London, Induction Week, Roundabouts, Barcelona and Urban Golf

Wow, it's been quite some time. How things have changed.

This is going to be one of those "compress everything into one big post" things, just to warn you!

A joyous train journey – with all my valued possessions crammed into two very large suitcases – saw me make the move to London on March 7th to embark on the great career.

And it started off pretty great, with a week-long induction welcoming the ten of us into the Business Technology Consultants programme. There was lots of corporate branding, several Vice-Presidents, lots of chocolate and coffee to fuel us and (of course) some great team-building activities. By the end of the week I knew I was in the right place – a very valued business unit and intimate community within Capgemini with loads of opportunity to develop and find my place in a company that is innovating, progressing, growing and leading.

Then the shock of the first assignment as all of us were whisked away to the small town of Telford – roundabout capital of the world – for our first taste of the consultant lifestyle of long train journeys and living in generic hotels… and working long hours on a high profile and very time-critical project for a very big client. It was a lot of fun, and a good chance for us to bond further as a group, within the confines of our generic hotel in our generic business park of course. Although we did make a few notable forays outside, including one to marvel at the very first iron bridge in the world (in a town coincidentally called Ironbridge) and enjoy some fantastic Thai food.

And I spontaneously spent a weekend in or near Barcelona, mainly to piss someone off by missing their phenomenal party, but also to see a whole load of AIESECers who’d come over for Iberoamerica's regional conference. Best moment was arriving at the hotel at midnight and being greeted very loudly by 20 Venezuelans most of whom didn’t know I was coming :-) Great stuff.

They've come a long way. Last year we were less than half that number at the conference, and the AIESEC Venezuela was officially "on alert". So I felt very proud that those two things had turned around and the country is now a full member once again, and to hear about the successes of some of the accounts that I had started. It was really great to be in that atmosphere again, but I also know it was the right decision and it was time to move on.

It was really fun exploring Barcelona – it's a really vibrant city with a very nice lifestyle. I do miss the adventure of life in another country a little. I think it's the uncertainly, not knowing quite what to expect, being surprised by things. That happens less in London.

But it does feel good to be living here. There's a lot going on. I've had a lot of fun doing all those typical touristy things with various visitors from around the world. Last weekend Drew and Lina came to visit. The highlight was definitely Urban Golf. What an idea! Right in the middle of Soho, you can find yourself anywhere in the world playing golf. Naturally, we chose Pebble Beach, California. The idea is you have a big projector screen, and a set of very nice (and real) golf clubs and a bunch of balls to whack right into the screen, where they magically turn into virtual balls in a kind of Wii-like experience but on a much grander and more realistic scale.

At one point Drew did manage to get a ball to rebound off the roof and hurtle towards our table – where it could have caused havoc and only narrowly missed about three glasses. Apparently nobody's been injured "yet". I'd certainly feel much safer if they provided helmets. They should also give you 3D glasses and have a small fan to simulate the fresh air that I think is quite an integral part of the golfing experience. Golf carts would be a plus too. Man, it could be so much better! Anyone else have experiences with unusual sporting locations or novel simulation ideas? Or slightly crazy things to do in London?

Dan and AIESEC. The story.

I'm just about to leave Venezuela. But what was my path in getting here?

Well, in my own words compiled from genuine blog posts over the last 2 years...

Feb 18, 2005 - It all began with an internship (in California)

"YES! Drew and I were on an AIESEC conference call last night to discuss the program of events in the Bay Area. [Get Golden in Yosemite was the best]. So we're doing it. It's going to happen in April. And it's going to be awesome. Really awesome. We're going to invite AIESECers from all over the States - this will be a national event."

Sep 23, 2005 - My first Information Session (in Edinburgh)

"So hopefully will get past the screening process and allowed to join in on all the fun! I hope I can play my part in developing the LC and being part of the AIESEC experience."

Nov 25, 2005 - My first ever conference

"Just back from an thoroughly fun AIESEC conference in Belfast.

The vision is that by giving people the opportunity to work abroad, people understand more about different cultures and turn into lovely well-rounded individuals with all the neccessary skills for today's global marketplace.

Yes, it's quite idealistic but I think it is a great concept and you get to meet loads of people, develop professional skills and learn about all sorts of different cultures.

There was also a great deal of dancing (AIESEC has a thing about dancing)"

Feb 12, 2006 - Leadership Development Seminar

"They were a fantastic 4 days. 4 days of intense AIESEC experience. Motivation, emotion, learning, meeting new people and voting in the new national committee.

I am going to raise a traineeship. And change one person's life. And in turn, even in just a small way, the lives of everyone they know and meet. That is what makes AIESEC worth doing. That is why I am doing it and love it.

But I really think I want more than that. All this needs thought. A few days for things to settle in. So we'll leave it at that for now."

Mar 30, 2006 - I wanted more

"Still no idea what I'm doing next year - got lots of international AIESEC positions to take a look at."

Jun 5, 2006 - And I'm on an MC!

"So, what's next? Well, as Declan is constantly keen to put it, "they've shipped me off to a charity". Yes, I'm off to work for AIESEC for a year. After several applications to different countries (many of them possibly a bit last minute) I finally spent a good amount of time on one of them, got some amazing references together and got the job of MCVP External Relations in AIESEC Venezuela.

The job will be excellent - leading an entire country's AIESEC presence within the national team - big national accounts, organising events, managing strategies for marketing, branding, alumni relations, etc. The country looks absolutely stunning. Yes, it's a bit politically and economically unstable (it's ok, I excel at staying out of trouble!) but it will be such an incredible cultural experience, such a difference from here.

It will be challenging, it is a bit scary and I'm still not quite sure what to expect but I am sure it will be a fun and very experience-filled year!

You've sometimes just got to jump into these things, and this is the time for it!"

---

I quite like that line in the last post "it's ok, I excel at staying out of trouble!" - I think I did actually know what to expect in Venezuela :-)

And were the rest of my expectations met?

• big national accounts - Yep!
• organising events - Too many!
• managing strategies for marketing, branding, alumni relations - some
• country looks absolutely stunning - Absolutely. More than words can say!
• politically and economically unstable - Oh yes :-)
• incredible cultural experience - certainly, and very difficult at times
• such a difference from here - In so many ways I'm just a bit scared of going back now
• challenging - Extremely
• scary - Petrifying at times
• fun - Lots of
• experience-filled - More than I EVER could have imagined

So - sad to be leaving amazing people, friends, projects, things-not-done behind...

... but overall extremely happy with the whole experience and very excited about seeing lots of old friends and moving on to the next phase of my life!

Thanks so so much to all the special people who were part of this incredible year!

P.S. Join me in El Leon on Tuesday at 8pm to arrange your next trip to Europe, and mine to Venezuela, and help me say "goodbye for now" to Venezuela!

A fuego lento

In Venezuela almost anything passes for a taxi.

It was a very bad decision to get into this one.

Drew and I felt we needed to make a slightly comical video to document what happened, then I added a slideshow of my year in Venezuela.



Here is the sequence of events:

1. We cram 6 people into the worst-looking vehicle in Caracas (me, Drew and Steve from Scotland, Risho from Slovakia and Branko from Maracaibo / Serbia).

2. The very dodgily wired-up radio starts to make strange crackling sounds and generally fail

3. The driver pulls off the freeway as the car begins to fill with smoke

4. We discover that none of the doors except the drivers can be opened from the inside

This is the fucking scary I'm moments from death moment.

5. Steve (in the front) manages to open his door and him and Branko escape, Drew climbs out the window and the driver opens my door to start putting the fire under his seat in front of me out.

6. Risho and I push past him as he's taking his t-shirt off to put out the fire.

All this time there's a fucking police man standing across the road by his car talking on his mobile phone to his girlfriend or something. Risho and I shout that the car's on fire and we need help. He doesn't seem at all concerned. Then the taxi driver - quite nastily burned by now - runs over to get his help.

But by now the car is fully on fire and it's too late. We stay and watch as liquid burning oil drips under the car, the windows shatter and the gas tank explodes. All minutes after we'd escaped.

It is extremely sobering to realise just how easy it is to die.

As you can see, I was very happy to be alive!

And from now on, I'm checking the doors of EVERY car I even think about getting in. And I am only using taxis built in the last ten years.

What an end to Steve and Drew's trip, and my year in Venezuela.

That life-consuming thing that I love

First, let's apologise for the rather sporadic nature of posting. Definitely a case of having way too much going on.

Henceforth to sum up the last two months!

-

AXLDS in Mexico. My first international AIESEC conference - 20 countries worth of passionate, amazing people filling a room with spirit and excitement and working together towards the same goals.

The global village on the first day was an unbelievable whirlwind of culture, of strange foods, of joyous peanut butter, of Mariachi bands and gleeful dancing locals. Utter amazement at being part of such an incredible spectacle in the stunningly beautiful city of Guanajuato.

Working with leadership teams from around the Americas (and Spain) and realising that we share so many of the same challenges and problems, and also there are just incredible solutions out there. The power of sharing is incredible. The feeling of connecting and working together - something beautiful and magical. Seeing the impact AIESEC is making on people, on society.

Talking to all the US delegates who had heard the buzz of Get Golden. Roll calls at 5am in elevators. Sleep as a mere illusion of the mind. Making incredible friendships. Meeting people for the first time in real life. Being inspired.

And Mexico! Spicy food. Running up pyramids with ominous clouds set to explode upon us. The Pacific Ocean. Tequila. Long bus journeys. Strange things boiling away in big pots. Chasing muggers through the metro station. Churros and Starbucks.

Needless to say, I came back with 9 other people all filled with boundless enthusiasm, dedication and a determination to take the needed action.

My part in that has been to get damn serious about building the relationships that we need. And there are some great things very far into the pipeline now. I am not leaving AIESEC Venezuela without its sustainability.

-

Next up was our national conference. I had the huge responsibility of being the chair of this event. Bringing everything together, setting the mood, the tone, the spirit. Being in charge of conference magic was how I put it. This was very enjoyable, and at times hugely challenging. I think I did a reasonable job of it. The sugarcubes were certainly overflowing :-) (little messages people write to each other at the end of conferences. yes it's all a bit fluffy)

This conference was a success, but I cannot take credit for that. It is because of the members - something amazing has happened to them. They're AIESECers! I think as an MC we have actually shifted something, created something. And that makes me so incredibly happy!

-

Right now I'm in Barquisimeto where it is a little bit too hot but nevertheless we are forming the ultimate ER team. Tomorrow we're hitting two companies, Tuesday two more. With "new" members so full of ideas and hungry for knowledge and ready to get the results. I love it. Training in Spanish is awesome :-)

Today I ate Chinese, some incredibly Guanabana jelly, and a delicious Kebab-type thing with falafel and meat. And I drank lots and lots of water, for the two most common reasons.

You will notice that AIESEC has now completely consumed my life, but I don't care. I haven't got long left. Which is extremely sad and very exciting at the same time.

MEXICO!!!!

Very spicy Chorizo tacos

We are actually in Mexico.

I cannot believe it.

Right now I'm surrounded by people from all over the Americas at 6am waiting to check into our really nice and Mexican-looking hotel. All the people from the US know about (and love) Get Golden. I love being a hero :-)

Had some delicious and very spicy chorizo tacos for breakfast / dinner and they have Starbucks here!

Well, now it's time to enter the conference bubble...

The wonderful world of Dan

Miss World 2005, Me, Miss World 2006

I think this is the first time this has happened.

I’m sitting in my flat at a lost end for what to do.

I think the problem is the internet has turned off, so all access to media, work and those so-important time-wasting activities is cut off.

So, time for an update from the wonderful world of Dan.

In December I received a brilliant Christmas present – a can of Guinness Draft from a visiting AIESECer from Ireland. I thought about enjoying it at the time, but wanted to wait for a special occasion. So I said to myself: right, I am only allowed to drink this once I sign a major sponsorship deal for AIESEC Venezuela.

It turns out these things take time. It came very close with getting partners for our national conference, but in the end one deal fell through and others only resulted in product donations or participation without sponsorship. Good, but not good enough.

But now the Guinness has been liberated! A fantastic organisation called CEVEDES, part of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development are running a project with AIESEC and sponsoring one member of our national team to go to our regional conference in Mexico. Finally, the great meter of ER income has some blue ink on it (signifying income from sources other than exchange). The Guinness can be consumed.

Of course given the date it has to wait - just a little bit longer - for St Patrick’s Day is just around the corner.

In other news, I’m feeling very patriotic at the moment after setting foot on British soil for the first time in 7 months. The Embassy was almost I had hoped for – with the BBC humming away in the background, British newspapers and a nice donation of educational materials and really cool British flag badges that everyone wants. I was surprised not to be offered a cup of tea though. That situation has got desperate, with only 7 bags of Tetley and 2 of Assam remaining.

Back to my slightly confused national identity, after watching The Last King of Scotland (very good, Babel was too) I decided to use one of my national identities more to my advantage. It works! I managed to save a ridiculous $70 they were asking us for to get into a quite fancy club in San Ignacio, just by saying I was from Scotland and this was my first time in Venezuela.

It’s really shocking that people are paying more to get into a club than families just a few hundred metres away are earning to live on for about a week. Every now and then something like this highlights to me the huge division that exists in Venezuela.

But back to good stuff - I brought the good word of Dan’s pancakes to Caracas a couple weeks ago, enjoyed by all – including some trees in our garden. Got a bit of a pancake addiction now. They’re so versatile!

Oh, and yesterday, at an event launching Accion Solidaria’s HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, I met two Miss Venezuelas!

Almost all my objectives in Venezuela are complete!

Hopefully the next update will be from Mexico...

The carrot of AIESEC.

The carrot of AIESEC.

I came home this evening and a very excited soon to be trainee off to california this summer had put this up. Tada! She's one of us now... Suzie you've been blogged!

Hello!!

Balls to that!

I'm back! Time to get back on with the old blogging.

Lots has happened since LDS. Lots and lots!

There was the epic last 2 weeks of dissertation-writing. This was some serious work and some seriously weird sleeping patterns! Impromptu flat meet-ups in the kitchen at 6am for cups of tea were rather too frequent. Anyway, that was all done on March 1st in a glorious fury of last-minute paper-wastage and bargaining with binding machines.

A weight was lifted. But not for long. There suddenly seemed to be a mountain of coursework to get through. So I very smartly took a swift holiday to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day followed by another to Caithness (about as far north as you can go in Scotland) with my family.

Becoming Irish...

Dublin was excellent fun. Two days of sightseeing in the snain (rain and snow alternating very fast, totally different from sleet ok?!??) and mostly just being amazed by Guinness at the brewery. 10 million pints a day! 19 different types! And all made from a closely-guarded "essence" locked in a safe at St James' Gate. I would say it is one of the best cities to visit as a tourist. The tour bus drivers are so entertaining. Ours was singing away to us for most of the time and just cracking jokes and making fun of people. Brilliant. They have an amazing pancake place (we had 4 in 24 hours. mmmm), an amazing bagel place and some quite good tourist attractions of course too. And the bars and pubs. Cafe en Seine and The Porterhouse (h2g2) win best pubs. We even at Anchor Steam Beer (from San Francisco) in the Porterhouse.

Exhibit A: My Hat

We also met loads of really cool AIESECers and Nomadlifers from around the world - lots of new faces and some old (sorry Jure!)! Merve - hope you've managed to get the face paint off! Dom and Kevin - very grateful for you letting us stay, but get some heating! Danijela - my hat was last seen on you at 01:48:23 and I want it back! Alice and Jennifer - look forward to actually seeing you in Edinburgh next time! Jure - you're dancing is stunning. You are a legend. Calgary - thanks for organising it all. This is beginning to sound like some kind of Oscar speech. Oh well. Colleen - sorry I was meant to hug you but you ran off to jail or something. Karola - sorry for scaring you by trying to replicate Jure's dancing! Johan and Saki - it was cool to see you again after so long! Oh, and Connie - thanks so much for the stickers!!! Whew (a new improved spelling of Phew). The Nomad Life is quite something. Look forward to seeing you all again in the future!!

Oh yeah, prior to Dublin was the big joint birthday celebration and Pi day!! Had an ace party in Beluga with 8 different flavours of pie I believe.

Custard built directly into the pie. Genius.

Roz - thanks for bringing pie too! Sorry to all staff of Beluga for all those balls flying around!

Mum and Dad!

Holiday up north north north with family was really nice too. I quite enjoyed sitting on a train for 8 hours each way watching the beautiful Scottish scenery fly by. And having all 5 Cunninghams in one house for a few days was brilliant - good walks, good food, good wine and I think we managed very well in the enclosed space! Except all my clothes smell of peat now!


Now, Uni is so almost over. Things are going to be changing. Only one hand-in left which feels so so good. Lots of revision to be done. Still no idea what I'm doing next year - got lots of international AIESEC positions to take a look at. Also, party-planning for our Regional Transition Conference is in mine and Declan's hands so that will be lots of fun. Heeheehee.

That'll do for now. Very well done if you managed to read all this! Thanks!

Someone called Kirsty says hi. Apparently more people will read this if I put that in. If you are indeed reading this because of her saying hi, please be so kind to leave a comment so she can feel important.

Yo Diggity!

Yo Diggity!

Word up the jams, funk-packer. What's the jive on the rumble tank?

Jack up the jambonnaise on my fod-up deck/

Don't stretch the roolz or i'll stretch your neck/

I'm cookin' it up like a jock of da murda food/

A fat monk-jive from the streets of the Burglahood



- DJ 'Ham, K-Tizzle, T-Funk & Jam-Bumpz

No grapes, but LDS was awesome.

I am enjoying some very nice grapes right now. I feel like I haven't eaten any fruit all weekend and these are just the thing. As well as that, I've, in the last few hours experienced walking outside, in fresh air with people and cars and things around. This has all been rather refreshing after spending 4 days in a hotel without leaving until today. But they were a fantastic 4 days. 4 days of intense AIESEC experience. Motivation, emotion, learning, meeting new people and voting in the new national committee for AIESEC UK 2006/07, at the Leadership Development Seminar. It feels so good to be part of something so big that means so much to so many people. The sheer passion of all these people (mostly new members) wanting to do things in AIESEC; make a contribution; make a difference.

After every conference I come away with the feeling that AIESEC is truly great. It actually changes the lives of people, one at a time. It makes an impact on people. On trainees, on members and on companies. And I think everyone at the conference understands that and believes in themselves to make things happen in AIESEC. And we are all capable of it. The feeling of talking to a company, raising a meeting, meeting a trainee at the airport, forming friendships, realizing things about people and the world. These are all amazing feelings that can be achieved through putting hard work into AIESEC. And I want to put in that hard work and achieve those things. It is all possible, it is all easy and it is all going to happen. I am going to raise a traineeship. And change one person's life. And in turn, even in just a small way, the lives of everyone they know and meet. That is what makes AIESEC worth doing. That is why I am doing it and love it.

Now of course I am still feeling the conference buzz, which will slowly fade but I hope my passion for it will continue to be fuelled by thinking back to the things I've learned and emotions I've experienced at this conference.

So, I am going to work damn hard in the incoming exchange team, going to sow the seeds for the Salaam Project in Edinburgh (addressing the tensions between the cultures of UK and the Middle East by exchange between the regions). But I really think I want more than that. My time in AIESEC Edinburgh, as a member, will come to an end when I finish my degree in May/June. It will leave a gap in my life. Yes, everything will be changing at that time. But I don't think I'll want to let go of AIESEC. I think I've got so much more to give to it and so much more to get out of it. So yes, I will do something over the summer - probably go and work on a project in another AIESEC committee somewhere in the world. Then I could just go get a job, start a career (but still give back to AIESEC at least in a small way as an alumni). But I really don't know if that will be enough either. All this needs thought. A few days for things to settle in. So we'll leave it at that for now.

P.S. Quickly a thank you to all involved. The amazing Organizing Committee (esp Laura), the MC, the new MC who are going to be amazing, the companies who came to talk to us, our international facilitators, the candidates who just didn't quite make it this time, all the brilliant delegates. You all made it fantastic. We are all going to do great things.

BEANS!

Just back from an thoroughly fun AIESEC conference in Belfast. Er, actually, when I say "just" it was Monday but the week's gone by fairly quick with all this late night coursework.

For anyone who doesn't know what this thing is that I am becoming increasingly drawn into, AIESEC is a massive student organisation that sets up exchanges for students to work abroad. It is the world's largest student-run organisation with a presence in around 90 countries. They're the ones who looked after me in California :-) The vision is that by giving people the opportunity to work abroad, people understand more about different cultures and turn into lovely well-rounded individuals with all the neccessary skills for today's global marketplace. These are the people who are going to shape tomorrow's world so by increasing their understanding of the world we hope to gradually make it a better place.

Yes, it's quite idealistic but I think it is a great concept and you get to meet loads of people, develop professional skills and learn about all sorts of different cultures. It was our regional conference and my first AIESEC conference in Britain last weekend, and my first trip to Northern Ireland. Naturally, I loved it. I've come away from it really inspired and motivated to do great things in AIESEC. There were some absolutely amazing people there - incredibly enthusiastic people who have done huge things in the organization and passed on a wealth of knowledge and experience to us.

There was also a great deal of dancing (AIESEC has a thing about dancing), an amazing concept called Instant Theatre (Mermaids marrying Aardvarks in the Underwater Kingdom of Hull) and many silly costumes (very silly in some cases, like mine!) Presentations will never be the same again, unless water pistols, dances, role-play and jokes about Hull are included in sufficient quantities!

So - coming away with an increased passion for AIESEC, loads of confidence in what I'm doing in the organization (raising some traineeships in Edinburgh!), a greater feeling of integration wtihin the region and some excellent skills to apply. Fantastic.

AIESEC, University, The Founder of the Web...

It's all just too much!

I sprang out of bed bright and early on Tuesday morning for the return to University. After the neccessary shower, coffee (from my shiny new coffee maker yey), orange juice and waking a very hungover Thom from the dead, the three of us headed on our merry way down to the infamous Kings Buildings (where they ship off all the Science and Engineering students to make sure they don't alarm the Arts students). Some were more merry than others, notably me flashing my camera with everything and documenting the whole malarky. Thomas was notably less merry thanks to his over-merriness last night which resulted in a monumental rant about the grumpy old man downstairs, now dubbed Mr Spottiswoode as he seems to be under the impression he owns this street.

So far he has complained to us on three occasions already! The first time was for me "causing a disturbance" by quite reasonably moving in at a very reasonable time of day, the second time for Thom playing his guitar very reasonably and the third for Thom for "slamming" the door to our flat (i.e. closing it). His hobbies appear to consist of complaining, putting up little signs with regulations on them, plumbing, sweeping the hallway, vandalising people's bikes left maliciously in said hallway, complaining about that then sweeping the hallway again just to get him in the mood for some good old complaining.

Anyway, yes, University. It is good. It's quite exciting being back, choosing courses, ready to get stuck in to it all and so on. Should be some fun stuff this year - more lego robots, computer graphics, very advanced databases, neuroscience, etc. It is rather nice living the student lifestyle again, although the pressures of (actual) work seem to be trying to take up all my time (but I'm not letting them).

Today I went to see a talk by Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the world wide web and head of the W3C. So a pretty important chap to all us Computer Scientists, and everyone really. A very enthusiastic and entertaining speaker with all sorts of ideas about the future of the web and more precisely the "symantic web". The idea is a lot like the world wide web but instead of linking documents together, data itself is described and linked up in a structured way across many different domains - scientific research, e-commerce, entertainment, mapping, calendars, history, recipes, what you like to watch on TV, who you know - everything will be described and then we can ask really interesting questions about the whole lot and get information at incredibly detailed levels. For example you could read a scientific paper, trace this back to the exact experimental conditions used: when, where, how it was performed - even things the experimenter did not think about - then use the raw data yourself in some other kind of analysis. Or you could walk into a restaurant and your phone would tell the ordering system your dietry preferences enabling them to serve up a menu specific to you, then maybe you could find out exactly what had gone in to your food, where it was made right back to the field it was grown in and the conditions at the time. You can see there is a huge wealth of possibilities when we start linking all this data together and using/analyzing it in unexpected or unforeseen ways. We're clearly a long way off from all of this but things are beginning to happen with web services, RDF and all those buzzwords. It should all be quite interesting.

Now, my third topic of the day: AIESEC. Declan and I found out who the blue man is today!! It was the introductory meeting of AIESEC Edinburgh. It all started in the traditional AIESEC manner: lecture theatre, dimmed lights, loud music and a swooshy powerpoint presentation. Then there was form-filling in aplenty, them seeming to want to know our entire life histories and previous ten phone numbers. It was a lot like filling in a job application form, but of course there was loads to write about what with all the wonderful AIESEC experiences I've had. So hopefully will get past the screening process and allowed to join in on all the fun! After all that stuff we all headed to the pub to get to know everyone. They seem like a really nice bunch, and there looks to be a lot of interest in the society so I'm looking forward to being "back" in AIESEC again this year. Yey!! I'm so happy they're a proper LC!! It seems they aren't quite as well-known (or financed) as AIESEC US and could do with improving their visibility in the eyes of local companies. I hope I can play my part in developing the LC and being part of the AIESEC experience. Oh, I'm beginning to sound like them. The brainwashing has once again taken effect! :-)

Looks like it's going to be a fun (and busy) year...

Does AIESEC Edinburgh exist?

As part of my "extended lunch break" today I went with Declan to fight my way through crowds of freshers at the Society Fair today. This is the part of Fresher's week where all the societies at Edinburgh University try and lure people in with free sweets and so on. It was absolutely packed, full of a mix of bright-eyed, slightly hungover and slightly lost-looking first year students. There are a lot of societies at Edinburgh - pretty much one for anything you could think of - religions, cultures, big student movements and every hobby or pastime under the sun. Among the obscurities this year was the BBQ Society. I asked them what they do during the winter. You guessed it. They BBQ. They want to move away from just burgers and bangers, maybe try something like fish. It's all about the food apparently.

But the main purpose of the trip was to find out if AIESEC Edinburgh actually exist and were present at the fair. And they were!! With a big banner, lots of posters and a guy in a bright orange T-Shirt (so much cooler than the San Jose AIESEC T-Shirts I must say). I was so pleased I forgot to introduce myself to the guy. They are actually decently organized, with about 30 members and something like 10 incoming and outgoing trainees each year. This is good news, because it means we don't have to take over the thing and run it ourselves (although I kind of would have liked that too). But I will definitely be getting involved in as big a way as I can. Introductory meeting's next Thursday. Can't wait to bring some Bay Area spirit to AIESEC Edinburgh! I'm sure there's so much more they can be doing what with all the other cultural societies at Edinburgh, work abroad programmes and so on. Some strategic partnerships methinks.

Looks like I'm going to have a lot on my plate this year though. There's an unbelievable amount to be done at work (especially in the run up to Christmas) and I need to get moving on my Uni project (as well as all the regular Uni stuff). I hope there's still some time for fun. And eating and sleeping :-)

Potterow tonight to pretend we are back in first year! Then it's Big Steve's birthday in Glasgow tomorrow.

Went to see Me and You and Everyone We Know at the Cameo the other day. Very funny. Go see it.

Got Golden!!

another group picture

Wow. What an incredible weekend. After months of preperation, "debating" and a fair amount of stress we managed to get a fantastic mix of 74 AIESECers up to Yosemite for a soon-to-be legendry week.

It was an incredible time and I want to thank everyone who attended it and made it was a success. Especially those who came from out of state. You guys really rock. Thanks too to the rest of the guys who helping with organizing it - Marco, Drew, Andrew, Big Steve, Wee Steve.

To my car sharing team (Kenneth, Wee Steve, Helen and sometimes Jenny and Marco) thank you for providing such good entertainment!

We really could not have asked for this weekend to go better. The feedback I've been getting back from everyone is very much appreciated and it seems like everyone is still buzzing from the weekend.

Photos from everyone are slowly taking over Flickr so have a look at the best of the best:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/getgolden/pool/

Some things I learned at the weekend:

- Trying to boil water for spaghetti for 50 people isn't easy
- Mosquitoes kill
- When someone says the water will be 70 farenheit, they are most likely lying
- Helen should never be allowed to drive a jet-ski
- Wearing expensive sunglasses while jet-skiing is just stupid
- Smors are awesome (thanks Cortney)
- Peppermint schnappes and chocolate milk tastes pretty good, but schnappes does not do good things to the trunk of a car
- How windmills work
- It is somehow possible to teach people to ceilidh dance by headlight in the woods

Thanks again to everyone who came. Some great new friendships were formed and the memories of this weekend will last a long long time.

If we've inspired people to hold a Get Golden 2006 (and I think we have) I want to be there!!

Hello Nomadlife!

Hi everyone!

I am a trainee in the San Francisco Bay Area, from Scotland/England (depending on who I'm talking to), working for Sun Microsystems for a whopping entire year!

The lovely people in Minnesota introduced me to Nomadlife, and I've been writing a blog for a few months now so I thought I might as well stick it up on this excellent community you've got going.

So here I am. I'll be transferring all my old posts from Livejournal to this blog so you can read a bit about what I've been up to over the last few weeks/months.

This weekend (tomorrow): my first SCUBA diving experience in the ocean. Stay tuned for tales of my adventures under the sea!

Get Golden 2005

It's on.

April 22nd-24th.

Yosemite National Park.

The biggest Bay Area AIESEC event to date. Book your flights now!!

(ideally plan to arrive in the Bay Area on Thursday evening, or anytime Frid