One of the most important sports in Romania is handball. Through the years, Romania has had impressive performances in handball. We won lots of competitions, cups and medals. The last performance was this month, when Oltchim qualified in the final of the Champions League. And with our help and support, it might become the first Romanian team that had ever won the Champions League. Our players are loved and admired in many important countries in sport industry, like Denmark, Hungary or Slovenia. We have one of the best teams in Europe.

Let’s say a few words about the game and maybe you will try to watch it someday. At first, the team starts the match with 7 players. Each player has his own place in the field. There are several rules that must be followed: the player can run with the ball only 3 steps and he can hold it for 3 seconds (then, she/he must either shoot, pass or dribble), they can contact the ball with any part of their bodies above the knee, etc. If the rules are broken, the referee will give a warning yellow card or a two-minute suspension. If a player has been warned three times, he/she will be shown the red card. But American handball is different from European handball. The game can be played as single, doubles or “cut-throat”.  I haven’t watched this kind of handball, so I can’t say too many things about it. I saw only a few minutes and it seemed boring to me, with nothing spectacular.

What makes handball different  from the other sports is the dynamic of the game, there are always changes of the score, so you can never be sure of the winner. Goals are scored frequently and one team can score at least 20 goals a match. But being a handball player in Romania is not as easy as it seems. The players must train 4 h/day and during the training they do some difficult exercises like: running with bags filled with sand tied to their legs, shooting from different positions, etc. The future is uncertain, you can never know for how long you can practice sport or if you will find a team to support you. In the following interview you can see what difficulties faces a sport right from a famous handball player in Romania, Carmen Stoleru.

Madalina : What are the problems which a sportsman has to face in Romania? Is it a low salary or the lack of conditions?

Carmen : I don’t think that the main problem is about the money. It depends on each player, on what he asks for, how much he asks for and what he receives.  There’s only one problem: if he gets hurt somehow or if he no longer plays well, nobody will pay attention to him anymore. Instead, if you are injured everyone should stay around you, to encourage you in order to get well sooner.

M : If you were to choose, would you practise sports abroad? Why?

C : I think so. Here, in Romania, is fine, as well, I can’t deny – because it’s home, but I would try it. I don’t know, I don’t have any particular reason why.

M :  Do you believe that in other countries the teams have better chances to achieve great performance?

C : No, but their mentality is different. They have more freedom in thinking, our mentality is still behind theirs.  But it depends on the team and on the players.

M :  Will handball ever get to receive the same attention from the media and from the people as football does?

C :  I hope so. It started to be more acclaimed and publicized, a lot of people are talking about handball, they are watching it.

M : How much do the supporters’ encouragements matter during a match?

C : It matters a lot, honestly. It gives you strength to keep going, to do more. When you hear them cheering and shouting, it’s normal to feel more powerfull.

M : How many hours takes the training of a professional sportsman?

C : 2 hours in the morning and 2 in the evening… About 4 hours per day.  But there are a lot more, some days we have to watch a match, which means also a sort of training, we’re there…

M : What advice would you give to the young people who want to start a career in sports?

C :  It’s very important to believe in themselves and if they truly enjoy doing sports, they should start doing it. If not, there’s no chance.

First of all, no one can deny that he/she hasn’t heard about the so – called “harmful effects” of junk food, but few of us actually tried to find out what these were before it was too late. Here are some junk food facts that could help you understand the harmful effects of eating them. Some of them are long term while others are short-term effects.

For example, one negative effect is the lack of energy. This is known as a short-term adverse effect resulting from eating junk foods. As junk foods don’t provide you with essential nutrients, even though they can be very much sufficing, you feel weakened. Consuming deficient nutrients could be as a supplement. Poor concentration is another result of junk food habit. These are traced to affect in immediate and medium term periods. When you have a sumptuous junk meal rich in oil you feel drowsy and fail to concentrate. Over sustained periods of junk food eating, blood circulation drops due to fat accumulation. Lack of vital oxygen, nutrients and proteins particularly can stale your grey (brain) cells temporarily.

Moreover, junk food diet is a major cause of heart diseases. Myocardial infarction (a sever heart failure) is due to plaque formation in arteries which demands heart to put in extra effort to pump blood on the down stream. On the up stream, there is lack of returning blood to heart. This causes two damages to heart – heart fatigues by the continuous extra effort it makes and it suffers oxygen supply. The onset and remedy both take a long time and a great determination to win. Apart from forming plaques and constricting arteries, cholesterol also affects liver where it is metabolized. High cholesterol from junk food and diet strains liver damaging it eventually. This is a long term effect.

Clever junk food advertising and the lure of convenience in addition to taste get people to junk food addiction. Awareness on junk food facts is lacking dramatically in every corner of the society. Here are some useful tips to avoid junk foods.

• Junk food and children have a strange affinity to each other. This is partly so owing to junk food advertising. Do not let children get habituated to junk foods.

• Controlling children from eating junk food in schools is another step that helps in a long term. School’s administration and parents have a responsibility to educate children about junk foods in schools.

• Junk food, the name itself is tempting enough. Eliminating the temptation is one way to avoid it. Keeping good food nearby and having meals right on time may help in this direction. Controlling the temptation is not as hard as alcoholism can be.

• Develop awareness for fitness. This helps you separate junk food and diet from your regimen.

Finally, not all foods are junk. Moreover, our bodies have enough stamina to take care off occasional junk food eating. However, beware, because the lure is strong enough to get you addicted. It is in your hands to choose junk food or health.

Until now TV has taken over your family and now you’re kids suffer of obesity. You, and some other parents, worked hard to get them to engage in moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes per day.

Today another alarming “TV” comes along, and takes all the addiction from the TV: the computer.

The technology it’s newer every time your kid walks into an electronics store, and every time he wants it. Not only the technology evolves, but so does the Internet.

Nowadays, you have the choice to either watch your favorite series at TV, or either  download them on your computer.

Many people, once they discover the download, can’t take their eyes off of the computer screen. They download the TV show, and watch episode after episode, not doing anything else besides eating.  Also, on the internet you can “socialize” on sites as Facebook, Hi5, MySpace or Twitter, but that isn’t healthy either. There are grown ups who have millions of friends online, and that’s getting them tripped in their houses, fired from work or worse, getting them ill.

What can we do? We can do nothing about the grown ups, as they’re their own bosses, but we can do something about the children. If the kids don’t realize the situation they’re in, teachers and parents can work together to do something. There are programs and associations that in exchanged of 12 pounds, they take your kid out, in the real world, two times per month for two months, to different activities, such as going to the cinema, taking swimming classes, going to book releases/theatre etc.

A while back, I wrote an article about our first meeting from 28th of September to 3rd of October 2009 in Salzburg, Austria, and I told you what a great time I had there. Five months later, on 1st of March, 2010 , here we are, having the chance to see each other again, this time in Budapest, Hungary.

Traveling to Budapest might have been a little long and tiring (our partners from Bulgaria know better and they can tell you more about their eventfull journey ), but eventually we have gotten all together at the established place : the Rila Hotel. Shortly after making our aqcuaintances with the people we didn’t know before, we felt as if we had known each other from a long time ago, but at the same time we were eager to find out more. From this first night until the end of our stay, we discovered common words between our native languages and we were very surprised to see how many they were. Close to midnight, we went to sleep in order to be fresh for the following day… We woke up early, excited and ready to spend the entire day visiting together the best places in Budapest. Right after breakfast, we left the hotel and we were already on our way to the beautiful bridges of Hungary’s capital city. We walked, laughed, went shopping and took lots of photos all day long. At night, after we have finished visiting the city, we went to the mall and wandered about the (closed) shops. We entered the supermarket and we lost the time-control while walking along the racks and looking at books, DVDs and sweets – we had a looot of fun doing it, believe me.

Unfortunately, time being so short, here came the 3rd and last day, when we went again visiting some of the touristic attractions of Budapest, the ones we didn’t get to see on the previous day. At last, we arrived to the Labyrinth, which was, in my opinion, our greatest experience together of them all. The maze atmosphere was supposed to be obscure and mysterious.  However, we laughed and made jokes all the way through the twisting caves.

As it always happens, this time again the “goodbye” moment was the less expected part, but we couldn’t avoid it so we had to go through it. Regardless, we left each other with a bag of exquisite memories and with promises to meet again somewhere in the future.

Probably by reading this title your mind flew to monsters or werewolves, but actually, what I’m going to talk about is the House of Terror Museum from Budapest, which (the people who visited it can confirm) is more thrilling than any fantastic creature. Built on real facts, to be more concrete, on the Hungarian history during the 20th Century, period ruled by the fascist and communist dictatorial regimes, the Terror Museum is, basically, dedicated to the victims that were detained, tortured and even killed inside the building.

Starting with the first floor you can already see a giant tank and the portraits of thosands of victims of the cruel regimes. The upfollowing exhibitions are nothing else than real proofs from the people that lived during that era : documents, uniforms, objects of use and many more. To emphasize the “terror” atmosphere, the background music gives you chills and manages to take you back in time. Even more relevant are the videos from the monitors in the wall, the black & white images of the Nazi and Soviet armies succeding in offering a true feeling of the past reality.

Notwithstanding, the most impressive proofs of the totalitarian regimes remain the examples of punishment cells of the prisoners, which are located in the basement. In addition to the atmosphere already created, in the underground there is still persistant a smell of the frowsy, encased rooms, which weighs on your senses.

To end with, after visiting the House of Terror Museum, I must say that it was by far the best exhibition about the dark period that the harsh regimes of that time created. Very sad, with a deep sense of reality and certain proofs, the House of Terror reflected very clearly the times that affected so many people, in such a way that I could almost feel it on my own.

For a much better understanding of what I have been talking about, the best thing to do is to visit this museum in person, one day.

Let’s talk a bit about time, about past, present and future. Let’s talk about what time means for me and for you, and what it means for Einstein.

If you look  in the dictionary, you will find out that time is defined as : nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future. Nothing new and nothing clear. The truth is that time doesn’t really exist. Time was invented by people in order to be more organized. It exists only in the material world, but in the universe time doesn’t exist, it explains what happened in the universe.

Time has only one direction. It can’t be turned back and because of that the past is very important for what you are now and what you will be in the future. Your actions, your words, your feelings are irreversible. Even if sometimes you wish to stop or to turn back time, you can’t, because time is nature’s way of keeping everything from happening at once. Being in the present you can write history, a history that can change the destiny of other people.

Einstein has a very interesting theory which revolutionizes the world, the theory of relativity. He proved that everything is relative in this universe. In Newtonian terms, time may be considered the fourth dimension of motion; but Einstein showed how both, temporal and spatial dimensions, can be altered by high-speed motion. The only person from the entire universe that is above everything and everyone is God. He created everything and He makes us understand the world in which we live. It is thought that we already know everything and we just have to find out the answer in ourselves.

The most important thing in the human existence is the acceptance of our own flaws and to try to correct them. You, as a person, should be very careful, because an insignificant action can change your entire life. A human’s life is always judged by the past and by the mistakes he made.

Instead of an ending,  I want to give you a piece of advice: be careful what you think because thoughts might become words, be careful with your thoughts because they might become facts,  facts might become  habits and habits will influence your character… your life…your destiny.

How many times did you download a song or a movie from the internet, even though you knew very well that it was not fair?

If you truly like  an artist you should support him. Money from the copyright are going back to them. If you don’t buy the album with hologram you can’t call yourself a fan of that artist because you don’t support him on his musical career.

There’s also a consolation, at least for the music business. The internet does good and bad too.  If you download the album from the internet, the artist can’t get the money he invested, so this way he loses… But there comes the good part. Through the internet, the music is being listened by way more people and so it leads to the artist getting the chance to have more concerts and tickets sold.

We all should think twice before infringing copyright and think over the consequences.

Have you ever been in a library? Did you ever asked yourself why the books are sorted by category? What kind of literature do you prefer?

Well…I think that every person has his own taste. People read in order to find a way to fill in the hole that society created. The differences between humans made them unique and so are the stories in which they find themselves. There are different kinds of literature: horror, thriller, romance, classic, biographic, science-fiction, poetry, drama and so on (by the way, this is just like the movies).

My favourite book is a classic one, “Mice and men”, by John Steinbeck.

Apparently a small book, it is more complex than you’ll ever imagine. It doesn’t treat the social conflict but is all about a strong friendship between two different men. The action is focused on the dream of accomplishment, of having their own universe, the dream of a home.

The novel is ruled by masculinity, the woman being just the embodiment of carnal relationship and of the force capable of destroy everything. The great plans don’t worth more than a mouse easily crushed. Existence is neither moral nor amoral, it simply exists, passing games of words, may not adhere to the idea, perfectly symbolized by Slim, who is confined to what is, without frustration, without dreams impractical, in a present that I accept in its entirety. It is a novel controlled by a sense of reality out of the ordinary, with descriptions condensed and suggestive, without superfluous words, and to force a figure of speech, say that reading it, I had the impression of a novel cutting ax in a test, not failure, to embody the necessary minimum.

Descending from the Pioneers’* costumes, the “teenager wrapping” is now compulsory in schools and highschools. Everybody is happy about this initiative apart from the students( who have to wear them) and the parents ( who have to buy them).

Nobody seems to care that making the uniform compulsory is against the human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights(witch was signed also by Romania)  guarantees the freedom of thought , opinion and expression so , unless the students decide unanimosly to wear it, nobody shall impose it.

Moreover, wearing a uniform has a psycological impact on the teenager who should feel free to make his own decisions and form his own personality.The youngster who is obliged to subdue to a dress code is less imaginative and loses his individuality,creativity and self expression A study published in The Journal of Education Research by David L. Brunsma, from the University of Alabama, and Kerry A. Rockquemore, from the University of Notre Dame, states:

“The findings indicate that student uniforms have no direct effect on substance use, behavioral problems, or attendance. A negative effect of uniforms on student academic achievement was found.”

As a result of the psychologists’ concerns about the effect of wearing a uniform, many states prohibited the dress codes in schools.

Surprisingly( or not ), the students are those who  have to pay for something they don’t need or want. Otherwise , they wouldn’t be allowed to attend the classes (in the free educational sistem)…Isn’t democracy great?

EXTRACTS FROM THE UDHR

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion…” (Article 18, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression …” (Article 19, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services…” (Article 25, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

“Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.”(Article 26, Paragraph 1, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

“Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.”(Article 26, Paragraph 2, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

*Pioneer-a member of the “Communist Youth Union”

It’s organised under the same principles as the “big Parliament” so it simulates perfectly the atmosphere inside the real political environement. As a candidate, you have to be able to work in a team., debate a series of problems, give and contradict arguments and come up with new ideas.During the selection process, you’ll develop your debate skills ,spontaneity and your knowledge about politics. So…it’s worth trying althow the competition is tough and only the best in the country will get the chance to enter the Parliament.

Those who want to find out more about this organisation, shoul visit either the official website www.eypej.org or the local websites in their country.