davehaasjr

[davehaasjr]

Easter in Romania

Wow, where to begin? Years before moving to Romania I read books about Romania, something that had interested me that eventually grew to one day wanting to live and experience the country. One of the things I read was about Easter holiday, and on my bucket list of Romanian experiences, Easter was at the top. It’s the largest celebrated holiday in the country and a very traditional celebration. Either just getting together with family, and/or taking part in a church service, the country stops life to recognize the most important day in Christianity; the death and resurrection of Christ.

In America Easter is a time of families to come together, usually a 3-day weekend, sometimes 4 days, but in a very modern aspect of celebration. The ceremony lasts usually 1-2 hours at a church service, the big moment waking up in the morning and going to church about 9am, 10am or 11am and then spending the afternoon with family either eating & sleeping, or finding some activities to do. But Christmas and Thanksgiving seem to be the holidays more celebrated in America, just due to the “feasting” on Thanksgiving and spending the entire afternoon and evening with family or friends, Black Friday and the weekend activities, making the most of a 4 day weekend and traveling around to be with family, and Christmas with the traditions and celebrations also. This has a lot to do with vacation time, since these holidays are minimum 4 days off, especially Christmas most of the time it’s 1-2 weeks off being the end of the year so time to use up any of that unused vacation time since most of the time it doesn’t rollover for the next year.

“Hristos a înviat” (He is risen) “Adavărat a înviat” (He has truly risen) (the standard greeting/response used following Easter)

In Romania, it seems Easter has a much deeper and meaningful celebration (though it could be my observation as a foreigner, the newness), beginning the evening of Good Friday, the church we visited began service at 7pm, continuing until almost 3am. And then 11pm Saturday night everyone began showing up for the 12am celebration that continued all morning until almost 11am finishing with a blessing of food to complete the observance of fasting for Lent. After this it is time to indulge in the huge feast. But it isn’t just eating, the meat used is lamb, the only meal of the year with lamb. And it begins with a boiled egg, and cracking it with each member of the family. Then lamb soup, drob (a paté), salata boeuf, sarmale, Cozonac (a sweet bread), homemade wine and more deserts!

In our free time Saturday we drove up to Tulcea to walk along the Danube River, the river starting in Germany and ending here, and just after Tulcea begins the delta, one of the largest and most preserved deltas in the world. The water levels were high at this time of year as the snow melts across Europe, making it’s way to the Black Sea, through Tulcea, a beautiful city near the border of Ukraine and northern tip of Dobrogea region. We found sunset at a medieval fort in Enisala, which has a climb to get you in shape and a view to take your breath away, or what’s left of it from that difficult climb. This is one of my favorite regions in Romania, Dobrogea, the rolling hills, and sitting between the mountains and the sea, the “windy region” with gorgeous landscapes and the smell of the sea.

#Easter #Romania #Orthodox #Holiday #Religious #Religion #Traditional #Tradition #Christian

[davehaasjr]

Welcome to 2018 ~ La multi ani! (13 days late)

Wow, it’s day 13 of 2018 and I’m just now getting to writing this post. So let’s backtrack to the last day of 2017. I had just wrapped up my Christmas week in Constanta and headed back home to Bucharest, found a few new friends in an expat group and celebrating my first New Year in Romania, with some new friends from around the world (Hong Kong, Spain, America and of course Romania). Then there were fireworks.

Here in Romania everything is closed the 2nd day too, day after Christmas and day after New Year’s, and I mean EVERYTHING. Even the nonstop shaorma down the street from me, that was a bummer. I just wanted to do my normal thing that day and go get some coffee, there are at least 10 cafes within a 10 minute walk from my apartment... none were open, and also I had a nice 1 hour journey around my apartment searching for one with the sign “Deschis” (open). Finally there was one in a lobby of a hotel, so caught up on some work.

Day 3 I took a train ride and 7 hours later arrived in Suceava to meet up with Marian, Daniela and Cristian to visit Putna for a few days, show me some more Romanian culture and beautiful landscapes and the largest monastery in Romania, built by Ștefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great). Now if you’ve been on a train ride, it’s not bad, but 7 hours is a journey, and there’s no meal service on these trains in Romania. If you’re in another western European country that’s not the case, I remember the rapid train from Paris to London had a nice snack bar and refreshments, even my friend in Spain said the busses are equipped with TV monitors at every seat... Romania is still in the 90s with their transit services, but I’m sure we’ll get there one day, just need to wait for those other countries to retire those vehicles so Romania can by some new used equipment, but for now let’s just appreciate the blazing fast and reliable internet.

Spending the next days in Suceava was amazing, the region is Bucovina which covers northwest Romania and south Ukraine (we only stayed in Romania) and is one of the oldest and most preserved of their traditions in all of Europe. We spent one day roaming some factories, hand made shoes (that are amazingly great quality - Marlebo) that were only $25-$50 at the factory, elsewhere you’ll spend at least $75-$100 for these shoes. Also a local pottery store, where we could just walk in and watch them make it, the amazing thing I love about this country is how laid back they are, you can just walk into the workshop and have a conversation with the staff. Just another day in Romania.

Some more friends joined us that evening for the next few days, and we went on an old train ride in Moldovita, I mean like the Hogwarts train riding through a snowy valley, and stopped for some sarmale and mamaliga, then headed back. The drive back to Putna involved making a first pit stop to assist someone that was stuck in the snow and another stop at an equestrian park. Like I said, it’s so laid back and you meet people that feel like they’re already friends for life or family, for just that moment together. This is what Romania is and why I fell in love with it.

Upon my 8 hours bus ride home to Bucharest I had one week left to prepare for school starting back up next week and my contract at Armata Salvarii beginning, so I took it easy and some errands that normally should take a few hours took most of my days... BUT, I did accomplish what I needed to (for now).

Yesterday closed out with finally submitting for a refund for a tax I didn’t need to pay (my goodness, that was a process), met with my business accountant to finally get things all set up (yet another step I still have to do next week too) and finally opened a bank account for my business Bruno Creative SRL (SRL is basically an LLC in Romania, and this was the name I decided with after exhausting every other name I could think of almost, a friend’s dog’s name). To top off the day, my Romanian residency permit officially arrived, I could toss out the temporary paper slip I was carrying and now exit the country to be allowed to re-enter freely, for the entire year, until renewing it December. That, my friends was the first 13 days, in Romania, in 2018. Here’s to a great new year and officially new start to this new life, finally settled (basically) in Romania.

Be sure to check out the entire gallery of photos here at davehaasjr.smugmug.com

#Romania #Bucovina #Suceava #Putna #business #government #vacation #holiday #new year #2018 #friends #family

[davehaasjr]

Romanian Holiday

I’m now halfway through the holiday break as I sit on my train ride home from Constanta to Bucharest, and it’s been an amazing first Christmas in Romania. A few weeks ago I was thinking about going to stay in northern Romania because of it’s beautiful landscapes, villages and cultural festivities still untouched by modern influences. The traditions there are so deep and rooted still it’s a remarkable experience I’ve yet to encounter. But I didn’t want to go alone, what is Christmas and the holidays to celebrate alone? So I wrote to my good friends (basically my Romanian family) Marian & Daniela to see if I could come visit with them, and their door was wide open. 

I knew before moving to Romania that my world would be changed, but it’s impossible to prepare for what you have never done before, and moving to an entirely new culture has had it’s blessings and challenges (as I’ve written about before). I won’t dive into my residency story, will save that for another post, but this Christmas week has been something I’ll never forget. 

Constanta has something about it that I have yet to find in any other city, a place since the first visit that I immediately fell in love with, every single experience, big or small. Don’t get me wrong though, Bucharest is beautiful and adventurous, I enjoy big cities and the walks and public transit, the festivals and concerts, but I’m not sure if I still see myself here after 5 years, or in Constanta. When I visit Constanta I feel more free, it reminds me of my hometown, but much more enticing to me. It’s that weird thing us millennials have done to move out of our hometown trying to experience new lifestyles, and achieve success, and the cities call us(well, most of us). But opposite of my hometown his place boasts that urban lifestyle, yet nice and cosy small in size, no horns or sirens every 5 minutes, no 1 hour to get 5 km, and the beaches, the seaside. I have been living 7 years landlocked, and still now 2 hours from the coast, it’s only a matter of time before it calls me back, and Constanta seems so right. I could go on for days about all the reasons I love Constanta, from the beaches to the country side and villages, the friendships & new family, the way of living, malls, cafes, restaurants, old city, walking around (though I didn’t this week), a tourism city (just like my hometown), and much much more that I want to write here. 

Enough about my favorite city though, let me tell you about my 1st Christmas in Romania, from sarmale to salate de boeuf for three days straight, with plenty of sweets to live off for a year. Thanksgiving was a nice cushion to the reality of new traditions for Christmas, that I was literally starting a new life, stepping into a world completely new, and that it meant a majority of the time (if not all), was that my traditions were left in America, and now I have to learn new ones, to be the “baby” in this country like I was born yesterday. When I first thought about Christmas a few weeks ago, the culture shock hit me, and it sunk in, man… it’s the first time I’ll be without family, friends or traditions I’ve grown up on, the only traditions I knew how to celebrate. But it wasn’t long, and I found the positive that this is going to be exciting and I couldn’t wait! It almost felt like an entirely new holiday, I mean the Christmas movies are still the same American Christmas movies. It was amazing, the food was so delicious you wanted to keep eating, and of course being a guest I didn’t want to refuse when I met new people, and Marian & Daniela took me all around with them introducing me to family & friends and experiencing what it’s like to be a Romanian celebrating Christmas, and by the end of the day I was so stuffed I just wanted to lay down and sleep for a week… it’s about the same feeling after eating at one of those Korean BBQ places. 

The following day the food continued, I mean it had to get eaten, and as I’m writing this right now, I am craving for some more (I will have to learn how to make this on my own, but probably will gain all the weight I’ve lost). We went to a friends’ apartment to celebrate a birthday, Tibi, and him and his wife’s, Oana, new apartment they bought (in American we would call it a condo). They are some great friends I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in Constanta thanks to Marian & Daniela, and we ate more food then went bowling. I admit I’m not much of a bowler, I love going with friends like this to celebrate things, but I also didn’t know it was popular in Romania. I felt like I stepped back to my childhood in the 90s, but also was the Romanian version of a Dave & Busters or Main Event Entertainment, but the classic style of the bowling alley (with some newer technology), and it was packed. It was fun. 

I honestly can’t wait to learn this language enough to be fluent, as it’s the biggest barrier I have, and I have no desire to leave anytime soon with all the effort I’ve made moving here… so I need to learn the language. I’m on my way home now on the train, and tomorrow will be New Year’s Eve. It will be odd celebrating the New Year 7 hours before the ball drops in NYC, and not being able to turn on the TV to watch the ball drop… unless I can find a stream and wake up at 7am on Monday to catch it… yes, for you Americans reading this on the east coast, it will be 7am when you celebrate the New Year, and for my left coast friends, 10am here by the time your clock strikes midnight. On that note, Happy New Year! Welcome 2018 and the start to actually experiencing sinking my feet into this new life, now that I’ll officially be a resident in January. That’s another post soon to come.

[davehaasjr]

Figuring out the Bucharest Life

So it’s been a few weeks of living here, as the time has gone on, it seems to get more difficult to find the little things. Upon arrival, you learn the grocery stores (good, I know where to buy food), you learn where to exchange money, Uber, the metro system, Domino’s pizza and the coffee shops (for me at least). The first major hurdle for me was getting adjusted to public transportation, Atlanta was simple owning a car, and when using MARTA trains, I could just be lazy, drop the car off at the station and ride in that way, but most of the time I would just drive where I needed to get to. Convenient! That all changed when I moved here, I knew I had no car, I brought my bike, but I only used that 1 day, because the public transit ended up being easier and not having to lug around a bike.

But before, I could just GPS from point A, to point B, then figure out parking. Now, it’s GPS point A to walk to point B, catch the right train, transfer at point C, count the stops, transfer at point D, don’t miss your stop! (because there’s nothing like trying to walk off that metro train and make that embarrassing walk of shame to the other side of the platform to catch the next train back), then finally arrive at point E, and walk to point F, you’ve made it... in 1 hour if you made all the right transfers. But I have to say, I love walking! It’s a 10 minute walk to the metro station where I’m at now, and most of my final stops have another 5-10 minute walk, plus all the extra transitions during the day and exploring, if you’re a steps counter, I average 11,000 steps daily.

Now I’m getting the hang of the public transportation system, which takes a lot of work just planning out, and know too that you can’t run 5 errands in an afternoon anymore, it’s maybe 1-2 errands can get accomplished, and that’s if I’ve found the correct place.

Which brings me to the main point of this blog post: finding the things I need to find are more difficult in an entirely new culture. When in America, I always knew where I could pick up the things I needed, or if hungry and need a quick bite, my mind always had a map of options. We know chains all across the nation, so it’s easy to just search on maps for that store or restaurant. Now, everything is different, practically EVERYTHING! I walked into a Pizza Hut, and that’s an upscale looking restaurant with a bar! I mean, it’s better than most chain restaurants in America. But at the core of things, I can figure out some basics, but even what is recognizable, seems slightly different still. I try to select an after shave lotion, but no English, yet they have brands I recognize.

So yesterday, I slept in and when I woke up decided to go do some work at a cafe, Tucano Coffee, which is a nice atmosphere and nice area, I love walking around there near Piata Romana. But my laptop hadn’t been charged, so I plugged it in and after 30 minutes it wasn’t charging or turning on. So my panic mode started creeping in “is my laptop malfunctioning? is it the cable? where can I find an Apple Store? I don’t even think they have them here!” I found an “Apple Shop” on Google Maps, a 20 minute Uber ride to it and it’s literally a display in the middle of an emag store (it’s the Best Buy of Romania, but with the atmosphere of a BrandsMart (and higher European taxes)). After 30 minutes I unplugged the power from a display and plugged it into my laptop, succes! I had a charge, my computer was ok. So seems the power cord was faulty. I found some help after 30 minutes, from a Microsoft specialist, since the 2 only Apple specialists were off that day (a Saturday! really? -- oh, and my fear set in too when I saw no “Genius Bar” - oh I miss American stores). They called the Apple specialist, shortly figured out we need to replace the power cable (I had tried telling them this the whole time), but had to go to one of the many computers they had around to order off the website (they’re mainly an online store, so your Amazon/Best Buy/Brandsmart mixed into one), and I thought “great, I have to wait for a power cable to come in the mail and have 10% battery life on my laptop for work”. So I decided I was going to test out this power cable here at the store, which I had been trying to do also, but they didn’t understand me. I plugged it in and boom! It worked! I was so relieved, but also frustrated I just spent 2 hours of my day figuring out my laptop is ok and the coffee shop’s power was faulty some how (yes, I did try several outlets, so it must’ve been the building).

Now, I didn’t mention it had been raining for the last 24 hours, and I have no car, so walking and public transit are my options. I also have no hoodie jacket, so my head and shoes were constantly getting soaked, it was time to finally buy an umbrella. I walked (in the rain) for about 10 minutes nearby Piata Victoriei, went into a few stores and no umbrellas. I mean in America, you can find an umbrella in practically any store! (book stores, grocery stores, gas stations, etc) Not in Romania, I still don’t understand what stores carry them really. I took an Uber to a mall, they HAD to have one there in one of those stores. After walking around 3 different levels, I walked into a small grocery store there and they had them in the back, another 2 hours wasted... to find an umbrella. By this time I had learned something; the entire cultural change was not going to be easy as every minor task becomes an effort to have to research how the heck to do it! Next up: haircut, I finally found some shops, but what if I can’t explain the haircut I want?! I also need to buy a coat (I know where the clothing stores are, that’s just having to get over my frustration of clothes shopping, I’m so indecisive and hate spending money on clothes), computer monitor, soap and a few other things... now comes the transportation of all these things without a car. Here we go!

#Romania #Europe #Transition #Culture #Culture Shock #Cultural Change #Adjusting

[davehaasjr]

The art of asking the right questions

So, I have a TON of things to catch up on, which I will write a long post about my transitioning here in the last couple weeks.

But, for now, I want to explain how unique of a culture it is that dealing with customer service in companies, sometimes (more often than usual), you need to push to find out the answers in order to find solutions.

Over the weekend, sometime over the course of dinner, the glass that is over the camera lens on my phone was broken, exposing the lens and broken slivers of glass surrounding it. It also can’t focus, so it’s only useful for some photo taking opportunities.

Another HUGE adjustment for me is living without a vehicle, in a large city with public transit... but you need to figure out the transit system. And that includes the metro (subway), busses and trams (which are two different cards, two different systems). You also have taxis, but they love to hike the rates if they know you’re American... either that or they all were that dedicated of fans to their football (soccer) team that was playing, one had his phone hooked onto the steering wheel and literally gestured that his team IS PLAYING RIGHT NOW! Which is why it will cost 20 lei to drive 2km (at a rate of 1.30 lei/km shown on the side of his car). All to say, I used Uber to get from the metro station at Piata Iancului to Mega Mall, since I had no card for the tram/bus system.

(I didn’t take the photos below)

Once finally inside, I went to Media Galaxy (the Best Buy of Romania) and found a new card reader, but still in search for a USB-C all-in-one adapter for ethernet/HDMI/VGA/USB 3, because my Macbook Pro so conveniently uses USB-C ports all around (I love this laptop, except that I can’t plug in any of my accessories - card readers, hard drives, phone charger, etc). But plus side is I can get a portal USB-C charger like you use for phones, and recharge this battery that’s the same capacity of a cell phone.

After Media Galaxy I made it to the Samsung store, which is amazing that these exist here, since the USA only caters to Apple and Microsoft stores, I can actually go into a Samsung store like you would an Apple store, and get service. I walk in, “Buna seara, vorbiți engleza? (Good evening, do you speak English?)”, and occasionally you will hear the response she gave “Nu”. Thankfully I just showed her my phone and she knew I needed service on it, so handed me a slip with an address of 2 Samsung locations in Bucharest with technical service.

Today I finally made it over to one just off the metro station, and nearby me (1 hour roughly). I walked in an hour before they closed and this is where the fun began, with the many stories I could tell, and my main advice: ALWAYS ask questions, and make sure you ask the right ones!

I grab my ticket, listen for my number called out in Romanian, and walk up to the counter again asking if this guy speaks English, thankfully he did. He looks up my phone, and told me “This will need the entire back replaced since it’s all glass, but is a USA model, which is different than European models, sometimes we don’t carry those parts.” So I respond “Ok, but it is the same size correct? And there’s nothing different with the backing between the two I assume.” He says “I will go ask one of the techs.” I wait for him to return and says “Yes, it’s the same, but now we need to see if it’s in stock. If it is, it’ll take 1 hour to repair, if not we have to wait 3 days.” And he just stops to look at me, so I finally say “And do you have the part in stock?” He starts to look at the computer “sure, let me check... no, it’s not in stock. So you will have to leave it here and wait until it comes in stock.” And I tell him, “How about you just call me when it arrives from Samsung, and I’ll bring my phone in so I don’t have to leave it for 3 days and be without, since I use it to get around, I’m still new here.” He says, “No, you’ll have to leave it here to order the new part.” So I start trying to figure out, when can I leave this here for 3 days, ask him if they do a buy back program and finally pull the trigger to buy the new phone, but they’ll only give me 200 lei ($50) for this phone, and the new one is 3000 lei ($770), not worth it, I’ll wait to visit America for that purchase where it’s currently $575 on Amazon (I miss you Amazon).

He then continues, “Would you like me to check the other repair center if it’s in stock?” “Yes! Please.” “Oh, yes, it’s in stock there.” And I say “Perfect, I’ll go tomorrow, since they close in 1 hour, and it’s on the other side of the city.”

All that effort just to get my phone repaired, and if it was a European phone they mandate a 2 year warranty (phone is 1.5 years old), where US only has to be 1 year, so I have to pay... but 200 lei ($50) isn’t that bad for me (for now). I can’t wait to share some other recent stories in the last few weeks (apartment hunting, a photo event gala, Vodafone Romanian mobile number, etc).

But all in all, I am enjoying this country and the experience of a new culture, and such wonderful people all around. Before returning home, I had some good Romanian food from a restaurant nearby. I couldn’t summarize what this culture seems to me, how to explain it accurately for now, but it’s unique, and from a foreigner’s perspective: fun, adventurous and slow.

#Romania #Phone #Customer Service #Repair #Tech #Camera

[davehaasjr]

Day 0 - America to Romania

Countdown to the move has reached 0 as I finished the day in America, boarded an overnight flight and began the next day in Europe.

It was quite an adventure and stressful last week trying to fit in doctor appointments, work commitments & events, cleaning, prepping for Simone (my cat) to get into the country, packing my life into 3 suitcases under 50 pounds, prepping equipment that I can take with me and all while trying to take in the reality that I am leaving America for Europe to live.

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irma didn’t help as it rolled through Atlanta Monday & Tuesday, leaving Wednesday to reschedule and cram many errands before Thursday arrived. It was also down to the wire as power was out until Wednesday, so packing/cleaning in the evenings was difficult, but allowed me to visit with family & friends and when the power came back Wednesday, it was just enough time to finish and hit the sack by 1am to wake up the next morning for the last day.

It was quite an eventful Thursday/Friday, since overnight flights feel like it bleeds both days together, but after my eye doctor appointment I headed to work (dropping off a van load of donations and some garbage) then making rounds at the office saying goodbyes, a farewell lunch with my department (who are amazing and have been for my time spent with them, I’ll miss them greatly!) and my exit interview. Then it was time to run home, pack the cat, grab the suitcases and my brother, his wife and my niece pick me up, fight through Atlanta rush hour and get to the airport with plenty of time for a Starbucks treat together.

I was informed a few days earlier that my budget needed to increase drastically to bring 3 suitcases, 1 cat and 1 bike. Delta charges $200 for a bike and $200 for an animal, plus I usually have to pay $50-$100 for a 3rd bag… but they told me that 3rd bag would be $285! With a 50 lbs (22.5 kg) weight limit. What?! I feel bad for getting upset at the guy on the phone, because at the counter, the lady was so nice she didn’t charge me for the 3rd bag, or for being 5 lbs over on each bag. Just $400 for Simone & my bike. This was all coming together nicely after a crazy week.

Security though kind of turned the tables, they wanted me to take Simone out of the carrier and let the empty carrier go through the x-ray and carry her with me through the metal detector… I told them if they’re willing to chase her from jumping out of my arms immediately and running away to hide somewhere… she was shaking and talking a lot, was a little scared already. So they brought me into a small room, to take her out, let them examine the carrier and swab it and my hands, then send me on my way. Priority stop: Chick-fil-a for my farewell America meal!

We finally boarded and got situated for a 9 hour flight to Amsterdam, wondering how Simone would handle, but she did ok, hating to be on the floor, so she stayed in my lap the entire flight. But it was my tv screen that gave me the most problems; it was frozen, so they reset it, and it worked just long enough to choose a movie, then kept acting as if I was continuously tapping the screen, so the menu options kept popping on and off. When I was trying to sleep, I put the monitor to sleep, and 2 minutes later, it resumed playing, after about 5 times it seemed to turn off. Then my final 2 hours I couldn’t get the screen to turn back on. Figures.

I had about 2 hours to kill in Amsterdam, so Simone and I went to grab a cappuccino before heading to our gate, once on board it was nice, I had a middle seat, but the person in the window seat never showed up, so I could put Simone there and stretch out between both seats... I slept.

We finally landed, and the worry started to sink in, wondering what complications I’ll have trying to get Simone past customs. I got my passport stamped as usual, easy. Picked up all my bags and headed towards the customs counter… only to be searching for someone, and when I finally did he just said “it’s not our responsibility” and just gave me the “ok” to go off. Yes, it was as easy as that. All that effort and time getting her documents prepared for entry, and not one was looked at or anyone even acknowledged her. But, I’d rather have all that prepared and not need it, than not prepared and run into her quarantined and/or not allowed in.

The rest of the day has been with the Ruthvens, who are amazing! We headed home to settle in and a quick bite and soon off to sleep to prepare for the 1st full day in Romania, as I start with a little vacation time first.

#Romania #Adventure #Move #International #Simone #Travel #Cat

[davehaasjr]

Coincidence or destiny? Fortunes in cookies

I found this today that I took back in May this year. It was 3 months after initially talking about a new job, and a month after talking more details about moving forward with this opportunity, yet completely unsure what would be possible. 

I somehow have a history of fortune cookies giving me messages at the appropriate times. Thanks for subtle reminders! Whoever writes these is a remarkable prophet.

#fortune #cookies #messages #destiny #courage #moving #god

[davehaasjr]

15 days - 2 suitcases, 1 bike, 1 cat

One big step in this entire move is overcoming procrastination and finally living minimalistic.

If you know me, I like to keep things simple in life, I’m also constantly active and need energy from being around people, so procrastinating comes easy. But having too much stuff drives me crazy! Yet I end up with a chaotic amount of accessories for my long list of interests I indulge in (or forced into): photography, video producing, editing, coffee, cycling, traveling and sleeping.

For each of these interests, they require a little more than a few things, especially photography & video. Since 2015, I moved into a space just the size of a studio apartment and had boxes of things just sitting that I didn’t need, at least in that space, but I didn’t know what my next step was in these 2 years of figuring it out.

In my college years all I had was a car load of my things, then I moved to an apartment in Greensboro for a year, then Atlanta for a few years, where I kept accumulating furniture and accessories, decorating the apartment and everything to make the apartment looked ‘lived in’.

Two cats later, traveling 50% of my life and moving into this studio apartment lifestyle, I decided it’s just way too stressful to have so much stuff... but I needed to be functional with my career and interests: mainly camera gear and cycling gear. 

I don’t want to zero out and have nothing, but I can’t stand stuff and just have small ‘kits’ of each interest. So, this has been quite a difficult last 3-5 months of sorting things, starting with all my files and boxes. Now I’m down to the essentials vs donations vs items for sale.

Now I wouldn’t say that I’ve had success in the past trying to living simple, in fact some people would think it’s just the opposite of how I really come off. If you see my desk, or my apartment, you’d know. But, less stuff, means easier to keep clean right? And stop saying ‘yes’ to EVERYTHING Dave! 

What makes this so difficult though, but also good, is the forceful nature of moving overseas and flying and cost to bring things with me. It’ll just be 2 large suitcases of stuff with me when I go, a bike, a backpack and a cat (the other cat is going to mom... and other large equipment will be shipped, but a conservative amount of items still). If I go beyond that, not only will it be a pain in the butt to lug around, but it’ll cost too much.

#move #europe #overseas #travel #minimalistic #simple #4sale #donations #packing

[davehaasjr]

Ticket bought ☑️!! -- ✈️ 🇺🇸🇷🇴

35 days left, got the ticket today! ATL - OTP bound. I’ve been watching ticket prices for a couple months, specifically 1 month for these dates, and they finally dropped from $1300+ to $900. 

#flight #ticket #romania #europe

[davehaasjr]

I’m Moving to Romania

I’m moving to Romania on September 15 to be Communications Manager for The Salvation Army Regional Headquarters. 10 years ago if you asked me what I wanted to do in life, I would’ve told you “I would love to move to Europe, open a coffee house someday, a photo studio, document peoples' stories, and find the joy and love of living”, stage 1 is becoming reality as I take this huge leap of faith, and maybe someday will get to the remaining dream steps!

Over a year ago I knew I wanted to find a way to Romania, and on my 3rd visit this past February, I was asked about potentially working there, without hesitation my answer was “yes!” Now I’m filled with excitement, but with just as much fear for the unknown adventure and risk ahead, plus sadness to be leaving my family, the many wonderful friends that have been my life and my current workplace family. Once I get over there the work permit application process begins and will be waiting for a few weeks to officially start the new job. With my teaching certification too, I’ll potentially be teaching English and American culture for fun, and begin to expand my photography business to Europe, I am still booking here in the US too (so I can come back and visit friends & fam). And to constantly seek ways to develop more project ideas for the future work of The Salvation Army that I am so passionate about.

If you know my story, you’ll know the surface always looks amazing, but look deeper and you’ll discover all the imperfections. This opportunity has been a long awaited dream come true and an answer to prayer for so long. It could not have happened without faith alone and just taking the risk, I've never jumped completely off the ledge but knew I needed to eventually... in 1 month that's exactly what's happening.

My heart is to be adventurous, I have always enjoyed European culture, and look forward to meeting many new friends and spending time with the ones I've already friended. When I stumbled on Romania I knew there was something there calling me, the amazing people and culture. So... hello Romania! And farewell America (I’ll make visits back here as often as possible). Keep in touch everyone, and if you’re in Atlanta within the next 4 weeks, hit me up for a farewell get together, I want to get all the chances to say bye to everyone who’s been a part of my life!!

Keep up with me here and on Instagram, and be sure to follow my blog posts I’ll be sharing posts here more frequently

Also, anyone willing to help sponsor some equipment? Equipment budget = $0 + Dave’s personal contributions (anything helps ;)

#move #romania #europe #life

[davehaasjr]

Preview of *NEW* Photo Book

View & Purchase prints from the Romania Collection here: http://www.davehaasjr.com/Romania

I recently traveled to Romania (2nd time this year) for multiple reasons: 

First was volunteering at The Salvation Army with my colleagues, and bringing over instruments donated from the US, the most affordable method to transport instruments, to assist launching a Music Conservatory in Bucharest for children.

The second major reason was to work on am ongoing travel photo series throughout the country (though I still have so much to see). I’ve only really been able to spend time in Bucharest and Constanta visiting with friends and family, as I don’t want to rush around to top landmarks all over the country and only spend it in a car traveling and visiting each location quickly.

Of course it would probably take 30-60 days (possibly more) to explore the entire country, see every corner and most recognizable places. But, I don’t adventure just to be a tourist and capture places already captured, I want to understand an environment, understand the culture locally and capture a description of it and find the beauty. You have to search hard to find it, many hours of walking around, exploring. Many hours of building relationships with people and talking with them. All of this combines for a fun adventure and a story to tell.

So I did that, and most of my days have been spent in 2 major cities: Bucharest & Constanta. And a few hours in Brasov, Bran, Sinaia and some villages plus the routes of these places.

I hope and look forward to 2017 being a year of showcasing this series, publishing a photo-only book of the collection and a supporting photo book writing about my adventure, and the history and culture of Romania.

To view & purchase any prints view them in the collection here: http://www.davehaasjr.com/Romania

#Romania #Fine Art Photography #Photography #Book #Publishing #Publisher #Adventure #Gallery #Art #Fine Art #Europe #Bucharest #Constanta #Brasov #Sinaia #Village #Culture #History #Beauty #Landscape #Urban #Rural #Country #Geography

[davehaasjr]

My Equipment Kit

The most difficult process when writing is the first sentence, staring at a blank page figuring out how to begin. That’s similar in every aspect of starting out in something, starting with nothing and figuring out what to invest in; choosing a degree to study, choosing a bike, a car, and photography equipment.

It’s no easy game when it comes to figuring out what equipment to invest in, especially today with more camera options than ever before. Today, being a photographer has changed meaning, now everyone is a photographer. So much so that apps like Google Photos are taking the lead with innovative technology that can scan images and categorize based on items in the photos (bikes, sports equipment, cats, dogs, etc), faces, and locations. 

The lineup of equipment is more than Sony, Leica, Canon, Nikon, Fuji, Kodak, etc. Almost all phones and action cams are high quality, manufacturers who built support equipment, I/O racks or lights now have their own affordable cameras, making a diverse industry of equipment. But at the end of the day, there’s still a distinction with creativity and composition, and the equipment is just a tool.

I wanted to talk about my list of equipment in my bag, and is by no means to tell you to buy what I have. In fact, do your research on forums and other blogs, read their reviews and other suggestions, and make wise decisions, new gear releases constantly.

Camera Body & Lens

The core of your photography package, the body and lens(es). I have a Canon 5D Mark III with a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 L-series lens. I’ve been shooting with this setup for years, and before this was a Canon 7D body, same lens. I love the detail that this package can deliver. Each photographer has their choice of equipment for their style, I love the versatility of 24-70mm lens with it’s “normal” focal length range. It can get wide enough on a full-frame sensor for landscapes, and telephoto enough for portraits or just getting tight on a subject.

My style of shooting is of landscapes, street photography and portraits, so this lens is my preferred choice. If you want to do sports, get a telephoto. Events & weddings, choose two cameras, one with a telephoto (for detail & closeups) and one with a normal/wide lens. Fashion or portraits primarily, get an 85mm or 105mm.

Lighting

I love using natural light, it allows me to capture the natural environment of the landscape, urban design, or street photography.

When doing portraits outside I try to keep the load as light as possible, so I will bring a reflector. If I have assistance, I’ll use a strobe. For more robust shoots, or weddings, I like to have the strobe on a light stand, battery powered and with a softbox.

Storage & Editing

This is important, proper storage workflow is essential for making sure you don’t make mistakes and lose content that would cost the value of your entire shoot, and everyone’s time. Don’t ever take that chance!

Redundancy is your friend, always have a secondary location for your content. It starts on your camera’s CF or SD card, then transfer it to 2 locations.

My method is constantly evolving, but depends on how much money you’re willing to spend, in fact I’m experimenting with a new concept at the moment:

I have 2 1TB Lacie Rugged Drives always with my laptop, plus a 128GB flash drive (about $20 at MicroCenter). Once I backup my CF or SD card to my Lacie drive, I do a secondary copy to the other drive, or flash drive, and always keep in my bag.

Once I’m home, I copy the files to a 4TB G-Tech RAID drive, it’s RAID 5 for security in case 1 drive fails (I’ll post a blog about that later, in the meantime check out this article about RAID configurations if you’re interested). I’ll edit primarily on the go, so my laptop, but sometimes at home on my iMac.

Once I’ve finished editing the originals, I store the exports to the RAID and my Smugmug account, where I decide what to publish and have the finals easily accessible to my public site or phone app.

I recommend using some form of cloud storage, if you’re like me backing up with a Macbook Pro and having an iMac at home to edit, it’s convenient to pickup where you left off between computers. Google drive will allow you to preview RAW files from any device also. But cloud storage provides a 99.99% secure solution to backup (still have a secondary option though! Google has accidentally deleted content from servers one time).

Software; I use Lightroom for about 90% of my editing, and Photoshop to fine tune certain details for select photos or modify the image more. Lightroom is great to quickly manage metadata, browse through a library of images, categorize, and edit quickly, and roundtrip to Photoshop. I rarely use the printing features and web publishing, but Smugmug has a nice plugin, and all my printing is sent to a lab.

If you have any questions about my setup, or suggestions, or what you’re doing, feel free to comment or let me know.

#workflow #digital #image #raw #photo #photography #hard drive #computer #technical #camera #canon #5D mark ii #24-70mm

[davehaasjr]

Restructuring

I’ve been working for a few years on my business plan for Haas Creative, and haven’t found a successful strategy while not working at my full-time 40+ hour job (and I really mean 40+)... most of this has to do with time for marketing and promoting myself.

I’ve recently consulted with other photographers and business minded people who have encouraged me to change up my branding, so I’ve done just that over the past month: Haas Creative is now only a portraits & weddings photo service, and I’ve introduced Dave Haas, Jr. Photography for my fine art photos to purchase and collect.

After years of photo documenting landscapes I finally took the leap into showcasing this work in art galleries and putting a price on them in hopes to make a profit to continue taking more, since it’s my preferred style to shoot.

The first launch to a “gallery” was last month at Chocolaté in Decatur, GA, and I’ve already sold enough to pay for the supplies, hopefully the rest will sell, or at least 10 out of the 13 hanging. A few other possible locations soon to come. 

If you are interested, please take a look through the website davehaasjr.com, also you can subscribe to my mailing list for special prices on certain prints and gallery and artist updates. Here’s to a future in photography!!

I’m also in the works to start workshops and thinking about publishing some books. Stay tuned.

#photography #fine art #art #gallery #branding #business plan #business #website #site #photo #wedding #portrait #landscape

[davehaasjr]

România

I just took a tour of Romania, for work and vacation. Studying the culture for a while, meeting photographers online and colleagues of The Salvation Army, who currently work and have formally worked there, led me to finally make this trip happen.

I had been wanting to visit Europe again after all the trips in the last couple years, but felt there was a lot of security risks with all the things happening, though Italy, Spain, Denmark and Switzerland have been pretty calm though. So I thought I would make 2 tours: a well-known Western European country and a less known European country (there are many). I narrowed down Eastern Europe to Romania, Ukraine, Hungary and Georgia (I knew colleagues from each of them). In the end Romania ended up being the choice: the beautiful culture, landscape, people, cost, and work to be done there.

I spent the 1st 10 days with Armata Salvarii București (The Salvation Army Bucharest) and had some days to wander on my own, walking around exploring the city and making new friends all over. We made a visit to Ploești one weekend for a soccer tournament of teams from each Salvation Army location in Romania.

I had connected with other photographers on Facebook, Instagram and 500px and met up with some. Notably, was Marian Sterea and his wife Daniela, who live in Constanța. I made a quick visit to meet him for coffee, and we spent the day together touring this beautiful old city on the coast, that I fell in love with more than Bucharest (which I really enjoyed as well). And he invited me to stay with him and help out on some shoots and I enjoyed experiencing the lifestyle of living there, a bbq one evening at their friends’ house watching Spain vs. Croatia Euro Cup match, another day at a mid-morning cafe, the drive north to Cetatea Enisala (an old medieval castle), had a meal in a village and so much more.

The following week (my last week in Romania) I stayed with them, assisted on a few photo shoots, then went off on my own to Mamaia beaches and another day drove north to Gura Dobrogei. Then I met with a friend from Bucharest, who I had met the week prior from The Salvation Army in Iași, and we drove up to Brașov and Bran for the day, and I returned to Constanța yet again to meet with other friends from Armata Salvarii București Soccer Team and spent my last day in Romania on Mamaia’s beaches.

This truly was one of the most beautiful countries and experiences I’ve had, making so many friends who will remain with me for life, no matter how far away and I’ve learned so many great things from the people there and their culture and history. I hope to return again, and have so much more I can share from this trip, each day was full of many stories.

Contact me if you’re interested in purchasing prints and/or hosting a gallery event.

#photography #Romania #Bucharest #landscape #Constanta #Black Sea #casino #history #city #Europe #Eastern Europe #art #fine art #for sale #dobrogea #village

[davehaasjr]

25% Off Photo Session

I’m booking photo shoots at HaasCreative.com for the month of August at 25% off of $200/hr for portraits. Family, couple or single portraits. Contact me at haascreative.com and plug in the Promo “25SUMMER” - this sale is only valid for August and is limited to a number of spots based on availability. Book today!

#photo #photography #portraits #session #sale #discount #promo

[davehaasjr]

Atlanta Attractions

I just recently finished touring 21 of Atlanta’s highlights for a company. It ended up stretching out a lot more than I planned. I think my major challenge with most things is trying to figure out a realistic timeline of how long a project will take. Every project is different, sometimes they are very quick, other times a lot longer.

The first day was the most challenging, I thought I’d be able to just park downtown and walk around to grab the first 5 locations since they are all around Centennial Olympic Park - however I quickly learned that to find the great angles you have to cover a lot of ground surrounding the location so I’m not missing out on a great shot. For example, the Coca-Cola museum is huge! There are so many angles to view it at, I honestly couldn’t cover all that ground, but every side of the building has a different look and is very appealing, also from a distance and varying angles there as well, all creating a challenge that’s more than just walking up to it and snapping a photo - yet, it’s really searching for amazing angles that will stand out and be different than the average person just walking by.

Anyway, all to say that it was spread out over 5 days of shooting, plus a day of editing and now awaiting to hear back for the final selections of the 220 total photos I sent for review. It’s always fun work, I was exposed to many new things in a city I’ve lived in for 2 1/2 years now, and can’t wait to keep exploring this huge city.

I'll post the photos later to my portfolio, so be sure to check back.

#Photography #Atlanta #Attractions #Olympic Park #Coca-Cola #Tourism

[davehaasjr]

Piedmont Park

I have to say this might be my favorite park, but it's a close call to Stone Mountain. Piedmont Park is so beautiful with a view of the midtown skyline and such a great surrounding area. At the end of April and early May when the sun was out it was the perfect time to be out (now it's starting to feel like "Hotlanta"!).

We weren't the only ones who found it to be a perfect day, it was packed with Atlantans playing frisbee and football, walking and playing fetch with dogs, even a guy with a boom box on his shoulder playing 80s music. Definitely a great place to check out, and if the weather's right, be sure not to miss it if you're local or visiting.

#Atlanta #Piedmont Park #Park #Spring #Green #Skyline #Urban #City #Nature #Trees #Sun #Weather #Fun #Adventure #Walk