Category: Shaina Humphries
Don’t Touch the Artwork
Posted Tuesday, June 02, 2009 by Shaina Humphries
In America, you often see colorful graffiti in big cities on the sides of buildings, in subways, under bridges, maybe even on billboards. When you see it, you may think it’s gang-related, and even if it’s not, it’s usually washed off and removed before too long. Right?
It’s not exactly the same story in Europe.
In Romania, the graffiti is EVERYWHERE. It’s similar to tagging in the United States. Tagging is one of the four “elements” of Hip Hop that is usually a creative form of self-expression, and NOT something that is necessarily gang-related or threatening in any way.
Gabriel Galgoczy, a student at Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj, Romania said, “Yeah a lot of people do that just to express themselves. It’s everywhere. I have a bunch of friends who do it.”
The situation is similar in Rome.
The most striking part of this graffiti is the fact that it’s still there. The authorities in Romania and Italy must believe in the self-expression theory, because the tagged-up cities of Bucharest, Cluj and Rome show no signs of wanting to “clean up.”
I rode a subway in Bucharest that was COMPLETELY covered in color. I was told that the train was an old one from Ceausescu’s time. After the revolution in 1989, the underground tunnels were brought to life with bright, vivid colors and whole lot of writing.
The artwork was, and still remains, untouched.
Mihaela. . . Romania’s “Girl Next Door”?
Posted Friday, May 29, 2009 by Shaina Humphries
Meet Mihaela.
But don’t call her that. Everyone calls her Michou. (Mee-Shoe).
She’s 20 years old, lives on her own in a big city, and she’s very close to her mother (who lives in another country). She’s a college student, a working journalist, and the nighttime caretaker for seven orphans.
She’s your average girl-next-door, right?
Okay. . . Maybe not the girl next door in our hometowns, but in Romania, this is a normal girl.
Click below to learn more about her.
Michou was an extremely big help to me during my time in Bucharest. As we worked together, I learned more about her, and decided that she was just too interesting a person NOT to write about.
She was born and raised in the district of Piatra Neamt, in Moldova, Romania. Like so many 21st century teenagers, her parents had split up. But unlike most, Michou did not live with ether of her parents. For some of her childhood, she was living with her grandparents on her mother’s side. Her mother actually lives in Italy, where she works taking care of an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s disease. She does this so she can make money (more than she would in Romania), and then send it back to Michou. She has one older brother but they’re not as close as she would like them to be, as he was raised by their grandparents on their father’s side.
A year ago, at age 19, Michou went to the big city of Bucharest, in order to attend the University of Bucharest’s College of Journalism and Public Relations.
Back in her hometown, she had spent some time working with children in orphanages. She had a friend that she knew through her work, and that friend set Michou up with a place to stay in Bucharest. She stayed in a church for a short time while she took exams to be admitted to the University.
Unfortunately, Michou felt unprepared for the University, and she didn’t get in.
That is definitely not the end of her story.
She was going to go back to her hometown, where her father and brother still live, but she decided to take a chance and stay in Bucharest. She began attending the University of Spiru Haret, a private university that she thought was a good school, and affordable for her.
The church where she lived was no longer able to host her anymore, so she ended up having no place to stay.
She found one opportunity, where she lived with an older woman for about a week, but that proved to not be a good fit for her.
Luckily, a friend gave her the contact information of an orphanage in Bucharest that was looking to hire. They needed someone who was
1.) Eager to work with children
and
2.) Would be able to live there with them.
Check. And. . . Check.
She interviewed for the position and was hired.
At the Centre Stantul Marcelin Champagnat, Michou works nights, and is responsible for the care of six children. So, she stays with them, monitors them while playing, keeps up with their school work, makes sure that they are bathed, mediates any conflicts, disciplines them, cares for them when they’re sick, and puts them to bed.
THEN, she wakes the older kids up at 6:30 a.m., makes them breakfast, gets them ready for school, and sends them off. Then she does the same for the younger children, but actually takes them to school everyday to ensure they arrive safely.
Spending so much time with these children, Michou has built a deep relationship with “her” kids. These children have been through some very tough times, so she tries to compensate for the relationships most have them have never experienced.
“You’re dealing with kids who have nothing. They don’t have a family like I have. I know if something happens to me, I can call my mom. No matter what. She loves me. She will always be there for me, Same with my brother and father. So everyday, I try to make them understand that they can come to me with anything. Good things, bad things. . . Their joys or their problems, anything! They can share that with me. Because I love them.”
As you can imagine, with a job like this, Michou is not exactly living the life of an carefree college student. But she says it doesn’t bother her.
“Because of my job, I have to make sacrifices. But it’s okay. I have really found a family there.”
Michou stays focused, spending most of her time when she’s not with the kids from the orphanage at school and working as a journalist. She has had some training with the Center for Independent Journalism in Bucharest, but works mostly for an online publication. There, her boss is a former teacher of hers.
In the past year, she almost quit journalism. There are a few things about it that she doesn’t like. Once, she was working on a story about a Roma student in Bucharest. After being interviewed by Michou, the student asked if Michou would send the story to her, so she could read it before it was published.
Michou’s boss was not too happy, and told her that it was unethical and that she shouldn’t have let the student read the story.
Michou’s response:
“I am human. I must treat the people I interact with. . . with humanity! This is MY ethic.”
Obviously, Muchou did not give up on journalism. Though it gets very difficult at times, she says you just have to keep trying, then try again. She’s begun to get better and faster with her writing, so she’s feeling more optimistic about the job now.
Today, she’s still living in Bucharest, and although is has become used to the big city life (for the most part) she admits that it is sometimes very lonely being in a city where she has never known anybody.
As Michou and I sat on the street and drank a couple of bottles of juice for our interview, she said with a laugh, “Sometimes you want to get a juice with someone, right? But instead. . . you buy a bottle of juice and drink it by yourself on the street.”
In the near future, Michou says she’d like to meet a few more friends in Bucharest, and “financial independence, of course.”
When I was almost finished with our interview, I asked her one of those standard “where do you hope you’ll be in the future/what do you want out of life” type of questions. . .
Here’s what she said.
“I know what I’m going to do tomorrow. And the day after that. Nothing more. I don’t ever plan for the future, because I don’t know what will happen. When I look back though. . . I just want to be able to say I helped people. A lot of people. Or maybe just ten people. Like Martin Luther King. . . people like that helped, and they never expected or wanted any fame from it. That’s what I want.”
Bucharest Gay Festival Aftermath
Posted Sunday, May 24, 2009 by Luke Cleary
The conclusion to our coverage of the 2009 GayFest March in Bucharest. Within: video highlighting the extensive security detail and an image slideshow.
Security was tight for the GayFest March this weekend, and with good reason. Bucharest Police had concerns about the rally after a week of anti-gay demonstrations in various parts of the city. Many Romanians frown upon homosexuality, and the 2006 march was met with violence. The 200 to 300 hundred participants in this year’s GayFest were surrounded by hundreds of police, some dressed in riot gear. K-9 units and horse-mounted police dotted the perimeter, while motorcycle cops rode in and out of the crowd
Just a few snapshots of the GayFest Parade. While flags and signs were present during the speeches and march, at the end of the march the participants rushed to put away these items. People were also encouraged to leave in groups and get rid of gay pride symbols before leaving due to the threat of violence from protesters.
Hand-Holding: Romania style
Posted Sunday, May 24, 2009 by Shaina Humphries
In America, we hold hands to signify a romantic relationship, or perhaps to keep a child from straying.
What about in Romania?
In Romania, you’ll notice a lot of people holding hands and locking their arms together as they walk.
The most common example of this is two girls or young women holding hands.
Today, as we toured through the scenic Brasov, our tour guide Luiza explained,
“It is a symbol of friendship. It doesn’t mean anything more.”
Anti-Gay Protest in Bucharest
Posted Saturday, May 23, 2009 by Shaina Humphries
Yesterday’s Anti-Gay Parade in the center of Bucharest was in protest of the “GayFest” Gay-Pride Parade that will be taking place today at 5:00pm.
I’ve seen first hand that Romania is an extremely anti-gay country. Although homosexuality was decriminalized here in 2001, it is still unaccepted and even not tolerated by the majority of Romanians.
In 2005, the mayor of Bucharest (at that time) Adrieau Videanu, actually banned pro-homosexuality marches and parades. However, President Basescu intervened and convinced Mayor Videanu to reverse his decision.
In 2006, GayFest took place on June 3rd. Here’s what happened:
“More than a thousand protesters throw eggs, stones and plastic bottles. Around 60 people try to break through police lines to attack the marchers. The counter-demonstrators then turn their fury at the police and around 50 people are detained. After the march ends and police protection is over, six participants are attacked and beaten.” (from the UK’s Lesbian and Gay Foundation).
In an attempt to prevent another outcome like that, there will be teams of riot police at the parade tonight.
You can see the ant-gay protest that I (accidentally) walked right into yesterday. According to Bruce, there was another demonstration this morning by a national anti-homosexual organization. They have uniforms and everything! He wasn’t able to catch the name of the group, but perhaps it was the right-wing Christian group, “New Right”. They were the ones that filed a legal complaint and tried to have GayFest banned in 2006, claiming it was “obscene and anti-social”.
See also: Video of Anti-Gay Protestors marching.
A few of us will be attending the Gay Pride Parade today and of course, we’ll have plenty of video and pictures of the event!
The event promises to be very chaotic. Let’s hope the riot police can keep the event under control, and that all of us Revealing Romania people make it out of there safely!!
Stay tuned…..
Weekend Gay pride parade in Bucharest sparks an Anti-Gay Protest
Posted Friday, May 22, 2009 by Shaina Humphries
Before Saturday’s Gay Pride parade in Bucharest, the many anti-homosexuality “activists” gathered Friday in the city’s center to march, sing, chant, and even pray.
Picture 500 people, complete with nuns, children and police officers; bringing Bucharest’s (already crazy) traffic to a halt.
Imagine hearing all of those people singing and praying, while one leading man’s voice is blasted through a megaphone, while angry drivers everywhere are honking their horns.
All of these sights and sounds—coming soon. Very soon!
Immediately after we eat dinner in Bucharest.
Why are all the flowers upside down?
Posted Thursday, May 21, 2009 by Shaina Humphries
As we walked through the busy streets of Bucharest today, I noticed a whole lot of people carrying flowers. Some had huge, heavy bouquets while others walked along with a single rose or carnation. The part that caught my attention—they were all holding the flowers upside down.
Click on comment below to tell us why
Then read the rest of the story below
Well, today is a sort of holiday in Romania. Today honors two saints of the Romanian Orthodox Church—a mother and son named Constantin and Elena (or as you may know them, Constantine and Helena). If you are Romanian and your name is either Constantin or Elena. . . Today is your day! According to Dragos, an employee of Bucharest’s Rembrandt Hotel, “It’s kind of like a birthday, but not as big”.
So that’s why there were so many flower-yielding people on the streets today, but the upside down thing? Nothing special. In fact, it has nothing to do with the holiday. This is actually a Romanian custom.
From the Romanian perspective, they are not holding the flowers “upside down”. I asked several people on the streets why they hold flowers this way, and the responses varied.
“That’s just the way you’re supposed to do it.”
“In America, you have some different ways of life. In Romania, it is very important for us to have manners. That is why.”
“It’s too heavy! I can’t carry them the other way.”
“Well, because you have to balance. If you hold it the other way, it will fall. Or it will break.”
You can be the judge, but this final response is my favorite:
“If you hold it the other way, it is for a dead person. Like before a funeral. So you wouldn’t hand flowers that way to a girl . . . That would be very rude!”
Can we really say they’re holding them “upside down”? Like I was told today, maybe WE are.
After finding no general consensus, I have established that Romanians hold flowers their way for the same reason that we do . . .
It’s simply tradition.
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