Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tunisian Time will not apply to my flight back to Canada

Hey AIESEC!

Lynn here blogging from Tunisia. Honestly, sometimes I cannot believe I am here - it all still feels incredibly surreal. However, at the same time, I cannot believe that everything will come to an end in a mere five and a half weeks. Time passes way too quickly.

After about a month or so at my company, a colleague came up to me one day and asked if I was going to stay until the end of the year. I replied that no, I will be leaving at the end of August. He said that it was sad because they had gotten used to me being around.

This morning I was feeling frustrated and helpless due to a really dramatic work-related situation that was going on, typical of the Tunisian business setting. I got a call from the one other female colleague (who sits about five metres away from me), who asked when I was leaving, and said that I am going to leave "un grand vide" (roughly translates to...a large void or empty space) here, to which I replied that there will be another intern coming to replace me. She responded by saying, "but no, you're different from any other intern we have had before. The other girls, they were nice and all, but you...you're different." "But of course, we're each different individuals." I felt that it was the sweetest thing anyone could have said to me at that moment when I felt so down.

It really saddens me to think of the idea that I will be leaving this country soon. It really is starting to hit me.

One of my roommates will be leaving next week. He was the one who gave me my first Tunisian beer (when I really needed it the most!), showed me where to get groceries, and took me to the beach for the first time. (Haha, I'm so easily bought!)

My hispanophone friends will also be leaving soon, in about two weeks they will be gone as well. I really bonded with them. They included me in all their social activities and really treated me like family.

I think the thing I will miss most about Tunisia will without a doubt be the people I have met.

Anyway, enough about my sentiments about leaving in a month and a half, I am getting ahead of myself. I promise I will write about something happier soon.

Bslema!

L.
xoxox

Monday, July 13, 2009

Hey everybody,

I hope everyone is still having an amazing experience.

My time is almost done here, I've since moved to Mumbai to do a CEED with the MC for 3 weeks, but I have less than 2 weeks to go now! It sure has gone fast. Check out my blog if you are interested in my experience...

I would love to hear about all of your stories, Kathy and I will be organizing an EP event when we all return at the end of August/beginning of September so we can all share our experiences.

Have a great summer guys, and I hope we all make big contributions to AIESEC McGill in the Fall so we can give other people the opportunity to come to Canada.

It really makes me sad when I talk to potential EPs and I mention the possibility of going to Canada, and they mention that they would love to, but there are just no TNs available. We need to give other people the same opportunities we have been given guys!

See you guys,

Derek Vollebregt

Monday, July 6, 2009

Tunak Tunak in the Park!!

So last night, me and other interns from India, Romania, Bulgaria, Colombia and Brazil did the Tunak Tunak dance in the park!! It was pretty awesome seeing other interns from all over the globe in the self-proclaimed European capital doing the AIESEC dance in front of really confused spectators!