Codruta Stefaniga: July 2008

The most exciting part of my weekend :)

Smoke on! The Red Bull Air Race happens in about 14 cities every year and it is awesome to watch!!!2nd and 3rd of Aug in London :).

Red Bull Air Race in Rotterdam 07

Let's see the half cuban turn again...

Red Bull Air Race Rotterdam 2008 HIGHLIGHTS

And now..one from the professionals...if you don't believe me...:)

Romani in Amsterdam

As we were chilling and having dinner..I hear ''Barca pe Valuri'' and I say..''I bet they are Romanian''. After running after them I figured...they were...from Bucharest.Happy reunion, kisses on the cheek and a stripping of all our change. Typical.

AI Transition Party Trip

Spent the whole day with friends and Taco, just chilling in cafes and taking Ankit to the Red Light District. :)

The weather was just as bad as Easter...lots of rain and about 18 degrees.

The city however is as charming in any weather...With its cultural attractions...

..and other sorts of attractions. Rember this?

All sorts of animals can be abused in any weather too, right Ankit?

And while Ankit was mistreating the poor lizards...I was having fun with the dog in Rembrandt's paining from Rembrandsplein.

Mmm...nothing better than your favourite latino combined with some typical canals...

Some boathouses I could never live on (what about the humidity, the insulation and the heat, not to mention the motion sickness :)

Interesting flower..never seen before.

Saturday it was raining so no BBQ in the park or football, so we ended up in the AI office, playing with figures from Kung Fu Panda. Now I am really passionate about this...Does JJ not look like the little guy???

Same old strange statue in the memory of a famous dutch cartoonist apparently...

The beautiful Erasmus bridge...

..by which we had the best bitta balls (typical breadded meat and cheese balls) and Lefe. :)

Saturday night we went to a pretty snazzy club, which wasn't as good as last year because it was not all ours and there was hardly any dancing. Below, the typical picture of the Romanians (not all that were there).

And another cute thing was the CC reunion- although Vish is missing from this photo.

Sunday was all about the Air Race...and chilling.

This one's for you babe. Some old plane they brought all the way from the UK to fly a bit. Can you guess what it is?

The moto of the day was Smoke On! because before each race would start some random guy would announce in a robotic way who would fly and he would end with ''Smoke on!''.

This is JJ demonstrating smoke on. :)

Whoever said that Durex created smaller condoms for Indians? :P

Finally...the journey back by bus was quite tiring and French customs as usual were taking their time...Over all..great weekend! Very relaxing.

Breaking a Guinness Book Record ...:)

This Saturday we joined ''The Big Dance 2008'', an initiative from the UK government to promote dance around the country (and tourism). 2400 people or more showed up on the day dressed in red, yellow and blue to dance a dance we all learned from a video off the internet. For 5 minutes, all of us danced in sync, under the eyes of a Guinness Book of Records' representative. And we did it! We set an oficial record for the most people dancing at the same time on the same dance (I guess). I will show you the certificate when I get it by post.

The rest of the weekend was great too: private club, brick lane sunday market, dinner with friends, Lashhh Run, shopping, the works. :)

Transition...

Very strange feeling this transition...feels so hard to let go in the middle of things...and I feel like staying on another Careers Fairs cycle. :) It still feels like there's so much work to do...

I cannot wait till the last week of transition...where we will have nothing much to do...but mourn the fact that the year is over.

Signed the contract with my new job today :). Excited.

These days...

Great times...transition started...less work...more team time...lots of talking.
Came back from home very refreshed because I was very very spoiled. It was confirmed once more...if possible...that I have an amazing family and I love them all to bits! And the 2 weeks we spent in London and then home were...memorable. :)
I finally graduated from the Uni in Romania and I feel a huge relief...but I am bitterly reminded at how easy it is to get a big mark in Romania, which makes differentiation based on your graduation mark...very hard. On the other hand, it feels rather good to know that my home town hasn't changed and that my friends are still there, unchanged as well.