Wednesday, June 16, 2004

100 things

I jumped on Peter's bandwagon and did my own "100 things" list. I did this in January 2005 but for obvious reasons I'll post it much earlier.

1 I’m named after my great-uncle Karl
2 My middle name is my grandmother’s name
3 I always anglicize it
4 I grew up in a single parent household
5 I have a stepfather and three stepbrothers
6 I’m cooking lunch as I write this
7 It’s chicken with tomatoes and some Romanian cheese that I bought at the corner store
8 I’m a good cook
9 I always use too much garlic and not enough salt
10 I’m fanatical about cooking chicken properly
11 Europeans leave meat out overnight. This scares me
12 Europe is my favourite place in the world
13 I’ve visited 20 countries in Europe
14 The only country capitals I haven’t visited are Berlin, Ljubljana and Zagreb
15 It bothers me off that the spell check suggests “Juliana” for Ljubljana
16 I’m of Moldovan/Polish/English/French heritage
17 My favourite countries are Portugal and Croatia
18 And Turkey
19 My favourite cities are Prague for beauty, Avignon and Assisi for history, Oeiras for the people, Brussels for the food and Gothenburg for the memories
20 I’m listening to bad Eurodance music
21 There is no such thing as bad Eurodance music
22 I also like bad teen dance songs
23 I take pleasure in popstars' tabloid dramas
24 I sing out loud to 80s power ballads
25 I firmly believe that some songs should not have dance remixes made of them. Most notably Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” and Supertramp's “The Logical Song”
26 I would be dancing to the Logical Song right now if it weren’t for the fact that my neighbours can see directly into my kitchen
27 I like to put favourite songs on repeat for days
28 My neighbours must hate me for playing O-Zone’s “Despre Tine” non-stop
29 I can get addicted to certain songs
30 I’ve even contemplated skipping class so I can listen to music
31 I have naturally curly hair that looks like DNA spirals
32 Needless to say, I straighten it every day
33 Nobody recognizes me with curly hair
34 My eyes are green
35 Everyone in my family has dark hair and green eyes
36 We’re not inbred
37 My skin is so pale my own mother tells me to wear makeup
38 I love to play with makeup but I rarely wear it (mainly due to laziness and not wanting to waste expensive cosmetics)
39 I wish I were thinner but I'm not fat
40 All my lingerie is black and I have never worn a thong
41 I like strange postcards
42 And black and white scenery postcards
43 I buy a postcard from every city that I visit
44 I carry pictures with me when I travel
45 I speak more or less six languages
46 I speak fluent English and French, conversational Swedish and basic Spanish, Italian and Romanian
47 I want to study Portuguese so I can say I can speak every Romance language
48 I also want to learn a Slavic language like Serbo-Croatian or Czech
49 My favourite cuisine is Mediterranean
50 My favourite foods are paella, this weird octopus dish that I got in Bilbao, smoked salmon, hummus, burec and crème brulee
51 After an argument with a Greek classmate, I comforted myself by making Turkish food
52 I miss university
53 I unofficially ran the IR department's technology infrastructure
54 My three best friends from first year are still my best friends
55 I can make friends with anyone
56 I can also wiggle my nose and my bottom eyelids (needs to be seen to be believed)
57 I love trivia
58 I usually win when playing Trivial Pursuit
59 I can’t do math to save my life
60 I still count on my fingers
61 I’m fascinated by numbers and statistics
62 I wanted to be an artist, meteorologist, music producer and architect growing up
63 Then I discovered chemistry
64 When I realized that chemistry isn’t just blowing things up, I decided science wasn’t for me
65 I love anything from the Middle Ages
66 I fell in love with a medieval man I saw in a portrait at the National Gallery
67 Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era
68 I hope someone invents a time machine in my lifetime
69 I can get horribly attached to people
70 People who are horribly attached to me piss me off
71 I don’t want to get married
72 Or have children
73 I can’t figure out if this is a form of rebellion or if it’s what I really want
74 I got my palm read and the fortune-teller said I was supposed to have twin boys and a girl
75 I’m afraid of being bored
76 I’ve been in love twice
77 I’ve always traveled alone
78 It was only recently that I realized that I get lonely when I travel alone
79 I can handle loneliness
80 If I’m passionate about something, I am a workaholic
81 If I get bored, I have to force myself to complete a project
82 I’m a procrastinator
83 Being forced to do something is one of the worst feelings
84 I am not a jealous person by nature but I get furious with myself when it happens
85 If I don’t exercise or eat vegetables every day, I get sick
86 I’m never sick (*knock on wood*)
87 I’ve had extensive dental work done, including the removal of eight teeth, braces, headgear, a positioner and retainers
88 I’m blind as a bat and have worn contacts since I was 14
89 I was a regular blood donor until I moved to Europe and became ineligible
90 I’m still on the bone marrow donor list
91 I rarely drink hard liquor
92 I abhor smoking
93 I lose respect for someone when I find out they smoke
94 I am a nurturer and protector
95 I believe in free speech as long as it does not involve hate propaganda
96 I don’t have rock star or movie star crushes
97 I still think Billy Corgan with hair is one of the sexiest men alive
98 Friends, Seinfeld, Fraser, Survivor and any other “reality show” are overrated
99 I want to kiss someone from every country in Europe. So far, I’ve got: Sweden, Denmark, France, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Macedonia, Romania and Spain off the list
100 I enjoy doing these surveys too much

Monday, June 14, 2004

Ro-Mania!

Today I got official confirmation: I am heading to Timisoara in Romania. I received an email from the coordinator saying that everything was put in place. Now there's no looking back. I doubt this will be updated much until I go for my training conference, but at least something is started.

La revedere!