Here's a gum

Chatting with Tudor today made me remember a funny fact about small shops in Romania. Whenever you buy something, they give gums or candies back instead of the rest of the money.

They almost never have small money, so they give you small stupid things even though you didn't ask for them. And very often, that gum, candy or whatever doesn't even cover the amount of money you should get back.

But it sounds fair for them :-P

Turning into a brazilian?

Living in the same apartment with Debora is one thing I definatelly like about my traineeship in Germany!!! She is from Brazil, and also a very good cook. I've just tried a couple of brazilian/south american goodies like "Negrinho" and "Chimarrão".

I can only say that drinking Chimarrão as social activity is much better than smoking Shisha! (and healthier :D)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimarrão

Google it

Were you ever pissed off by people who ask you very basic things without first looking for it themselves?

Now you can help them: http://justfuckinggoogleit.com/ :D

Coolest chess players

... near the train station in Köln. Notice also the useful support for the chess table :)

Bonn Storm

I've just witnessed the worst storm I've seen in my life. Lots of quick loud thunders, rain was falling in all directions even pushed back up sometimes, and the wind was so strong that I've seen pigeons trying to fly away being smashed in the wall.
At some point, the pressure got so low and so quick, that I could feel my ears going a bit deaf, and sounds got more like a drum effect.

Now, half an hour later it's curiously sunny again, temperatures went from 17 to 21 degrees in a couple of minutes, but the city is still like crazy. I can hear ambulances all around, radios talk only about this like being the worst storm ever, there are trees and leaves all over the streets and traffic and trams are blocked. Kennedy bridge was just closed. Our office was flooded. Also some mobile phone lines are dead.

So weird because it was so sudden.

Update:















This street was closed.












The pictures were taken 100 meters from my apartment.

Virtual barbershop

Before listening to this, make sure that you:
- use the headphones
- turn the volume up
- close your eyes

Get the mp3

More like this at: http://solodon.blogspot.com/

Biking around Bonn

I like the special biking paths around Bonn. This one is Villenweg, through the Kottenforst Forest.

Drunk driving kills

The Mumbai traffic police started an initiative to prevent accidents commited by drunk drivers. They distributed in most of the bars in Mumbai special beer coasters that picture a face, and contain an invisible red ink. When people put a wet glass on the coaster, the ink becomes visible, and it seems that the person is bleeding. The coasters contain the message "Just a reminder. Drunk driving kills."

I would definately like to see that initiative in other countries too.

Rhein in Flammen

This weekend I'll be the chair (moderator) of Bonnfire, an AIESEC conference for new members, international trainees and also old members. It is a very big challenge for me, but for some reason I'm really looking forward to it. We'll also go to the fireworks.

Still thinking of a chair rollcall. Any suggestions?

An amazing cock-up

I have just been accepted for an international master in Media-Informatics, at the RWTH Aachen University. So, I guess there is a big chance I'll spend another two years in the beautiful city of Bonn, since most of the classes will be here.

NKK 2007

I've just returned from the biggest national conference in AIESEC Germany, National Kickoff Conference in Bielefeld. This was my last conference as Organizing Committee member.

We had over 400 happy delegates, hi-tech sessions (like the ones only Kevin can imagine), and the coolest Global Village ever.

What I liked the most, was meeting Sami again, the current president of AIESEC in Egypt. Getting to know him better confirmed to me one more time that egyptians are really cool and friendly people. He also did a great job as chair of the conference.

One important thing: today was the first time when I really felt that we were saving the planet :)) We had to recycle about 800 empty bottles of water left from the conference, and that got us 200 euros back. Cool, huh?

How to cross the street in Cairo

This is the way you cross the street in some crowded streets of Cairo. It's quite extreme, and was one of my favourite "sports" while being there. I know it sounds crazy, but I miss that.

Some more examples:
Crossing the street in Tahrir
Human frogger

And yes, bad stuff can happen :-)

CeBIT

Yesterday I went to CeBIT, with a couple of AIESECers from the national teams in Germany, honoring an invitation from Deutsche Telekom, for a round table and a visit of their stand there. CeBIT in Hannover is the biggest IT fair in the world, and if you ask any IT guy to pick a fair where he wants to go, he would say CeBIT.

My general impression is that the fair is HUGE, it took me almost one hour to walk(run) from one end to the other.

Some of the interesting stuff I've seen there:
Clothes of the future, really good taste with integrated small lights and cool buttoons for music players. (washable, batteries included :-))

The kitchen of the future, with a virtual women talking on a window, where you could order products directly on Internet, or trace your stuff in the kitchen.

A television set where you could see 3D movies, without having to wear special glasses. (I would definatelly buy that in the future).

A cool 3D surrounded Deutsche Telekom conference room :D

Anyway, the weirdest thing was when I stopped in front of a computer, and the dude started drawing some squares on my eyes and mouth, analysing me, and displaying my mood.
P.S.: He didn't guess it :-D

Sinai

After IPM was over, some of the delegates and organizing committee members decided to go to Sinai, while the others went to Luxor and Valley of the Kings. Since I am more of the "action" guy, and less of a "museums and monuments" fan, I decided to take the Sinai trip.
I really don't know how we all got mixed in this weird composition, but at the end, I was the only guy travelling with six girls from Egypt, Ukraine, Poland, Switzerland and Taiwan speeding with 150 km/h on a tight bumpy road, towards Dahab, Sinai.

After crossing about seven security checkpoints (barrels blocking the middle of the street) guarded by armed policeman, we finally reached Dahab. Dahab is a small resort with one main street, 100 km away from Sharm El Sheik (the most popular resort in Sinai). As far as I understood, the security checks are because of the recent bombings in Dahab and Sharm El Sheik.
The prices there were really good. We checked in at Octopus Hotel, paying only 4 euros per night, all upcoming tours or activities going to also be around 10 euros each.

In the first evening, around 11 we went on to Sinai Mountain, to the place where Moses came down with the 10 commandments. Around 1 in the night, we all arrived at the base of the mountain, in the St. Catherine Protectorate. Initially, I believed that we were the only crazy people climbing mountains during the night, but when we got there, the place was already full of tourists and salesmen. We barely got out of our mini-bus, and the bedouins "attacked" us: "Hello my friend! Do you want scherf? Buy scherf, cheap! What's your name? Wher are you from?". "Scherf" meant "scarf", and the method of barganing is typically Egyptian :-).

After passing by the metal detector here too :|, we started to climb the mountain, followed by camels, and our bedouin guide. We climbed the whole night, and towards the morning, after a short snow, we've seen the sunrise, and that was simply gorgeous. Our bedouin guide was really pleasant, talking to us the whole way, and he also found me a nickname, "habibi".

In the second evening in Sinai, we rent a jeep from the hotel, and went somewhere in the middle if the desert, in a beautiful place, surrounded by mountains. There, the bedouins were expecting us, in a hut discretely lightened by candles, and covered with palm-tree leaves. They have prepared us their traditional dinner, a mixture of chicken and vegetables, and then showed us how to build water-pipe out of 0.5L pet bottles. We had a very warm night, with clear skies, and lots of fun.

We spent the last day in Blue Hole, snorkeling in the coral reef, through fishes of all colours, that I had only seen in Windows' screensaver or in Finding Nemo before. The fishes were swimming curious around you, as close to a couple of centimeters, some in groups, some separately, then back, hiding between the corals. At the end, we went to a cool restaurant by the beach, and ate some very good food. The restaurant is called Friends, and it's really worthed: good food, and nice waiters. We all ordered very fancy dishes, and cool mixtures of cold natural juices. I found shark steak in menu, and tried it. It was juicy :D

This was the best day of all three we have spent in Sinai. We still owe lots of thanks to Mai and Maggie, our best egyptian friends who showed us around.

Wrap-up

One year ago, I have planned to keep this blog up to date, but apparently my plan didn't work. Now, I am planning to do that again, so... I will start with a little wrap-up of what happened in the last year:

July 2006 - Got an internship in Germany, moved from Iasi to Bonn
July 2006 - Travelled to Belgium, visited Bruxelles
July 2006 - Visited Cologne (Köln)
August 2006 - My first visit to Berlin
September 2006 - Travelled to Czech Republic, Prague
September 2006 - Travelled to Münich, at Oktoberfest
October 2006 - First time OC (Organizing Commitee), Bielefeld, Germany
November 2006 - OC at NaLDS, in Harz Mountains, Germany
January 2007 - Visited Loredana and Sebi, in Helsinki, Finland
February 2007 - Conference Commitee member, AIESEC International Presidents Meeting 2007, Egypt
March 2007 - Travelled to Sinai, then Giza

Well, a lot has been going on. I have written some words about all this in my romanian weblog, and from now I'll also try to keep up with my posts in English.

Mino, you'd better read this, you were the one who pushed me to do it :D

Interview

Interwiewing funny people is fun

German Reporter

Funny reporter

The first entry

This is "za" first entry in my first "international" blog. I`ve made all my posts in romanian up to now, but today I saw a great blog of Rajesh, a random guy from India. He writes there a lot of great stuff about his country, but, i couldn`t have understood them if they were written in hindi, right? :D

Also... the tendency for globalisation is very actual, and I would like my posts to be read from my friends from other countries too.

Conclusion: This will be my "international" blog :D. I`ll try to put here anything that I find interesting, and also copy some of what`s cool on my "Romanian" blog.

Keep watching ;-)