OMG! It's December already! I realized it only yesterday when an X-mas tree was brought to our office, to be decorated. Honestly, we have more Dutch winter than the Lithuanian winter over here, as there is no snow yet!
So what have I been up to in the past month:
Moments: ...a small Energy'07 reunion in Vilnius - with Diana, Jana, randomly met Vitalijus, joining the boys party congratulating Danny with his birthday, laughing a lot with (or from) his porn XXX team, then experiencing the so-called high-fashion party in Champagne Bar , which appeared to be quite average. ...cocktails, including a mojito (for Filipe) with Piret who is incredibly often coming to Vilnius these days =) ...so much adrenaline when trying to move wooden bricks of the Jenga tower during the drinks with colleagues. Afterwards moving to playing "Taboo" (or "Alias" as they call it here) and seeing that sometimes understanding each other from half of the word is not that difficult! ...lotsa lotsa people dressed like so 1920s and dancing all night long! Lindyhop is my new entry on my dances-to-learn list, and definitely it goes well with my love for jazz music. It's the third month I attend the course and I love it! ... a different creativity workshop in my home AIESEC LC. For the first time in preparation for this training, I didn't use any aiesec-related material, kept it all within my personal experience, tuned it with a few improv excercises and real examples how a little innovation can turn into big money. It's not difficult to be creative, and it seems that the message came across. ...artsy crowd in the opening of Fluxus-East exhibition, with wine and nice meals, with a crazy exibition attached. Fluxus is a movement initially was supposed to be an anti-art movement or so called "art-joke". And indeed he exhibition reflected it - everyone was able to listen to funny music and see all kinds of crazy stuff which is not art, but makes sense. Even play flux ping-pong (see left), which has not only interesting table, but the rackets also were not standard: one of them has a hole, another is completely soft, third one has a very rough surface... Art is fun! Even the former mayor of Vilnius couldn't resist to give it a shot. Very refreshing.
What is coming up next is... Winter Holidays, of course! Can't wait :) I am going to leave you with my powerplay for this month, which is another local masterpiece on MTV!
"yeah yeah, I'm alright, I keep power forever...." - yeap that's the way I feel!
* pic from: http://www.deepfun.com/2006_07_01_archive.html * Video of Happyendless called "Power Forever"
Yes, here we go again :) We had EuroCo hosted in Lithuania, therefore it was absolutely exciting opportunity to see some more people that are precious to me... Here is the part fo Belgian delegation:
...Enriching chats with Andries in - you know where - Briusly, about life and ideas, and the way creativity is applied in business practices. Thanks for the thoughts! And I feel that I have more to say about this, so keep on checking back in my blog. I just have this need to exercice my ideas before writing them publicly.
Later on Thordis from Iceland, not seen for ages, all charged up after EuroCo. Sitting in the cafe and drinking a lot of fancy-flavoured coffee.
Also chilling with Micky, Pieter and Kuhn in a coffee place, finding out how they and the rest of the aiesec people in Belgium are going. Micky trying the Lithuanian chocolate and getting a rough face with the chili flavoured one ;)
Short re-cap of the events in Vilnius in the past few weeks:
- De-Phazz - Gus Gus vs Metal on Metal (rough dance music will save the world) - DJ Mehdi - Phonique
How to manage all of them? Not possible, at all. But De Phazz was absolutely great :) You never know how music like that is going to sound - sometimes it's too loud or too noisy, but this time it was the same as the album I am listening to right now :) Fantastic.
And there is another discovery I would like to share - it's Koop. I have heard their song on our radio Opus3 and I loved it! So now I have the full album. It has a swing rhythm, and I guess that goes very much in line with the lindyhop dancing classes I am attending right now :) This song takes me high, why don't you try how it works for you?;)
I'm sitting now in my room, enjoying Saint Etienne with a heavenly calm voice singing through my stereo and chatting with some friends of mine who are coming to EuroCo (AIESEC conference), which is hosted in Lithuania in October. It got me thinking about how does the saying "keep in touch" work in practice for different people. I've been living in 3 different countries and visiting in another 15, and therefore, the network is wide. And I know how difficult it is to keep in touch with people being hundreds of miles away from you.
It sometimes really makes me feel uncomfortable, when I get to see someone after a while, and I see that it was a connection made due to circumstances, and it disappeared with the circumstances. It's a bit sad because some of those people were simply amazing and I'm sure there is way more common things than just circumstances we happen to be in, but the connection is not there anymore. And I think it's especially so hard for me, because time doesn't change anything for me - if I meet someone after three or twenty three years time, I would talk to that person in the same way I did the last time I saw him/her. But I know, that some of the people by that time would get more distant. For me it's okay just to meet someone and be happy about this encounter, and for some people it's more important to be continuously involved in the updates.
Autumn is the season of re-connections for me. Piret came over to Vilnius, I met her two years ago in Baltic Energy, where we both were applying for international MCs. I was announced to be selected for Belgium during the conference, and just right after it Piret ended up in Ecuador! Then we had a short meetup in Poland a year ago, and now we finally are back to our homecountries. Of course we've changed, but that was so nice to discuss about all the things that happened throughout this time! And the reintegration process. And comparing Lithuanian and Estonian guys :)
Second person to catch up with was Mate, whom I met in India, and then kept in touch, met up in a random place like Rotterdam (joking), and haven't seen for a very long time. Now in Vilnius, we were having a drink, talked about our current works, lives, meeting my friends who randomly come up to the same bar, talking to some Polish tourists, and then some more talks about drum'n'bass, Sziget and other open air festivals and then moving on to an industrial rave party. And a year seems like two days, not more.
And yesterday I got to meet up with Ausra back from Australia, Ruta back from her internship in the UK, and Vilma, simply not seen for ages. I was dead tired, but that was very nice.
And it's not over yet! euroCo is on it's way and then Energy. Both aiesec conferences, bringing some beautiful acquaintances and great friends over! Looking forward to that!
And I am working hard to send an email update to the ones who are not coming to visit me, yet... :)
I cannot believe it's autumn already! It seems that quite recently it was hot and sunny, and on the first days of September I am already looking into my winter wear and dreaming of house heating system turned on.
At any case the summer of 2007 was great! All spent in Lithuania, which was new for me after 2 years break. I made sure it would not be wasted.
Some facts:
Re-explored amazing Vilnius, Kaunas, Nida, Norviliskes, Rubikiai, Moletai and some other beautiful areas of this country
Became one year wiser
Got my driver's license
Read some incredible books: "Purple Cow" by Seth Godin, "The Tipping Point" and "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, "A Year of Creativity" by Brenda Malon.
Fantastic clubbing almost every weekend. Party girl is back on track, hitting the only 5 reasonable clubs in this country :)
MTV B-DAY concert - celebrating one year of MTV in Baltics, and Be2gether festival - the first ever open air festival in Lithuania
Terrific connections, re-connections and discoveries
My goal for the summer was to enjoy myself as much as I can. Happy to be in entertainment business. And when I look into my diary, autumn seems to be packed with:
visits by friends from abroad! Since I'm not able to travel much, may everyone come to visit me :)
parties and clubnights - season is starting!
Conferences - EuroCo 07 in the first place!
big things in professional development
It seems that everything is falling into place for now. Even though I don't have the "big plan" for myself in 10 years yet, but bit by bit i'm getting everything I do into one picture. living in the now, as they say :)
After my blog-sharings, time to actually tell what have I been up to for the past 1,5 months :)
Shortly, that would be saying "See you later!" to these people:
and these people:
and these people, fitting all of them into this I would probably need a one square meter picture:
And saying hello to so so sooooo many more people that are speaking my native language.
Yes, I am back in Lithuania.
I don`t do exciting stuff as I did while I was abroad, but I am pretty busy. Studying for my driver's license, meeting friends, family, recovering lost connections, reading local newspapers, watching reality shows on TV, re-discovering the beauty of my country again, working on some private business idea, reading all the books my A`dam friends gave me for my farewell, attending AIESEC Alumni meeting, pampering myself and trying to get a job... It's all fine.
The only thing I am missing right now, is direction. As they say, when you don`t know the goal, it's difficult to score. What I want to do with my life? Should I study now or later? Which career I want to choose? Which industry? Which country? Or maybe become a nomad and travel the world? Or maybe just get married? It seems I've been thinking of this for quite a while, but the answer is not there yet, or it is changing every couple of days :) The time in hometown will be consolidation time. It will last as long as it has to last. Although I do want to spend time doing meaningful things.
*A picture from sustainability art installation in Design Centre in Copenhagen, Denmark
KaosPilots - where creativity and innovation go to school
Time for catching up with some important updates. This is where I`ve been a few weeks ago - a school for new business design and social innovation. A school for young entrepreneurs, about which you can see :
I've been hearing from my friend Henrique and Anna so much about KaosPilots, and I thought I have to experience it myself.
Henrique has picked me up and we went to the school. It was snowing like crazy and I thought of getting new shoes. But soon we have reached a yellow building saying "Kaospiloterne" on the door. The inside looked like anything else, but not a school (see the video!). No professors, just students and staff. And all of them "living" there as a happy family.
The week I was there had a topic on developing own business ideas and making them a reality. I think I was lucky, as the guys said it`s one of the best courses. The sessions were delivered by consultants. The one that I found very good, was by Dave from Startup Company, who provided a very structured but at the same time very flexible framework for setting up a new business. It went to different sections, from marketing to execution, I loved the simplicity and professionalism. After the session kaospilots were able to talk with teh tutors, consult with them, etc. I thought that if every week there are different people coming from various companies, that must be a great networking opportunity.
Another thing I was amazed about, is how everyone is determined to make the most of their experience, sharing their ideas, connecting with others, helping each other and actually making those ideas work on the spot! I am sure almost all of those guys will have their own businesses running by the end of their 3-year studies!
Overall, I was inspired! It was quite mind-liberating week for me. The people there are amazing! Henrique was saying that is so like AIESEC, and indeed there are lots of similarities.
So I know now, that one day I will start my own business, and KaosPilots convinced me that I am capable of doing this. Even though I am not applying for this school this year, after I came back, I took a chance to go to KaosPilots workshop in Amsterdam, as they are forming the first student team in the Netherlands! Interested? Check out KaosPilots.nl.
I wake up. It`s Monday. It`s raining again. I love staying in bed on days like that:) And I really do feel like doing nothing for a few weeks, relaxing and re-connecting with friends. Reading books. Going to arts exhibitions. To jazz concerts. Doing some career research. Pulling my portfolio together. And other stuff, that I never had time for. Ahh, life is good!
No no, you are still talking to the same person from Lithuania, who has snow for 3 months every year (maybe not for the past 2 years, but for the rest of more than 15 in my life). However, in my home country snow is perceived as a part of a normal yearly cycle. For sure it`s not the case in The Netherlands :)
Soooo, today for the first time this year we had snow, which was a bit more than 3 mm thick and stayed white on the ground all day long!! And guess what??? The country is out of control!! Traffic jams on the highway, metro`s are late, trams even more late :) Seems like snow every time is a big surprise over here :)
I was walking home tonight and actually deep in my heart I was excited to see snow :) I don`t know why, it is just so cute to see it here... a feeling of a way-too-late winter this year...
Had no plans for last weekend. Slept all Friday night (after two conferences.. i think that`s fair).
Saturday went to my improv class, which was again great. Today we also tried to improvise in singing, which was challenging, but I loved it! We had two rapping bands, and ours, of course, won. We also found a human beat box talent in our group and discovered that rapping has nothing to do with the music, but a lot with an attitude. Later on we had a cup of coffee in Crea cafe with our group, which is always a nice activity to do to get to know people better. For example, that at least three of us are living 5 minutes away from each other. Amsterdam is tiny, the theory has been proved again.
I also had my first ever pure Dutch party in my life, in a very Dutch house with around 40 Dutch people and 3 internationals, with house music and lots of beer. In the Netherlands that is not a common practice, you have to get invited to Dutch parties. So I was lucky this time! 10 points! And that was a good fun! 10 extra points for house parties.
Sunday was a lot of doing nothing (you can call it ME time as well, enjoying it so much) and jazz concert in the evening... Someone will be jealous now... That was Saskia Laroo playing that night! It was a good mix of jazz classics, funk and bossa nova, cozy atmosphere and a show full of motion. Honestly, I did not want to leave!
Today.. Monday again. You know, work and stuff. Lovin` it though.
Talking about seasons, it does not seem that there will be a classical winter for this Christmas. It seems there is not much snow in Europe, and people go skiing and end up hiking in the mountains :) As for Holland, check out the postcard Dan bought when visiting Amsterdam.. (sorry for the quality)...
Have a cozy Christmas with the beloved ones and a terrific New Year 2007!!
. Was a bit sick last week, I think there has been a wave of people catching cold these days, as weather has been more terrible than ever. . Had a super-extra-funny dinner with diemen ppl. . Had some of those nice conversations with Rasa, Venky and a few of my colleagues . Had Ginnie`s "tot ziens" activities, like surprise dinner with all current and ex-housemates, which was very difficult to make it a surprise, compiling presents and frustrations related to that, a lunch with the Amsterdam crowd. I am sure Gina will remember this WE for long. . Had an AIESEC Sinterklaas party last night, featuring a dice game for sharing presents, a company of my favourite Serbians (Zorana and bORIS), catching up with aiesec`ers (they did a great job organizing all this!) and other interns. Then going to Meander, which happened to be not as crappy place to be as it seemed on the first day!
Today I am just chilling, curing my sore throat and trying to study. Also creating an action plan for figuring out the next steps after my internship is over in Feb.
This was the date waited for a long time... The ultimate halloween party in the Wild Wild West finally happened! Every single soul came alive or dead but in a costume... our death count reached more than 70 souls visiting our spookhouse.
It was an awesome party with people which looked either random or unrecognizable (both were appreciated), lots of wine and other beverages, dances and awards, police inquiries, as well as a brave surfer deciding to fight the waves of the lake next to our house... good friends from Brussels, mysterious story about the poster that has dissapeared... I`d better start uplaoding the pix, they will tell you more!
This was a few days ago, and it was right on time. I received an e-card saying:
Hey honey, Just wanted to send you this because I know yesterday was a bad day for you - but I wanted to let you know that I think you are wonderful, and that it is all part of your journey.The good and the bad moments define us!
Big hugs Mazzy
Mazzy, you are also wonderful! Thanks for being there for me in the good times and the bad!
Everybody seemed to be bugging me about not writing in my blog. I was thinking, can it be that long? When I checked I saw that it was... more than one month of silence in my blog. It went like one week for me. So much happened.
That means nothing else but the fact that I`m living!!! Let`s start with an update.
Home. I have moved. To a very nice place in the West fo Amsterdam. Close to a lake. Lots of green space. Living with another amazing 4 girls from all over the world: Gina (MX), Mazzy (Australia), Masha (Russia) and Sarika (India). Almost all continents covered :) Amazing life stories as well. But about it later. I still miss my life I used to have in Diemen with my housemates and the whole trainee community there, but it`s time to move on. This weekend is super decoration weekend - as I am going to decorate my room, and me and Mazzy have driven a super project cosy of our living room! Rocks!
Friends. There are a lot of people to meet. A lot of interns as well. Some people come some people go. I came in teh epriod of big changes, and it`s very strange feeling to have this change and realize how temporary everything is. Last weekend there was Henrique`s farewell party, and it`s so weird to know that the first person you`ve met from Amsterdam will not be there anymore. BTW, officially in NL there are 6 Lithuanian AIESECers - close to beating Brazilian population :) Dutch people - hmm, don`t know that many yet. But I am sure it will improve. At any case, I really have a lot of things to do, definitely it`s not boring. What I definitely has to improve, is get connected to my friends abroad. This will be taken forward as soon as I have technical possibilities at home. ;)
Work. As Sigis said, you`d better like it, as you spend half of your non-sleeping lifetime there. Indeed, I like it! Every day, I experience something more about my work or workplace that I like and I had no idea that I can find it here. I do make a difference - I realized that when my first intern Ethan started mailing updates - check out his blog as well. I am really thrilled to hear about his experiences. However, the recent month has been very busy, I have a lot of things to digest in my head. Apart from that, I happened to be in a team of three girls who organized a team afternoon of our whole department. We have been lunching, recording a song (our department has singers! and yellers too!) , also touring around the most famous district of Amsterdam and having a great time.
Travelling. After Poland, I was in Belgium. Only. Was a great time, but I kinda thought that I should nto plan far away trips for a bit. Especially before the whole week in Lithuania in beginning of November!! My dearest friends, I will be in Vilnius on 2-12 of November, please contact me (or my agenda manager :)) for appointments :D Everyone else who are closer to NL than to LT, please come to visit me in A`dam!
AIESEC. It`s still a part of my activities. Last week we had AIESEC in The Netherlands NatCo, where I gave my support in developing trainings, as well as participating. Dutch conferences are unique, Different from what I`ve experienced. It was fun though. Good to see people I haven`t seen for ages, catch up and remember AIESEC Dances :)
Development. I have a Dutch phrase book, dictionary and courses. And I will make at least a small effort every day to learn this language. OK, every week for sure.
Interesting observations. Let`s leave them for the next post. To get you interested, I will tease you with mystical keywords, like from the supermarket, marathons, passes for bikes, falling knives, being too good.
Pictures. I will upload a few of them soon. For sure this time.
I`ll try to keep it short otherwise you will get bored reading... IC was nice... maybe not that fancy as in India, but seeing so many people from all over the world is still amazing. ... was nice meet old friends from AIESEC, some fo them I haven`t even expected. Since I had only 4 days,I gave up the idea to have good talks with everyone, but at least seeing their presence, a hug, a smile, was enough. ... I still had some GREAT talks, which I appreciate a lot. I cannot transcribe or record them, but they are all in my heart, thanks guys!
Everyone who has `coordinator` saying on their badge
... Teambuilding with the Global Coordinator Gang was awesome! It`s good to be an corporate guest! Fancy hotel, no lining up for the food, and meeting completely different crowd. Although being out of @ is also tough sometimes. ... Running external agenda, coordinating ING participation, having country meetings - my agenda was packed. And productive. ... AIESEC Parties, yeah, baby!
After ING Chances for Children workshop: Heske (Unicef), Charlotte (ING), Patrice (Curcuma), Joep (ING CfC), myself, Declan (Bridging Divides)
I am just so good with updates! Another week in A`dam..
Last weekend we went out with other interns to De Pijp, very Dutch area with nice places for drink or dance. Very very nice crowd, apart from the awesome intern gang, including some of the people whos presence was a pleasant surprise.
On Sunday I took a trip to Brussels, to see the Flower Carpet 2006 in Grand Place, meet some people, pick up some of my luggage, sort out my membership at Fitness Passage, which is the service I am not happy about. One advice guys - check for terms and conditions before signing anything in Belgium. But it`s ok, you live you learn. I learned not to go to Fitness Passage anymore, it`s just too much trouble. Also it ws cool to catch up aith Rasa, the MC team, experiencing extreme rain conditions and Belgian sarcasm which makes me paranoid.
The whole past week went faster than lightning, IC is next week and there was just a lot to prepare, ship, communicate. It seems like most fo the stuff is ready though, yey!
By facing the distance from my place to teh centre of Amsterdam, I realized that bike is just necesarry to live here:) As in the evening when I get back home it`s so difficult to motivate myself to go somewhere :) Like now, I know there is a huge festival happening in the centre, but I am just too lazy :)
And I think it`s nothing wrong that I sleep a lot, don`t go out every night and just take it easy :) I like sleeping!! I love lazying around :) But I promise I will get involved into social life a bit more from now on.
BTW, last Friday we had a first go-out with my teammaes from ING. We went to one cool tapas bar, then continued chtatting over a glass of wine. I work with amazing people I tell you!
I am finally not living in a suitcase, my room is nice and cosy now, just missing some artistic touches. The room is only for two months, I am looking for a place to move in in October, but still nice to have a good living environment.
Today I met Rita for a coffee and ended up chatting about life and work for the whole afternoon. Nice to meet great people.
I realized that I haven`t been taking pictures of me in The Netherlands so far! I have to improve this!
The only thing that is bothering me now, is my wisdom teeth, they sometimes turn into nothing else but plain pain in my mouth. Not so good.
And to make this post one of the most random ones, I would recommend you to check out the TO-DO list blog. You can submit your own to-do list which will be published in a book! Deadline is on Sept 15, I think I will submit something, as I have some sophisticated TO-DOs :)
