Andressa » Bullet

The Bullet – Referendum 2007

andressa — Thu, 24 May 2007 12:08:12 +0000

Ziarul studentesc The Bullet are o editie speciala dedicata Referendumului de pe 19 mai 2007.

Numarul acesta include fotoreportaje din Piata Universitatii si de la sectii de votare.
Imi place mult de tot.

Felicitari echipei!

Bullet

andressa — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:34:10 +0000

The November issue of the Bullet is online.

I read this issue and I really liked it. I am confident that the new team will be at least as good as the former ones. I am really happy that Cristina, a colleague of mine and a good friend, is the editor at the moment. Good job, Cris!

I noticed that the layout changed a little (or is it just me? I’ve never been much of layout artist…) and I look forward for the next issue.

The Bullet must go on!

Can you dance?

andressa — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 09:02:33 +0000

Before you answer yes to that question, you should go to Enklawa during a Salsa Party. Who will be there except you? La creme de la creme of Polish salsa dancers. For only 5 zlots (1,2 euros) if you’re a girl and 10 zlots if you’re a man, you can see tens of couples dancing as if the National Championship of Salsa is taking place right then and there. And you can also see that dancing doesn’t mean “salsa-ing”, exactly how boiling an egg does not mean cooking!
Warsaw In Your Pocket discribes this club like this:

A young, elite crowd trots down the red carpet leading to the entrance, then proceed to drink within an inch of Hades inside a horrible interior of stone cladding and suspended steel tubing. Good time music – disco, salsa, chart hits – keep the atmosphere bubbling and Enklawa has become the foggy finish point to many ul. Mazowiecka pub crawls.

… but it fails to capture the real athmosphere, which is… a night in Ibiza!

People don’t speak, but dance!

The moment I took off my jacket and stood in line to leave it at the entrance, a man offered me a drink and asked me to dance. And that is characteristic to Enklawa. Everybody asks everybody to dance. Many can’t speak Polish, so the invitation is made in few words, like: “Dance?”

After 23:00 the club the ring is full and only the bad dancers watch the party standing aside with a drink in their hands. A tall 25 year old man, dressed in a suit and carrying around a glass of beer to avoid dancing, stands at the bar, next to the ring, and smiles to pretty girls – almost to all girls in all actuality, as the light is red and everybody looks fascinating in that light. If he’s lucky, a girl will teach him how to salsa or at least he will meet someone to share his loneliness at the bar.

If most men wear suits, girls have put on their short dresses and high healed shoes. The long cleaveages and colorful skimpy outfits work perfectly with the hot athmosphere and it gives you even more the impression you have travelled in time and space entering the club.

A girl wearing a tight, short, black dress spins nonstop, sometimes stepping on somebody’s toes, but she doesn’t seem to care. Survival of the fittest in Enklawa! Niether the unconfortable shoes or a bad dance partner will stop her form dancing all night long. And that is also why 40-year-old foreigners stop in Enklawa! The word must have gone around that beautiful young girls dance to latino rythms and they come either to watch or to try to make friends, close friends. Preferably, of the opposite sex!

Luckily for the ones watching the show and enjoying a drink, the prices aren’t high! A normal beer is 8 zlots (2 euros) and a beer with raspberry syrop is 9 zlots. Cocktails go up tp 17 zlots.

The Ibiza-like feeling doesn’t go away at midnight. At 3 am people are still exchanging partners and dancing like Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing. But Enklawa is not the place to learn how to dance. Telling a person you can’t dance will leave you alone with your drink, don’t expect someone to offer to teach you. The ring is too crowded and the music is changing so fast that you have to come prepared after a long reharsal in front of the mirror at home.

Salsa nights in Enklawa are famous among clubbers. But so are the other parties: pop, house, funk. The managers care about their loyal customers and email them details about the parties and sometimes even passwords which get them in with a cheaper ticket!

Shhhh, I’ll tell you a secret: the next party’s secret word is “sun“! Have fun!

The Bullet is back!

andressa — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 16:24:58 +0000

The Center for Independent Journalism is now recruiting new students for the Bullet. I was a member of the Bullet last year, when Larry Gerber and George Hari Popescu were the editors. The experience was rewarding: I made new friends, My English improved, I learned many new things.

I think the Bullet is a must for any student who wants to see how a newspaper-staff works. So, what are you waiting for, apply now!

The beauty of it

andressa — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 09:03:08 +0000

Sometimes, being a journalist is great. The profession brings you satisfaction if you enjoy meeting people, talking to people and it compensates the anonymity you are condemned to – it’s difficult to be a star as a journalist, few people remember the name of the person who wrote a newspiece and if anybody does, he / she is likely to forget it as soon as the next newspaper is out. And that, my friends, is frustrating for some people.
Some of my positive experiences as a journalist until now:

a press conference on insomnia at Crowne Plaza. I learned many new things and ate Roquefort cheese after the presentations.
the article I wrote for a Civic Journalism Contest. While I was gathering information, I visited a refugee camp, I talked to lawyers, psychologists, refugees from different countries (a journalist from Turkey, young girls from Somalia and a family form Afganistan impressed me the most). I read hundreds of pages of legislation and history facts about the countries refugees come from. It was one of the most complex materials I have worked on. I won the second prize. More about that soon.
a theater review I write for class after seeing a play I really enjoyed. I wrote it from the bottom of my heart. Dilema Veche published it [scroll down for my review]. It’s not incredible, but I loved the play and enjoyed writing that.
a feature for the Bullet about school assignments. I took around ten interviews, one of them while climbing the stairs to the 14th floor of the Municipal Hospital. I took pictures, met so many interesting people. Loved every second of it.
the article I’m working on right now about a jazz musician. Last night I had a blast interviewing the band. The concert was superb and I shared a table with a very nice (and good-looking, I may add) actor, a famous DJ and the manager of the bar. They were such a nice company. I’m going to write a good story, I’m sure.

Pour les connaisseurs*: sometimes, doing my job is more fun than having fun.

*For the ones who don’t know, one of the essays I had to write for the admission exams in Journalism School was entitled: “Work is more fun than fun itself” – you were allowed to agree or disagree the affirmation. I agreed, for the fun of argumenting.

The faucet

andressa — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 20:43:03 +0000

I noticed that my urge to write is like a faucet with a constant flow. Whether it’s the blog, an assignment or an article, I have to write constantly.

Sometimes I blog a few times a day and there are also gaps of days in my blogging routine. I still write though. Only not here. And my energy is redirected towards something else. It’s funny, but at the end of the day I don’t feel like writing if I spent hours editing, writing or simply gathering information.

It’s one of those days. I find myself in front of the computer, I have my fingers spread on the keyboard and my eyes focused on the screen, still I have no desire in sharing any thought.

I wanted to put this feeling of creative exhaustion into words, so I could come back to the text from time to time.

I can’t help wondering… I remember a teacher telling me during high school: “You have to write daily, writing must come natural eventually, it shouldn’t be an effort. Write for hours every day”. And I did. After 5 months, I was able to write a good short story in an hour. And still have ideas for two more.

The stories I have to write now are more and more complicated. How do other people do it? And I’m not talking about simple journalistic tasks like writing a short newspiece, but real stories, at least a page long, with characters, atmosphere, solid background information. The kind Stephen Glass wrote only true ones!

I sometimes wonder if the path I’ll choose will be journalism. Or will I end up “PR”-ing? Or will I serve beer in my own bar? Or will a teach? Could I do all of the above?

Well, for now, I like the feeling of exhaustion that journalism leaves me with. I’ll go enjoy it.

Foarte tare, frate! :)

andressa — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 07:10:56 +0000

The Bullet continua si pe perioada verii!

Ziarul scris de studenti, din echipa caruia am facut si eu parte, cu mandrie spun asta, pastreaza versiunea online in romana pe perioada verii. Am sa incerc si eu sa scriu ceva vara asta, poate si din Varsovia sa fiu corespondent strain!

Va recomand sa intrati pe site! Din ce am vazut, mi s-au parut interesante: Vacante ieftine, Bungee jumping, Noaptea Devoratorilor. Cititi tot, tot.

Noul numar din Bullet

andressa — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 21:15:22 +0000

A aparut noul numar din Bullet.

E ultimul numar scris de echipa aceasta, urmeaza o noua selectie in toamna. Pe timpul verii, ziarul va aparea in varianta online. Si eu voi incerca sa ajut! Go Bullet!

Editorialul e semnat de mine si poate fi citit aici aici.

faza zilei

andressa — Sat, 13 May 2006 14:56:10 +0000

In ultimul timp am cam neglijat ONG-urile la care fac voluntariat. Facultatea, Bullet-ul si cele doua joburi imi ocupa tot timpul. Astfel, ii spuneam azi presedintelui MASTER Forum despre al doilea job si ce fac exact. Ce raspunde el:

- Dar tu de ce te tot angajezi? Ai nevoie de bani atat de mult?

A aparut noul numar din Bullet!

andressa — Sun, 07 May 2006 11:53:38 +0000

Varianta online se gaseste aici, iar articolul la care am lucrat cel mai mult este asta.