A Christmas Message

Christmas is getting closer, we get excited with decorations, presents and all that stuff – I admit, I love them too, they are part of the Christmas spirit, but I would rather say it is also the ideal time to think about change and make our "every day" more meaningful.

Let me show you a story in a nutshell, presented in this Christmas WWI commercial. It will express what I meant to say. You may find an article about the video here.

I am not going to make an endless morale, but ask you a few questions. What did you always plan to do but never had time? Who are the people that you care about the most? Are they aware of your appreciation? When was the last time you have been happy like a child in front of a new toy? What is the first step that you need to take in order to accomplish your dreams?

I already started writing my Christmas story, I thanked today some persons for their friendships (Facebook application “Thank you” is awesome) and I made someone happy by making an invitation to Christmas decorating.… and I can’t wait to get home and prepare the Christmas Romanian cake, “Cozonac”, with my mother…

Perhaps Christmas stories are not like in the movies; maybe nothing absolutely spectacular will happen but, hey, why not use it as the reason to reconnect with yourself and make every day more special?

Stephansdom in Vienna

Life assumptions?! Time to refresh them!

Have you ever challenged your life assumptions? Have you ever thought about your inner perceptions about the world? If not, then you should give it a thought.

One of the effects that journeys have on me is to bring out my philosophical side and make me more aware of myself. You may wonder why life assumptions are particularly important. I see them as a set of unwritten rules, embedded in you, that govern your individual life and perhaps your social life. There is a theory that I like very much and can be applied here –constructivism -, saying that our identities are socially constructed.  Moreover, it also states that the structure and the agent construct each other.  Applied, these things can mean that the way you see the world shapes your identity and personal structure but, in the same time, you have the power of remodeling your ideas and assumptions. To add on, as long as you have the wrong or just inappropriate perceptions about the world, your social relations are also different and this in turn it affects your identity.

Maybe it seems twisted, but it is actually quite simple. To bring your life assumptions to surface, practically, you just have to think about your own decision-making process, about what makes you happy and sad, and especially about the situations that make you feel uncomfortable. Particularly these last ones have the potential to reveal hidden assumptions. And then, talk! Just find someone that you rely on, that is really close to you and that does not judge you, and talk things out!

It happened to me as well, though it is not to be shared here. However, it was an automatically generated inner idea that I happened to carry with me for years without even realizing.

In the end, it is a journey of self-discovery. Due to the fact that we are increasingly more dynamic every day, we tend to ignore our foundation, our history and the way we have been built. Perhaps it is the right time to give it a closer look and create a better self. 

Need inspiration? 11 TED Talks to make your life more exciting!

What about some inspiration and some fresh ideas about the world? One of my ways to get these things is watching from time to time a TED Talk. Maybe some of you heard about it and perhaps others did not.

Briefly, it is a website/phone application that provides short-length speeches of various persons around the world on a wide range of matters, from technology to researches or day to day life issues. Below, I would like to show you a list with some of my preferred TED Talks, in random order, and a short description of each of them (taken from their website):

1) Zak Ebrahim: I am the son of a terrorist. Here's how I chose peace.

If you’re raised on dogma and hate, can you choose a different path? Zak Ebrahim was just seven years old when his father helped plan the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His story is shocking, powerful and, ultimately, inspiring.

2) Making peace is a marathon

In Lebanon there is one gunshot a year that isn’t part of a scene of routine violence: The opening sound of the Beirut International Marathon. In a moving talk, marathon founder May El-Khalil explains why she believed a 26.2-mile running event could bring together a country divided for decades by politics and religion, even if for one day a year.

3) Dare to educate Afghan girls
Imagine a country where girls must sneak out to go to school, with deadly consequences if they get caught learning. This was Afghanistan under the Taliban, and traces of that danger remain today. 22-year-old Shabana Basij-Rasikh runs a school for girls in Afghanistan. She celebrates the power of a family's decision to believe in their daughters — and tells the story of one brave father who stood up to local threats. (Filmed at TEDxWomen)

4) Hackers: the Internet’s immune system
The beauty of hackers, says cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari, is that they force us to evolve and improve. Yes, some hackers are bad guys, but many are working to fight government corruption and advocate for our rights. By exposing vulnerabilities, they push the Internet to become stronger and healthier, wielding their power to create a better world.

5) The Museum of Four in the Morning
Beware: Rives has a contagious obsession with 4 a.m. At TED2007, the poet shared what was then a minor fixation with a time that kept popping up everywhere. After the talk, emails starting pouring in with an avalanche of hilarious references—from the cover of "Crochet Today!" magazine to the opening scene of "The Metamorphosis." A lyrical peek into his Museum of Four in the Morning, which overflows with treasures.

6) On being a woman and a diplomat
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright talks bluntly about politics and diplomacy, making the case that women's issues deserve a place at the center of foreign policy. Far from being a "soft" issue, she says, women's issues are often the very hardest ones, dealing directly with life and death. A frank and funny Q&A with Pat Mitchell from the Paley Center.

7) Global power shifts
Historian and diplomat Joseph Nye gives us the 30,000-foot view of the shifts in power between China and the US, and the global implications as economic, political and "soft" power shifts and moves around the globe.

8) The key to success? GritLeaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn’t the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of “grit” as a predictor of success.

9) The psychology of your future self"Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished." Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the "end of history illusion," where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person we'll be for the rest of time. Hint: that's not the case.

10) Your phone company is watching
What kind of data is your cell phone company collecting? Malte Spitz wasn’t too worried when he asked his operator in Germany to share information stored about him. Multiple unanswered requests and a lawsuit later, Spitz received 35,830 lines of code — a detailed, nearly minute-by-minute account of half a year of his life.

11) Everyday leadership
We have all changed someone’s life — usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.

You might also want to know that TED conferences are organized worldwide so you might have the chance for one to take place actually close to you. Check it out because it is worth taking part in it. I participated at one such event in Bucharest, Romania, about 2 -3 years ago and I really liked the atmosphere - dynamic and bringing in new ideas.

I believe that our preferences show in fact who we are and these stories outline some of my views, each in its own way. For example, they reflect my passion for international relations, my interest in education, my belief in the high value of personal leadership or the importance I give to reflection and understanding yourself. All in all, they are a way of saying “open your mind”, listen, learn from other people’s stories and then act!

What are your favorite TED Talks and what do you like about them? Sharing them in a comment would do perfectly!

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…

Into the spotlight

My name is Anda Radu and I believe in the power of ideas. I am 22 years old, but more I can’t tell you about me. Why? Because my life is so dynamic that it would be impossible to describe a steady activity that I have.  There are so many interesting things happening, so many ideas that come to my mind and a constantly stronger desire and drive to write and to share them with the world.

One may wonder why I chose these words to represent my personal blog: Energy. Ideas. Change. Let me tell you that they are not randomly picked up from the dictionary, but do have a meaning in strong connection with my view upon life, that will also be expressed through this blog.

Energy. Because it embodies the energy that I put in every day of my life, into the ideas that evolve from the grain to the project and eventually into the dreams that later on will become reality. In my opinion, life is worth living only if you invest energy in it… dreams will not come true only with luck, but also with hard work.

Ideas. Because I strongly believe in the power of ideas and information. If we want to have control over our lives, we need to be open-minded, to have the courage to explore new territories, to try new things or simply be informed about what is happening around us. This way, we will become step by step stronger individuals. Dare to think, dare to debate, dare to discover!

Change. Because my entire life is about change. When I was 9 I moved to Campina, when I was 18 I moved to Bucharest, at 20 I lived for two months in Brazil and at 22 I will move again, this time to Vienna. And this is just one example. Positive change is the key to a better future and we should embrace it, not be afraid about it.

I hope that now you understood at least a bit about my mindset. More, you will discover on the way. So, what can you read here? Well, it might be a cool movie or a nice book that inspired me, an important event in my life that triggered some ideas, a trip that I did and much more. You will also have the chance to see the perspectives of a Romanian that is moving to Vienna – challenges, discoveries, maybe advice. However, it all depends on how life will turn out to be for me. Nevertheless, always expect something positive.

All these being said, I embark on a life-long journey by writing this blog. I know when and where to start, but I have no idea where it will end. I will put all my energy, gather all my ideas and make this journey a life-changing one!