RASHHH | Hash run without hash

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

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:)

IS day

An important day has come. IS guys from current team have a presentation for the new AI team about the new Information System. Since I'm responsible among others for documentation of design, development and implementation of this new IS, I couldn't have missed this.

The system is going to be presented in its latest stage on IC in Turkey at the end of August, so I'll not give away any details. You can actually read quite a lot about it online.

What has also been presented is the concept of a new promo campaign, which will help the new system to find its way across the network. The campaign is fresh, friendly, playful... you're gonna like it:)
Before we definitely say bye-bye to Ernie (mascot of the current system), lots of work needs to be done. Frankly speaking, I admire IS guys and their effort they are putting into it, the timeline is tight, responsibility is huge, capacity is limited and people keep asking for new and new updates on communities... crazy:)

For investigative guys
Here are three very random hints. We can say that each of them is somehow related to the new promo campaign. Let's see after IC how creative have you been:
- pictures below
- Shirley Ma (Director Asia Pacific Growth Network)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUQR5WqzoV4

Team dinner > beer with LC members > metro

I guess I haven't introduced the concept of team dinners so far... let's do it now.

Team dinners
It's a great concept, sourcing from these presumptions:
- there is around 20 people working in the office during the most of the year
- they all need to eat something for their dinners
- they are coming from different parts of the world and don't know each other very well at the beginning
- they used to be students recently, they don't like spending 10€ per dinner (after spending the same money for lunch that day)



Voila! Team dinners are here!
Four cooking teams (Mon-Thu), each one of them being responsible for preparing a dinner with drinks and a desert for the rest of people. It must be under 3€/person. You wouldn't believe how delicious meals you can do with such a budget!


Right after the team dinner, some people set off to join local members of AIESEC in Rotterdam at their regular "LC* drinks". AI members have been invited this time, so I was looking forward.
*LC = local committee of AIESEC, Rotterdam in this case

LC drinks
It's something similar to our "pub", in terms of the last point on our LC meeting's agenda. Actually it's pretty much the same... LC members get together, they drink beer and talk. What is more, it's held on Tuesdays, too. There are two main differences, quite major ones: the size of beer (see below) and the venue: whereas in Prague, we go to a pub and we sit, people here go to a club and they stand. Music (below-average disco quality) is playing loud all around the place (so maybe it slightly resembles "Krakora" 10 minutes before a closing time:)).
Despite the music, no one is dancing.
Because of the music, you can hardly chat with other people...
I just didn't get the point. Otherwise it was fain;-)

BEER - size, price, quality
Oh - my - god! :)
When I ordered a beer for the first time I thought they are kidding me! I got ready for lots of things (you can check them in this post), but nobody warned me they serve beer in shot glasses (0,15l). As I got to know later, 0,2l is more common, but that's not much better, he...;)
All in all, smaller amount wouldn't be such a problem if accompanied by lower price. And this is the second (and quite important) aspect which sucks! You pay 2,5€ for 0,2l. Or 5€ for 0,5l. Honestly, this is nasty! As a result, I don't drink beer so much here:(
Fortunately, local Heineken is a good beer. At least this.


Metro
On our way back, I realized I don't know that much about Rotterdam. OK, it's the city of architecture, as I tried to acknowledge in my previous post, but it has also a metro! The scheme is quite simple (sufficient for les than 600,000 people): 2 lines, first going from the south to the north, second one going from the east to the west, one changing station in the centre. Because I'm generally interested in metro systems, I didn't forget to take a picture...

The boss is back

So many people are constantly entering and leaving the AI office that there would be no sense in trying to capture this atmosphere by listing all of them... but one person who turned up today deserves this care. Yes, it's Dey, President of AIESEC International, who returned to the office after several weeks of not feeling well.

In fact, it was my first time meeting him. It was Monday morning, so I stood in the queue and when I got my turn, I introduced myself. He replied: "Hi, nice to meet you. Have I already received your CEED plan?... Sorry [apologetically], I must go now."
First impressions: 'Hmm, kind of ER, kind of busy, kind of reserved, kind of having the overview... let's say kind of PAI' :)

"Just one more" person at the office
- Monday Morning Meeting was held in the spirit of "Hey guys, start behave, the holidays are over!":) (prohibition of eating in the office, thorough cleaning of the office scheduled, introducing some other unpopular rules etc.)
- the office was reorganized
- at least one green plant appeared on each table*
- keeping to the office hours is required
- MMM is not such fun any longer (= not having your weekly priorities done is not advisable)

Post-reconstruction changes & final arrangements in the office (labels of functional corners).

As you can see, IS corner was also moved (compared to the original location) and we received a nice plant as well:)

* Dey is going then table by table several times per week and watering these plants, he's a keen gardener :)

Overall, I'm glad I eventually got to know this guy, once working together with his team... Of course, these are just my first-sight impressions, it is too early for any kind of deeper insight, which actually doesn't belong on this blog site anyway...

Typically Dutch: wind mills

Before my departure from the Czech Republic, I was thinking about some typical Dutch stuff... I came up with these:
#1 flat landscape
#2 orange colour
#3 wooden shoes
#4 legal hash
#5 wind mills
#6 tasty cheese
#7 colourful tulips
#8 everpresent bikes (+ enormous sefety chains)
#9 ...and some areas situated below the sea level

During my stay here, I'll have to come to know all of them. This time, the first "sightseeing weekend" I went for #5: wind mills!


Yesterday before the Happy hour, I met Jonas, my friend from Germany, and 3 other German guys at the office. They are from the expansion team of AIESEC in Iran and arrived to find some information in the AI library as well as to get in touch with their MENA director Tamer. It was nice to meet again!
They also decided to join the CEEDers (Gwen, Zeno, me) for this trip to the windmills. This is our group:

German guys on the left & CEEDers on the right

In Kinderdijk

Windmills of Kinderdijk
Kinderdijk is a small village near Rotterdam, you can go there by bike or by boat. Bike is for sure cheaper and more adventurous, but once Rotterdam is the biggest port in the world, let's try a boat.

The cruise took 1 hour (one way). After a short walk, we became surrounded by tens of windmills. The weather was partly sunny, partly drizzly, which created a special atmosphere.

The weather was "quite OK", it rained only 3 times:)
You can notice quite specific building of Unilever on the left.

Sightseeing in Rotterdam #1: get2know

It's weekend and I decided to explore Rotterdam a little bit. No big trips at the beginning, let's do some gentle get-to-know...

City market
In the morning I went with Gwen to the city market, 20 min from my house. It was quite huge and you could buy everything here - pastries, vegetables, cheese, fish, electronics, clothes, furniture etc.



Fresh strawberries
We wanted to buy a small plastic box of them, so we were comparing the prices, so as to make a good deal. Eventually we went for offer 1 box (500g) for 2€ (OK, it's not much cheaper compared to the Czech Republic, but you pay for freshness too). Oh, what a surprise... in the next stall, they were selling 1 box for 1,5€... shit! But we don't care any more and are happy with our fresh strawberries:)
Oh no... in the next stall, they offer 2 boxes for 2€!! OK, the fun is over now. So as to behave economically, we bought these two boxes together, so as to enlarge our portfolio of strawberries and decrease the price to 1,5€/ box.
When leaving the market, we felt satisfaction:)

What I realized later on is that getting to know Rotterdam is quite time demanding. Although the heart of Rotterdam isn't very big compared to the whole city, it takes 45 minutes to go from my place to the opposite side (of the citycentre). And that is just walking, no enjoyment. Moreover, there is so many places to visit...


City of architecture
Rotterdam was completely bombed out during the second world war, so it is very young city in terms of the architecture and you can see lots of interesting buildings (or rather works of art) all around the city.
I've heard about this before, but definitely didn't expect that I'll like it so much!

Weather? No way!
One more thing to bear in mind when planning your sightseeing in Rotterdam: beware that the weather is very changeable here. It is no surprise when it rains 5 times per day, and you can still enjoy the sunshine meantime.
In addition, the weather is generally rather cold... after all what to expect in this geographical location.

-------------------------
One year ago
Relevant offtopic: BTW it was exactly one year ago, when I was standing in a queue for tickets for Confessions Tour 2006: FR 23.6.2006 18:30-01:30 ;)

Unreally Happy Friday

Every Friday the last working hour (17:00 - 18:00) is so called "Happy hour", when no one is supposed to work. It usually goes like this:
16:40 Ryan with someone else go shopping (beer and stuff)
16:55 they are back, 9 out of ten people at the office are staring into their laptops, finalizing their week work, in order to have their weekly priorities "done" on the next MMM.
16:59 the more conscious guys notice that happy hour is about to start soon
17:00 usually Ryan, Ondro, Habib etc. start shouting all over the office "HAPPY HOUR, HAPPY HOUR..."
17:10 even the most resistant people noticed the happy hour has just started and joined the group
18:00 half of people is going back to work:)

All the people gather somewhere in the office, drink beer or juice, eat crisps or crisps and talk and talk. Usually the plan for weekend is outlined as well.

After the Happy hour...
This Happy hour was very special. First of all, it was my first one, so I wanted to participate, but I also needed to finalize my CEED plan (which I was working on during the week), so it was the first stressful afternoon here.
Secondly, Ryan came up with idea, that we can play Unreal tournament. And so we did! :)

The girls at the office described the game as... peaceful;) But none of them joined us, so we were 12 guys playing... I have never played the game before so the beginnings were tough, but I worked through to the better half:)

So relaxing, so much fun! :))
Of course, everyone has their nickname: Zeno alias "Amunra" was the name to fear (the best player), other players like "F*ck you Daddy", "Peacelover", "Lord M" etc. You can imagine all of us screaming "Eat this!", "I chopped your head you little p***y", "I've got the flag! Hold positions!", "That's a stupid map!", "Who the f**k is that Lord M?":)
Trust me, it was even more exciting than you can just read:)

The playing schedule was approximately as follows:
18:00 (after Happy hour) we started to download installation packages
19:00 we started to play
22:00 we went for late dinner at our favourite Turkish restaurant
22:30 we started to play again
01:30 we finished and went home:)

New nickname
Since the next playing time (sometimes during the week, after working hours, of course:)), I started to use my new Unreal nickname "Salma", which I was given as "brother of Salma Hayek"... Whenever then some of the guys called me Salma, I knew the game was about to start:)

Well, enough of nicknames, let's move on...

CEE night

Another day, another cool event...
The CEE night resembled a learning activity with an obvious topic: "CEE"
It was held in AI transition house, where the members of new AI team stay during the transition period. We took advantage of large rooms, so that 17 people participated, mainly from CEE countries, but also from many others.

We were discussing the recent history of our countries, contemporary situation, as well as future perspectives in a worldwide scale. To be absolutely honest, I really enjoyed and took a lot from the discussion. It wasn't just random facts, but I actually got to know how striking is the current situation in Romania, what is the struggle between Hungarians and Slovaks about, how do people in Latin America perceive CEE countries etc.

Good to mention, that the whole event was organized/promoted by Jarda (current CEE director) as a part of transition for Ivan, new CEE director 07/08.

CEE blog
Since the Czech Republic belongs to CEE, let me refer to this post on CEE blog, where you can get to know Ivan "live":)

AI live streaming show

Today after working hours, AI was trying out a new communication channel with MCs... streamed video discussion. This time, four members of new AI team picked 4 relevant topics and got familiar with them. Then they were presenting their opinions in turns and responding to questions from the audience - both people physically present behind the camera (like me) and MC members online.

Czech MC:)
The discussion was moderated by Czech ex-MCP Petr and it was also Czech MC also had by far the "best" questions ;-)

Petr (moderator), Gabiza (from the audience), J.C., Ahmet, Konrad, Rob (speakers), Abhi (IT support)


Enjoy the atmosphere:)
Jazz club
In the evening few people went to a jazz club. I got introduced among others with Laura and Petroula, finance girls from the current team, who is definitely good to get on well with:)

At the office

Initial meetings in Jordan are finished, I know what to do, so let's start with the project.

I'm sitting in the IS corner together with IS team guys. I cannot complain at all... almost everyone I need to work with is just "at arm's length"

At the table: Abhi (ISPM =project manager), Kiko (VPIS), Gee (ISPM)
At the back: Dey (PAI), Zeno (second IS CEEDer)
My priority for the first days is clear: CEED&project timeline.

At home

It's Saturday afternoon and I'm back in Rotterdam.

My roommate Zeno
During my week in Jordan the second CEEDer, Zeno Popovici, arrived. We should have met before, but due to the fact that he unfortunately lost his flight connection and got slightly delayed, it wasn't possible. When we met, Zeno was already settled in our room, everything went smoothly and we are getting on very well.
Zeno's job role is to completely reorganize the IT infrastructure at the AI office, which is in a neglected state for couple of years. I'll try to get involved in this as much as possible because of unique practical experience I can hardly get somewhere else.


Living in Rotterdam
Services and entertainment are a little bit more expensive here, as expected. On the other hand it's easily accessible and available in a wide variety.
I also found out, that prices in supermarket (almost just behind corner) are surprisingly reasonable. Cool, at least I won't starve:)

Dangerous neighbourhood
All AI residential places as well as AI office and the main Rotterdam railway station are situated very close to each other, which is very convenient. However, as I was informed, it is rather dodgy neighbourhood... Luckily I cannot confirm it based on my own experience:)
Except for a fact, that even before going to the office on Monday, I got to know from Ondro, that it was broken into! Stolen laptop (of 8 people)... is not a good start in transition period:(

Beware, these ducks and goose can be dangerous as well!

Farewell at MC flat

After our return from Petra, we went to visit the MC members at their flat. Actually we were invited for dinner, which was very much appreciated after a demanding day :) MC flat is quite big and definitely comfortable place, at least at the first sight:)

After the dinner we were enjoying our shisha, eating typical sweets (which we brought, and which I didn't like at the beginning of our stay in Jordan, but I love it now:)) and we were also talking about the past year.
I had a long chat with Moni about her experience from MC term, our plans and last but not least Jordan itslef. I got to know many facts about local people, language, politics, culture and so on... sometimes it was unbelievable, sometimes funny, sometimes I just got stiff!

In the end, we tried some spirit and played few games, so as to enjoy the last night in Jordan. Getting taxi at 2 am. in a remote part of Amman wasn't an easy deal. Neither was our waking up tomorrow... packing and leaving to the airport at 9am.

I'm sure it wouldn't be possible to get to know local environment within such a short time on my own. Thanks to conversations with local people (professors at the university, Anisha's uncle's family, MC members, drivers...) I might have got deeper under the surface. And it was worth it!

The city of Petra, just awesome!

They don't work on Fridays here, better to say their weekends last from Friday to Saturday... simply we had a free day and early in the morning we set off to Petra, ancient archaeological site situated in the south of Jordan. It is recognized as UNESCO heritage and one of seven new wonders of the world.


No cash, no fun
First of all we needed to withdraw some cash from ATM. Gee didn't succeed with his Maestro at all, I managed with my Visa on my third attempt (third ATM) and still I got only half of money I wanted and no receipt... learning point: don't leave this on the very last moment!
That time, driver (who we hired together with a car for 80 JD for the whole day) was waiting for us in front of the hostel and we were running from one ATM to another...:)

Yalla! (Let's go!)
From Amman to Petra in 2,5 hrs
The journey from Amman to Petra usually takes around 4hrs by bus. By car it was much more faster, as we've been driving around 180 Km/h. Yes, it IS fast. On our way back he had even crash with another car: I remember it very clearly, sitting on a front seat, as we were overtaking another car and approaching so fu*king fast that within a moment we smashed its side-mirror with our one. Sounds like from action movie, but it wasn't that funny - just imagine it weren't the side-mirrors but cars themselves to be smashed in such a speed!

Unforgettable sightseeing
We spent approximately 6 hours within the vast area of Petra. The weather was very hot and without mercy. Although we forgot our sunscreen, we enjoyed our walk without serious problems, because all of us (especially Anisha) are luckily relatively resistant towards sunshine. Only during the last hour, sun begun to be a little bit painful.*

I was amazed by the nature all around. Completely different to what I've seen before. Red rocks, steep hills, narrow roads, wide deserts, long colonnades... everything on our way to the highest point, the Monastery.

The Treasury, the main tourist attraction.
And the most easily accessible one:)

Climbing higher...

...to the top point.
* I'd have never believed the sun could be so powerful, as my skin turned into red (which doesn't happen often), then brown and then started to peel. It has been peeling more than month! Particularly the second week of peeling was very rich in skin:)

Ever-present business
Sometimes I had a feeling that half of all people present in Petra are locals, trying to earn some money:
> passing by stands with souvenirs each 5 min
> small children giving you Petra colourful rocks "as presents"
> refreshments (including our favourite mango juice!) sold for 5 times higher price
> random people asking for money after you take picture with a monument
and most importantly:
> tens of local shepherds offering you a ride on donkey, horse or camel. They are indeed persistent/annoying and even if you tell "no, thank you" to five of them, there is still the sixth one, who offers exactly the same:)
Everyone offering their services for substantially differing prices...
We resisted and explored everything on our own, walking! :)


Moviemaking
Interesting to know, that many movies have been filmed here, Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Indiana Jones a poslední křížová výprava) is by far the most known one. We've also met very famous filmmaker! Not Steven, but Costa Gravas.

Costa Gravas taking picture of his group.

Picture of our group taken by Costa Gravas.

Cultural insight

After our arrival from Dead sea, we were invited for a dinner at Anisha's uncle's house. It was a great opportunity to get to know the pace of life of local people. Me and Gee have been playing with children, Anisha was helping with preparation of the dinner. We were talking about local habits, Jordan and neighbouring countries, education, economical situation, cuisine...

I was impressed by 11-year old son, Abhishek, who is attending local English school. Our conversation was on much higher level than I'd have expected in such age. Moreover, he was the only one from the whole family to speak Arabic and his English was on very good communication level as well. Smart guy!

My "key learning points"
> prices are VERY flexible here (read below)
> most of meals is eaten by hands (and so was our dinner as well)
> knowledge of English among local people is generally on a good level
> security is the priority (read bellow), due to insecure neighbouring countries
> traffic security is an exception:) Crossing a street requires dose of courage:)
> despite the incredibly cheep petrol (and therefore taxi too), Jordan has almost no natural resources of petrol, everything is imported
> taxi is a chapter on its own, you can find many specifics! Read one of my previous post for those basic ones.
> you can often encounter ineffectivity, when 3 people are doing the work of one
> it snows here too:), I've seen photos of Petra covered in snow... beautiful!

Just you and me and my guard!
The Jordanian government is paying a thorough attention on national security. From time to time you can meet soldiers in the street, every single police station is crowded with redundant policemen, at the airport during the luggage check, I must have opened my backpack and turned on my laptop (maybe they wanted to run an antivirus check), when driving on a highway, you're passing through check-points every hour...

Price? Double, triple… as you wish
If you're a foreigner, you'll pay more. Take this for granted and your stay here will be much more easier:)
At the beginning I didn't want to accept that. Just imagine: on Tuesday you are paying 4JD for 6 meals and on Wednesday you are paying 5JD for 2 meals (the only difference is that on Tuesday it is Oksana, living here for 1 year and speaking Arabic, who is ordering and paying; whereas on Wednesday it's me and Gee.
How we managed to pay 10x more has already been described before ;)

Food
Once mentioning the meals... I guess it would take some time to get used to local cuisine. I was trying to identify the main difference, but I didn't manage - it's kind of overall: I cannot say they don't have ordinary "restaurants", but the food is usually poor in meat and is spicy... I cannot say they don't have "fastfoods"/sandwiches, but it's preparation is not fast at all:)... I cannot say they don't have good pastry for the breakfast, but the choice is fairly limited... and many other "small" differences like eating with your hands from one common dish etc. :)
To sum up, I was completely OK with one week; one year would be more challenging:)

Well, I have no clue what is my expression supposed to mean:)
If I should guess, it was something between excitement and scare from missing the cutlery...

Dead sea

Originally, Friday was the only free day we had, so we were facing difficult dilemma: Dead sea or City of Petra? But during our Thursday's meeting we managed to cancel the closing part, which made it possible to visit the Dead sea in the afternoon!
The colleagues from university were so generous that they provided us with a car, driver and a guide.

Highways are generally in a very good shape in the whole country, so our journey to the coast of Dead sea was fast and comfortable, it took 1,5 hours.

Hot weather
It was the first time in Jordan we experienced what "hot" weather really means, since mornings were always pleasantly windy, middays were pretty cold in air-conditioned board rooms (even 16°C!!, we needed a defrosting machine afterwards!) and evenings were just nice with warm sunsets. Dead sea was quite different: 40°C all the time, everywhere.
Because we didn't know in the morning that we were going (we decided during the day after cancelling the closing session...) we were dressed in formal clothes and we didn't have swimming suits, we had to buy ones on our way:)

Covered with well-known mud with sanative effects

Floating: enjoying the power of salt
The salt was indeed fairly aggressive and my sensitive skin didn't get on well with second round of Dead sea mud within 24 hours (see the post about Turkish bath) as well, so I didn't stay for a long time, but it was amazingl! You could see visible salt traces leading from showers back to the sea.

Taxi: “No meter! One dinar!”

As I have already mentioned in my previous post, what I'm really enjoying in Jordan is going by taxi - it's extremely cheap, quite fast and in most cases comfortable as well. It's also fun, as they apparently don't have any traffic rules:)

I'm sure that as soon as an European driver turns up on the road, crash happens. You simply must have a sense for this kind of driving style. Almost the same applies for pedestrians: when I wanted to cross a road for the first time, I was waiting five minutes before I realized that I must just GO. And hope not to be smashed:)

For the first time
It wasn't easy to navigate the driver, who wasn't absolutely sure where we want to go and neither were us. So Gee had to even turn on his laptop and show the route on the map:) I was really enjoying the ride with all windows wide-open, air blowing all around, pleasant sunny weather...
We were driving for around 40 minutes from our hostel in downtown to completely opposite side of Amman, where the PSUT (university) was located. Driver wanted 17 JD (20€), which seemed to be quite a fair deal.
As we got to know later, the point on his taximeter was "somehow" shifted, because correct prize was 1,7JD (2€). Yes, the taxi is really cheap here... and the driver had his lucky day:)

Couple of rules
> always want a driver to turn a taxi-meter on*
> never pay more than 5JD wherever you're going
> don't use white taxis, they are more expensive - yellow ones are fine:)
> don't travel after midnight, prices are doubled then

*Sometimes it's not that easy (see the title of this post), but it's cool! ;)
Just to add, that we spent 2 hours in taxi per day in average!

Delightful Turkish bath, hmm:)

In the evening, Me and Gee decided to enjoy our unforgettable experience in traditional Al Basha Turkish Bath. Oksana from Jordanian MC made a reservation for us on 10 p.m., we arrived right on time.

All-inclusive 2-hour session
> steam bath
> tasty icy juice
> jacuzzi
> in-depth skin cleansing
> intensive scrubbing
> professional massage
> mud mask (from Dead sea)

Unfortunately I didn't have my own camera!

Check this interesting "user review" from Turkish bath!

Meetings at university

The main objectives of our three meetings at PSUT (check previous post for further reference) were to:
> receive/give update on the current state of the project
> understand expected outcomes, timeline, budget and responsibilities
> clarify roles of AI, PSUT and all consortium partners in the project
> meet the people who we'll cooperate with in the future
> get to know more about e-learning platform Moodle which will be used for courses' implementation

Consortium partners
> universities from Spain, France, Jordan and Belgium
> student organizations from the Netherlands and Greece
> external experts from Germany, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan and Oman

Tempus team & PSUT team (not complete)

Challenging project timeline
During the discussions we were informed, that development of similar course usually takes approximately 6 months, which doesn't suit the original AI idea of 3 months, corresponding with a length of my CEED. Therefore the date of my departure home became flexible.
But now it is too early to make decisions - the review of timeline will be easier after few weeks of work.

Before meeting: Gee, Anisha and me in a university library

After meeting: follow-up with shisha:) in downtown of Amman

First day in Jordan

We had our first meeting with guys from PSUT today.
PSUT = Princess Sumaya University for Technology, one of consortium partners and our “colleague” in development of both courses (check previous post for further reference)

There were 4 main things to be done before the meeting:
> iron Gee’s shirt, because he forgot an iron:)
> have a breakfast
> get to the PSUT campus
> prepare for the meeting

1. looking for an iron
Well, finding an iron turned out to be much more difficult than we thought. Local people know English on a very good level, but some vocabulary is still too advanced… after 1 hour we managed to find a "shopping mall”, with an elderly tailor smoking his water pipe. In almost 20 minutes, he managed to iron 1 shirt and went on smoking:)

2. looking for a breakfast
Getting a European breakfast was fairly improbable, but nobody was actually looking for it. We wanted to try some local specialty. The problem was that local people have always plenty of time for everything, so preparation of one sandwich takes 10 minutes etc. Never mind, let’s try fresh mango/orange/carrot/banana juice for 0,5€. Delicious!

3. looking for a taxi
To find a taxi is not a problem here, 50% of all cars in the streets are yellow cabs. Finding a taxi driver, who would understand what “Princess Sumaya Uni… “ means was much bigger challenge, due to the Arabic language. Fifth driver seemed to be the right one.
The journey itself was very dynamic, because of distinctive (= very limited:)) traffic rules – no indication of changing direction, flexible speed limits, communicating with other drivers by hand hanging out of the window etc. I really enjoyed that and made some cool videos as well:-)
What I didn’t enjoy that much was a fact that we paid 10x more than we should have. I’ll share with you more on local taxi and money related issues later on, stay tuned!

4. looking forward to the meeting
Before the meeting, we had to prepare for it. I arrived in Rotterdam 2,5 days ago, so everything was new for me. Luckily I made some reading at home, discussed some topics with Ildi on Sunday and attended the Tempus team meeting yesterday morning so I had a basic overview of the project.
We met with Anisha in the university campus and found a nice shady place in local garden. We had several hours to divide the roles, prepare presentation, revise objectives, brainstorm possible questions…

5. looking around
After the successful meeting, which was actually just preparation for two more upcoming meetings, tomorrow and on Thursday, we returned to our hostel and went to explore the downtown of Amman.
The reception ceremony organized by local MC was great. We had typical Arabic dinner, typical Arabic cheesy sweets and typical Arabic tea with water pipe. It was cool that I managed to meet Moni again, which originally wasn’t that sure, because of national conference taking part in other part of Jordan.

Leaving for destination unknown

Transportation by train within the Netherlands is very convenient – it’s fast, it’s comfortable and it’s relatively cheap: so we went from Rotterdam to Amsterdam for 7€ with discount card in 45 minutes. We? Me, Anisha and Gee, the Tempus team, except for Ildi.

The flight was very comfortable as well, Royal Jordanian airlines turned out to be very good choice, we all agreed that we have never experienced as helpful, cheerful and professional crew as here. It was all-inclusive flight, so I ordered whiskey just for fun, expecting ordinary 5cl shot. I was given almost 1dcl, so I needed 0,5l of Coke to handle it:-)

During the flight, we were playing many games, watched movie and listened to music (yes, Madonna is everywhere), so we arrived in Amman, capital of Jordan, very soon. It was 10p.m. local time (GMT+3; Prague+1).

Anisha’s uncle picked us up and took me and Gee in front of our hostel – Sydney Hotel. We were driving approximately 1 hour and had to ask four times for the right way, because it’s pretty easy to get lost in Amman.

Sydney hotel is nice, modest, cheap… and most importantly safe place situated in the downtown of Amman. Good to mention, that it’s just me and Gee staying here, because Anisha is staying at her uncle’s place. We will all meet tomorrow at the university to have our first meeting.

First impressions
Although it was night, I managed to get my first impressions:
> wet and windy climate
> soldiers in the streets (Jordan is considered to be one of the most safe countries in this part of the world… I can definitely support this statement)
> well-maintained roads
> Arabic everywhere

MY BIG DAY

I woke up at 6:00, packed my luggage for one-week trip in Jordan, prepared my favorite breakfast and left the house with Ildi, who was about to travel too: flying home to Hungary to take her exam.

MMM
Monay Morning Meeting, also known as [ememem] starts each Monday at 9 a.m. sharp. If you come later, you will recognize it on your salary – it’s probably the only way how to make 40 people start on time on Monday morning. And it apparently works.
The meeting lasts exactly one hour, during witch all members of current AI team revise their weekly priorities and share weekend adventures. It’s unbelievable, but it’s very efficient, interesting, motivating and it’s fun.

Greenhorn from Jablonec
I didn’t revise any priorities, I introduced myself. It was quite a strange feeling, standing in front of 40 people, who are all both older as well as more experienced (usually ex-MC/AI members).
“Hello, my name is Martin, 3 years in @, home LC AIESEC Praha (“huraaaa” from the audience:)) and I’m going to enjoy my time here!” :)
I haven’t mentioned some important characteristics like SN god award in spring 2005, 53 exchanges realized, positive attitude towards Madonna and some others, but I hope there will be some time to promote these later on;-))

“My theory”
From 10 to 11 there was a block of “My Theory”, where certain members prepare a presentation on a relevant topic which is then to be discussed by participants. This time it was about importance of IT and engineering students in the organization: how to increase the pool of TT traineeships, how to attract such people in the organization etc. 10 min of presentation, 50 min of dynamic discussion. Everyone wanted to share… interesting opinions.

IS corner
I was also introduced to my table within the prestigious IS corner. Why prestigious? Not only because importance of this area (IT being on of the largest global focus areas and spending by far the biggest part of the budget), but also by just having a look over the office: each member of IS corner (including 2 IS CEEDers) has the table as big as 3 people in exchange and non-corporate relations area have together:-)

You can check my seat in the picture. For more information about the office itself, refer to AI website or to my previous post. I will share some more experience from IS corner later, after some working time.

Tempus team
After the My Theory session, we had the first meeting of the “Tempus team” in a library, so that we get ready for the business trip in Jordan next week. We revised all parties involved in the project and their representatives – universities from Spain, France, Jordan, Greece and some more organizations, external experts and otherwise related individuals. We set our objectives, without which we shouldn’t return back:) and which are absolutely crucial for my work in next 2,5 months.

Members of Tempus team:
> Anisha, newly elected non-corporate relations manager 07/08: responsible for the project in terms of application, communication and progress of delivery
> Gee, IS project manager 06/07: attended previous Tempus meeting in Greece so is the most familiar with the project itself; in @ co-responsible for new IS development and among others is also an author of the @XP logo:)
> Ildi, Anisha’s predecessor in 06/07
> me

Rush hour
The office itself is a very dynamic place. People are leaving and arriving continuously, transition meetings take place in board room, library, entry lounge, on the floor, wherever. Functional teams, members of many various taskforces are having their meetings alongside.
It’s 14:30, I haven’t done any progress in knowing more names (also due to the fact, that many members are abroad on short-term visits/meetings) and it is time to leave to the Central station.

Meeting new people

This weekend there have been so many people in Rotterdam apart from both AI teams… Steering team (discussing the new Information System), GN boards and most probably much more. So it was great opportunity to meet new people, as well as to get completely lost. Both happened:-)

After the dinner with Kiko and Abhishek, when we had a chance to talk a bit for the first time, we went at Hofdijk – the dormitory, where the majority of AI members are living (that one resembling our Blanice, as I’ve mentioned previously)
We wanted to play a pool and in order to be four we went to pick up Gee (3rd member of IS team), but he wasn’t in his room. Let’s try neighbor door... door opened and in a dark corridor I saw smaller person with curly hair... having very strong feeling I now her, but couldn’t recollect the situation… “Hi, I’m Cornelia, VP Exchange”:))

Now I felt like at home, IT and Exchange, both areas I have devoted all my time in AIESEC to… now I’m going to play pool with current and newly elected VPISs and VPX, that’s just too much for the first day;-)

Abhi & Cornelia & Kiko

While four of us went to play a pool, most of the others intended to go to Amsterdam overnight. But plans have changed and tens of people randomly turned up in the pool house. I didn’t remember many names that night and I rather didn’t ask for positions, as it would have been even more crazy… current corporate relations manager, newly elected Spanish speaking countries GN director, current director for strategy, new CEE external relations manager… OK, it’ll come later. Unfortunately, batteries in my camera went off so I don't have any pictures.

1 beer = 1 small beer
I definitely enjoyed the first evening very much!! But still this “review of the night” wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t share with you my disappointment regarding local beer… ordering beer, being given 0,3l and paying 2€ that’s nothing worth experiencing for the thirsty Czech guy! You can trust me on this!

Discovering the AI office

There were still 3 more things I wanted to do during my first day here in Rotterdam:
> meet Kiko and Abhisek
> visit the AI office
> sit in the PAI chair:-)
Let’s go…

Everything turned out to be quite easy, as Kiko and Abhisek were just having an IT meeting with MCPs at the office. Ildi had to study, so I was given a precise handmade map and got out!
It was a typical Dutch afternoon: neither sunny, nor rainy. Generally there is a lot of fountains and water birds around, which create relaxed and fresh environment.

It didn’t take a long time to find an ordinary-looking office building. Each floor is a seat of different company and is represented by a different street number – 4th floor, Teilingerstraat 126, is the seat of AIESEC International.

According to my first impressions, the office looked larger than in the virtual tour. It might be caused by the missing ping pong table, which has been substituted by several tables of (not only) GN directors, who need to be at the office during the transition period.
We had a dinner together with Kiko and Abhisek and went out to the centre.

Welcome at my place

The yellow bus of Student Agency arrived near the Rotterdam Central station at 15:00. I met Ildi, my “boss” from the current AI team and my host at once - but most importantly very kind, helpful and smiling person, who I’ll be also working on the project with.

Most of the AI team are living in local dormitories, architectonically resembling our well-known dorm Blanice, just with “slightly” better equipped single-bed rooms;-)
The rest (Ildi, Ryan, Ondro and Amit) are staying in a house. And I’m going to join them, as well as the second IT CEED (AI System Admin) Zeno, who will arrive later.

My first Czech beer
Right after arrival, I had a pleasure to enjoy a can of original Czech beer with Ondro. We talked about various experience from our previous months, so I have got a better idea of how the life in AI team is like.

Rush period

Today I managed to pass the last exam, so I’m eventually done with school. On Monday I bought my ticket to Rotterdam, I’ll be leaving on Friday midnight - but there are still many arrangements to be done in upcoming 2,5 days!
Last minute shopping, check out from the dormitory, cancellation of June exams, medical check-up, bye-bye meetings with my friends and family… everything scheduled right until the departure.

AI transition: 50 people in da house!

Transition period is by far the busiest part of the AI term, when you can meet around 50 people at the office, instead of ca 18 during the rest of the year (GN directors are out of the office very often).

22 members of current AI team + 22 members of newly elected AI team + many other people attending e.g. GN (Growth Network) board meetings, Steering team meeting (selected MCPs) and many others (+ CEEDers:-)) make the atmosphere really unique.

Transition period will last exactly 2 moths: during June and July. You can read more about it and its progress on the AI blog: ai.myaiesec.net

I’m really looking forward to meet all these people and feel this atmosphere on my own!