Codruta Stefaniga: August 2008

Thanks for this Dan...

''The thing is, we still live in a world that's filled with opportunity. In fact, we have more than an opportunity -- we have an obligation. An obligation to spend our time doing great things. To find ideas that matter and to share them. To push ourselves and the people around us to demonstrate gratitude, insight, and inspiration. To take risks and to make the world better by being amazing. Are these crazy times? You bet they are. But so were the days when we were doing duck-and-cover air-raid drills in school, or going through the scares of Three Mile Island and Love Canal. There will always be crazy times. So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand. You get to make a choice. You can remake that choice every day, in fact. It's never too late to choose optimism, to choose action, to choose excellence. The best thing is that it only takes a moment -- just one second -- to decide. Why not be great?''

...from Seth Godin's Blog

A long,chilled weekend...

...one where we were supposed to move into our new house and start our life there, but didn't- we will next week. Instead, some of the highlights were:

- Watching a carribean steel band competition in Hyde Park- as a pre-event to the Notting Hill Carnival
- Drinking coconut juice, eating sugar cane and jerk chicken with plantane- carribean food- all for the first time

- Watching the olympics handover to London- very cool
- Going to a Shakespeare play in the Globe theatre

- And then today- going to Cambridge- the best university in the UK and one of the oldest. Below: Trinity Colledge.

The city is small and full of beautiful old buildings that remind me of middle ages. This is where students live and study. The first record of the city is around 756 and of the university 1209.

The detail on the gothic buildings is fantastic, as you can see below- loved noticing all the gargoils and all the lace.
The most exciting activity in Cambridge is ''punting'' on the Cam. That means boating. :)

This is done using a long pole to push yourself forward along the canal along side all the ducks and underneath beautiful old bridges.

Over all, a fantastic lazy day with friends- very chilled, in the sun and grass.

A moment of happiness

Frankfurt

Rule number 1: never go to Frankfurt for more than a couple of days! There's NOTHING to do or see there!

Besides the old city center....which is nice...and full of Spanish people singing and dancing in the middle of the square- and interrupting Indians from filming their movies-

...they have a lot of sky scrapers...

...a nice riverside...

An interesting opera house..

LOTS of banks and financial institutions...

Sausages with potato salads...

...very few central parks filled with rabbits....

...and other strange animals, as shown below. This is Tony doing is impersonation of Bruno, the other character of Sasha Baron Cohen (besides Ali G and Borat). :)