Life in Timisoara

Timisoara, the third largest city in Romania, and one of the wealthiest city. I guess that's the reason why I choose Timisoara. We all know that Romania is dangerous with gypsies and pickpockets, well, I would like to avoid all that!

let's begin with the routine life here. well, all of us have been assigned to work in an institution, but unfortunately not all the institution are functioning! I have friends who sleep til 2pm in the afternoon and have lunch after 3pm, sleeps around 4am after clubbing. that's their summer.

I've tried to construct my summer holiday to be better than that by waking before 12 pm,  have my lunch between 12 to 1pm, work and finally sleep around 12 am.

nothing much in this city because most of the attractions are under construction! that's a really sad thing as we couldn't see the best of Timisoara within our stay, hence,  Iulius mall became our first choice place to visit! 

                I introduce you, Iulius mall!

A mall with the biggest hypermarket in town, Auchan, with big brands like H&M and Zara, a big food court and a big cinema!

it has become the EPs first choice of visit as we all have to do our grocery, buy ingredients for dinner, entertained, and hide from the sun and rain.

well, some little thing that I've noticed during my stay in Romanian. They love coffee! There are coffee machines almost everywhere serving all kind of instant coffee with only one lei per cup! The Romanian simply love it. They have to take a cup of coffee from the machine whenever it's possible. besides that, most of the driver in Romania are gentle. They will stop for pedestrian to cross the road even there's no traffic light. its a good habit that they have. speaking of good habit, well, one of the habit that the Romanian have that I hate the most is, they love smoking! they smoke everywhere, even indoors and public area, they couldn't stop smoking, and smoking seems to be the national habit of Romania! I wonder have they ever learn about the harm of smoking.

With that, it basically sums up my life in Timisoara.

My dorm in Timisoara

I'm going to talk about the life here.

so i'm staying with another 4 people in my room and I'm sleeping on the upper bed of the double-decker. its a multiracial room as I have an Italian,  an Indian,  a Ukrainian, and a Turkish in my room. here are some photos of my room

well, it's not tidy and clean. I have been sleeping with cockroaches for weeks and as you can see, the room is messy, nothing of it belongs to me!

The worse part is the toilet! I'm going to talk about the bathroom  first. although guys and girl's bathroom are seperated,  but there's no doors to seperate every shower room! there are five shower rooms in the boys bathroom, and if you are using the first one, four of the other will walk by your shower room, and because there's no door, your naked body is exposed to them! god! I have been struggling for almost 3 minutes before I decided to use the bathroom for the first time. but we'll,  it all goes well, as most of the guys doesn't really bath! haha

 

and as for the toilet, well, guys and girls are sharing the same toilet. I've once seen a sanitary pad unwrapped in the rubbish bin with blood on it. OMG, and also, cockroaches! I couldn't believe I've made it for 6 freaking weeks!

The kitchen is nothing better either! those EPs never wash their dish and clean up the kitchen after using, and it's always dirty. because of the budget problem, the Asians decided to cook for dinner every weekdays, well, we became the main people responsible to clean up the kitchen.

well, I have so much to blame, but still, overall it's a different experience staying in such a dirty dorm. anyway, it's free of charge, I've seen worse accommodation that Aiesecers provided for EPs!

ReBranders

So let's put my travel stories aside, first, let me blog about my exchange experience.

I've signed up for exchange through AIESEC last year, and have already decided to go Europe. Found a good project to attend in April and Here I am, Timisoara, Romania.

ReBranders, the name of my project, and the name speaks itself. It is a career development internship, whereby we (exchange participant) have to help our assigned institution on re-branding and establishing new marketing strategic.

I was assigned to work with Muzeul Consumatorului Comunist, a start up museum of consumer item in the communist ere. The owner owns a pub in the same time, so we are allowed to work in his pub, with a flexible working time. I love the pub, it's decorated in an artistic way, but the down side is that there is no non-smoking area. The highlight of the pub is, it's decorated with things that can be found in the 70s, those are all antiques now!

There's also a theater in the pub, a black box theater, which is really small, but somehow it adds on the sense or feel of art in this pub! before i met the owner, i thought that I'm going to work for the theater, which I'll be more than happy to do so! Well, I'm working for the museum now, which is challenging for me, because it's a start up, what he need is all about designs and stuff.

That's all for now. Will be blogging about the lifestyle in Europe!