Elena-Teodora Chiujdea, Author at The Orbital

“I don’t recognise my country”: Orbital Reacts to Roe v Wade

27Jun

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Features, News, Opinion

“I don’t recognise my country”: Orbital Reacts to Roe v Wade

“We are better than this”, my mother says. “I don’t recognise my country.” I can’t help but agree. Because this isn’t what the United States of America should be. This is not what it was founded on. This is not a reflection of its population’s views. This is an act of ostracisation in the pursuit of control. This is not democracy. There have been many times in recent years that I’ve been embarrassed by my country, by my accent and by my passport. Friday’s overturn of the Roe v Wade ruling topped everything else (a high boundary to break after the election of our last president). Equality, that often-distant dream, felt obtainable. We could see it off in the distance, and if we could just get a bit closer, keep moving forward, then maybe we could reach it, touch it, smell it, lick...

21Jun

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Creative Writing

Rainbow World

Red: love. Romantic love, a connection at its bloom. A mother’s unconditional love, a life being born from another. A sibling’s love, with all the bickering and fighting, that love is still there. A friend’s love. A heartbreak that proves the love was there. Orange: balance. Understanding there will be grief and uncertainty in life but being able to blur out the shadows and find joy in the little everyday things. A morning coffee. A family breakfast. A sunny day. A hug. A face-to-face conversation. Yellow: spontaneity. We are all strangers until one person breaks the ice and comes up to you. He introduces himself, you make small talk, find a common interest and before you know it that stranger is now your best friend. A connection in the crowd. Green: rebirth. Rebirth...

14May

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Creative Writing

From my window

From my window I stand and stare at the garden over the fence. All the eye can see is a crisp layer of fresh grass. The gardener comes in every Tuesday to mow the lawn and take care of the flowers. A cluster of lilies standing proud. Orchids with their intoxicating scent, bound to put you in a frenzy. Roses tainted in blood or as white as the clouds above. Even the sun stares in awe, hiding behind the apple tree, scared its scorching heat will ruin their beauty. Each branch grows heavy with the ripe fruit. Not one is allowed to fall, or they would land in the crystal-clear water. An old man in overalls is hunched over the opulent pool to collect the stray leaves that did fall in. It’s not their fault. The wind last night was fierce, pulling them off branches and downing them in chlo...

Trouble in Tahiti: The Gender Troubles of the ‘50s Still Following Us Today

20Mar

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Theatre & Performance

Trouble in Tahiti: The Gender Troubles of the ‘50s Still Following Us Today

Trouble in Tahiti is a 1952 opera musical composed by Leonard Bernstein. Royal Holloway’s production of this renowned opera showed variety and skill in both acting and vocal performances. In a critique of 1950s patriarchal marriage norms, Jennifer Morafkova and James Gooding interpreted the two protagonists, Dinah and Sam. Accompanist Georgie Andrews, joined by Anna Caron, Zachary Smith, Phoebe Wakefield, Robert Murray, and Sebastian Stone as the chorus enhanced these marital gender inequalities through satire and dark humour. Director Kitty Cassey and Assistant Director Jennifer Hawthorn succeeded in taking their audience back in time to the post World War 2 period for the short seven scenes. The chorus introduces what is supposedly the perfect marriage through Bernstein’s Prelu...

Emily in Paris: Praising aristocracy, shaming the proletariat

13Feb

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Features, Film & TV, News

Emily in Paris: Praising aristocracy, shaming the proletariat

By now, everyone’s heard about Emily in Paris. The Netflix show made its debut in 2020, with the promising concept of a young graduate learning to merge American and French cultures. Instead, it romanticised elitist ideals, from the scenery to the extravagant fashion, as we follow Emily in her time abroad. The screenwriters put the rich on a pedestal, showing how the poor taint Paris’ opulence. In their eyes, of course. Let’s not forget race and homosexuality. Although there is representation, it comes across as tokenship, with no character development. There is no question that the finished production came up short of audience expectations; the online backlash was swift. However, the high view count overtook the number of critics, and the show was renewed for a...

31Jan

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

News, Opinion

The Taboo of Virginity

University through the Eyes of a Virgin Over the years, a stigma has been attached to virginity. Whilst the 1960s praised the idea of innocence and purity, particularly amongst women, we now feed off sexual empowerment and diversity. Yet, we still live with this irrational thought: ‘I must be the only virgin on campus’. Not true. We are the generation that is having less and less sex; 18.9% of 18 to 24-year-olds were sexually inactive in the early 2000s whilst in 2018 it was reported that 30% of students and young adults were not having sex. So, isn’t virginity amongst students more normal than abnormal? Why are we avoiding sex like the plague when we are such a sexually aware generation? The logical answer might be the Covid-19 pandemic that forced students to live at home l...

Covid does not discriminate. Rich or poor, you are exposed to the virus.

30Jan

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

News, Opinion

Covid does not discriminate. Rich or poor, you are exposed to the virus.

The Covid pandemic started over two years ago. The highly infectious virus ingrained a fear in society that has never been seen before. Places known for their busy streets and tourism turned into ghost towns. Australia is one of the only countries where Covid could not settle its claws amongst citizens, with barely five confirmed cases since March 2020. So, Australia handled the pandemic well, right? Wrong. The praises from all over the world about their good strategies went to their heads. Once the Omicron variant came around, the government freed the Australian population — restrictions be damned. Cases rose quickly during the holidays, but the health care system was over its head. A Covid wave was alien to them. Omicron is supposedly a milder version everyone will get at some point, so...

5 Christmas destinations for a get-out-of-Egham-free-card

21Nov

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Lifestyle, News

5 Christmas destinations for a get-out-of-Egham-free-card

With the holidays knocking on our door, students are looking forward to having a month of well-deserved time off – sort of. Yes, there are the notorious essays and extra reading pilling up, but who wouldn’t jump faster than you can say “Merry Christmas” at these five destinations, fitting for a student budget? After two years of hibernating at home, the COVID restrictions finally eased, so let’s enjoy the freedom. Budapest, Hungary First stop, the Vorosmarty Square Christmas Market, sprinkled with Christmas lights from window to window, streetlamp to streetlamp. To get there, embark on one of Budapest’s famous trams, decked in gleaming fairy lights, and you will live out your childhood Polar Express dream. Whilst walking under a star-like blanket of ornaments and indulgi...

Thomas Cramer: Sexually Harassing Girls on the Royal Holloway Campus

14Nov

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

News

Thomas Cramer: Sexually Harassing Girls on the Royal Holloway Campus

Thomas Cramer. The horrific actions of the 29-year-old have taken Royal Holloway by storm. In a cowardice act of harassment, on the 27th May 2021, he was seen driving around the university campus taking photos of young girls. A total of seven pictures surfaced later that day on his Instagram and Cramer was swiftly reported to campus security. I wish his behaviour was considered abnormal but being harassed and sexually objectified is sadly just something women are forced to live with in their day-to-day life. Imagine walking around campus to your lectures and later being told, by a friend or even a stranger, that a photo you were unaware was being taken in the first place was posted to Instagram. Scroll down to the captions and you’ll find @thomasjosephcramer attached vile d...

American War Review: Did Omar El Akkad Predict the Covid 19 Pandemic?

14Nov

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

Culture & Literature, Literature

American War Review: Did Omar El Akkad Predict the Covid 19 Pandemic?

“This isn’t a story about war. It’s about ruin.” (American War, chapter 1) Omar Akkad’s 2017 American War is classified as a war science fiction novel. But is it science fiction? The international bestseller and winner of the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is made up of fragments from real life events. From the first American Civil War, the Guantanamo Bay detention camps, to the more recent Afghanistan conflict in which Akkad was a journalist himself, readers are bombarded with the suffering of others. The metafiction – set between 2075 and 2095 – follows the story of 6-year-old Sarat Chestnut after her father is killed in a homicide bombing. Taken to camp Patience with her siblings and mother, Sarat’s childhood is lived in a state of limbo: not dead, not alive, purely surviving t...