Jordan revival (fresh post!!)

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

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

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?

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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:)