ROMANIA, EXPERIENCE IN EASTERN EUROPE

 

 

 I grew up in Guadarrama mountains.

 

Hello to everybody! My name´s Enrique, but you also can call me Kike. I was born in  Madrid (05/03/1989) and grew up in Guadarrama´s mountain range, in central  Spain. I like travelling and studying, reading and writing. And I love mountains and the  wildlife.  I´m happy because I´m starting a new experience abroad, and I can learn a  lot of new things from everybody and about everything.

I always have thunk that academic education is one of the most important things, but  not the most important. After almost twenty years fulfilling the duty to go every day  to school and college I´ve decided to live new experiences. What I now need are other kind of knowledges. The known american writer Henry David Thoreau, wrote:  rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. And I agree. Because I don´t   know what it´ll happen tomorrow, I need to learn how to cope with upredictable problems of the future. On 12 september 2011 I started my fifth course at university. But I was tired. I also felt  very sad because I was constantly surrounded by people who only were interested in obtaining a diploma, but at the same time were unable to help themselves out of their world. And because I felt I was more than a score on a  sheet of paper, I decided to go very far, at least for a time to really think about what I wanted in my life.  Some of my class mates say that I´m crazy and  that I should  finish my studies as soon as possible. They believe that not going to university is a waste of time. But I don´t care. What each one has to do is to believe in himself. It doesn´t matter what the people think when people really don´t know you well.

 

                                                                              I always wanted to study biology.

 

 I write because I´ve been living  in Romania during one month and a half. After three weeks visiting the capital Bucharest, and other cities like Iasi, Ploiesti, Campina, and Chisinau (Moldova), now I´m in the city of Brasov, working in a Voluntary Service. I´ll be in the city of Brasov during one year, in one of the most beautiful cities in all the country. Transilvania shows a lot of things to the traveller, specially mountains, nature, historic buildings and castles. I was in Romania in july 2005, and I always wanted to come back. 

 

Serbia and Romania border. Iron Gates NP.

 

 

      Peles palace, in Sinaia.

 

 

 Old women feeding the birds in Timisoara.

 

 

 

    Bran castle in july 2005.

 

 

 I had heard about EVS, the European Voluntary Service, because of my sister, who is also working in EVS for other association in the city of Campina. I think that EVS is a good way of non-formal education, and you can learn a lot of things that you can´t at school or university. You can learn how to become an independent person, living  abroad and spending your own money cleverly.

 I decided to visit my sister during some weeks. My plane took off at 01:30 and arrived in the morning. I arrived to Baneasa airport on 9th february 2012. My sister was waiting for me there. In Madrid, before taking my flight, one romanian man (I   don´t remember his name) was asking me how I was going to go from Bucharest to Campina. I answered that I was going to take the bus and the train, and he started laughing. He couldn´t understand that I was going to take the bus alone or in company of my sister. After, one spanish man named Roberto told me at the aeroplane a lot of things about romanian culture and traditions. He was the first person that I knew in my romanian experience. After a full day in Bucharest  my sister and I took the train and arrived Campina in the night. That day was wonderful. The temperature was -25 º C and the Dambovita river was completely frozen. We visited Casa Poporului, a the second biggest governmental building in the world (the first is The Pentagon, USA). The construction of the building finished in 1986, and three years later Nicolae Ceausescu died. It was interesting. We also visited the old city, full of buildings in a french style, and ate hummus and salad in a lebanse restaurant. Finally we took the train to Campina. While we were travelling, we listened the song Kibori. All Romania was snowed, the streets, the churches, the houses, the railways, everything. In Spain there was a siberian cold wind, but in Easter Europe the weather was much colder.

                                                                           Bucharest.

                                                                             Casa Poporului.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                           Casa Poporului teathre.

 

 

 

 

                                                                             A graffitti l in Bucharest street.

 

 

 

                                                                              Girls walking.

 

 

 

                                                                             Dambovita river totally frozen.

 

 

 

During the three weeks I was in Campina a lot of things happened. First, I had time for thinking what I was going to do. I needed to think quickly what I was going to do the next months. To continue at university wasn´t my first option, so I had to decide. I used to walk everyday through the streets, visiting the churches, markets, Nicolae Grigorescu house and Julia Hasdeu Castle.

 

 

Câmpina streets are frozen.

 

 

My room (Câmpina).

 

 

Church.

 

 

 

A painting at Julia Hasdeu castle.

 

 

Iulia Hasdeu toy.

I also used to cook everyday. It was very relaxing. During all that time I was at my sister´s apartment the weather was too cold, and because of this I was the most of time inside home, reading books and watching movies. A french girl named Noemi lives with her, so I shoulded be educated everytime. Some days my sister and I went to a coffee shop and drank Ciocolata calda.

 

 

                                                                             The weather in Câmpina was too cold.

 

 

                                                                             Cooking chicken at my sister´s apartment.

 

 

                                                                                           It snowed while I was cooking.

 

 

But one day I was searching in the web new projects and I found one of them in Brasov City. I contacted with the Colors Association. I met them two days later. I remember that day perfectly. The train was 150 minutes later and I arrived to Brasov at 12:00. While I waited the train I walked around and took some photos of the houses and birds. I was talking with Claudia and Lucian in a coffee shop, at the red building closed to the train station. Finally I decided to work with them in the project called Be Active and Creative!

 

 

                                                                             The train was late.

 

 

                                                                             I was waiting at the train station.

 

 

 A white house.

 

 

                                                                            Going to Brasov.

 

Also I could visit Iasi, in the eastern region of Romania;  Moldova, Ploiesti and Campina. I had to come back Spain for 2 days, in order to pick up some of my belongings: clothes, computer and other necessary things.

 

 

 

 

I started the poject on 1th march 2012. No one was there and I learnt how to move in the city, the main streets, supermarkets and buildings. In my first day I went to the library and took some photos of the elderly people. It was my first experience as a volunteer. We are 5 volunteer in total: 2 polish girls, one turkish boy, spanish girl and myself, but also some romanian volunteers help us. I wish to know them better during this whole year.

 

 

                                                                            Dancing with elderly people.

 

                                                                                            Breakfast at home. Brasov.

 

 

                                                                            My turkish mate and I at the office.