What exactly is voluntary work?

Yet another article to introduce you with.

It was still July (or maybe August) when for AEGEE's annual report "Key to Europe 2010/2011" I wrote two articles - one about voluntary work in general and one with quotes from several AEGEEans about their reasons to volunteer.

The annual report is published and my articles are published as well :) Go to your closest AEGEE office and read the magazine there, your board should have it!

Or do as I did - read it online here!

Spread the love

Yet another article - this time with the readers of Libertas Magazine I shared my opinion about love... No, not that kind of love as you might think - but my love to volunteer!

"We all know that (almost) all of us love our partners, parents, siblings, children and close friends. It is an unconditional love, which (almost) all of us have experienced in our lives and continue experiencing. But how about loving the world through volunteering?"

To read the rest of the article, please, click here!

Fulfilled dreams

In the latest issue of Libertas Magazine you can read my interview with Haris Mexas about the topic "achievements".

"I always envy those people who can speak several languages and change from one to another without any problem. My dear Greek friend Haris Mexas is one of those lucky people. He is a linguist, so one can expect him to be able to speak fluent Greek, English, Spanish, German and French and add some respectable knowledge of Italian, Turkish, Latin and even ancient Greek. That's not all – this September Haris is starting to fulfill his dream to be a master student in the Netherlands and catching up with his Dutch language skills!"

Full article you can read here.

Article about Malta

This time my article was published in an online magazine "Dispataches International". The same as other magazines I am writing for, also this is an international youth magazine.

Article is about the new Maltese legislation, which nows allows people to divorce. Believe or not, before it was not possible.

"Over the last few weeks, the Maltese islands have received a much larger amount of media coverage than before. It is not only because of the increasing amount of African refugees who arrive in Malta each day by boat, but because on May 28th 2011, 52% of Maltese voiced their desire to legalize divorce," that is how my article starts.

Full article you can read here.

Me and drugs

In this Magazine Libertas edition I wrote two articles - both of them about drugs.

1) "I do not smoke tobacco or weed. I have never even been inside a coffeeshop and I am determined to keep it like this. Yet I live in Amsterdam, “the capital of cofeeshops”, and I am writing an article about coffeeshops."

2) "I am convinced that internet and online media are the biggest addiction nowadays. Facebook, Twitter, online newspapers, e-mails, Skype, YouTube and more, and more, and more. Once you turn on your laptop / computer, you can't switch it off. It just seems wrong. There is always something more to read, to watch, to check. Sounds familiar?"

Read both articles (and all the magazine) in full here.

10 pages about Estonia

Finally it happened!

Some of you might remember that in April for a few days I went to lovely Estonia to check out five star hotels, conference centers, restaurants and other places in Tallinn and Tartu. It was a wonderful trip!

When my Estonian friends asked me about the reason of my trip, I told that I have joined a FAM trip, organised by Estonian Convention Bureau. While other people were thinking if it's worth to host international conferences from their organisations exactly in Estonia, my role was to gather information for an article.

Today I finally got the copy of the article - wonderful destination report on 12 pages (two covers + 10 pages with text) about Estonia for Headquarters Magazine, who also payed me a nice amount of money, of course!

Read it here!

Too many articles

OK, I think that I am exaggerating again... It started as a nice wish to write a couple of articles per month - not too much, not too less. But now I feel that I have agreed to write too many, and all the deadlines are coming up at the same time!

So let me see, what do I need to do?

• Articles for Overdose.am about the cultural life in Amsterdam
• My first article for Dispatches International about the divorce law in Malta - luckily just finished
• Article about drugs for Magazine Libertas
• A few articles for Key To Europe, the annual magazine of AEGEE-Europe
• 1-2 articles for AEGEE's latest Members' Manual (that's Alfredo's fault, I didn't agree)

And all of them within the next days or maximum a week.

Argh! Why did I do that to myself? It's not like they would be paying me for that... :P

How much money do we spend?

In the latest Libertas Magazine issue there is my article about money, comparing the situation in different countries by local young people.

Take a look here!

What is Bookcrossing?

I wrote this article for Cafebabel Brussels almost two years ago, but it never got published. Recently remembered about it and thought it is still worth publishing it at least in my blog.

How often do you get a present when you go to interview somebody for an article? Not too much, I would say you. But during my last interview I got a present – a book! Amy Bartlett, a bookcrosser from Brussels (originally from Canada), gave me Terry Pratchett’s book “Jingo” to understand the concept of Bookcrossing much better.

Release and find books

BookCrossing? What is that? How can these words go together? Actually yes, quite easy, says Amy, who has been a bookcrosser for eight years and can not stop talking about the concept of it. Listen to her passion and emotions when she speaks about the positive karma travelling around the world, about making somebody’s day in such an easy way and about the lovely way how to connect with others!

BookCrossing is an online platform, created nine years ago, which gives the possibility for book lovers to release and find books in random places all over the world. Even if it sounds scary at a first glance to give away your books, it gives the possibility to increase your “bookshelf” (even if virtually), exchange opinions about books as well as give and get suggestions which are the most interesting books.

From Germany to Malaysia

“Some people struggle with Bookcrossing, because they want to keep their books. I struggled with it in the beginning and I kept a lot of my books, but then I started to realise that it is so exciting for other people to read the books I like and to pass them on. I have almost no books that I own. There are some that are gifts and I keep them because I do not feel comfortable giving away gifts all the time. My friends know me well enough now, so if they buy me a book, they say – you can bookcross it,” admits Amy, who has the biggest amount of bookcrossed books between Belgium bookcrossers – at the moment she has registered more than 400 books and released more than 500 books.

As a citizen of the world who has lived in six different countries and is travelling a lot, Amy has released books everywhere and is excited to see where they end up. She recalls a book she released in Germany and it is now in Malaysia or another book which flew away in her homeland Canada and five years later was registered in the website somewhere in the United States. Amy says: “You really start to get the global reach of this process and see how far good books and karma can travel.”

800 thousand members of BookCrossing

While I am going through the book she gave to me (by the way, a few days later I released it on a bench in Amsterdam and already a few minutes later the book was gone!), Amy tells about people she have met and books she have exchanged throughout these years. While living in Peru for a year, she once received a box full of books in English from a Brazilian bookcrosser who just saw her post in the forum saying that Amy misses books in her native tongue and sent her the present. Another book which she received from an Australian bookcrosser and released later on Rue de Midi was picked up and taken to Antwerpen. “I had never heard of BookCrossing before and was intrigued so I just signed up, but really have to do some work now, so no time to read just yet,” was the journal entry left by the lucky founder.

What is the secret which makes people want to buy books and later give them away? Maybe it is the curiosity they have, thinking what others say and how do they evaluate the particular book. Maybe it is “win-win” situation, understanding that you can also get from somebody else the book you have always wanted. Maybe it is a good will and a wish to make somebody very happy. Whatever is the answer, more than 800 thousand members of BookCrossing so far have registered more than six millions books and the number is increasing.

I wanted to be a writer...

How often do you think about the past? Your memories? People who were your friends or inside your social circle? Your thoughts and life back then?

I think about it too often. Just pops in my mind again and again...

One of those memories is about me being a teenager and my biggest dream - wanting to be a writer. Publish my own books. Earn living with it. Be recognised. Feeling jealous reading about any high school girl whose book got published anywhere in the world and wishing to be in her place. Writing stories till the midnight one after another.

A few years later, I started to work. As a journalist - as you can guess.

In the beginning, I was thrilled - I was earning money with writing! It got published! Did not matter that I was writing about facts and real life, not fiction.

After the first months, I felt guilty. Whenever I was back home and tried to write a story or a poem, nothing came out. Emptiness. No ideas, no feelings, no wish to write. Tried a few times again. Zero. Damn it!

Then I started to tell everybody that I am not writing fiction anymore and developed my own theory - one can not be both a journalist and a writer. It's too much of writing. You need some rest. And once you write about the reality, the fiction world and your ideas disappear. Or maybe it was just me.

Nowadays I do not feel guilty anymore. I feel sad. Every few years I find my old stories and read them - and still find them fascinating, at least a few of them. Pity they never got published.

Another article, another website

My first article for a cultural online magazine Overdose.am.

"Although I am not a (very) religious person, there is one event this weekend I do not want to miss: Kerkennacht (or Church Night) Amsterdam. It is an event not only for religious ones, but also for those who simply adore architecture, darkness and unusual happenings."

Read all the article here.

My articles in XPat Journal

Nice, nice, nice!

Just received the latest issue of XPat Journal ("the premier English-language magazine for expatriates living in the Netherlands"), where there are two my articles - Events Diary & Arts Diary.

Some time ago at work I was told that IamExpat.nl has a cooperation with XPat Journal, therefore for their summer issue IamExpat.nl is supposed to provide them these two articles. As my position there is Lifestyle Editor, I was happy to hear that I was the one to write them and select the most important summer events in the Netherlands!

Those eager to read articles in full length, should buy the magazine themselves - unfortunately there is no online version, but a short summary is available here.

New president's private life

Probably foreigners have not heard about it yet, but some days ago Latvian parliament elected a new president (yes, it's elected by the parliament, not the citizens).

The new president Andris Bērziņš will start his term on July 7, but already now mass media are writing about it like crazy. Just pity that mostly it's about his private life, not his plans for the next four years and his professional experience...

Apart from the fact that Andris Bērziņš is one of the most common names and surnames in Latvia (and we even had 2-3 other politicians who are called exactly the same, including a former prime minister), there are also some other interesting details.

For me the most interesting part is the fact that mass media are very much eager to cover two aspects of Mr Future President life:

1) His partner who is ~25 years younger than him and not married with him. They have been living together for almost 10 years (if I am not wrong) and have a kid, but they are not married. One can read in Latvian news portals opinions of various "specialists" who are saying something like "OMG, how is it possible? What will happen when he needs to go abroad on a visit? Will he take his partner with him or no? What is her official status and how should we call her?"

2) His children. Apparently all government officials need to fill out declaration every year stating how many children do they have (don't ask me why) and Andris Bērziņš have written down that he has three children (also from his previous marriage). However, there are rumors that he might have 1-2 children more he has not mentioned in the declaration, although it seems like he has been paying money to them every month. The media are not yet revealing the names of those poor kids (who seem to be in their 20ies or so), but yelling about him not telling the real number of his children.

Well, the point 1 is ridiculous and point 2 might be important if he would not care about his children and do not bare any financial responsibility - but it seems that he is doing so.

So... How is it possible that mass media are writing so much about his private life and nothing about his professional one? Are they too lazy to find information or there is no information? Is it more interesting for them to dig in his past without thinking how relevant it is? Or are they simply looking for celebrity scandals instead of analyzing him as a president?

Usually I do not care about politics and I have no idea how good or bad president will Andris Bērziņš be, but I believe that everybody's personal life is their own business.

Thanks to Google for his picture!

My famous sister

This is a funny day - I just got an e-mail from my sister who sent me a copy of Latvian magazine "Dīvas". My dear Latvian readers, I have never heard about this magazine - does anybody of you know it?

What was so important is the fact that my sister was on the cover of the magazine!

It reminded me time 12 years ago when I got on the cover of the most famous Latvian teen magazine "LABA" and everybody in my class (I think, it was the last year of the primary school) spoke about it.

However, this time my sister is on the cover because of the interview in the magazine where she is telling about language tricks in advertising. Unfortunately the interview is in Latvian, so not all of you will be able to understand, but at least you can enjoy the pictures!

I am not able to post all the interview, but I believe that Latvians can buy the magazine and read themselves if they are very interested. So here goes just the shot of the cover & the interview.

Youth UnEmployment

Today I am introducing you with Alma Mozgovaja and AEGEE Youth UnEmployment project!

The topic of the last Libertas Magazine issue was something about hot topics around the world for youth, so I thought that unemployment is a very important topic for everybody nowadays... Therefore I had a nice online interview with Alma, although it felt a bit weird to have interview between two Latvians in English :)

To read the interview (and other articles in the magazine), please, click here (by here I mean the word "here" :)).

My name in the newspaper

Last week I got an a short message in draugiem.lv (Latvian equivalent for Facebook) from a journalist from Latvian newspaper "Sestdiena" - he was doing an article about Eurovision and wanted to know my opinion about Eurovision & Latvian entry as he was interviewing several Latvians living abroad.

For those who can read Latvian - see the article below!

Nothing will stop him from travelling

"For 27 years old Hungarian Barnabás Nagy travelling is not the same as for most of us, young people. Mostly all we need to do is decide where we have not been yet, get a ticket and be on the way to our holiday place. It is not the same for Barnabás as he needs at least one month to prepare for any trip abroad, paying the utmost attention to accommodation and public transport. Being physically handicapped and walking with two sticks, Barnabás is exploring the world in his own way."

That is the beginning of an article I wrote for Libertas Magazine - my first article for them!

Full article you can read here.

Maastricht carnival

If the classic Russian movie Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром! (The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!) has the legendary phrase "Every year with my friends we go to the sauna," then I have my own legendary phrase for the Netherlands: "Every year with my friends we go to Maastricht carnival."

That's how my first article for IamExpat starts! Click here to read and comment the full version!

I will not post all the articles I have written in my blog as that'd be too much (today alone I had two published), so just follow my profile on IamExpat and see the articles there! Sometimes I will post the most important ones also on my blog, but not all...

And - do not forget to attend Maastricht carnival, it'll be amazing!

First day in the office

So here it comes! My first day in the office :)

Some background information.

Approximately a month ago I answered to a job/internship ad and got invited to an interview with two Greeks. When one of them called and invited me for an interview, I was about to say: "Hi, Manos, what's up?", but then I realised that it's another Greek calling :) Ah, Greek accent!

Although the interview went quite well, they decided to employ another person and I continued to look for another position in another place.

However, miracles happen. Last Monday I got a call from the same Greek again saying that they are looking for one more intern and asking if I am still interested. As I had two other job interviews that week, I decided to think for a couple of days, but on Thursday I finally said "yes" to them! If you remember my Facebook question "A or B", then you'll understand :)

So... After confirming my interest all I had to do was - to wait. On Thursday afternoon I got the final call with a short question: "Are you ready to start on Monday?" And I was!

So where does it leave me now?

From today onwards I am Lifestyle Editor of IamExpat - it's an online platform/website for all expats who are living in the Netherlands. For half a year I will be taking care of the lifestyle section, writing articles about different (cultural) events and updating the agenda there. I can hear what you are thinking - perfect job for Anita! That's right, baby! But remember, it's an internship, not a job - nothing in this world is perfect.

I need to be in the office four days a week (with pretty nice working hours), but as I am planning to go to Portugal in March, Latvia in July and some other trips, I will be in the office five days a week and take days off when it will be needed. Very flexible, that's what I like!

The office is quite small, there are three Greeks (co-founders of the website) and another intern, a Swedish girl. Two Nordic girls and three Southern guys, that's an interesting mixture! Already today during the lunch we had a discussion about weather in Latvia and I was like: "Yeah, it's nothing special, around -25 degrees back there, not so cold when I have my winter coat on", but the Greeks looked pretty terrified... :) Well, one of them is from Crete, where in the summer it can go up to +43, so that explains!

I will post my first articles in the blog as well, so stay tuned and check IamExpat website every now and then as well!

P.S. The picture is from their website.

How to fall in love with Brussels

It would not be fair to compare Brussels with Riga, because that would mean putting both cities in a closed box and looking to them from only one perspective. I hope you agree that they deserve much more, they deserve to be treated as unique in their own way and loved for the reasons you can love one, but not the second one (and the other way around).

Elizabeth Gilibert in her book “Eat pray love” wrote that each city can be described by one word. If she is right, then Brussels is definitely Career.

Before I moved to Brussels, several times I heard that you do not move to Brussels because you are in love with the city. No, you move there to work. To earn money. To climb up in your career. To lobby – for yourself. I feel that it is also the way Brussels is organised. You are there on your own, you need to follow your own path and nobody else will help you unless it’s in their interests or they really like you.

Or maybe I should say that Brussels is a Market? One big and huge market, where you can buy everything you want – starting with girls next to Gare du Nord and finishing with a warm chair in the European Parliament. The same as all other markets, it is also messy, sometimes dirty and always loud and full of people. Some of them come there knowing what to look for, some of them pass by curious to see what so famous Market has to offer and some of them wander around aimlessly.

For sure Brussels is the most multicultural city I have seen so far. Even the metropolitan London can not compete with the feeling you get when walking on the streets of Brussels. Not only “Mini-Europe” next to Atomium, but also Brussels itself takes a bit of different cultures and puts it together in one place. Turkey, Middle East, Brazil, North Africa, China, Flanders – they are just a couple of streets away from each other and all you need to do is to take another turn to find yourself in another continent.

Something like that would never happen, and probably never will, in Riga. Wherever you go, it is still Riga, the same culture, the same language and the same signs. Yes, sometimes you hear English or Russian more than Latvian, sometimes you see that those wooden houses are not comparable with art noveau found just five minutes away by tram and sometimes you think that parks so green make you feel like being in a countryside. However, never ever you have a feeling that you are in a different country or yet – a different world.

Also those who say that it is not possible to get to know Brussels in a short time are right. Brussels likes to keep its best places secret so only those who seek can find. You need to know where to go and what to look for in order to fall in love with it. And once you get the opportunity to have a glance to the way locals live, you understand – this is different. This is not Brussels which expats or tourists know, this is another city!

As I said before, people told me that one does not move to Brussels because of being in love with
the city. Despite that, there are some who stay in the city because they have fallen in love with it during their stay. And let me say that it makes Brussels meant for those who are patient enough – you need to take your time to discover the best parts of it, but once you have found them, your love becomes bigger and stronger.

This article was written as an assignment in one of the recruitment procedures when I was looking for a job. The editor wanted me to write an article, comparing Brussels with Riga. It has never been published.