On my way back...

In 24hrs from now i will be on a plane again.

On my way to London, to Crewe, to Poland, to Switzerland. To see so many familiar faces. Faces that have been scattered across the globle, coming together in 3 emotional and unforgettable weeks.

How did this come around so quickly? I feel like i only just started my 'Asian experience' and now i am putting it on hold for 3 weeks. Somehow this feels strange. More strange to think that in 36 hours i will be having coffee with Bee in King's Cross. Even more strange that in 17 days i will be standing in Eigerstrasse 55, seeing how the next generation are leaving their mark on this special place.

Strange times indeed.

Schatzi, Ich komme zurueck :)

p.s. sorry for the silence around SPARK. This week has someehow just gone. For pics check out Laura's blog. For behind the scenes info, but me a beer next week ;)

Are YOU a GOSSIP...?

Obviously it's NOT just an Asian thing after all...

LONDON (Reuters) - An iPod and 2 mobile phones are the latest must-have accessories along with Sushi for the status-conscious office worker, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
The poll, conducted for recruitment firm Office Angels, found 67 percent of 1,500 respondents considered so-called "micro-gadgets" like Blackberrys, laptop memory sticks and small mobile phones to be the ultimate status symbols.

Office Angels branded the people in the survey as GOSSIPS (Gadget Obsessed Status Symbol Infatuated Professionals), a morphed version of the archetypal 1980s Yuppie -- Young Urban Professional.

Almost half (45 percent) of those questioned thought any ambitious worker should own at least 2 mobile phones -- one for work calls and the other for social chit chat.

The survey also found food such as sushi, organic salads and sashimi -- thinly sliced raw seafood -- were rated highly by office workers compared with traditional sandwiches or burgers with chips.

Nearly a third of office workers also admitted to spending over 10 pounds a week on coffee, even if they could get the beverage for free at work.

MSN Today - 16th August

SPARK is here!!!

Starting tomorrow we have our 1st national conference, SPARK!

Those of you who have done/are doing an MC term will understand why the blog has been quiet these past few days...

The conference will finish Sunday eve and then on Monday i will be going to visit another province of Thailand (my 1st trip outside the sprawling reach of Bangkok!)

So hopefully great stories and beautiful pics to follow soon...

Here's to a great weekend ;o)

The B-Theme continues...

My Boyfriend comes from Brig & now lives in Basel...

My Brother just became a Bobby... (ok you may need help with that one - it's slang for policeman)

Monologues are no fun

I tried 10 days ago to get some other perspectives about a topic that has been troubling me, but only Cileia wanted to join in :o(

As much as I value Cileia's opinion, i can't help thinking there are other people out there (student/graduates of Political Science, for example...) who would also have views to share.

I found another very interesting article on Friday evening to add to this little debate.

And today i had another, more worrying thought. I can remember during several history & politics lessons at School being taught the 'Axiom' that democracies don't go to war with one another. Given that both Gaza & Lebanon are countries that have democratically elected their own governments, the current fighting between these 2 countries and Israel seems to suggest that this faith in the democratic 'solution' was misplaced.

Does the mistake lie rather in the whole logic, or just in the speed of implementation / transition?

What has interested me for several weeks is how the US has been forced to temporarily 'forget' its stance on democracy, now that it is faced with the prospect of these 2 countries having democratically elected governments that it simply doesn't like (or at least some members of them) It seems the US Administration is prepared to accept democracy, as long as it agrees with the choice made by the electorate in the country concerned - i.e as long as they elect a US-friendly government. When this is not the case, the democratic credentials seem to be quickly forgotten. Does anyone else find this a little hard to swallow, coming from a man who has so vehemently argued for the further spread of democracy?

Incidentally, i wonder what would have happened if the rest of the world had adopted the US attitude to democracy towards the US itself. Could Jacques Chirac get away with saying that the US is undemocratic because he doesn't agree with the choice its people made in 2 successive elections? That would spice up the Security Council meetings, wouldn't it? :o)

Tribute to the 'B-Team'

Just made a startling discovery...

In honour of my former VPER, the wonderful Bee, every one of our team from last year (with the exception of Dhruv) will soon be living in a city beginning with 'B':

• Myself in Bangkok
• Sabi in Bern
• Zuzi in Bratislava
• Bee herself in Bogota

Here's to the breathtakingly beautiful, balanced, brave and (occasionally) brash B-Team!

p.s. Dhruvli, when are you going to move to Bangalore...?
p.p.s Our reunion will take place in Bali. Meet you there, July 18th, 2010 (to celebrate the 5th anniversary of our year-planning. Any other events taking place on that day are pure coincidence...)

What a week!

A week in which I:

• Designed 7 sessions for our upcoming National Conference, SPARK
• Led a 5-hour dry-run for the same conference
• Created a year-plan for Alumni Relations in AIESEC in Thailand
• Re-designed posters for OGX recruitment
• Wrote 3 articles for the AIESEC in Switzerland Annual Report
• Got out of bed before 9am 4 days out of 5
• Went running twice
• Updated my blog almost every day...
• Ate the most chilli ever consumed by a Brit in a 5-day period

Bring on the weekend!!!

Smug

I did it :o)

8:00 out of bed, 10 mins stretching, ran from 8:10 til 8:20, stretched again, in the shower, breakfast, ready for work at 9:30 :o)

It IS possible!

A gray day

I woke up to rain. 1st time that has happened here. Very symbollic...

I should say "eventually woke up ". Again i set my alarm for 7:45. Again i switched it off and just went back to sleep. Somehow my body & mind have not yet found their rhythm here. I go to bed every night at a different time, and the same thing waking up in the morning. And i'm always so tired, but the tiredness doesn't stop when i sleep.

This morning, after only 3 hrs work we broke for lunch, and it was a real effort to keep my eyes open long enough to eat and walk the 5minutes home afterwards. So i tried to sleep it off. And guess what - i'm still tired! So this post will be short, since i should go sleep.

The tiredness is accompanied by a constant feeling of frustration. Like i feel as though i am not achieving anything. Days are passing and i don't have anything to show for it. That's not how it was supposed to be. That's not how it was before. And as you can imagine this is not helped if one has to sleep for 3 hrs in the middle of the afternoon.

Hopefully tomorrow i will make my 7:45 target. Inspired by Cileia I want to get in shape again. Since i can't afford to join a gym i am going to start running again. Unfortunately the morning is the only time when the temperature will allow me to do this without ending up in hospital.

So who knows, maybe when i post tomorrow i will have done some exercise, achieved some useful stuff, and still feel relatively awake. Wow, that gives me something to strive for!

Good night
x

P.S. Stefan, welcome back from your trip. Thinkin of you lots at this time x