Monthly Archives: May 2011

The Real Story of Dracula

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Afraid of Vampires? In love with Vampires? Don’t care about Vampires? A little general knowledge will not kill anyone, so let me tell you the true story of Dracula, the most famous vampire of all times.

Same people know that the first Vampire was Dracula, some people know that Dracula was in fact Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia), a cruel Romanian Ruler, most people don’t have a clue about the real story.

In the XV century, the territory that now forms Romania, was invaded by the Ottoman Empire. Over and over again. For centuries, the Ottoman Empire tried to conquer Western Europe and Romania was on its way because they had to conquer all the countries that lead in the end to the big price: Western Europe.

Over these years we have different rules that remained in the Romanian history as very brave strategic worries. Vlad Țepeș (Vlad III the Impaler) was one of them. However, his name is also connected to cruelty, violence and brutality. Legend says that at every fountain you there was a golden cup from which one can drink. The cups were not stolen because the punishments were very hard. For stealing, ones hand will be cut off and that was a price that nobody wanted to pay.

Actually, his last name “ Țepeș” comes from “Teapa” which represent the action of impalement. His real last name was Drăculea or Dracul , which in nowdays in Romanian means ”the Devil”. However during the time he lived it showed that he is a descent of selected nobility with a Latin name “Societas Draconistrarum” meaning the Order of the Dragon. A member of this order would be referred to as Draconist or Dracul, a noun of the Latin word Draco, meaning “dragon. A son of Dracul would then be called Dracula. The emblem of the order was a dragon incurved into the form of a circle. The similarity of the words, sometimes leads to mistranslation of Dracula’s name. Continue reading →

Searching for cows

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I do not want to drink milk that has the expiration date set in 6 months from now.
Like vegetables or fruits that resist more than one month in my fridge, the milk that has its expiration date in six months does not seems that … healthy, fresh and natural.
I am afraid to drink it. If I want food that its unhealthy, I can go to McDonald’s, we all have seen the French fries story (and I am still loving it).
Where can I buy fresh, real, unprocessed until its embarrassing milk  - in Bonn or Cologne?

Boston Rob – winner of Survivor 22 and best player ever

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Never been a Backstreet Boys fan, or Brad Pitt or whatever other well known star. So, never before did I experience the feeling of admiration for a person that I see on tv.

I do love Boston Rob (Mariano) and I was sad every time when he left Survivor too fast.

He came back and become the winner of season 22 and in my mind the best player ever. This time he did not only win 1 million dollars because he was voted by his fellow tribe mates, but also 100.000 dollars as being voted by the American public as most loved player of the season.

He was reintroduced in the game for the forth time after being eliminated very fast because other players were afraid of his people skills. He is amazingly fast with puzzles and puts a lot of energy in physical challenges.

Unlike most Survivor players that were leading the Survivor tribes, Rob rarely said anything bad about the other people in the game in the private interviews that are seen by the players only after Survivor end and they have casted their votes.

Boston Rob married Amber, another Survivor winner. Together they also participated in The Amazing Race, however Rob is way more “Survivor” material.

International Cuisine Day in Bonn

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This week I was involved in a CSR event. My team organized an International Cuisine Day in Bonn with the purpose of raising money to support an unaccompanied minor refugee camp.

Taste the world on one plate was the message that we used to communicate to gather the customers. More than 20 dishes from about 15 countries have been served in less than two hours.

The event was a success and the money raised will go to Malmö, Sweden to an unaccompanied children refugee camp. The children, aged 12-18, mainly from Afghanistan, Iran, Serbia, etc, staying in the camp until a home is found for them.

I work together with a very small team and the nice thing is that we come from different countries: China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Poland, Belgium, Sweden, UK.

Even more, people from other teams found out about the event and wanted to contribute with food. So in the end we also had Korean food, American, Dutch and many others.

To impress the guests with Romanian food I and other lovely people (Alina, Andreea, Mihai, Michal and Ozge) prepared stuffed peppers, polenta and chicken with tomato sauce, boeuf salad and some aperitifs (yup, I used Romanian chicken pate). Andreea showed her great skills by cooking an apple cake.

My only regret… I did not taste any type of food. I the begging I was not hungry, and at the end there was no food left.

Below, we took some pictures so that everything is documented :)

Varga Girls Coca Cola (125th Anniversary Can Collection)

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I am sure you have  seen them in the shops. I have already tasted them :)

You may also know the Varga Girls under the name of Pin Up Girls.

If anyone has the same question as I did: What is the difference between the Varga Girls and the Pin Up Girls?
Find out that there is no difference. Alberto Vargas was a famous painter of pin-up girls, so famous that even though he was not the “father of the concept”, the Pin Up girls paintings took his name.

What I still do not know is why were they chosen for Coca-Cola’s 125th anniversary?

 

thanks wikipedia

1st of May Love Tradition in Germany

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Walking on the streets this Sunday, I had the surprise to see many trees that were decorated with colored paper and had a heart with a girl’s name on it. It turns out that in Germany, on May 1 secret admirers deliver a tree covered in streamers to the house of a girls that they like. It is common to stick the heart to a window or place it in front of the doormat. My neighborhood is full of this kind of huge love tokens.

The tree is typically from a love interest, though a tree wrapped only in white streamers is a sign of dislike.

Girls usually place roses or rice in form of a heart at the house of their beloved one….I have seen none. Probably the men have already eaten the rice.

On leap years, it is the responsibility of the girls to place the maypole/MayTree, though the men are still allowed and encouraged to do so. All the action is usually done secretly and it is in everyone’s choice to give a hint on their identity or stay anonymous.

thanks Wikipedia

Budapest – way different than expected

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When I touched ground in Budapest it felt like home. When my sister picked me up by car, she felt like being in a foreign country. For all the Japanese people (I was in Budapest before the earthquake) who were visiting the city center… probably it was Europe.