Timisoara, my favorite place

by Vanda Achim, 6th grade
"Grigore Moisil" Theoretical High School Timișoara

Hi, I'm [...] I don't have a name. I'm just a cat from the City Hall's garbage bins, I mean, I live in the Center. I have a successful business, which is that I get paid for any information about what people in Timișoara throw in the dustbins. So, if you want information like that, you can contact me.
I want to tell you about Timisoara, my city that I travel through every day, about its beauty and how special I feel in this city. Wait, I have a better idea, I'll tell you about how I spend my days alone and the places I wander around.
Every day starts like turning a page in a fairy tale, the fairy tale of my life. I wake up early when I slowly, slowly notice the parking lot filling up with cars. Cars with busy people getting out of them who are slowly, slowly turning into robots thinking only about money, career and the fact that something is not perfect. It doesn't matter what, if it's not perfect, it's wrong, it's a lost cause, it's impossible, it's poorly done, e,e,e.......... I can't understand people any more than they can understand the simple joy of life. I slowly make my way toward Central Park, walking behind the Philharmonic and listening to the musicians as they prepare for their concerts. Some tunes soothe me and make me feel good and loved and make me feel like nothing bad can happen, but others sound just like a little kid who dropped his chocolate ice cream. When the rehearsals are over, I walk past the Cathedral and then turn towards the Opera House. After I take this route, I look for a table where someone has left goodies or a table where a man is sitting on the phone and can't yell to get me off the table because he is "on an important call" with an "important man". Why isn't everyone in the human world equal? Why can people only be inferior or superior? Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit. But waiters call me an animal. Why is it that waiters can't stand me? I'll debate that later.
So like I said, if I am and I quote "animal", that means us cats are a lower social class in the eyes of humans. Then why should we consider ourselves equal? Doesn't that mean we're more educated than them? I will leave you to think about that and all that we have debated and will debate.
From here I start again slowly looking at the tall buildings. Oh, how beautiful Timisoara is! I wander around, looking at the strange people. Why do all the waiters hate me? Why are they so mean? How can shop cashiers be so nice and waiters so mean? For example, on hot days I go into shops that have nice cashiers. I can't tell you the names because I don't want you to think I'm telling you this to advertise and, to be honest, I can't even remember the names of the shops. If I don't occupy my afternoons that way, I walk around the center. I go to Central Park where it's generally just me, and when I notice it's crowded, I go around in style and with caution because I don't want some kid to come and pull my tail or run their hand through my fur. Then I walk cautiously to the Rose Park where I smell every possible and impossible variety of rose created by a gardener for this wonderful city. It's so strange this time of year when some people put pictures of themselves on a huge cube next to a text. Two of them I recognize. There he is! That's the red-haired gentleman who comes to the town hall every week, and the other is the dark-haired gentleman with glasses who I haven't seen around for a long time. I stroll gracefully and think that as the days go by, I'm still here. I am the same cat. Timisoara is the same place. I think with regret that I am old and that one day I too will fall asleep. There'll be no waiters to hate me or cashiers to love me.
And so they end up at the Children's Park. This is a magical place. God, it's so beautiful there! I absolutely adore studying the children at play, the old people who cherish every moment as if it were the last moment of their lives. Oh, how beautiful it would be if all people cherished life like these old men! People are far too chaotic.
After this walk, I set off home slowly and step by step I repeat all the questions I asked myself today. I'm sorry, but I'll leave you in suspense for a few moments. I can't help taking a dip in the fish fountain.
Loneliness can hurt but it also teaches you a lot, like how to read, speak and write. But I hope you guys like my style of doing all of these because in case you haven't noticed, I've implemented them all. Now, in all this solitude, I occupy my time writing, reading and talking to myself, asking questions and walking around my city, Timisoara. It's as if I were in a fairy tale, with a different kind of princes and princesses, matchmakers and matchmakers, kings and queens, as I have heard from the cheerful entertainers in the Liberties Square. I love Timisoara! It is the only place that could give me a feeling that I have never felt before, not loneliness, not betrayal, but longing, homesickness.