Carin & Roy

My story started one day in mid November many years ago, in a small town in north Romania. It was the first day of snow that year, or at least that’s how I ‘remember it’. Refuted by my parents and weather forecasts, this ‘memory’ is very dear to me and I am not willing to give it up.

Snow is one element of joy in my life and winter has been always my favorite season. I learnt to ski even before I could read and write. At age of five, I was sure I’d become a ski champion. My career plans, however, went through radical changes in my early teens. This time, I was heading towards physics and, for couple of years, I could swear I would, one day, get my PhD in physics. For some reason, nonetheless, I ended up in an art high school, the same school both my parents went to, and from which, my sister Andra will be graduating next summer (It seems to be a family tradition). Here, my first interests were design and architecture, the fields in art that I believed to be the most ‘scientific’. I did not want to give up the sciences… not yet. I then discovered, in my last years of high school, art history. Ironically, I was not sure this could be a valid career path. It seemed at the beginning more a passion than a possible profession. But I had slowly found my way…

I started my undergraduate studies in art history in Bucharest; I spent a year in Chicago, as an exchange student and then after graduating from the National University of Arts Bucharest I came to Bremen to do my masters. I ended up here by pure chance. Find me one day around the college, if you are curious, and I’ll tell you the story.

I have been living in Mercator College since my second night in Bremen (the first one, was an unforgettable night in the Hauptbahnhof – yet another story). I started my life here all alone, not knowing anyone, not having a roommate and feeling quite lonely. This feeling did not last too long, though. Slowly, Mercator, and Jacobs University as a whole, became quite a friendly place. I met a lot of people, I made few very good friends, and I found Roy (or should I rather say he found me J). All in all Mercator College had become my home.

 I then applied for a college office job and got it, but only after my second attempt. I have thus become the first (and up to this point the only J) graduate student to work in a college office. The step from here to being an RA was… I am not even sure if small or big, but a step that somehow came naturally. The idea of building an RA team, with Jenny and Bassem, two of my dear friends in Mercator, was quite appealing. So I embarked in this team with high hopes and dreams and with the aim to become the RA whom I myself would like to have as a student. I hope you will get to know me well and feel comfortable to knock on my door not only when you lock yourself out but also for a chat, a cup of tea, or even for some Indian food - when ‘chef’ Roy cooks J.

(Text by Carin Baban)