I'm currently more active on another blog project...
http://reallybadtimes.blogspot.com
Check it out...;)
Friday, November 14, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Monday, August 11, 2008
Monday, June 23, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
The (Oval) Office
For any fan of the American Version of "The Office" with Steve Carrell & Co. Thanks to that post for the inspiration...
"The Office Theme"
"The Office Theme"
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The Looooooooooong Post
I decided to blog again, remember? Well, that was one month ago. Now it's time to stick to that and actually start writing... As my thoughts aren't very structured, this is just going to be a very looooooong post....! You'll see!
A lot has happened since I wrote the last post. AIESEC-wise, I discovered more and more TM "stuff" (Jeroen would be happy about this expression...). I went to the mentoring training conducted by IBM, which was a very enlightening experience to me.
Just after that, I attended "my" TtT (as all AIESECers sooner or later are supposed to attend "their" TtT...). We were supposed to facilitate two sessions in pairs, of which one would be prepared right during the conference. My teammate was Jenni, my VPX-colleague from Zurich. We knew it right when we heard about the team allocation, but boy, were we a dream team. It seemed like we worked so complementarily together, that our sessions came out pretty well.
Then, in mid-april, I attended Kick-Off for the second time. I was inscribed in the GOldie track (together with a handful of others, the low amount of GOldie delegates actually led to a quite stressful conference experience for poor Abey, the GOldie responsible). On the first night of the conference, me Nadja and Christoph from Zurich and Abey our faci came together and talked about the upcoming track. We redesigned the agenda according to our needs and ended the session with a massage circle. I was actually really looking forward to attending the track, little did I know that this would have been my last GOldie session at Kick-Off.
Before the conference, I was asked by Simone to help out at one or two sessions at the XPS track together with Ravaka. On Friday night of the conference, we actually found out that we would each be responsible for a home group for the following two days. After the faci meeting with all the XPS facis, the two of us ended up preparing our sessions together, one more nervous than the other.
The next morning, I literally couldn't eat breakfast as I was so nervous to be a home group faci for the first time, I just drank lots and lots of tea. After a short introduction in plenary, we started our home group sessions right away. I have to admit, after just a few minutes, my nervousness completely went away and I was able to enjoy myself. Ravaka's homegroup and mine shared the same room, which gave us two the possibility to exchange ideas and be the ecstatic "this is so cool saying and at the same time jumping up and down" faci-newbies...
This night was party night. After awards night, when Jenni came up to me and just said the right thing at the right time (if she remembers...), I decided to party to the fullest, not thinking too much about the following day and my faci duties. Rational thoughts led me to still have two hours of sleep in the end.
The next day was strange. There were some very productive and some less productive sessions that day. Highlights of the day:
Bottom line (mentoring training / TtT / facilitating at Kick-Off): I gained a lot of self-confidence and self-awareness out of this, realising that the way I see myself might not be the way others perceive me. Soomething you should never forget.
I discovered again in the last few weeks, how connected I feel to Bern. It's not like I have a vast social network in this city, still I feel very confortable here. My personal like and dislike list for the city (to be continued):
+ the architecture
+ the coziness and the easy-going flow of the city
+ all those details I noticed since I've been here, details which make this place so "vivid"
+ the big construction site at the train station square (I looooove watching construction sites, if they include public transportation: heavenly...;)
+ the "Rosengarten", one of the nicest places in the city... (not at night!)
+ the "officialness" of the city, having a federal office at every corner and of course the federal palace, this monument of "colossal modesty" (very fitting for this country)
- when the coziness turns into slowliness and a "can't work my ass off, sorry!" attitude (sometimes protrayed by the indigenous)
- the provincial attitude
- that I get confused with Germans because of my dialect...
All in all, Bern is not as vibrant as other world capitals, but it's the place to be...;) (bear in mind that the IC Global Village took place here once)
On a more personal and "strangely fitting to this blog note", I discovered again, that my music collection on my iPod isn't actually that bad. There is one artist, of which I have only 6 tracks, but this is the music I can always listen to. The artist is called Joe Purdy. No matter in which situation I am, his music is able to put me in the right mood: sentimental, melancholic, optimistic,... choose what you like. I can only recommend to listen to his music once in a while, it's really worth it...
This would be the place for a very wise and inspiring ending sentence. What about this: "As my uncle always said: Those are my values! If you don't like them, I have others..."
"My 6 Songs by Joe Purdy"
*******
A lot has happened since I wrote the last post. AIESEC-wise, I discovered more and more TM "stuff" (Jeroen would be happy about this expression...). I went to the mentoring training conducted by IBM, which was a very enlightening experience to me.
Just after that, I attended "my" TtT (as all AIESECers sooner or later are supposed to attend "their" TtT...). We were supposed to facilitate two sessions in pairs, of which one would be prepared right during the conference. My teammate was Jenni, my VPX-colleague from Zurich. We knew it right when we heard about the team allocation, but boy, were we a dream team. It seemed like we worked so complementarily together, that our sessions came out pretty well.
Then, in mid-april, I attended Kick-Off for the second time. I was inscribed in the GOldie track (together with a handful of others, the low amount of GOldie delegates actually led to a quite stressful conference experience for poor Abey, the GOldie responsible). On the first night of the conference, me Nadja and Christoph from Zurich and Abey our faci came together and talked about the upcoming track. We redesigned the agenda according to our needs and ended the session with a massage circle. I was actually really looking forward to attending the track, little did I know that this would have been my last GOldie session at Kick-Off.
Before the conference, I was asked by Simone to help out at one or two sessions at the XPS track together with Ravaka. On Friday night of the conference, we actually found out that we would each be responsible for a home group for the following two days. After the faci meeting with all the XPS facis, the two of us ended up preparing our sessions together, one more nervous than the other.
The next morning, I literally couldn't eat breakfast as I was so nervous to be a home group faci for the first time, I just drank lots and lots of tea. After a short introduction in plenary, we started our home group sessions right away. I have to admit, after just a few minutes, my nervousness completely went away and I was able to enjoy myself. Ravaka's homegroup and mine shared the same room, which gave us two the possibility to exchange ideas and be the ecstatic "this is so cool saying and at the same time jumping up and down" faci-newbies...
This night was party night. After awards night, when Jenni came up to me and just said the right thing at the right time (if she remembers...), I decided to party to the fullest, not thinking too much about the following day and my faci duties. Rational thoughts led me to still have two hours of sleep in the end.
The next day was strange. There were some very productive and some less productive sessions that day. Highlights of the day:
- facilitating together with Jenni, just as we did at the TtT... (once again: boy, were we a dream team!!! Thanks, Sweetie!)
- getting a faci t-shirt at the closing plenary and doing the faci roll call on stage...;)
Bottom line (mentoring training / TtT / facilitating at Kick-Off): I gained a lot of self-confidence and self-awareness out of this, realising that the way I see myself might not be the way others perceive me. Soomething you should never forget.
*******
I discovered again in the last few weeks, how connected I feel to Bern. It's not like I have a vast social network in this city, still I feel very confortable here. My personal like and dislike list for the city (to be continued):
+ the architecture
+ the coziness and the easy-going flow of the city
+ all those details I noticed since I've been here, details which make this place so "vivid"
+ the big construction site at the train station square (I looooove watching construction sites, if they include public transportation: heavenly...;)
+ the "Rosengarten", one of the nicest places in the city... (not at night!)
+ the "officialness" of the city, having a federal office at every corner and of course the federal palace, this monument of "colossal modesty" (very fitting for this country)
- when the coziness turns into slowliness and a "can't work my ass off, sorry!" attitude (sometimes protrayed by the indigenous)
- the provincial attitude
- that I get confused with Germans because of my dialect...
All in all, Bern is not as vibrant as other world capitals, but it's the place to be...;) (bear in mind that the IC Global Village took place here once)
*******
On a more personal and "strangely fitting to this blog note", I discovered again, that my music collection on my iPod isn't actually that bad. There is one artist, of which I have only 6 tracks, but this is the music I can always listen to. The artist is called Joe Purdy. No matter in which situation I am, his music is able to put me in the right mood: sentimental, melancholic, optimistic,... choose what you like. I can only recommend to listen to his music once in a while, it's really worth it...
This would be the place for a very wise and inspiring ending sentence. What about this: "As my uncle always said: Those are my values! If you don't like them, I have others..."
"My 6 Songs by Joe Purdy"
Saturday, March 29, 2008
My Blog
Hello, blogo-sphere!
After some time of not-really-blogging-anymore-ness, I decided thanks to her and her and her and definitely some other people to start blogging again. I don't know about what, but we'll see. Thanks to her, for the inspirational change of your blog design. I'll blog from blogspot now, too in order to have complete (and easier) creative freedom.
This is my blog. Yep...
"UFO" - Plüsch (kitsch, I know. but it's My Kitsch.)
After some time of not-really-blogging-anymore-ness, I decided thanks to her and her and her and definitely some other people to start blogging again. I don't know about what, but we'll see. Thanks to her, for the inspirational change of your blog design. I'll blog from blogspot now, too in order to have complete (and easier) creative freedom.
This is my blog. Yep...
"UFO" - Plüsch (kitsch, I know. but it's My Kitsch.)
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Elections and Impressions
This week was a very interesting one for me... First of all, a new Executive Board for AIESEC Bern was elected on Monday (see AIESEC Bern's Blog). A very emotional night in all possible ways. But this is another story...
Apart from that experience (that of course will change my daily life drastically) another election took place in Bern: the "Gesamterneuerungswahl des Bundesrates", the Elections of the Federal Council. Any yes: the ominous Christoph Blocher was not reelected, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was elected instead. This happened on Wednesday, but as media told, she would only declare her acceptance (or not) on Thursday.
After I've heard, that there would be a rally on the Federal Square next morning, Kathrin and I spontaneously decided to join it. At 7 in the morning. Of course, we arrived there only at 7.40. Still, we were able to witness the magical moment of her acceptance on the Federal Square while listening to the radio. Ten seconds later we had a microphone of the TSR (Francophonic Television) in our face and babbled something in French. We laughed about it at Starbuck's afterwards...;)
On Friday, i joined the MC open day. You can read my official statement here. Anyway, it was really a good experience and did leave an impact on me... (I'll come back to this later...)
After the Open Day, a small group of us took the train to Geneva, for the Pakistani Dinner hosted by the Genevan EB at Bilal's Place. Not that many people came unfortunately, but maybe this was even a good thing. The atmosphere was very relaxed, friendly and it was just so cool and refreshing to have such a night. We ate a wonderful dinner, talked, played games (sounds lame, but actually very cool discussions were intitiated by them...) and just had a great time.
The next morning, Kathrin and I took the train back to Bern, half sleeping half discussing once again very hot topics. Since the train was heading for Lucerne, we spontaneously decided to just stay in the train and visit the Museum of Transport. Arriving in Bern, we decided (just as spontaneously) not to do so and stay in Bern to study....;)
Federal Square in the early morning
Federal Palace
Kathrin & me
;-)
Oli & Kathrin
Delicious Pakistani Food
Jelena & me
The small big gang. Ravaka, Rene, Oli, Bilal, Kathrin, Me, Jelena, Nadja, Sara.
While having these various discussions with all those people, my mindset shifted a little bit. The questions whether to apply for the MC or not became once again very present and although I still have the same preference, I'm not that sure anymore.
Time will tell, now it's time to focus on my exams again and to enjoy the Christmas time. I think I felt some of the real Christmas spirit for the first time today, when shopping in Migros for groceries and passing by the small assortment of Christmas goods. Now I have about 2 weeks to enjoy it...;)
"It's all been done" - Bare Naked Ladies
Apart from that experience (that of course will change my daily life drastically) another election took place in Bern: the "Gesamterneuerungswahl des Bundesrates", the Elections of the Federal Council. Any yes: the ominous Christoph Blocher was not reelected, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was elected instead. This happened on Wednesday, but as media told, she would only declare her acceptance (or not) on Thursday.
After I've heard, that there would be a rally on the Federal Square next morning, Kathrin and I spontaneously decided to join it. At 7 in the morning. Of course, we arrived there only at 7.40. Still, we were able to witness the magical moment of her acceptance on the Federal Square while listening to the radio. Ten seconds later we had a microphone of the TSR (Francophonic Television) in our face and babbled something in French. We laughed about it at Starbuck's afterwards...;)
On Friday, i joined the MC open day. You can read my official statement here. Anyway, it was really a good experience and did leave an impact on me... (I'll come back to this later...)
After the Open Day, a small group of us took the train to Geneva, for the Pakistani Dinner hosted by the Genevan EB at Bilal's Place. Not that many people came unfortunately, but maybe this was even a good thing. The atmosphere was very relaxed, friendly and it was just so cool and refreshing to have such a night. We ate a wonderful dinner, talked, played games (sounds lame, but actually very cool discussions were intitiated by them...) and just had a great time.
The next morning, Kathrin and I took the train back to Bern, half sleeping half discussing once again very hot topics. Since the train was heading for Lucerne, we spontaneously decided to just stay in the train and visit the Museum of Transport. Arriving in Bern, we decided (just as spontaneously) not to do so and stay in Bern to study....;)
Federal Square in the early morning
Federal Palace
Kathrin & me
;-)
Oli & Kathrin
Delicious Pakistani Food
Jelena & me
The small big gang. Ravaka, Rene, Oli, Bilal, Kathrin, Me, Jelena, Nadja, Sara.Time will tell, now it's time to focus on my exams again and to enjoy the Christmas time. I think I felt some of the real Christmas spirit for the first time today, when shopping in Migros for groceries and passing by the small assortment of Christmas goods. Now I have about 2 weeks to enjoy it...;)
"It's all been done" - Bare Naked Ladies
Saturday, November 24, 2007
What the Hell
This week was weird. Not only this week, acutally the last few weeks in general. The one thing I'm constantly thinking about is the big change that is going to come soon. EB elections are coming up in about two weeks... (!!!) At that time I will know, who my successor's going to be. To whom I will pass on what I've done, what I've processed and learnt during this amazing year. Our team experience is going to be finished. We'll be able to pass our LC on to the next generation.
It feels strange that something that had this huge affect on you for one year is soon going to be over. Or is it?
Ten days after my last blog entry, things have cleared up about the near future. I've made some decisions during that time, yes. But the further future is still very blurry. Too many options again. Isn't this weird... (no interrogation mark here!)
People are trying to persuade me, are telling me to do things, to apply for positions. What the hell? What if I don't want to apply for certain positions. What if I don't feel ready for certain positions? What if my head tells me something else than my... heart, stomach, scar on my back...? (whatever part of the body you might want to choose...)
Decisions aren't about what you're supposed to do, what you want to do or what other people want you to do. They are about what feels right. And right now, it feels right to make decisions at a later time. To move certain experiences further ahead. To concentrate on me, myself and my personal development.
In a year from now, looking back on this time, I might regret that I didn't do enough notes taking, diary filling and blogging. But I will remember this time as being very stressful, very reflective... a time of great change. Change that might have been hard to take at certain points. But one, that was well thought through. One that doesn't need to evoke regrets. One that felt and still feels right.
"Camille et Franck" - Ensemble C'est Tout Soundtrack
It feels strange that something that had this huge affect on you for one year is soon going to be over. Or is it?
Ten days after my last blog entry, things have cleared up about the near future. I've made some decisions during that time, yes. But the further future is still very blurry. Too many options again. Isn't this weird... (no interrogation mark here!)
People are trying to persuade me, are telling me to do things, to apply for positions. What the hell? What if I don't want to apply for certain positions. What if I don't feel ready for certain positions? What if my head tells me something else than my... heart, stomach, scar on my back...? (whatever part of the body you might want to choose...)
Decisions aren't about what you're supposed to do, what you want to do or what other people want you to do. They are about what feels right. And right now, it feels right to make decisions at a later time. To move certain experiences further ahead. To concentrate on me, myself and my personal development.
In a year from now, looking back on this time, I might regret that I didn't do enough notes taking, diary filling and blogging. But I will remember this time as being very stressful, very reflective... a time of great change. Change that might have been hard to take at certain points. But one, that was well thought through. One that doesn't need to evoke regrets. One that felt and still feels right.
"Camille et Franck" - Ensemble C'est Tout Soundtrack
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