Sandra's Journal

Yes, I know I haven't posted in many months (last entry is in 2008, eek!). And yes, I know I haven't even checked my Friends Page to see the updates of my LJ friends. I know. *hides under a rock*. I know it's no excuse, but I have been extremely busy...

I'm not going to recall everything that happened to me in the last semester, though. Suffice it to say that I got involved in some very nice projects, including.... translating a book. Yes, a book. I don't think I'm allowed to say which one before it gets published, though... Anyway, we're working on the next volume now (it's a fantasy series with 11 volumes published, and I joined the translation team at the fourth volume), which means I'll constantly be busy for a long time now... But I don't complain, it's fantastic!!! :D

I've got big plans for this summer as well. First of all, my favourite of them all - the Admission session at my Faculty! I'm part of the organization committee as a student representative again, so I'll get the chance to work with my teachers again and help the candidates with their applications... :) It's a lot of work to do, but it's fun and rewarding!

Then I'll be abroad for two weeks - going to Poland for a summer school in generative linguistics, which I'm really excited about... Hope to finally get a more detailed idea about what my diploma paper will be about, hehehe...

Other than that, I'll spend a week at the seaside with a friend (for free! bless the government for free student vacations!), then I'll have to find something interesting to do for the month of September... Of course, I'd love to get round to editing some vids and/or writing some fanfiction... (ideas have been lurching in my head for a long time... until they will die down in the end, unfortunately...) Oh, by the way, my first LotR fanfic was nominated to the MEFAs... Thanks, rakshathedemon! :) I have a lot of ideas, but to be honest, I'm a little afraid that I'm not going to be able to write in the same tolkienesque style that I managed to use the first time... anyway... I'd need a beta too, *hint, hint*! 

Well, that's enough rambling for today... Hopefully the next post won't be a year from now! :D

Winter holiday started! :) Two weeks without school, then two more weeks of normal courses and then the examination period... Oh, well... But that was not what I wanted to post tonight - I wanted to write a little bit about this year's charity campaign organized by the ASLS. My Faculty's student organization collects clothes, toys and money from students, teachers and other sponsors and then donates them all to an orphanage. This year we thought about somethig special: we created hand-made Christmas ornaments and sold them in the Faculty for fund-raising. We painted globes, made folded paper stars and even origami-style trees! But the most successful were the decorated candles. Here are a few (the last one was made by me):

 









When I get the picture we made with the children, I'll post some here as well. It was touching and somehow sad at the orphanage, but I'm glad I was able to take part in this. The name of our campaign is very suitable - it does bring a SMILE to so many people (not just the kids who received the gifts, but also to us who made them!)


 

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted (I should do that more often!). I was so busy and taken with everyday things that I didn't even have the time to check out my friends' LJs... Or even read fanfiction. I'll get round to it one day. I hope so.

I'm three weeks into my second University year and enjoying every moment of it. We have some very interesting subjects this semester for both English and Latin. We'll be studying Victorian and Augustan literature respectively. As for practical courses, for Latin we're studying Plautus, Catullus and Seneca. Very cool! Not to mention we're taking an introductory course in Old English! :) I'm even attending some Greek tragedy courses that I shouldn't take (and probably won't get credits for). And of course there's the linguistics part: the syntax of root clauses for English and historical phonetics for Latin. Sounds extremely promising! :)

I've also started to tutor online at eduFire.com. It's a great site if you want to teach or learn a foreign language or do test prep. I really recomend it. And not just because I'm a tutor there - the community is surprizingly warm and friendly! I spend outragiously long on the forums, but it's worth it! :) Here's my eduFire.com profile: http://edufire.com/sandraronai :D

The Ovid anniversary I was posting about (I think) is in less than three weeks, so we'll have some intensive rehearsals. I almost managed to master Latin poetry declamation (just the hexametre and pentametre!) but I'm still very nervous about it!

One more good news is that, now that more friends from the Arpino contest are in Bucharest (they came here to study, just like me), we'll be able to hang around again and hopefully meet for a big _Mafia_. I'm dying to play that game again! :)

Don't know when I'll get round to posting again, so... until then, all the best to everyone! :)

Saw this meme in lindahoyland 's journal and thought to share one of my favourite LotR quotes. It's from The Steward and the King (page 963 in my precious one volume 50th Anniversary edition). The drawing is by Ellaine and it's called Darkness will not endure. No copyright infringement intended for either the book or the picture. :)
 
When you see this, post another LOTR quote in your lj. Character is your choice, pic is optional.





'And so they stood on the walls of the City of Gondor, and a great wind rose and blew, and their hair, raven and golden, streamed out mingling in the air. And the Shadow departed, and the Sun was unveiled, and light leaped forth...'

Well, my first thought was to say: Faramir! - I'm currently developping a renewed obsession with LotR... 

But then I thought further back and decided I'd rather be stuck on an island with.... dr. Daniel Jackson, the way he was in the first two seasons of Stargate: SG1... Of course, he wouldn't be the most skilful at survival at that time, but I'm sure we'd manage... And we would have a great time, I'd get to learn a LOT of things about archaeology and civilizations and languages... I would never be bored!

Plus, whenever Daniel gets lost, the rest of SG1 come and rescue him... so no chance of spending the rest of our lives there... :) :(



I liked the prompt, but stay tuned for pictures and rambling about my trip to Tunisia! :)

First of all, a few words about Professor Slusanchi's funeral - it was a very beautiful and solemn ceremony, with a lot of important academics there... and not only academics! As the Professor was involved in the transation of ecclesiastic literature (and was also a very faithful man, apparently!), the service was officiated by a representative of the Patriarch (as in, the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church) and His Beatitude himself sent a funeral speech. And I was very surprised by the fact that a former President of Romania was there as well!!! As a mere first-year student, you can imagine how extremely insignificant I felt, but I'm glad I was able to go at least to the religious service... May Professor Slusanschi rest in peace!

I was sad about his death, but I'm much more worried about my own Dad, who's not doing well either. I'm not going to ramble about his medical state, but he's sick, and it makes him moody and irritated... :( The worst thing is that we can't do anything about his condition, if the medication has no effect... Hopefully it will. I don't want to write more about this... :(

On a happier note, the Admission is going great, it was a very busy period for me, with 6 to 12 hours spent at the Faculty, with no weekends and getting up relatively early, but I REALLY enjoy what we're doing! 

And the very good news is that.... *surprise, surprise*.... I'm going on a trip to.... Tunisia! What's more, I'm not paying for it, either! :P It's a kind of reward from the Ministry of Education, for the prize I gained last year in the Ovidian Latin contest.... :)) I don't know all the details yet, but it will be between the 6th and the 13th this month, and the trip presentation I got looks exciting!! :) I really hope I'll be able to see the ruins of Carthage and the other relics of the Roman era, they're more important to me than the Arab civilization or the beaches and nautic sports! :)) If I don't manage to post again before leaving, here's my official promise to: 1. take lots and lots of pictures and 2. write more details after I get back! So long now! :)

I'm still in shock. My Latin syntax teacher, Professor Dr. Dan Slusanschi, is dead. He was only 65. He passed away yesterday after being in intensive care for a week. Nobody at the Classics Department knew. I was told today when I came to the Faculty and I still can't quite believe it. I can't help remembering his lectures, his sayings or the day of the last exam. That day, I had a longer talk to him, and, besides warning me to take care in whom I put my trust ("Young lady, the world is full of rats"), he invited me to contact him and ask for help if I ever wanted to edit any studies or translations from Latin. I felt honoured by his trust in my potential and it breaks my heart to think that, if I do publish something, my work will be greatly diminished without his advice!

He was one of those special people that impress you not only by their extensive knowledge and expertise in their field, but also by their personality as human beings. I always felt overwhelmed in his presence and found it a tremenduous priviledge to receive one of his kind smiles whenever I said something right. Tall, well-built, with large glasses and a thick beard, he was the embodiment of The University Professor. His CV  (http://www.unibuc.ro/en/cdcv_danslusanschi_en) is too breathtaking to quote, but I think that, apart maybe from the Dean herself, Professor Slusanschi was the most outstanding academic personality that I had the chance to meet. I can only thank God because I was among the very last generation of students who had the opportunity to learn Latin syntax from him!

May he rest in peace! 

... and extremely satisfied about my work at the Faculty! :) After a full week, I can say this: no matter how stressful it is, or how tired I come back home, I truly enjoy what I'm doing. It's much, much more than a simple job. I learn a lot of useful things and get to practice my abilities (from people skills to focus and memory!) 

Plus, I have the chance to work side by side with my teachers and other older graduates and the atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed. Some of the teachers have even asked me to call them by their name! I get to know them better and discover what wonderful people most of them are! Oh, today I found out that (at least) two of my teachers are big, big Stargate fans! *Wow* to that! :))

Of course, there's a lot of work to be done, and dealing with some angry and uncooperating parents can sometimes be difficult. My main task up to now was to inform the candidates about the various combinations of languages they can study and help them fill in their forms. But I've done other things too, from phoning Professors home to taking out the garbage... :) The most important thing is that I'm enjoying myself, I love the company and the tasks themselves as well. I know I will surely miss these times after all is finished! :) 

Just a very brief update to say the meeting / briefing / training today went great! :) The general atmosphere within the Committee was much more open and relaxed than I thought it would be (although at one point there were around 20 teachers in the room and just one student - me!) and I never felt out of place, which is very important for me...

 I feel extremely excited about my responsibilities for the next days... But I will need luck, so do keep your fingers crossed for me!

There have been many things happening since I last posted (including celebrating my 20th birthday! Writing my age with a "2" instead of "1" still feels strange), but I'm not going to write about them, but about the most exciting event of this summer: the Admission session of our Faculty!! :)

No, I'm not sitting the exam again. This time, I'm on the other side - I'm representing the students' association I belong to in the Organizing Comittee! I've dreamt about it ever since one of my teachers confirmed I will be there, and you can guess how excited I am about it all!!! It's very nice that the Faculty employs students to help with this (except the actual correcting of the papers, we'll be involved in practicly all the stages of the process - and it's more complicated than you would think!) and I'm really glad I'll have the chance to work side by side with some of my teachers... 

It all begins this Monday and it will last for about a month - first a week for receiving the application forms, then the actual exam (23rd of July), the correcting, making the list with the results and so on... Tomorrow we have a meeting / briefing / training where we will hopefully learn all we need to know... I'm looking forward to it, and to this month of working for my Faculty; I've earned money on my own before, but this will be my first job (full time and for a whole month). I'm so happy about it! :)  

Of course I've got lots of better things to do right now, but this was really fun! :)

Welcome to the 2008 edition of getting to know your friends. Copy this and paste it into your LJ. Change all the answers so they apply to you.



I'm taking my laptop into service today and then I'll be away for holiday in a few days, so I might or might not have Internet access for the next couple of weeks or so... But don't worry, I'll be back! :)

I took part in a fanfiction exchange for the Lord of the Rings character Faramir (my favourite hero from the book - I hate what they did to him in the movies, though... :(( ) and my fic has been posted! Yay! :)

You can find it here: http://community.livejournal.com/faramirexchange/6507.html. Comments are really appreciated! :)

No time to write more, I have to go take advantage of my democratic right to vote! :) And then I'm off at a small get-together with my friends! Hopefully the cookies they baked will be eadible! :) (no offence, Lifeskipper!)

After a long time without making my presence felt around LJ (except with comments in friends' journals, that is!), here I am again, finally finding the time to update!

Things have been busy in my life latetly, but the examinations period is almost over! Just one more exam this Friday and then the long-expected HOLIDAY!!! :)

As I got a moment to think back about this last year, I now realize that my very first university year was much like I expected it to be... I've made new friends and met great people, and created lots of fond memories. Many are from the lectures (some just interesting, other plainly boring, most engaging and a few simply breathtakingly fascinating!) but then again, many are from the hours I spent with my new friends during the brakes and outside the faculty. There are many things I did for the first time (like earn money on my own, or go to the Opera House!) and, probably most important of all, I learned to live by mysef and manage all the problems that arise in a household, be it a single-person one.

I learned a great deal of things this year as well. The lectures and the seminars brought a world of ideas before me (literally!) and I don't regret choosing this faculty a bit. I love what I'm studying, both the English and the Latin! Literature is fascinating, but, probably to my literature teachers' dismay, I think I will write my diploma disertation on something from the field of linguisitcs. Well, there's still time to think about that... Beyond the bare information, I also learned reaserch methodes and ways to approach an issue. I feel much more confident, intelectually speaking, I feel my mind starts to open to new and wonderful things and I'm really excited about my studies!

And there's the ASLS, the organization of the students in our faculty.. I became involved in many of our projects and I got to really feel at home in our headquaters (a small room in on of the buildings of our faculty), Actually, I'm at ASLS right now, writing this entry on out computer! :)

Lastly, I'm very glad that, despite not being allowed to participate anymore, I did not became estranged with the world of Latin competitions! I kept in touch with my younger colleagues, I visited them when they were here in Bucharest for the preparation, I went to welcome them at the airport when they retunred from Italy, I received lots of pictures, they told me all the detail and I really felt I still belong there... My family are really against me becomeing a high-school Latin teacher, but no matter what they say, I *will* teach Latin someday! :)

As for this summer, it's going to be a busy one, for one month I will be working here at the faculty during the admission session (there is a lot of work to be done, and so a few students always help with the organization of the admission exams and processing all the papers...), and I'm planning to go in an internship for another month, it's an experience i need and look forward to...

Well, that's about all for now, now that I'm a little less busy I will add more babbling & rambling in the next weeks whenever interesting things happen!

Dear hastiekido,
I don't really know how to tell you this, but our horoscope doesn't match. I think I realized it when I threw up with Paris Hilton and I saw you drive out my father. I'm sure you're ashamed enough to understand that I get turned on by garbage men. I'm returning your ring to you, but I'll keep your collection of butterflies as a memory. You should also know that I always have felt dirty before Oprah Winfrey imitations.

Your everlasting enemy,

Sandra

( See what on Earth I meant by this... )

Well, it's been a while since I made one of these, but the idea had been in my head for quite a long time now and I thought the best thing to do was to give in and create it before our exam period starts! :)

This is a video about King Henry VIII and his (to be) second wife Anne Boleyn, as they are portreyed in the series "The Tudors". I watched the first season on DVD and, despite the historical inacuracies and the liberties concerning timelines, I think it's a wonderful depiction of the period.

Hope you like my video! :) Enjoy!

... or, as we say it in Romanian, Hristos a înviat! :)

I'm at my parents', celebrating Easter (Christian Orthodox style) with my family. 

And remembering the times I used to go to "Olympiads" around this time... :( I really miss the Latin contest, the expectation, the places we used to visit, the nervousness before the exam, the challanging questions, the fun we used to have, the excitement of the awarding ceremony... 

For sure, all these contests were the best thing that happened to me during my high school years... And so far there was nothing quite like it... :)

Oh well, this is not the time to feel sorry for myself, so for the moment I'm going to enjoy my holiday...

.... I was in Italy, taking part in the Latin contest dedicated to Ovid! And right now I can only stay here, keep my fingers crossed for Romania's representatives and check the website for updates! The Certamen Ovidianum Sulmonense was the first time I went abroad and I'll never forget how excited I was... I really miss the times I used to go to all those school competitions!

Not that university life didn't have enough wonderful things to study and see and do and create memories of! Last Saturday, for example, I presented a paper in our Faculty's annual Student Conference, it was an interesting and useful experience! Then I wanted to take part in a Student's Shakespeare Symposium organized by a university in another city. Unfortunately, by the time we decided to go, it was too late. Better luck next year.

Oh, well... Besides this, there's the Ovid festivity we're preparing... This year we celebrate the 2000th anniversary of his coming to the Black Sea (well, poor Ovid was actually exiled to Tomis and hated the land and its barbaric people, but this doesn't mean we can't be proud that a Roman poet lived, wrote, suffered and died here!) The first year students of Classics (includind me and another colleague who only take Latin as a minor) are going to recite poems dedicated to him by others and translations of his poetry in Romanian, but also... the original Latin versions! Hope we'll manage!

So that's my life lately... Needless to say, I also have mid-term tests, essays to write, books to read and review and lots of translations to do! :) Thankfully Easter (Orthodox style) is coming and we'll have a small unofficial holiday which I plan to thoroughly enjoy! :)

 

Oh, yeah! I like Lothlorien! Too bad the quizz didn't offer Minas Tirith as one of the results, now THAT would have been a city to live in.... (especially with Aragorn and Faramir around...) *giggles*

Passing on to more serious stuff, my life is awefully busy, university's going very well, I study exactly what I like and absolutely like what I study! :D 

But besides mere studying, I'm involved in other interesting but time-consuming activities... For example, I'm a volonteer in the Faculty's student organization. Lots of things to do there. And I'm taking part in a commemoration event for Ovid (2000 years since he was exiled and came to Tomis) which will happen in May but we start rehersals this Monday... I'll also be writing a paper to present it at the annual Student Conference of our university. So I'm making the best of my time as a student.... :)

Oh, and today was the local stage of the Latin contest.... Of course I can't participate, but I thought about it all day and I was sooo happy to find out that my highschool will have at least a representative at the national level... :) Of course the subjects were extremely interesting and inteligently composed... :) Almost makes me want to be in highschool again.

But no. University life has its own interesting things to do..... I'm really grateful for my time in Latin contest, but also for what I live now... :)

If you're on my friends list, I want to know 36 things about you. I don't care if we never talk, or if we already know everything about each other. Short and sweet is fine...You're on my list, so I want to know you better! PEOPLE NOT ON LIVEJOURNAL WHO HAPPEN TO BE READING THIS ARE MORE THAN WELCOME TO REPLY AS WELL!!!! 

EDIT: luthien23 noticed there are two missing numbers in this, so I'm adding question 26 and 34 myself... :)

BE HONEST! COPY FROM HERE, THEN SEND DIRECTLY TO ME IN A COMMENT, THEN REPOST THE EMPTY QUESTIONS


1) Are you currently in a serious relationship?

2) What was your dream growing up?

3) What talent do you wish you had?

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?

5) Favorite vegetable?

6) What was the last book you read?

7) What zodiac sign are you?

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.

9) Worst Habit?

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?

11) What is your favorite sport?

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?

14) Worst thing to ever happen to you?

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.

16) Do you have any pets?

17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?

18) What was your first impression of me?

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

22) What color eyes do you have?

23) Ever been arrested?

24) Bottle or can soda?

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it? 

26) What was the most character-building experience you've ever had?

27) What's your favorite place to hang at?

28) Do you believe in ghosts?

29) Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

30) Do you swear a lot?

31) Biggest pet peeve?

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance? 

34) If you could go back in time, what period of your life would you choose to live again?

35) Do you believe in God?

36) Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same for you?

 

Loong time no post, I know, but I happened to find this on YouTube and I couldn't help posting it. It mentions important contributions of some great Romanian personalities. I don't know who made it, but the narrator's pronounciation of Romanian names it awful! Anyway, enjoy!