Andrei Neculau

If you cannot SMS your foreign friends from your Tele2 number.. just read the following.

WTF??

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Sitting on an old shelf..

Just a big-sized Romanian schoolbook?

Or a big-sized memory-triggering object?

After a succesful series on the procedures of admission to Higher Studies in Sweden, I’m now going back to a bit more personal chained writings (series). I’ll try to keep track of my experiences around my master at KTH

I’ll start fresh..

In the summer of 2003, I was finishing my high school studies and I was planning to go to Universitatea Tehnică Cluj-Napoca (en. The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca), located in Transylvania. It was really far from my hometown (Galați), but I went to Cluj-Napoca a year before and the town and youthful atmosphere seemed a far better alternative than the polluted and busy capital, Bucharest.

What many didn’t knew was that it was also a nice alternative, considering I actually wanted to try my luck in Sweden. Partially due to family reasons, but mostly due to personal ones, I didn’t try that. I was seeing friends sitting their SATs and Toefl exams, trying to find the money they needed, etc, for going to Germany, UK, US, and other places. I simply didn’t see myself doing all that for another place other than Sweden. The pure fact that people were looking for the money they needed, or that they were accepting clauses like “I will work at your company 2 years after I finish my studies” seemed restrictive. It’s like “Here’s the carrot..” but I would have always thought of the stick waiting behind the corner.

Why only Sweden? Because of a.. almost spiritual experience in Sigtuna, Sweden. Sounds lame, I know, but it felt right there. And the feeling was backed up by the reality of having most of the Swedish things in place, without loosing the humane part. In 2001 I was thinking Sweden is a lot like Germany, but with a touch. In 2007, I went to Frankfurt for one day, and I realised I was right. You can probably replace Germany with any Germanic country/culture and that wouldn’t change anything. It’s something about the culture, language and social context that attracts me and makes me feel like home in Sweden. Period.

And it’s not Scandinavia, it’s specifically Sweden!

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One year (and 11 days ago, to be exact) I filed a petition to the National Audiovisual Council of Romania, concerning TV channels doing one-question yes-or-no surveys during talk-shows and presented just the percentages in the end, but not the very low number of voters. And I got reply. Now I’m not saying I changed the world, but probably there were other complaints regarding the issue, and in time.. they started to follow the moral line. Or maybe I just didn’t watch so much TV ,)

Well, this summer was quite busy, so I can’t say that I watched that much TV other than for the pure “pleasure” of having something around that makes a bit of noise.

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Bucharest, RO, 2008

Rotterdam, NL, 2007 Via

Drink: 3€.
Embarrassment: priceless!

Allianz-Țiriac provides insurance policies for all sorts of stuff for Romanians, but I was interested in a health insurance for my future studies in Sweden.

I will be staying there for 2 years, and it would be nice to cut potential health costs, since they could prove to be quite high in Sweden.

I could basically get two types of insurances: one is a basic travel insurance, while the other is an insurance for people working/studying abroad.

Differences between the two, as provided by Allianz-Țiriac:

I managed to get a copy of their manual (Romanian), so you can read the full descriptions for both:

• Allianz-Țiriac - Asigurări medicale de călătorie în străinătate
• Allianz-Țiriac - Asigurări medicale pentru persoane care lucrează/studiază în străinătate

This is what I got just a couple of minutes ago with the comment “How pathetic!“.

I am known, and I am, a bit of an anti-system and critical person. “A bit” can be an understatement, I admit.

But this is something else. We are not talking about a system here. We are not talking about Romanian culture. We are not talking about a phenomenon here. We are not talking about a defining attribute.

The whole world does NOT look at “America Got Talent” and say “Aha! So this is what Romanians are!”

People - be smart! At least once in a while! Or at least shut up! See the perspective and not just the dirt under the nails! A hard working and smart farmer with dirty nails is not the same thing like a stinking city-man that you bump into while sharing public transport!

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* update 2008-06-11: make that 71 seconds (second clip)

Romania - France = 0-0
Group C - 09 June 2008 - Zürich - Letzigrund

The score is not so important. But this is..

Deşteaptă-te, române, din somnul cel de moarte,
Wake up, Romanian, from your deadly sleep

În care te-adânciră barbarii de tirani
Into which you’ve been sunk by the barbaric tyrants

Acum ori niciodată croieşte-ţi altă soartă,
Now, or never, your fate renew,

La care să se-nchine şi cruzii tăi duşmani.
To which your enemies will bow too.
-
Acum ori niciodată să dăm dovezi în lume
Now or never let’s give proof in the world

Că-n aste mâni mai curge un sânge de roman,
That in these veins still flows a Roman blood,

Şi că-n a noastre piepturi păstrăm cu fală-un nume
That in our chests we still maintain our pride in a name

Triumfător în lupte, un nume de Traian.
The victor in his battles, the name of Trajan!

Deșteaptă-te, române! - National Anthem of Romania
by Andrei Mureșanu

This was nothing. Wait ’til you hear this! (English transcript follows)

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* update 2008-05-31: added more videos (clips)

The transition from Communism to Capitalism is always going to give birth to some monsters.

And there will always be a majority that gains nothing in the short-term out of this transition. Needless to say, some will loose. Well-being is something that is mostly transferable and only rarely created.

The majority will always look for quick end to their injustice. Kill the monsters! At that moment, they don’t care about religion, about laws, about morality, and above all.. about their own pure existence!

To cut this short, in a transition you will always have the extremists. Those who promise you a clean bold line between good and evil! And that there will be no exceptions!

And in Romania, we have Greater Romania Party which is actually a one-man show (no, not party) in the name of Corneliu Vadim Tudor (or simply Vadim). Of course, we are not cheap and we have others.

And this is how Vadim “works” when the Romanian Presidency reads an act condemning communism and its practices:

Yesterday somebody took a stand. In a talk-show focusing on the main contenders to the position of Mayor of Bucharest’s Municipality, after Vadim started babbling like always about how great he is, about how unjust the talk-show was, and all of that in 10 minutes of his 1 allowed minute.. Dragoș Bucurenci, a young person who actually made a difference in terms of Romanian NGOs, bursted with a harsh, yet not demeaning phrase:

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