Summer in Caribbean style:)

Hi guyes,
I am Dada and I have just spent 6 weeks at amazing little island in Caribbean region called Puerto Rico. Maybe you know it as birth country of Ricci Martin, Jenifer Lopez, some Miss Universe…or as home of Bacardi and Pina Colada:)


Puerto Rico is " the oldest colony of USA",but people there speak spanish or how they say spanglish (cause during times Americans tried to change their national language and people were so confuced that they started to read english words in spanish way).

The capital city is San Juan, but in past that was the name of all island and Puerto Rico name of capital. But who changed it no one knows!
( maybe some of u knows part of this city from movie Dirty Dancing II, there its presented as Cuba, but it was made in SJ).





What about people? Puerto Ricans are friendly, open-mided culture.Its normal to visit someone during lunch or dinner time and just ask for meal with them:)
They love food! Normal meal means meat and 2,3 or more sides on one plate.Usually with rice, beans and fried platano (big big green bananas that u can cook in 100 ways:)



On the other hand they are so red-tempered, that to arggue with them is not good idea. Maybe thats the reason why is Puerto Rico famous of its violence and no. of murders.
Yes its not normal to walk around during the night and at some places niether during the day.
Each family has 3-4 cars so its not a problem, the way of living is american with taste of „La vida es para vivir!“.So lets move to...

Parties:) Parties are outside...in spite of law prohibits drinking on the streets. U can see people everywhere, in fashion clohes, girls with high-heels that Ihave never seen befor:) dancing and chatting in front of pubs, clubs..



And the most important think:)las playas...for me the island Culebra and Flamenco beach (every year in top 10 of the most beatiful beaches of the world.)
Its far from PR just 15 minutes by small plane or one hour by ferry..and its paradise...isnt it?







I am really happy that I had the opportunity to go there ( as LC development CEED if i didnt mention it yes:)and I could be one o 40 Czech people each year that visit this island!

Thaks LC for that unforgettable experince!
Dada

It is India!

Hey, I am Marie and I am just spending my two last weeks from the three-motnth's management internship in Chandigarh in the North of India. Going to India needs a bit of courage, but it is one of the strongest experience in my life.

I have been working for an Indian company that manufactures medical electronic equipment and helping it expand to the Czech market. Well, Indian culture is different both in private and business life, so during the time here I had to learn to be more broadminded, easy-going and patient:-)

On the other hand I have met here tens of very nice people - trainees from all over the world - and some of them will certainly stay my friends forever. Moreover, India is just an amazing country, much bigger and more diverse than Europeans usually imagine. Different languages are spoken in every federal state, you get different food and people wear different traditional clothes. That's why the most wonderful thing about my trainee ship is the traveling: I have seen the breath-taking Taj Mahal in Agra, precious Golden Temple in Amritsar and high peaks of the Himalayas.

Maybe not the best country for MT, but absolutely unforgettable for all types of trainee ships!
(For more info see my personal blog: http://www.mascha.bloguje.cz and my Web Gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/marie.popov)

My traineeship in marcipan city

Hey, my name is Mickey and I have spent great summer in Luebeck, Germany, working for the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
My management traineeship was spacial one, as it was a part of project BUSINESS CONTACT. This project has been running for 17 years and the main idea is that the students from East and Central Europe are coming for traineeship to North Germany to different towns and different companies.
First of all we all spent weekend in Bremen, where we had ICLS (Intercultural Learning Seminar), it's a special seminar for all exchange participants...for me it was a good way to get to know others and to find out more about our and other cultures. We also had grill parties and sight-seeing:)

After that we moved to Flensburg, it's the the small lovely town on the north of germany on the borders to Daenemark...

(to be continued)

DT in Ukraine - teaching English in summer camps

Having decided to devote 2 months in summer at development traineeship around Europe, and getting the offer from AIESEC Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine, I accepted the conditions and travelled to the place of "Undiscovered Europe" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhQc-Ux3jJw).

After arrival, local members of AIESEC took care: being picked from the train station, moving to spend few days at one AIESECer's place and eating straight after in the national canteen Puzata Hata (Пузата хата), I felt their warm hospitality. They helped me as well with all the necessary "you must do after arrival" stuff, took me for the walk along the longest embankment in Europe (Dnepr river) and prepared a very nice picnic style welcome!

I met my boss, director of English language school. My task was teaching kids (aged 8-16) English in summer camps at the sea shore of Black sea .

That required leaving Dnipropetrovsk behind and travelling 600 kms to Crimea peninsula.
From this moment on, all necessary communication with AIESEC was possible only through mobile phones, but generally there were no hot issues to solve.
On the other hand, I had no chance to get to know more deeply the AIESEC culture there nor meet any other trainees.

My day in the camp included time at the beach with kids, 2-4 English lessons (each 60 minutes) with materials from boss, helping out with the evening programme.
Accommodation and food was provided for free, I received small pocket money every week.

Basically, the work/life with kids was amazing (!)
Being with them all the time in the camp (note: each camp was max. 25 kids), playing and having fun together, having personal conversation from time to time to support their building of self-esteem, and simply becoming one of them - these are moments to be experienced!

Only you know how it is to receive sincere smiles all the time, what the curious eyes of a 10-yrs old boy wanting to know more about your country mean, that by your attitude towards to life you may actually have some positive indirect influence on others..

Don't want this to sound as cliche, but there were few moments that challenged and tested my flexibility, cultural sensitivity and perception of human beings in general.

And to call this as "Ukrainian experience" - having visited Kiev and the Tatar city Bakchisaray , gaining new friends and feeling the country is smoothly getting under my skin, I know Ukraine deserves more of my time to be explored and experienced fully! ;)

peace

Hana Hart.


PS: If you spending summer time in summer camps, feel free to get in touch with me (AIESEC Praha may provide you with my contact details) - I would have some advices for you ;)

My DT internship in Izmir Turkey 2008

Ahoj AIESEC Praho,
zdravím Vás všechny až z moc přehřátého Turecka, kde trávím už svůj 2 měsíc na DT praxi, kterou beru jako neuvěřitelnou zkušenost plnou nádherných zážitků, na která nikdy nezapomenu!

Pracuju na projektu Myself-My world, který získal nejlepší ocenění v celém Turecku! Moje práce tady se blíží ke konci, takže Vám teď můžu říct, co jsem tu celé dva měsíce dělala. První týden začal tím, že jsem poznala všech svých 12 spolutraineeků - každý z nich pochází z jiné země, takže jsme byla dost různorodá skupina (Holansko, Polsko, Ukrajina, Kanada, USA, Trinidad a Tobago, Egypt, Hawaii, Čína, Japonsko, Malajsie a Hong Kong). Naše práce začala školením, která se týkala time-managementu, project managementu, team managementu a dalších, od profesionálů na jedné z místních univerzit. Ze všech našich hodin jsme si dělali poznámky, které jsme použili následující týden, kdy jsme "brainstormovali" o letním kempu! V průběhu letních prázdnin jsme pořádali dva letní kempy pro studenty ze středních škol z celého Izmiru. Hlavním naším cílem bylo jim představit naše země, pomoci jim zlepšit jejich angličtinu a naučit je něco nového! Na každém z kempů bylo 60 dětí, takže jsme si je rozdělili do menších skupinek, kde jsme jim představili jednotlivé téma a ve skupinkách jsme hrály hry, které jim pomohly si uvědomit, o čem se ten den bavíme! Jeden den jsme se například bavili o "Body language", kde jsme si pak zkoušeli předevšemi prezentovat nějaké téma. Řekli jsme si, co bylo super, na čem je třeba zapracovat. Pro mě bylo nejkrásnější vidět, když na konci kempu studenti představovali jejich zemi a jak velký pokrok udělali! Zapracovali na sobě a výsledek mohli na sobě vidět sami!

S dětmi jsme prakticky trávili celý den - od ráno 10 hodin do 10 večera, kdy jsme společně šli na večeři a pak seděli na pobřeží u moře! Bylo nádherné vidět, jak nás děti obdivují a berou nás a kemp jako jejich nejlepší zkušenost. Velká většina z nich nikdy nebyla v zahraničí a tahla příležitost jim pomohla si uvědomit, jak moc je důležité učit se cizí jazyk a pracovat na sobě!

Před mým pobytem jsem přesně nevěděla, co mám od tohoto pobytu očekávat, ale teď vím přesně, že to byla zkušenost k nezaplacení. Turecko je země odlišná od té naší a naše rozdílnosti mi pomohly si uvědomit, co v životě chci, bez čeho nedokážu žít a určite si teď vážím toho, co doma mám!

Zuzka

Looking back for term 2007/2008

...why now? In few weeks my term as MC Director for Exchange Development in AIESEC in Hong Kong will start and new stage of my life.

I still remember the time when i started to think for the first time about EB in Praha - it was at MCP elections in 2007, while eating in the break, Esko(LCP of Praha in 06/07) came to me asked me - dont want you apply for EB in Praha? And my reaction - are you crazy? Im too long in AIESEC, I was not recruited in AIESEC Praha...and his reply - I dont want to get the reply now, just think about it :-) after some time our term started...me as VP XD responsible for the "biggest value of AIESEC Praha" - OGX realisations together with whole EB we started to fight for AIESEC Praha.

EB term was intensive learning for each of us, even for me, as I was already some time in AIESEC. We challenged each other almost every time we met, we had a lot of discussions, misunderstanding, learning, feedbacks, hours and hours of meetings, urgent emails, action steps.... and i can not forget a lot, lot of fun.
Really unforgettable 1 year. And as we gave to AIESEC Praha all the best from ourselves, I hope we moved LC Praha forward...after our term finished - all EB 07/08 members are LEADING BY EXAMPLE.

Lucka now in Hong Kong, going through MC transition
Roman and Vojta are preparing for kick- off Czech MC term 08/09
Martin is sucesfully leading LC Praha as LCP
Klara was selected as project manager of Career Days 2009 as first girl in history, and will go for traineeship to Colombia
Mishan decided to go for exchange and make his dream come thrue - he is leaving in few days for traineeship to Afghanistan, which is connected with his interest - training, facilitating and HR area

Good luck to all of us and dont forget:"Shut-up and share":D in czech : "Drzte huby a sharujte" :D

SOLUTION 2008, Vienna (Feb 14-17)

Willing to experience something new connected with leadership, I decided to attend SOLUTION 2008 conference in February as delegate.

Going to Vienna, meeting few old friends there and heading for awesome venue, where the conference was just about to start.Not a typical "get to know" delivered by Tanz die Toleranz (The dance of tolerence) offered the perspective that this conference might be delivered differently than the usual AIESEC way.
In fact, it was designed as a project of Emersense and AIESEC in Austria.

Solution - Leadership for sustainability gave to 80 participants together with 10 people from learning team a place stop, think, reflect and create.

Built on Theory U - a concept for personal and social transformation, using all human senses throughout the conference, using learning methods with arts and formal education, challenging our status quo & perspectives with externals of different backgrounds and reputable partner organizations and guests, empowering to act sustainabily - these are just few captured memories of this quite unique conference in AIESEC network!

All of these to build clarity, confidence, capability and courage to contribute to a sustainable future.

If hungry to know more, feel free to contact me (hana.hartosova(at)gmail.com)

Hana =)

NaLDS 2007 - A life-changing experience!

This November I was a delegate at for me one of the most intensive and life changing conferences in AIESEC I have ever been to, to NaLDS in Germany.
We spend 1 amazing week in the beautiful mountain resort in the middle of Germany. We had a great fun with people from many different countries from 3 continents (Europe, Africa and Asia). I remember the great snow fight that spontaneously occurred one day as there was much snow. Surprisingly people who never saw snow in their life before were the ones who where fighting in the most cruel way, throwing others in the snow and other stuff 


We dedicated this week to find something in us, to shape our values, vision. All the people are acting according to their values but sometimes they do not realize it. Then when they find stop and think what they did, they find out it is not the thing they wanted and that they are not really happy and satisfied with their lives.

Therefore I am very thankful that NaLDS gave me this opportunity to stop and think about myself. NaLDS created the environment where I was really honest with myself. I started to realize what is really important in my life for me and what I will do to live like that. It seems really simple to do it and maybe you think it is natural that you know what you want and live like that, but try to sit down for an hour, relax and think of it once again. Do you really know what is important for you - not for your parents, friends, society - in you life? If yes, write to me, I would really like to talk to you.

Next thing NaLDS brought to me was many new friends from all around the Europe. Not people you get to know, but true friends. We were talking together about things I do not usually talk even with my best friend and these people listened to me and tried to understand me. I hope we will meet again soon. At least we plan it.


Last thing I want to write about are AIESEC conferences in general. I heard about the internationalism and diversity in everything connected with AIESEC almost once a week before. But before I left for an international conference, it all seems like something that goes beyond me. Before NaLDS we got the international conference where we talked about AIESEC expansion in Iran. I thought well, that is nice but what the hell I have to do with it. In 3 days I came to Germany and my roommate was a guy who co-initiates the Iran expansion. Then I felt how the world - especially the AIESEC one - is small.

What to tell in the end? GO INTERNATIONAL AND USE IT IN YOUR DAY-TO-DAY REALITY!

PS: If you are interested in NaLDS, read also Zdenek`s post from November 2006, I totally agree with him in what NaLDS is about and what did brought to him.