Bonsoir Mademoiselle Paris

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...