Life Archives - Page 2 of 4

3, 2, 1… 24! [en]

December 15, 2015Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

One year ago I started early with my preparations for that time of the year. You know, when your birthday is right around the corner and all you can think about is how you want it to be this year, and you can’t wait to see all the people you love under the same roof and just enjoy your time.

Last year, I made my wish-list one month before, just in case. I enjoyed special moments with my people then. And, even if some relationships have changed since then, my memories stay beautiful, and the surprise they gave me – unique. I was really sorry for letting them wait for me in front of the door, for 2 whole minutes, while they had my ice cream cake ready and the candles lit on it. They were so cute, and when I played the recording and saw that they were so close to losing hope, aww………….. But all is well when it ends nice 🙂

Now, one year later? My wishes remain the same. I don’t wish for material things. My most precious present are my people, the people that I have in my life. If some of them decide to be a part of it for a long time, I appreciate them. And for those who leave, that’s it, it’s their end in my story and I become happy for the experience I had with them. Anyways, I am gonna add to my last year’s wish also – I’d like to get to know people that know the meaning of being human, and not in how they look. But in the way they act, people who are open-minded, who know how to make best use of the soul they’ve got, who like to communicate, who know what respect is.

And I would also like to add one more thing! At 23 years old, at the end of the most screwed up year of my life, I realised that no matter what happens in this life, no matter what I win or lose, nobody can take away my experiences, the stories I’ve lived. So I set a goal in this life – to live a life full of experiences worth telling, no matter the closure.

Unlike last year, I now find myself in Austria, far away from my lovely people. But they somehow manage to make me not feel the distance, and to still feel them close to my soul. These are my people, the people that hold a special place in my heart. And I only wish for them to stay there as much as possible, because I really like it the way I feel now.

As to the rest, happy wishes to everyone, no matter the age or place! 😀

Thanksgiving or giving thanks?

November 26, 2015Ana Maria Popa 1 Comment

Thanksgiving day is a national holiday celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November, in the USA and on the second Monday of October in Canada. It is the day of the year of giving thanks for the blessing and the harvest of the previous year. The tradition includes a large meal, in which the star is a roasted turkey.

The first Thanksgiving dinner was held in 1621 by Pilgrims and lasted 3 days (!) but it didn’t become a national holiday until 300 years later, in 1941. It is believed that there were no turkeys for dinner back in 1621. Still, the turkey is the traditional Thanksgiving dish, given the fact that it was one of the first animals to be domesticated in the USA.

American or not, another year has almost passed and this would be a good time to think about all the things we are really thankful this year, in this life. Day-by-day we’re busy complaining, focusing on what we don’t have, because it’s easier this way. So, sometimes, it is important taking the time to remember the things we are thankful for and that every so often, we take for granted.

After giving it some thought, replaying one of the most challenging years of my life – if not, the most! – this is my personal list here:

People – generally speaking. I like the fact that I’ve met and will meet enough people in this life, to have things to learn from them. People who inspire me to be better or, on the contrary, people who make me say – ‘I don’t ever wanna be like that!’. People whom I admire and will follow, and people whom I know my life would be better without.

Life – ’cause when you try and think about it, life is pretty amazing. You just need to know what to do with it and how to create it. And this year made me realize that I’m just starting creating my life, building opportunities and taking chances.

Love – it makes the world go round. It’s happiness, power, beauty, kindness, support, honesty, trust, communication, understanding, peace, acceptance, respect, patience – okay, stop me now.

Good Friends – you know, the people you feel. Some people you see, some you hear, but only few you will feel. Those are your friends. And no other words could describe this feeling.

Physical activity – dancing, fitness, yoga. Whatever makes me move, lifts my spirit, gives me energy, puts me in the right mood and reminds me that I look better fit 😀

Pets – and even better, if you don’t own one – friends with pets! 2 in 1, big win!

Challenges – they serve a purpose. They make you the person you are now. How you overcome them it’s your choice, in your hands, your control.

Pain – without it, you wouldn’t be able to appreciate all the good times. Like – when your tooth hurts. You become thankful for all the times you had a good time, even if you had other dental problems.

Control – over your actions, your attitude. Yes, that is the only thing you can really have control over. You won’t be able to decide how people treat you, how long you will have a job or a car. But the thing that you can master is how you react to everything that comes your way, in this life.

Loss of control – imagine if all the issues were in your hands to handle them?! That’s one hell of a complicated life! It may be hard, but try and see the good in it. Enjoy every moment you lack control, it’s yours to feel free!

Money – yes, the last one. It makes many things possible in this world, because I like to be also practical about life. It can be your friend or your enemy – your choice, you control it.

How’bout you? What have you got to be thankful for in this life? 🙂

Happy bday, Mickey!

November 18, 2015Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

I hope that everyone here knows who Mickey Mouse is! If so, your childhood was awesome! 😀

So, Mickey is the official mascot of Disney. He is a an animal cartoon and was created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. He is part of a gang, along with his girlfriend – Minnie Mouse, his dog – Pluto and his friends – Goofy and Donald Duck with girlfriend, Daisy.

Mickey’s body is made out of circles, to make the character easy to animate. And that is a reason why Mickey is easy for the audience to recognize, his ears being an unofficial trademark. There is even a symbol used to represent Mickey –

The original voice of Mickey is Walt Disney himself, the co-creator of Mickey and founder of the Walt Disney Company! It turns out even more cute – starting from 1977, the voice of Mickey Mouse was Wayne Allwine, who was married in real life to Russi Taylor, the voice of Mickey girlfriend, Minnie Mouse!

Mickey Mouse is so famous that he’s received ten nominations for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and in November 1978, in honor of his 50th anniversary, Mickey became the first cartoon character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Being Turkish

September 28, 2015Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

‘I wanna go back’ – the first words that came out of my mouth as soon as I arrived from Istanbul.

First thing – God, they’ve got so many shopping malls! I got there in the evening, around 18h, so there wasn’t much to do besides dinner and a walk – after all, I was on holiday 🙂

Aqua Florya – shopping mall near the sea. Perfect place to relax…

…and for something delicious (and sweet, ofc)…

Wet Heart-Shaped Chocolate Cake @ Pelit

…and for watching the incredible sunset.

The traffic in Istanbul sucks. What it’s like in Bucharest, oh well – there it’s like dying bit by bit! And I was told I shouldn’t be too surprised, it was holiday – Kurban Bayramı – and everybody’s was out of town so the traffic was like 1/3 of the usual. I was that close to driving in Istanbul, but apparently I had a fairy who made me think twice. As soon as we left the parking, going on a narrow-one-lane-for-every-direction-up-hill-street, there comes this crazy taxi driver. I really don’t know how I made it out of there alive, I jut closed my eyes and hoped for the best, and I thanked God I wasn’t the driving and that had this great driver!

Oh, and don’t get me started about taxi drivers! Again, Bucharest is crazy but these guys are loonatics! Yeah, they’ve got great infrastructure, lots of highways to make the traffic better, but really, you just can’t keep calm when driving. At some point, we were close to having an accident at 120km/h, just because one taxi driver thought of racing when changing the lanes, and hitting the brake every 5m.

About pedestrians, yeah, well there’s not smarter either. Why use the effin’ zebra crossing when it’s so much easier to just jump in front of the car and ask for priority?!

But, one thing that I appreciated was the special lane in the middle of the highway – for buses. It looked so well thought of and……………useful!

Istanbul is a city of cats – like you see stray dogs in Bucharest and maybe other cities, they’ve got stray cats. It’s not a problem for them to find a place, even if it’s a store, restaurant, art gallery or car.

I was looking at their registration plates and I was asking myself why do they use that number – 34 – and what’s the connection with the city.

And I found out that Istanbul is the 34th city of Turkey, in alphabetical order. The other numbers and letter are random or they can be personalized.

Oh, I almost forgot. The most delicious thing ever: it’s called Oreo Magnolia and it’s vanilla pudding and Oreo, from CookShop. It looks like this.

When it comes to sightseeing, well I’m not much into that. It’s not my style to stay in a line. And yes, Istanbul’s got a mosque everywhere you look. And honestly, they all kinda look the same to me.

anamariapopa.com blog post turcia turkey istanbul suleyman mosque

Sultan Ahmet Mosque

But what really got my attention was Basilica Cistern, the largest covered cistern in the city, that dates back to the old Constantinople, built by Emperor Justinian in 537.

And there I took advantage of the tourists corner and I got dressed up in this Turkish costume, letting myself be photographed 😀

And if you are there, you really have to try this thing – Uludağ, I’m only gonna mention it tastes like bubblegum!

In the end, here is a tiny dictionary with the words that I learned in my 5 days there:

Yakamoz (iacamoz) – Moon reflection on the surface of the sea

Harika (haarica) – Wonderful

Așk (ashc) – Love

Çok yaşa (cioc iasha) – Bless you

Teşekkürler (teshechiurler) – Thank you

Rica ederim (rija ederim) – You’re welcome

Merhaba (meraba) – Hello

Günaydın (ghiunaidîn) – Good morning

Iyi günler (iii ghiunler) – Good day

Iyi geceler (iii gejeler) – Good night

Afiyet olsun (afiet olsun) – Enjoy your meal

Evet (evet) – Yes

Hayır (haiîr) – No

Efendim (efendim) – What? What did you say?

Yavaș (iavash) – Slow

Yıldız (iîldîz) – Star

Șerefe (sherefe) – Cheers

Su (su) – Water

Pasta (pasta) – Cake

Makarna (macarna) – Pasta

Satılık (satîlîc) – For sale

Kiralık (chiralîc) – For rent

Salak (salac) – Stupid

Havalimanı (havalimanî) – Airport

Canım (janîm) – My dear

And, because all of us wanna learn this stuff:

Sikecem (sichejem) – Fuck 🙂

Overall, it is a beautiful city, I’m gonna be back.

P.S.: You can find nicer and edited pics on my Instagram account.

It’s okay to quit

September 10, 2015Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

Our whole lives we’ve been told that we shouldn’t quit, we should be ‘someone’ in this life, don’t let others get ahead. Okay – so what do you do when you find yourself in a situation you’re not comfortable with, it’s just not for you and you want to leave it behind? How could you quit when you weren’t taught how to do that?

Let’s see what quitting means and why it’s really okay to react.

Honesty

Many people live years and even their whole lives where they don’t belong. Excuses or not, they get stuck there because: they need the money / they feel guilty towards someone / they don’t think they’ve got the time to make a change / they feel responsible or fear someone else / they don’t want to disappoint others. All of these you can find just by talking to them. They’re not scared of admitting.

But when the moment comes to actually make a move, the best thought you can have is that you’re being true to yourself. It’s a step forward on creating a new road that you can really enjoy. You re-build yourself, and the past experience should only work as a lesson.

Open–mindedness

To be able to quit when the circumstances are not happy requires a lot of bravery, especially if it comes hand in hand with a major change. But it’s not just that. Once you’re out of it, you also challenge your open-mindedness in order to explore and have new experiences. It’s not a matter of age or qualification, instead, it requires a strong desire to achieve more.

One of the learning methods used in Psychology is based on trial and error. Machines, robots, they all encounter errors. So what happens then? Well, a brilliant mind comes along and updates the system. Same with people. Being open-minded leads you to detect the error and update yourself, to just try again.

Win

Not lose. This is what it’s all about.

You’re not wasting time, nor energy. It’s not a race against time. It’s self-discovery and in the end, that is a win situation. You start to reconsider your resources. This time, it’s not about money or material things. Now you’ve only got yourself to work on in order to win, so you start to reconsider your time, your energy, your passions.

Life is a game and each one of us is in a different level, but it’s okay to sometimes pause and ask yourself if the one you’re playing is really your game or you’re in somebody else’s. And there is a big difference between quitting and giving up.

N.B.: This topic was inspired and written for a special friend – S., to whom I wish to consider all the time in the world in order to be reborn, to rebuild himself like a Phoenix 🙂

Luck or no Luck?

March 13, 2015Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

People fear Friday the 13th, they say about it that it’s the unluckiest day of the year. They even got a name for this type of phobia, known as the friggatriskaidekaphobia. But why all this, where did it all start?

Well apparently, there is no evidence of this superstition before the 19th century. But still, the number 13 is considered to be cursed, because of the fact that 12 is known as the fullness number – 12 hours on the clock, 12 months of the year, 12 Apostles of Jesus, 12 Gods of Olympus and so on.

In 1881, there was an organization of 13 members, who tried to sweeten the number’s reputation. they were called The Thirteen Club. But not even they managed to make it better for this pour number.

In many cities, streets like 13th Avenue don’t even exist. Or some buildings don’t have a 13th floor. Like some planes don’t have a 13th row. Some airports don’t have a 13th gate. And some hospitals don’t own a 13th room.

I really don’t get it why people hate such a wonderful number like 13, it only brought me luck during my life. I passed my driving license exam on a Friday 13th, lots of my lovely relationships started on days of 13th, whatever the month, and also, I’ve some of my best friends on days of 13.

And now, let’s hear some myths about this lovely (to some) day:

A child born on Friday the 13th will be unlucky for life
If you cut your hair on Friday the 13th, someone in your family will die
If you break a mirror on Friday the 13th, you will have seven years of bad luck
Do not start a trip on Friday or you will encounter misfortune
If a funeral procession passes you on Friday the 13th, you will be the next to die.

I guess that’s too bad…

No Smoking Day, 2015

March 12, 2015Ana Maria Popa Leave a Comment

UK celebrates today the national ‘No Smoking Day’. Now, I know I’m not one of theirs (although, does loving British accent count? How about missing London? Or maybe having a British ex-boyfriend? No? Ok…) but it made me think. Made me think about all the people I met in my life and smoke, and also about me, cause I used to smoke too.

I first tried smoking in my first year of high school. All my friends did it and it was cool. Also, they used to go outside on breaks, so I would be the only one staying with the geeks. At least, that’s how I saw things then. So I tried smoking, it was no good, it wasn’t for me.

Until a few years later, when my friends in uni smoked. And I was going through a break up. So I started finding peace in smoking. Until I started having heart palpitations from smoking a pack a day and drinking energy drinks like they were water. And then I quit.

Until my last year of university, when I was stressed. So I started doing it again. Also, back then I had a boyfriend with whom I lived and who used to smoke. A lot. So we smoked together (a great couple does silly things together, right?!). Until he and I broke up.

And that was it. I stopped smoking for good, initially because of the fact that it hurt me, emotionally speaking. The smoke itself, myself smoking and the people around me who smoked or anything that smelled like smoke reminded me of him. So I had to quit in order to get over him. It wasn’t until later that I realized I was only smoking to relieve stress, so I found another way to do it. I joined a gym. This is my happy ending.

Now, I am no judge of people who smoke or why they do it. Everyone has their reasons and every each and one of us knows what’s best for them. But I will tell you one thing that I learned after having many friends who smoked and also some ex-boyfriends.

I would never ever be able to have a serious relationship with someone who smokes. It may seem a bit hypocritical of me, since I used to enjoy it. But the reasoning is simple – I can’t watch my love one hurt himself. I now work in the medical field, more or less. I’ve seen what smoking does to the oral health only, so don’t even get me started in general.

Also, and this is my personal perk – I want, I need to feel the natural smell of someone’s skin. It’s a part of love, part of a relationship. How could I fall in love with someone who always smells like smoke? With someone who smells like thousands others? Yeah, I’ve been there, it wasn’t special.

So, my message to my smoking friends and people who are dear to me?