Tag Archives: family

Hola, I’m in Antigua, Guatemala.

The sight from almost landing in Panama.
Close to Panama

My first trip across the ocean and out of Europe: Don’t be nervous, everything will be just fine! I kept saying to myself. And then this became an involuntary soundtrack before my actual flights. Cheers, brain, I know I can always count on you for messing up my sleep and bringing up weird songs before any kind of travelling. 🙂

But now I am here (OMG!) and everything is so great and exciting and new and crazy different, but sometimes also out-of-this-world similar to the Romanian culture. It’s so hard to put in words. Maybe something of a harmonious chaos that we also master in Romania.

One other surprising thing, I understand a lot of the language, it’s incredible! It feels like it was all the time asleep inside of me. This learning process is very exciting for me. I only need to listen carefully and I understand the use of expressions. Love it so much! At times, I even keep up conversations for so long that I forget I am speaking Spanish. Now that’s really something 🙂

The people. Oh my, I don’t even know where to start on this topic. They are very hospitable, kind, patient, welcoming but also curious to know about you and your country. Here in Antigua they get a lot of tourists and they are used to sharing their lives with them. I have been welcomed with open arms into their houses (thank you Charly, Luis, Majo and Elizabeth), I met the extended family with aunts and uncles and cousins and grandmas. I’m enjoying small talk during meals at my wonderful home and I have the perfect view on the terrace of my room. Antigua is surrounded by volcanos (Volcan de Agua, Volcan de Fuego and Acatenango)and I am lucky enough to see them all 🙂
What can I say, guys, it was love at first sight with Antigua. Here, el Volcan de Agua, first thing in the morning.
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Volcan de Agua is the most beautiful one, standing alone with its blunt peak sometimes wrapped in white clouds. The more cheeky one is called Volcan de Fuego. As his name hints, he is still active and kicking. Sometimes more than once per day. It’s far away so we can’t even hear the explosions many times, but you get such an adrenaline rush to see it by night! Mirna from Probigua Spanish School took a great photo of it the other day. I was overwhelmed at its sight to even move a muscle, but she managed to capture it! Such good timing! The Spanish language schools here in Antigua are renowned all around the world and have become one of the main industries along with tourism.

Volcan de Fuego, Mirna

So enough about how amazing this entire trip is for me, let me walk you around the places so you can get the positive vibes in wonderful Antigua. The city has well preserved Spanish colonial style buildings and many ruins of churches. During the colonial times it also served as the capital of an administrative region that covered most of Central America.

View over entire Antigua from La Cerro de la Cruz.
cerro de la Cruz view over Antigua

La Merced church.

La Merced

Antigua is well known for having elaborate religious ceremonies during important Catholic events such as Cuaresma (40 days before Easter Sunday), the Holy Week (Semana Santa), Easter. I will be here just before Easter time so I will document all the flowers, fruits, pine needles and paint artworks made by the artists to celebrate these events. Here you see Cathedral of San José which is located in the Central Park.

Morning
Flare san jose

This is the sight from Palacio de los Capitanes, Plaza Central. In the background, the beautiful Volcan de Agua.
Main Park

The main market. Love the colors of everything here. So many new veggies and fruits I had no idea about. Now wish me luck learning their names in Spanish with no Romanian equivalent. Quiero un camion de nisperos.♥

el mercado

el mercado )

prohibido

As for me, I wait for good light and spy on people, I’m really enjoying myself out here. 🙂 This is fast healthy food on the street. If you like how one lady is cooking, you usually stick with her. Guacamoooooleee tortilla wrap, yum! ♥

fast food

ruinas

guapo

la luz

cuida

Bicicleta

Oh, yes, this is me during lunch break soaking up the sun as much as I can before I return home. Keep bright 🙂
sun

Portret de familie 2014

Cristian Suțu e nebun în cel mai bun sens al cuvântului. Insistă să ne facă fericiți în preajma sărbătorilor de iarnă printr-o ședință foto al cărei rezultat este un portret cu oameni dragi. Bănuiește, probabil, că fericirea asta se propagă în raze multe către toți apropiații. De 4 ani Foto Union ne adună de te miri pe unde în cadrul campaniei publice de fotografie – Portret de Familie.

Ca la fiecare ediție a campaniei tradiționale de fotografie, amenajează cu ajutorul celor de la www.dealtadata.ro un decor de Sărbători. Anul acesta, sub bradul de Crăciun aveți posibilitatea de a lăsa un cadou oricât de mic și de a face, astfel, fericiți niște copii. Este vorba despre 60 de copii de la Centrul de Resurse și Referință în Autism „Micul Prinț“ din Bistrița. Click aici pentru cîteva detalii despre minunile care se întâmplă la Centrul Micul Prinț.

Cum se vor desfășura lucrurile? De la Cristian citire:

1. Sedințele foto vor avea loc la Academia de Biliard (strada Șelari 14), în perioada 13 -19 decembrie, între orele 18.00 și 22.00
2. Nu este nevoie de programare.
3. Ședintele foto le vom face în ordinea sosirii, iar prioritate vor avea familiile cu copii.
4. Nu vă costă nimic. Este un cadou pe care Foto Union vi-l face în preajma Sărbătorilor.
5. Sedința foto durează 2-3 minute.
6. Vă oferim un portret de familie, atât sub formă digitală (pe adresa de email pe care ne-o veți lasa), cât și sub formă de print (3 exemplare per familie).
7. Dacă doriți totuși mai multe printuri, ele vor fi efectuate contra cost, iar pentru va trebui să comunicați colaboratoarei noastre Claudia Brașoveanu câte exemplare doriți.
8. Toate printurile vor fi oferite pe loc, într-un termen de așteptare pe care noi îl estimăm la circa 30 de minute.
9. Urmăriți pagina de facebook Portret de Familie și hashtag=ul #portretdefamilie pe instagram.

Anca si Lori
Mă bucur că am reușit să povestesc puțin cu Anca. Trecuse prea mult timp.

Cadre din anii precedenți puteți urmări aici și aici 🙂
Portret de Familie este un eveniment tradițional al Foto Union, susținut anul acesta de Bitdefender. Și organizat cu sprijinul Academiei de Biliard și al De altădată.

Happy New Beginnings!

May you all have a Happy New Year! I wish you a better New Year with loads of wonderful experiences, fears overcome and inexhaustible curiosity.

All around the world people make plans for the new beginning, evaluate the failures of the past, promise to change their so called faults for the future. I dare you to do something else the next year, stop blaming and putting so much pressure on yourselves, I challenge you to simply be yourselves.

I had an amazingly fun time with my sister today. We were admiring and taking photos (of course) of this year’s last sunset. The magical setting was placed by an almost entirely frozen lake. Goofing around was never so joyous, as if the days would have all reached the very end.

Wish you could put my shoes on for one day, you’d see how amazing it is to have a sister and how the joy of being can actually spread the minute you are sharing it with someone else. We enjoyed every second of the last rays of sun of 2012. In laughter. Goofy approves of New Year’s Coming.

I wish you precious moments with dear people, keep them close to your hearts!
Here’s to being yourself, whatever that might mean to each and every one of you!

Does it look familiar?

I just bumped into this short film and I thought it would be a good idea to share it. I am sure that many of you can resonate with this Romanian short film about the troubles your family goes through until they finally get the hang of using new applications or social media tools.
Talking to your family from abroad? Priceless. I would change the messenger with SKYPE and there you go! Situation updated to the Erasmus autumn semester of 2012/2013 in Estonia.

Now, enjoy!

I have to call my parents and tell them that I love them.