a German country, where everything and everybody is Punctual. I know... that here, no matter where I am, German Punctuality applies. So, I want to also be Punctual. I want to arrive at 9:00 AM in Aachen, to get my student card from the Secretary, and afterwards, at 10 - to attend my lecture. Normally, this is a 90 km track, 2 hours time. I can do it.
With help from German Punctuality, I will catch the train at 7:01 AM, and will be in Aachen at precisely 08:48 AM.
6:00 AM - Shower, breakfast. German Punctuality works.
6:30 AM - Outside, air is fresh. It's still dark, in a cloudy cold and rainy Punctual day.
6:48 AM - I am at the train station, I buy the ticket. Train is announced to be 10 minutes late. I think I am still able to make it in time to catch the connection train - Koeln - Aachen. Few people wait silently on the platform.
7:01 AM - The billboard changes. 10 minutes suddenly change to 15 minutes. Hmm, no problem.. I am lucky to be young and can run to catch the connection in Köln. I'll do my best to be Punctual.
7:10 AM - 15 minutes become 20. OK, my connection in Köln is lost. I'll have to catch the next one, which will arrive half an hour later in Aachen. As of now I am no longer Punctual for my appointment.
7:20 AM - Billboard announces 25 minutes delay now. One employee of the Deutsche Bahn mumbles some bored excuses on a microphone. One old guy near me starts to dance something like a chicken dance.
7:25 AM - Train is still not in Bonn. You can barely move around the station, as now, the station is full of people which waited the train and 7:01, and also the ones who came for the 7:30 train.
7:30 AM - Train arrives, fully packed with people and with a delay of 30 minutes. The employee announces on the speaker that this train, although Regional EXPRESS, will have to stop in every stop on the way to Köln. That's 2 times more stops than usual.
7:40 AM - Still not at the first stop. The train advances a few kilometers, than stops for a pause. Probably this is what it takes to be Punctual.
08:10 AM - I am in Köln. Yeah!!!
Now where's the train? I look on the display on the train station. I find out that my next train which was supposed to be there at 8:20 AM will be 20 minutes late. All trains on the billboard were at least 15 minutes late. Ok, that adds up another 20 minutes to my wasted time.
8:40 AM - I step into the train from Köln to Aachen.
9:50 AM - I am finally in Aachen, almost 4 hours after leaving my house. Bummer, I won't be Punctual today. I quickly WALK to the secretary office, pick up my ID, and finally arrive at school at 11:00 AM. I enjoy the remaining half an hour left of the lecture. Wow, that's a deal: 4 hours travel for half an hour lecture.

It would be OK if this was an one-time case, but it happens 4 times out of 5 when traveling to Aachen and back. One good friend also had this happening to him, but in his case he didn't miss one lecture, but a whole flight. In return, he didn't receive at least one excuse, but had to buy a brand new plane ticket. That was at least 5 times more expensive than the one for the flight he lost.

Bungee jumping

A weekend or two ago I finally did something I wanted to try out for a lot of time. Together with Bianca and Cristi, we went to Stockhorn, near Interlaken to see how falling 135 meters really feels like. It's an interesting experience, filled with lots of existential questions and adrenaline rush.
They call it "bungy" here. Funny :)

Below, it's me in the picture, doing my bungee jump.
And here are some impressions from other people too:

Rheinfal and Rapperswil

Last weekend I got to see yet another amazing places in Switzerland. One was Rheinfall, a nice waterfall on Rhine river, and the other was Rapperswil, in the South of Lake Zurich. Like always, I took some photos.


More pictures here

Zürich mountains

Last week I got to do a little bit of hitch-hiking through the Swiss Alps. It takes around two hours to get there from Zürich (we went to Gimmelwald, a nice place near Interlaaken), but the road is really scenic, with many beautiful landscapes (lakes and green alpine plains surrounded by high mountains and many waterfalls). I should maybe let the pictures speak.





More pics here: Swiss Mountains

Zürich - Cultural milkshake

I've decided to call Zürich "cultural milkshake". It represents best the diversity of the people you see in the street, or in the bus/tram.
In the last post, I was complaining of how hard it is to find a place to live. I didn't mention the nice things that impressed me here, and it would be unfair leave it so.
I also made some photos, sorry for the bad quality. I'll get a proper camera soon.

Cool things in Zürich:
- "green" and clean city;
- relaxing walk from Central to Bellevue during twilight;
- scenic landscape of Alps at horizon;
- tall hills surrounding the city;
- many old beautiful buildings by the main river;
- smaller rivers cutting their way through the city.

Renting a room in Zürich

It is very difficult to find a room to rent in Zürich:
- because most adds are in German, and you need to switch to German;
- because you only get mails from persons who might accept you (which might be scam attempts);
- because you need to send around 10 mails to get an answer;
- because you don't know your way around the city;
- because there's lots of paperwork to be done;
- because you haven't seen the city yet and instead of doing so, you need to search for rooms.

Luckily for me, Emi and Matthias were nice enough to help me with all these. Thank you guys!

Moved to Zürich

Written on Tuesday, 1st of July:
I just finished my second semester in Media Informatics, and now I am heading towards Switzerland. New thing ahead: I will be doing now an internship in Zürich for the next couple of months.
I'm now in the train, somewhere near Basel and I already feel the difference between the two countries. Swiss language is like a weird mix of German and French, spoken with strong Italian accent. Probably because of the 3 official languages spoken in Switzerland.
Two policemen just passed by me without asking for my passport. Damn... no control! I could have taken two bottles of Jägermeister with me.

My favourite place in Romania

The video was taken last year, in Bucegi Mountains, Romania. This is one of the most amazing places in Romania. What you see is just one of the breathtaking landscapes along the pathway to the top of the Omu Peak. If you decide to spend the night on top at Omu Cabin, take a glimpse of the sky at midnight. You will see millions of shiny stars that punch an infinite immaculate black curtain. An exclusive nature show only for you.
Sometimes in the morning, you find near the two thousand meters plateau a sea of clouds, and give you the impression you really are in an isolated, heavenly place.

I go there at least once per year. Unfortunately, this year I'll be far away. :(

Credits for video and pictures goes to Ionut and his cool Canon S5. :D

Gmail domain taken

"Give to Germans what belong to Germans"! Today, when trying to access gmail.com, I got the following message:



Apparently, Gmail lost a trademark trial in Germany, with some guy who owns G-mail, another website. Now, I have to access my mail using the address http://mail.google.com/. I don't like it.

Google translates Romanian

Finally, Google translates from Romanian to English and vice-versa. Is this a sign that the number of Romanian programmers at Google is getting bigger? :D

Via Vivi

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WTF

This song just keeps popping into my mind with apparently no reason.



Weird, it took me some time to find it.

Iasi on Google Maps

Finally, Iasi - my home city - can be seen in better quality on Google Maps. I could even find my block of flats.
Thanks Loredana :)

What I learned today

These are some random things that I learned/found out today:

- If you loose something in Germany, you have big chances to find it at the local City Hall. If you don't claim it in 6 months, the City Hall sells your stuff for almost free, in a public auction.

- If you loose your wallet in Germany and police recovers it, you receive it by post. One friend Ada, lost her wallet. After two days, she received it by post - sent by the local police. Both money and documents, cards were still there.

- Buying a bike in Germany is cheaper than buying a new wheel for an old one.

- I have 6 phone numbers where I can be reached. Two of them can be used to perfectly track where I am with a precision of less than a meter.

- If you listen to your mp3-player while riding your bike - and have an accident - insurance company won't pay you any money. I still listen to music when I ride my bike.

- One in three women will trade their password for free chocolate (sorry, it's only in German :(). I will try this during the next month.

- Bucharest, a city that I don't personally find special, can look very well from up above.

Image of Bucharest, Copyright doisase