ioana
in quest for genuine
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About Me
- Name: ioana
- Location: Bucharest, Romania
I experiment with myself and the world around me. I always seek for that small sparkle of what's real and authentic in things, people, nature...
Archive
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Last weekend
Did I tell you I love to drive? I really do, it's so relaxing to have the open road ahead of you, and cruise with your car far far away. I dislike however driving in the city, because it's a total mayhem on the streets, and a nightmare to find a parking place. So seldomly drive...
But I got to make up for the past year of non-driving with the past weekend, as we had a project in Bulgaria and I drove for an ongoing 500km each way. Fun, but I was dead tired after those days :D
Here is me at wheel, all serious looking, as I was keeping my eyes on the road, like the serious driver that I am :p
Thankfully from the moment we crossed the border to Bulgaria the road became super clear (although I must say in a deplorable state), and we got out from the constant crowding on the roads in Romania! It was just us and a couple of other cars every now and then:
The Bulgarian seaside was nice, services definetly better than those in Romania, but aside from that I can't really say I was impressed. Altough I think us Romanians should learn from them in terms of aestethics and customer focuse. Their beach is narrow and blunt, the sea is the same one as here, but they managed to build nice hotels and resorts with a special flavour, and their attitude is far better than the I met on our seaside! We had a great fun at a restaurant on a cliff facing the sea, with a fabulous view! We didn't stay that long because we were dead tired from the long road and the one-day-project we had just delivered:
And because I have been asked to prove I actually went diving two weeks ago, I have been searching for pics to upload. Sadly we don't have any underwater pics, and ever more sadly it seams I only got pictures with my back. So there is only one pic in which my face can kinda be seen, where I am taking off a wet suit (or should I say I am peeling it off me, damn tight things!!!) Disclaimer: I am the girl in the back, not the guy in the front :))
Countdown: one week left 'till we take of to Asia.....la la la la.....
But I got to make up for the past year of non-driving with the past weekend, as we had a project in Bulgaria and I drove for an ongoing 500km each way. Fun, but I was dead tired after those days :D
Here is me at wheel, all serious looking, as I was keeping my eyes on the road, like the serious driver that I am :p
Thankfully from the moment we crossed the border to Bulgaria the road became super clear (although I must say in a deplorable state), and we got out from the constant crowding on the roads in Romania! It was just us and a couple of other cars every now and then:
The Bulgarian seaside was nice, services definetly better than those in Romania, but aside from that I can't really say I was impressed. Altough I think us Romanians should learn from them in terms of aestethics and customer focuse. Their beach is narrow and blunt, the sea is the same one as here, but they managed to build nice hotels and resorts with a special flavour, and their attitude is far better than the I met on our seaside! We had a great fun at a restaurant on a cliff facing the sea, with a fabulous view! We didn't stay that long because we were dead tired from the long road and the one-day-project we had just delivered: And because I have been asked to prove I actually went diving two weeks ago, I have been searching for pics to upload. Sadly we don't have any underwater pics, and ever more sadly it seams I only got pictures with my back. So there is only one pic in which my face can kinda be seen, where I am taking off a wet suit (or should I say I am peeling it off me, damn tight things!!!) Disclaimer: I am the girl in the back, not the guy in the front :))
Countdown: one week left 'till we take of to Asia.....la la la la.....
Monday, July 16, 2007
What’s really in my plate?
As a conscious effort to minimize the impact my actions have upon the environment I try to be very careful about the stuff I buy. It’s absolutely unbelievable what major improvements you can do by carefully monitoring your purchases, and become what it’s called a “responsible buyer”. And especially because I’m a woman and I buy sooooooo many things I usually try to monitor my buying!
But lately...well, my excuse is that I’ve been busy, which obviously I should really translate as lazy. Shame on me!
I just went shopping yesterday for stuff I need around the house – food, cleaning products, etc – and to save some time I went to Carrefour. This is a bad decision to start with, as I chose to give my money to a large corporation instead or going to local owned shops. At one point I was putting apples in my cart and they seamed really pale and insipid. I looked up to see where they come from and the plate said “China”.
Whaaaaaat??? Apples from China? Why would you bring apples from China when we have great tasty ones in Romania, thank you! But actually there weren’t any Romanian apples at all there – only from Poland, Turkey and Portugal. And my tomatoes weren’t local either, but from Bulgaria. The only “genuine” thing in my cart were the cucumbers, everything else was imported!
Thinking about all the carbon that comes from transporting all these fruits around the world I put them all back and decided to take some time and kill my laziness with a visit to the market. It might be a bit more time consuming, but I don’t like air miles in my plate!
It might look like this, but ....
It might look like this, but ....
Local fruits & vegetables = yummy taste + great aroma + more likely to be organic and healthy
Imported fruits & vegetables = fade taste + carbon emissions from transport + frozen/contain preservatives to keep a fresh look
I’m also contemplating my other eating habits and regretfully notice they are not healthy neither sustainable. I spend a lot of time at the office or at meetings, so I eat in town almost every time. At in between meetings, work and social life I fill my stomach with food that I don’t know where it comes from. Sure, I don’t eat fast food (it literally makes me sick), but I can’t really say I have a healthy diet either.
I gave up on being a vegetarian more than a year ago because I realized I was actually eating more canned and precooked stuff than before. Let’s just say that Romania is not the best country to have a vegan lifestyle. Sure, it’s not impossible, but my body was actually missing a lot of nutrients, and when I realized I had to take supplement pills for that, and I was also ingesting a lot of chemicals from the precooked/canned food I just dropped it. Health is more important, but ever since I became really sensitive to food, and I still can’t eat pork, and veal is extremely rare in my menu. I am also trying to see what the stuff I eat really contains!
The thing is unless you buy the ingredients yourself there is no real way to be sure what lies in your plate. Sure, you can eat grilled chicken for example, which should be healthy. But unless you know the farm the chicken comes from, you could ingest a lot of chemicals you are not aware of. Like growth hormones fed to the animals to grow faster, antibiotics they received to be disease free, even vitamins they are given to increase their appetite! And I’m sure you want none of that stuff in your system!
So I’m taking a pledge to cook at home a bit more than I do now. I do realize that changing my habits comes gradually, so I’ll set my aim to cook home at least once a week. I actually enjoy cooking, as I find it very creative and comforting, and to my surprise the stuff I make it quite eatable, not to call it tasty :D
Tonight the plan is to make chicken with zucchini and garlic yogurt sauce. Let’s see what comes out!
Friday, July 06, 2007
Underwater love
When I was little I used to read a lot of books from my family’s library, and some of them became my favorites and I read them over and over again. One of these books is “20.000 Leagues Under the Seas”, by Jules Verne. I must have read it 10 or 20 times back then, memorizing a lot of stuff about water pressure, transportation and breathing underwater, and of course, about all the animal species Verne so brilliantly describes. Ever since I had a dream of becoming a marine biologist! I can still tell by heart many species, and explain to you the difference between benthonic, denthonic and pelagic creatures!
But, as reality came in, there was no sea near my home town, actually I don’t think we even have lakes around, only rivers. So it turned out to be more like the “I want to be an astronaut” kind of dream...
I just remained with a deep fascination for the open waters and a burning desire to dive into the ocean. The word itself – ocean – inspires to me freedom, passion, and wisdom (my own values :). Not to mention that:
- the ocean makes up for 71% of out planet’s surface
- marine organisms produce 80% of the oxygen we are using
- the reef is the most dense and diverse habitat in the world
- scientists know more about the moon than about the ocean and the life in it
Sooo...at some point of my life I had to start exploring all these closer. And I’m hoping this point is now, as I just came back from my 1st diving course! Yes, yes, I actually took a diving course :)
I need to confess now that with all my enthusiasm I was scared at the beginning. Like....very scared! We entered the water in the pool with our rebreather and my body instinctively felt trapped under water and I had to get out! It’s been quite awhile since I last felt I had to break my physical and psychological limits! To tell my body that it is not in control, and has to obey my mind, despite its instincts and natural comings!
Then in the open sea! After being able to have my mind control my movements underwater and to keep calm and peaceful, we went for the open sea. I realized it is only the first 20 cm that scare me. I do not like it at the water surface, there are waves and you can’t see beneath you, where you are going to sink...
But in the underwaters, that’s a whole different story! Even with the poor visibility we had (2-3m) it was a new and amazing world. We saw delicate seahorses feeding, pipefish performing their mating ritual, a lot of tiny crabs, fish and mollusks (seashells) unveiling themselves to us! And to starlight of our dive was a rare sight of a stingray feeding on the bottom!
I have to give a lot of credit to our PADI instructor – Mircea from Respiro Dive Adventure! Feeling safe and confident meant a major progress, and he invested a lot of patience and attention with us. And it all paid off when we were finally able to stay underwater without our masks, our noses in the water and breathing solely through our mouth!
As a final touch of the experience, I want to share this funky video of one my favorite songs – Underwater Love. It’s sang by Smoke City, but this video has it played by the Little Mermaid :)
But, as reality came in, there was no sea near my home town, actually I don’t think we even have lakes around, only rivers. So it turned out to be more like the “I want to be an astronaut” kind of dream...
I just remained with a deep fascination for the open waters and a burning desire to dive into the ocean. The word itself – ocean – inspires to me freedom, passion, and wisdom (my own values :). Not to mention that:
- the ocean makes up for 71% of out planet’s surface
- marine organisms produce 80% of the oxygen we are using
- the reef is the most dense and diverse habitat in the world
- scientists know more about the moon than about the ocean and the life in it
Sooo...at some point of my life I had to start exploring all these closer. And I’m hoping this point is now, as I just came back from my 1st diving course! Yes, yes, I actually took a diving course :)
I need to confess now that with all my enthusiasm I was scared at the beginning. Like....very scared! We entered the water in the pool with our rebreather and my body instinctively felt trapped under water and I had to get out! It’s been quite awhile since I last felt I had to break my physical and psychological limits! To tell my body that it is not in control, and has to obey my mind, despite its instincts and natural comings!
Then in the open sea! After being able to have my mind control my movements underwater and to keep calm and peaceful, we went for the open sea. I realized it is only the first 20 cm that scare me. I do not like it at the water surface, there are waves and you can’t see beneath you, where you are going to sink...
But in the underwaters, that’s a whole different story! Even with the poor visibility we had (2-3m) it was a new and amazing world. We saw delicate seahorses feeding, pipefish performing their mating ritual, a lot of tiny crabs, fish and mollusks (seashells) unveiling themselves to us! And to starlight of our dive was a rare sight of a stingray feeding on the bottom!
I have to give a lot of credit to our PADI instructor – Mircea from Respiro Dive Adventure! Feeling safe and confident meant a major progress, and he invested a lot of patience and attention with us. And it all paid off when we were finally able to stay underwater without our masks, our noses in the water and breathing solely through our mouth!
As a final touch of the experience, I want to share this funky video of one my favorite songs – Underwater Love. It’s sang by Smoke City, but this video has it played by the Little Mermaid :)