Hey,

Since two days I’m back from IC.

The last day on IC was a bit disappointing. First we had the Launch of the new IT system that will be used as soon as possible. The idea of the System is cool but the launch lasted way to long. Hopefully this system will be more trustworthy than the one running now.

Afterwards we had the Closing of the conference. The expectations from my side were very high, everyone told me it was one of the most powerful experiences of IC, but in the end it turned out to be approximately the same as the opening. It was cool but I learned not to expect to much, so you are not that disappointed.

Afterwards we went for a visit of Istanbul. In the evening we went to one of the restaurants at the side of the Bosporus, with an amazing view.

The day after we went to visit the highlights of Istanbul in a quick rush trough te city. We saw the Blue mosk, the bazaar, The university of our guide Gözde and the Aya Sophia. Due to limited time we had to limit our visit to these four well known monuments.

This was my Experience on IC. It was one never to forget and toughly live changing!!! I’ll be back next year in brazil.

Today was back to reality as we kicked off for our thesis. Next year will be tough but the finish will be a beautiful one! I will try to keep you up to date of the things happening throughout the year!

Hey,

I’m writing you from the last morning plenary. Around me there are 600 people dancing, screaming,… they all have the same objective but they cover more than 100 countries!!! I don’t know when I wrote you last but i guess it’s some time ago! There is happening so much here, so I’ll tell you the two key stories of the last days.

First one was yesterday morning in a session about the GN initiatives. I realized I’m still very weak in the field of exchange and that it’s actually such a nice field to have some expertise in. We saw different parts of the world present their projects to raise the eXchange numbers, and there were so many we could participate in. I was once again amazed!! And I hope AIESEC EHSAL will be able to participate in some of this projects!

Second one was the Official dinner. We dressed up (it was 30 degrees)a were sweating our ass of in the busses on our way to the venue for the dinner. On this dinner BELGUIM won the UBS excellence award for the WENA region. It’s an award for the realizations of the last year(‘s). It was a wonderful moment to be recognized by the full AIESEC network. It also gave a lot of energy to the new team and all participants of the Belgium delegation. Afterwards we still had a way to hard party but I’m happy I’m in the morning plenary now! BTW: On the cup, our country name was changed into BELGUIM!

Lets head off for the MY aiesec.net presentation

Greetz

Ps: pictures you can find on : http://www.duivenkot.org/pictures/main.php?g2_itemId=25400

AIESEC in the news??

it was not that possitive but rather tipical for belgium.

Sikh met tulband mag Brugs café niet binnen

ma 20/08/07 - In Brugge werd vorige week een sikh geweigerd in een danscafé. De internationale studentenvereniging Aiesec reageert teleurgesteld op het geval van racisme.

Een groep internationale studenten wilde vorige week een avondje stappen in de Brugse binnenstad.

Een van hen, een Indiër, werd in een danscafé geweigerd omdat hij een tulband droeg.

Louise Martens uit Brugge is ondervoorzitter van Aiesec België en zit erg verveeld met de zaak. De avond zelf is beslist geen klacht in te dienen.

De jongen die werd geweigerd, is een sikh. De mannelijke aanhangers van die godsdienst mogen hun haar niet knippen en moeten een tulband dragen.

Hey all,

Today we had our first day of rain!!! But this means also a bit of refreshment (BTW it’s not realy rain, there was water for 10 minutes)

Yesterday we had alumni day and today it was all about learning network. Both very interesting experiences but as I’m sick i can’t enjoy it that much. I try to actively engage in activities but it is difficult to keep focused!! IC is long, maybe to long. After 10 days of conference i feel exhausted but happy I have the opportunity to live this experience.

A short post today cause I have to go for the extension presentation (Rwanda is the extension of Belgium) and afterwards there is WENA party. Hopefully I will survive the next few days

Greetings

Ola,

Saturday we had some  sessions in our personal track, it was cool to meet the people who where doing the same as I was doing but the content of the sessions was rather disappointing, although I had some conversation with other LCP, coming from other realities.

In the afternoon we had sessions about several topics,  the most interesting one for me was the “’I’m an AIESECER campaign” where we learned to describe our feeling of the AIESEC eXPerience.

A quite day, but in the end I was tiered and I was feeling very weak so I went to bed early and decided to give myself a sleep in. I feel much better right now and I’m ready to kick off the second part of the conference. Still for and a half days to go.

Greetings

Hey all,

A quick update from IC.

Today was the developing leaders day (DLD). A day hosted by external faci’s to get to know your leadership style, manner,… It was really powerful to see how we could in an easy way try to improve our way of managing a team, and I’ve a lot to bring home with me.

It was also cool to experience that even a 40 year old person can enjoy the AIESEC spirit.  Our 2 faci’s were dancing, sharing, enjoying together with us for the whole day!!

Afterwards there was a Turkish night planned, which was, and maybe you won’t believe it, the least experience of my IC till now. Everyone was lame and nothing special to do. So we went with a part of the Belgium delegation, and 2 Pakistani’s for a shicha. Those two LCP’s empowered me to once go to their country, it was again an amazing international opportunity.

Have a good night and luckily we have a sleep in tomorrow, I can use it!!!!

Hey all,

Today I have got one of the best AIESEC experiences. Today we had AI transition. The old PAI gave the floor to the new one and they transmitted symbolically the vision for AIESEC  2010. Both team here on stage and were sharing their experiences. It was the most powerful moments I’ve ever lived in this organization. I was almost crying!!!!

Today I also discovered that my AIESEC experience has not ended yet, and cannot end in the end of this year. There is so much more to learn, experience,…  In which direction I want to go I don’t know yet, but I still want to contribute to this organization for more than only my LCP term!!!

We had also the first LCP track today. More than 150 LCP’s from all over the world are present on this IC. It was nice  to get to know some of them and to see that we are all challenging the same issues. In the next day’s there will be way more possibilities to do some exchange of experience.

Tomorrow the Development leaders day will kick off, lets see what this IC can contribute to my personal development.

Greetings and have a good night from Turkey

Dear all,

 
Finally some time to write! The last two days have been really busy. The conference has been started!!!! And it is an amazing experience!!!

 
Day 0:

 
The first day of the conference starts with the opening plenary. You have to imagine a room with 700 people from 100 countries each trying to let everyone remember their country. There was so much energy during the 2 hour during roll call session. People screaming, laughing,… maybe for the new countries even crying!!! I’ve never seen such an amazing and diverse room.

Afterwards we went on to global village (county market) to taste the different kinds of food en do a quick journey around the world. Again we saw amazed people, looking funny, stupid (we had Belgium hair!!!).

Afterwards we attended the opening ceremony with some dances from all  over turkey, speeches from very important persons (even the Meir of Istanbul).

Days 0 was probably the most international and powerful day of my life.

 
Day 1:

 
We got sessions about the basic AIESEC ideas, rather a more absorbing day, where we got a lot of useful and les useful knowledge.  Hopefully we will get some international experience as we are now heading off for the AP party (Asia-pacific) where there will be …. (keep updated)

 Greetings

Hey all,

Just back from the party, the weather is so nice (but way to warm, it’s killing me) we can have our parties outside at the tennis court of the university.

Today was full of sessions about what we can and hopefully will do in the next year. They gave presentation about different opportunities (conferences, projects,…) and we got a clear image what there was to do in the WENA network. I had also the chance to meet with my colleague LCP, which was very cool cause we were able to share our feeling at the moment and we got  immediately connected on all of our issues, although we where only whit five and I hope more lcp will join soon.

Tomorrow the last day of preconference, and then the real IC can kick off, I’m really looking forward to it.

Have a good night

Way to hot greetings

Hey all,

I’ve my first break here at IC, so time to keep you posted.

Traveling:

Traveling to the venue was really a challenging experience. We left Brussels around 20H with the plane, and landed at 2o’clock in the morning Turkish time (GMT+2)  at Ataturk airport. And than, the adventure began.  We were totally lost at the airport as there were no people from AIESEC waiting for us. In the Starbucks (first time in my live) we met some other delegation also waiting for pick up.

Around 4am someone from the organizing team showed up to take us with a bus trip for one hour to the venue (an amazing venue BTW). After a very long extra hour of check in we could finally get in our rooms at 6am!!!! The flight from Brussels to Istanbul took us less time than the transport to our room J

Day -3

This was today, the first day of the conference. After 3 hours of sleep I was feeling ready to meet no one, and sleep another sleep, but apparently we had to start of the sessions, and there were 300 people at breakfast all eager to talk to you. The morning started of very well. Luckily our MCP, Andries took a bit care of me and guided me to the first session (than you mate) .

After I got awake, during the opening of the day, I was ready to start enjoying the conference. We had sessions and I could directly feel the power of the AIESECERS around me. It’s amazing to be here and the feeling I have cannot be put on paper. I had a conversations with people I never met before about the organization where I was committing to for the last 3 year, and it felt like normal. First time since long I could talk about my passion!!!!! I’m so happy to experience this!!!! And above all, these people came from: Peru, Tanzania, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Spain, USA, UK,… (I can still keep typing for some timeJ.

I’m really enjoying my time her, and it is really the right place for me to be right now so I would like to thank all people who gave me the opportunity to be here, and above all those who pushed me to attend this conference.

I’m heading back to sessions right now. I’ll keep you updated.

Overexcited greetings from a tired Pieter