Friday, November 23, 2007

Monday, August 13, 2007

We have a message for you!

After our amaizing team day, we have a really important message for you, check it out:


Friday, August 10, 2007

We decided it

Istanbul, Turkey.


About 2 months ago we started to talk about Turkey. For most of our team their first AIESEC International Congress. Now, it's real...for the second time in history the whole MC Team, but this time together with us two NST members are joining the adventure.

That's not all. Four members from LC Andes are also going to Turkey for a conference that is paralalel with IC, the YouCan conference. In Turkey we'll also meet up with other Colombians and "wanna be" Colombians. We are going to be about 26 Colombians in Turkey. AI members, MC Dominican Republic, MC Puerto Rico, MC Southern Cone, MC Mexico, Global Coordinators, LC members...of course THE MC WALKERS...

Lucas, Nazly and PAtry will be there on Monday. Lore, Maciek and Serge on Friday. Luchy on Saturday.

Colombian AIESECers. We just decided to go, that's why we're going there. Think about it, and decide to go to an IC. ;)

Keep tuned for more Walkers, but at that time FROM TURKEY!!!!

Friday, August 3, 2007

Let's speak in the same terms!

Trough my experience of being National Coordinator i have find useful tips to do on things that happen everyday. Today i'm here to share one that is pretty important and helps me a lot.

It's call like "Let's talk the same language" and the one who show it to me, was Lucas :) . When we're discusing something many times comes into scene the argue part, just because each one has his own point of view or perspective of things; of course both can be true or right it's just they're different, so when we stop, and open our mind and hear the other point of view without putting the own as a wall, and then we say ours, we'll be actually talking in the same terms, in the same language as Lucas said to me, so then we can find a balance, and the conclusion of the discussion just pops out, and each part feels satisfaced.
Normally what happens is: A is saying something, B says something like "that´s wrong, because this or this", then A replies and defend its point of view, and so on, then the discussion torns into an arguing talk, an actully almost everytime, came to the point that A or B just take a deep breath and say something like "OK, why do you say is bla bla", or "Why am i wrong from your point of view" or something like that, in that point we open our mind and hears the other "language", and then comes the "oohhhh" or "aaahhhh i see now" or "ok, now i know why do you say that" and comes the conclusion and everything is OK :)

So the tip here is: when we see we're in a discussions that goes to that point, just make a stop and say "OK, let's talk in the same terms, the same language" and just avoid the argue part :)

It's really helpful keep that in mind when talking to anyone!


That's all, stay tuned :o)

From the IM Corner, Maroko!

Monday, July 30, 2007

I'm so HAPPY :)

Well, as many of you know, my birthday was this past saturday 28th of july and i have to say it was the best birthday ever!! I just wanted to thank all the people who called me or send me an email, it's great read or hear someone happy for you and giving you the best wishes!! :D

Also i want to give some special thanks to the person who is bringing the most beautiful colors to the path i walk, my girlfriend!! She gives me the biggest gift and surprise traveling to Ibague and waking me up on Friday 27th at like 7 am with a big smile next to my bed!!! She had to go back to Medellin on Saturday to be on time for her commitments with @EAFIT, but we celebrate all the friday and party at night.
She travel on Saturday 28th at 6 am, back to Medellin, and i stay all the weekend with my best friend who arrives from Manizales, that was another big gift!! :) He's not an AIESECer, i met him when i was doing the exams and interviews to study at the University of Manizales, and since then we have been like brothers, so he's a really important person to me and it was great having him on Ibague this weekend for my birthday.

That's briefly how was my birthday, my 2 days of birthday :) gotta back to work, just wanted to say thanks to everyone.

Stay tuned, lol! :o)

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Let's not forget WHY we do WHAT we do..

PM NATS: manizales 2007 by Molly Reddy (TRainee in Medellin of PBOX Impacto Social @EIA)...check out original version in @Madison Blog

It was a privilege to attend my first ever national conference in Colombia! However, I'm a little worried, because the U.S. has a lot to live up to after this conference.

Colombia is currently trying to change their global image with a campaign called, "Colombia is passion." I don't know that they could have come up with a more accurate slogan, because I cannot explain to you the passion, spirit, and community that exists here. I also couldn't explain it to them, but I tried to, in the closing night of the conference. It seems normal to them because it's all they've ever known. But I can assure everyone that this spirit is not common, and the only place where I've ever experienced it is in Colombia, I can't even be sure that it exists anywhere else in the world.

I knew the conference was going to be amazing when the first day I was eating lunch with Colombians and a Brazilian and we discussed cultural differences of our countries, all the way down to how we say AIESEC. U.S.- eye-sek, Colombia- ay-ay-saek, Brazil-ay-ay-sek-i (how did that last i sound get there, we're still not really sure)

The conference was fabulous beyond fabulous and probably one of the most inspiring events of my life. I CANNOT wait to get back to Madison because this makes me want to be so much more involved with the LC (Sara Sadek expect an email from me soon :) ) I have acquired so many great ideas here that I am excited to bring back (examples: the newbie entry process of EIA, sending and receiving CEEDS). I have learned so much while I have been here. Experiencing life as a trainee makes me want to get more trainees in Madison! This past semester I remember thinking "Oh I'm a lot younger than the trainees, they probably don't want to talk to me." Living life as a trainee I can guarantee that I want EVERYONE to talk to me, aiesecers and non, you just want the chance to be able to soak up as much of the language and culture as possible.

I had the privilege of transferring from one of the strongest LCs in the U.S. to one of the strongest LCs in Colombia: AIESEC EIA, which won the "best delegation" award at the conference. Through the conference I was put in contact with so many amazing people. EIA has a trainee named Lizi from Brazil right now who is awesome, and the session she did on International Cooperation was wonderful (between that and the conference I am really confused as to why, and sad, that AIESEC US isn't more integrated with AIESEC International). Lizi has been to 15 AIESEC conferences and has been a VP and was LCP last year of her committee, she's only 21! When we were talking she said, "Oh my gosh, you sound like such an AIESECer." (She might not even remember, but I was flattered that she thought that)

I learned a few pretty sweet role calls to bring back to Madison and had the time of my life. My spanish was pretty maxed out by the end of the week because they conducted close to all of their sessions in Spanish, when I'm tired I really can't understand anything.

I wish I could put into words how incredibly inspiring this experience was, but I definitely can't/and didn't do it justice. This probably sounds weird: but as I was laying on the floor with 300 other people who have led completely different lives than me, and 2 who are different but the same (jason and cynthia from NY), listening to Dido, with the lights off and our eyes closed, as people began to say "Nosotros podemos cambiar el mundo" (We can change the world) I was pretty sure in that moment that we are capable of anything.

P.S. Jason and I fulfilled our role of showing Colombians how Estadounidenses party, granted Jason more than I, but Colombians in general drink a LOT less.

P.P.S. If you go on exchange for no other reason then this (I mean not really, but) foreign=sexy. That is not a unique concept to the United States, I'm pretty sure that it exists the world over. Jason definitely wins the award on this one...as even lots of guys seem to want to take pictures with him, but anyways...I was informed that when I was talking during one of the sessions all of the guys who couldn't understand english talked about how sexy I was while I was talking...and for all of those who could understand english, they talked about how sexy I was after I finished talking. I think it's absolutely hilarious because that definitely isn't happening in the U.S. ...and we'll just chalk that up to the fact that everyone is so drawn in by what I'm saying they have no time to think about or discuss my appearance.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

MC Walkers...on the road.. Get to know your MC 0708..

Get to know your MC 0708 of AIESEC in Colombia. They call them MC Walkers.

This is a space we created to share our lives, experiences. And as you know we want you to be closer to us to keep Walking holding hands TOGETHER.