Here's the 4-1-1 on the engineering school program we're working on. Today, we had another meeting with Christa. This was Frank's first exposure not only to the work we've been doing, but also with the style we run the meetings in. I'm sure he learned a lot. This meeting was very important. It proved to us that the Engineering school truly sees us as a long term sustainable source for international opportunities. In conversation about their future goals, Christa let it be known that AIESEC was an integral part of their long term strategy and action plan, designed to create a more international environment, rich with opportunity, for students. When we made a few of our suggestions, in regards to the survey, she was very accepting. This was important, as one of the things we wanted to clarify was that our name was going to be on the survey, displayed prominently, which it will be. Tied to that, Christa offered to put a link to our webpage on their Career Service webpage. How freakin awesome is that. Now we have a good reason to have a real webpage. The final and perhaps most important topic we discussed was that of finance. While nothing final was discussed in terms of price, it was very important to bring that topic back into the playing field. The next step is the collaborative meeting we're having Thursday July 6th, to finalize and send out the survey. After that, we have another meeting scheduled July 20th, to go over the output from the survey, and perhaps present a proposal breaking down some of the finances. Not yet scheduled, but there is a final meeting some time in August before IC, to lay out the game plan for the rest of the year. All in all, this meeting was very productive. It established a healthy partnership over the next few months, as well as breached a few touchy subjects, i.e. finances.

The things we need to do.
1. Make a damn good web page
a. Write a three sentence blurb to go with our link on the Career services webpage.
2. Write out the budget for this project, this includes conversations with Chris White.
3. Start developing the processes we want in place for this project.
a. Application process
b. screening process
c. marketing, etc.
4. Start thinking about how we're going to pitch this to people at IC (Pinar and Arthur, lucky son's of bitches).

How cool are we. Thats right, really cool. Keepin it realz

Luke B

So here's a little update from a few of our little aiesecers we've sent abroad, proving without a doubt, they are still alive, and in fact, having a whale of a time. thats right, a whale.



Hey Pinar,
Thanks for checking up on me. Everything is going fine right now. I wish I had a little more work to keep me busy, but I guess this time of the year, there are not as many students around. The teaching I do do is fun and I enjoy putting together the lessons and interacting with the students. I never realized how long 2 months actually feels being away from everything I am so used to in the States. I'm actually looking forward to coming home and spending time with friends and such before school starts. In the meantime, however, the other trainees and I go on trips. Just this past weekend, we went to Essouiaria for a famous music festival. The music is called Gnawa and its like this weird jazz/arabic music. Its the music all the hippies are into. So it's pretty interesting. This coming weekend, we're going to the desert, so that should be really great. I'll let you know how that goes.

Later,

Naveen


Hey Pinar,
Wuts up. Sorry I haven't not been keeping up that well. I rarely get on the internet, so my emailing is very limited. Everything else is going swimmingly. A couple weeks ago I was at a barbeque at a college called NTU. I met two people who know you, a girl named Diana (who you told me about) and a boy with long hair who is really into music. Guess what he had saved on his computer? A wonderful video of you singing Britney Spears. I never knew you were such a talented entertainer. I was very impressed. jk lol Anyway, I only have a couple more minutes of internet time left. The teaching is going really well. The kids are adorable. It's a lot of fun to work with such cute little kids. They are so sweet. (I know i sound girly, but i can't help it) I have some pictures of them online and when i get the site running i'll let u know. Socially, Singapore is alo fun. I work six days a week right now so i don't go out to much, but i have become good friends with my neighbor. I usually hang out with him on weekend nights. The AIESECER's are fun too. They usually have an event once a week which is always nice to attend. I gotta get back to my classroom. See you in a coulpe months

--Zach

There you go folks, alive and well, I assume. Mel has promised an update soon, giving us a glimpse into Indian society. By the way, this is unfailing proof that Pinar does indeed sing Britany Speers, anywhere and everywhere, including Singapore. Keepin it real

Luke B

okay, so this one time, in milano---I got decked by an old lady. Yeah.

She must have been 10cm shorter than me, but judging from the mark on my face I can say she was undoubtedly working out in her offtime of menacing the streets. Benchpressing canned goods in her pantry methinks.

Yeah. it was the old, i'm going to stand in your way and act like i might say something and then hit your face really hard with my elbow routine. you might think that I would have used the skillz i learned in Madrid that other time when i got mugged 3x in 3 days, you know, some of my white-girl-kung-fu action that saved all my cash.... but no. Seriously, it was so unexpected, i just broke down right there on the sidewalk, and flat out wimpered & cried. She was an old lady, it was out of the blue, i recall my thoughts as it was happening... maybe she wanted to tell me something, okay no, she's using her hands, maybe it's an italian gesture, okay, no, ----WHAMMEEE!

You can imagine how hard it was to return to work for 4 more hours of (getting paid 4 euro an hour, even).

Yeah, and then there was that other time when the boss definitely called me fat and shouted at me, saying i should stop eating pasta and proscuitto cause he couldnt get around me. At which, all my other coworkers grabbed me and said, 'mayygahhnn'!! Serrrrrriously. that was the same day that all the drawings were wrong, (like i had been telling them all along " no no, sono sigura, quelli linee non coincidere") and then i took the blame for it, and for that the boss wanted me head on a platter. But without a doubt in my mind it was Not My Fault. But, it was so stressful, i came home and just cried it all out. Oh my goodness, it was so hard not to react badly at work. And then the next day we were back to normal and he was blowing fatherly-kisses at me, and putting his hand on my shoulder. And what am I to do?

I swear these italians are hot and cold, one second they are screaming lividly over the work, and the next they are all leaving for a nice lunch together. one day it's 'come have some gelati' and the next it's my fault again.

sigh. It's hard to believe it, but my time is 1/2 done in Milano. And don't tell my parents, but when i look at my wallet i only have 30 euro left. i am praying that i am getting paid on Friday...(not like 600 euro a month and then minus my rent, is something to dance in the streets about.... but otherwise next week is going to be me surviving on pasta and the kindnesses of others. ) Dun dun dun...

Oh maybe my credit cards will come soon. I will pray for this too. PS: did you know, i lost all my credit cards/ debit cards / ID cards right before i left, i mean, like the day-before-the-filght? yeah. That is not something i plan to repeat. Ever.

Right. Back to work then.
---meg.

Evenin' bitches.

So, after about 3 weeks of power healing, I finally decided to get off my orally challenged behind and blog about this wonderful experience which I am currently embroiled in. And while this has absolutely nothing to do with the goings on in the wonderful world of @ CN (I'm not sure if that's the right abbreviation we decided on using to avoid the the government's wiretaps, potential relations, and the jews) but still, like a fat kid at the good old cake buffet, it has consumed my life for the last 21 days and become the backbone of a summer rivaling a painful bowel movement in enjoyment.

Halfway through this ordeal I have gotten myself into I have come to realize that there is no upside to having your jaw wired shut. Absolutely none. It has to be the most inconvenient experience next to an inopportune boner right before you're called on to do long division at the board. The days are starting to drag on and blur together, and there's only so many times I can watch reruns of Full House before the magic of the Tanner family starts to wane. Although I do loves me some Bob Saget. At first, everything from eating to talking to sneezing had become exponentially more difficult. I mean, it still sucks, but I guess I've just gotten used to the trails by now. But before I jump ahead and talk about my life now, let's back the memory bus up and talk about the first few days, which, as you can tell by my Facebook picture, were the more interesting ones.

The last thing I remember before the surgery began was getting onto the operating table. Literally seconds after lying down, I was out. It came at me faster than I expected. The media has lied to me again and I was not, as I was led to believe, asked to count backwards from 10 only to be completely knocked out around 8, which sucks cuz I was kind of looking forward to that part. When the anesthesia wore off, I was confused and disoriented, kind of like Pinar after an @ night. I woke up after the 5 hour surgery, apparently asked for my teddy bear (well, wrote for it), told my parents my elbows hurt and then fell back asleep. I also remember everyone telling me I looked really hot, but I don't think that part actually happened. The next thing I clearly remember and can say for certain that it actually happened was me coughing up blood. Attractive, I know. Apprently the nasil gastric tube they gave me (read: big tube they shoved up my nose and down into my stomach) wasn't doing its job of making me not throw up, so they promptly removed it. But, it was shortly after this experience that I met my new best friend: the morphine pump. Press a little button, get a dose of morphine. It was like some awesome carnival game, except its not rigged, there are no creepy bearded ladies or incredible lizard men running around, and instead of winning some stupid stuffed animal, you get morphine, which is a much better prize. And man did I get myself pretty wired up on that stuff a few times. Don't judge me! It doesn't count as drug abuse if you get it from a doctor. Hereby note: all shady characters in back alleys and black people will be forever known as "doctors."

But my substance abuse problems aside, the first night was the worst, what with the vomiting and the restless sleep and the bleeding out my nose that wouldn't stop for about 2 hours. It's hard to describe my 3 days in hospital, partially because I don't remember much of it. I didn't do much but sleep and drool, which is coincidently what I did most of Fall semester. What I do remember, and quite distinctly, is my catheter. Believe me, if you never have to have one, you will remember it. Not so much it going in, cuz they do that while you're still under anesthesia. It's actually kind of disturbing that someone is messing around with your personals when you're unconcious. And how come when doctors do it it's acceptable but when I do it, it's called "date rape?" I guess a medical liscence gives you all kind of legal leeway. But when that tube comes out... and I thought things coming out of my johnson could only be a good thing. Oh no, that is not always the case, fellas. But I digress from my penile perils. After two days in the ICU and one day on the recovery ward, I was finally released home. And boy was I ready, because sleeping and drooling at home is so much more satisfying than in a hospital.

Since my triumphant return to my abode I have done little but map out an expertly crafted TV schedule including copious amouts of the world's most popular sport (note: America is no longer classified under the term "world"). They call it "football", but we call it "soccer." I like to call it "that sport whose popularity rivals only hockey." If you haven't been following the tournament, it breaks down something like this: Brazil = really good, America = not so good, and David Beckham still = gorgeous. I have actually taken to switching to Telemundo any time a goal is scored just to hear the Spanish exuberance of "Gol!" for the seven minutes following one. But, other than the pants rousing excitement of the World Cup, it's pretty much been the same story day in day out so far, coupled with the occasional excursion into the outside world to run a few errands with the Mummy. I'm hoping to spice it up a little on the downward slope of things. Just not sure how to do that yet given my limited resources. Maybe I'll be the pizza delivery guy next time... But no matter. I have mastered the art of eating all things blended, but I am yet to find an way of talking that doesn't have me sounding like a kid with downs who got beaten for spilling paint in the garage again (look, a retard and child abuse joke all in one). But if Kanye West can spit hot fire on the mic, I can certainly find a way to talk intelligibly.

Anyway, I'm bored of this now, and there's some really good porn out there just begging to be watched. I hope you have caught a small glimpse into the edge-of-your-seat excitement and thirlls that my life has been for the past few weeks. Fascinating, I know. But hey, when life gives you a lemon, you take that lemon and hurl it right back at life because what the fuck am I going to do with a lemon? Give me something I can use, damnit! No one buys lemonade anymore you stupid fuck! This isn't 1953. You can't just go around selling lemonade out of a stupid little stand with the "e" painted backwards cuz your a stupid little kid who doesn't even know how to write but that makes me feel bad for you and give you my hard earned quarters for a glass of shitty lemonade that somebody probably spit in cuz your working conditions are so horrendously unsanitary. I mean, you're selling lemonade on the side of the road! That can't possibly be healthy. Not to mention you probably have some dirty illegal Mexican immigrant working in the back, sending money home to his wife and 9 kids, all the while taking a good old American job from poor Joe McPatriot over here, who gave his legs fighting those Red Commie bastards in 'Nam and can't event get into the welfare office to get his disability check because they don't have wheelchair access because the government, whose squandered all the public works funds tapping my phones and seeing what books I checked out of the library while Osama Bin Laden is hiding in some cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Mexistan or just some guy named Stan laughing his ass off, doesn't have enough money to pay for ramp. So thank you life, for ruining the American economy, shitting on our Patriots, defenders of freedom and justice around the world, and making so many of them damn Chinese.

Love, peace and soul.

if the glove don't fit...

Today I had the first @Cornell Salaam sales call with the president of a local small nano tech company. He is considering taking a Salaam trainee and seeing if there is a need and if it is worth is for them to train a student to do market research, only to keep them for 2 months. All very reasonable questions. The meeting went pretty well and I drank my first Mate. I realized that stuff on the Commons is much nicer than anything in Collegetown and that we should all go down there more. Anyways, the Salaam race is on. There is no reason that we shouldn't reach our goal of 5 trainees in Ithaca, other than our laziness! Let's make it happen!

meg + milano.

So leading up to my trip, I had purchased some 10 grammar-practice books for what was about to be my first experience speaking/learning Italian. I was also lucky enough to have taken some 7 years of spanish in my day....but it SHOULD be noted that there are just some words which are irrevokably different in the two languages, and I definitely spent the first week and a half of work calling the office the "officina," . . . which actually means the autobody shop. So all of my new friends were like... Hm. You look pretty clean to be working in an autobody shop.

Well, of my new friends, there is a girl who has done the erasmus programme in England, and we try to speak a mish mish of italian and english. She's very nice, and one day we went out for 'aperitivo', where a person buys a drink and is then given free range to the buffet of fabulous italian appetizers. It was on this day, that i was trying to say 'trust me' which i thought was figa ti...well, it turns out that I definitely told her to 'eat me' (.. yes , in the worst way possible) and she almost had beer coming out her nose cause she laughed so hard, "I can't believe you said that!, i cant believe it May-gaan!" .... but i swear, 'figa ti' & 'fida ti' are the same to me after a beer or two. Note: she's the boss' daughter, and undoubtedly she has related this to him.

But all in all my italian is getting seriously better. My initial strategy was to use only infinitives, since i had no idea how to conjugate anything... the english equivalent would be something like this: "Last night, i to-go, to-buy a pan to-cook, to-eat dinner with my friends who to-want, to-eat with me when we to-watch the game of futbol". I'm sure it sounds like i'm retarded, but it gets the message across and sometimes that's what I need. It's only extremely embarassing when i have to talk to the boss, in which case i try to conjugate somethings, but it's inevitably useless... and we never understand each other. The good news is that i have to eat lunch TOGETHER with everyone else EVERYDAY (how.... so very not like my nyc life....really) and i have to participate in conversation, and tell what i did yesterday, and listen, and understand and laugh at the right times... oh man. it's really hard. It's the most hard when i'm tired, and then it's not like i can zone out and still hear what's going on like i can in english.... but... you really really have to pay attention when you're not familiar with a language. I can understand so much better why my non-american friends had trouble speaking to me when we were working late at night on architecture projects at Cornell. 2am is no time to be trying to speak a non-native tongue... unless that is, you're charming foreign boys. :)

OKay. So, of those foreign boys, catching my eye right now, i've got a brazillian, a dutchman and a canadian. Mm. The canadian can speak italian, english , and the canadian version of french, and he's ridiculously attractive and friendly like a black labrador. And (AND!!!) he's an industrial designer....finally, I have things to talk about and a language to speak it in (THANK GOD, i'm not actually retarded... it just feels that way here). However, we will see how it all pans out, since right now we're all just acquaintances. Oh, and by the way, speaking English on a sidewalk in Italy is a major turn on to those ridiculously stylish italian boys. They think that all americans are just like the movies, and suddenly i'm an easy reese witherspoon, and i have four boys trailing behind me. ...Not like i mind, it's just something to be aware of, and use only as strategy in case i really want to get the attention of the fabulous Dolce&Gabbana Model standing next to me on the metro. :)

Part II will continue with physical pain and ridicule!! (a crazy woman included!)

I think there are many parallels between social entrepreneurship and AIESEC so this article might be interesting to read. Let's all meet Lindsey's efforts this week and make Salaam happen. Everyone needs to have sales calls scheduled by the end of the week. I will post my progress to this blog and everyone else should too!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend and a very happy Father's Day!

Last night Luke and Arthur joined Pinar and I for dinner at our lovely apartment (albeit 40 minutes late...). We we coaxed into playing cranium by Pinar, who was convinced she would win regardless of the circumstances. Despite Pinar's efforts (some even say cheating...), the boys kicked our ass. Rematch scheduled for next week, same place, same time.

While that was all good and fun, we also did have some more serious @ conversations. We discussed the subgroup meeting in NYC the weekend after next, and how there seems to an unbalanced ratio of LC to MC members who will be attending. We agreed that the best way to rectify the situation would be to convince other @ers to make it a priority to attend.

We also began to discuss SSC and how the finances for that, and all of next year, will be determined. We started to lay out the next steps to get the ball rolling on how we will raise the money we will need to ensure everyone will be able to go to the conferences and things they should.

Next up, selling the Salaam traineeship!!! I'm currently working to get the company I'm working with (Human Services Coalition) to either take a trainee or give me the contact info for another organization that would be interested. More to come soon!

Ok, sorry for the double-posting, but I absolutely forgot the original reason for me writing here to begin with! I just wanted to share with everyone with what's going on with what @ does best (EXCHANGE!). Zach has been in Singapore for a couple weeks already on his traineeship!! Naveen recently began his traineeship in Morocco with the Salaam program, and only days remain until Mel goes to India for her traineeship!!! How cool is that?! We've got three @CN members in two different continents right now!! Plus, Mike is literally on the verge of getting matched to a traineeship in the Czech Republic! @CNers all around the world, baby!

I think we need to get a world map and start marking where @CN members go with @! We'll be running out of space before we know it! Ok we're doing it. I'm on it. When we finally get that @ office, this is totally going to be the first thing we put up (plus our recruitment award and all the other awards we'll continue to get :)). So we may not have an office yet, but I'm already planning the decorative scheme!! One word: GLOBAL!!

So Lindsey and I went to Ohio for Summerfest last weekend to socialize with some other @ers. It was very fun, I must say, considering we got to hang out with REAL LIVE @ TRAINEES from other countries :). So for all of you out there who were doubting @--you should've been at Summerfest, with the second coolest LC out there--@MI. They're an awesome crowd, so if you ever get the chance to hang out w/ Michigan @ers, go for it! (you're welcome for the free plug April--we expect the same ;)).

But seriously now, it really was a great experience. Meeting trainees always is, because you are actually seeing the result of what we are all working so hard towards. There were trainees from Germany, Japan, Korea, Mexico, and Denmark, at least. It truly was an international crowd.

Btw, let me give some explanation to what this Summerfest actually is. This year was the first annual Summerfest hosted by @MI. It pretty much consisted of two nights of camping in the Ohio "wildnerness" (the cabins had airconditioning--not a bad thing, but we definitely were not roughing it). During the day on Saturday we went to Cedar Point, a huge amusement park with pretty awesome rides (ok ok I'll admit it, it is just as good as Great Adventure...). We all got in some pretty awkward dispositions that nature did not intend (accompanied by my terrified screams of "OH MY GOD!").

And that's that. All in all a very awesome weekend. Too bad more people couldn't have joined us from @CN (cough cough). Just to sum it all up, I do want to express how amazing it is to do activities with @ers from other LCs and countries. Not only do you get to find out how other LCs work and learn from them, but you really do get to form great friendships. Try it some time! OK--sappy part of blog is over.

Now I bid you all adieu so that I can go back to watching The Incredibles (yes, I am aware of how lame that may seem on a Friday night--I blame Lindsey). Hope everyone is having a great summer so far!

Hookay, so we had our first GPM, it was soo much fun, I almost didn’t fall asleep. With all the excitement, I’m sure people have forgotten what was actually accomplished. We laid out the objectives for this summer and the people who are working on them.

*Selling the Salaam traineeship

Pinar, Arthur, Luke, Lindsey

*Finish the recruitment drive, selection process, and induction process.

 Lindsey and Pinar

*Establish learning circle(s), including but not limited to Al Gore’s newest movie

 Arthur and Laura

*Moving the Engineering school program forward, working towards the long-
 term goal

 Arthur, Luke and Frank

*Working on the Constitution

 Luke and Pinar

*Raise money for SSC, with a goal of $5000

 Luke, Pinar, Lindsey, Arthur

*Dinner party

Pinar and Lindsey

So, here it is. These are the seven objectives for this summer for our LC. They’re pretty sweet, all organized, chillin, indented and all. So, here’s the idea, the people who are responsible for the different objectives, as we discussed at GPM, should bring a basic timeline set out, with a deadline for the beginning of classes. Makes sense? Lets hope so. So any way, if anybody would like to comment on any of these, suggestions, ideas, blatantly obvious objectives that you think we should work on, let ‘em rip.

I’ve been thinking, and from the looks of it, our plates are, how should I say, overflowing. There’s a lot of things we need to do, and not that many people dedicated to doing them. What if we had a weekend @CN retreat? Nothing but @ stuff from morning till early dusk, at which point, focus would most surely shift to funny Pinar and Arthur stories. I just think that having everyone in one place, collaberatively thinking about our issues, could hammer out some of these objectives quickly and efficiently. Things like the constitution, the marketing, the induction, ect., perhaps some learning circle-ish planning. Let me know what you think.

But those of you responsible, lets get cracking. As much as we love it, summer is going to be gone before we know it, and we’ll all be slaving away, like the minions we are here at Cornell. Peace and love.