More Istanbul

Istanbul, my love

I must go back.

peace

Budapest

This passage from Louis De Bernières' "Birds without wings" captures a bit the feeling I had while in Budapest and Istanbul:

"...you were reminded of a terrible truth, which is that everything decays away and is lost. Beauty is precious, and the more precious something is, the more beautiful it is, the more it will fade away. And the more we love the world, the more we are saddened that it is like finely powdered salt that runs away through the fingers or is puffed away by the wind, or is washed away by the rain."

This is beautiful Budapest:

Salzburg, Austria

Once we said goodbye to beautiful Beatenberg, Switzerland, we took the train back to Zurich, met up with Sena and Aiyana's friend Margaux, and transferred to the train to Salzburg. We spent two nights in Salzburg, and while there, we visited the beautiful Mirabell Palace gardens, as well as Mozart's house. Doppler's house was also a highlight, and it was fun for me to see and learn a little bit more about Doppler, known for the famous Doppler effect (speaking of famous physicists, I forgot to mention in my previous post that a really nice highlight in Zurich was visiting the famous ETH University where Einstein, Schrodinger and Pauli lectured!).

I look forward to sharing what I learned about Doppler with my students when we do waves and get into Doppler effect later this year.

Seeing Mozart's house was really moving, especially his violin and locks of hair, the rooms where he was born and grew up. I listened to some of his music while I was in Salzburg, which made the whole experience richer and more palpable.

Here are some pictures:

Motzart's violin!

View from Mozart's house 

Strolling around Salzburg 

Next up, Budapest!

Back from our travels: Switzerland chapter

I'm back from our travels in Europe and I'm a bit heartbroken that they're over, but also very very grateful that I had the opportunity to go.

I'm not sure how I can possibly describe how many beautiful things I've seen and experienced. I am really overwhelmed at how amazing traveling can be, all the new perspectives it brings, how it can expand you such that when you return you see yourself and your life in a new light. I've learned so much on this trip, not only about transportation, which was the focus of my grant, but also about culture, history, aesthetics, about other people and about myself.

Without rambling on too much, I'll summarize some highlights from each of the countries we visited.

Our group, by the way, changed over time: Ed, Sena, Aiyana and I started off in Switzerland, then moved on to Salzburg Austria, where Aiyana's frien, Margaux, joined us. We then travelled to Budapest, Hungary, and Romania. Ed came back to the States, and the girls and I continued traveling through Romania and on to Istanbul, before returning to Zurich and then back home.

I'll probably do highlights in a series of posts, starting with Switzerland. I already posted info specific to my grant on my Instagram page @ms.m_fft, si if you're interested in that, you can check it out there. Here, I'll stick with more personal impressions.

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Switzerland was incredible. I always knew I'd fall in love with it, and I was right. Not only was it physically stunning, but everything was so well organized, so efficient, pleasant and harmonious.

We were in Zurich for two full days, and from there we took the train to Interlaken region, and spent 3 full days in Beatenberg and Lauterbrunnen.

Sena's back and our adventures begin

We spent the last half of last week in Washington DC, helping Sena move back to CT. She's home again, which feels so nice, until she moves closer to Yale in August.

Meanwhile, we'll be having some adventures in Europe, starting tomorrow!!! First stop is Zurich, so stay tuned. I'll post stuff having to do with my grant on my Instagram account @ms.m_fft

Peace 

The way you look at things

I've been contemplating the quote: "When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change" (Max Planck).

How do we change the way we look at things? Some answers that come to mind: through our own experience and empathy with others' experiences, through direct communication as well as movies, books, art, and all kinds of learning.

Right now, for me, watching Summer Strike and any of the Asian movies/anime that I like is changing the way I look at things. How? By helping me discern and physically see differently; placing my attention on things I don't normally notice as much.

Learning physics also allows me to look at things differently. Travelling too. Finally, going through difficult, unpleasant experiences has allowed me to see things differently. This is not something I purposely sought out, but it did bring me a level of understanding I didn't have before, and through practicing meditation, I'm hoping to use that understanding and those hard experiences in a good way.

Peace

Sumer break and news

Dear friends,

It's been a while since I've updated this blog and a lot has happened, so I will try to summarize it in small chunks. Today, I will start with a little anecdote from school and then tell you about my summer grant.

All in all, this has been my best school year ever. I taught Physics, Aerospace Engineering and AP Research. I've had some amazing students, and although I, like everyone else, felt tired at the end of the school year and ready for summer break, I also genuinely felt sad at the prospects of not seeing my students regularly any more. One example of why this has been so rewarding is this one student, a very bright and kind Junior. He told me that until taking physics, he thought that school was useless and didn't see a point in it, but in our physics class he discovered something he was really good at and interested in. He decided to pursue Engineering Physics in college and will be applying next year. He also said that his family is really happy for him discovering this. 

I have other examples which I might share later, but for now, I just want to say how grateful I am and how happy this makes me.

And now, about my grant: earlier this year I applied for a Funds For Teachers (FFT) grant and was awarded it. I will be traveling for 3 weeks in July, through Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey, studying sustainable and equitable transportation systems, including aviation, trains, and other means of urban/rural mobility. I will also be taking a sustainable aviation course at Delft University (online), bringing insights and experiences from all this back to my students. I am super excited about it and in the stages of planning it all right now. If you would like to follow my travels and experiences, I created an Instagram account to capture highlights specific to this grant, and you can find it under @ms.m_fft (it also gets posted to my FB account, under Raluca Mocanu).

I will end here for now, and follow up in a future post with more updates. I hope that you are all doing well as well :)

Peace

Exciting News

We had some great news recently: Sena was accepted to Yale for pursuing her Masters of Environmental Management. She was also awarded enough scholarships and funding to be able to attend. We're super excited and proud of her. She'll be leaving her job in Washington DC and moving to New Haven to pursue this degree in late summer.

This is her in her DC apartment (literally across the street from the Russian embassy).

Meanwhile, Aiyana is doing really well at McGill and is almost done with her first year. I think that she's really enjoying being there: the atmosphere, the people she met and friends she made, and the challenging academic environment. She's pretty much studying all the time, but she's doing so with friends, and she's also seeing the results in that she's learned so much already.

The other great thing about her being in Montreal is that I also have been going there much more often, which I am enjoying, and also affords me the opportunity to see my parents more.

This is her walking in front of the engineering building where I spent so much time and have so many good memories from.

And this is Aiyana and her very good friend Meixi who also studies at McGill and came to spend Christmas break with us.

Peace

"I don't need a reason for what I've become "

Leonard Cohen's "You want it darker" has been given me solace through recent tribulations. 

Soul friend

More to come maybe 

Connecting the dots

I remember one day in 2019:

 I was a teaching assistant at EO Smith. It was just something I was trying partly on a whim, after the slow and painful realization that farming was probably not going to be sustainable as a long term occupation, at this point in my life.

I was helping another teacher in his intro to science classroom. One day after school I went to Starbucks across the street and, while having my coffee, thought about how I've always really liked physics, in school and outside of school, and how I would like to teach it. That idea took shape more and more, and over the next few months, I decided to take the physics exam and qualify as a potential physics teacher. Then, after passing the exam, I went through an intense official training to get my pedagogy skills. 

Long story short, here I am, 4 years later, teaching physics, a completion of that initial vision. I took this picture sitting at Starbucks this week after school, on a beautiful afternoon, correcting some labs. Same place as 4 years ago, I felt very much connected to that initial seed of inspiration and glad that I followed it. 

I don't want to make it sound like it's all been a bed of roses getting here, because it hasn't. But I do want to acknowledge that I am really enjoying where I am right now, and I am grateful that that original vision materialized.

Aiyana moved into her residence at McGill this weekend

It's been quite a weekend, moving Aiyana in. Very emotional at times. She's doing well, already meeting other nice students, going out, enjoying the city, and making friends. I'm fluctuating between being really excited for her and being heartbroken. The house feels so empty coming back to. It's really weird. I'm numb.

I know I'll get used to it eventually, but right now it's a hard transition.

Here are some pictures:

Aiyana and Ed walked right by the engineering buildings where I spent so much time and have so many great memories from, on their way to her residence.

The iconic McGill walkway, with the arts building in the background, where she'll probably be spending much time this year studying international development.

Her building is really nice, right on Sherbrooke Street, and within minutes from McGill and all of downtown.

I almost burst into tears when I walked into my room after driving back home and saw her little horse from when she was small, one of her favorite toys, on my bed.

I'm glad for Aiyana, and for my parents, who will get to see her much more often now. I'll be going to Montreal more often as well to see all of them.

Meanwhile, I'll keep myself busy with school and trying to support Sena and Aiyana as much as possible from far away.

Peace

Really enjoying my cousin's visit

We're really enjoying the visit of my cousin and her family from Germany. It's really fun to talk to her and her kids, who are all grown up and very interesting. I'm so glad that Sena and Aiyana are getting to meet their cousins from different countries (Germany and France this year, Romania last year). It's refreshing and mind opening to spend time with people whose daily contexts are different than our own.

Peace