Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Back
Its been a pretty long hiatus in Turkey.
I left Singapore on the night of the 13th of August, returned on the night of 1st of September. I've missed a lot and school wise, AIESEC wise, sleep wise, I have lots to catch up on.
Still, I had a great time in Turkey!
Who was I with?
For the first 5 days: Pam, Sharon, Shubby, Cheryl, Ker Ying, William
Mayas and Alvin joined us at the Asia Pacific Growth Network Premeeting & then Vi, quite a bit later on the 24th.
What did we do?
The first day in Turkey, we explored the public transport, taking a subway then a tram from the airport to a hostel in Sultanahmet, a district in Istanbul. (www.cordialhouse.com if anyone wants to know, they're accessible and the guy in charge is helpful)
There, we were persuaded to go to Capadoccia(Kapadokya), which was a good thing. Cos its BE-YOU-TIFUL. We went up mountains & cliffs, hiked in thousands of years old valleys, visited cave houses dug into the cliffs, underground cities, chapels, and even went horse riding :)
Thus if anyone wants to go to Turkey and for 3 days wants to have a great time I would suggest Kapadokya, and definitely go with a group, its a really fun experience. Really felt I got to know the rest(especially Cheryl and William whom I am acquainted with the least amongst the 7 of us) a lot more personally, and see other sides of them apart from the 'AIESEC' side, ha.
When we were in Istanbul for our first day, we basically visited all the touristy spots, which isn't bad at all. The Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque are really stunning, and we visited the Basilica Cistern which was used to store water back in the day, that was really beautiful as well. You can literally imagine history unfolding before your eyes as you walk up and down Istanbuls cultural heritage area. The whole of Turkey, from what I heard, and saw, in fact, is littered with icons and memories of the past. Very interesting.
We took the overnight bus from Istanbul to Kapadokya and you basically know the story from there.
A typical breakfast(I say typical cos its the same breakfast regardless you're on the plane, in a hostel or at a university campus) consists of bread, hard boiled egg, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, cucumber, tomato and olives. Every single day.
Other meals get a bit more varied though. Turkish food is really not bad at all, even on the campus, but it has lots, I mean LOTS of yogurt and cream. And there's NO chilli sauce, no sambal, nothing, only chilli flakes which in Singapore you would only find in pizza places and the like. But that's ok, we still enjoyed the Doner Kebaps, Adana Kebaps, Urfa Kebaps, Iskender Kebaps, the Pides and all the various other stuff we didn't know the names of. For desserts there are stuff like the famous baklava, kunefe(I like this), also rice pudding, chocolate pudding, etc.
How was International Congress?
I have to say that probably as a 'veteran', this being my 2nd IC, it didn't have half as much of a 'rah-rah' effect on me as last year's IC in Poland had.
At the same time, it was a great event, I went in with quite a number of objectives, which I'm glad to say were mostly fulfilled.
I had to take care of negotiations with the MENA(Middle East & North Africa) region to secure exchange partnerships with the countries, so I basically addressed them(with Sharon) at their pre-meeting, and also had individual country meetings with them(Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, UAE, Qatar) and basically secured a supply of over 20 EPs (Exchange Participants, or interns, previously known as SNs) to Singapore for our Middle East project.
At the same time we(myself, Alvin, Ker Ying, Sharon, William) had meetings with people like ING, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered Bank, Tata Consultancy Group, and interacted with people from other prominent companies and partners of AIESEC, like Electrolux, DHL, UBS, HP and Microsoft.
As 'jaded' as you can get at an IC that's not your first, nonetheless 650 delegates from 100 countries, plus externals, alumni, facilitators and AIESEC International really add to become a really huge and diverse crowd which you cannot ignore.
IC would be basically 13 days of non-stop roll calls, dancing, meeting people, discussing AIESEC, socialising, networking, and partying. Quite an experience.
And no IC is the same. Turkey this year was worlds apart from the one in Poland last year, and characteristic of this IC, as someone said at our closing plenary, you are part of IC 2007 if 'your idea of having a good time is partying on a tennis court and making out in the forest after'. Which connected to all of us cos the parties WERE in a tennis court converted to a 'party area' and there were no mixed dorms, strictly single-sex ones and thus when people were feeling touchy they had to go to the forest-y park nearby on the benches and make out.
Never a dull moment.
Its interesting to observe as well, that with 650 people plus, around you all the time, its surprisingly easy to feel very alone as well. I guess that is just part of the great paradox that is life. Also, it does take energy to be able to interact with everyone, all the time. You have to think of things to say, you have to be attentive, you have to decipher the different accents(eg Latin American, African, North American, Western Europe(can be broken down to Italian, French, English), Eastern Europe, south Asian, southeast Asian, east Asian) which is tiring in itself.
I met a number of old friends which made me happy:
Koreans(Patrick, John), Indonesians(Aidy, David, Indah), Indians(Vijit, Ankit), Thai(Goff, Nueng, Sine, Pui), Swiss(Gaudi), Australians(Alex), Kiwis(David Benjamin), Malaysians(James, Sandy, Anthony, Anisha Lah, Geralynn, Renee, Fadli) [forgive me if i didn't add you on this list, there are alot of people haha]
And I found that I really wanted to spend more time talking to them and in fact, my team mates even, to really build the relationships that I had, than to spend time getting superficially acquainted with others. Which is not to say I didn't make new friends, cos I did, but I valued the short time that we had to see each other.
I also valued this 'break' which my team had to really just fool around(despite having meetings and attending sessions) and bond, before we headed back to Singapore and all Hell breaks loose.
[Ed's Note: Pics don't seem to be uploading onto blogger now, I'll add in more pictures later][Added!]
I left Singapore on the night of the 13th of August, returned on the night of 1st of September. I've missed a lot and school wise, AIESEC wise, sleep wise, I have lots to catch up on.
Still, I had a great time in Turkey!
Who was I with?
For the first 5 days: Pam, Sharon, Shubby, Cheryl, Ker Ying, William
Mayas and Alvin joined us at the Asia Pacific Growth Network Premeeting & then Vi, quite a bit later on the 24th.
What did we do?
The first day in Turkey, we explored the public transport, taking a subway then a tram from the airport to a hostel in Sultanahmet, a district in Istanbul. (www.cordialhouse.com if anyone wants to know, they're accessible and the guy in charge is helpful)
There, we were persuaded to go to Capadoccia(Kapadokya), which was a good thing. Cos its BE-YOU-TIFUL. We went up mountains & cliffs, hiked in thousands of years old valleys, visited cave houses dug into the cliffs, underground cities, chapels, and even went horse riding :)
Thus if anyone wants to go to Turkey and for 3 days wants to have a great time I would suggest Kapadokya, and definitely go with a group, its a really fun experience. Really felt I got to know the rest(especially Cheryl and William whom I am acquainted with the least amongst the 7 of us) a lot more personally, and see other sides of them apart from the 'AIESEC' side, ha.
When we were in Istanbul for our first day, we basically visited all the touristy spots, which isn't bad at all. The Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque are really stunning, and we visited the Basilica Cistern which was used to store water back in the day, that was really beautiful as well. You can literally imagine history unfolding before your eyes as you walk up and down Istanbuls cultural heritage area. The whole of Turkey, from what I heard, and saw, in fact, is littered with icons and memories of the past. Very interesting.
We took the overnight bus from Istanbul to Kapadokya and you basically know the story from there.
A typical breakfast(I say typical cos its the same breakfast regardless you're on the plane, in a hostel or at a university campus) consists of bread, hard boiled egg, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, cucumber, tomato and olives. Every single day.
Other meals get a bit more varied though. Turkish food is really not bad at all, even on the campus, but it has lots, I mean LOTS of yogurt and cream. And there's NO chilli sauce, no sambal, nothing, only chilli flakes which in Singapore you would only find in pizza places and the like. But that's ok, we still enjoyed the Doner Kebaps, Adana Kebaps, Urfa Kebaps, Iskender Kebaps, the Pides and all the various other stuff we didn't know the names of. For desserts there are stuff like the famous baklava, kunefe(I like this), also rice pudding, chocolate pudding, etc.
How was International Congress?
I have to say that probably as a 'veteran', this being my 2nd IC, it didn't have half as much of a 'rah-rah' effect on me as last year's IC in Poland had.
At the same time, it was a great event, I went in with quite a number of objectives, which I'm glad to say were mostly fulfilled.
I had to take care of negotiations with the MENA(Middle East & North Africa) region to secure exchange partnerships with the countries, so I basically addressed them(with Sharon) at their pre-meeting, and also had individual country meetings with them(Jordan, Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, UAE, Qatar) and basically secured a supply of over 20 EPs (Exchange Participants, or interns, previously known as SNs) to Singapore for our Middle East project.
At the same time we(myself, Alvin, Ker Ying, Sharon, William) had meetings with people like ING, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered Bank, Tata Consultancy Group, and interacted with people from other prominent companies and partners of AIESEC, like Electrolux, DHL, UBS, HP and Microsoft.
As 'jaded' as you can get at an IC that's not your first, nonetheless 650 delegates from 100 countries, plus externals, alumni, facilitators and AIESEC International really add to become a really huge and diverse crowd which you cannot ignore.
IC would be basically 13 days of non-stop roll calls, dancing, meeting people, discussing AIESEC, socialising, networking, and partying. Quite an experience.
And no IC is the same. Turkey this year was worlds apart from the one in Poland last year, and characteristic of this IC, as someone said at our closing plenary, you are part of IC 2007 if 'your idea of having a good time is partying on a tennis court and making out in the forest after'. Which connected to all of us cos the parties WERE in a tennis court converted to a 'party area' and there were no mixed dorms, strictly single-sex ones and thus when people were feeling touchy they had to go to the forest-y park nearby on the benches and make out.
Never a dull moment.
Its interesting to observe as well, that with 650 people plus, around you all the time, its surprisingly easy to feel very alone as well. I guess that is just part of the great paradox that is life. Also, it does take energy to be able to interact with everyone, all the time. You have to think of things to say, you have to be attentive, you have to decipher the different accents(eg Latin American, African, North American, Western Europe(can be broken down to Italian, French, English), Eastern Europe, south Asian, southeast Asian, east Asian) which is tiring in itself.
I met a number of old friends which made me happy:
Koreans(Patrick, John), Indonesians(Aidy, David, Indah), Indians(Vijit, Ankit), Thai(Goff, Nueng, Sine, Pui), Swiss(Gaudi), Australians(Alex), Kiwis(David Benjamin), Malaysians(James, Sandy, Anthony, Anisha Lah, Geralynn, Renee, Fadli) [forgive me if i didn't add you on this list, there are alot of people haha]
And I found that I really wanted to spend more time talking to them and in fact, my team mates even, to really build the relationships that I had, than to spend time getting superficially acquainted with others. Which is not to say I didn't make new friends, cos I did, but I valued the short time that we had to see each other.
I also valued this 'break' which my team had to really just fool around(despite having meetings and attending sessions) and bond, before we headed back to Singapore and all Hell breaks loose.
I could go on and on I suppose, but I won't. IC was a good experience, and all good experience comes with good and bad, which IC had. Still, I valued the time I spent with my friends, and those that are important to me. I can only wish that you reading, if you have not had that opportunity, have that chance to experience it as well.
Here's to you guys :)
Our Singapore Delegation
Happy People
[Ed's Note: Pics don't seem to be uploading onto blogger now, I'll add in more pictures later][Added!]
Monday, August 13, 2007
OFF TO TURKEY!!!
See you all when i get back. :)Thursday, August 09, 2007
Late Updates
Yup, so people have been asking for updates... haha... sorry it took so long.
Nothing much really, some minor ones...
1) Going to Turkey on the 13th, till 1st Sept
2) Have been finally ushered in as official VPER in charge of SGD90,000 revenue target
3) Have been going to lots and lots of company meetings and been deep in material/report preparation and internal/external communication, and slowly seeing some rewards
4) NUS won 'Best LC' award for 2006/2007, validating my LCP term
5) School starts officially, very, very soon
6) Once I return from Turkey, I will officially have no time to wipe my butt.
The greatest update, however, would be that I'm Happy :)
The tide rushes in
Half eaten, overcooked outside, undercooked inside, omelette, anyone?
Hope you are enjoying yourself wherever you are now. Cheers!
Nothing much really, some minor ones...
1) Going to Turkey on the 13th, till 1st Sept
2) Have been finally ushered in as official VPER in charge of SGD90,000 revenue target
3) Have been going to lots and lots of company meetings and been deep in material/report preparation and internal/external communication, and slowly seeing some rewards
4) NUS won 'Best LC' award for 2006/2007, validating my LCP term
5) School starts officially, very, very soon
6) Once I return from Turkey, I will officially have no time to wipe my butt.
The greatest update, however, would be that I'm Happy :)
The tide rushes in
Half eaten, overcooked outside, undercooked inside, omelette, anyone?
On the speedboat
Stylo photo suggesting the model is contemplating the meaning of life.
Hope you are enjoying yourself wherever you are now. Cheers!
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Digital Dreams
BitDefender Internet Security v10... I like it!Recommended by Attila, I got it and i'm pretty happy with it so far. I just got my laptop from the service centre on Wednesday, after a hiatus of about more than a month. I'm really happy! Getting most of my info back(though some are forever lost ... *sob*)
Got my Adobe Reader, Adobe CS Photoshop, VLC player, Microsoft Office, Skype, MindManager, PDF Exchange, Mozilla, Windows Live Messenger... even for such a techno-unsavvy person like me, it seems i'm addicted to technology. :P
Happy though :)
Tiring days, lots of transitions, planning, research, school and project work. But we'll make it thru... cheers!
Monday, April 30, 2007
I'm done with the semester!!
:)
Now... Summer Term, Transition, National Planning, Work! And of course... lots of holidays and slacking inbetween ;)
Cheers!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
International Friendship Day
Last Friday, the 13th of April, Singapore celebrated International Friendship Day in its public schools. Hei Chin, an NTU AIESEC Alumni and the National Education coordinator of Queensway Secondary School, sent me a desperate plea for help; she had run out of ideas to show her kids about international friendship.
Thus we hatched a plan; that day, I, Attila(from Hungary, working in DHL) and René(from Germany, now back in Germany) went down to the school to address the WHOLE SCHOOL during their morning assembly.
It was an interesting experience for myself, I don't think I've publicly addressed so many people at one go, certainly not a secondary school assembly like that. Heck, I've not even gone to a secondary school assembly since 2000. Haha.
But it was pretty fun! The children were quite lively for 740am, and quite supportive with 'whoo's and 'yeah's and clapping. I have to admit though that I was a little nervous. Basically I shared my own experience about making friends all over the world through a few opportunities(mainly AIESEC), and encouraged them to explore the world too, and seize all the opportunities available. I think the 3 of us shared a psychic link so Attila(or Pixi, as he is known by his friends) and Rene also spoke about very similar things.
After that, Pixi, Rene, I took a picture for the school magazine, sitting with the kids in assembly (and doing cute 'v' signs), we're still waiting for that picture from Hei Chin. And we proceeded to have an authentic secondary school breakfast, with kaya toast, sandwiches and tea.
Fun!
Pixi addressing the school(he was very business-like, haha)
Thus we hatched a plan; that day, I, Attila(from Hungary, working in DHL) and René(from Germany, now back in Germany) went down to the school to address the WHOLE SCHOOL during their morning assembly.
It was an interesting experience for myself, I don't think I've publicly addressed so many people at one go, certainly not a secondary school assembly like that. Heck, I've not even gone to a secondary school assembly since 2000. Haha.
But it was pretty fun! The children were quite lively for 740am, and quite supportive with 'whoo's and 'yeah's and clapping. I have to admit though that I was a little nervous. Basically I shared my own experience about making friends all over the world through a few opportunities(mainly AIESEC), and encouraged them to explore the world too, and seize all the opportunities available. I think the 3 of us shared a psychic link so Attila(or Pixi, as he is known by his friends) and Rene also spoke about very similar things.
After that, Pixi, Rene, I took a picture for the school magazine, sitting with the kids in assembly (and doing cute 'v' signs), we're still waiting for that picture from Hei Chin. And we proceeded to have an authentic secondary school breakfast, with kaya toast, sandwiches and tea.
Fun!
Queensway Secondary School
Myself addressing the school
Rene with a class(and a snake)
Myself addressing the school
Rene with a class(and a snake)
Pixi addressing the school(he was very business-like, haha)
