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.