We just received our business cards today and my heart is broken!
The colors were totally wrong and AIESEC in Egypt is the "International Platform for young paople to discover and develop their potential"
GRRR - I am sooo Pissed!!
So now we can't hand out those ones :S - how can i be on the global communications team and have the WRONG LOGO!
It's like having a phone that says Mokia, or going to Pizza Hot and MacDonaaalds.
I am sad :(
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Friday, August 26, 2005
Live from India I
So I am Finally in INDIA!!
YAAY!
So we left Egypt Tuesday night to Amaan, where your 21 hour transit became a 25 hour transit!!
Luckily Royal Jordanian Airlines were Angels and gave us a hotel! We got to tour the city for 3 hours. Jordanians were really nice to us, and some of them were really hot!!
In the Airport we waited for like 5 hours for our plane since it was delayed so we spent our time singing, and entertaining/annoying (however u wana look at it) our fellow passangers!
Surprizingly there were many Israeli's in Jordan - we sat next to quite a few - chatted with them for a while.
We also talked to a friendly indian woman who was surprized at how happy and jolly we were despite of that delay. She of course did not know how much we had been through to get to india!
SO after a long plane ride - not interesting at all, no turbulences at all - much to my dimay!
We arrive at the Airport and again surprisingly the Congress Committee IS ACTUALLY WAITING FOR US!! yaaay!! good job there boys!
We exchanged all our money and walked around with humungous stacks of money - IT FELT GREAT!!
My first surpize was that people drive on the other side of the road, it totally slipped my mind. I realize that i cam totally unprepared for this country, i had no time.
The weird thing is that all those cows in the street did not strike me as odd at all. I didn't notice them untill someone pointed them out.
when i looked outside my window it felt like i am still in Egypt, but in the smaller poorer cities like banha and the oasis and those places.
The women in their sari's are really cute, i think i may get one!
I slept for most of everything in the trip - in the hotel, on the plane, on the floor waiting for the bus, on the bus! and everyone was soo jealous of me. Comon i haven't slept in ages - i need some sleep sometime.
Indian time is worse than Egyptian time! can you imagine that?! the bus was meant to be leave at 1:30 and it left at 3:00!! in egypt you'd be 30 mins late, and hour tops - but 1.5?!
so you ask indians how long does the bus ride take and they say 3 to 5 hours! 3 to 5 hours?!! it's either 3 3and a half 4 4 and a half or five!! not from 3 to 5?! i found that funny.
I was talking to one indian frriend a minute ago and he is in AIESEC Switzerland now - amit
and he went to visit his family. so i asked him how far away they are from here he said 8 to 10 hours!! so i HAD to laugh!! 2 hours approximations are funny! so he commented " oh well i guess i am back on indian timing haha"
Now the conference site is breath taking!! it's huge! and very nice. The rooms are really nice with everything you can think of. Also there are gardens, pools and a beautiful scenery.
There are also monkeys!! Today while attedning one of the sessions i glanced out of the window and saw a monkey walking around. Quite interesting. On my window door it says do not open as there are monkeys outside. Now that was a surprize!
The food is okay - a bit too spiciy for my taste but bearable.
Sofar things are great!
that's it for now!
YAAY!
So we left Egypt Tuesday night to Amaan, where your 21 hour transit became a 25 hour transit!!
Luckily Royal Jordanian Airlines were Angels and gave us a hotel! We got to tour the city for 3 hours. Jordanians were really nice to us, and some of them were really hot!!
In the Airport we waited for like 5 hours for our plane since it was delayed so we spent our time singing, and entertaining/annoying (however u wana look at it) our fellow passangers!
Surprizingly there were many Israeli's in Jordan - we sat next to quite a few - chatted with them for a while.
We also talked to a friendly indian woman who was surprized at how happy and jolly we were despite of that delay. She of course did not know how much we had been through to get to india!
SO after a long plane ride - not interesting at all, no turbulences at all - much to my dimay!
We arrive at the Airport and again surprisingly the Congress Committee IS ACTUALLY WAITING FOR US!! yaaay!! good job there boys!
We exchanged all our money and walked around with humungous stacks of money - IT FELT GREAT!!
My first surpize was that people drive on the other side of the road, it totally slipped my mind. I realize that i cam totally unprepared for this country, i had no time.
The weird thing is that all those cows in the street did not strike me as odd at all. I didn't notice them untill someone pointed them out.
when i looked outside my window it felt like i am still in Egypt, but in the smaller poorer cities like banha and the oasis and those places.
The women in their sari's are really cute, i think i may get one!
I slept for most of everything in the trip - in the hotel, on the plane, on the floor waiting for the bus, on the bus! and everyone was soo jealous of me. Comon i haven't slept in ages - i need some sleep sometime.
Indian time is worse than Egyptian time! can you imagine that?! the bus was meant to be leave at 1:30 and it left at 3:00!! in egypt you'd be 30 mins late, and hour tops - but 1.5?!
so you ask indians how long does the bus ride take and they say 3 to 5 hours! 3 to 5 hours?!! it's either 3 3and a half 4 4 and a half or five!! not from 3 to 5?! i found that funny.
I was talking to one indian frriend a minute ago and he is in AIESEC Switzerland now - amit
and he went to visit his family. so i asked him how far away they are from here he said 8 to 10 hours!! so i HAD to laugh!! 2 hours approximations are funny! so he commented " oh well i guess i am back on indian timing haha"
Now the conference site is breath taking!! it's huge! and very nice. The rooms are really nice with everything you can think of. Also there are gardens, pools and a beautiful scenery.
There are also monkeys!! Today while attedning one of the sessions i glanced out of the window and saw a monkey walking around. Quite interesting. On my window door it says do not open as there are monkeys outside. Now that was a surprize!
The food is okay - a bit too spiciy for my taste but bearable.
Sofar things are great!
that's it for now!
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Salaam re-cap
So after the second year of the Salaam Program running, I have concluded that I may like the old salaam trainees better, but I have learned more from the new ones.
I learned more about my country, about AIESECers and about Americans.
The most interesting thing was the Jewish/Israeli issue that came up, as we had a few trainees that were either Jewish or Israeli.
Since I communicated with State Security about our situation I have realized that our government is not as closed minded as I thought it would be. No extra special procedures have been done for the Israeli and Jewish trainees. It was the same old thing. They were also more flexible with them going to Israel and the Westbank then previous years. One interesting comment I received when we informed them that they will be going to the Westbank, they said " westbank is Israel"
But in a nutshell, things went smoothly. My only problem was that most trainees were not very helpful in the process of communicating their travel schedule - which is a mean for us to guarantee their safety and to keep the officials updated about our activities to maintain their support.(that needed to be done for all trainees regardless of origin, religion or nationality).
The other interesting thing was seeing and hearing how people react to meeting and dealing with Jews or Israel's - it was just like I expected. And it proved that educated people are not necessarily cultured people.
Mixing the word Jewish and Israeli did not only happen with us Egyptians - but it happened when the trainees threw a Jewish dinner serving Jewish food. Sadly I couldn't attend as I was visiting my parents.
I wonder though - is there Muslim food? or Christian food? How come I have never tasted them !!
I have interacted very little with the Americans here, mostly because whenever I visited them I felt welcome by only a couple of individuals. But this little interaction gave me a better insight of what Americans are like.
Last year I thought they were amazing - and I was dying to go visit all of them in the US.
This year gave me a more realistic view.
I learned more about my country, about AIESECers and about Americans.
The most interesting thing was the Jewish/Israeli issue that came up, as we had a few trainees that were either Jewish or Israeli.
Since I communicated with State Security about our situation I have realized that our government is not as closed minded as I thought it would be. No extra special procedures have been done for the Israeli and Jewish trainees. It was the same old thing. They were also more flexible with them going to Israel and the Westbank then previous years. One interesting comment I received when we informed them that they will be going to the Westbank, they said " westbank is Israel"
But in a nutshell, things went smoothly. My only problem was that most trainees were not very helpful in the process of communicating their travel schedule - which is a mean for us to guarantee their safety and to keep the officials updated about our activities to maintain their support.(that needed to be done for all trainees regardless of origin, religion or nationality).
The other interesting thing was seeing and hearing how people react to meeting and dealing with Jews or Israel's - it was just like I expected. And it proved that educated people are not necessarily cultured people.
Mixing the word Jewish and Israeli did not only happen with us Egyptians - but it happened when the trainees threw a Jewish dinner serving Jewish food. Sadly I couldn't attend as I was visiting my parents.
I wonder though - is there Muslim food? or Christian food? How come I have never tasted them !!
I have interacted very little with the Americans here, mostly because whenever I visited them I felt welcome by only a couple of individuals. But this little interaction gave me a better insight of what Americans are like.
Last year I thought they were amazing - and I was dying to go visit all of them in the US.
This year gave me a more realistic view.
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Life - or something like it
So lately I figured out why people disappear once they start work.
I have now slipped back into my much anticipated routine of working from 9am till 10 pm!
with AIESEC and Ericsson there's always something to do.
Lately things have been quite crazy though. Too much work and no play!
I am in desperate need of a good laugh - but neither kaitlin, nor shady nor poo are here.
I am looking for my own place.
Also I am planning to go to India next week, still having trouble with the Airline as the Travel agent screwed us over big time.
It's voting time in Egypt, and sadly if I go to India I will not get to vote, as I will be missing my First presidential Elections and that means I have to wait for 6 more years for the next one.
I do not know what I want more - go to India, or vote!
But since my vote won't be counted, I guess India is the priority.
I would also be missing my graduation - which takes place on the 31st of August. So that's for the cap and gown I will never see. It would have been nice to be there, especially since my name will be the second name called in my class :) would have been a nice memory
Sometimes I think AIESEC asks too much of you.
Cairo is a chaos, I finally know my way a little better and can get myself to work without getting lost.
After IC I am planning to go have a retreat in Hurghada in September. Probably gona go solo for that one!
This summer I have become Tan-less! I have not been to the beach once! But I am now allergic to the crowd, which makes the beach a no-go for me.
That's all from louly's corner - now I will go back to my mega-ass to do list for the day.
I have now slipped back into my much anticipated routine of working from 9am till 10 pm!
with AIESEC and Ericsson there's always something to do.
Lately things have been quite crazy though. Too much work and no play!
I am in desperate need of a good laugh - but neither kaitlin, nor shady nor poo are here.
I am looking for my own place.
Also I am planning to go to India next week, still having trouble with the Airline as the Travel agent screwed us over big time.
It's voting time in Egypt, and sadly if I go to India I will not get to vote, as I will be missing my First presidential Elections and that means I have to wait for 6 more years for the next one.
I do not know what I want more - go to India, or vote!
But since my vote won't be counted, I guess India is the priority.
I would also be missing my graduation - which takes place on the 31st of August. So that's for the cap and gown I will never see. It would have been nice to be there, especially since my name will be the second name called in my class :) would have been a nice memory
Sometimes I think AIESEC asks too much of you.
Cairo is a chaos, I finally know my way a little better and can get myself to work without getting lost.
After IC I am planning to go have a retreat in Hurghada in September. Probably gona go solo for that one!
This summer I have become Tan-less! I have not been to the beach once! But I am now allergic to the crowd, which makes the beach a no-go for me.
That's all from louly's corner - now I will go back to my mega-ass to do list for the day.
Thursday, August 11, 2005
:)
After a 2 of the longest busiest craziest hectic weeks - right before I switch into my Weekend mode I came across this:
"Thoughts from Gannat : Since I came here some of my perceptions about issues in life have been changing & I would like to share one of those with you, I'm an average Egyptian person that was raised seeing Rafet el hagan we Gom3a el Shawal knowing that Israel is a sort of enemy because of the Sinai war & the current problems with Palestinian & Jewish in general was associated with Israel But here I have met a Jewish person which is my boss & really she have changed my perception of all Jewish people she is a very nice, understanding, intelligent & professional person I even spend a weekend at her house where she took me in a tour in San Francisco & I really felt the Jewish hospitality & I have learned never to judge a whole group of people according to movies & stories that a person can hear "
Eventhough I did not directly contribute to this person's experience - but just being part of it put a big smile on my face!
One by one we change lives.
Loads of people work to achieve what has just been achieved - one outstanding person would be Suzanne, that super chicka who started all of this!
Hats off to Suzanne!
"Thoughts from Gannat : Since I came here some of my perceptions about issues in life have been changing & I would like to share one of those with you, I'm an average Egyptian person that was raised seeing Rafet el hagan we Gom3a el Shawal knowing that Israel is a sort of enemy because of the Sinai war & the current problems with Palestinian & Jewish in general was associated with Israel But here I have met a Jewish person which is my boss & really she have changed my perception of all Jewish people she is a very nice, understanding, intelligent & professional person I even spend a weekend at her house where she took me in a tour in San Francisco & I really felt the Jewish hospitality & I have learned never to judge a whole group of people according to movies & stories that a person can hear "
Eventhough I did not directly contribute to this person's experience - but just being part of it put a big smile on my face!
One by one we change lives.
Loads of people work to achieve what has just been achieved - one outstanding person would be Suzanne, that super chicka who started all of this!
Hats off to Suzanne!
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