Vienna and Coldplay then cold Bucharest and being Homeless

After two wonderful days in beautiful Vienna and after admiring both the old and the new there, pictures are provided below, I have returned to Bucharest to find myself literally homeless. I guess there's a balance in everything, at least my life, so far, really wants to show me that.

With two weeks before my TOEFL and three weeks before my GMAT exams, with a lot of stuff scattered in different friends' places, no bed I can truly call my own and a lot of other things I have to solve this month, the homelessness situation is just what I need right now to complete the circle :).

But enough about my problems, nobody (except one or two truly kind persons) seems to care about them, so why should I, right?!

So, back to Vienna. Well, as my life has a balance, this city has one also. It combines the old part with palaces, museums, churches and gardens with the new part, a very futuristic an extremely organized business center with a 252 meter tower just watching over the city. I ate in that tower (Donauturm) with a bunch of friends. We went round and round in the restaurant situated at 165 m over sea level and we admired the beautiful pieces of Vienna, connected by the night lights. The view is spectacular and it is only barely equaled by the mango mousse they serve there.

The concert was amazing. Coldplay, especially the incredibly talented Chris Martin, truly rocks.


Thank you Radu for stalking us with the camera all over Vienna, we wouldn't have these pictures if it weren't fot you :)!

Science Issues can be Rapped

New people

There comes a time in everybody's life when the need to meet new people arises. It's not that you get bored of what your usual entourage is saying of doing (although sometimes you do), it's just that, meeting new individuals provides you with a new and decent conversation for the day. It's like a job interview with no interviewer present. You can end up talking about oil drills and be fascinated by that. You never even thought that to be something you would do...ever.

I've noticed something rather interesting (for me at least) in the past years. Whenever I meat a new person (usually it's a guy), and that person is really smart and very good at what he/she does, we always end up talking about movies. And it's not your usual "Have you seen that movie? It's really good." crap, no, it's deeper than that. They know films, directors, actors, they know who Tarkovsky and Aronofsky or Foreman and Fellini are, they insightfully comment on Al Pacino's acting. Even if they’re usually very busy people, they have time for a lot of cinematographic experiences.

At first I thought WOW, these people are great. They have (or take) time to be very successful, they travel a lot and they also know their stuff about films. But then I realized, they don't actually have a lot of free time on their hands, and when they do, a quiet date with a non-judgmental, not-to-be-impressed, non-stressful, great-to-learn-something-out-of, emotion-triggering film is what they choose.

Films are a very comfortable refuge if you're not in the mood for human conversation. For some it is an excuse to make-out, but for the busy ones, the preoccupied and the always-thinking-about-their-job or their family or tomorrow's worries people, a film is an escape.

As I was in a film-watching kind of mood, I saw HEAT with AL PACINO and ROBERT de NIRO last night. It's two and a half hours of mounting tension, egos and careful planning put on reel. Plus it’s packet with action, an apparel for the psychology behind it all. So it’s a definite must for both the busy and the lazy :) .