Sibiu- memories from a summer trip

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In the streets of Tmisoara

Here are a few more photos from the streets of Timisoara. The first is the old horse-drawn tram, built in Vienna in 1869. And the last is our way home...
Goodbye, beautiful town.

Sarmizegetusa

Here are a few photos from Sarmizegetusa, the biggest and last of the Dacian capitals. Actually, this is Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa, the capital of the Roman province Dacia.
For those of you who love history, see this.

Orthodox Rite

Photo and information from:
www.aviladigital.com
I’ve just read this news in the newspaper in Ávila. Once again, our town becomes a multicultural place, like in medieval times.
The first orthodox mass in our town was held this week-end in San Juan church,
There were two masses. On Saturday and on Sunday. Orthodox masses usually lasts more than two hours. They were celebrated by priest Laurentiu who will also celebrate in Badajoz, a town in Extremadura.
There will be masses every fortnight in Ávila. On 28th December the first orthodox baptism will be celebrated and on 6th Hanuary, Christ’s baptism will be conmemorated.
According to Eugenia Semenciuc, the chairwoman of the Romanian Immigrants Association “Eminescu”, the bishop in Ávila has promised to allow orthodox celebrations, for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens, in San Andrés church, an ancient Romanesque church.
It’s really important for new citizens among us feel they are loved their own way, with their own music, food and religious belief.
I hope this event makes our neighbours happier.

Timisoara

Timisoara is a very special town. It's located in the Western part of the country and it was also called "Little Vienna", because it belonged for a very long time to the Habsburg Empire and the entire city center consists of buildings built in the Kaiser era, which is reminiscent of the old Vienna. It is a multi-ethnic city, hosting besides Romanians, Hungarians, German, Serbs, Bulgarians, Jews, Greeks, Russian, in a harmonious community; and a multicultural town, an important university center with the emphasis on subjects like medicine and engineering. It was the first European town to be lit by electric street lamps, in 1884 and the second one with horse drawn trams. For almost twenty years now, it's been for us the town where the revolution began.
Here are a few places connected to those moments: the Liberty Square, Opera Square and Maria Square, the Metropolitan Cathedral, places where blood was shed. And, since we approach Christmas, a few merrier photos. I hope you like them. Point on photo to see caption.



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Merry Christmas

Wishing everybody the best for Chirstmas time: happiness, joy, love, peace and luck for the New Year.
May all your projects be successful!
Hugs

Live

This is probably a silly post, but if you want to be here, near us, for a second, click on the link below. Like in a charm or in a Science-Fiction movie, you will find yourself in Bucharest, in the University Square, on the top of the Geography Faculty. You can see the Christmas blue lights and the tree in the square and the traffic. Technology can bring people closer. Try it! Come here!
click
Thanks to "Jurnalul National".

De Craciun, ne-am luat ratia de libertate!

This was written in the center of the town during the last days of 1989. It means: this Christmas we got our freedom ration. It's a most eloquent phrase. There are two key words in this phrase: ration and freedom.

I can't stop thinking of the revolution these days, as it all started on December 16th in Timisoara. I must shamefully admit I knew nothing until the 22nd, when the big bubble burst. Things were very much covered, nobody was allowed to talk about the revolt at work (and everyone was afraid to) and I was not one of those who spent the nights furtively listening to Radio Free Europe, the ear stuck to the radio. I had other things on my mind: a baby, a very ill mother, a hard commute, a husband working at the other end of the map and above all, the biggest worry we (almost) all had: to get the bare necessities covered, day in day out.

Remember the word "ration"? Mostly everything was rationalized, from hot water to food, even bread- for the small communities. Since Bucharest is a big town, they could not provide the rations for everyone- so here it was the survival of the fittest. The stores were most of the time completely empty. The joy to be able, after long hours of queing, to buy flour, or tooth paste, or cotton wool, or eggs!

The second word was "freedom". What people longed for, maybe even more than food, was free speach, free opinion, the absence of fear. There were two sentences circulating- only among those who really trusted each others. A militant one: "we can't go on living like rats"; and a hopeless one: "polenta will never explode". Well, it did.

We have food in stores now, and the freedom to speak our mind. Things are not exactly what we have dreamed of, but there is hope.

I will be in Timisoara for the next days, I will humbly put a flower and a candle on the steps of the Cathedral, where those kids were shot. Many of their bodies were never found or identified. May they rest in peace, wherever they are.

An Homage

Many of our most beloved actors have died lately, at an age which would have allowed them to give their spectators many beautiful performances.
But yesterday, one of the greatest actors, a former head of the National Theater, a writer and an anchor of the Romanian theater, Radu Beligan, turned 90.
He celebrated his birthday by rehearsing for a new play, learning a new part. When asked why, he quoted Socrates, who was once asked why he was learning how to play the lyre as he was near death. His answer was : so that I am able to play before I die.
A humble bow.

Los Noc-turnos

This is the booklet the Town Hall has created to launch a campaign to prevent young people from driving after drinking.
The message is based on the idea of making "turns" to drive among the friends, so that there is alwyas one whose turn is not to drink and to drive.
The spot plays with the word: nocturnos, meaning somebody or something related to night. If you split the word you have Noc: night and turnos, turns.
It's not a bad idea. One of the major problems with young people nowadays is the amount of alcohol they drink at the week-end. Heavy drinking is already a problem in itself but if it goes together with driving, it can become a tragedy.
It means not only family suffering but society expense. Many of these young people who have accidents get on wheel-chairs forever, and this is something our society can't afford.
It's true we always celebrate events with a toast, but a certain limit should be applied for drivers.
May this campaign be successful, here and everywhere.

First Christmas lights

When I finally reached the Grande Square I met a beautiful spectacle. Those barren trees had bloomed with the Christmas lights. The first ones in town this year. The whole system was expected to start today. But only these trees in El Grande were on. It was a wonderful contrast with the snowflakes and the soft light on the Walls. Despite the cold I took out my camera and stopped to get these three moments. The same place, almost the same time and three different views.


I enjoyed the moment for a few seconds and then I went on walking, a freezing wind was making a thin ice coat.

Letter to Santa Claus

As Christmas Day gets closer, children write letters to Santa and ask for the presents they wish. Some kids do more than that. This is a story that deeply touched me.

Students from a small village in Galati county (one of the poorest parts of the country) sold pies to their fellows villagers on Tuesday in order to collect money for the purpose of repairing their over 50 years old school. The action was rather an awareness call to the authorities concerning the precarious conditions in which children learn. The 200 students sold 200 pies and managed to obtain 200 Lei, that is almost 60 Euros.

The building is in an advanced state of decay. The walls are cracked, and the ceiling may collapse at any time. Overall, the school has six classrooms. In two of them no lessons can take place because the walls were cracked and there is a risk that students are wounded. Out of the other four remaining rooms, two are almost as affected as those closed.
The school's headmistress believes that the current building can not be rehabilitated because the structure of the resistance is seriously impaired. According to her, the place needs a new school. The local authorities have drawn up a draft for a new building, but the beginning of the work has been delayed from one year to another.

Contacted by telephone, the school general inspector said on Tuesday that he was up to date with the situation in the village and promised that he would follow it closely. "I know the situation there. In fact, I sent an inspector to take pictures. I made some efforts to start a rehabilitation and to bring the school to a normal state. For now, it's hard to estimate when it will be ready," the inspector said.

Does anyone reading this blog know Santa?

Good people in Jun

Remember I told you about a village in the South of Spain where they were about to decide what to do with the Christmas budget, whether buying the typical decoration lights or paying unemployed people?
There are 2.500 inhabitants in Jun. There were 230 votes and, almost unanimously, they have decided to pay two unemployed people for 6 months.
The major says they will have a Christmas tree decorated with the population contributions.
I find it absolutely wonderful. It brings hope to this material world.
It shows that human beings are still able to think beyond their own nose.
Crisis may have triggered the neccesity, but anyway, these peole deserve a homage. Here's mine, a very humble but a sincere one.
May their behaviour have more followers. After all, decoration can be so easy as these cloth figures I'm cutting for our house.

Red Spot

There is nothing new in the statement that Bucharest is hiding treasures that nobody bothers to dig for. We pass by old homes, left to turn into ruins every day and don't even take one look at them. But even if we did that, it would be hard to see the treasure behind a layer of dirt and debris.

I Love Bucharest is an innovative programme focused on the regeneration of the public space in our capital through artistic and public art projects proposed and carried out by artists, aiming to trigger the civic responsibility and participation of citizens in the process. In this European Intercultural Dialogue, I Love Bucharest initiated an event called Red Spot: an art project designed to be a signal, a warning and awareness call for the Bucharest's residents and authorities, civil society and private companies.
By starting the Red Spot, I Love Bucharest tried to show us some of the wounds of our city. Starting Nov. 27, for three nights, between 6p.m. and 7a.m., red spots were projected on the front of 11 neglected and damaged buildings holding a well-known aesthetic and historical value in downtown Bucharest. During the day, they were marked with a sticker. The project continues with an exhibition at the Peasant's Museum, between Dec. 9th and Dec. 15th. The exhibition includes black and white images of buildings condemned to "self-demolition" and video with interviews with residents.

Red Spot is a call to overcome the ignorance concerning our own history, its past and present, to overcome the indifference towards our own future. The purpose is to draw the attention of the Bucharest dwellers, to make them look up and accept the presence of these old buildings, which are part of the town's history and could make Bucharest a beautiful city with an original architectural style . Let's hope that things will evolve and we will do more than just accept their presence, and the authorities will take care of their protection and restoration.

In a snowy town

At 7:00 in the morning it started snowing. Very few people could see it begin, but the flakes did not stop and in a few minutes gardens, streets, traffic lights, everything in town was covered in a white coat. from the window it looked smooth, silent, even cozy.
It invited to laziness and dreaming.

City life gets rounded. Irregular forms become hidden, motions and noises get wrapped in the wet cold blanket.

Branches and bushes are soon loaded with a weigh they did not expect. Green is not seen any longer to leave a blinding whiteness swallow all the colours.

The mystery of mist together with the paths artifitially made for people to keep on moving produce a slow rythm both for humans and animals.

Snowfalls bring wealth in beauty and water supplies. But beware the snow, it can also be dangerous.

Light sensations

The flickering flame of a candle, although a humble light, is able to take the eyes far away in time.
It always transports me to an ancestral discovery moment. It trigers the ancestors in me.

There is nothing so powerful and sad, at the same time, as the last bright in a candle. Can you imagine ancient people's desperation when thinking they were about to lose warmth and light?

Today's lights involve a different feeling. You know, there's an iniciative in a Town Hall in Jaén, a town in the south of Spain. The ictizens are voting what to spend the Christmas budget on: paying for the lights or paying unemployed people. I'll tell you the result. Were I given the option, I'd vote for paying the unemployed people. And you?

Lights Festival

In Carol Park, a festival of candles, lights and shadows, quotes and photos, music, positive thinking, hopes, wishes and small pleasures. Those who stayed late could take one of the little boxes home. And each of us needs some hope on long winter nights, when we feel tired and we think our efforts have all been in vain.

A Carol

These are my 6th graders singing one of my favourite carols, while making postcards for their project partners. Well, not all of them are really working, as you see.
I love carols, both singing them and listening to them, they are the thing I like the best about the winter holidays.
It was a good moment. A warm one. Because they were doing something with their own hands for some other kids.
Merry Christmas and a happy year ahead!

Snow-White at the National Theater

The National Theater in Bucharest hosted a story this weekend. It was "Snow-White", as seen by the French choreographer of Albanian origin Angelin Preljocaj, and it seduced the local public, during all its all three performances. The ballet impressed the Romanian audience by its scenery, costumes, lighting and by the director's ingenious ideas.

Although the National does not have the best stage for ballet, and the first performance was late due to technical problems, the show went on for nearly two hours without any incidents.
In addition to what the poster had promised - a beautiful story, somewhat ignored by the classical ballet, a name such as Preljocaj, costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier and music by Gustav Mahler - the performances also showed gorgeous sets, ingenious light effects and an original direction.

The tale is perfectly linear, Preljocaj does not deviate too much from the Grimm Brothers story, he does neither invent nor suggest, just relates it in the manner of the nineteenth century romantic ballet. It's the plea for classic simplicity of a choreographer that is not at all far from the contemporary dance.

If the show brings no surprises as far as choreography, it's totally different in terms of sets (bearing the signature of Thierry Leproust) and direction. Preljocaj has imagined the arriving of the Seven Dwarfs on ropes, down the mountain and dancing in the air - a memorable scene - and the sequence in which the step-mother looks in the mirror seems either previously recorded or elaborated by means of complicated light techniques. In fact, on the opposite side, the step mother is perfectly doubled by another dancer, and the effect was remarkable.

Some of the choices that Jean Paul Gaultier made concerning costumes are said to be questionable. The most successful appearance is the step-mother, with a dark look (a combination of black and red), borrowed from Walt Disney's version. Gaultier's fans forgive him all his "sins" in the end, when Snow-White appears in a gorgeous bridal dress, during the wedding scene.

Photo and information from "Evenimentul Zilei"