PM in Sevilla was probably my last conference as an active aiesec member. its a weird feeling, after being to over 20 conferences all over the world that i wont be going to anymore! during the conference, i was the conference manager as well as a faci. being conference manager for a conference this big was challenging, very challenging. i was doing sessions at 5am after a party challenging. i was working with a great OC team and a great faci team that made the conference easier. and the delegates were amazing, always trying to help out and being supportive. i dont feel like this experience in aiesec is coming to end... it feels like we still have so much to do. it was very sad though, the last time i will be seeing some of the amazing spanish members that i have met and gotten to know over the year.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Sevilla
After the conference, we had a free day to explore sevilla. it was beautiful. i filled up my memory card with pictures! we visited the Giralda, the Real Alcazar and went to a flamenco show. i dont have all of the pictures, but enjoy the ones below. i really enjoyed the city - it was very relaxing and amazing. also the food was cheap and fantastic (we ate like kings)
Ferias de Sevilla
Luci and I went to Sevilla early before a conference to work and enjoy the ferias! the feria of sevilla was nothing like i had seen before. i had been to a feria in valladolid and it mostly involved drinking and hanging out.. but this was different. the feria ground is covered in like 1000 "castas" which are tents. but these aren't regular white tents that you rent for a reception, they are built like little houses or restaurants with walls, picture frames, waiters, bathrooms, a bar and dancefloor. it was amazing! you can only get into the casetas if you know someone or work somewhere - they are based on tickets so its not full of tourists and stuff like that. there are a few public casetas but i was told they were ghetto.
in the tents, you drank, ate and danced sevillanas. it was amazing dancing and watching the live band and all of the women dressed up in sevillanas. the women dress up in the dress, the flower i the hair, the earings, the heels, the makeup, the earrings, everything. its amazing! doesnt matter how old you are (75 or 3)..everyone looked amazing. i really enjoyed it and im glad i went early!
valladolid
i went to valladolid for 2 days for LC visits (aiesec translation: work). its a city that is about 2 hours by train north of madrid. the people there are incredibly hospitable and nice and always wanting you to have a great time! although i was there for work, i was able to hang out with the aiesecers there and go out! something of note in valladolid is kalimotxo. i think its basque, but! i have only ever had it in valladolid. its half wine and half coke and its AWESOME! they serve it to you in a half liter cup and its only like 2 euros.
i also learned some new awesome spanish words/phrases like mola and in la leche... thanks aiesec in valladolid :)
Fés
Luci and I found cheap tickets to go to fés, morocco for April 5th - 7th on good ol ryanair. we went to print the boarding passes 3.5 hours before our flight..but we couldnt! it closes the online check in 4 hours before boarding... so we had to pay 40 euros EACH for boarding passes at the airport...ridiculous really. so that doubled the cost of our trip already. we stayed at a hotel near the train station which was a bit sketchy at night time. we couldnt really go out when it was dark. there weren't any other women on the street and guys were just a little bit more creepy. this means we stayed in quite a bit - watching BBC and going to bed early (that part was great!) we explored the medina (medieval city) for a day. the medina in fés is the oldest living medina in the world. we ate moroccan bread, drank mint tea and shopped. we also had fresh squeezed orange juice which was AMAZING. we went really early (like 9 am early) which was early for the medina too! nothing was really open, but it was cool to walk around. it is full of winding alleys and shops with everyone having the best things to buy. we did buy quite a bit, but we tried to bargain everything. it was funny because half of the people there thought i was from india (yelling NAMASTE in the street) or moroccan and speaking in arabic to me. a guy led us on a tour of his carpet store, showing us how the carpets were made and trying to get us to buy them (which we didnt obviously) but the guy said that i seemed like i was moroccan, from marakech! speaking of people trying to con you into buying things, 2 boys (probably like 8 years old) who knew a LOT of different languages tried to get us to go to the a leather tannery that his father owned (but it smelt reallllly bad, so we didnt even want to go near :P) so they took us to his mother's shop where she sold spices and soaps and oils. they were very persistent.. to the point of annoyance and asked for money as well at the end (which we felt uncomfortable about and didnt pay) we also visited the royal palace which had huge golden doors (but thats all you could look at). overall the first trip to morocco was very cool. the next time i would like to go to another city and visit people from morocco - i think that would be a very different experience and i would be able to see moroccan culture.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Greece
On the 22nd of april, i bought a flight ticket to athens, greece... for the 27th. My roomate sylvia was going anyways, and i thought, "why not?". so landing in athens on the 27th started a week long vacation in the land of feta, souvlaki and ouzo.
the 27thi arrived to athens. i went to a party straight from the airport! the music was so weird, but noticing the greek style, i felt like i fit in more in greece than in spain. everyone in greece is very laid back, stylish but more relaxed (compared to spain) and just interested in enjoying life. chara was our AMAZING host that had us in her house and took us all around the city. i dont know how we could have experienced athens the way we did without her.
the 28th
when in athens, you have to see the acropolis, and thats the first thing that we did. its free to enter on sundays, so we just walked right in to see it. even though it was crawling with tourists, the acropolis is absolutely amazing. its incredible how much history exists in one place and how it has survived throughout centuries, different rulers and different religions. the new acropolis museum was also opened across the street during the summer. it has a very complete collection of objects found at the acropolis including original statues, marble panels, vases and more. we walked down from the acropolis through thissio which is an area of athens with lots of street vendors selling jewelry and random things and lots of coffee shops and cafes as well.
in greece, the coffee culture is very strong. whatever you do, you always "take a coffee" during the day. you could be drinking a coffee with friends for hours! but it is an integral part of any greek day. what do you do in these cafes for hours? talk, read horoscopes in the free newspapers and play backgammon. they have something called a frappé. now its nothing like a frappuccino you would get at starbucks, but greek coffee with ice. the coffee itself isnt different, but the way its made is... im not sure how to describe it but! if you go to greece, try it!
that evening, we went to a typical greek tavern to try typical greek beverages including ouzo. the first drink we tried was called raki - its a very strong alcohol that is boiled and mixed with honey so the taste is smoother and its very warm when you drink it. we also tried ouzo. now, generally when i had tried ouzo in the past, it always involved a greek party or restaurant in canada with a shot glass and a bottle of ouzo. i found out this is not the best way to drink it. you mix the ouzo with ice and water and its actually quite delicious! on Eros
the 29th
we went to the cycladic art museum which had a temporary exhibit on eros - the god of love and eroticism. the exhibit was very interesting as it explored different aspects of the concept of love - from romanticism, homosexuality, bestiality, sex as well as the mythical life of eros himself. but some of the vases - it looked like porn painted on a vase! we also say the permanent exhibit which related to ancient greek life as well as pre historic artifacts from greece. from my understanding, ancient greek life, philosophy and myths are pretty well known but the prehistoric artifacts and findings are super interesting and not as well known. i was more interested in the pre historic cycladic exhibit than the greek life in antiquity exhibit!
after that, we walked around kolonaki which is the pricey shopping district and started our whorl wind eating tour of athens. we started with souvlaki, moved to another place for coffee (of course), to another place for typical greek sweets (which were AMAZING! i still feel the sugar in me from then) and then we went to a funk bar for a drink. food and beverage in greece is generally pretty cheap... except for the coffee (which is anywhere from 3-5 euros compared to spain where you can get a cup of coffee for 1.20)
the 30th
we hopped in nikos' car and drove for an hour to Sounio. our first stop was the temple of poseidon. it was beautiful - not necessarily from the temple itself but from where it is situated. the temple is on a hill which overlooks the sea. take a look at the pictures to see - the colours - the white of the marble, the green of the grass and the super blue water was amazing and created some great pictures too! we had a packed lunch on the beach and then of course had some coffee. we had it at this place called the house project. the concept of the place was that it was a house - with a library (with books), a living room (with a playstation and computers), a games room (with pool), and a patio that was on the beach but you could order coffee, food, drinks etc. it was really cool and it seemed like something out of the OC.
the 31st
Sylvia and i went off on our own towards the center and Monistraki square. we bought souvenirs and i was on a hunt for the ancient agora. i was disappointed when i saw that it was just some ruins on either side of a small road with grass growing all around it. but! there were ruins..in the middle of the city.. it was kind of exciting? we met up with konstantinos and nikos and went for shisha and to try another typical greek drink - inomelo. its red wine that is heated up and mixed with honey. you drink it like a shot and it is delicious!
the 1st
we took a ferry for an hour to the island of aegina. as soon as we got there, we went to the ticket booth to ask when the ferries were departing back to athens. the guy in the booth told us that we were in the village and needed to go the city of aegina, where the ferry departs. he said we could take a taxi or take "that" bus, pointing to a bus driving by at full speed. sylvia and i tried to wave it down, but it didnt stop. sylvia also saw a sign that said aegina town, 10 km. Syl then suggests we walk the 10 km because its not that far. so without thinking, we start walking thinking 10 km is like a 20 minute walk. as we are walking, i start calculating how long 10 km really takes to walk and am pretty sure it will take us well over an hour and a half. but when when we turned any curve, syl would optimistically say "i feel like the city is just around the corner!" we finally saw some very nice people (after 45 minutes of walking) that said that the town was another 5 kms away. at this point, we decided to look for a taxi. we quickly waved one down and drove the remaining 5 kms to aegina town. it was our very own "camino de santiago" but the "camino de carajo" in aegina - very fitting for easter. (the camino de santiago is a religious pilgrimage where you walk across spain during easter).
while on our wonderful walk, we saw some tourists on motorcycles. after this, sylvia was addicted with the thought of getting a motorcycle. so after finding out what time the ferry left, we found a place that rented motorcycles. the guy asked us if we could rive motorcycles, we said no so he gave us a quad to share. it was the best decision ever! syl and i took turns driving the quad and explored the entire island! we saw a giant church (the monastary of agios nektarios) and drove to the temple of aphaia. we then got lunch near the sea and drove around the rest of the island. it was a lot of fun.
the 2nd
we visited the national archaeological museum which has an amazing collection of greek statues and marble depictions in the world. it was in a huge building and the exhibits were fascinating. the only thing that tainted the experience was the hordes of american high school kids there for spring break and the other stereotypical american tourists there. they were loud, taking pictures with flash, hording all of the displays, walking in front of people looking at displays, calling over to friends and people - ah so aggravating!
overall the experience in greece was amazing! we relaxed, enjoyed the lifestyle, saw lots of things, had an amazing hostess and of course, ate SO MUCH FOOD! when you look at the pictures, you will see almost everything we ate. it was fantastic! tomorrow i am off to fés in morocco for a 2 day sight seeing tour!
Thursday, March 18, 2010
WENA LDS 2010
Stella and I were faci's at wena lds 2010 in malta. Our faci team consisted of people from Colombia, Germany, Denmark, Malta, Belgium and Greece and us. The conference focused on leadership and not so much on AIESEC. we had a pre meeting for 2 days where we went through all the sessions, worked on new ones and played a lot of foosball. we were in a fishing village in malta so we got to see the colourful boats and walk around a bit along the water as well.
the conference itself was very interesting and very challenging. It was nice to see something new in AIESEC again. when you have been in the organization for 5 years, things start to get a little routine. the format of the conference was in homegroups. so each delegate was placed in 1 of 10 homegroups and each session was based in homegroups. you could meet and get to know 16 other people really well as you worked with them in team building activities, discussions and of course parties as well. each homegroup has its own style and bonded in its own way. it was really cool to see new aiesecers coming into the organization with such motivation, passion and excitement.
there were of course some challenges in the faci team, especially with working styles. There were two clear groups in the faci team - the mediterranean group (of 4 - greece, malta and italy) and the german group (of 3). Ana (from Colombia but on the Swedish MC) and myself were somewhere in the middle - we understood both sides. It wasn't a bad thing at all! It was just very interesting to see how each group thought and worked. Coming from Canada and now living in Spain, i could understand and defend both sides and also sometimes play the intermediary. but it was very cool to see how different people thought and worked and also to see the realization each side had. the cultural understanding showed on their faces and challenged how everyone thought. it was a very intense 5 days with people from very different cultures - it was very frustrating, very fun, very challenging but awesome at the same time.
Malta
I was selected as a facilitator for the Western Europe and North America Leadership Development Seminar (WENA LDS for short :P) which was hosted in Malta. We went a few days before the conference for touring around and for pre conference. malta itself is an interesting place. it is only 316 sq km and has around 450,000 people, so the size of a small city. you can drive across the entire country in 20 minutes but because of the traffic, its more like an hour and a half. malta has been invaded by pretty much everyone (english, italians, spanish, french, arabs) so the maltese language is half arabic and half everything else. you can also see the influences of the british in the slang the maltese use, the italians in the food and the arabs in the architecture. Usually its a balmy 20 degrees in the winter, but not when we were there. it was rainy everyday except for the last 2 days and it was REALLY cold. but the people were amazing - very warm and hospitable. they were willing to show us around, drive us around and of course brag about their food. another weird thing...each house had a name! instead of a number on the outside of the house, it was a name (one was named cockburn..i would not want to live there...)
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Málaga
Continuing on the tour, i made my way to málaga. when the bus arrived to málaga, we arrived to rain. this wasn't the normal kind of drizzle rain, it was raining hard... like cats and dogs some would say. during the trip to málaga, i was in meetings, had an opportunity to actually work! and get to know the members of AIESEC there better. i even did a couple of little speeches in spanish (very proud of that!). Camby also took me on a tour of the center of Málaga! It's a cool little place with a muslim style castle (the alcazaba) and the birthplace of picasso! enjoy the pictures!
Zaragoza
I was in Zaragoza for 4 days over the weekend, continuing my whirlwind tour of Spain for work. Zaragoza isn't a huge city but it had a lot to see. The first night i was there, we went to "El Tubo" which is an area of the city that has lots of bars and restaurants. We went for tapas. Now, i was under the assumption that tapas worked the same all over Spain. Well. I was wrong. we ordered patatas brava (thick cut french fries with "hot" sauce) and croquetas - they were 9 euros each! I was not impressed. We went to a pintxos place after where they have cut pieces of bread with different toppings (ham, salmon, combinations of things) laid out along the entire counter of the bar. You picked whatever you want and at the end, they count the number of toothpicks you have and charge you 1.20 euros each. It was fantastic!
Continuing with the food theme, I ate SO MUCH that weekend. I was staying with Teresa's family for the days i was there. They were incredibly welcoming, warm and hospitable. I really did feel like i was at home. Teresa's sister works as a baker at a french bakery. Every morning when we woke up, there was a giant platter full of amazing things from the bakery. Teresa's dad loves to cook (he even wears a chef's hat when cooking) and cooked for 5 people every meal (when only 2-3 of us were eating). I don't think my plate was ever empty!
In terms of work, we went non stop the entire weekend! We had meetings, trainings, discussions - it was really great actually. I felt very productive, a little tired at the end of it all but very productive.
As a team building activity, we went to a horse stable on Sunday morning. Teresa's dad goes to this place every weekend or something, so they gave us a great deal! It was only 10 euros for 2 hours of riding and we used the place for a meal as well. The place (the Poni Club, yes Poni with an "i") is set up like a cottage with the stable attached. We learned about the horses (Spanish, English, Arab, purebred, mixed), how to clean them, about the organization. We also cooked and ate there as well - BBQ. Now it is March and winter in Spain, but the weather was perfect. It was around 22 or 23 degrees! So we sat outside, ate, took in some sun (even darkened a little :P). Actually riding the horses was awesome! They showed us how to ride properly, took us on a walk through some of the countryside which was very pretty and showed us how to take care of the horses and show our appreciation. Teresa's dad was leading my horse and showing me what to do and at one point said to me (when i wasnt understanding), "I thought you could speak spanish!" and i said, "i can! just not with horse related words!" At the end of the day, it was just us left, cleaning up and ready to lock up. Teresa and i looked up to find one of the horses just hanging out, but not in the stable. We called Teresa's dad to confirm and he said no, the horse shouldnt be out of the stable - thats right, an escapee. So Marco picked up the rope and was ready to get the horse back! Marco and Ruben jump into the pen, a dog is barking at the horse and because of all of these things, the horse gets spooked - starting to run around the pen. So i decided to be a horse whisperer and calm the horse down. Sure enough, he calmed down with my awesome technique and we could get him back to the stable.
On Monday, i went on a tour of Zaragoza. Isabel (studying tourism and doing a placement at the tourism office) took me on a very informative walk through the center of the city. Zaragoza has a lot of history - roman, muslim, christian. and they all have buildings and sites to represent them. There is also the Catedral Basilica de Nuestra Señora del Pilar - a giant church that has a pillar in it. a saint apparently saw the virgin mary over the pillar and decided to build a gigantic church! the part i liked the most was the 2 holes in the ceiling and 2 missiles on the wall. apparently during the civil war, the two missiles were lodged into the roof of the basilica, but never exploded.
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