So what if I demolished the wrong building?

Yes, it’s not a joke! It happened somewhere in Romania. A team of workers had to demolish an old hostel, but instead they have demolished the wrong building. How did they manage to make this historical mistake? In the area there was another hostel with exactly the same architectural structure. So there were two hostels: one was called no. C and one was called no. D. The wrong building which was demolished was called no. D. 
When the journalists asked the manager of the team about the mistake, he replied:

“So what if I demolished the wrong building?”

Well, you have just been nominated for Darwin Awards! Fortunately, the wrong building was not occupied. Actually was occupied by some homeless people, but there were no injured, thank goodness! The wrong building was going to be demolished anyway, but only next year! Oh, well! 

The original story can be found here: link.

Romanian Culture #12: The ultra vegan diet of the Romanian villagers from the 19th century

via http://www.timisoaraexpress.ro

Hello, everyone! ❤

I am starting this week with another episode of the Romanian Culture series. In this episode I am going to talk about the ultra vegan diet of the Romanian villagers from the the 19th century. I have been meaning to write about this subject ever since I found this article on the internet. But since I had a lot of work to do on my Master Thesis, I have postponed this episode. 🙂 The article talks about a Romanian historian from Cluj-Napoca named Constantin Barbulescu who wrote a book about the health situation in Romania, in the 19th century. The book is called “Romania according to doctors” (translated from Romanian “Romania medicilor”) and gathers confessions of doctors who worked in the rural area. The confessions are about the personal hygene, diet, family life of the Romanian villagers from the 19th century.

Romanian Culture #11: School uniforms in Romania

Hello, everyone! ❤

It’s been quite long since I have written the last episode of the Romanian Culture series on this blog. Therefore, it is time for a new episode after I found this article which presents a short history about school uniforms. This article is written in Romanian and inspired by it I have decided to present a short history about school uniforms in Romania. Yes, in Romanian schools, just like in Japan, students used to wear uniforms. But, let’s start from the beginning. 😀

Romanian Culture #10: Romanian Easter superstitions

Hello, everyone! ❤

I haven’t written for long an episode about the Romanian culture and because today we celebrate the Orthodox Easter, it is the good occasion to talk about it. The Orthodox Easter is usually celebrated a week later from the Catholic Easter, except once in 4 or 6 years when this huge Christian celebration falls on the same date. The reason why the Orthodox church observes Easter on a different date from the Catholic church is because the Orthodox church uses the Julian calendar, not the Gregorian one. And that’s why the Julian Easter is delayed with 1 week from the Gregorian Easter. I have to mention that as Romanian Greek-Catholic (and the other Romanians who are Greek-Catholics and Orthodox), I only celebrate Easter by the Julian calendar. I celebrate Christmas on December 25th, after the Gregorian calendar more exactly. 🙂 

Romanian Culture #9: The beginning of Easter Fast period

Hello, everyone! ❤

It’s been long since I have written something about Romanian culture. I guess there haven’t been any important holidays until now. 😀 In Romania, in this period, it is the beginning of the Easter Fast which is the longest fast period in the year, it lasts 40 days, and also the hardest one because of the food restrictions. In this post I am going to talk about a Romanian tradition at the beginning of Easter Fast which is mostly specific to Transylvania region and which is called in Romanian “Silita”. This word doesn’t have an English equivalent so I am going its Romanian form.

Romanian Culture #8: The Romanian family life during interwar period

via observator.tv

Hello, everyone! ❤

Here is a new episode from the series Romanian Culture which is ispired by a article from the Romanian website Smart Woman. This article describes the family life in Romania during interwar period. The facts listed there are so interesting that I decided to translate them and share them with you. 😀 The family life of Romanians during interwar period was very different in the rural area and in the urban area. And in the urban area, the family life was different in the high society and in the suburbs or slum. 🙂 No matter the differences, Romanias were very good familists. Marriage was done based on the position in the society, on the dowry, moral background and academic background.

Romanian Culture #7: The Holiday of John the Baptize

via jurnalspiritual.eu

Hello, everyone! ❤

Today’s episode of Romanian Culture is about an important holiday in the Eastern Orthodox Church called in Romanian Bobotează or The Holiday of John the Baptize. This holiday is practically spread on 2 days and it is observed every year on January, the 6th and on January, the 7th, when Saint John is celebrated and every Romanian named Ion, Ioan, Ionel, Ionela, Ioana is celebrated. Ion is the Romanian verson of John and is very common name here.

The Holiday of John the Baptize commemorates the moment when Jesus was baptized by Saint John the Baptize in the Jordan River. The moment when Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened and God made his appearance in the form of a white pigeon saying that Jesus was his son. Also the Holiday of John the Baptize marks the end of the winter holidays.

Romanian Culture #6: Romanian New Year customs

via cotidianul.ro

Hello everyone! ❤

Happy New Year! ❤

I am starting the first post of year 2015 with a new episode of my series Romanian Culture, and today I am going to discuss about Romanian customs on New Year’s Day. In Romania, besides the New Year’s Day, we also celebrate a saint called in our mother tongue Sfântul Vasile. Of course, like in every country, Romanians celebrate New Year with parties held in clubs or outdoors. Given the fact that this year the temperatures were -20°C on average (in some areas were -31°C), celebrating New Year in an outdoor party was not such a good option unless you had a North Pole style suit to go with. 😀

In Romania, the night between December 31st and January 1st is called Revelion or The Night of Saint Vasile (Noaptea lui Sfântul Vasile). It is said that on The Night of Saint Vasile, the heaven opens 3 times for several moments.

Romanian Culture #5: Romanian Christmas customs

via paginidecultura.ro

Hello, everyone! ❤

Since Christmas is around the corner, it is time for a new episode in the series about Romanian culture. 😀 I have wrote about customs in Romania on Christmas, but actually I wrote about the fact that Christmas, as holiday, has become a bit superficial since it is all about buying and eating as if it is the last day on Earth. Also the previous article had a bit of a critisism note and a personal one too. If you would like to know about the last year Christmas article, you can read it here:

Any Christmas plans? 

This year’s Christmas related article is all about customs. I have decided to write this as a part of the Romanian culture series and to show that Christmas in Romania is quite different. The common things we share with other countries that celebrate Christmas are the Yule Tree and Santa Claus. The rest is ours. 😉

10 reasons why Communism was a very bad idea

via Johnnie Walker Facebook page

Hello, everyone! ❤

In this period, December 16th – December 27th, Romania is celebrating the 25th anniversary since the fall of communist regime and also holds memorials about people that died in this violent revolution. Romania is the only country from the former communist area who went out of the regime in a violent way, while the rest of the countries in East Europe put an end to this regime in a peaceful manner and that’s why in the rest of East Europe (except Romania) it was called Velvet Revolution. When all these violent events happened in Romania 25 years ago, I was just a 2 month baby. I won’t tell the story about the Romanian Revolution again. If you would like to know more details about it you can read them here.