Proud to be Romanian

Although there are hundreds of reasons for not being proud of belonging to the Romanian people (and we Romanians excel in finding them), there are things that make me proud about my country and my people. Here are some of them:
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1. I am proud of being part of the seventh largest nation in Europe – Romania is the seventh largest country in Europe in terms of surface area and population.
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2. I am proud of belonging to one of the most beautiful countries in Europe – Romania has equal proportions of plains, hills and mountains; also Romania has an opening to the Black Sea and most important we have the Danube Delta which is a unique landscape in all of Europe.
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3. I am proud that we have unique architecture in the “Bucovina” region where are the old medieval orthodox monasteries that are true art wonders.
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4. I am proud that the Romanians preserved our mainly Latin language (Romanian is 60% Latin) in a geographic area dominated by slavish languages (not that there is anything bad about these languages).
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5. I am proud of the Romanian wines (the original old ones) that can’t be compared to any other wine I drank.
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6. I am proud that Romania exists, because somehow we managed to establish an independent country at the crossroads of three big empires (Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian and Russian).
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7. I am proud of the Romanian parties and our party music and the way we always find reasons to celebrate something.
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8. I am proud of the overall Romanian history. There are many things in the Romanian history that make me feel not proud or even ashamed, but overall we have to be proud that the Romanians played their role in many important historical moments.
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9. I am proud of our overall openness and friendliness towards foreigners.
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10. I am proud that Romania had a Royal dynasty that understood that the country needs resources to develop and thus, after the independence, the Romanian kings reigned with a crown made of steel instead of gold. Too bad that the leaders that followed after WW II didn’t have the same attitude.
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11. I am proud that Romanian citizens of any ethnic origin, overall, live in peace and harmony and in Romania there are 18 ethnic minorities.
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12. I am proud of the Romanian movies and movie makers. In the last years Romanian movies wan many prizes at film festivals, including the Palm d’Or for “Four months, three weeks and two days”. Also during the communist regime the Romanian director Sergiu Nicolaescu made superb movies that were blocked from going out to the west. Last year, one of his movies – Michael the Brave – was ranked the third best historical movie of all times worldwide.
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13. I am proud that even if Romania is a rather small and poor country we had top scientists and artists like Eugene Ionesco (drama writer), Constantin Brancusi (sculptor), Petrache Poenaru (the inventor of the fountain pen), Nicolae Paulescu (inventor of the insulin) George Enescu (composer and violinist), Henri Coanda (inventor of the jet engine), Mircea Eliade (philosopher, writer and the author of the first complete history of religions) and many others.
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14. I am proud that Romania gave the sports world many athletes that had a saying in sport’s history. The most known one is Nadia Comaneci that “invented” the perfect 10 in women’s gymnastics. Others are Helmut Duckadam the first goal keeper that defended four consecutives penalty kicks in a football game. His performance brought the European Champions Cup to Bucharest; Leonard Doroftei, Mihai Leu and Lucian Bute all of them world champions in professional boxing, Ștefan Kovács the Romanian football coach that wan the European Champions Cup with Ajax Amsterdam, Mircea Lucescu that wan the UEFA Cup and the Super Cup of Europe with the Ucranian team Sahtior. Also, not to forget the Romanian feminin gimnastics team that ruled the world championships and olimpics for many years and the handball team „Oltchim” that is a big power in european handball competitions. There are many others that deserve to be mentioned...
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15. Last, but not least, I am proud of the Romanian humor. We make jokes and lough at anything, even at bad things. It’s our way of dealing with things. Many people don’t understand our humor, but we love it. Imagine only that Romania has the only Happy Cemitery in the world and you will start to understand.
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Now… I ask my fellow Romanians to write on their blogs, post on their facebook accounts and on tweeter or anywhere why they are proud to be Romanians. Multumesc (Thank you).

What does actually mean to make a choice?

Making a choice means giving up all the other possible options.

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I made one big choice… what’s your choice?

Just passing an exam – differences between the Dutch and Romanian approach

In Romania in order to pass an exam, a student should get a minimum grade of 5 (out of 10). In The Netherlands a student should get a minimum grade of 5.5 (out of 10).

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From the point of view of the minimum grade needed to pass an exam, the two systems are similar.

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The big difference comes from what a minimum grade (5 or 5.5) means. In Romania in most cases (not all, but most) if a student gets a 5 it means that s/he is not totally stupid and incompetent. In The Netherlands if a student gets a 5.5 it means that s/he has the minimum knowledge and skills related to the subject of the exam.

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On the other hand getting a grade of 9 or 10 in the Romanian system is not very difficult (not a piece of cake, but it doesn’t require hundreds of hours of work). In The Netherlands, getting a grade of 9 or 10 is very difficult (10 is extremely rare) and requires a lot of work.

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Well, these are minor differences between two education systems. Yet these differences have enormous consequences in what is the result of education and I don’t mean only the knowledge and skills, but rather social implications.

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In Romania a child or a teenager is taught that in order to just get by (pass an exam) there is no need for hard work. Also s/he learns that being very good or perfect (9 or 10) is rather easy and all that is required is a few extra hours of work. Also, by easily giving high grades the teachers tell students that they should strive for the maximum grade possible and that being normal (getting a grade of 7) is wrong.

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In The Netherlands children and teenagers learn that in order to even get by (pass an exam) they need to work quite hard (not very hard, but hard enough). They also learn that in order to reach high standards (grades of 8, 9 and 10) one must study and work very hard. Also they know that getting an average grade (6 or 7) is not bad, it’s normal and they should not be ashamed of it.

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Now, you judge which system better prepares children for the life in a civilized and reasonable society.

After a lot of team work...

After a lot of team work we finished our assignment for Consumer Behavior. The assignment was to make a brand map (using BCM method) and coming up with an idea for a creative communication campaign to change that brand map.

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We had to choose from 6 brands and due to the fact that we are a very international group we chose Coca Cola Zero. No one from the team liked CCZ, but it was the only one that we could all relate to.
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It was nice work, but it felt kind of weird to work for a brand that I don’t like. At the end of the assignment we had to come up with an idea for creative communication in order to change the brand map.
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As we predicted CCZ is perceived as “healthy” and “helps to stay fit”. Well we didn’t agree. Here’s what we came up with…
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One interesting difference between the Dutch education system and the Romanian one

In Romania after a student finishes his or her bachelor or master program he or she has to support his or her bachelor or master thesis. (in romaneste a sustine lucrarea de diploma sau de dizertatie).
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In the Netherlands when a student finishes his or her studies he or she must defend the thesis…
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A small difference, but I believe it’s more than just semantics.

Why do the Dutch bike so much

The Netherlands (aka Holland) is the biking heaven of Europe. Here you can bike anywhere in or out of the city. There even are bicycle lanes close to the motorways.
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But why do the Dutch bike so much?
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One answer could be that the Dutch are really civilized people, that they care about the environment, that they want to keep themselves healthy etc. Well, all of these are good reasons why the Dutch bike so much.
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But, in my opinion, these are not the only and even the main reasons. Here is what I think is the explanation.
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First. There are a lot of bicycle lanes (at least in Rotterdam, but I’m sure it’s the same in other places). This creates the (infrastructure) premises for developing a behavior.
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Second. Related to the richness in bicycle lanes, where there aren’t bicycle lanes the drivers Respect the bikers. No one is blowing the horn or does anything aggressive towards the people that bike.
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Third. If you want to go by car you have some problems: a liter of gas is 1.45 – 1.55 Euros; parking in the center of Rotterdam is 3 euros per hour and in other areas it decreases to 1.5 Euros per hour.
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Fourth. Going by public transportation could be quite expensive- at least one euro or up to 5-7 euros.
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Fifth. Going by car o by tram (in Rotterdam) takes longer than biking on the same way.
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Sixth. (Thanks Dad for reminding me) The Netherlands is a flat country. There is only one hill. So going by bike doesent requier a lot of effort.

So the care for the environment and for one’s own health could be good reasons to bike, but I believe that they are not the main ones.

What I have accomplished in the 28th year of my life

Today is the last day of my 28^th year. These are the last hours when I’ll ever be 27.

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Well, I can say that 27 (3 at the 3^rd power) was a good age, a year of grate change. A little before turning 27 I’ve decided to make a big change in my life – going back to school at a world class university and preparing for an academic career. At the beginning I had only a blind faith and a lot of desperation, but that actually helped. Soon after I turned 27 I took the TOEFL. It was a success (111 out of 120). Then came the GMAT… that was a lot harder than I expected, but after a lot of hard work and banging my head on the walls (literally) it was a success …

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Well after that I restarted my (small) business. It was a short revival, but still it worked for some months.

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In the same time I applied for different study programs at foreign universities. A lot of paper (or digital paper) work. Well, again it was a success considering that I got admitted at my second option program at my first option university.

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After this luck struck! I met the most wonderful woman (for me of course). To make a long story short, we moved together to The Netherlands and we have a wonderful relationship.

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After that again a lot of paperwork for my application to the “Opened Horizons” scholarship. It also was a success.

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Now I am in The Netherlands for almost a month. Things are not super glamorous, but they are all right.

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I can say that 27 was a good age for me.

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For this I also have to thank some important people. First I have to thank my parents and my close family for supporting me in this radical journey. Then I have to thank C. (my former girlfriend) for standing by me and supporting me through a very difficult period of my life (26 and half of 27). I also have to thank all of my (true) friends that in one way or the other had trust in me and helped me each in his or her own way.

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Last, but not least, I have to thank Cornelia (my girfriend) for all that she is.

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I hope that 28 will be at least as good as 27 and I wish you all to be healthy, lucky and hard working.