Summer in Rotterdam

Jablonec in Global lounge!

2007-09-01T19:25:00.000+02:00

Yesterday in the evening I landed in Prague, the Summer in Rotterdam is over. However, this is not the last post on this blog. In few days, I'd like to share my overall impressions from last 3 months spent in 5 different countries, mostly in the Netherlands.

Moreover, the project, the reason behind this all, is still not finished. As I've mentioned in the last project update, my CEED has been extended for next 2-3 months, maybe more, so it is fairly probable that I'll post something from time to time.

Well, maybe good question... why am I actually coming back to Prague? In 10 days I am taking my maths exam, which I need to get ready for. I'm attending an intense one-week preparation course (starting the day after tomorrow) to check the level of my readiness. Few days after the exam the semester starts (my last one on bachelor's degree) and so does my job. It is going to be tough autumn to manage school, Tempus project, job, AIESEC and other personal engagements at once, but let's give it a try;-)

Anyway, let me introduce Jablonec into Global lounge of AIESEC International!

Cheers!

Jordan revival (fresh post!!)

2007-08-29T11:18:00.000+02:00

Huh, it's a good feeling to have my blog updated after 3 months! :D

And so as to enjoy this even more, now I'm writing this fresh post not describing what happened but what is happening right now! (Wednesday 29.8. 2007 11:00 GMT+2)

I'm sitting in the office, listening to Macy Gray on Fajn radio, just after my breakfast*, formally dressed, waiting for 11:20 when I'll go to pick up my colleagues from PSUT (Princess Sumaya University for Technology; wiki; web) in Jordan.

It is only 16°C but it is sunny with mild wind. I'll take my jacket.

My colleagues arrived in Rotterdam yesterday in the evening. The purpose of our meeting is obvious: to review the recent progress of the project on both sides, discuss related issues and precise the next steps. It is in fact the second round of our physical meetings after meetings in Jordan described before.

Everything is ready now, I've been preparing for this meeting on Monday and yesterday, I have also bought some refreshments (e.g. typical Dutch cookies "stroopwafels"), vacuum cleaned the whole office (OMG, that's work for one hour:)) and so on... I have to go now, I hope we are on the same wave! :)

*My today's breakfast: ham&cheese sandwiches, apricot Activia, vanilla tea, apple croissant, strawberry-orange juice and a tomato (I still haven't eaten it:))

They are leaving on Friday morning and so am I.
My plane to Prague is taking off at 8:50.

Biking in the countryside

2007-08-25T21:47:00.000+02:00

Related to the previous post about bikes... it was very handy during my last weekend trip in the Netherlands to explore all hidden beauties of the country. What better place than the area of Zaanse Schans and what better company than a native Dutch and the most advanced traveller I have ever met. None other than Eva, my friend I met at the party in Rotterdam in June:) Actually she has never been here as well, so we both were exploring new areas.

We've seen traditional crafts, wind mills for flour as well as producing coloured powder, lot's of animals and a virgin nature. Just check the pics below...

Cheese, wooden shoes, herrings, wind mills, animals
We had various conversations with Eva, talking about the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, AIESEC and non-AIESEC, girls and boys... and most importantly about travelling. Eva has been backpacking for four moths across the countries in the South America and another four months in the central-southern Asia!! I'll have to think a lot about everything we've shared, I guess it will leave a trace for sure! I don't want to talk about it now, but the change in my plans may come relatively soon...
I'm not exaggerating at all if I say this trip opened new horizons for me and I'm looking forward to what will come.

Here I bring one more bonus picture... very creative, isn't it?! ;-)

BTW unbelievable came true!
My blog is U-P T-O D-A-T-E!!

This post has been uploaded only 2 days after the trip and there are no more posts in the drafts! :)

AIESEC International, Martin speaking

2007-08-24T18:38:00.000+02:00

It is Friday and a relatively special working week has just ended. Why special? Because I tried how it is to be in an office keeper's shoes:) The whole AI team has left last Wednesday for the International Congress in Turkey, the rest of GN boards has left last Friday, Laura has left on Sunday and Sabine (AI office manager & salsa dancer) got ill...
OK, the more undisturbed environment I have the better, both for the "writing" phase of the project as well as for my studies of maths. What I realized very soon was that it wouldn't be as undisturbed as it had originally seemed.

Few things to arrange, e.g.:
> send UBS trophies to Turkey for the final ceremony on IC
> coordinate its transportation when it got stuck on Turkish customs (it wasn't just "one call")
> receive other parcels and office equipment
> search in financial papers and registration documents for one damned ID number:)
> explain a Dutch official that AI is not a VAT payer (after confirming this with people in Turkey, which sometimes took the whole morning/afternoon to get in touch with them)
> sort, pack and send a hundred of financial reports to Turkey
> fix Derek's flight ticket issue

... and of course, as expected, answering tens of phones. I can still remember some concrete topics:
> explaining a potential AIESEC member that if he wants to join the organization, he has to get in touch with local committee at his university first:)
> listening to two 30 min stories of dissatisfied students, in one case it was their problem, in the second one I really felt sorry with that person and advised them some next steps
> explaining our branding principles to people from one unnamed television and another agency
> solving an exchange quality issue of one LCP and explaining the exchange standards (IXPQS), where I found my previous occupation in AIESEC very useful:)
> and many other random announcements from SNs applying for global traineeships etc.

It was worth experiencing, at least I know one more job I wouldn't be able to do:)

Sometimes I worked in the library
Daily agenda of this week
Although I got unexpectedly busy with office administration, I tried to get some order in my daily agenda so as to be as efficient as possible. Of course, I have never managed to follow it in this order because I didn't have it written down, but when I think about the week, it would be something like this:

> 8:15-8:30 wake up & get up
> at around 9 a.m. arrive in the office
> 30 min of office maintenance (watering the plants or cleaning or hoovering or washing dishes etc.)
> 9:30-10 breakfast, reading news and blogs etc.
> 10-10:30 still breakfast, morning mail
> 11-19 work on the project with lunch break and social break along with office administration tasks (see above)
> 20-21:30 dinner, LC/MC related things, updating blog etc.
> 22-2 a.m. at home, studying maths, PC prohibited:)

Let's hope I'll manage keep to it in the next week as well. It will be my last week in Rotterdam and there is still so many things left. And the maths exam is closer and closer...:(

To buy a bike or not to buy a bike?

2007-08-20T19:27:00.000+02:00

Good question... the Netherlands has a reputation for being the land of bikes and so it is. I have been thinking about this dilemma since the beginning of my stay, but I still haven't made the final decision.

No doubts that it is very fast and convenient means of transportation (especially taking into account the flat countryside, wide-spread cities in general and many other aspects), but on the other hand, if you are going somewhere in a group and most of people don't have a bike, it creates kind of a social gap.
Moreover you need to keep your eye on it all the time, because bikes are the most commonly stolen commodity in the country:)

Maybe it was these pictures that made me hesitate:)

My question for wise guys... which of these pictures wasn't taken in the Netherlands and why? ;-)

Last picture is from Montmartre in Paris and it speaks for itself:)

New IS platform ready!

2007-08-13T19:06:00.000+02:00

Today has been very significant day! First of all the AI team received their sweatshirts, which caused lots of enthusiasm itself and secondly, in the afternoon the new IS platform was announced to be ready. Since I'm now documenting its development, I cannot omit this milestone!

Members of AI 0708 (and lucky me:)) received logins to the new platform. The testing period starts. And it will be necessary! Just during the registration I have encountered many small bugs to be fixed. It is absolutely understandable in such a complex system and it is actually the reason why it is being tested.

Ernie's time is counting down :(

Tomorrow, the IS Musketeers will enter the system and it will be revealed in front of the IC plenary in the morning of the last day.

Project update

2007-08-12T23:11:00.000+02:00

Right after I returned from Brussels, I did another evaluation of my stay in Rotterdam, because it has been already more than 2 months since I arrived.
I haven't shared with you how is my project progressing for a long time, so here is the update:

It took me 1 whole month to get acquainted with the Tempus project, to understand its history, prerequisites, AIESEC's contribution, expected outcomes, overall scope, timeline and budgeting, to get to know my colleagues and be familiar with their roles in the project etc. etc.
I don't think I may describe all of this in one post, moreover I wouldn't see any sense in doing so. I will try to describe my work on the project on general level:

Tempus project
> official description of the "sub-project" I'm working on:
It is a large scale, long term project called Open Learning Models and Technologies, funded by the EU Tempus Programme, organised in a consortium model.
> more user-friendly description related to my job can be found in my previous post
> you can also visit the official website of Tempus here

Consortium partners
There are many parties involved in the Tempus project (as mentioned on Tempus website introduced above):
> University decision-making bodies
> University administrative staff
> Teachers
> Ministerial officials
> Student organisations (e.g. AIESEC)
> Social partners
> Public and private companies having links with higher education institutions
> Non governmental organisations

These are the entities I'm cooperating with:
> universities from Spain, France, Jordan and Bulgaria
> student organizations from the Netherlands and Greece
> external experts from Germany, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan and Oman

OK, this is the overview, but what do I do?
Outcome of my work (as a project manager, not a teacher:)) will be a master's course focused on Information Management. Also, we (AIESEC) are supposed to provide feedback and online support for the second course focused on E-commerce.
All courses (there is 8 of them to be created in the whole consortium) will be designed in the online e-learning platfrom Moodle.

Cool, but the course isn't ready, is it?
No, not yet:) It requires several major steps, in order to have the course available online for students:
> prepare the Course plan (what it will be about)
> design its structure
> get/create the content of the course:
1. generic theoretical foundation from our university partners
2. case study of how has AIESEC International executed similar revolution in practice
3. specify assignments methods for tutors
> get everything feedbacked (this is rather continuous)
> edit the content into comprehensive and logical form
> create and setup online template for our course in Moodle
> upload the contents online
> deliver training materials for students and tutors
> take part in overall course assessment

Many of these steps are progressing simultaneously, so it is hard to describe in one bullet point or one sentence where we are right now... Simply said, initial predictions of our experienced colleagues from Jordan, that a course development takes at least 6 months (what is more, to the people who have previous experience with the topic!) came true, so my CEED will be extended for next 2-3 months. By the end of November 2007, it should be ready! :)

Challenges & achievements
I've found it all challenging:) What makes most of my concerns is the flexibility of our foreign partners which isn't always as prompt as should be, so for example the final approval of our Course plan happened the last week, one month later than expected. Meanwhile, there have been lots of things to work on so we weren't prevented from advancing.

My notes taken during the first days

Weekend of surprises in Brussels

2007-08-12T20:13:00.000+02:00

This weekend I went to visit my friend Sandy to Brussels. I realized that since the beginning of June, I have spent every single weekend either by travelling or an intense social event, except for the weekend I arrived from Paris, when I was just chilling. Evaluating my up-to-now experience I didn't expect anything extraordinary now. Of course I was wrong and it was the weekend I will remember for a long time, maybe forever. Therefore it deserves a long post.

Me, Sandy and her friend from Luxembourg who joined us for lunch
I've been already once in Brussels with no particular memories (except for the big main square, the pissing boy and the Atomium), so the first kind of surprise was that Brussels is very nice city in general:) We went by car with Sandy to see also remote parts of the city-centre and taste at least some kinds of Belgium beer.

Languages
The second one, more shocking discovery, was what does it mean to live in a bilingual city... everything is in two languages, which must be extremely (not only) administratively demanding. Metro tickets, street labels, maps, even subtitles in the cinema or that paper they gave you in McDonalds's on the tray... everything in two languages. Respect:)

Third surprise, still related to languages, is that everyone has been comfortable with English, what I didn't expect after my experience from France, where when I was asking for an umbrella in English, the shop assistant even didn't care, but as soon as I asked for "parapluie" in French, everything was fain... or when you're in McDonalds' in France and you order your menu with all those things they ask you in French even if you reply in English!
One FishMac menu please. ~ Grand ou moyen? ~ Medium ~ Qu'est-ce que vous bouvez? ~ Fanta ~ A porte? ~ No, here :)
Nothing like this in Brussels.

Metro
Fourth surprise was actually one of the first ones which I experienced right after my arrival, in the metro station... they play music here! And nice music... what I remember is Coldplay (Clocks), Madonna (Don't tell me), soundtrack from Shrek (All star) etc... can you imagine you're waiting on the platform at Florenc in Prague and listen to this music? ;-)

Let's stay in metro... in some countries they have timetables on the walls, in other countries they have displays with digits. It was the first time I've seen a scheme of stations showing the position of metro trains by inbuilt diodes (standing for particular stations). See the picture, it's smart.

Photos
Despite all surprises, I also acknowledged that there are some "things" that exist everywhere, e.g. a "tourist-photographer"... just have a look on my pictures with a famous pissing boy:

"Hmm...try once again please"
"Perfect!"

Once talking about taking pictures. Do you have any idea what is this lady focusing on?

Next "surprise/s" (I don't count now) came in the evening... just the way I spent it was totally unexpected:)

Unforgettable evening
In the afternoon, I was sightseeing on my own in the city-centre, because Sandy had to go to work. At 10 p.m. we had a meeting with 3 members of Belgium MC and some trainees and we watched Spiderman 3 in open-air. It was held on a parking place, intended for drivers (as the sound was transmitted via radio), but the pedestrians might have joined as well. Cars were for 8€, us for 1€ each. It was a good price for the warm evening. The movie must have been for free as it wasn't worth more:) Well, effects were good, but the rest was very simple and easily predictable...

Anyway, if you're going to watch this movie, just pay attention sometime at the beginning of the second half, when the main character buys new clothes and then performs Madonna steps. This part was good:)

After the movie, at around midnight, we caught the last metro and went at the party. It was also in open-air, this time in the Royal garden close to the Royal palace. I'll not describe this so in detail, because you must experience it on your own to know what I am talking about. Just few sentences:

The party was kind of hard core, around 2000 people in total, 9 of ten people smoking hash, 3 out of these 9 doing even more to be censored, loud music all over the place, stage for the bravest with light and smoke effects, beer stands organized in McDonald's style (front line of shop assistants only receiving money and giving beers, back-staff filling cups and 1-2 "managers" just checking that everything was OK:)

Maybe you can imagine the atmosphere better when I say that all the girls from our group left right after we arrived on the place and only me, Vishal and Sandy stayed on. Still, we "got lost" around 10 times and needed to set meeting points in the vast area of Royal garden so as to find each other.

It was a good place to try out many things (e.g. another party style...) as well as to practice French a little bit:)

When we were leaving the party at around 4:30, looking for our car outside the Royal garden, we saw a serious accident. A car smashed another one, small Mercedes Smart, which turned over on driver's door! It wasn't possible to get the girl from inside! I felt kind of weak and so powerless. The ambulance was there within few minutes. I believe she survived, she was slowly moving, despite the bleeding.
Not to be enough, as we were finally approaching our car, we noticed that quite a big part of the Royal garden went in fire!
It was pretty demanding day.

On Sunday, it was much more relaxed day, however, it wasn't sunny any more. We visited Atomium, had a lunch together, I bought some souvenirs and went back to Rotterdam.

Me, Sandy and Vishal, my hosts and guides in Brussels

Theme team dinners

2007-08-09T22:46:00.000+02:00

This week was in fact the first complete week of AI0708 and at the same time the only week in August spent in Rotterdam, since they are leaving to Turkey in the middle of the next one. Maybe it was the reason why all team dinners have been extremely delicious and unique, as they have been focused on different cuisines.

First MMM of the new team

Monday: Asia Pacific & Africa
This team dinner, prepared by respective GN boards, was one of the most delicious ones since the beginning of June!

Tuesday: Canadian snack
What made this team dinner special was also the fact that it was server directly in the office:)

Wednesday: Colombia night
Colombia night went beyond the scope of an ordinary team dinner. Apart from fabulous dish comprising of many (I guess 6-8) different types of food, there was also a Colombia presentation delivered by Colombians Ivan, Kiko and Martha and Bee, who lived there for many years. We were talking about the current situation as well as that one 10 or 50 years ago. Getting to know more about its problems, drugs, guerrillas, as well as attitudes, motivation, hope and strong will of local people was something I enjoyed and learned from a lot.

At the very beginning of this discussion we watched a video about Colombia. I really advise you to have a look as well, it is not an usual "about-country" video.
It was also confirmed that it happens relatively often that students don't want to return home from their traineeship in Colombia, so bear it in mind when considering this destination:)

Thursday: Middle East & North Africa
Delicious Arabic specialities!

Yesterday in the late evening, Gwen returned from her 5-day holidays in Spain and today in the afternoon she left home to Colorado. I went with her to the airport so as to help with luggage and say a proper bye-bye:) I'm sure we meet again, maybe quite soon...

Den Haag, the political capital

2007-08-04T19:38:00.000+02:00

After long time, the weather is nice and warm again, so I set off on a trip to Den Haag, just 15 minutes by train from Rotterdam. Although it is the seat of Dutch government, it is not the official capital as I has heard before. It is the third largest city in the Netherlands (after Amsterdam and Rotterdam) with approximately 470 000 inhabitants.
I might have gone with some other guys, but I wanted to be alone this time. I definitely didn't regret and had a wonderful day, as the city is really beautiful! I spent lots of time in a shopping mall with funky household stuffs and enjoyed many delicious meals and snacks. I didn't forget to see the International Court of Justice, based in den Haag.

Mediterranean dinner
One more thing... yesterday the AI guys and some GN board members went for a Mediterranean dinner, so I joined the group as well. The place was very well-decorated and created an authentic atmosphere. I ordered a salmon and it was the best salmon I have ever tasted! So soft, delicious, with a typically flavour, excellent!

In the end, it got wild, some girls started to play boobs competition, people from Asia Pacific region started to dance "It's time to disco" and there were some other random faci roll-calls from various conferences...
Gabiza pertinently commented on the situation in "Oh no, we are going the wrong way!" :D It was fun:)

Oh, actually I have still one more thing:)... here are some pics from yesterday's Happy hour (before the Mediterranean dinner), where you can also see a ping pong table occupied by GN board members, who are staying temporarily in the office until IC.

Unhappy people

Happy people

Living Dutch

2007-08-02T16:20:00.000+02:00

This turning period is not only about final speeches, saying bye-bye, recollecting memories and hugging each other. There are some related unpleasant duties, too. E.g. moving.

New AI team is moving out from the temporary transition houses and moving in Hofdijk or other permanent AI residences. And I have to leave as well, because my beautiful room (officially Ryan's) will be passed to Juan. The room is big enough for 2 people, but Juan needs to host his 3 GN board members. That's not going to work:(

So I packed everything and walked (it was nice weather:) and I told you the tram system isn't very dense here) with my huge suitcase/s to Hofdijk. I mentioned this place many times before, but there is no coherent post dedicated to it:) so I'll just repeat for the newcomers that it is a student dorm where the majority of AI members are staying and where there was e.g. the first part of AI transition party ("Czech beer on the roof")

As also already mentioned, it is similar to our Blanice, with only difference that whereas 3 people stay in 1 room in Blanice, here it is occupied by one person. It is comfortable.
My new roommate is Rishabh, VPER, Petr's successor, a cool Indian guy, who doesn't stress (or doesn't care... one of them:)) and makes the people around feel relaxed! :) This is a good asset I appreciate.

In order to be completely aware that I'm staying in the Netherlands, our nextdoor neighbour is a professional hash smoker and the most messy guy I had ever met! :)
1. Besides smelling hash everywhere (outside the room itself, luckily!)
2. I can also feel as in the Red light district, because my room is painted in red and yellow:) To emphasize the atmosphere, all the installed lights are dimmed, so if I want to read something, I must direct all four reading lamps to the spot:)
3. Last but least (to make the whole experience ultimately Dutch) our kitchen resembles a dumping ground (similarly to most Rotterdam's streets). I assure you that you have never seen this before and if you don't feel well when reading that in the fridge there were pieces of (absolutely random) food stuck together by fungi, don't go on reading! Actually this is it, so you can continue... We also have 3 microwave ovens, but none of them is working and one more fridge (without fungi, as well as without power cord)
I spent one hour cleaning the kitchen, then I gave up and I moved my kitchen to the one in AI office:) I didn't expect such intense cultural experience:)

One half of the room(desk, bed, sofa, TV and my suitcase is in the other one)

Turning point

2007-08-01T17:58:00.000+02:00

Transition period is over! Today is the first day of official AI term 2007/2008, so you can imagine these are quite demanding days... old team is slowly leaving, day by day more and more people saying bye bye... by the next Monday it should be only 2 guys from the old team staying with us at the office. Kiko needs to finish some legal things related to the migration of our new IS and Jeanne is conference manager of IC.

On Monday, there was the last teamdinner of AI0607. Because it was the last one, it was also a special one... everyone arrived! Everyone from the team, no one else, except for me, since it was held in our house:) The atmosphere was rather positive, content, relaxed... recalling some memories from the past year. I had a flashback from our last EB meeting on 29.3. :)

Czech boys..

..and the girsl

Everyone got ready for the last working day and the process of changing into an alumnus. Just in less than 48 hours:) I believe it's not easy especially after 7 years in some cases.

Transition is over, last picture of both teams
PS: Africa and Asia Pacific GN board members have recently arrived in the office and we are going for salsa tomorrow, so I'm wondering how much will I remember from the last time:)

Bonsoir Mademoiselle Paris

2007-07-27T19:23:00.000+02:00

It was absolutely amazing one week holiday! Before I write few lines about it, let me explain "Why Paris?"... Paris is my most favourite European city (second one is Prague:)) and I have already been there many times before. It has always been a short stay (3 days maximum), mainly focused on the main tourist attractions. Thanks to this (in combination with what I've known about Paris from my French lessons) I had a very clear picture of what I can expect from this city and what I've been still missing: one week of self-driven sightseeing, filling every gap I've still had on the map of Paris.
Quite a challenging goal, but I managed! Now I can proudly say (proudly to myself) "I know Paris very well, both as a tourist and as a resident". It was demanding in terms of planning and a little bit physically demanding, too - especially last days my legs were on the point of breaking away:)

I travelled with Pavel. It was an interesting coincidence... I wanted to go to Paris, he wanted to go to Paris, but we didn't know each other's wish. And because he has just arrived from Taiwan after one year and is going to China for another one (and I'm still here in Rotterdam), we were thinking of AI transition party as an opportunity to meet. And once being in Rotterdam, why not to go to Paris, he? Settled! :)

Voilà... la Paris!
The journey from Rotterdam to Paris took only 3 hours during which I created a plan for the week. There is no sense in talking about basic tourist experience (because I didn't experience anything like that), neither about some "advanced perceptions and learnings:)" (because it doesn't suit the scope of this blog), so I'll just upload some pics:)

You can google as many pictures of Eiffel's Tower as you want. If you have ever been to Paris, I'm 110% sure you have pictures like this:

So I'll pick just ONE picture (out of damned many) per each day, which I consider to be more unusual, however, reflecting the atmosphere of Paris at the same time.

Day 1: Sunday
"Les magasins aux Champs-Elysees"

Day 2: Monday
"L'interieur du Centre George Pompidou & Le Sacre Coeur"

Day 3:Tuesday
"Le metro parisien"

Day 4: Wednesday
"La statue de la Liberte"

Day 5: Thursday
"La Quartier latin"

Day 6: Friday
"La Geode" *

* The Geode is the first 3D cinema with the most complex audio system in the world. I wanted to go here and experience it since the first time in Paris, but it was always too far from the centre... not now! :)

OK, I know you this one. Anyway, respect to my 5 years old camera!:)

AI transition party

2007-07-22T23:44:00.000+02:00

AI transition party took part in Rotterdam and lasted for three days. The purpose of this party is obvious: informal handover (not hangover... it comes later!:)) of AI term from AI team 2006/2007 to the new AI team 2007/2008. Let's take it by days, again:

Friday
As I have already written before, it was a nice evening full of friendly atmosphere and Czech beer (= free and served in 0,5l caps!!! - read more about Dutch beer conventions here). I met with Mena and other Czech guys who arrived on Friday afternoon. It was more about chatting than partying, so as to get in shape for Saturday.

Saturday
During the day there were games in the park (again, already mentioned in the previous post) and in the evening there was the most important part(y)... the handover party! Dey and Gabiza had their final speech on behalf of AI0607, Gabiza added few words heading to the future and "old" team members were given a gift from the new team. It wasn't that sentimental as it may seem because everyone was already in a party mood:) We've also seen a cool performance of Capoeira by Laura and her "guys":)

Although the DJs were Gee and Ondro from the outgoing team, the music might have been better in my opinion, as sometimes the genre was too narrow. It was great, maybe I just expected it to be excellent...
This party wasn't about music, of course, and I really enjoyed it, meeting so many people... I definitely didn't talk to everyone I had intended :(
Despite this, probably due to the fact that most of the present people were current and former AI or MC members, I guess that expectations of some people might have not been fully met.
Well, thit is it, the AI transition party 2006/2008.

Sunday
There was a semi-organized chill-out on Sunday morning held on the beach (yes, that artificial beach where we go to dance salsa). I didn't participate because I was in a train to Paris that time...;)

Overall I don't have many pictures from this event, as there was so many people with camera around that I even didn't take mine. And it is not easy to gather these pics later on.

Zeno is leaving tomorrow, on Monday, so I'll be alone in my room when I return from Paris... I'll miss his company for sure, as well as his wise sayings, especially "You're so young, so naive" - his favourite one:)

Sightseeing in Rotterdam #3: Czech it out

2007-07-21T23:17:00.000+02:00

Once we (Zdenek, Pavel, me) all successfully met in Rotterdam, we went sightseeing a bit. It is my 3rd official sightseeing in Rotterdam, still exploring new areas.

Friday
On Friday it was more focused on the main tourist attractions as Erasmus bridge, Cube house, other architectonical curiosities and last but not least tasting the Dutch beer.

Cube house from outside and Cube house from inside

We found some time for a decent posing as well:)
Luckily we managed to take all pictures when it was "nice" overcast. On our way back, we had a chance to feel the power (and especially consistence) of a typical all-of-a-sudden downpour!

In the evening there was the first event of AI transition party, "Czech beer on the roof of Hofdijk". The weather was just as ordered... no rain, warm wind, pleasant sunset. There were around 15 people from the Czech Republic! And more to come tomorrow:)

Saturday
Yes, the Prague EB arrived on Saturday afternoon, so we were by far the most numerous "delegation". During the day there were many games and barbecue in a park. The highlight of the afternoon was a long time awaited football match between the teams of AI0607 and AI0708.
In the first half of the day, me, Pavel and Zdenek, we continued in our sightseeing. Now exploring more remote parts of the city centre. We went by metro over the Erasmus bridge, then by bus, we saw a group of Afro drummers and returned back through a under-water tunnel, where we found special plastic "plants"/sticks around 1m long each (there was many many metres of them on both sides of the tunnel). These plants were lighting up and playing sounds in accordance to our movements. Stamping and running caused by far the most fabulous effects, so we got quite noisy:) We also climbed up Rotterdam's television and outlook tower Euromast to see the famous port of Rotterdam.

Dinner with the EB
At night, transition party went on, but our Czech sightseeing was over. On Sunday morning Zdenek is leaving for one-day trip to Amsterdam and then back to Germany. Me and Pavel are leaving to Paris.

Going nuts

2007-07-19T23:52:00.000+02:00

Transition party is starting tomorrow and everything is in ultimate rush!

Pavel arrived yesterday in the afternoon, Zdenek arrived today in the evening. At the same time there was an official dinner with Supervisory Group (where CEEDers were invited as well). The dinner was awesome, but I couldn't be at two places at once, so I was coordinating Zdenek and Pavel by SMS in parallel with speaking to ex-CEO of Sony and other SG members:)

Luckily I had managed to get a map for my friends and explain everything to Pavel beforehand, otherwise it would have been even more crazy.
Settling down in my room suitable for 1-2 people when we are four was another challenge of the evening:)

Deserved beer!:)

Not to have it so easy, I'm leaving to Paris on Sunday, even before transition party would finish. CEEDers cannot have holidays, so it was quite hard to arrange that and I needed to complete many tasks. No chance in this "party" atmosphere:)

Weekend in Dusseldorf

2007-07-15T21:10:00.000+02:00

Attention: this is a long post, worth reading.
Don't forget to check the video attached below:)

Czech Gulash
Before I share with you our adventures from a weekend trip, let me get back to Thursday's team dinner, very special one, as Petr and his Czech friends were cooking Czech Gulash! It was delicious! Besides that, we had interesting conversations about Czech culture:) Sometimes it was even funny:), especially when I was asked what Gulash actually means and I explained that it has no particular meaning. Then I added that in transferred meaning it can mean a mess. When Petr returned from the kitchen he was asked as well and replied exactly (absolutely exactly!) in the same way:) We Czechs simply do know our cuisine.

Now, let's have a look on weekend trip in Dusseldorf.
Because we were four people (Gwen, Zeno, Cindy and me), it was more convenient to go by car. Gwen did all the necessary arrangements. Still, we were facing serious trouble.

Case study "Farmer"
Our situation reminded me the case study Farmer, where each member knows specific pieces of information which are complementing those of other people and you need to answer a question like "Which vehicle is Skinner's?" etc... do you remember? ;-)

Our question was: "Who will be driving to Dusseldorf?"
- Gwen has a driving licence and has driven thousands of miles in US
- Zeno doesn't have a driving licence, but he can drive
- neither Gwen nor Zeno have sufficient funds on their credit cards to pay a deposit
- Martin has money:) But on a debit card, which is not accepted
- the same person who pays is the only one who is allowed to drive
- paying in cash is not accepted
- money transfer takes more than 3 days and it is only 1 day before
- Gwen has never driven a car with a manual gear (stick shift)
- Cindy has no money and no driving skills, however, she is good in encouraging people:)

...and that is something we definitely needed!
The process of getting the car from a rental was very physically as well as psychically demanding (going by train to the other part of Rotterdam, running for 15min in 26°C to be there on time, me swapping the seat with Gwen in front of the rental to drive off (Gwen wasn't ready to drive that time yet) not being noticed.
It was just a beginning:)

Training session
Since I had some urgent stuffs to finish that afternoon after we returned to the office, it was Zeno who was supposed to provide Gwen with some training on how to drive a "European car":) But time flies. So we were practising on our way, in a real life traffic. Uh, I had enough! Don't forget it was Friday 13th!

Clutch! Gas! Clutch! More gas! Clutch! Release the clutch! Oh, shit! You need to be more sensitive! Try again! Slowly! More gas! More gas! Clutch! Watch out! Clutch!... no way:)

Honestly, I didn't feel well that time. All those cars and pedestrians around considered us to be an "ordinary" car, but we were very special... not even able to smoothly start :)
Fortunately Gwen was confident at least in steering and acquired the remaining skill extremely quickly. Although we had some "starting" challenges throughout the whole weekend, I felt safe later on. Good job, Gwen!:)

In Dusseldorf
Yes, we safely arrived in Dusseldorf at Dani's house. Dani is Cindy's and Gwen's ex-team mate from MC in Mexico last year and our host for the weekend.
I was impressed by the city... it was really nice, clean and vivid (which I didn't expect, not knowing why at all). In terms of architecture, it was similar to Rotterdam. We have seen the city-centre, traditional festival, old-car exhibition, historical part of the city and we also had some fun in the amusement park!

As you might have noticed, I've created and uploaded some short videos from time to time, becasuse I miss my favourite video/PPT editing:) This video should be the best of them:) So enjoy it!
I like it:)

Barbecue at Dani's house. Talking about Germany, Czech Republic (especially beer:)) and Romania brought interesting insights.

I'm sure I'll not forget this weekend! I dare say it was "like no other" :)

Check Zeno's post about this trip here.

One month on AI

2007-07-11T20:14:00.000+02:00

It was one of the fastest months I have ever experienced, except last three exam periods:) That's why I guess it is worth summarizing. I'll do it in two parts - recent updates (kind of random things that I haven't mentioned so far despite being relevant) and overall (self)reflection.

Relaxed week
On Monday there was a MMM as usual, but unlike any other time since I'm here, only current team was present ("newies" have left for planning last Friday). Dey showed his friendly side and cancelled almost all rules at the office, so that everyone enjoys relaxed atmosphere when it is not necessary to play role-models:)

IS corner
Several weeks ago, IS corner has been moved to different location (as outlined here). This place is fabulous, you have perfect overview of the office! The only disadvantage is that it is quite busy these times...

Diverse team dinners
From my previous post about team dinners, you may know that due to the fact different members of different cooking teams are responsible for different parts of dinner's preparation, team dinners are almost everyday in a different place.
Usually it's a room in a dormitory, but sometimes it is more unusual... like in my room:)

For example yesterday's team dinner, held in 3rd AI house (dorm, my house and this), was in fact "Greek banquet"... hmm, so delicious!! :)
In the pictures below you can see one of last week's team dinners organized at the roof of Hofdijk (dormitory).

Overall, team dinners definitely overexceeded my expectations. I will miss these evenings for sure!

Culture, Harry Potter
As I have already written in many posts, social life is very rich, the same applies for a cultural life. There is 50 people with different preferences in the office, so there is sometimes too much options:) Because I have recently skipped a piano concert, I couldn't have missed at least the premiere of a new Harry Potter movie!
Check here which character you resemble... I'm Dumbledore:)

Well, I wanted to (self)reflect as well, but the post is long enough as it is, so I'll keep this topic for some another posting:)
I'll also bring update about my work on Tempus project.
Coming soon...

Weekend in Amsterdam

2007-07-08T20:34:00.000+02:00

On Saturday morning the CEEDers (Gwen, Zeno and me) and the SSGN board (people working on regional level of Spanish speaking countries; Cindy, Alejandra and Asier) went for a trip in Amsterdam.

If I should pick few things which got stuck in my mind, it would be:
> museums (e.g. Van Gogh M., National M., Madame Tussands M., Hash Marihuana Hemp M., Erotic M., Sex M.)
> water & canals (central station is in fact one big artificial island)
> red light district
> coffee shops (it is everywhere, unlike in Rotterdam)
> outdoor pissoires available on public places ("urinoars")

I remember this conversation between CEEDers that took place in a sex shop and that I've found quite funny:
C1: My god I didn't know it's possible!
C2: It's nasty.
C3: No, wait, this one is actually cool!

Amsterdam in pictures:)
Me with Gwen, with Zeno, with Alejandra and with urinoir:)

In trainees' shoes
I stayed overnight and visited a trainee party from where we moved to a club. It was a salsa club. Environment was the same as in any music club in Prague, they just played salsa. It was strange, having no other option, just quick salsa, slow salsa, very quick salsa, "tuc-tuc" salsa etc. Never mind, I practised salsa a little bit and then I went for freestyle:)
What is more important, it had a special value for me... since I'm already thinking about my traineeship preferably in Latin America, all insights into "latino" ways of entertainment as well as into the trainee life in general were extremely welcomed.

On Sunday, I had a chance to see the ordinary part of Amsterdam in parks, residential areas, even in the suburbs. Nice, calm city.
National museum in the picture is quite close to the centre.

Of course, the same way as in Rotterdam, I couldn't miss the opportunity to take a picture of Amsterdam's metro.

AI planning in Italy

2007-07-06T18:37:00.000+02:00

Today in the morning new AI team left on their planning in Italy. It was an important moment, as it is said that they are leaving as AI team elects and they will return as AI team 2007/2008. Everyone was enthusiastic... new team because of the planning itself, current team because of the free office during the next week:)

Dey is blessing the new team before leaving for planning
Balls of fury
Because it is Friday, there is a Happy hour from 5 to 6 p.m. as usual. You can read more about Happy hour in this post. This time, we didn't play Unreal Tournament, but ping pong!

Czech team is well represented
Later on there was a Coctail night. I didn't go, as I still felt tired from yesterday's pool game.
These are wonderful days!

Making of... Annual Report 06/07

2007-07-04T22:10:00.000+02:00

At the beginning of June, it wasn't only IS CEEDers, me and Zeno, who arrived in the AI office. The third CEEDer, Gwen, has already been mentioned in some previous posts, as long as we have spent lots of time together: CEEDers, GN board members, random visitors etc... simply people who are not in the middle of the AI transition and are a great deal more flexible during weekends to do some decent trips.

> I'm working on the Tempus project.
> Zeno is performing an extremely valuable maintenance (better to say complete regeneration) of the neglected office infrastructure.
> And Gwen? She is writing the Annual Report 2006/2007.

Annual Report
You can hardly imagine how demanding work it is, at least I wouldn't believe it before. Getting inputs from AI members, writing articles, being a mediator between a designer, Dey, Michelle (final responsible for AR) and the rest of the office. Not a rewarding job:) I remember all those struggles about colours of tiny headings in the report, most importantly about the layout of the cover: put there sky or not? Put there grass or not? Make shadows or not? Sounds simple, but imagine that everyone has different opinion (including a designer) and time goes by so quickly...

I took more significant role in selection of pictures. Going through hundreds of pictures from various events (mainly International President Meetings and International Congresses) was an interesting insight into the past.

Taking of Dey's photo for the editorial
Czech photo in AR!
I've managed to place this picture from SNC 2006 in right bottom corner of page 17 devoted to Issue based experience. Unfortunately the boss rejected it in the last round of corrections... so we don't have a Czech picture there:(

Dinner with Dutch MC
Today, we also had a dinner with Dutch MC (national committee of AIESEC in the Netherlands). Since the main reason behind this event was a common gathering of current and new AI teams and Dutch MC, it turned out to be a pleasant networking evening. I got to know many new people, learned more about the specific way of how AIESEC works here, about their conception of AIESEC membership, AIESEC XP, job fares and so on.
We spent the evening in a nice restaurant. I went for turkey with chips, which was delicious meal, just quite expensive.

BTW I also posted kind of summarizing post related to my stay here on AIESEC Praha blog.

Happy Birthday

2007-07-02T11:14:00.000+02:00

Today, I have my birthday, I've enjoyed the day accordingly:) What made me enjoy this day even more was the attention of my friends here, which I didn't expect in all that rush going on around. Moreover, I didn't mention to anyone that it is my birthday today! Despite this, at the end of Monday Morning Meeting after checking all the priorities, Dey announced one more priority... singing Happy Birthday:) I'm not the one who cannot imagine their birthday without choral congratulations, but it was nice, unique and definitely unexpected:)

Sightseeing in Rotterdam #2: on bike

2007-07-01T17:23:00.000+02:00

As I have already mentioned in the post about getting to know Rotterdam, sightseeing here is quite time-demanding. Not because the city centre would be so big (it's really inconsiderable compared with the whole Rotterdam), but because you tend to walk, as the tram network isn't very dense). And it makes distances longer.

Therefore we went by bikes. We? Me, Gwen (other CEEDer working on Annual report), Cindy (SSGN board member from Mexico) and Eva (alumnus from AIESEC Rotterdam). It was wonderful, the infrastructure is supporting people on bikes in every detail so you feel safe, unless you are not confident riding a bike (which was Cindy's case, as she was biking after 7 years and unfortunately fell down when manoeuvring neer to a street curb).

The weather was OK when we set off, better after one hour, then raining and at the end it was fain again. But never sunny. Typical:)

We've seen a lot: the first coffee shop in Rotterdam, Erasmus bridge, exposition of recent Dutch history, chineese town, parks in the south and historical part of the city.

Nevertheless there are still some more places I would like to see: Cube house from inside, modern & residential part of the city across the bridge, high television tower, famous big lake, old harbour and maybe some more. Maybe during another sightseeing...

RASHHH | Hash run without hash

2007-06-30T23:52:00.000+02:00

One afternoon I receive a weird e-mail. The sender is "George Bush" and it contains random text, enough to consider it to be an "xxx" (kind of bullshit:)). That time, I didn't know it was to announce an amazing event to be held this Saturday evening: Hash run!

A little of theory
'The RASHHH is the Rotterdam All Star Hash Hound Harriers. Established in 2005 in the tradition of the world wide Hash movement founded in 1938 in Malaysia (read more here), it is our regular gathering to run, drink and share gossip about each other, while enjoying time with friends.'

A little of practise
[censored] :)

You know, if I did learn one thing during the Hash run, it was that you never reveal what the Hash run is about to the "virgins" (official game term) :) Sorry for this.
OK, I'll just share three points with you:
1. there is a Hash master and Hash mistress, who can do whatever they want :)
2. ...so when I was making a video with my mobile phone (which nobody would have noticed due to the ultimate mess in the room) and Laura shouted "Hash master, he's filming", I had very bad times and nobody will unfortunately see that video ;)
3. It is crazy, it's indescribably entertaining, I like it:)

Club
Afterwards, at around 11 p.m., few people joined Dey on his way to a club. I'm not going to describe so much in detail, but it was relatively new experience for me.
As I expected, there were mostly men, which was more strange to me, than I expected:) There were men of all ages from approximately 22 to 69. Especially dancing couples of elderly dads took me some time to get used to:)
In our group there have been several girls as well, we had a good time.
Good to mention, that this was actually the first music club I have been to since my arrival.

Passionate night of salsa

2007-06-28T23:46:00.000+02:00

Usually there is some social stuff going on after the team dinner, but the evening agenda is so busy today, that the dinner is left out:

19:00 - 22:00 Salsa lesson by Sabine
Sabine is our office administrator, a student working part-time in the AI office, who is a professional dancer of salsa. She is running classes together with her boyfriend.
16 people from the office attended this lesson, it was intense, it was fun.

22:00 - 01:00 Salsa on the beach
As soon as we learned how to dance salsa, it was necessary to practise, before we forget again:) We visited a well-known beach club with an artificial beach, near the Erasmus bridge.
Although the dance floor was absolutely overcrowded we managed to get through. No need to talk around... I simply enjoyed the night very much! Ivan, our CEE director originally from Colombia, was dancing pretty well. Cindy from Mexico took me aside and we practised some advanced tricks. I mastered my moves quickly and the show might have begun:) I wouldn't like to make a big deal out of it, but according to the audience, we performed fairly advanced dance.
I'm just wondering for how long I will remember these dance steps. I'd like to believe I'm able to perform it in February 2008, during the ball season as well:)