ROMANIA

Aerial View Intercontinental hotel

Carol Parc

Aerial View

Subway

People's Palace

People's Palace ( or Palace of the Parliament)

Romania's Flag

Painted eggs

Sarmale

Murfatlar Wine

ROMANIA


GEOGRAPHY
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION and BOUNDARIES: 3,149.9 km.
AREA: 238,391 sq km (91,843 sq miles).

CLIMATE: Temperate-continental

POPULATION: 22,526,096 thounsand inhabitants in 1998
CAPITAL: Bucharest municipality (divided into 6 administrative districts) with a population of 2,400,000 (2--2). Situated in the south of the country, in the Romanian Plain (alt 85 m), the city dates from the 14th century and is recorded in writing for the first time in 1459 as residence of Prince Vlad Tepes. Capital of Wallachia in the 17th-19th centuries, then of Romania since 1862.
Food and Wines
Food & Wine
The main ingredients used by Romanian chefs are meats such as pork, beef and lamb, fish, vegetables, dairy products and fruit. A traditional Romanian meal may include:

The Romanian Flag

The three colours of the Romanian flag stand for the three historical provinces of Romania:
blue for Transylvania, yellow for Ţara Românească, and red for Moldova.

The principality of Moldova used a red flag since the 14th century,
Ţara Românească used a yellow flag since the 16th century,
and the Romanian noble families in Transylvania used blue as the shield colour for their coats of arms.

Appetizer:

All kinds of cheeses, cold cuts and vegetable spreads.Soup"Ciorba de perisoare" (meatball soup), "ciorba taraneasca" (vegetable soup, with or without meat), "ciorba de burta" (tripe soup).Fish"Saramura" (grilled carp in brine), "nisetru la gratar" (grilled Black Sea sturgeon) or "scrumbie la gratar" (grilled herring)

Entree:

"Tocanita" or "tochitura" (meat stew seasoned with onions and/ or spices), "ghiveci" (over 20 vegetables cooked in oil), "sarmale" (pickled cabbage leaves stuffed with a mix of minced meats, rice and spices) and "mititei" (The "Wee Ones" - small skinless grilled sausages) are among the favorites.

Dessert"Papanasi" (cottage cheese donuts, topped with sour cream and fruit preserve), "clatite cu branza" (crepes filled with cottage cheese, raisins and spices) and "cozonac" (traditional holiday sweet bread filled with walnuts, poppy seeds or cream cheese).

WINES
Zarea : variety of champagnes.
Cotnari : world renowned wines of Moldavian origin.
Murfatlar : very good wine, oily and sweet of Dobrogean origin.
Tirnave Reisling : a dry wine from the Tirnave vineyards.
Tirnave Perla : a fine, light, fragrant wine, medium sweet.
Muscat Ottonel: a muscatel, rich in strength and savor.
Feteasca: dry wine.

People's Palace (Palace of the Parliament)

It measures 270 m by 240 m, 86 m high, and 92 m under ground. It has 1,100 rooms and is 12 stories tall, with four additional underground levels currently available and in use, with another four in different stages of completion.

It is the second largest administrative building in the world by surface area of its floors, just behind the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. It is 10% larger by volume than the Great Pyramid of Giza.

What "intelligence" means to you...

What does intelligence mean to you? Why and how are William Shakespeare, Oprah Winfrey, Louis Amstrong, Mahatma Gandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Pablo Picasso are considered intelligent? Can different cultures value different kinds of intelligence? Do you think intelligence as a nature or is it nurtured? Please share your thoughts and ideas. Thank you.

My country, my family and myself

I think it's a good idea if we can use this blog to share a little bit about ourselves.

Let me start. Well, I come from Indonesia. I was born in a big island called 'Sumatra'. And after high school I moved into another island called 'Java'.
Indonesia is a very unique country. It is a tropical and exotic country. It is a very popular tourist destination. (You must know Bali, right?) Indonesia has 17,508 islands, more than 700 languags and dialects and more than 300 ethnic groups. It is a very diverse country, so many different cultures. We have 247 million people there, which makes us the 4th biggest country in the world in terms of population (after China, India, and the US).

There are many kinds of food in Indonesia. Most of the food is spicy. We produce spices. This region of the world used to be called 'The Spices Islands', or "the Dutch East Indies". Right now Indonesia is on the spot of the world news for a number of reasons. For instance, we are the country with the biggest Muslim population (85% of the total population), although Indonesia is a secular state since its independance. The other religions are Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhism, Confusiusm and other belief systems. The other reason is because there have been many disasters in Indonesia. Everybody must remember the tragic Tsunami at the end of 2004, right? More than 150,000 Indonesian people were killed. Others incidents are earthquakes, volcano eruption, flood, landslide, and also transportation accidents (planes, ferries, etc). It is sad for us, but we know we will rise again as a nation. These events will make us stronger and hopefully we will be able to transform many areas in our country so we can be more prosperous like other modern countries.

Back to myself,
I spent my undergraduate, graduate and work life in a city called 'Bandung'. I took International Relations as my major I undergraduate, but later I found teaching and education are my strongest passion. So, since I finished my undergraduate study I have been working as a teacher (mainly EFL), education consultant and teacher trainer.

I am married to a lovely woman named Xanty. She is my high school sweetheart. We have been together for 14 years now. =) We have a cute little angel. Her name is Sasha. She is going to be 5 years old next month. She likes reading, running, soccer and watching movies.

Now I am studying at Teachers College, pursuing Master's degree in Education. My major is in curriculum and teaching, but my passion is more onto education policy and teacher education.

Enough about me, how about you guys? Please share with all of us.

PS. I took all of the pictures posted here. You can ask me about any of them. There are interesting stories about them. ;-)

I left my heart in San Francisco...

Hi ladies,

I am back!!! =)

Heuikyoung is right. The break was really good for us to 'catch out breath' and recapture our energy and spirit for the second half of the semester.

I had so much fun in San Francisco. The conference was great. The people I met were very interesting. We had a great fun! It was hard to leave San Francisco. I guess the saying is true..."I left my heart in San Francisco." Oh well, I am definitely going to go back there again. My plan is this winter break.

So, how was the test? Hope it didn't give you hard time. I haven't seen your test yet, because it was left at CEP office and it has been locked during the spring break. So I can't see your results until after our class tomorrow. I am sure you all are just fine.

So, please enjoy my pictures in San Francisco. I will share the stories in our class tomorrow.

And you can also share your spring break stories... =)

Look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

Iwan

Hi, everyone!

Hi, how are you doing everyone?
Spring break made me so happy.
As you know, I was very sick, so I couldn't take the midterm exam.
I was suffering from terrible stomachache caused by bacteria. So I couldn't eat any food for 6 days and sleep at all.
After having taken medicine, I feel much better.
Now I'm taking rest and eating soft food.
I want to see you all this monday.
Have a nice weekends!

Thank You

Good luck to you too, and I hope you will take many pictures and share it with us.
I love pictures.

And when we will find out our test score?:)

Good luck

hi,
Good luck to all on Wednesday and Thursday!!