It can always go worse: hospital story

The last few weeks weren’t the best of my life. Apparently, the chaos I have been living with not having a schedule for eating and sleeping and having some stress also lead me to getting to hospital. But even like this, after just a few hours spent there, I realized that my problems weren’t the worse.

I got to the hospital because of some nasty belly ache and a ball that had grown instead of my stomach. The doctor that saw me first said she wants me to go to the hospital so they can also run some tests there, rather than just give me some pills. It seemed fair and so I went to the Emergency Room at the hospital, where they’ve told me everything was because of stress, basically. Which was really close to the truth, given my beginning of the year. Thank God it was all good and I felt better after a few hours of investigation and then treatment.

Still, this visit I paid to the hospital made me realize (once again!) that there are always worse things than what happens to each one of us. There is even a saying stating that if we put all our problems into a pile and would pick a random one to solve, then we would much rather go back and have ours back. Or something like that, you get the point. And that is because our issues – we know them, we can control them, we can make them better.

That was my idea after a few hours spent in the Emergency Room. Of course I will need to have better control of my lifestyle so that I do not end up in the same story again. Like they say it – make it better so it won’t be worse.
And even more, the stories you witness while in the hospital make you want to keep as further away as possible. This time I don’t even have anything to comment on the cleanliness or the doctors. Amazingly, it was all good and nice. But the following story seems out of this world:

Once I got to the Emergency Room at the hospital, they kept me in a waiting room that I would always get back to between investigation I had to take. A some point, I got back from the echo room and I found in the waiting a colleague. The doctors had brought someone on a stretcher. The guy was all crying. I looked at him and he didn’t seem bad. He looked more homeless than anything else. He was wearing some dirty clothes and some weird socks. Although he wasn’t allowed to use his mobile phone in that area, he kept making calls. Firstly, he called his wife or life partner or what she was and he started swearing her and accusing her of some attack. Only after he made some more calls to friends and relatives I found out he had been beaten by a group carrying baseball bats. He called everyone he knew to let them know what happened to him and that he will get revenge. The last call he made was to his son to say ‘goodbye forever’ and giving him details on what happened to him and how he will murder the guys who did that to him and also he will kill himself afterwards. Meanwhile, in the waiting there was no one from the hospital that could hear him, they all came in to scold the guy on talking on the phone, but that was it.
The guy was brought into another room for investigation and my perfusion had finished, got my prescription and was supposed to leave home. Don’t know exactly what had my attention – the story might not even be true given the fact that the guy smelled like alcohol really badly – but I couldn’t just leave without telling someone what I just witnessed. So on my way to exit the Emergency Room I was looking for a doctor to let them know. As I found one, I heard her telling some other guy that they should call the Police for the case of the angry patient.
More than being peaceful for knowing action was taken on that, I was happy that the doctors did not just let it pass by, all the story. Of course that given how the shouted and cried while making calls, it was very difficult not to hear his story. But also I figured that doctors were way too busy doing medical stuff and would not pay attention to the guy talking on the phone. I guess I was expecting the doctors to only take care of the medical part and that is why seeing them be human made me very happy.

As for me, I got my treatment and started feeling better, I’m working on my long lost discipline, I’m starting to learn how to cook and thank God I am gonna be good enough to leave for Rome next week, as planned!

So now I’ve chosen to take a step back and see the bigger picture. I will start taking more care of myself, I am thankful that nothing worse happened and I am happy that I am good enough to follow my travel plans. 🙂

As a final thought, I would advise you to also look at the bigger picture and I also wish you to not get to the point where you go through difficult situations and only then realize you are still happy and thankful for what you’ve got.

Closing on a happy note, I leave this with you:

Exercising against back pain

The story goes like this: the last few days I’ve been having really serious back pain when I wake up in the morning. Which is not completely out of the ordinary if you think I haven’t exercisedin a few months, three or so. But it’s not normal either for my 25 years old. And somehow, without even having to search for what to do on this, my Inbox received an email with the following recommendation when fighting back pain.

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This chick is a fitness expert and the exercises she teaches in the following video seem pretty easy (to her, at least). Now, even the required equipment is light: fitness mat and fitness ball. So I think it really deserves a shot.

Apparently the exercises Sarah Kusch does there target all the abdominal muscles and that is what makes them perfect for fighting against back pain. The fitness ball also has its role, use it a bit deflated so it’s soft and not bothering you.

Overall, this looks like a great choice for when you want to get rid of that back pain. In the end, there is nothing to lose. All I gotta do now is find my fitness ball, take my fitness mat out of the closet and search really thoroughly my motivation (cause I really don’t know where that’s gone to).

So let’s enjoy exercising and get healthy! 🙂

How to Apply for Vienna’s New Year Concert

Each year, the Wiener Philharmoniker in Viena holds the New Year Concert.

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The concert has an impressive tradition, being organized for the first time under incredible circumstances: during the 2nd World War, Clemens Strauss held a matinee on the 1st of January 1941 and so it played a big part in forming the Vienese individuality. The concerts aims to be a message of hope, friendship and peace, sent to the whole wide world at the beginning of every New Year.

The concert’s repertoire consists in the music of the Strauss dynasty and their contemporaries, and the tickets are given after a drawing, given the fact that there has been a high demand for that. The application for the tickets has to be submitted almost a year before, at the beginning of every year for the concert that follows. In order to do that, you need to create an account here and fill in your details: name, age, address, email, phone. Also, you will need to select the tickets you would like to get. The tickets vary depending on the concert you want to get at (preview performance, New Year’s Eve Concert, New Year’s Concert) and they cost between 20E and 1090E. You can register for each concert once.

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The registration for the 2017 concert can be submitted online at the link of the Wiener Philharmoniker website until the 28th of February. After the drawing, the winners will be announced on the 7th of March, through email and also on the personal account page of the website.

At the moment that I applied, there were already over 200,000 applicants. I heard of people that have tried getting a ticket for many years in a row, but never got a positive answer. Still, if there is a wish for that, you can try each year because just submitting the applications doesn’t hurt. Starting there, your luck will tell.

Well, good luck with applying and getting the tickets you want! 🙂

Sunday Folk Tale

I’m not usually the one to believe in religious stories, I just listen to them and move on. But a few days ago I learned about the one I’m about to share, that made me stop and think for a moment there. Maybe it’s because lately I’ve been struggling with having control over stuff or maybe just because this folk tale spoke to a part of me, but I just knew I had to share it. So, it goes like this…

‘There was once a guy who was so desperate for happiness that he started doing penance up in the mountains of Himalayas. He prayed and prayed for many years and finally, God was so pleased with him that He appeared in front of him and said:

– My son, I am very pleased with your prayers and I am here to grant you whatever wish you have.
– Thank you God, my wish is that whenever I wish for something, that should immediately happen.
– Done, my son. Your wish is granted.

God vanished and the man was ecstatic. He immediately wished that he could look young again and his wish was granted. Then he wished to learn many new languages from around the world and that too happened. Then he wished to have a really nice palace to live in and some great friends to hang out with, so those things happened too.

It would continue like this for a while, he would just think of something and even if we wanted wine, women, fun or anything in the world, he got it.

But, after a couple of months of living like this, the man discovered he wasn’t happy. In fact, he started to feel quite depressed. Whatever he wanted and whenever he wanted it, he would get it. All this robbed the thrill from life. So he called God again and told Him:
– You know, I think I wanna be transferred to Hell right now. This Heaven that I am living doesn’t seem to be working out for me.
God then turned around and laughed and told the man: Where do you think you’ve been all this time?

 

Just remember: A life that is predictable and totally under your control is actually not a good life, but a boring life that gives you nothing to learn about and no challenge to make you better.

 

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Lesson learned from Coursera online course – A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment 🙂

Being a tourist in Bucharest…

The great part of when friends from abroad come to visit Bucharest is that you are their guide. The bad part is that you actually have to show them around Bucharest and you’re praying that you don’t encounter situations you’re gonna be ashamed about and will have to apologize on behalf of, oh well, Romanians.

Last weekend I had a friend from Germany visiting and just for fun. I decided to play tourist along with him and speak English everywhere we went. The result was…depressing.

On Saturday we took the double-decker city tour for a few hours. Short story, the bus goes from Piața Presei Libere to Calea Victoriei and turns at Palatul Parlamentului (The Parliament). It’s the Hop On-Hop Off type of bus, that means you can get in and get out on any stop you want depending on your interest. When you buy the tickets you also get a (big) map that you can use for better orientation.

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The bus comes every 20 mins between 10AM-10PM hours and the last bus is at 9PM from Piața Presei Libere. The traveler card you get is valid for 24h from the first use and the whole tour takes about 50 mins.

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Some of the main interest points would be Piața Presei Libere – Free Press Square, Muzeul Satului – Village Museum, Arcul de Triumf – The Triumphal Arch, Muzeul Antipa – Antipa Museum, Muzeul Țăranului Român – Romanian Peasant Museum, Ateneul Român – The Romanian Atheneum, Muzeul Național de Artă – National Art Museum, Palatul Parlamentului – Palace of the Parliament.
A ticket is 25 RON ~ 5E for adults, 10 RON ~ 2,5E for kids 7-14 years old and free for under 7. You can opt for an audio guide but the only thing you’re gonna get is confusion. The audio guide plays only when it wants regardless the points of interest you are near and when it’s not playing you can only hear a blank sound that makes you think it’s not working at all. Its English is so bad you can barely understand it. And you also get a pair of headphones used and overused.

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When I was in Barcelona and enjoyed the same type of service, I at least received one-time headphones and I knew I was the only one using them.

The only really lovely things about all this experience is that you truly see Bucharest in a different way. Even I got this impression and I am in town every day. The pics below speak for themselves.

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And when it comes to the many THUMBS DOWN, they are related to people, of course. The bus tour was more than 50 mins.  The buses were later than 20 mins. No, the bus didn’t stop so that you could get off it. The bus would stop only if there were people waiting to get in. Otherwise, if you wanted off the bus but there no one to stop the bus from the street, you had to rush on the stairs (if you were upstairs). Although, the signs say you are not allowed to do that. Much more useful would’ve been a stop button that you could press and ask for the bus to stop.

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No, it wasn’t clean. In fact it was filthy dirty. And I’m not saying just on the floor. Okay, let’s say that the floor was dirty because of people throwing their trash onto it, but even that could be solved by placing two bins, one in the front and one in the back of the bus.

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But my bigger problem were the filthy seats.

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And also the dust on the stairs roof. The way you present your service to the people, that’s the exact way they will appreciate it.

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Yeah, and it was lovely that we could see the Government building… *ironic tone*

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Oh, and thank God we had free Wi-Fi. Yeah the network was there, it just didn’t work.



Many of the people on the bus were Romanians, I had enough time to meet lots of hop on-ers and hop off-ers. First time I took the bus for the whole tour just to enjoy the views. And on the second tour, I started analyzing. I left disappointed because we finally have got a good thing like you see abroad and we treat it typically Romanian-style, not caring about anything.

Anyways, that would be it about the wonder double-decker tour bus of Bucharest. I’m pretty sure the people who are amazed by it are the people who didn’t rode it.

The next day, on Sunday we went to the Botanical Garden of Bucharest, Cotroceni area. I actually was more impressed with it than I would have expected. There were many people there and still it wasn’t crowded. Yes, some of the areas of the garden could have been more taken care of and the communism buildings ruin a part of view, but oh well…

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Still, I was impressed by the fact that most of the signs had an English translation.

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And one more thing, in the garden there is a special place for people who want to enjoy some peaceful and quite time while reading or studying or working.

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Plus, they have a souvenir shop that had for sale stuff for the passionate and also just cute things like T-shirts and mugs with funny messages – ‘Plants are Friends’ and stuff.

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Of course there were wedding people coming in to take pictures by the lake – which btw, was horrible. I was joking with my friend that they made it look like that on purpose, so that people wouldn’t be tempted to take a dive.

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Either way, still. For 5 RON ~ 1E the ticket for an adult, 3 RON ~ 0.75E for a student/retired person and free entrance for school kids and veterans, the Botanical Garden is a really nice alternative to the parks in Bucharest, every day between 9AM-5PM. Especially since we’re starting our own Pont des Arts, baby steps 🙂

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At the end of the weekend, my friend told me that Bucharest is a nice city, he enjoyed it and had a great time, but without a local’s help he would’ve been lost because of the lack of signs to help tourists in their orientation. Also, he was very surprised about the high number of abandoned buildings near the city center and that could have great potential.

After the two days I spent as a tourist I can only think of the tourists that come to Bucharest. In the center, the old city and Calea Victoriei area you could see that Romanians were used to tourists and acted really friendly and even learned a bit of English. But other than that, as soon as they heard us speak English they would act like they were bothered by us and even tried to fool us when we asked for the check…

There is nothing left to say for me, except for the fact that we such fools for trying to see only our short-term interest and not think for the long run.

Photos: my fingers pressed the button of an iPhone 6, #noedit and #nofilter

So there’s that…

Trait

You know there are times in life when you just live day by day and you feel like everything is smooth, maybe too smooth, even boring at times. But that’s okay, it’s just fine because then the moment comes and you come back to reality thanks certain people you meet and make everything more interesting around them, including your life.

So next time I’m thinking about complaining of a boring life, I’ll make sure to remember the story below.

It goes like this: a few days ago I end up at the hospital for a certain issue and after five hours of waiting, the doctor arrives. He apologizes for making me wait and welcomes me into his office. There, the consultation begins and he tells me he would like to spend more time talking to me so he starts to ask lots of questions. Some of them I thought were pretty irrelevant for the given situation but he stops me and asks for my patience whenever he would see me frown. He assures me that eventually I will see the point of all this. But somehow, when I left the doctor’s office I was still confused.
Aaaand also so amused that I burst into laughing with tears. After just one hour in his office, this doctor made me leave the hospital smiling and then laughing really hard when by myself in the car. And then again, the same whenever I would talk to a friend and told them about the happening.

So, this doctor – that I would mention no names or specialty about – had a big cabinet with lots of shelves each one of them filled with holy images. And the same went for the windowsill. Normally, one of the firsts questions was about me being a religious person or not. Then, we moved on to talking about tattoos:

– So now you’ve already got ink on you… But at least don’t have any more tattoos done. You’re gonna see that when you find your man, the perfect one to share a life with, his kiss will feel different on the inked parts of your body.

Okaaay, mhm, I wasn’t gonna get into a debate about that. But then he went on and started talking about psychological stuff. I tried to tell him I am just fine, not crazy, I’ve got a therapist to turn to in case of anything. Somehow, the doctor was trying to tell me that I’m fine and I’m just stressed. I admitted I experienced a bit of that in the past year but that I am fine now and over it.

– I am going to be honest with you. I can see you need a man to complete you. You need him as a partner, to be a support to you, a lover, a protector, a father…

– All due respect, I think I’ve got that covered.

– Look, if you want I can present you one of my friends. He’s a good guy and would be perfect for you. He’s in his 40s, divorced, has got a high school kid and is a mayor somewhere (can’t remember where).

I spent my last minutes trying to convince him I was fine and there was no need for such efforts and I managed to put an end to the conversation. So the consultation has ended and I had no diagnosis. Oh yeah, at the end he asked me if I’ve got any holy stuff in my house (images, pictures, icons, statues) and I assured him I was fine on that also.

The medical letter he gave me after the consultation said that my diagnosis was ‘stress’. STRESS!!! That’s it, all I’ve got is stress. Thank God, huh!

anamariapopa.com bog ana maria popa so what whatever

10 Freelance ideas

A freelancer is the person who works on their own. They are the one who’ve got no boss and no employees. They offer their services to companies or even to other people, in return for a certain amount that is usually set by worked hours. There is no boss involved and nobody to give them orders. Also, they can afford the luxury of choosing who to work with and can decline collaboration with certain clients if there’s something they do not agree with.

On the other hand, a freelancer doesn’t have employees either and isn’t the boss of anyone. Because otherwise, they would be called an entrepreneur. That is the big difference between the two. A person can go from freelancing to entrepreneurship when the work becomes too much for them to handle it alone or they just don’t want to do it anymore so they found a company and hire people.

anamariapopa.com freelance work social media graphic designer

Freelancing is perfect for people who want to earn some extra money in addition to the job they’ve already got.  The good part is that freelancing is under their control and no one else’s – they decide what they work, for how long and for how much money. From a certain point on, there is the chance of quitting the job they’ve got and stay with freelancing, if everything went good before and their work is appreciated properly money-wise and also they like it. But in this decision, a big part is played by the freelancer, if they’ve got the flexibility and most of all, discipline for this.

Below you can find 10 ideas that help you earn a little extra money or why not, even become your job. The resources needed for these are not out of the ordinary and most of them only require a bit of effort and interest from your side.

1. Graphic designer – the creative guy (or girl!) who’s doing visuals like logos, infographics, lay-outs, etc.

2. Copywriter, content writer, blogger, editor – the guy (or girl!) who knows how to and what to write. It may seem as an easy task, but this is the person who needs to send the message of the brand out to the people, so that everybody can understand it clearly. This is the content creator.

3. Photo/video editor – the guy (or girl!) who knows how to edit pictures or videos another person takes or records. It goes also for processing, editing, montage, etc.

4. Photographer/cameraman – the guy (or girl!) who knows about taking pictures or videos. Of course, this is the type of activity where you also need a good equipment and that can be rather expensive.

5. Website developer – the guy (sorry I haven’t met any girls who do this) who builds your website and helps your business interact online best with the users.

6. Social Media specialist – the guy (or girl!) that knows not only everything about social networks, what they are and what you should be doing with them, but also tools and other helpful things (ex. Hootsuite).

7. Accountant – the guy (or girl!) who knows numbers and is confident enough to handle the ins and outs and taxes of a company.

8. Pet sitter – the guy (or girl!) who’s taking care of other people’s pets while they are away and have nobody to leave the pet with.

9. Moving help – the guy (it has to be a guy this time, really) who’s got a car or a van and uses it to help other people move stuff from one place to another and also gets payed for doing so.

10. Fitness or Yoga instructor/personal trainer – a bit of effort and also after graduating the required classes, practicing yoga can actually be very fun!

Ideas 4, 8, 9 and 10 go local since they require a physical presence in order to do them. But all the others can be done very easily online, for anybody in this world.

These days, we can’t really say ‘I don’t know how to do this or that’. We’ve got so many resources and tools in our hands and all we have to do is actually use them. Of course, the most basic one is Google. They don’t say Google it! for nothing! 🙂 So for any of the ideas above except the ones that require physical presence, there is a way of making it real. All you need is a computer with internet connection and maybe a software – like Photoshop for picture editing.

Then, when it comes to skill learning, there are many online classes that are free. The firsts that come to my mind are SkillShare, edX, Coursera, Udemy. From my own experience, I can recommend Coursera and Udemy after using them. They are really easy and user friendly, you just need a bit of time for creating an account and then some more discipline in order to keep going.

Regarding freelance jobs, I wouldn’t be able to tell my personal experience because all my jobs were recommended to me by people whom I’ve met. But interested freelancers can access this link on Entrepreneur and check it out or even Google it.

So, everything’s here from ideas to resources. Now, all you have to find is some ambition to do it. Good luck! 🙂

Photo – here.