2010 in review January 2, 2011

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2010. That’s about 4 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 6 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 159 posts.

The busiest day of the year was January 5th with 93 views. The most popular post that day was Who Am I?.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were darmievenimente.ro, musat.com.ro, linkedin.com, ro.linkedin.com, and marius.sigheti.eu.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for i used to rule the world meaning, difference between a bitch and a woman, the difference between a woman and a bitch, difference between a woman and a bitch, and whatever helps you sleep at night.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Who Am I? June 2009
2 comments

The difference between a bitch and a “woman entrepreneur” April 2009

About September 2007
2 comments

What’s a dareberry August 2008

I used to rule the world November 2008
1 comment

Christmas gift concept December 1, 2010

This December, at Rent eBrains we donate time.

We offer 100 hours as a Christmas gift for NGOs and returning customers – check our website to see what we could do for you: http://www.rentebrains.com

What happened since forever… October 10, 2010

I decided I could spare some time to write a bit about what I am doing and have done to update everyone.

Well this year has been pretty hectic.In a bulleted way:

• I finally finished my masters in February – it was never a priority but is cool to look back and realize you have studied and finalized a form of education even if it was not a priority. I also got a hilarious feedback that I am not prepared to be a trainer though I have been doing this since 2003. The teacher who gave this verdict is a trainer, too but they never saw me preparing or delivering a training and most importantly in the NGO/youth environment because I am not a corporate trainer – and these 2 are very different. Or maybe they didn’t like the topic of my thesis so much – i tried and almost managed to prove that a test group people enjoyed the online version of a training more than the class-based version. The training was about innovative thinking and I guess for many young people this means “usage of technology as much as possible, if 2.0 even better”.
• In spring, Rent eBrains got to a point where me and Dani were happy with – a comfortable income zone. I thought this can’t be it and let’s try to reach an outrageous objective, like double than usual, and surprise, we did it. So this proved there is no limit to this business and also (once again) that there is nothing I love more and very few things that could convince me to go back in the corporate rat race.
• Also in spring, I had the nice occasion of facilitating a corporate team building where I met an old friend from AIESEC and joined his NGO, The School of Values (www.scoaladevalori.ro) – in one word, through non-formal education we aim to re-establish a value system among the Romanian teenagers. The program goes very well and I love doing this. The amazing thing is that in the last 2 years I have sent many CVs to Romanian NGOs to give me a volunteer job. Basically I wanted to donate 10 hours per week to a good cause, and I have never got an answer. The fact that I wanted to donate these hours from the distance (online work) was seen as “weird”. Well, surprise surprise, my volunteering goes very well from the distance (not all of use have to move to Bucharest to do a good job for the people of this country…some of us can do this from the province as well). Yes, I love it a lot and I ended up donating more hours and also “on location” support but they convinced me. I guess I consider that I have come to a point in my life, though I am not so old, when I don’t have so sell myself anymore – you have to sell what you do to get me in your team. And they did it!
• Sometime in the summer I took driving lessons. I have never been fascinated about driving, maybe because I love being a co-pilot (though the GPS took my place of searching streets on the printed map :P) and because I love trains so much, especially fast trains (it seems to me the most calming place ever – I will tell you why another time). I think that having a good driving instructor is very important. I have taken classes from an old instructor, the kind of guy who is dedicate to his job and likes teaching and talking you into something. He never screamed at me, he always made fun of my mistakes and said that is ok, I am better than many women he taught how to drive. Great teacher! Still haven’t went to take the exam because of some other events that were more pressing, and also because I want to pass from the first time, which means I want to know “everything” before entering the test room.
• During summer we had our wedding – very un-traditional and a total success. We had only ~70 guests and very few that felt obliged to come, so basically only the ones who really wanted to be there were there.  We had a Swedish buffet and had a DJ, playing lots of “good to dance on” songs, and only one folk Romanian dance (all this is very unusual for a Romanian wedding). We served cocktails with carbonic ice and good bottled wine, together with home-made whisky (if “home-made whisky” sounds like a surprise you can read more about it in my father’s book: Almost Everything About Whisky). And because a picture is like a thousand words, you can checkout our wedding photos on our “family events” website: http://www.darmievenimente.ro
• Autumn came quickly and we went for holidays (an unusual time for a holiday since our clients are usually away in June-July, so it was a real hassle to stop the projects or to put them on slow-motion so our team could handle everything on their own). We chose to go with our friends by car to Greece. We were about 14 people going to a small village in Greece, out-of-season – very beautiful! So quiet, almost deserted, so friendly people, and still hot enough to try the blue-flag beaches. We stayed in a villa and the hosts were so nice, took us for a bonfire on the beach, showed us a nice island, nearby, the fauna-reach places where to snorkel. Great holiday! In the last day we wished it was longer…we even calculated how much it would cost to move there 🙂
• Now winter is here (yes, unfortunately even though it’s just October, this winter is supposed to be the coldest in the last 150 years and yes, the temperatures are between 5-10 degrees, when usually was 15-17). I decided I will take the driving test next week no matter what and then I will design and deliver some of the GROW 1.2 sessions – a total delight 🙂
• Plans for next year: we are thinking of buying our own place to live and no, we will not have kids just yet, though everybody is thinking like we will. What’s the hurry? I am also planning to finish the books I started reading this year…about 4 and all unfinished…I don’t know why because they were good…

hugs to all!

A.

Packing August 4, 2009

Genoa was great this year.

I have been seeing it each summer since 2006: as a student in a holiday, as a job searcher, as a “house wife”, as a freelancer and this year…as a tourist. It was amazing. Of course, if the previous years wouldn’t have existed, this couldn’t have been so amazing.

Since I wrote last time, we moved. We were staying at a friend’s place on Via Balbi (Unesco heritage street) 2 minutes from the train station and 10 from the harbor. The street was very noise and lively: full of people of all colors and nationalities, some of them sipping their coffees on a terasse placed on the sidewalk, in front of the doorstep of the coffee shop. In one word, the touristic area, full of life, charm, young people, hot weather, dust, sleeping with open windows, hearing the bus every hour until 2 in the night and then starting again at 5 in the morning. Hearing the same song over and over again from the dancing school across the street. Seeing blond backpackers – so obviously not Italians since the Italians turned their heads and said “ciao bella” to the Scandinavian blonds. I missed the noise of this street and I took it in completely.

Then last Wednesday we moved to another friend’s place up on the hills, away from the tourist area. This neighbourhood is so amazing. I have been to Monica’s place before but never stayed here. I always smile when I remember how we got to know her. She is a Romanian who had a tough life and who’s been living in Genoa for almost 8 years now. The neighbourhood is one of the cheapest in Genoa, the kind of place where most of the Latin people live, together with some young Italian families with low budgets and old Italians who just stayed at “home”. And when I say old I mean from 90 years on. The blocks are build on every piece of land possible, they have terrasses one on top of the other, you need to climb hundreads of stairs to get to the highest block. In the same time, we are less than 2 km from the harbour, so in the night we can see the light of the laterna caressing the blocks. The wind is so enjoyable and seeing grass and trees is wonderful. People cherrish their small gardens and once in a while you can hear a granny calling her husband for lunch, asking him to leave the darn garden. Everybody says hello if they happen to go on the balconies and meet eachother’s eyes. You can actually hear birds and the air is clean and has an adurable temperature. Compared to Via Balbi where the heat was sometimes unbearable and because of the air humidity I felt like taking a shower every half an hour, this is heaven countryside. On Sunday you hear the church bells, and every morning some old people play some forgotten songs like our “romantze”…melancholic…

Of course, most of the women are housewives and at lunch time you can guess what type of food the nieghbour cooked by the smell. In Zurich that never happened to me…and the kitchens were so small…you could have definitely guessed that is not an enjoyable area. Here, kitchens are bigger. The kitchen is the room where family gatherings happen. With a 2-3 hours lunch break of course you can jump on your scooter and run home for lunch and then go back to work for a few more hours.

Well…that’s Genoa through my eyes as a tourist…of course if you search the archives of my blog from 2006 you will see my stories were different…

And like any other tourist, I am leaving. Me, my fiance Dani and my brother Luxi are flying to Brussels tomorrow. We just finished packing. Me and Dani have seen Brussels before and I it’s in the top of the “favourite cities to live in” list. For example I love Genoa but just to come here for a break, I couldn’t live here for the rest of my life. Things happen to slow, people are either tourists or old people…Last year I thought I could live in Brussels forever – it seems the perfect mix for me…let’s see how I feel this year…

And even though we are in a holiday, business has never been better…