Anne and Monica

My Roomuseum

2013-01-23T06:57:00.003-08:00

I finally finished my Roomuseum–an idea I had about halfway through our trip when I realized I had a growing collection of "artifacts" from the places we visited. Before I left on the trip, I didn't know what I was going to bring back with me. I thought I'd buy a pair of Argentinian leather boots or a leather jacket, and I wanted a variety of musical instruments from around the world.

Best 43 Images of Animals We Encountered Around the World

2013-01-04T01:52:00.001-08:00

I thought it would be a fun idea to compile some of the best images of animals we encountered during our trip, so Anne and I came up with this list. Some of them are quite hilarious. I tried to position them in chronological order, except for the first one, which is just a teaser to give you an idea of how amazing some of these encounters were... Image 1: Anne leaning against a tiger at Tiger

2012 in Review and 2013 Resolutions

2013-01-02T00:52:00.002-08:00

The other night I watched a National Geographic documentary on the first full ascent of the Everest made by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. The most inspiring thing (which I didn’t know until now) was that after this moment, Hillary spent most of his life in Nepal, building schools and hospitals for the Sherpa people. As of now, he’s one of my new heroes in terms of making life

Indian Summer Days

2012-10-30T00:57:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, my friend Jenni generously invited me along with some of her other friends to spend the weekend at a vacation house that her parents have rented up in Calistoga. The house was out of this world, an incredible 60 acre wine country estate with a pool, vineyards and apple trees. I brought my digital SLR (Nikon D90) with a 50mm lens and spent the weekend taking a lot of photos. It felt

Lists

2012-10-13T16:44:00.001-07:00

So I made it to New York City. In the past two months here, I've acquired a new skill that I might need to add to my resume sometime soon: cat sitter. I've had two house/cat sitting gigs so far and I have two more to go. They're all for friends of mine, or friends of friends. I'm beginning to wonder how long I could bounce around from house to house, living out of my suitcase (which has

Oktoberfest,The California Way

2012-10-04T00:21:00.004-07:00

On the last weekend of September I was invited at the very last minute to join a bunch of nutty Germans and some other fellow Europeans in celebrating Oktoberfest at a farm outside of Petaluma. I had no idea what to expect - but I ended up having a blast, meeting a lot of interesting people, laughing my heart out at kids being goofy and saying funny things, eating tons of delicious German food

Slow Food Picnic in Sonoma

2012-09-25T01:32:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday I had the pleasure to be a guest at Slow Food's fresh food picnic, organized at the beautiful Ranchero Mark West farm tucked in the hills of Sonoma County. I would like to herewith extend my thanks to my two new awesome friends Jonathan Sutton and Tony Ferrari, chefs at Hillside Supper Club, a new slow food restaurant in Bernal Heights, San Francisco. I had a great time

Home Sweet Home

2012-08-23T16:44:00.001-07:00

Anne and Monica's trip "around the world" ended for me with 3 weeks in my home country, Romania. This visit was not part of the original itinerary, but since I had a lot of British Airways miles and were able to buy tickets on miles for a very small fee, I decided to extend my trip and go see my family and friends back home. Going back to Romania is always an emotional whirlwind for me. Being

Romania: the City, the Country and THE FOOD

2012-08-13T14:14:00.002-07:00

What do I remember about Romania? Meeting Monica's friends and family, the city (Bucharest), the beautiful countryside and THE FOOD. Monica already wrote an entire blog post on Romanian food, so I won't get into it too much, but let me just attest to the fact that Romanian food is off the chain! Enjoying a huge, delicious meal in Bucharest. Monica and I stayed in her brother's apartment for

Perspectives

2012-08-06T17:41:00.003-07:00

Today's blog post is about the myriads of ways people see the world around them, and how one can relate to or understand others' points of view. We often assume that our own point of view is shared by others around us and we carry this thought fallacy from either personal or professional perspectives. We see friends unable to comprehend your dislike of PB&J sandwiches or donuts. (I mean, who

A Road Trip Across Rajasthan

2012-07-29T17:22:00.002-07:00

Anne and I spent the second half of April 2012 in the north of India, more specifically a region called Rajasthan (which means "the land of the Rajas"). Being our first time in India, we experienced severe culture shock. In hindsight, had we started with the south of India and one of its big, modern cities (Calcutta, Bangalore or Mumbay), it may have been less shocking. Anne in front of

Backpacking List

2012-07-23T00:24:00.001-07:00

For a while now I've been really into backpack hiking. I could say it's my newly discovered love. There's something about being out there in the wilderness by yourself, away from civilization, cars, cell-phones, loud artificial sounds, hoards of people, that renews me and fills me up with happiness and energy. For those who like to run, they call it "the runner's high." I guess I have "the

Hiking The Lost Coast

2012-07-17T01:10:00.001-07:00

This past weekend my friends Devin (aka "Young Man"), David (aka "Siesta Dave") and I went on a hike up north to an area known as The Lost Coast. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about this magical place: "The Lost Coast is an undeveloped section of the California North Coast in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. It was named the "Lost Coast" after the area experienced depopulation in the 1930s.

A Weekend in LA: Gang Wars and Pool Parties

2012-07-11T15:02:00.001-07:00

Ever since I came back from our trip, I promised myself to leave town every weekend. San Francisco is usually cold and foggy in summertime and since I'm unemployed, I'd like to maximize the funemployment as much as possible. I spend the entire week in front of a computer applying for jobs, so I don't feel too guilty for switching off adult responsibilities and switching on hedonism over the

Zurich, the Dream...

2012-07-11T10:05:00.001-07:00

It's now been almost two months since I was in Zurich. I'm excited to write about my experience before the memories fade away... Arriving in Zurich felt like a dream. The colors were intense, but muted. The silent landscape felt remote and fascinating. I spent four days there with an old roommate and friend of mine from Boston (Mia), and her boyfriend (Nicolas). It was wonderful to visit

California River Rats

2012-07-03T00:44:00.000-07:00

As we were driving back to San Francisco yesterday afternoon, weaving South on Highway 101 through golden hills crowned by intensely blue skies, my friend Jenny sitting next to me in the car kept exclaiming: "Gosh, it's so beautiful here!" She must've said it several times, enough to wake me up from my constant taking-for-granted of the majestic landscape that makes California such a visually

The Beach

2012-06-29T00:49:00.001-07:00

Here's another post where I will rant about how perfect my life is. Despite various life vicissitudes, such as seeing loved ones getting old or sick, facing impeding death of close relatives, confronting one's own health issues, struggling to find love, purpose and mindfulness, despite all that - I look at the life I've lived so far and think of it as pretty fucking amazing. Wow, what an

Pissing Around in London

2012-06-26T17:22:00.000-07:00

The European part of our trip was not in our original itinerary. London was added simply because it was a free "layover" from Delhi to Los Angeles. I decided I'd stay a week since I had a couple friends in London and I'd never been there before. Monica visited London for a couple days and then went to Romania for three weeks to visit her family and friends. I decided to go to Romania for my last

Dinner in Berkeley

2012-06-25T14:14:00.002-07:00

It's been 3 weeks since we came back to the States and life is slowly but surely starting to settle in. That entails going to friends' birthday BBQs, cooking healthy delicious dinners, thriving on California's amazing produce, getting fit with yoga, swimming and bike rides, escaping the city with ever-entertaining weekend trips. One thing I came to realize at the end of our trip: there's no

Nepal: Lakes, Monks and Snow-Capped Mountains

2012-06-22T15:34:00.000-07:00

After our two weeks in India, we spent two in Nepal. As soon as we crossed the border into Nepal we felt instant relief. It was less populated and less dusty--we could breathe again! The village of Ghandruk--our trekking destination. We spent one night in Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, but actually didn't make it out to the famous sites like the sacred garden. The next morning we took a

Romanian Food, Probably The Best In The World

2012-06-16T04:28:00.000-07:00

Ok, yes, I'm biased, because I am Romanian and my taste buds have been trained ever since I was a kid to love this food. But seriously - you have to try it and you'll know what I mean. Unfortunately, there are no Romanian restaurants in the Bay Area. It makes my heart break at the thought that San Francisco foodies are missing out on such an exquisite display of flavor. Given that we are

India. Part Three.

2012-06-13T16:17:00.003-07:00

I'm currently back in the good ole USA and I'm so happy to be here. I love handling dollar bills, calculating distances in miles and going grocery shopping. Life feels easy again. Things that would have been a drag before I left don't bother me so much anymore. I was actually psyched to go to the DMV the other day. I think it's just a matter of familiarity. I know what to expect and that is such

India. Part Two.

2012-05-24T14:53:00.001-07:00

Part two of our Indian extravaganza began with an enjoyable one-hour drive from Kuhri Village to Jaisalmer, which was a relief after all the time we'd been spending in that hot car the previous few days. We spent one whole day inside the enormous Jaisalmer Fort and had a really great time perusing the camel hide products ... Jenny modeling a camel hide cowboy hat. ... feather vendors

The Double-Edged Sword of Tourism

2012-05-22T06:42:00.002-07:00

The idea for this blog post came after a heated conversation my Romanian friends and I had over a beer (ahem, many beers, actually) in Bucharest last night. Romanians are always obsessed with their image abroad. "Obsessed" is probably not the most accurate choice of words - it should rather be interpreted as: "self-conscious about their already tarnished image in the eyes of Western Europe."

The Jewel Inside the Lotus Flower

2012-05-17T06:45:00.002-07:00

It was a hot afternoon, on the 26th of April, that we crossed the border from India into Nepal at Sunauli, a crowded and dusty border town. I tried to take a photo of the Indian immigration office, a random dirty house on the side of the road, located in-between two shops. An Indian man, without uniform or any sign of affiliation to Indian authorities, signaled at me that photos are forbidden.