Time flies when you're having fun!
It's been an incredible last few weeks. Easily the most intense and rewarding ones i've spent in a while. The few moments that i've found myself doing absolutely nothing happened in the last couple of hours that i've been spending on a train headed to Guangzhou in the south of China. I thought i'd try to beat the abysmal 45 minutes that the MC's 4 year old laptop battery gives me on a full charge and hammer out everything thats gone down since the 13th of July.
For one - our team's finally complete with the arrival of Primrose and with Adam formally taking charge of our CSR programs. We spent our first full day together as a team at the venue of AIESEC China's July National Conference preparing for a full 5 days of agenda ahead of us. The conference itself was a whole truckload of learnings. I dont think i've switched on my 'active learning' mode for quite as long as i did for those 5 days. The delegates were challenging and enthusiastic - both characteristics which I enjoy working with tremendously. It made the job of facilitating both refreshing and engaging. Those whole five days flew by only too quickly! I was just getting to know everyone's names and what they did in AIESEC! Congratulations ofcourse are in order for UIBE and PKU who won the 'Best' and 'Most improved' LC awards respectively. Both LCs thoroughly deserved it.
At this point, I get the distinct impression that i'm forgetting much of what has happened to me in the last one month. I haven't even hit 22 yet and my brain is already acting up!
At any rate, I do remember that the day after the conference, we spent sleeping. Definitely well earned - any facilitator at AIESEC conferences knows that getting even 2-3 hours of sleep a night during agenda is a priviledge most would kill for. If it wasn't the packed days it was the endless room parties that followed the main parties each night. I'm not complaining though. The day after was infinitely more active. We went off for a foot massage at a market that lasted about thirty minutes. (Definite reccomendation, though the shoulder and head massage seems to hold much more promise). Leon thought it would be fun to follow up a nice, relaxing time with some 'hell on ice'. So he took us to a local skating rink. Now i've never skated in my whole life - it doesnt come naturally to Indians. We enjoy our sun and our rains even, but we dont particularly enjoy ice. Strangely enough, it was fun. Great fun actually. I also discovered that the ice is not only very hard but also very wet. It made for some really funny moments to get off from the ice wondering what was worse - the fact that i'd bruised my butt or the fact that it was now soaking. Either way, I was better off than John or Peter who made the ultimate sacrifice and courageously put themselves between me and the hard ice (nearly) every time I went down. I'll be doing that again sometime (soon).
Another reccomendation - Chinese acrobat theatre. It's the one thing about China, besides the great wall that is both unique and spectacular at the same time. The best part about our experience was that while we'd bought the cheapest tickets in the house, we were seated right smack in the middle of the second row from the stage! Every one of the feats generated huge rounds of applause from the audience of about 500 people. The finale with 14 people on a single bicycle seemed quite ironic - the ultimate traffic solution to an overcrowded city maybe! Cheap and efficient! ;) All in all - it was definitely worth every last jiao we'd spent.
The last few days I've been spending doing various tasks. Including getting 'Old faithful' (that's the laptop i'm using) repaired for the third time in a month. The last time I walked in to the shop, the young techie dropped what he was doing and stared at me like I was a BAD dream. Unable to understand what he was saying in Chinese, I just pointed to my screen to indicate that it had stopped working (again) and asked him to get on with it. I found out later that he's now decreased his prediction on how long my laptop will hold out and has reduced it to one month.
My last day in Beijing was pretty eventful. I ate my first truly strange food. I apologise to all my Islamic friends in advance! I never imagined myself saying this - but I ate pig's intestines and clotted pig's blood. (it actually sounds a lot worse than it really is). Pig's blood tastes a little like paneer or tofu. Pig's intestines are like nothing you will ever eat. I had to make up for my gastronomic adventurism and so decided to treat myself to some Indian food for dinner along with Rahul (Indian CEEDer), Jane, Dexter (PKU) and Kendra (Dexter's girlfriend). Let's just put it this way - Indian Chinese food is total crap (from the real deal anyway) but Chinese Indian food is as faithful to the original as it can get. Maybe it was also because of the upmarket restaurant we were eating in, either way, it was good. Expensive but good.
Some of the other things I managed to do were re-watch the whole series of "Band of Brothers". A story about a company of WWII American Paratroopers who were among the first to hit France on D-day, the ones holding the line during the devastating Battle of the Bulge and the first troops to enter Burchesgarden - the erstwhile Nazi party's stronghold. Steven Speilberg and Tom Hanks pulled off another masterpiece with this series - it's a must watch even if you're not a war movie fan. The interviews with the real "Easy" Company soldiers preceeding every episode are both honest and poignant and by far the best thing about the show.
Finally - John, our Canadian CEEDer who's been with us for close to two months will be leaving soon. I'm a bit sad that I won't be around for his farewell because he's one guy who's been such a help these last two months. Always with an interesting story and a smile and extremely generous by character. I know he wants to do more in AIESEC and I wish him luck for that. I'll miss my swimming partner and fellow movie fan. Don't forget to send me the video when you're done amigo! Hasta luego. We will meet again!
And that's that - most of what i've been up to anyway in the last one month. My battery is about ready to give up so I'll have to stop typing and worry about finding an internet connection to send this online when I can. Guangzhou is about 18 hours away and i'm going to have to rely on the 4 magazines I brought along to keep me company until then! Signing off... until the next one!
For one - our team's finally complete with the arrival of Primrose and with Adam formally taking charge of our CSR programs. We spent our first full day together as a team at the venue of AIESEC China's July National Conference preparing for a full 5 days of agenda ahead of us. The conference itself was a whole truckload of learnings. I dont think i've switched on my 'active learning' mode for quite as long as i did for those 5 days. The delegates were challenging and enthusiastic - both characteristics which I enjoy working with tremendously. It made the job of facilitating both refreshing and engaging. Those whole five days flew by only too quickly! I was just getting to know everyone's names and what they did in AIESEC! Congratulations ofcourse are in order for UIBE and PKU who won the 'Best' and 'Most improved' LC awards respectively. Both LCs thoroughly deserved it.
At this point, I get the distinct impression that i'm forgetting much of what has happened to me in the last one month. I haven't even hit 22 yet and my brain is already acting up!
At any rate, I do remember that the day after the conference, we spent sleeping. Definitely well earned - any facilitator at AIESEC conferences knows that getting even 2-3 hours of sleep a night during agenda is a priviledge most would kill for. If it wasn't the packed days it was the endless room parties that followed the main parties each night. I'm not complaining though. The day after was infinitely more active. We went off for a foot massage at a market that lasted about thirty minutes. (Definite reccomendation, though the shoulder and head massage seems to hold much more promise). Leon thought it would be fun to follow up a nice, relaxing time with some 'hell on ice'. So he took us to a local skating rink. Now i've never skated in my whole life - it doesnt come naturally to Indians. We enjoy our sun and our rains even, but we dont particularly enjoy ice. Strangely enough, it was fun. Great fun actually. I also discovered that the ice is not only very hard but also very wet. It made for some really funny moments to get off from the ice wondering what was worse - the fact that i'd bruised my butt or the fact that it was now soaking. Either way, I was better off than John or Peter who made the ultimate sacrifice and courageously put themselves between me and the hard ice (nearly) every time I went down. I'll be doing that again sometime (soon).
Another reccomendation - Chinese acrobat theatre. It's the one thing about China, besides the great wall that is both unique and spectacular at the same time. The best part about our experience was that while we'd bought the cheapest tickets in the house, we were seated right smack in the middle of the second row from the stage! Every one of the feats generated huge rounds of applause from the audience of about 500 people. The finale with 14 people on a single bicycle seemed quite ironic - the ultimate traffic solution to an overcrowded city maybe! Cheap and efficient! ;) All in all - it was definitely worth every last jiao we'd spent.
The last few days I've been spending doing various tasks. Including getting 'Old faithful' (that's the laptop i'm using) repaired for the third time in a month. The last time I walked in to the shop, the young techie dropped what he was doing and stared at me like I was a BAD dream. Unable to understand what he was saying in Chinese, I just pointed to my screen to indicate that it had stopped working (again) and asked him to get on with it. I found out later that he's now decreased his prediction on how long my laptop will hold out and has reduced it to one month.
My last day in Beijing was pretty eventful. I ate my first truly strange food. I apologise to all my Islamic friends in advance! I never imagined myself saying this - but I ate pig's intestines and clotted pig's blood. (it actually sounds a lot worse than it really is). Pig's blood tastes a little like paneer or tofu. Pig's intestines are like nothing you will ever eat. I had to make up for my gastronomic adventurism and so decided to treat myself to some Indian food for dinner along with Rahul (Indian CEEDer), Jane, Dexter (PKU) and Kendra (Dexter's girlfriend). Let's just put it this way - Indian Chinese food is total crap (from the real deal anyway) but Chinese Indian food is as faithful to the original as it can get. Maybe it was also because of the upmarket restaurant we were eating in, either way, it was good. Expensive but good.
Some of the other things I managed to do were re-watch the whole series of "Band of Brothers". A story about a company of WWII American Paratroopers who were among the first to hit France on D-day, the ones holding the line during the devastating Battle of the Bulge and the first troops to enter Burchesgarden - the erstwhile Nazi party's stronghold. Steven Speilberg and Tom Hanks pulled off another masterpiece with this series - it's a must watch even if you're not a war movie fan. The interviews with the real "Easy" Company soldiers preceeding every episode are both honest and poignant and by far the best thing about the show.
Finally - John, our Canadian CEEDer who's been with us for close to two months will be leaving soon. I'm a bit sad that I won't be around for his farewell because he's one guy who's been such a help these last two months. Always with an interesting story and a smile and extremely generous by character. I know he wants to do more in AIESEC and I wish him luck for that. I'll miss my swimming partner and fellow movie fan. Don't forget to send me the video when you're done amigo! Hasta luego. We will meet again!
And that's that - most of what i've been up to anyway in the last one month. My battery is about ready to give up so I'll have to stop typing and worry about finding an internet connection to send this online when I can. Guangzhou is about 18 hours away and i'm going to have to rely on the 4 magazines I brought along to keep me company until then! Signing off... until the next one!
(I had wrriten this about 3 days ago, and have since been travelling around Guangzhou on my LC visit. The city is one of those ultra modern symbols of a fast developing China. Steel and glass high-rise buildings, clean streets, huge shopping malls, shiny new cars - the Works. I'll try and put up som pictures soon!)
posted by Pierre at
9:52 PM
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