The Cornell Experience

2007-03-04T17:06:00.000-05:00

Clearly, @CN succeeded in upholding our reputation for being awesome, enthusiastic and all around crazy at RoKS this weekend. We brought 17 people and were only beat by BaruchOur newbies were so involved and every time I turned around there was someone from our LC contributing or presenting something. It made me so proud!

Of course the amazingness didn't end there either. The newbies were all the first to jump in to learn any new @ dance and were practically leading gariba, which we taught at the retreat. Sat night at the rubix cube party everywhere you turned on the dance floor you were surrounded by people wearing red (our color, obviously) and we were only rivaled by Williams and Burbs as being the life of the party.

In short, I love our LC and @CN kicks ass!!

2007-02-24T12:48:00.000-05:00

LC Retreat!!!

The rest of the pictures can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/lindseynoelbober/Spring07LCRetreat
And for the real brave...check out the latest @CN video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7tmZ5omzxU

2007-02-05T02:15:00.000-05:00

So somehow we have double the number of people entered into the online system than attended our first info session! Quite obviously this means we are awesome. *snaps for our LC*

2007-02-01T16:14:00.000-05:00

Good luck with the info sessions!!!!! @CN is going to rock everyone's socks off!

2007-01-24T15:56:00.000-05:00

We really suck at this whole blogging thing. I say we make it our new semester resolution to dust this baby off and actually write about all the cool things we're up to.

Nose-goes on who's to take this on...*finger on nose*

2006-12-03T14:53:00.000-05:00

I just had to add that one additional goal, that is, the coolest goal-->to send tons of members abroad on traineeships next year!!

2006-12-02T19:59:00.000-05:00

To satisfy certain people's curiosities:

@CN has had a eventful semester, and we're about to end it with a bang! Two Leadership Workshops hosted by the one-and-only David Pollay (one for the University and one for the business community) and a screening of Invisible Children should leave everyone inspired for next semester. And inspired they should be, because we have a lot of things in the works:

A community-wide global village in the Ithaca Commons
Recruiting, selecting, and sending students abroad through our deal with the Co-op
Having a LT retreat with Yale
Having a new member/ LC retreat during or after induction
Bringing in a CEEDer
Slope Day reception event
Salaam involvement

And those are just things on the books right now. My other goals for next semester is to have a KICKASS recruitment drive, a phenomenal induction process, attend a superior NEBeast ROKs, fundraise like none other, send a shit ton of people to the spring international conferences, and have our LC sign at least one contract for ICX. I am confident that we are capable.

Our new LT members are transitioning nicely into their roles and we are meshing as a team. The new LT (minus Luke and Anne) had a meeting yesterday with Mary and Windi (from HILC) to discuss the huge global village we are planning and it was awesome to see how solidified our team is already. I'm soooo sad to see Nick and Syd leave us, but Kelly, Farrukh, Angela and Gaby are excellent additions to our team.

We have faced many challenges, overcome most of them, and ultimately had a great semester! And that is why we are such a cool LC!

2006-12-02T14:29:00.000-05:00

For such a cool LC, you guys suck at blogging. Don't give me this BS about finals either.

2006-11-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

Hey Cornell!!!!! WASSUP!! (that´s what we´re saying at this conference ;) )

So anyways, it seems that even an ocean away from Cornell we can´t escape our past and present LCPs...EVERYONE knows them and we have lots of stories muhahaha ;)

We´re sooo incredibly busy here having a BLAST and representing the USA that we´ll have to share our stories (and believe me...we have lots) at a later date. We hope all is well back on the hill and we´ll see you soon...but for now, off to the sailors and pirates party!!!!

Hugs and Kisses,
Lindsey and Mel

P.S. It is warm and sunny and beautiful in Portugal now...what´s it like in rainy, cold ithaca?? (yes, we know we´re bitches...@ bitches!)

2006-11-02T14:19:00.000-05:00

Cornell 1 Madison 0...UW gets ‘schedulized’

More reasons to love Big Red.

2006-10-24T20:26:00.000-04:00

¡¡¡Congratulations!!!

It's official that Lindsey and Mel will be representing @CN as the first American delegates ever to attend WeGrow in Portugal!!!

I'm putting in an early request for lots of pictures and stories.

2006-10-08T00:43:00.000-04:00

Hey @CN,

I just wanted to let you all know what I've been up to. I have been in Bogotá for about two weeks now and it has truly been amazing. The first week I did a lot of tourism in Bogotá and got acclimated to the 3000m altitude. This past week, I met the team for my project, Alcance Social. The team is made up of 25 people from 12 countries (11 countries and Colombia). We are working in 11 cities, with the same government organization. The idea of this project is based in something that I feel that @ hasn't adequately affected to my knowledge at this level. We will be working with the psycho-social and socio-economic problems of people who are forcibly displaced from their homes by the violence in Colombia and rapidly urbanize. Wow, through exchange I am getting the opportunity to work for the government of another country and use my skills to help out a rapidly growing problem.

For me, the project subject matter is enough, but what have made the experience even more powerful is the people who are on this project with me. They are very diverse even within the national participants. I have gotten to know all of them well and hope to remain good friends with many throughout the project and after.

@ in Colombia is also amazing. They have almost 800 members and have realized over 120 exchanges this year. The MC team works soooo hard, and for this I can definitely see the benefits of only having one year to do all you possibly can. The sense of urgency is almost draining to watch, but the passion is so inspiring. I don't know if anyone has seen the slogan "Colombia is passion," but in my experience, this is defiantly true.

I have been speaking very positively about this experience, which is not to say that it hasn't been incredibly difficult and challenging at times. I have dealt with a different style of education system, which relies heavily on long, detailed, and drawn out speeches. Not to mention, all of these speeches were in Spanish, a language that I struggle to understand and gain confidence using. Just as in any language as well, some people speak slowly and some are supersonic. Some can slow down and some lack this ability. For all the times that I have felt like my head will implode, vale la pena, because my Spanish has greatly improved this week and I am very excited to start work.

My goals for this week are:
to obtain a cell phone,
integrate into the office I will be working in,
get a national ID card,
study subjunctive,
read and write a bit everyday

To all of you who are jealously reading this entry, there will be more rounds to this project and it will be even bigger in the future with perhaps 40-80 participants. Look out for it and let me know if you have any preguntas.

Colombia es un pais super chevere y full bacano.

Chao nene!!

2006-10-04T11:26:00.000-04:00

Induction is officially over and I am psyched. The final session on @ 2010 went extremely well in my opinion and I can't wait for @CN to "hit the ground running" as Luke said so many times yesterday. Not only are our new members passionate about the organization, but they're highly critical too. Every organization needs people like that to push it forward and to never be satisfied with where we are.

My group's first reactions to 2010 were incredibly skeptical, but still positive. Aside from Elise's deep-rooted hatred for the word "impact," our group agreed that it was "fluffy" and filled with "empty words." But they all got really into creating a vision for @CN for 2010. I think Nick was about to pee his pants when he saw Alexa and Oscar's vision, which included a guy saying "mmmm...I just had my @ moment...and if felt good." Nick was also represented as an alcoholic (attending AA meetings and all) and as a chicken winning first prize in the World Unity Games of '10. Oh, and I should mention that in 2010 we will be having the Finnish hockey team come play for us, Anne will be Prime Ministress of Germany, Harvard will be crying b/c CN is way better than them, we will have two @ buildings: one looking like Goldwin Smith and the other will be next to the clock tower with the "eye of sauron" on top because "we see everything" and tons of other stuff. The flip charts were amazing! People got so into it that you couldn't help but be excited about where we are going as an LC.

When we started breaking it down into individual statements it was obvious that these newbies have a much deeper understanding of @ than I think I did all of last semester. I know that a lot of things didn't turn out quite how we had originally planned and we ran out of time for lots of the great things we had wanted to include, but ultimately I think we accomplished our goal. We have 20 some well prepared @ers to add to our LC and I have high hopes for what we will be able to do now.

Watch out world...here we come!!

2006-09-27T18:43:00.000-04:00

Hola chicas y chicos! I have a very exciting announcement for all of you....get ready....brace yourselves....this brought tears to my eyes....you may want to sit down for this....are you ready???

@CN just had three realizations in the past WEEK! Holy shit!!! Yes, that's right, three, THREE, matches were realized this past week. Arthur went to Colombia to begin his traineeship, and both Laura and Mike just went to the Czech Republic for their traineeships!!!! We are officially taking over the world. We have CNians on three continents right now! And we've covered all the @ growth networks this past year at some time or another with our presence! Now...on that note...who wants in on starting an LC in Antarctica with me? We can impact penguins.

2006-09-25T03:20:00.000-04:00

Here are IC pics and any pictures from my traineeship...enjoy

2006-09-13T09:03:00.000-04:00

We did it!! Recruitment is officially over and we have moved into the Indution phase of the year! Yay!

The first induction session was an incredible learning experience for me and it renewed the motivation I had coming off SSC. To be able to hear and feel the passion in the room makes me sure that @CN can and will accomplish great things this year. But, like Luke said: Let's never be satisfied. It's all part of our COE and we need to becontinuously striving to improve because that is part of @'s Identity.

I'm so proud of everyone and thanks for all the hard work and keeping me sane the past few weeks!

My Goal: Everyone realizing that Induction should be fun--for all of us. All we really want to do is make sure that by the end of this we're all able to function as one solid LC. They already have passion and drive, so all they need is some @ knowledge. So all formalities aside, let's show them what @ is all about so we can add 25+ passionate @ers to the world!

2006-09-09T19:06:00.000-04:00

The first round of interviews was an absolute success. Nick said it best at our LTM on Thursday: This is crunch time and we really need to step it up. I have no doubt that that is exactly what we did today. Sure, we may have made poor choices last night in having a bit too much fun, but all in all I don't think that affected what went on today. We've set the bar incredibly high for both the new AIESECers and ourselves and I am so excited and have the utmost confidence that we can pull this off this year and make @CN into something great.

2006-09-09T03:33:00.000-04:00

Sweet, I think I finally got this blogger thing to work. Never thought Id see the day.

2006-09-06T22:26:00.000-04:00

Get ready yall, P-Niz and I are bringing the post conference high back up to Ithaca. Times might be hard and I'm sure everyone is a bit overwhelmed, but nothing beats a good weekend of hard work and even more partying.

Get ready!

2006-08-26T19:54:00.001-04:00

Hey guys. Thought I'd share an awesome pic from IC's global village.

Check out all the nationalities just chilling. Amazing.

2006-08-25T20:18:00.000-04:00

So maybe Poland doesn't like me so much :(. Here I sit, at CEE night (Central & Eastern Europe--the craziest night of IC--I walked in just to take pics of people who were for once drunker than I (I didn't drink! I also can't breathe through my nose right now, but that's another story...) and people were dressed in Sponge Bob outfits and I have no idea what else!). Oh yeah so back to "here I sit." Here I sit on CEE night sick in my room with the incapacity to breathe through my nose. Also, my right hand has swollen to twice it's size due to a mosquito bite! Honestly, these mosquitoes are vicious, and apparently I've fallen victim to them drastically! Plus, I missed half of Global Village due to a car accident that I was in (along with Tiffany from GT and Sara from Madison, plus Zoom from Nigeria--awesome guy! btw, I was NOT driving, thank you very much!). And then we almost got into a second accident. (AHhhh the Turkish Tarkan song is on..I can hear it in my room...this is slightly depressing). But anyways, we were finally able to make it to the Palace of Culture and Science (truly a structure reminiscent of the Communist era in Poland), thanks to my amazing Polish skills (ask Sara and Tiffany! Even I was impressed with myself ;)). But then finally getting to Global Village was AMAZING. Imagine 96+ countries all set up in this one plaza of a historic Communist propaganda building. Wow. Aw man I can't even begin to describe it. I have tons of pics, of course, which I will make sure to post soon. Also, I definitely met numerous people who met Luke at AfroXpros, and upon hearing that I knew him, their immediate reaction was "ahh that kid is crazy!!!" Of course this encourages me to ask why, and needless to say I have pictures now. Many, many pictures. Those, too, will be posted soon. Apparently, as if SSC wasn't any proof, Luke makes one sexy woman. Hah and Luke thought he could get away without showing any of his pics from Cameroon...HE WAS WRONG!

But anyways, my initial reason for posting on here before getting into this "woe is me" rambling blog entry, was to let you all know that YOU TOO CAN BE AT IC!! No joke, check out IC Live. Here's the link:

http://live.ic2006.pl/

It has videos of the sessions and you can read people's comments and everything.

Ok, that's all folks. I'm going to go and try to sleep so that I am not incapacitated anymore nights. IC is crazy. Next summer, we are ALL going to IC in Turkey, fyi. Good night.

2006-08-22T17:26:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Poland!!! Well, I just have to say that I have officially fallen in love. Yep. Sorry folks. Poland is now my homeboy. I'm not coming back! Adios! Ciao! Zaijian! Ok ok before you break out the champagne, I'm kidding..sadly. Poland is such a beautiful country with so much to see! And I've already had my fair share of "Pinar travel moments." I've been mauled by mosquitoes (this was NOT in the guidebook--24 bites in literally 5 minutes--no joke! It's like my name is Arthur and I just ate bread ;)). I also flooded the hostel bathroom within 5 minutes of walking in, thanks to my inability to use the shower, inevitably also obtaining some first-degree burns. Oh the madness! But it looks like I fit right in! I've been asked for directions by Poles 4 times already! That means I look like I know where I'm going! Yes! I have mastered the art of travel, ladies and gentlemen. OMG but I am having an absolute blast! I've been writing some stuff down in a journal about my time here, so maybe, just maybe, I'll post those on my blog, despite my vow to give blogs the shovel. I may or may not have a poignant thought or two.

Anyways, just writing to let you guys know I'm loving it here! For those of you who are back at Cornell working so arduously on the recruitment drive--my heart goes out to you. I feel really so bad for being in Poland and missing it...really I do...;) No but seriously, I wish you all the best of luck and I know the recruitment drive will be AMAZING! At least you guys have the knowledge that you are all good college students who will graduate on time. Just keep telling yourselves that.

Also, be prepared. When I get back, there will be polka and other Polish folk music galore! With a side of kielbasa, of course.

2006-08-18T13:03:00.000-04:00

In Poland and everything is good!

2006-08-16T04:21:00.000-04:00

Hello @CN people. I am posting this to inform all that I have in fact been matched to a glorious project in Colombia that focues on helping internally displaced people. The government has funded this project and I will be one of five trainees living in Bogota. This should be an amazing life changing experince. After Bogota, I plan to do a Salaam traineeship, but only time will tell if I get to that.

Hope you are all doing well and I will be up in Ithaca after September 5th. I hope induction runs smoothly and let me know if there are any questions related to IC. I will be updating my blog from Poland http://arthurnyc.nomadlife.org.
Keep in touch.

Arthur

2006-08-10T17:53:00.000-04:00

SSC was so wonderful that I don't even know where to begin, so I won't. They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, so maybe they can tell the story better than I can:

(in backward/random order b/c the photo uploader sucks!)

Luke loves us so much that not only did he drink our spit, but he let us dress him up like a sexy sexy transexual hooker ;)

There are no words for how much we love Tina and her penis...I wonder if her cum tastes like OJ too...

Human pizza punishment time! Get there on time bitches!

Workin the camera, baby!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you our Sultan of the Night!!!

Nick and Luke always has the best facial expressions!

The Big Red minus poo

No matter how hard she tries, Mel just can't get away from the p-nizz being her boss!

Who could possibly look sexier than us three?

Roomies!!!

Gotta have the car ride lovin!

"Don't worry, they're just boobies not strapped in!"
"Over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder"
"Stop 'em from floppin"

* * * * * * * *

In short, Big Red knows how to represent...from our role call to screaming loud and just being our usual rowdy selves, we def take the cake for enthusiasm and craziness! I'm so incredibly pumped to kick start the semester and have so much faith in @CN. Together we will do great things, all starting with having one hell of a recruitment drive and induction process!