'Exile' @ National Theatre

2/3

The weather became warmer and it was a sunny day. Originally, I will be going to one of the universities to help Vladimir to stick more posters to AIESEC recruitment. But before I went out, another AIESECer, who was called Irina, came to the hostel and took us to have lunch somewhere in city. So, I joined them.

I was a tour guide, as described by Irina, since I knew what exactly we were going to. Even more surprisingly, she didn’t know the way to the restaurant Anda and I went before, but I knew. LOL. This time I tried a meatball soup, which was served with green pepper. They tried a bean soup that was baked in bread, which was very nice. Another great thing was that there was a live music performance playing classical there, which was very cool.

Then we went to meet some AIESECers who were from the reception team in AIESEC Bucharest and the OCP of the World Citizenship Project. They loved the Chinese food and of course I can introduce more to them, though they didn’t know what ‘dim sum’ was. They taught me a bit Romanian, but obviously I was not a good language learner, I kept forgetting what they told me. I also showed them some Chinese words and Cantonese, and they found it very interesting.

With such a nice weather, we went to the large park by walking. It was also nice that we talked and chatted, having fun and so on during the walk. This was a bit confusing about Hong Kong and China when I shared with them. We even talked about the serious topics such as the problems existed in Romania and Hong Kong. Corruption was one of the problems she told me. The politicians were a bit wasting their time to win the election without really paying attention to the livelihood. They also cheated the election perhaps. But I was sad to tell Milena that we still did not have universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Besides, elderly was another issue they are facing. They are going to extend the retirement age to 70, which was quite unbelievable to me. Yet, luckily, the young generation was now more open-minded and connected to the world as the communist rule had been swiped out. They were more spontaneous now instead of following the order from above.

At around 6, we went to the national theatre because we were going to watch a Bulgarian drama. The play was called ‘Exile’ and it was famous according to our Bulgarian trainee. Though there was no English subtitle, I just want to experience something else here as the fare was quite cheap, which was only 20 HK dollars. It was quite an interesting that because I can only watch the body language of the actors, with a bit explanation by Nikolai. From this drama, I would see some characteristics of Bulgarians and they sang quite well. I was thinking that I would not have the same opportunity in my life to see a Bulgarian play in Romania at all. I should have enjoyed every moment in this journey before I start to miss it.

Today was really great because I like to talk with different people and make more friends.

Blue sky with clouds

Nikolai and me

Reception girls

Bulgarian play @National Theatre

1/3

1/3

Almost I had been to all of the tourist spots in Bucharest, today I went to a pretty big shopping mall, which was called AFI Palace. On the way to the mall, I was so glad that some AIESECers phoned me and told me that they will take the other trainees to the AIESEC office in the afternoon. I have joined them and meet more different people there. It took me 20 minutes to reach there. It was really a Megastore, with lots of restaurants and shops. There was even an IMAX cinema there, which was the only one in Romania. I also saw familiar stores like Starbucks, KFC, Marks and Spencer, etc. There was also a very big supermarket named REAL, which was very similar to ParknShop one. I bought some fruits and breads there.

I came back to the hostel and saw they were going to go out soon. I simply put down my stuffs and went out with them. One trainee just arrived in the morning from Bulgaria for the same project with Marichka. He was called Nikolai, who studied languages such German, Arabic and English. I was talking with him along the way and it was just great. He was very interested about Chinese culture, though he didn’t know a lot about Hong Kong. We shared a lot, such as the cultural difference, food, language, whateverso. Though he was a bit cool, he was nice and polite.

We arrived in AIESEC Bucharest Office half an hour later. The office was larger than ours, which was very normal. There were about more than 10 AIESECers, including the LCP. I heard from them that there will be trainee beer night on 3/3 and LC meeting on 4/3. I can probably join the beer night because I won’t be having anything to do if I stay one more day. LOL.

Vladimir took three of us back to the city centre and to have some drinks there. We went an old pub which was quite smoky and full of people. It was quite normal for them to go out to drink and chat with each other. Marichka was quite talkative and we had a good time, though the environment was not so nice. Afterwards, we went to another pub to meet Marichka’s friends, who was Romanian as well. There were really numerous pubs in the city, some were located upstairs or downstairs. But the common thing was that there were full of people everywhere. Nikolai told me that he was going to set up a business which will serve the translation service after his graduation. I began to understand more why there are quite a lot of projects related to entrepreneurship in developing country in AIESEC. It was because there are plenty of business opportunities and not much competition from abroad. He also told me that Bulgarians like to respect their family, which shared the similarity of Chinese family. Yet, children of the family need to be independent and establish their own family in 25. What an early age!

It was quite a tiring day for me since I have walked several kilometers by foot. Still, I enjoyed it because I can make more friends instead of travelling alone.

AFI Palace

AIESEC Bucharest Office

Last day of February

28/2

Today the weather was a lot better than yesterday. It was not so not cold and windy, but cloudy with sunny interval. I have visited two museums today, one was the Museum of the Romanian Peasant and another one was the Village Museum. Instead of taking any transportation to those places, I tried to walk there. Luckily, I had quite a good sense of direction, so that I reached the destination without lots of troubles.

Museum of the Romanian Peasant was showing the history of Romania when they were still farmers. Lots of traditional costumes can be seen there, which were mainly red and white in color. Some kind of religious staffs were showing there too. But the only problem that I encountered was that not much English explanation was available and no photos were allowed to take there.

Before getting to another museum, there was one tourist spot in between. That was the Arcul de Triumf, which resembled arc de triomphe in Paris. Comparing with it, this one was a bit smaller. It also represented the independence of Romania.

Located at the northern part of the city, there was a very nice museum, which exhibited various kinds of villages in Romania. I took 2 hours to look around the whole open spaced museum. Even stuffs inside a house were shown there and it was quite interesting. I was thinking that if China also has such exhibition, it would be very interesting too.

Besides the museum, there was a very big park next to it. Quite a lot of young people were relaxing there since it was Sunday. I rested there for an hour because it was quite tired after such long walk.

Then, I went back to the city center by subway, which was also first time taking that. The subway station was okay, but the stops were not quite sufficient. It was different from Hong Kong that we get a station nearby.

Museum of the Romanian Peasant

Arcul de Triumf

An old Church

Inside it

Big Park

Palace Parliament @ Bucharest

The first weekend in Romania that I spent was going to the Palace Parliament and National Museum of Contemporary Art. Yesterday was really cold, because it was raining whole day. It was windy and chilly, even walking around the city can feel the coldness. After the city tour, I was able to walk around without getting lost. That was why I went there by myself. Streets on Saturday were quite empty, perhaps the cold weather mattered. According to the route of a travel guide, I have gone to the Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral. The Cathedral was renovating and I cannot enter in to it too. But it was quite nice even the weather was not so good. On the way to the Palace Parliament, the roads were built resembling to Champs-Elysees in Paris. It was long and full of tall trees on both sides. It also showed how big Ceauşescu desired to be. Because of the gigantic size of the Palace, I needed to walk quite a far way to reach the Museum that located in the west of the Palace. The museum was not so good that I have thought of, perhaps I have been to much better museum in other places. The good thing was that the museum was incorporated into the Palace. After that, I had to talk another 20 minutes walk to the entrance of the Palace Parliament, which was freezing. This time the Palace Parliament had not let me down since it was really amazing inside. The rooms and corridors there were very huge and tall, even though they were not very well-decorated. The building materials were the best among Romania such as the marble, gold silk and so on. All the resources have gone to this building at that time. That was how a Communist regime ruled, perhaps. Now, the palace turned into a place where lots of conferences and seminars were conducted here. Even some competitions or banquets will take place in the main ball room. The guide ended with showing only 3% of the Palace since there were conferences taking place at the mean time. After that, I walked back to the Square where a shopping mall was located. Compared with Hong Kong, it was just tiny and nothing interesting. But still, I can see how it was like in place other than Hong Kong. After walking the whole day, I went the restaurant that visited yesterday, because I have no idea to eat elsewhere. This time I ate a sausage with potatoes and an apple cake, which was okay and not expensive.

Wet and cold~

Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral

Road to the Palace

National Museum of Contemporary Art

Gigantic!

Inside the Palace

The shopping mall

Apple cake, yummy~

City Tour in Bucharest

After eight hours of sleep, I was refreshed and looking forward to the city tour. Before I went out, I met a British guy coming from Bulgaria when we were having breakfast together. He went to Bucharest for the football match which Liverpool was played in Bucharest. That was so interesting that people really loved football and even went to another country to watch it live. He was nice that telling me if I want to go to Bulgaria later on, I can ask him about any information. Afterwards, I managed to get to Piata Universitatii where Anda and I will meet by city bus. Anda took me to have a look around important attractions in Bucharest. At the same time, it is so fortune that the weather became a lot better with the sun since it was very cloudy in the morning.

Romanian Athenaeum was the first place that we had visited, which was probably the most beautiful building in Bucharest. It was a concert hall where people played Philharmonic. Then we went to Piata Revolutiei, where the 1989 revolution took place. This was also one of the landmarks in Bucharest, since it marked the end of the communist regime. At the opposite of the square, there was a huge building which was the Royal Palace before, and now turned into National Museum of Art. There was also a little church named Kretzulescu Church, where was tiny yet beautiful. Walking along the Victoriei Calea, both old buildings and modern buildings can be seen in the two sides of the street. A spectacular building which was comprised of old archiecture and modern archiecture was the Novotel Hotel. Another part of Bucharest that cannot be missed was the Old City Center. This was a tiny Church called Stavropoleos Monastery. It was a great place that retains the traditional culture among the city centre, which was sarced and silent.

Right to the monastery was a local restaurant called Caru’cu bere, which was very famous for its beer. The food there is good with a really local taste. I have tried Mici, which is the grilled meat such as the sausages. With the student discount, the set is not expensive at all. The inner city of Bucharest still possesses the ruins of traditional monarchy. Moreover, Anda took me to the Palace Parlimant, which was huge and gigantic. This was built by Ceauşescu, who was the dictator ruling Romania during 1980s. It can be seen from far far away though it is not very beautiful. As it was nearly closed when we reached there, I decided to go there tomorrow.

After that, I bought something like pasta that I can cook in the hostel and then going back after shooting a few pictures at night.

Right before I went to bed, another trainee who is called Maria had arrived, accompanied with AIESECers from AIESEC Bucharest. She is from Ukraine and going to participate in a project next Monday. I was so glad that I can get in touch with other trainee and also AIESECers here.

To be continued.

Romanian Athenaeum

Revolution Square

Kretzulescu Church

Novotel Hotel

Old City Center

Stavropoleos Monastery

Beer

Nice food!

Palace Parliament

Night view with moonlight

Royal Palace

First day @ Bucharest

Finally, I arrived in Bucharest after 14 hours of flight + 6 hours of transit.
The first thing is that there is no people waiting for me when I take the luggage out at the airport. I am getting nervous because if no people is going to pick me up, how can I survive? Fortunately, I stay clam and first to take out local currency at ATM there and afterwards buy an orange sim card as I was told before. As I got the phone no. of who will be picking me up as well as Laura, who is the reception team leader in Cluj, I can sit down and ask for help. At the same time, Anda, who was a bit late because of the bus delay, found me and catered me afterwards. She was nice and experienced, who also helped me to reserve a place in a hostel in Bucharest. Therefore I was a bit relieved and looking forward to the stay in Bucharest. The weather is a bit cold, but not very chilly I think. Even it is raining, I can still keep my body warm.
Quite tired at all, just upload some photos there with description.


Funny figures in Amsterdam


Foggy weather with my plane


Night @ Bucharest

First meal in Bucharest- McDonald
A bit more expensive!

Tomorrow I will be having a brief city tour by Anda. Stay tuned people!

Last day in Hong Kong before the departure to Bucharest

Let's write down what I have experienced within a week before my departure. It is quite unpredictable and astonishing for me.
For the EPs who will go to exchange in the coming future, beware of this situation and always be flexible and optimistic. =)
My DTTN is hosted in Romania, which is a national project related to sustainability and CSR. Originally, the project will start in the first week of March till the end of April. So, I have already planned to do travel stuff after the internship, like buying the rail pass and looking for conference opportunities. However, I was told that the national project was delayed to April due to the low realization of EPs on 18th Feb.
So, I was quite angry about that at the first place because it informs me so late and it totally disrupts my plan. They asked me to change the flight so that I can still join the project. Yet, if I do so, I don't know whether I can claim the fee of changing the flight and I will get another month doing nothing in Hong Kong, which is quite desperate. Therefore, I decided to go on the same date although there may not be accommodation provided. I rather try travelling on my own and experience more countries instead of doing nothing in Hong Kong. Also, I rushed to fill in the faci application form in the midnight, hoping that I can be one of the facis in Slovenia, at the same time, travelling in quite beautiful country that I have ever been to before.
At the mean time, I was gathering more contacts from different friends, which can help me to travel or pick me up at a different countries. Exploring the myaiesec.net to see whether there are conference or CEED position even for a short stay. Not to mention to contact with the LC in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca.
Although my faci application is turned down due to large amount of applicants, I am now hoping to go for Vienna and Prague after staying in Budapest and Bucharest. So, stay tuned of this blog and wish me more luck.
One more thing, I was originally taking the flight from Lufthansa, which turned out to have labour union strike that have cancelled my flight to Munch. I am now taking KLM, from Holland, to Bucharest. This is very unlucky for me. LOL

And I will write down my exchange goals that all of you can keep track of my learning.
1. To know more about different cultures in CEE, so that enhancing my cultural sensitivity.
2. To know more CSR and related issue knowledge in a different country.
3. To shape a new worldwide after exchange.
4. To contribute the growth of the local organization or local committee.

I will continuously write on the blog once I get the internet access. Please feel free to write down your thought or comment on any posts.
P.S. For people who want to go to CEE this summer, I may help you to match there. Please send me your country preference, organization preference, CV and EP form to me via email.

ByeBye Hong Kong!