The AIESEC Way

I should be sleeping right now...or at least being very very tired. Instead I am working on my OGX manual :) I got back from my trip to Ottawa this morning at 9...slept for two hours, then finished the preparations for my training I gave this afternoon at our culture shock preparation working, went grocery shopping for the Global Village after and then went to university to do all these things. Yes, my dear non-AIESECers, this is what we call the AIESEC way. This would maybe be bearable to the average student if he or she had a weekend full of rest and relaxation. Since I was visiting another interesting place with way too many interesting people, this does not apply to me. I woke up very early on Thursday morning, went to Ottawa by Greyhound, visited the Museum of Civilizations in f...french-speaking Canada. Then on friday I visited the Parliament (I was not aware Canada has such beautiful buildings) and went shopping. At night there was a big party at the AIESEC Intern's house, because one of them, Danny is going back to Ecuador soon. It was sooo much fun. Especially because I was not aware of the number of people I know in Ottawa. When the AIESECers showed up for the party they all asked me: What the hell are you doing here? And I recognized them from ORC, I had just forgotten they were actually from Ottawa. On saturday I did not feel very well in the morning, neither did the others so we just moaned and complained to each other about the mess in the house. I also visited the National Gallery, but for some reason I could not fully enjoy. There were also some Contemporary Art installations that very much reminded me of what I refer to as "mess" or "pile of crap" in our living room. So I went to hang out at Second Cup to read the Economist instead. At night I went for dinner and more drinks and then took the night bus home. Unfortunately I was awake the whole time. Sleep is overrated anyways. Even though I don't feel very much alive at the moment, I very much enjoyed my visit in Ottawa. Nice place, European in a way but also not...Canadian would probably the best way to describe it. I have pictures which I will upload soonish. Once I have slept.

In conformity with the AIESEC way, there are also many many things on my mind these days. I am haunted by my future. You would think somebody like me would be haunted by the past, but I handle that very well (Chantal does the trick hehe). Instead I spend all the time thinking: what is next? where is next? what is important? what do I eventually want? I can't complain about a lack of options, but they all sound so nice and exciting and every option has their own advantages and disadvantages that I am unable to make an informed decision about what to do. Which is obviously very bad and keeping me busy all the time. If it comes to this kind of decisions I would rather not leave it to chance or to see what works out. AAAAARGHHHH. I have made one important decision and that is that for now, as much fun as AIESEC is, school has to be finished. It was not easy, but that's the way to go. Only that this decision made the range of choices available more complicated. Staying in AIESEC would have meant choose the MCs I want to apply for and do that and go where I get accepted. Now it is to decide which specialization to choose for my thesis, decide on a country where to write, what kind of company...advice of any kind is greatly appreciated.

The fire alarm in my apartment building just went off. I couldn't be bothered to go outside, because it is cold, my Ipod is empty and it is probably fake anyways. I decided that if it gets really bad, I could still climb out of my window. Of course it has stopped by itself, before the fire brigade even arrived and now they are two huge trucks outside my window making noise. And why is that? Because as usually I complained about how boring Guelph is. Only that this time there was a real fire, as I just found out. But it was just small so nothing to worry about.

Another thing I had on my mind and I wanted to tell you all the time already is that on November 11th it is Rememberance Day in Canada. I find this an interesting choice of date, but Canadians are probably not aware of what we call Carnival in Europe and that it starts on November 11th as well. So on this Rememberance Day the Canadians remember their veterans and everybody who died in battle. I was puzzled to find out in how many wars the Canadians actually have fought. My armyfriends here told me some things, and then our MCP gave me this article: http://beatles.ncf.ca/canada.html. READ IT!!!! It gave me some new interesting insights.

Fulfilling the AIESEC way, I will now make an agenda for my meeting tomorrow morning (at 9, why???) and probably peacefully fall asleep with my head on my laptop. Maybe it's finally time to put it away...

Winter Wonderland

Some of you were maybe already a little bit concerned, but I survived my trip last weekend. After a very very busy week with Review Board for my future Exchange Participants and Elections for the new Local Committee President (which after 3 ties were won by my dear Brett) I went to party thursday night. We had picked a rather interesting location: THE RANCH!!! This is the place where Canadians from the whole area dress up in Cowboyclothes and go and dance to Countrymusic.

I found this very interesting at first, but after a while and some cowboys who asked me for a dance I got used to the idea and enjoyed myself. I have some pictures but not may which I will upload later and my friends who I went with will probably put theirs on facebook too.

The next morning it was time for me and Brett to go West as well and we took the bus to Windsor. It took us five hours to get there, we met some nice people in the various buses we used and then we arrived to Windsor. Dickey (whose real name is Richard but noone except for his parents uses that name) picked us up, gave us a nice detour of the town in his car and then, because there was nothing else to do before the other AIESECers came to his house for our party, took us to the mall. Which is exactly like the Guelph mall, but okay. This gave us the opportunity to go shopping at the monopolist for the party. I hadn't been in a while so once again it became clear to me how nice Europe is, for sooo many various reasons. We then went to Dickey's house and I cooked mashed potatoes, Sauerkraut and gravy, better known as zuurkoolstamppot in the Netherlands. I had also brought some other Dutch cookies and liquorice, so we had fun times and some AIESECers came to visit. Dickey's parents were on vacation and so we had the whole high school feeling of being home alone and house parties. Those fun times...We played werewolf for hours and hours and I finally overcame my nervous me that does not permit me to be a good werewolf. When I was a werewolf I lied and betrayed and of course I won. Unfortunately I was so good that noone wanted me in the game anymore and in the next two games I was killed in the first rounds. Late at night most of the AIESECers went home, some stayed the night and we talked and shared some interesting stories until early in the morning.

On Saturday, I was excited to go to Detroit and see how bad it really is, but unfortunately we only woke up after noon and everybody was too tired to do anything. The guys also decided that Windsor by daytime is kind of boring, so we went to see the new James Bond movie. Which was not as good as Casino Royale, but still quite entertaining. Especially the scene with the Canadian Intelligence Agent in the end made us laugh sooooo hard. Either you get it yourself or I will explain to you when the time has come. After the movie we went for dinner, to hang out at Danielle's place and then to the Casino. Since I had never been to a Casino before I found that very exciting. All those lights...noises...people. I didn't play though. But it was nice to hang out there for a while. Then we went home, because Brett had to leave at 7 in the morning, he had to work in Guelph. I stayed in Windsor and slept very long on sunday. When I woke up I met Dickey's mum who had just returned from vacation late at night. Since there was nobody else awake, I chatted with her for a bit. Then Dickey woke up and I wanted him to go to Detroit with me, so he started to think of something to do there. It was snowing and really cold, so we couldn't come up with anything except for shopping and it was just not the right time for that. So we went for a snowwalk on Windsor's riverfront instead, which is very nice because you can see Detroit's skyline. After that we had coffee and nice Sushi Lunch/Supper and I got back on the bus to Guelph. The first bus was late, so I got a little bit restless about my connection in London. The bus was also almost full by the time I got on, so I had to sit all the way in the back, getting slightly sick. The weirdo sitting next to me asking me creepy questions also didn't really help. Later a nice girl came who went all the way to Ottawa (which is very far) and sat between me and the weirdo, so he talked to her instead. And she told me about Ottawa which was also very useful. I caught my connection in London, but then there was an accident on the highway and the second bus was also delayed. Luckily my bus to Guelph waited in Kitchener and I finally got home, after 6 hours on different buses. I also met some of the people I got to know on friday. So I had a nice little meaningless Canadian chat with them. Guelph was covered in snow by the time I got here and the ground was also frozen and slippery. I somehow managed not to fall until now, but I better start wearing my helmet again.

I did lots and lots of AIESECwork ever since. Yesterday I unfortunately couldn't find a reason to get up and stayed in bed for half the day. But yeah, things have to get done. Cold makes lazy though. Now I also really have to pack my stuff, because tomorrow at 7 in the morning I am taking the bus to go to Ottawa for the weekend. It is cold, but not snowing there and I am very very excited. Three days in Guelph have already made me want to go away again!!! Even though I really like my AIESECfriends here, I am already looking forward to go home in a month. It's probably a combination of my AIESECwork being almost done here, cold, boredom and wanting to get on with my life...so I have to seek some distraction for now.

New York, New York

I knew that I would probably like New York, after all I have heard and seen of it. I didn't know that I would like it as much that I'd want to move there any time now. But that is the case. I had soooo much fun and I am still under some kind of spell (luckily, because Guelph is not only as unspectacular as always but now also freezing cold and it is snowing and snow is not melting right away). It is a special place, with many many people, all different. And vibrant. And it is so easy to find your way there, because of rectangular streets with numbers. With all the culture and shopping going on, I had the time of my life. And I can't wait to go again. I found a good german phrase to explain to my mum what I liked about it, but it escaped me because I slept all day.

After my slightly disturbed last post (because Rebecca hurried me) we got on the bus and arrived to New York around 10 in the morning. We would have arrived earlier, but our bus drivers were confused and we did some special detours on Manhattan Island. We stayed at Central Park Hostel, right next to Central Park (yes, really!!!) and also next to a subway station, very convenient. After unpacking and changing out of our bus clothes we went to Central Park for a walk and to see Strawberry fields and after that to Times Square for lunch/late breakfast. I was amazed for the first time. We walked around there, checking out all the different stores, which fascinated me. Marketing and Corporate Communication at its best. We also visited the Rockefeller Center and went shopping to Macy's and I bought a new watch. I don't know where my other watch is and I wanted a new one anyways. We then went back to the hostel to change and visited a comedy show at night. I found all except for one of the comedians very funny, telling about how the only way to regulate the temperature in a New York apartment is by opening the window, making fun of the subway and of course my favourite wannabe-VP Sarah Palin. We went for dinner after that and walked around on Park Avenue for a while and took a cab home. Laura has developed some great skills in flagging cabs...since in Guelph you can't really do that and have to call one. I wonder why that is...I doubt the reasons are the same as in South America. After that we went straight to sleep, because we were exhausted from walking around and the traveling. Also my friends who I spent most of my time with are all 20, so they will have to wait a year until they can enjoy New York nightlife. I will have to go back for that :)

On Saturday morning we first went to see the Statue of Liberty by taking the Staten Island Ferry. Unfortunately it was very misty, so I wasn't able to take very good pictures. We also visited Wall Street and Ground Zero and then went back to Times Square, because we wanted to see a Broadway Show that night and tickets for the same day are half the price. We had to stand in line and wait for the booth to open for an hour, but we got some really good tickets for Chicago and we took turns waiting there. In the afternoon we went shopping and then got into kind of a hurry, because some subways were under construction so we had to run through different stations to get back to the hostel and we also were in a rush to get to Broadway on time for the show. Chicago was really good and I enjoyed it. I am not a huge fan of musicals because of the low information density which always makes me want to read a book beside it, so I brought my Economist just in case, but I was entertained well all the time. Either I have grown up and can focus better now or it was just a really good musical. I have to see some more in order to find out. After the musical we went out for dinner and took some crazy pictures. I was going to go out with other people from our group that night, but I was getting really sick and cold so I didn't :( which is very sad. But next time...

On sunday we went to Soho because the girls wanted to shop on Canal Street. Apparently that's THE place to buy fake purses...so the moment we got out of the subway station some Asian woman showed us pictures of bags and told us to get into the back of her van so we could buy some there. I couldn't be bothered to go, so I waited outside and amused myself about what was going on. From there we walked the street and almost every shop has a secret back room where they sell fake handbags for 20-50$. Which is not bad...if you want a fake handbag. Another moment when I realized that I have grown up and it is time for me to graduate and find myself a nice job: I don't want fake purses. I want real ones. I got exhausted from all the random shops and people walking towards me all the time telling me to come whereever and look at their bags. Still, I didn't find it as annoying as a middle-eastern bazar. I was very happy when the other girls had finally bought enough bags (I think 10 divided by the 4 of them) and we went to real shops again. I spent most of the time looking at things because of my luggage issues and taking back stuff. But I have already made a plan: I will wear three layers of clothing when I leave and throw some things out. It should be fine then. We went to more exciting stores, many of which I always wanted to visit and I bought myself a nice new purple wallet at Bloomingdale's. We had a nice Cheesecake and then split up, because Tara, Laura and Shannon wanted to go on shopping and Rebecca and I wanted to look at stores on Fifth Avenue. We met Lauren and then did that. Even more motivation to graduate :) Unfortunately Tiffany's was closed. Later we met the other girls and had a Chinese Dinner and then the time had come to go back to the hostel and get back on the bus. I was very sad, but I know that I will go back sooner or later (hopefully soon). I didn't get on top of the Empire State Building or the Rockefeller Center, because it was misty and would have been pointless and I want to visit some of the museums and buy more things and also just take time and hang out in different places. Very much looking forward to that.

I was back in Guelph at 8.45 this morning, just in time for my portfolio meeting. And after that I went home and to sleep and woke up just in time for our meeting with the Board of Advisors of AIESEC here. That was very nice, the last meeting was in April and a lot of things have happened since then. Our advisors were flattered and they were very happy with my presence here in Guelph. We also have a very busy week ahead for AIESEC, with elections and the review board for future exchange participants on wednesday. Apart from that I will spend a lot of time writing manuals and documents for the future of AIESEC here these days and finally work on my "internship report" for university. And there is so much left of Canada for me to see: this weekend Brett and I are going to visit our friends at AIESEC in Windsor and that also gives me a chance to visit Detroit. I am very much looking forward to this trip, not only because we will have a Dutch night for which I will cook stamppots and buy Vla and it gives me another chance to escape from my messy dirty house, but also because my Lonely Planets encourage me so much to see those cities:

"Tell any American you're planning to visit Detroit, then watch their eyebrows shot up quizically. 'Why?' they'll ask, and warn you about the off-chart homicide rates, boarded-up buildings with trash swirling at their bases, and plummeting population. 'Detroit's a crap-hole. You'll get killed there.' Clearly, the motor city has an image problem. While the aforementioned attributes are true and while the city does waft a sort of bombed-out early East-Berlin vibe, it's these same qualities that fuel a raw urban energy you won't find anywhere else."

Not as promising, but also interesting:
"At the southwestern tip of Ontario, across the Detroit River from Detroit, Michigan, Windsor is the only Canadian city south of mainland USA. Like Detroit, Windsor is a 'motor city', but with the car industry feeling the pinch, what was one a net, civilized town is becoming run-down and haggard. Real estate prices are on the slide, and Windsor's future prosperity seems uncertain."

Thank you very much for your warm words, dear Lonely Planet authors. I also read somewhere that the only good thing about Windsor is the Detroit skyline. So if you never hear from me again, it's probably because I got shot in Detroit. Not in Windsor probably. Windsor makes me think of Windsor castle, this nice civilized place in England. Why can't the Canadians be more innovative when it comes to their city names. Or at least pick more appropriate names and call their Windsor Liverpool or Manchester!!! With high expectations for my next trip I leave you until next week...

Yay Global Warming!!!

It is 20° these days. I am walking without my jacket and Canadians even wear miniskirts without stockings again. And I enjoy biking very much. But I finally also have a bus card so I can decide every morning if I really want to bike up the freaking hill.

I had very much fun on Halloween. I still don't get the whole idea of why being scared is supposed to be funny, but I liked the dressing up part. Check the pictures...When we did Trick or Eat we got sooooo much food from for the Food Bank. In total during three hours all the participating students raised 47ooo pounds of food. People were so nice. And I saw a couple of really cute kids. My favourites were the little unicorns. After that I finally went to my first kegger ever. Two of my fellow AIESECers had a party at their house and a lot of beer...the police came twice and of course the beer was up at 2 am. On saturday I wanted to have a great pancake breakfast but only Krista and the Romanians came. Ever since I have been freaking busy, I kind of missed the weekend because of too much AIESEC work and right now I am on the point of going to New York for this long weekend. I am going with some of my friends from AIESEC, the trip is organized by the Hotel and Tourism Management Faculty and everybody knows me because I did classroom presentations in their courses. I am sooooo excited and will get back to you on monday with stories and pictures!!!!!