La summer school de l’AJPro

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

L’AJP, l’Association des Journalistes Professionnels organisait pour sa deuxième année consécutive une petite semaine de Summer School.

Le principe est simple : proposer des petits cours variés aux journalistes salariés, indépendants, et étudiants de dernière année. En fin de compte, nous étions de tous les âges, partagés selon nos centres d’intérêts.

Malgré que les modules proposés ne couvraient que 3 heures de la journée, les (futurs) professionnels pouvaient par la suite s’inscrire à d’autres formations traitant du même sujet. En effet, en plus de cette Summer School, l’AJP suggère d’autres formations certains weekend de l’année. En adhérant à l’association, la logistique envoie le calendrier des activités par la poste.

J’ai eu la chance de participer à cette semaine de formation. J’ai commencé mardi avec le cours de justice pénale présenté par Jacques Englebert, professeur à l’ULB. Ensuite, j’ai participé à l’atelier photo avec Thierry Maroit, professeur de l’IHECS.

Ces activités étaient concrètes. En photo, nous avons eu une bonne heure, peut être deux, de théorie avant d’être lâché dans la nature avec nos appareils photos. L’ambiance était bon enfant, avec de bons fous rires. Nous nous rencontrons entre participants de ce module, et nous nous entraidons.

En justice pénale, il y avait moins de pratique. Néanmoins, Jacques Englebert nous a parlé de cas concret. Il prenait l’exemple de Jean-Claude DeFossé lorsqu’il était présentateur de Question à La Une. Le formateur nous expliquait l’empiètement des journalistes sur les enquêtes policières. La conclusion était simple : nous dérangeons la justice.

DSC_0142Lors du 3e jours de formation, j’ai suivi le cours de scrapping et Google Refine avec Nicolas Kayser Bril, de Journalisme ++. Ce jeune petit geek ( ;-)) nous expliquait comment nous pouvons récolter des données chiffrées sur des sites qui pouvaient nous les cacher. Il nous a présenté deux outils : la fonction de l’ordinateur Toogle Tools, qui nécéssite une bonne connaissances des API au préalable. La deuxième fonction, Google Refine, requière la même chose, mais elle est un peu plus simple à structurer. Je vous parle peut être dans une langue inconnue, c’est normal, je n’y ai pas encore tout compris non plus. Voilà pourquoi l’AJP propose plus tard dans l’année un autre weekend pour approfondir la matière. La date n’a pas encore été déterminée.

Avant dernier jour, j’ai suivi les cours reliés aux métiers de l’écriture avec management de rédaction présenté par Fabrice Grosfilley de Bel RTL et Télé Bruxelles et coaching en écriture avec Thierry Fiorilli, du Vif L’express. Avoir des professionnels comme formateur rend la théorie beaucoup plus concrète. Ils nous parlent de leurs expériences, et sans risquer notre poste, nous pouvons confronter nos avis. Il m’arrivait souvent d’être en désaccord avec les façons de faire des rédacteurs en chef comme Fabrice Grosfilley nous l’expliquait. Cela m’a également permise de mieux cerner le type de média pour lequel je voudrais travailler dans l’année.

Le formateur du cours d’écriture donnait un genre de cours particulier à chacun d’entre nous. Heureusement, nous n’étions pas nombreuses. Oui, nous n’étions que des filles ; peut être était ce la raison de Thierry Fiorilli pour nous donner à chacune des conseils très personnalisé selon nos écrits. Néanmoins, comme beaucoup d’autres formateurs, notre rédacteur en chef adjoint du Vif nous proposait de continuer la formation après nos 5 jours. Il m’a d’ailleurs suggérée de lui remettre un portrait. S’il est bien écrit, je vous promets de le publier ici sur le blog.

Le dernier jour, j’ai participé à l’atelier multimédia ave Joan Roels de We Tell Stories. Encore une fois, j’aurais pu m’attendre à devoir changer de nom avant de m’y inscrire. La famille Damman est un peu (trop) connue dans ce monde là. Mise à part ca, j’ai pu y apprendre une autre approche du multimédia que celui vu en cours en Roumanie. Après être passé en revue certains projets, nous pouvions réaliser le notre, et avoir des conseils personnalisés selon nos attentes. Je vous confirme d’ailleurs que je suis en train de réaliser un projet pour ce blog. Comme pour le portrait, s’il est bien fait, c’est promis, je le publierai.

La formation s’est terminée autour d’une ou deux bières, beaucoup de nouveaux contacts, des conseils et de nouvelles perspectives pour l’avenir professionnel. Mon futur en Belgique se confronte de plus en plus à un mur où les offres attendues n’existent pas et donc, nous ferions peut être mieux de les créer nous mêmes. Néanmoins, avec les formateurs et les autres jeunes rencontrés sur place, j’ai pu entendre des avis différents, des attentes différentes. En fin de compte, chacun se dirige vers son monde professionnel parfait. La Summer School, aussi variée qu’elle ait été, sera probablement réorganisée l’année prochaine. J’espère également que l’AJP proposera une Winter School.

The end of Romania

DSC_0035
Marie Damman

Some of the Erasmus students left already, others are packing, and getting ready to leave soon. These days are the last for many of us. For Romanians, the last Erasmus week means everyday-parties.  It is also the last occasion for many of us to try some places we haven’t been there before. When we are leaving soon, in the next two weeks, we make a checklist of what we want to do before to go. Mostly, the list is too long to be able to check it in a couple of weeks. We fell in love with Romania so we already planned to go back and to keep doing this list. Here is how mine looks like:

  • Road trip in Moldova
  • Delta Danube
  • Peles castle
  • South West of Romania
  • Balea lake
  • Oradea
  • Alba Iulia
  • Targu Mures

Other have on the top list a road trip in Maramures. This kind of trip takes time to make. In Cluj, we also want to try the last place such as the new game at the Dungeon, the German restaurant, Romanian, Italian, the outdoor pool, the lake on the East side of the City and so on. We also like to try again these places one last time, like the werewolf game at CouchSurfing, or Euphoria, Zorki, Central Park… At the same time, we have some finals to finish, a thesis to write, and for some of us, Electric Castle festival, which let us only a few days to check the whole list. This send us to the previous point: go back to Cluj to loop our trip.

Bridail veil in Rachitele

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

Nearby Cluj Napoca, on the way to the Apuseni mountains, there are some villages. As western Europeans, we expect a center, with a church, some roads around, surrounded by big houses.

It has been 5 months since I am traveling along in Romania. This shape of village is not in my mind anymore. Rachitele proved it too. In this kind of village, there is no network, no internet, only nature, the people you go with and the people you meet.

We went to the small village, located south of Huedin to hike to the Bridal waterfall. It was huge, and reminded me of the Bridal veil in Oregon. The waterfall is famous in the area, you need to walk 5 km from Rachitele downtown. There are also some signs on the way.

Online, we found a log cabine, Cabana Dealu Rasinarului din Rachitele. First, we looked in English, then in Hungarian. Finally, we found many choices in Romanian. Once we called, no one could speak any of the languages we had around us: German, French, Turkish, English. We had to call over a Romanian friend and finally be able to book few rooms.

According to the map, the cabana (as Romanians call it), was located between the village center and the natural reservation of Apuseni. We had to climb on hills, where they were no roads to go back to the cabana from the center. All the houses were spread around.

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

We were actually well located. Between the center (at least the way went down to reach there) and the waterfall, our main goal of the weekend.

Our hosts were also really friendly. They provided us of local milk, cheese, placinta, fat meat and raining clothes. With my friends, we also enjoyed to be part of the village’s life. We got to visit the field, and to milk from a cow.

The son of the host guided us to the waterfall. We tried all the way to share what we had. It was hard to insist.

It took around 15 km to walk the whole day, from the cabana to the waterfall, from the waterfall to the center and from the center to the cabana. It was a bit raining but when you are from a raining country; this doesn’t stop you anymore.

 

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May in Cluj: full of festivals

 

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

Under a clear blue sky, 30°C in Central Park, students are playing a treasure hunt. One of the quests was to climb beer packs. After 15 packs, the packs fell, and the professional climbers maintain the student in the air.

Summer has arrived in Cluj Napoca. Some students would rather go travelling around while, with my friend, we’d rather stayed in the city and enjoyed the Cluj Days.

Since the beginning of the spring, Cluj offer plenty of festivals, started with the Napoca Music Event as free concerts at the arena. Then, Forza Zu followed, the main radio offered commercial music bands, while Ursus Cooler sponsored the event. That beer is actually a lemonade beer or a free-alcohol. The advertisement worked good for them. From these two big events, free concerts were palying every weekends evening, and sometimes on the week as well, until the biggest events: Photo Romania Festival, Cluj Days and TIFF, a movie festival.

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

I’ve been only to Forza Zu and to Cluj Days for now. The event lasts for a week, opening with an multicultural parade. Everyone had the change to walk under confettis and show their flag. At the same time, the medieval village was standing in the old street of the city. The village looked invaded by medieval actors, which lived there. Also, a medieval market was located in front of the main building of the university of Babes Boliay, shopmen were mostly selling food, books, and jewelry. At the end of the markets we could find stages. While walking around in the city, we could discover three others in small hidden squares..

In Central Park, assocations organized many free activities such as archery, (Tyrolienne), pack climbing, soccer in a blowup field, sumo fight, and so more. Tyrolienne had a lot of success according to the size of the line.

We tried it. We could see the kids climb up to the tree so quickly and smoothly while adults took more time. Our weight makes the climbing more difficult, especially when it comes to take the last step.

Concerts started around 7 pm and didn’t last so late. For midnight, the music was over and the audience left the place. Romanian summer concerts are nothing about what we use to hear in Western Europe: no pop music, and barely commercial artists. What we heard one night was typical Romanian songs. The public was enjoying the music, they were dancing in circle, making it bigger and bigger until taking over half of the main square (Piata Unirii).

A couple was dancing in the middle. They were doing other steps and they were synchronized. When Romanians have the occasion, they always dance altogether, which give us another perspective of partying.

 

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Gilau lakes

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

When the weather is getting warmer and warmer, and you live in a city, often the idea of leaving it for a day comes to mind.

The sun hits your skin, and offers some sunburn to white skins, while riding a bike to a village nearby, Gilau. Then, it is easy to get lost and to enjoy riding further.

In an hour bike, you can reach the lakes at Gilau, while taking the main road which lead to Polus Center, then follow the direction to Fantanele. The bike road is hard at the beginning, as you have to ride on the main street with cars, but once you get to the village, the road is nicer. There are two small lakes. Fantanele has the third lake, the biggest one, where Romanian use to swim in in the summer, and it is close to the mountains as well. When you take a deeper look on the side of the small lakes, you can find some nice spots, which look, like beaches, with grasses and a connection to the cold water. They are often hidden behind the roads.

With the chilly place on the grass, you can often see a fire spots. Hidden from the road and from any kind of civilization but wandering dogs, it is easy to rest under the sun or under the stars.

 

 

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Sighisoara, Timisoara, two cities you can’t confuse

 

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

On the way from Cluj-Napoca to Brasov, there is a small town called Sighisoara. That town is really pretty. The citadel has a nice view on the lower town, which includes a huge orthodox church. You can still feel the medieval atmosphere, with the stones paths, the high walls and the colorful townhouses. We missed only medieval people to finish the painting.

Somewhere, lost between the tourists, a troubadour walked up the stairs where a musician played guitar. We can join him though. The Café Medieval offers to rent traditional costumes. Actually, every year, the town run the time backward again, with a medieval festival at the end of July.

Nearby, on Piata Muzului, there are many pensiune (bed & breakfast), we tried the Burg hostel which was nice. The town still has a lot of German history. Signs are written in German. You can also find an Art souvenirs store, at the ground floor of Casa Baroca, to buy some traditional and colorful potteries. Sighisoara is such like a fairytale, where fairies and dragons could find their town in the real world.

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

Timisoara on the other hand, was totally different, even if the name can sound similar. Located at 3h40 from Sighisoara, this town was the first of Europe to have electricity on the street in 1884. But this, it doesn’t have anything to see. At this period of the year (April 2014), everything was under construction; every main square was refreshing. The city had the title of capital of the culture, for 2021. They started to get ready for this big event. It’s a shame that everything at once was under dust. All we could see was some archaeologists working in the squares. We could find a way to have fun in the city though. We found a nice hostel, Costel hostel. The place is run by youths, around 25 years old, boys and girls. They live in the basement with a dog. The place they made feel cozy, and the employees/owners/youths are nice and friendly. It is easy to grab a couple beers with them and to finish the night 4 hours later than expected. At the hostel you also have a kitchen, to cook whatever you feel like. It felt better to eat in a colorful kitchen than to grab a cup of coffee on Piata Unirii, along with the construction trucks.

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Belgrade, the city of parties

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

With a couple of my friends, we spent a couple of  days in Belgrade, Serbia. On the daytime, we visited downtown, the old and the new Belgrade. There is not so much to see. What we enjoyed the most on the daytime was the forteresse, with the view on the two rivers joining each other. It is incredible how the color can be different accordinf to the river way. For our whole trip, we like the most the nightlife..

Our friend was right. I asked her how is life in Serbia, she answered:

“It is all about parties.”

We met Serbian girls to show us around. We discovered nice places to have a beer, a second one, and some traditional Serbian shots, Rakia. Some of us got dizzy. Some of the Serbians also made bad comments about my sweater, I wore an American flag on my chest. My friend warned me:

“I wouldn’t wear this tonight if I were you”

She added I should rather wear a Russian flag.

I didn’t understand at first, before getting into the parties and listening these remarks about my sweater. Serbia tries to get into the European Union and feels so bad to the United States at the same time, this doesn’t sound logical to me.

Parties don’t last so long in Belgrade. Pubs close around midnight, 1 a.m, then Serbians use to go to club to dance. Some rare bars offers also a dance floors so you can party and drink all night long. The music on is really different from Romania and Western European countries. The two nights we spent there, we only heard Serbian songs. Some of the Serbian girls knew some lyrics by heart. I was expecting songs from pop stars such as Miley Cyrus for the Americans, Jenifer for the French, but I guess, for Serbian, the most famous are old-fashioned. When I asked after these songs I had Marinko Rokvic drinking wine alone on his round table, and Toma Zdravkovic with his grey hair.

We stayed at the Chillton Hostel, behind the Saint Sava temple. The place is okay. We got into a tiny room for 6 beds. Likely, it wasn’t full when we arrived.

From there, we tried some traditional places. We found a fish restaurant, where they served us two fish for three people and we were starving; we also ate in a local fast food with traditional cheese & spicy sauce and had breakfast on the go in a local bakery brand. The food is really good. The counter people always try to find someone who speaks English to serve us. They take it well and are always smiling. Serbian will always try to find a way to help you out.

Even though, it is quiet complicated to find someone who speak English. We always remember this advice: “find someone young”, most of the time, it works and most of the time in Belgrade, people don’t have a good English.

Like this, we met someone from Syria, who escaped the war a year ago. He is now living in Belgrade. We didn’t get a chance to talk to him so much; our fatigue was winning in our bodies.

 

Romanian May 1st on the seaside

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

In Romania, the society follows the orthodox calendar. This mean that Easter is not always on the same date than the Catholic’s is. This year, in 2014, Easter break was a week after the two weeks off in Belgium. As soon as Romanian went back to school, they had another holiday: May 1st.

It is a big event for Romanians, especially students and youths. Everybody meets in Vama Veche, on the Black Sea for a 4-days festival. There, we met people from Brasov, Cluj, Bucharest, and everywhere in Romania. With the Erasmus community, people from all around the world showed up as well.

During these 4-days, the Erasmus community, ESN, organised many activities on the afternoon, such as beach games or beach cleaning. On the evening, the beach was crowded of people who wanted to have parties. Though the sky was grey and the temperature too low to be able to wear a swim suit, the weather didn’t discouraged the public. All the bars, with view on the sea, and sometime with bar on the sand, were opened all night long. The morning was the quietest moment, with everybody getting tired of dancing and drinking, or with these people who would have rather go to bed.

Marie Damman
Marie Damman 

The clubs were diversified. There were one with drum & bass music, another with reggae, another with more French music, another again with commercial music; there were a club for anyone!

And for those who don’t like clubbing so much, they could have a beer next to a bonfire, while listening the background music.

Youth Romanians were pretty good at going partying the 4-days. Of course, May 1st is the day nobody want to miss, the other nights also had success, as they were still crowded like the first night.

Every hotels were full for the event, and the beach was also crowded of tent, and people making small fired and barbecue nearby the sea side.

On the way back to our city, Cluj-Napoca, we passed by Bucharest where a hailstorm appeared.

Once back in the bus, all soaked, we could fall asleep in the smell of alcohol.

 

 

 

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Hitch hiking across borders

Marie Damman
Marie Damman

Hitch hiking can be a really practical solution for backpackers. You get to know some locals, and most of the time, you get free ride. When you are lucky, you can get to the other side to the country with the same ride, for free. Last trip I made it to Fagaras, Romania, to Timisoara, with a German driver. We didn’t pay anything.

This is also something about hitch hiking in Romania: speak German or be with someone who speaks German. There are a lot of people who speak it. Not so many speak English neither do they speak French.

In this case then, hitch hiking is the best way to travel along in Romania. In some case though, it can be dangerous. I tried this with some German friends.

Our plan was to travel to Belgrade, Serbia, from Timisoara, Romania. We had to wait a bit longer than usual and then we had a first car. The young driver of one of the cars we had then asked his dad to pick us up on the way. The dad asked for money and after negotiation, we didn’t want to pay anything.  We left the car and waited for the next one.

More and more people came to us, asking for money in exchange to drop us. Some of the drivers asked for Euros. One of our friends checked the prices online for buses first, so we knew we couldn’t exceed this. We said no to everyone. They kept coming to us until the next car stopped for us.

That guy didn’t ask for anything, but he didn’t stopped where he was supposed. He kept driving to the next village and then to the Serbian border. There, the driver told us he could cross the border. We didn’t want to risk giving him our ID. We crossed by foot. On the line, the driver passed us and asked us again. Once we crossed, he came back again to us. We started walking. On the way, the driver picked up a girl, left her somewhere, and then came to us. We don’t know what happened to that girl, where she could have been dropped off when you know how the Serbian – Romanian border looks like: countryside, flat, and only one road.  The next village was 20 km away.

We were really scared of that driver. We started to walk to the next village. My feet hurt. We got picked up by two young Romanians; really nice and we spent the weekends with them. They also drove us to Timisoara on the way back.

Here is what we have to remember about this: never give money when you go hitch hiking and mostly, never give euros, and be aware of where you should be dropped off, never agree to have something more. It is always risky to cross border by hitch hiking, especially the one I tried. The authorities still try to fight against corruption.

Hitch Hiking can be fun, when you know how to do it, and when you have a good, self-confident partner to travel with.

 

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Road trip in Maramures

View of Repedea from up the hill
Marie Damman


The county of Maramures is located north of Romania, at the Ukrainian border. There are many mountains and villages lost in the valleys. The main immigrants who live there are from Ukraine.

There are not so many way to go traveling in Maramures. Public transportations are rare, so the best way remain the car. Of course, you may want to try hitch hiking but remember, Maramures is mostly full of villages.

When I went there, I traveled with 5 German-speakers friends. We rented a car in Cluj, from a new company. It is cheap to rent a car here: count 20€ per day, 200€ deposit and the gaz. For the total of our trip, we spent around 250 lei, which is around 55€. We spent 3 days on the road, sleeping in bed & breakfast places (pensiune in Romanian).

The first day, we found a cozy place in Vadu Izei, south of Sighetu Marmatiei. We called before so we had a nice heavy dinner waiting for us. Of course, the holder suggested at first some Palinca, which is the traditional Romanian alcohol, stronger than any alcohol you can imagine, more than 52%.

The rest of the meal was well prepared, and it looked like a traditional dinner. Even if we came later than expected, the holders were well prepared, and the result was delightful.

Then, we kept moving north, to Sighetu Marmatiei to visit the famous Memorial about the communism prison. Austrian, German and myself, Belgian saw many similarities with the Jewish camps.

Communism Memorial
Marie Damman

At the time we were visiting, they were also playing a movie. Someone wore like a communist guard, and another actor played the prisoner. For us, it looked strange, like they made fun of the place, where people died.

In the museum, each room tells another part of the story. One room can tell about the resistance in the mountains (mostly in Maramures), about the medicine resources, about the destroyed religion places, and some rooms remain as they were, with only a bed, or with only chains in the dark.

Outside the museum, it is hard to find a cozy place to eat. We either couldn’t find a waitress, or they were only pizza places.

We kept going to Sapanta to visit the famous Merry cemetery. It became a touristic place that the cost of the entrance increases. At the exit, there are also many traditional home-maid shops. In Sapanta, you can also see some traditional houses when walking around. They look colorful, like the holders decorated their house with jewellery.

Merry Cemetary in Sapatanta
Marie Damman

The second night, we spent it in a random place, at Pensiunea Miraj, at Leordina, a huge house on the country side, where you can look at the sky through the window. The place was cozy, but a bit cold. The shower wasn’t perfect, the pressure was always changing and the showerhead needed to be replaced. Nevertheless, the holder was really nice. She could make a quick dinner for us, and the next morning, we had a big breakfast, exactly what we needed to go hiking!

We had the time change this morning. The holder was helpful to us. She offered coffees for the two girls who could wake up on time (me included).

The mountains of Maramures are part of the Easter Carpathians. It is a beautiful place to go hiking and to get some sunburn. Locals either live in the village, along on the main street, or have their small house a bit further, in the middle of nowhere. They live close to the community and also with the wildlife.

Traditional house in Saptanta
Marie Damman

On the way back, we got lost by being negatively surprised. We saw on the map that Baie Mare is supposed to be a big city, but apparently with nothing interesting to see. Instead, we heard that Bistrita is a Dracula’s city. Once there, we expected to find a place to sleep, but we could only find hotels. We finished our trip to Beclean, at Somes hotel, as adviced in “Le Guide du Routard” 2002 edition. We were really disappointed of the place. It was cheap, but the place smelled like cigarette everywhere, the bathroom looked awful with some broken tiles; we didn’t have hot water and neither WIFI. On the street at night, people were shouting at us in English, because we were a group of five girl.

On the daytime, we tried to visit a bit of the town, but they were nothing to see

Instead, we were looking for a castle that we couldn’t find. We stopped on the lake’s side, Taul Popii lake, after Geaca, to have a walk. There, a Romanian countryman helped us to cross his property that was watched by two big hairy dogs.

Maramures mountains
Marie Damman

 

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