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...