University of BucharestFaculty of Geography

English Portfolio

Ramona Mădălina Ionete

Group: 107, Tourism Geography

2013

About shopping

We all do shopping, all the time. Either we buy food, clothes, electronics or just simple tickets for bus or subway it’s still shopping. But if we want to elaborate our topic we can talk about what is called “shop-addiction”. Studies has shown that this phenomen is curently growing even we are faceing an economic crise world wide which means that if people will feel the need to buy, they will just do it regardless their budget. You don’t have to buy expensive things to be “shop-addicted”, little things which are quite cheap and you don’t really need them will do it.

Nowadays we can see the so called ‘vouchers’ tickets which are on sales and they represent cheap prices on different services or products. When you see the advertise you start to think that maybe you will never have such an opportunity like that and what you see is a good price for such a service. And so, you start to buy unnecessary things for you or your family just because it was on sales. Soon this will ruin your budget and more you will influence others by sharing your “great” experience about the vouchers sites with your friends before realising that is harmfull to your pocket. These sites are not bad themselves but they can become very dangerous if you dont take charge of your actions and make your own decisions.

Cultural tourism

Cultural tourism is the subset of tourism concerned with a country or region's culture, specifically the lifestyle of the people in those geographical areas, the history of those people, their art, architecture, religion(s), and other elements that helped shape their way of life. Cultural tourism includes tourism in urban areas, particularly historic or large cities and their cultural facilities such as museums and theatres. It can also include tourism in rural areas showcasing the traditions of indigenous cultural communities (festivals, rituals), and their values and lifestyle. It is generally agreed that cultural tourists spend substantially more than standard tourists do.

Tourism in the interwar period

As the time passed by, excluding the upper middle class, fast enough the entire middle class, made their way to the newly opened coastal resorts on the North and Baltic Seas, as well as to the spa, health and gambling resorts. Germans took to bathing holidays relatively late in comparison to the pioneering British and, at first, for health reasons, with socialising and recreation coming later. However, they became increasingly popular, as evident in the development of famous locations, coastal resorts and beaches. The loss of their former exclusivity and the shift towards entertainment and distraction signified an increase in social accessibility, whereas, for example, the new ski and winter tourism retained its chic clientele at the turn of the century.

Saint Nicholas Day

The old Saint Nicholas arrives in Romania on the 6th of December, every year. His coming announces the beginning of the winter holidays, the Christmas and the New Year.

Saint Nicholas is generous not only with the children, but the adults, too.

On the evening of the 5th of December, the boots are being happily polished in every home. People usually put the boots near the entrance door, waiting for the presents.

Saint Nicholas takes care of each member of the family. He puts a little present into every one's boots.

But who is Saint Nicholas? The parents, of course.

And who is the one who puts presents in the parents boots? The rest of family.

This custom is very old in Romania, and Saint Nicholas Day is one of the most important festivals of the year, especially for the children.

About “Craiova”

Craiova is Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County and is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians (north) and the River Danube (south). Craiova is the chief commercial city west of Bucharest and the most important city of Oltenia.

I have visited Craiova couple times and every time I go there to spend my time I get the same nice feeling. That’s because it’s an well mentained city with a lot of green places where you can rest your eyes or read a book. Another good impresion is the state of the old buildings; the architecture is great and dominates the city making it to appear like a real piece of art in the middle of nature.

The people are nice and when you talk to them they have so much to share and they can easily find something to chat with you about and they appear to have nothing to hide. You can talk with them almost about everything without getting them mad. They are easy to amuse and they laugh a lot.

In Craiova you can find:

The Church of Coşuna Monastery the oldest building preserved in city, dating from 1483;

Craiova Art Museum – the building that houses the museum was built in 1896, following the plans of the French architect Paul Gotereau. Its main attraction is the art gallery dedicated to Constantin Brâncuşi, exhibiting six of his early sculptures (including variants of his best-known works): The Kiss (1907), Vitellius (1898), Woman Torso (1909), The Vainglory (1905), Boy's Head (1906), Miss Pogany (1902).

Botanical Garden – The garden was laid out by the botanist Alexandru Buia and was opened in 1952. The main purpose of the garden was to facilitate the students' activities and research for the academic staff of the Agriculture and Horticulture Faculties of the University of Craiova.

At least we need to mention some important native figures from Craiova:

Barbu Ştirbei, prince of Wallachia;Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen, engineer, pioneer in telegraphy and telephony;Constantin Sănătescu, former Prime Minister;Nicolae Titulescu, Foreign Minister and president of the League of Nations;Titu Maiorescu, former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister;

Educational report: Sweden

Early Child EducationIn January 1995 new legislation came into force, which in a complete departure

with earlier approaches, specified the obligations of the municipalities to supply pre-school activities and child care. In the earlier legislation, the municipalities were obliged in their expansion plans to satisfy the need for child care. Now, however, the municipalities were obliged to provide child care, without unreasonable delay for children aged 1-12 years, whose parents were working or studying or if the child had a special need for child care.

To summarise the present situation, the vast majority of Swedish children, 1-12 years old, now have a place in publicly funded child care of some sort, be it pre-schools, family day care homes or leisure-time centres.

Primary EducationCompulsory education in Sweden takes the form of a 9 year comprehensive

school (grundskola) for children aged 7–16. However, if their parents so desire, children have a right to start compulsory school at the age of six years. In 1998 about 7% of the pupils starting school that year were six years old or younger. It is also possible to postpone the start of compulsory education until the child is eight years of age, if there are special reasons for this.

Upper Secondary EducationUpper secondary education is voluntary and free of charge. (The right to start

upper secondary education applies up to and including the calendar year in which the pupil is 20. Thereafter there is an opportunity to take part in adult upper secondary education.) Almost all, 98 percent, of compulsory school leavers continue studying in upper secondary school.

Higher EducationHigher education, postgraduate studies and research take place at 13 state

universities and 23 state university colleges. Higher education in Sweden is divided into undergraduate studies and postgraduate studies. Undergraduate studies also cover continuing and further education. All higher education is undertaken at universities and university colleges. There is no specific non-university higher education. Higher education is in principle based on different courses which can also be combined into different programs. All courses given may be part of a general degree.Higher education is always free of charge. The number of students in higher education has increased with 60 % since 1990 and there are now approximately 300 000 students in undergraduate studies. The total costs for higher education 1996, 1997 and 1998 was 29 million, 30.4 million respectively 31.9 million SEK.