Life at crossroads: from Romania to Austria!

What it takes to change your life? Courage and trust. In this way, I embarked on my journey to Austria. I arrived here on August the 6^th, knowing only where I am going to study and where I am going to live for the first 10 days until I find a place of my own to rent. However, it is not my first time in this country, but I dare to say the 5^th time. Somehow, different reasons kept bringing me back here once in a while, from the 9^th high school grade.

I felt in love with Vienna right from the beginning. Who would have guessed that I was going to move here, for an indefinite number of years? I find it useless to set a specific number of years, when only the opportunities and the turning points of life will determine this. In high school, I started thinking about doing my Master abroad. As my mind was trying to figure out in what city I would like to study, Vienna always popped out. You see, for me, the lifestyle of a city is very important. I just can’t move to a country just because it has an extraordinary good university if I don’t feel myself at least a bit attracted to that culture, people, weather and so on. Later on, when I conducted a solid research concerning my studies abroad, Vienna turned out also this time to be the solution. Here, I had a good faculty with the profile I was looking for, taught in English - Webster University, International Relations -, I loved the atmosphere of the city and the architecture, I was willing to learn German, which would use me very well in the future, I had the possibility to find a job since it was an international city, it was not as expensive as other European capitals and it was relatively close to Romania.

So, here I am: a new resident of Vienna! Now, 10 days from my stay have passed, 10 days in which I learned once again to deal with uncertainty, to have faith and to enjoy a new beginning. Luckily, a friend of mine, to whom I thank very much, allowed me to stay in his studio from Vienna while he was in Romania, in order to search a studio for myself. Therefore, in the first 4 days I had appointments for visiting flats and eventually, on Sunday evening, I found a great one to rent! But finding a flat here is another story, which I will develop in a future article, including also practical suggestions for those interested in finding accommodation. On Tuesday, I moved to my new place and from there on, I settled. However, I did not waste the days and, taking advantage of the first sunny days, I got familiar once again with the city, with its spirit. Museum Quartier is a great place to go in the evening, it has a lot of cafes, but also benches and shapes to sit on and enjoy the conversations, movie projections and so on; Stephansplatz is always vibrant of tourists, but walking on its small side streets, one can discover dozens of antiquities shops and galleries; Nestroyplatz is a chic place, leading you to the Danube, to many cafes and displaying an architectural combination of old style and large multinational futurist buildings. One of the highlights of my stay here remains the visit at the United Nations Headquarter, at the Vienna International Center. Celebrating 35 years since they have been working in this building, they had a free visiting day on the 15^th of August. Having in mind that UN is one of the organizations where I would like to work, this opportunity was more than welcomed. Despite the fact that, of course, there was a relatively long waiting line, and that the tour was limited due to time constraints, I enjoyed being there and getting in contact with the UN.  After three Model United Nations, I got to actually enter a conference room and take the seat of the Director – General. Life has its own mysterious ways.

Let’s not forget to mention the people of Vienna! It is an incredible mix of cultures! I encountered incredibly helpful people, right from the beginning, when a young women just passing by showed us how to buy the right tickets and after a few minutes came back in the train station searching for us because she forgot to say something important regarding the validity of the tickets. But I have also seen all kinds of weird of people; especially the area Praterstern which, even though an important transportation hub, can turn out to be dangerous and thus it is worth avoiding it as much as possible (however, maybe due to the high number of police men, I never witnessed any incident).

After all, why take this step and make such a big change? Well, there are many reasons, but, behind them all, there is an irresistible attraction in living for a while in another country. And what better moment to do that other than now? For me, it really seems like the normal course of action, I feel like I should have been here and I should have done things this way; I don’t feel strange and I don’t feel a lack of adaption; I just feel like HOME. Don’t get me wrong, I still love Romania and it will remain my first home, I will always pride with my home country but now, I am ready to have for some time… two homes.

The secret of adaption lies in the feeling of being at home… wherever your head lies…

Power of youth - the UN Youth Delegate program

I have always believed that the power stays in our hands, the young people, to change the world that we live in. Not because more aged people are not capable, but because we are gifted with the energy of youth, with the drive given by the fact that we believe that our future is in our hands and there is still a lot of time to fulfill our dreams.

Having this thought in mind, I found an opportunity which is worth spreading the word about. I would have joined the program myself, but I am at a point where I decided another course of life for myself. Therefore, I want to write about the program “Youth Delegate at United Nations” from Romania. However, if you are reading this article and you are not Romanian, you have to know that it has also been implemented in other countries; you just have to research about it. 

It has been launched by the Ministry of Youth and Sport and it implies that two young people, a girl and a boy, will have the possibility of representing Romania in New York at the UN General Assembly from September/ October 2014 and at the Commission for Social Development from February 2015. However, having this position requires your involvement for one year, period during which you will have meetings with young people round the country, as well as be involved in other related activities.You can find more details about the program here.

As basic requirements, in order to be able to candidate, you must be a Romanian between 18 and 25 years old and you must have spent at least 6 months in Romania in the year before the moment of candidature. You can check here the stages of application, the requirements of the application file, the profile of the candidate, the role of the UN Youth Delegate, as well as other details. You can also join the Facebook event.

This short description from the official website of the UN Youth program may answer some questions regarding the global movement. : “Since 1981 the United Nations (UN) recommend Member States to include Youth Delegates in their national delegations in order to ensure direct youth participation. The inclusion of Youth Delegates in the work of its Mission to the United Nations gives a country legitimacy in representing the views of its young population and promotes the voice of young people in global decision making”.

And after all, why do this? Why run for the position? It is a chance for you to act, to intervene in the society, to bring up front all your potential and, nonetheless, have a year marked by personal and professional development.