Passion for food is something a lot of people share, regardless of gender, location or cultural background. We all need to occasionally indulge our taste buds and linger in the flavors of a delightful meal, alone or in the company of others. Following that passion to get people to write and share their thoughts on food and what it means to be cooked well is bound to turn into a quite interesting social media project.

Chef and No Reservations TV show host Anthony Bourdain has had this wonderful idea of a crowdsourced library of essays on food and launched the Medium Raw Challenge. People are faced with an apparently simple, yet rather complex question – Foodies: What does it mean to cook food well?. They write their essays and post them on the challenge website and hope to win the Special Added Prize of $10,000 to the Grand Prize Winner and have their writing included in Bourdain’s latest book, Medium Raw.

Those foodies who enjoy cooking, eating and reading about food can still have a blast by browsing through submitted essays and voting their favorites. The social media challenge is powered by a vibrant Facbook community page that already has a 8,6000 user crowd around it.

Is this a smart way to promote the new book? Of course! Is it working? I’d say yes. And it’s working because Anthony Bourdain seems to be getting it. He actually reads the entries and posts comments expressing his opinion. He’s present and people don’t feel like they’re talking to some minion handling his social media presence.

The community engagement is indeed impressive and it’s easy to lose yourself while browsing through entries, especially if you enjoy food and don’t only eat stuff to keep yourself alive!

I tried my best to tell you what the writing retreat in Sardinia felt like and what it taught me. It’s now time for the conclusions! Because all lessons are wasted, unless applied. And because I always love sharing my dreams and plans on this blog, although it isn’t one of the most personal blogs out here.

My first decision after Sardinia was that I was indeed a writer. I left for the retreat thinking that no matter what, I couldn’t fail. Failure was not an option. Worst case scenario: I’d discover my fiction writing wasn’t as good as I thought. But complete failure was out of the question, as writing represents an important part of what I do.

Yet I had stopped thinking of myself as a writer a long time ago. When I finished high-school, started Journalism school and stopped writing fiction. Now I know that I am a writer, a pretty good PR specialist, a photographer, a quite proud Romanian, a friend, a child (son and daughter alike) and anything else I want to be. I could very well feel that there is no one, unique part of us that defines us. It’s everything we are.

I decided my vampire story kind of rocks and I’m going to finish writing it, then go through editing, and then publish it. And I’m pretty much going to take the DIY approach to it. My story, although referred to as being a vampire story, is really a love story, a story of acceptance, of learning how to see people as a whole, rather than focusing on bits and pieces of their being. The big, shiny plan is to have it ready for you sometime in September.

I decided I should write everyday. Business writing, blog writing, fiction writing, diary writing, it does not matter, as long as I keep writing. I also discovered exercises are a big part of it, and if you don’t believe me, ask Joanna. I also discovered writing all your ideas down is helpful.

I also figured out being fluent in English and understanding (with some feeble attempts at conversations) another few languages wasn’t enough anymore. So I’ll work hard on reviving forgotten language skills and acquiring some new ones.

To sum up, it will be an extremely busy summer!

In Ca La Somara, while enjoying every last second of Joanna and Emma’s writing retreat, I’ve also learned some extremely important lessons. Some from the people I’ve shared the experience with, some from people who we’ve share the agriturismo with, some from reconnecting with myself, each of them meant to help me live a better life, be happier, smile more and generally remember what’s really worthwhile. I keep thinking of everything that’s happened, trying to pick the best of it and share it with you, hoping it will bring you the calm, happiness and freedom it has brought me. So here are a few ideas

People are indeed unique, but…

We are not defined by class, religion, nationality, interests, education, or job alone. None of these aspects is more important than the others and what makes us unique is their specific mix. Plus our dreams, favorite songs, favorite food, friends, family, pets, our take on having fun and any other apparently insignificant detail you can think of.

No one can save you from your current self

If you hate your job, hate your life, hate your industry or hate your friends, if any of these make you unhappy, you need to change it! No one else will do it for you. Don’t wait to be rescued, take responsibility and change your life. You’ll be happier afterwards!

Angry and resentful people are not that bad, really

They might offend you at a certain point; they might ruin part of your evening, but in the end you’ll just appreciate those you love and feel comfortable with more. You’ll appreciate the fact you’re no longer angry and resentful. You’ll appreciate the full live you’re living.

Fear is indeed the mind killer!

For the rest of your Dune groupies, yes, that’s a Bene Gesserit mantra! I couldn’t wait to get to Sardinia, meet Joanna, Emma and see who else would join us. But I took my fear with me. The fear I could no longer write. The fear I was a fool to write in a language to write in without being a native speaker. It made me doubt myself, my novel and a lot of other things about me.

The moment I faced my fears, everything changed! I felt liberated, happier, empowered and stronger. Yes, the positive feedback would do that to you! But even if it would have been awfully negative feedback, it would have been a lot better than a life in doubt and fear.

Stress is the modern plague!

I have some health issues caused by some bile functionality problems. I’m on a more or less constant diet, I can’t drink alcohol and my food choices are limited. I also gain weight when stress surpasses certain limits. So I want to Sardinia, ate everything you could think (to the horror of some Italian women thinking we were eating too much) of and drank a lot of red wine (as I don’t usually drink alcohol at all, please don’t imagine lots of bottles of wine lined up under my table ). My health was impeccable, I didn’t gain any weight and I generally felt awesome.

There’s pressure in finding yourself in the best conditions to yield inspiration!

Everything might be perfect, and you still might not feel inspired. The most important thing you can do is write. Write about how uninspired you are, how annoyed you are by it, what you would want to write about, what prevents you from actually doing it. It works! Ask Joanna, she wrote an incredibly inspired poem about being uninspired.

More to come soon!

Caveat! If my stories on Sardinia seem to lack structure, feel a bit unprocessed, it’s because our week there was extremely intense and full . But I’ll make sure you get a clear picture of it all!

Friends and family ask me about Sardinia. How was it, what did I learn? Any fun moments to share? When I hear the question, a big smile lights up my face. And I can’t stop smiling while I tell my stories again and again. It was wonderful, amazing, intense, too short, filled with laughter and sharing and emotions, it was sunny and windy, it was private and it was shared, it was better than anything I’ve even imagined when I first mentioning I’d go there!

But I somehow feel they can’t fully understand it. Such an experience needs to be embraced (Joanna and Emma, did you think of who I think you did when you saw this word? ), seen, heard, taken in with every breath. I’ve enjoyed each moment of it so much, that I actually cried when I found myself alone in the cab, going to the Olbia airport. I haven’t done that after a trip since high-school! Incidentally, it was another trip to Italy.

Joanna Young is everything you imagine her to be when reading her blog, tweets and comments. And much more. Same goes for Emma Bird. These lovely ladies are, in a word, amazing. But a word is never enough to describe someone, is it? Nor are twenty, or a hundred. Ca La Somara is the perfect place for such a retreat. Peaceful, but never really silent. Bright and sunny, but with a cool, constant breeze. Sardinia is alive and the skyline is indeed dramatic. Beaches are hard to find, the more beautiful they are, the harder to find they become. The food is amazing, the massages are just right, the restaurants are welcoming and again, great food. The read wine is exquisite and I should know, I’ve drunk during this week more than I normally do in a year.

We had donkeys, dogs and cats. We had incredible people to share everything with. We had confident, absorbing, surprising, deep words scribbled on paper, be it real or virtual. We had screenplays and novels and poems and songs. We made some wonderful friends along the way. We also ran into the usual sad, angry and judgemental few. But we ignored them! We experienced the famous transportation strikes but talked our way into a refund and went to the competition. We laughed so hard and for so long, one would have said we’re making stacks to last us a year.

In the next few days, I’ll try to show you as best I can what this Sardinian Writing Retreat was about. I’ll share what I’ve learned about myself and the world, I’ll share the dreams and fears I’ve taken there with me, and the new dreams and hopes I’ve come back with. There will be photos, the occasional inside jokes and lots, lots of happiness! Make sure you tune in!