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

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

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!

A very quick point form update from Tunisia

Hey kids!

Lynners here. Or as they call me now, Lilou. (Apparently the "nn" part of "Lynn" is annoying to pronounce so I got a new name.)

My sincerest apologies for the mega delayed update and lack of literary flourish, it's been crazy here. It's been two months now I've been in Tunis, Tunisia.

I live with four other interns, all SuperAIESECers(tm), having joined the organization in 2002 or 2003. We are one Belge, one Morrocan, one Italian, and one Anglo-German-who-studies-in-Switzerland.

Random observances:
- Every bus driver seems to have the need to stop everything and wave to other bus drivers they see driving on the street.
- People always go out to take a coffee...and those salon du thé where people go to take those coffees are mostly full of males.
- If you want guys to stop stalking you on the street, either swear at them in Arabic or just keep walking. Walking on the wrong side of the street sometimes works but not always, people can always get out of their cars and cross.
- They speak French with a French accent.
- People are really friendly.
- I'm Japanese.
- The fact of whether or not I am married is ambiguous.
- This city is built for tall people (exhibit one: I have to CLIMB in and out of the bathtub to take my shower).

Anyway, just a quick update for you all. I'll churn out a proper piece when I can.

MUCH Love,
L.
xoxox

Belgian Beer, awesome AIESEC interns and jetlag!!

Hey AIESEC! I'm glad to see all the other bloggers enjoying their exchanges; I've been here for about 3 days and I'm having an amazing time! I start work tomorrow, so I'll have much more news to come!

Anyway I set up my own blog since it'll be easier for my family and friends to track me, so check it out during the times at work you have nothing to do (which clearly seems to be often unfortunately...;)) It's davesidel.blogspot.com

Dave

Indian Boyfriends and Other Musings

Hey McGill!

I know that if I start ranting about India and how fantastic it is I'll forget to do this later; besides this blog, I have my own blog which I update more regularly for friends and family; usually I write about my day-to-day doings, or funny little moments. If you are interested in following me along my journey in India, feel free: http://aminasamy.wordpress.com/

So it's my tenth day in India right now; I arrive on May 23rd and started my internship on May 25th (but my TN manager forgot to pick me up first day, so technically I started May 26th, and seeing as I still don't do that much I may not have started at all!). I decided to do my internship with a local NGO here in Jaipur, that aims to improve the livelihoods of the most deprived in the community, namely women and children. Specifically, my project was on improving the health status of rural women, but actually I do jack-all. I usually do the work that no one else wants to do. I've done a whole lot of reading and editing, and more recently some report writing (I'm in charge of the annual report right now- which I think is pretty dumb. I mean who gives that job to an intern?), marketing (designed a marketing package today) and tomorrow I start some HR (I'm interviewing a bunch of candidates for a position in social work- again, why get the unpaid intern to hire you a full-paid, qualified candidate; they also failed to realize I speak no Hindi). Regardless, I am enjoying my work, but I really hope that I do get assigned more challenging projects soon, and more projects related to what I actually came her to do; get hands-on, realistic experience in the vast world of development.

Even though work isn't exactly what I expected, I am having a ball of a time in India and have had no negative experiences to speak of, as of yet. On my first hour, my TN manager propped me up behind him on his itty bitty motorcycle, without providing me with a helmet and off we went; haven't looked back since. Surprisingly, I now love motorcycle rides, and in fact I am getting lessons soon!

At the moment, I live with 12 other interns in my house (though when I got here there were just 7), and there are around 15 others in Jaipur. My housemates are remarkably awesome, and definitely some of the coolest people I have ever met. So far, we have:

2 Russians
2 Dutch
2 Americans
2 French
1 Canadian (myself excluded, even though I'm not Canadian per se)
1 Mexican
1 Malaysian
1 Australian

in my house, and in the other house we have a few British interns, Portuguese, Kyrgyzstani, Ukrainian, French, Canadian, Japanese and American interns.

It's been such a treat getting to meet all these people, and learn about them and their interests and what not. And for the most part, everyone is so great and we all get along well! We keep getting new interns weekly, and it's so exciting. I feel like I get a new puppy each time! Every weekend we expand my around 4 interns per house. The LC estimates that there will be 150 interns in July. Crazy right!

Culture Shock? Surprisingly, I haven't had that much; I feel that I was very well prepared (shout out to Kathy, Curtis, Francois and Sebastien). Definitely, I've been a whole lot more prepared than some interns. Some of the other interns here have been terribly home sick and quite miserable to be frank. Some cannot stand spicy food, or vegetarian food (which is the first thing they will tell you about Rajasthani cuisine); there are some instances when I wonder how the other interns passed review board at all!

My biggest culture shocks so far:

1) The animals. Oh my god, there are all sorts of animals EVERYWHERE. I saw a peacock on my roof the first day, on the road I see dogs, chipmunks, cats, camels, elephants, horses, donkeys and cows (OMG cows, everywhere) on a daily basis. Even at work I see mice all the time. I never really imagined such a scene!

2) Transport. Yeah the motorcycles were a little bit surprising to me (but I totally love them now); also, you never see any cabs here. It's all auto-rickshaws or motorcycles. Cars are rare.

3) Hospitality. The people here are so, so, so friendly it's unbelievable. I don't think I've ever seen people so warm and hospitable. The intern house I stay in is rented out by an extended family who live on the ground floor. This family is so warm and welcoming! They invited me to lunch on my first hour, invited me to sleep there if I wanted to. Bring snacks up all the time. The cooked dinner for all the interns, and allowed us to help! We're even invited to their sons birthday party this Thursday!

4) Work and time culture. Derek and Kathy will know this all too well. Indian time. Is like, at least 10-15 minutes later than regular time. In most cases around 1-2 hours. Luckily for me, this means I get to sleep in most mornings, and I can get to work whatever I want. Like, work usually starts at 10am (technically); I got there at 10.20 today and the NGO was locked for a good 15 minutes. Also, I find that a lot of the time I spend at work is useless, as is a lot of other people's time. We get a lot of chai breaks, and internet email breaks. And big time lags with nothing to do. Most people get lile 3-4 hours of productive work on a 7 hour work day.

That's about it for shock. What else? The really cool thing about living with so many interns is that I get a lot of opportunities to travel and have some great travel buddies. Last weekend we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which was great. This weekend we were hoping to go to Amritsar, Punjab but I don't think that's going to happen...

I now realize that the total of my post is a bit mis-leading. I haven't really touched on that subject. Something else I realized here is as a) a girl, and b) not indian I get stared at a whole lot. Like on the plane from Muscat to Jaipur, I was the only white female on the plane, and got a whole lot of awkward stares; I don't know if it's usual, or if it's cos I stand out or what, it was really just uncomfortable (unrelated but still worth a mention, because I was non-Indian, and looked like I knew what I was doing, about 90% of the Indian labourers on that plane gave me their passports to fill out both the swine flu cards and the customs cards, which was really, really not that fun). Anyway, pretty much all foreigners and moreso female foreigners get stared at a lot here. But that has nothing to do with Indian boyfriends.
Anyway, it seems that the non-Indian girl is pretty much a novelty in the eyes of the Jaipur-y boy. A few of the interns here (ok, well 2) have managed to make "friends" on planes, trips whatever, or with their travel agents, shop owners. These friends give them all sorts of special favours like dinners, air conditioned car rides, discounts, home-stays etc. And while they aren't boyfriends per se, they sure act like it- hence the term Indian boyfriend. It is really quite the privilege for the foreign AIESEC intern to acquire one of these. So yeah. That's where the term originates from.

Ok, although I can ramble a whole lot more- I think I'm going to stop and continue next time, with more info on the local committee and AIESEC stuff I learnt from abroad :)

Namaste AIESEC McGill!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hello everyone!


I hope you are having a great summer.

I am now in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, doing my internship at MAKNA(National Cancer Council). It's really hot.. and humid here, but ever since I found that Singapore was amazingly hotter when I went there last weekend, I feel this weather is actually not too bad.. lol

Anyways, I have been doing my internship here for about 3 weeks, and to be honest, there isn't
that much work to do... It's kind of really bad, thinking that I came all the way here and paid for everything to get an experience and learn something new, but they haven't really prepared much stuff for me.. I've talked to the manager and he keeps saying that he will give me work when needed.

I also had a hard time finding a new apartment in my first week in Malaysia. The local AIESEC got me a really bad room - well, the room was fine, but nothing in the washroom worked properly. So I moved out a week later and it's fine now...

Ohh don't get a misconception of Malaysia though - KL is really beautiful, and there are many places to go, eat and enjoy- you all have to come visit here sometime in your life :)

So has anyone started internship? I am sooooooo looking forward to listening to all of your stories!