Happy Holidays!!!

This post is very short and simple: I wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2007! Enjoy the upcoming days together with your family and loved ones, relax, take time to reflect on the past year and hatch plans for the new year, savour the Christmas delicacies and for those who are into winter sports: Have fun in the mountains!

Yes, I'm still here...

It has been a while since my last post, sorry for that! The last couple of weeks were very busy. On the following lines I would like to share two highlights with you: The John Legend Concert and my weekend-trip to Berlin. Yay!!!

John Legend is one of my favourite artists, ever since I went to his concert in Zurich about one and a half years ago. He's a true musician and songwriter with an amazing voice and great songs. His debut "Get Lifted" is really a masterpiece full of timeless songs and catchy melodies. No wonder that it won three (!) Grammy Awards. Even though I'm not really into his latest album, I was looking forward to the show in Zurich. And I was not disappointed, the show was great! Two hours of both "old" and new songs, an energetic yet thoughtful atmosphere and a crowd and singer who enjoyed spending the evening together...the concert was worth every single cent!

Only two days later I got on the plane to Berlin. I was visiting a good friend (Susanne) I got to know in Shanghai. When I exited the baggage claim area a surprise waited for me: My roommate from Shanghai, Alejandro, picked me up from the Airport! I was really surprised to see him in Berlin, cause I had no idea that he was in town. After this positive shock I spent 3.5 days with sightseeing (the city is full of contrasts - western and eastern parts, new and old, rich and poor areas, you simply find everything), shopping for Christmas presents (unfortunately withouth the slightest success) , dancing (yes, Oli is moving from time to time), eating great food (I had no idea how diverse German Christmas specalities are) and of course spending a very nice time with my friends from Shanghai. It was awesome to revive those good old Shanghai-times! And then I also met Jouni, who some of you might know from this year's TWIN project. By the way, he's coming to Switzerland in early January. So, check my blog for updates.

Due to a December filled with many exciting events, I wasn't that serious when it came to preparing my upcoming exams, which means there's a lot of work waiting for me. How was the German saying again, "Zuerst das Vergnügen, dann die Arbeit" (freely translated: "First have fun, then do the work")? ;-)

Some thoughts on DO-IT 2006...

A few days have gone by since the end of an exciting project called DO-IT 2006. It wasn't always easy, there were moments I doubted the decision I made after KICK-OFF 2006, the decision to join the OC. But these difficult moments made the whole project special, if everything had gone smoothly I would have taken the success for granted. But now I'm glad that everything went pretty well. I remember me saying in a discussion with Majken on Wednesday evening that my goal for the conference is to simply survive. I obviousely reached this goal. :-) With every day of the conference I grew with the task, wanted to deliver the best work possible. To be honest our team wasn't a real team until the conference started, we never had a real teambuilding, meetings with all OC members present were rare (except some on msn). It wasn't like we didn't want to be a team, just the circumstances made it very difficult. During summer break the OC was spread all over Switzerland, had summer jobs, went travelling. It was quite a challenge to coordinate everything and keep the project going.
So it was stunning to see how the team grew during the week of the conference. I can say that in the end we were a real team, supported each other and had a great time together. It was also very nice to work with the extended OC that contributed a lot to the success of DO-IT 2006. Big thank you for your amazing job! All in all DO-IT 2006 was a unique experience that allowed me to learn more about myself and what I'm actually capable of.

The OC-picture was taken in a restaurant in Fiesch on Sunday evening. Unfortunately there's no picture with all members of the OC and the extended OC. Too bad...

During the last couple of days I was thinking a lot about my next steps in AIESEC. I was generally asking myself what is important to me, what went wrong during the last couple of months, what could be improved and which topics really interest me. I don't know yet which opportunity I will grasp, how my life AIESEC-wise will continue. Fact is that I enjoy being part of the network and having the chance to discover and develop my potential, to simply feel the AIESEC-vibe and to meet so many great individuals. Where will the AIESEC-path lead me? Hopefully I will know the answer soon...