God made the world. Then, God, alongside St. Peter, were amazed by His work. God said: "My, my, what a fine job I've done. It feels as if I've surpassed myself. But, St. Peter, what is that little Eden over there? Why, it is more beautiful than my Paradise!". And St. Peter answered "That, my Lord, is Romania." So it came to pass that, out of God's envy, romanians were created.

Well...I'm in the middle of the mountains, I went 6 or 7 hours on an ATV all day and I drank too much refreshments <-3. Aye, the stars be shinnin' on this treaty. This joke is one of the things that are 'Sad but True'. The title is one of Ceausescu's most famous quotas, with which he started every one of his speeches. If you don't know who Ceausescu was, he was Romania's dictator during the Iron Curtain period. And it's damn late.

Some things about Romania, it's culture and it's residents, eh?

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On the 2nd of August, our president, Traian Basescu, made a speech in which he said that one of our ministers is an "imbecile", because, while houses were collapsing due to the then recent floods, he was waiting in Bucharest for the mayors of those villages to come to him. After this, of course, while more houses were collapsing, many people were outraged by Basescu calling a minister an imbecile. Today, our deputees, I believe, voted to not start an investigation regarding two major political figures, Adrian Nastase and Miron Mitrea. Of course, people know, deputees know and everyone knows that these guys are as dirty as they come and all of us were equally outraged. Also, the romanians' trust in our political figures are about 11%, according to a recent survey. For mailmen, it's about 91%.

Some things that are from Romania, but nobody knows that, eh?

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Ever heard of the New Age band Enigma, about the song "Dragostea din Tei" by O-Zone or about Dracula? What about Nadia Comaneci? If not then: Enigma's mastermind is Michael Cretu and he is Romanian. The huge worldwide hit song "Dragostea din Tei" was sung by O-Zone, which were indeed Moldavian, but the band was Romanian ^^. Dracula, Bram Stoker's greates character and one of the most well-known fantasy characters ever, was constructed after the life of Vlad Tepes i (Vlad the Impaler, son of Vlad Dracul; drac in romanian means devil); this guy impaled many people and there is a legend that under the reign of Vlad Tepes, there was a golden chalice put besides every fountain in every city / village and, when the chalice would dissappear, it would mean that Vlad Tepes' reign is over. Nadia Comaneci was the first gymnast to obtain a perfect 10 mark (the famous 1.00 at the 1976 Montreal Olympics). As a resident of Romania, I can say that about 50% know about Nadia's 1.00 mark, everyone knows about O-Zone, Nobody knows that Enigma's mastermind is Romanian and this project has zero support in this country and that people have recently found out about Dracula's origins.

In regard to Dracula still, but not quite.

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One of the most common mistakes, made by myself alos, is to know that the Bran Castle was where Vlad Tepes made his rule. I still have yet to find out where, though I have a slight idea, but that's another story. Castelul Bran was recently acceded by the Romanian state to a private figure, due to law 10/2001, which basically states that if one can prove that s/he is the successor of someone who owned something, like land, castles, citadels, buildings, etc, s/he is legally entitled to that property. Due to that law, the Bran Castle (which really is quite a big castle) was acceded to one guy. The officials from Brasov, the big, quite medieval, city near the Bran Castle, offered the market price in order to buy the Castle. They, of course, were rejected. I just hope that it will be open for visits a long time for now... More tragically, if the state accedes aparments or land containing various forms of housing, s/he can literally throw out the people from out of their homes. In Hungary, if one can prove this, s/he is offered a sum of money. If s/he does not accept this money, it means they hate themselves.

The sheep's land.

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Gigi Becali is one of the most well-known figures in Romania. He was a shepherd and became a multi-mega-zillionaire by founding one of the three major Romanian football teams, Steaua. He owns a Maybach, is the leader of the New Generation Christian-Democratic Party (Partidul Noua Generatie-Crestin-Democrat _ PNG-CD). He usually curses everyone and talks like someone from the Romanian 'hood', but everyone knows him. Last year or two years ago, he built, with his own money, about 20 houses for some people affected by floods. He was, of course, criticised for this. Another such figure is Dan Diaconescu. He has the TV show "Dan Diaconescu Direct" (direct = live). Over the last year, he made a 2.3 million euro profit. Why? Because he made 200 something episodes about a missing lawyer, Elodia Ghinescu. Her story? She just went missing...since then, this guy brings people wearing socks on their heads and reading in pillows to do their magic and find her. Every episode brings "Breaking News" and every episode tells us where Elodia is. Every episode brings the next. It's as low as you can get, but hey...everyone knows him.

Tragedy?

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The 5 o'clock ProTV news! ProTV is a national channel. The 5 o'clock news are as famous as pasta or pizza. In your lifespan, you HAVE(!) to try the Romanian soup. If you come in Arad, I'll make my grandmother make some ^^. Have you ever seen a horror film? Well then, you haven't seen the 5 o'clock news. It's headlines are death, rape, incapacitation, horrid accident, murder, more death and dead limbs. And they do this Monday to Friday at 17:00. How can they find so many stories is damn beyond me...

Still can't think straight (refreshing), but Romania in it's 'splendor'.

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This country has an estimate GDP per capita of $8,744.7. But this doesn't mean life is life and it doesn't mean everyone has something to eat. This is based on a video presented yesterday on "Sinteza Zilei". The basic part was an old man waiting in queue for his medicine. He said that in order to afford it, he must give up his food. He also said that they [the old people] wll leave, but the young ones remain and their lives will be bad. What else is there to say, I do not know. This is Romania and life in it...

As time has passed, so has our future.

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Nicolae Ceausescu is now believed (by middle- and small-aged people) to have been a scourge in Romania's history. But the facts are that the durign his regime, from '65 to '89, he basically built what is modern-day Romania, with our two highways (<-3) and Casa Poporului (Palace of the Parliament; "largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building" - Wikipedia). Moving on to two other great Romanians, Traian Vuia and Henri Coanda. Now I don't care what most say, but Traian Vuia was the first human to build a heavier-than-air aircraft and fly with it (if only 12m) without any 'outside' assistance. Henri Coanda is at least recognised for having invented the jet-propelled aircraft, but who cares nowadays? If our new national music is of turkish origin and it sings about horizontals, money, cash, cars, enemies, monkeys, jewel and lazying around in a chair counting your fortune, in an intented slang of a grammar and vocabulary, we might as well be cut out of Terra with scissors and sent in space on a picnic, because it would be damn worth the effort.

Through this Journal I wish to state some facts about Romania, with some degree of subjectivity, of course, that are scarcely known and I believe are rather important both to the country and some to the world. It's also my personal anger at the romanian general ignorance and not-caring attitude. Cheers, my friends, Dracula loves your blood and Silva Black is just a cheap immitation, but better than the rest, because it's black. Note that most of the names are mistaken because they contain unordinary characters.

I'll keep on adding to this Journal until I will be satisfied...
[minor edit to come]