every now and again, when I study I search for words I like to read, that inspire me so to speak... more than anything help me put my head straight, back in focus so as not to complain but move forward ...
today i thought of Perseverence and how it is the key to all we do and above all, want to do well

so I found

..... "Never, never, never, never give up. "
Winston Churchill
...because...
"Champions keep playing until they get it right"
Billy Jean King

and then later on in the day... as I rested after lunch a poem that rang a bell was mentioned... I sat back picked up a book I had bought ages ago by one of my favourite poets Nazim Hikmet
and here it is for you
so that you can think
so that you can smile
so that you can look forward to tomorrow

24/11/1945 Nazim Hikmet
The most beatutiful sea :
is the sea which is not reached yet.
The most beautiful child :
hasn't grown yet.
The most beautiful days of ours :
are those which we didn't live yet.
And the most beautiful words I want to tell you :
are the words which I did'nt tell yet...

Romania Revisited

As promised here I am again rambling on about my special trip to Romania. So to the sound of the Fratelli's 2008 Album (and after finding my notebook... whose misplacement was the real delay to this post) I'm off to take a dive into what I decided to call

My favourite Curious Contradictions - Romania Revisited :)

-- Curious fact no.1 --
A strange pipeline runs all along the train track between Timisoara and Cluj. Above the ground, uncovered and continious this diametrically huge pipe became my focus of my 6 hour train trip, humouring me when it framed roads rising a few metres above the ground, just enough to allow cars and other vehicles pass under it!

-- C. F. no. 2 --
Queues in Oradea are DIAGONAL. I stood in line waiting to buy my train ticket and for some strange reason kept being skipped by people from my right! There I stood a bit baffled at how rude this guy seemed to me... then I turned around and realised I was the only fool standing right behind the person at the glass and not on it's right hand- side.... :S

--C. F no. 3 --
Out of 5 train stations that I stopped in 1 had a subway passage... for some reason the preferred path seems to be Over and not under... sounds familiar .. the pipeline...

--C. F. no. 4 --
The main train stations have enough seating room for a couple hundred people... ORadea had Rows upon Rows upon Rows of empty chairs ..looked kind of lonely :P

--C. F. no. 5--
Italy prevails...wherever you look you have Italian brands, restaurants, cafes, adverts, products,.. well predictable I guess, but a bit unexpected for me :)

--C. F. no 6--
Local food is absolutely great. Tendentially though it's kind of difficult to understand what things are in the menu except for a few words... a few times I was adventurous and just pointed at something on the menu - still worked out fine :P others I was lucky to get a translation :D


Part 3 of my Romanian trip is on the way... this time with a few special words about my strange and wondrous encounters :)

Was watching tv today and the Enel Reneqable Energy advert came on... apart form it being real nice i was drugged by the soundtrack.... dazzled might be a better word...
take a look
and if you get the chance download Far Far by Yael Naim

Far far, there's this little girl
she was praying for something to happen to her
everyday she writes words and more words
just to spit out the thoughts that keep floating inside
and she's strong when the dreams come cos' they
take her, cover her, they are all over
the reality looks far now, but don't go

How can you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside
how can you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside
oh oh oh oh

Far far, there's this little girl
she was praying for something good to happen to her
from time to time there are colors and shapes
dazzling her eyes, tickling her hands
they invent her a new world with
oil skies and aquarel rivers
but don't you run away already
please don't go oh oh

How can you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside
how an you stay outside?
there's a beautiful mess inside

Take a deep breath and dive
there's a beautiful mess inside
how can you stay outside?
There's a beautiful mess
beautiful mess inside

Oh beautiful, beautiful

Far far there's this little girl
she was praying for something big to happen to her
every night she hears beautiful strange music
it's everywhere there's nowhere to hide
but if it fades she begs
"oh lord don't take it from me, don't take it"

She says, "I guess i'll have to give it birth
to give it birth
i guess, i guess, i guess i have to give it birth
i guess i have to, have to give it birth
there's a beautiful mess inside and it's everywhere

Just look at yourself now
deep inside
deeper than you ever dared
there's a beautiful mess inside
beautiful mess inside

Romania to me

I love to Read. I love to learn. I read to learn... but no lesson derived from a book can replace those that come from experience. Last week I was reminded about life-long lessons, real values, and just how wrong some stereotypes can be. This is my insight into my last destination: Romania

Sunday 10th May
"Tears are waiting to burst from my eyes as my train pulls out from Suncuius moving deeper into the mountains and countryside. My short trip to Romania was nothing like I expected it to be
It left a mark in my heart.

I was strangely at odds with the idea of going to Romania, it intrigued me but also made me thinkand reflect on all that has been said about the country recently in my life in Rome... not just by the people I know but by the general public in Italy and well to be honest also back home...The truth is that I was dying to get a glimpse of the country that is regarded by Italians solely as a source of problems and criminality.

I am so grateful that I got to visit 2 cities and return to tradition while taking a deep dive into one of the most breath-taking countryside settings I have ever seen

First Stop: Timisoara is a small gem in need of a bit of care but it's a decadent sister off Hapsburg Cities - little Vienna they call it, full as it is with liberty and 18th century architecture, the inheritance of the Austro-Hungarian empire . Littered with cafes and bars, exchange offices, churches (from all ends of the world) and an opera which makes you feel the size of an ant, Culture is definitely the word to associate with Timisoara..
I can't forget my night trip with Ana through the town and into the main square at around 1am. AI gazed at the vast parks, quaint streets and grand buldings, until I was guided to have a glass of mulled wine in a small student bar called "Papillon"(see my facebook pics)... butterflies follow me everywhere!
In the morning I set off for a lonesome walk and went straight to the Cathedral. The peace that the building emanated was unique, the ongoing traffic of people simply surprising. I never recall going into a place of worship and standing in the midst of this viavai unless it was a tourist mecca. All kinds and ages of Romanians walked in, prayed, kissed a reliquia, lit a candle, stood in silence, and left... all this while I gazed in awe at the golden walls and ceiling. Just a regular tuesday morning, but the church was fulll of faithful,, myself, the only tourist with my little trolley bag contemplateing the images to the soundtrack of constant murmur which echoed through the structure.
My mesmerised self was then rather hungry so I set off to eat a traditional meal...honestly one of the best I'd ever had...just think of the combination - pork medallions in Cherry sauce... sublime!

...that same Wednesday my trip brought me to Cluj...a six hour train ride in total absence of communication with those around me, except for sporadic hand gestures! It made me think...Lanugage is the key to our lives, to our identities, to ourselves.. be it verbal or not it is what guides us through the day. One girl that happened to know italian helped me find my place in the train.. she spoke perfectly, as well as I did, the lanugage of her favourite place in the world:. She told me about her raging desire to leave Romania and work overseas in the bel paese where she had worked for the past 7 summers doing random jobs just to earn enough t o put her through university. She was itching to flee from the ignorance that swamped her. How to blame her? Somehow I could relate as I felt similar things when I left home at 16... now I dont think that way anymore, now it's time to change things not flee them,. I wonder if with time she would ever think that way.

In the train my initial travel companion was a middle aged woman who was the first to make me realise that the all so different languages we spoke bore a strong similarity, and that with care and effort I could actually gather the sense of phrases... just with a bit of effort.
......

On my arrival in Cluj I was welcomed by three EB members from AIESEC Cluj-Napoca, who in no time I came to like. Off I went to the 3-roomed apartment of Lupo, a curious yet astounding character: slim-looking yet emanating strength, independence, and courage .. who took great care of me with his flatmate, both showering me with smiles, questions and kindness. Patient in supplying me with all I needed to get a good nights rest, including her own bed (thanks Roxi), before the day it would all begin.
The long day ahead started, bright and early we got into a cab and plugged ourselves into the morning traffic. Up the hill towards University together with Ral with whom I had shared my first boiled coffee of the week :)
In one day we ran a meeting, I ate Cluj stew - next dose of typical food, I saw the city in a dash, bought ear-rings (obviously) fled to the station ready to leave...again... this time for Suncuius... A little natural haven 3 hours from Cluj.
What a journey!!! and I don't mean the train ride, but the conference. I spoke to some of the most wonderful people : so beautiful, so ambitious, so genuine, so full of hope and dreams.
This country is on the road to growth, but it's people are definitely taking a fast track - at least those I met. The 100 or so students I had the pleasure to meet are racing upwards, surpassing many I have met in the past couple of years.

The cities I saw were brimming with students who created a non-stop pulsation, coloured with the spirit and energy of youth. One of the reasons I love the countries East of Italy is the sheer amount of children and students that populate them. We're used to the aging populations where people have less and less young, although surrounded by wealth and goodness we bring fewer children into the world every year. I notice this mainly because each time an elderly person crossed my way, clad with headscarf and unfashionable clothes my neck whipped right their way. I was stunned by the fact that there were less elderly than I was used to, and also by the fact that the vitalty they possessed was rather unparalled. I watched amazed when they climbed the 1m distance between the "platforms"into the trains, the same trains that I took 6 times in a week through which windows I watched the country scroll by.
Each station was different, yet most had no platform, and people simply stood on the ground near the tracks, sometimes crossing trains to get to the other tracks!!. Somehow worryingly they walked with nonchalance across the 5 tracks (in some cases even in stations where there was a subway passage...go figure!)
In the one train I wrote my notes, the door of my compartment wouldn't slide shut and had to be lifted across.. interesting that trains so battered somehow were still more punctual than the kinkiest italian eurostar! Oh yes, another important fact worth noting, is that the conductor always passed....twice!!!

As we "sped" through the endless green plains and hills I felt serene and in awe, my heart was pounding at an irregular speed, much like it did over the past few days as I exchanged anecdotes with Szili, Adi, Anda, my piccola (silvia), Ral and Rei... etc. These people are a few of those that will pick this country up on its feet making it stand tall and tower above others at some point, surely. I'm somehow always deeply touched by those, who although live humbly and in more adversity than others still plough through strongly and in many cases are happier than those that swim in wealth. I met smiling, strong, happy, determined and most of all, passionate people.

Thankyou for letting me bring back to life my ability of seeing things in perspective, it had hibernated for a while.
Thankyou for reminding me the true values of life.
Thankyou for showing me the real Romania.....thankyou for showing me you.

Stay tuned for my Curious facts and characters from this wondrous trip!

Amazing how studying is taking over my life... well the job search is currently quite weak .. there seems to benothing for me out there to do part time and just rake in some cash to save up and live on..
M thesis research is getting to me. well I need a tutor and a precise cut to the subject! Foolish old Alba decides to do it on immigration right in the middle of the heat and therefore finds herself in a sticy situation....
So well, yes I want to tackle the rights of immigrants, or more precisely of asylum seekers... but here i seem to be surrounded by walls wherever i go. Looking forward to reading Zigmund Bauman's book Liquid Fear since I apparently am swimming in it! At least I' m comforted by a little activity that I'm aiming to put up with a friend based on promotion of cultural diversity amongst children - always a good starting point...

As for me, back to the study of secession and self- determination

9 days away from Malta
2 weeks away frm my Blog
and what's changed?

The Earth shook and took 290 lives due to careless building
around 6000 people left their homes to go support those that are left without
A hospital that was built in 30 years was cracked in less than 30 seconds

watching all this from Italy and then from Malta, from my sofa, doesn't make it any more distant
I'm heart- wrenched, and I think of my friend's family who live close by... who are lucky to havenot felt the quake.....

I put our lives into perspective, their comfort and the relative absence of worry we live in
... let me rephrase... the relative absence of worry of cataclismic natural disasters washing over our islands....

Our worries here are different... how different? Not at all ...they are the same as everyone else's (a few of those that everyone feels) Health, Money, Weather, Boredom, Happiness, Heartache, Partners, Children, Family, Loneliness, Friends... our cares are the same everywhere...ours?
Yes ours - as in those of Mankind are just the same.... but definitely lacking the fear of extreme dangers and problems that others face in their day to day lives...

The truth is, as time goes by, as I sit in Malta for over a few weeks after 4 years away I reiterate my personal reflection that as my grandmother would say tutto il mondo e paese.. wherever you go in the world life doesn't change too much....basic evils, ills and good of society are everywhere, but here we are safER, more Sheltered, maybe thanks to our waters.... but definitely also thanks to our size

A great consolation ... but also a little worry :) at least in the earthquake case, as many have said these days, maybe Maltese should start keeping an eye open and giving some insight into the fact that we too are on a seismic fault line....
for the rest of the things?
Let's just thank our lucky stars that one of the only differences Malta has is it is an island and its problems are the same, but with a different impact (e.g. the financial/economic crisis)

It's good to be home

But I won't stop thinking, or isolate my mind from the world around... I wish I could help other people open theirs

its gone.... or has it?

D'you Like?
I like!
Me and my two hot bodyguards :) heheh well that's what it looks like... actually it's just 1 snapshot from last weekend where I had the great pleasure to chair LDS 2009.
It was such an experience.... for the first time, I think in a long while I heard and saw Maltese people that inspired me.
And it's not to be negative or anythign of the sort, but I didn't expect it honestly,. Being the chair you're supposed to fuel people with food for thought and points for inspiration and reflection.... strange and ironic that the opposite happened (at least I can testify to that)
I saw people who believe in people.... something which I used to miss noting...I left Malta many years ago as I felt like a lonely idealist.... I thought "go out, study and come back.... you'll find people out there who think like you, if you can't find them here"... and yes, I did!
This month, well last month my AIESEC career came to a close (Thank God some of you might say) ... it's a strange phase... it's a page to turn, its a book to earmark... and in this weekend I felt as inspired as I was on my first AIESEC Conference. Thanks to Mr Zahra - a superb entrepreneur who gave not just a presentation or some key clues but dished out wisdom, motivation, entusiasm and passion.... I missed that, and then I thought I can find more... and I will. I am getting ready to go on exchange and come back to dig out those other Maltese Ms&Mr Xs
well not to forget the delegates....
It had been a long time since I saw so many, if not all, delegates completely involved in the conference... it came so easy and so natural not to have to chase people....
And the faci team... pride and joy... but also source of learnings and laughs :) Thanks guys it was an honour

Now? I filled a HUGE bag with my AIESEC t-shirts for which i seem to have no place in my wardrobe and will have to go into storage.... tear.... A box of memories, a bagful of them, so strange to get so attached to something so metaphysical, yet so concrete....not the t-shirts, the organsiation!!!

Exchange here I come :)
Hoping someone takes me!
Pick me! Pick me!Pick me!

Verlaine

A few years ago I used to teach English, one student gave me a gift - this poem, writing the first stanza promising more poems by mail... I think it's time I asked for more... so that I can post them here.. for now please enjoy this...

Mon Rêve familier

Je fais souvent ce rêve étrange et pénétrant
D'une femme inconnue, et que j'aime, et qui m'aime,
Et qui n'est, chaque fois, ni tout à fait la même
Ni tout à fait une autre, et m'aime et me comprend.

Car elle me comprend, et mon coeur transparent
Pour elle seule, hélas ! cesse d'être un problème
Pour elle seule, et les moiteurs de mon front blême,
Elle seule les sait rafraîchir, en pleurant.

Est-elle brune, blonde ou rousse ? --Je l'ignore.
Son nom ? Je me souviens qu'il est doux et sonore
Comme ceux des aimés que la Vie exila.

Son regard est pareil au regard des statues,
Et pour sa voix, lointaine, et calme, et grave, elle a
L'inflexion des voix chères qui se sont tues.

Paul VERLAINE, Poèmes saturniens (1866)

Next Steps?

I keep asking myself where I'm going to next
The thing is, where I am now is where I am going to be for a while. I'm back in Malta and enjoying it, yes I always do for the first weeks but this time I am SET TO enjoy it! I want to because there are a lot of things to do and I can't understand why I didn't see it before!

To Do List?
- Research for my thesis... it's gonna be on Malta... makes sense for a change to do it here.... will be interesting to write in Italian!
- I'm thinking of Joinging JCI... looks like an interesting next step....
- Im gonna hunt down theme based events in Malta.... I have to!!!
- EBBF Malta - a must!
- Join the gym!!!
- READ!!!
- Maybe a car boot sale... Ebay or .....
- Go by the sea! I've been in Malta two weeks and haven't done it! I miss it like crazy
more?
hmmm dunno I could add to it :)

LOG ONTO TED.com

A while back a few people mentioned this website to me, I honestly took one look and thought NO! I don't need to listen to more people speaking and not acting. Yes I think I was stressed, admittedly I had forgotten how sharing opinions and thoughts is as important as working and acting, for the simple reason that it stimulates further thought, ideas and a desire to act.

Today I Watched The Journalist Carl Honore vouch for the Slow Movement
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

watch it, it's worth it, and its also good food for thought for yours truly who needs to SLOW DOWN

First Post in my new blog

Hey World
This is me
Welcome to my second Blog!
Well I'm not a Blog lover, I had a blog in the past but stopped updating it, whether because of lack of time or lack of interest it remained there, un-updated for ages.

What I plan to do now?
Try a second time, but now use it to have my Say!!!

I have always had opinions, on most things, and now I have found it time for me to share them. Who wants to read will read, who wants to comment, please do... I am here and I want to speak up! This is my attempt...