Catrinel

Catrinel hates all the pictures I'm taking of her. So I'll just post this, without her knowing. Shhhh...don't tell her!

Little Arrow

Cotroceni is a fancy neighbourhood in Bucharest. Instead of apartment blocks, you'll see beautiful houses, cats, old women, rich people. 

As me and Florin were riding our bikes in Cotroceni, I noticed a balcony with lots of plants. Then I saw a curious cat, looking at me from the upper floor. A woman soon came out, searching for the cat. "She's very nice." "It's a he,"she said. "His name is Sagetel."

Sagetel is a diminutive in Romanian, derived from Sageata, which means arrow. So the cat's name was Little Arrow. 

Ruxandra

Ruxandra is one of my colleagues at Romania Insider. I photographed her at the office today. The light was beautiful, and Ruxandra was on her way out to smoke a cigarette. But something caught her attention, and she stayed a little longer, staring at the computer. So snap, I took a picture of her. Then she noticed me, but the light was too good, so I asked her to stay just a little longer. Then she went out to smoke her cigarette.

Leslie Hawke

I met Leslie Hawke in her apartment in Bucharest. She's the co-founder of OvidiuRo, an NGO which helps disadvantaged kids go to kindergarten, she's Ethan Hawke's mother and she's also a friend of writer Andrew Solomon. Actually that's how I heard about her. Andrew wrote about his visit to Romania and mentioned his friend Leslie. Only later I found out that she's Ethan's mum. 

So when I went to meet her for the interview I was a bit nervous. It turned out to be one of the most interesting dialogues I've had. Leslie is very honest and direct. 

Alexandra, in her room