Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination;
on cooperation, not intimidation.
OK, it's been 3 weeks now since I've been an Erasmus student in Metz, France , and in all this time, I saw that the French students are big consumers of the Facebook experience.
So, on a group, I found out that you know you are a real Erasmus when:
A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.Not very long,
answered the Mexican. But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?
asked the American.
The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family. The American asked, But what do you do with the rest of your time?
I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life.
The American interrupted, I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat.
And after that?
asked the Mexican. With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise.
How long would that take?
asked the Mexican. Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years,
replied the American.
And after that?
Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting,
answered the American, laughing. When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!
Millions? Really? And after that?
asked the Mexican. After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends.
But that's what I'm doing today
, replied the Mexican...
[via Dani!]
The other day I was writing about my application for the faci team for ICPS, November 2008. Now it's official: I'm in! :D
But I'm not the only one, so here are the other facilitators:
I'm already counting down the days until the conference and I also hope that all of us will have a great experience at Amara and the delegates will never forget this conference! ;o)
For 2 years now, the first AIESEC conference for the new members of AIESEC Iași was the Local Training Seminar (LTS). This autumn, we're going to the conference with GICU, so it's my first Regional Training Seminar (RTS)! From the 6th until the 9th, you'll find me in Durău, And after that, I plan to have here some photos from the event.
And yes, together with Cătălina C. and Ioana P., I have been accepted facilitator for the delegates from Iași, at RTS!
So right now we have 34 new, fresh AIESECers recruited especially for the exchange program...
Remember your first week-end as an AIESECer? Yes, you guessed it right: it's the one filled with the Induction Trainings!
I'll also be there, talking about AIESEC eXPerience. Here's the agenda for the 1st and the 2nd of November.
The National Preparation Seminar (19th - 23rd of November) is the biggest conference in Romania, with an approximate number of 500 delegates. Besides being the biggest, it is also the most important as it has a definitive role in the development of AIESEC members that are entering Taking Responsibility, Leadership or Exchange stage.
NPS is structured on 3 tracks with different agendas, team of facilitators and objectives:
Well, I also applied as a faci for ICPS, but in the last hour, my presentation video looked like this:
What do you say?
A day after sealing the deal with AIESEC Pisa and accepting the job for the Universita di Pisa, while looking over myAIESEC.net, I saw this opportunity at Opera Software ASA (Opera is looking for a creative, skilled and passionate Web Designer to work with Opera.com properties and partner projects. [...]
Salary in U.S. $4000).
As an Intern there, I would have gotten the chance to work with the very latest Web technologies in a company that cares about open Web standards. It was to late for me to apply, obviously! :(
Today I looked again, just to see the "news", and it's on hold now. Looking over some details about Opera, I found out about a nice event: Opera at Perl Workshop in Pisa Sept. 18-19! With this occasion, they are also making recruitment interviews. Only that on Monday, the 15th, I'm on a plane - destination România!
NTM: Open my eyes, uncover my ears and (next time) try harder!
In 2 weeks from now I'll be already in Constanţa... so now it's a real race against time to get a chance as much as I can see of Italy! Saturday Siena and Sunday Piazza dei Miracoli again, only this time both my path and eyes were guided!
Still, since I entered the AIESEC office in Pisa for the first time, a painting remained in my mind: Le Domaine Enchanté - a painting that allowed me to get to know a bit of Magritte:
The way I understand it, I can say that Ceci n'est pas un stage...
Half of me wants to remain in Pisa, to enjoy the warm Italian weather, the time with the friends here, walking along the seaside with Nicolás and talking about...
Half of me wants to go home, to hug my mom and dad the way I never did before, to breathe Iaşi, to meet good-old friends, to re-enter a world of photography, to go to the countryside and forget about technology!
As for the "3rd half" of me is eager for a new start! To start the Master and to actually study for a change or to go in another internship, one not only to fill all the blanks left by this one, but also to force me to grow even more!
***
As for now, my room is for rent!... My airplane ticket is already taken (thanks to my Isa) for the 15th...
When during the day the heat is too much, you start heading for the mountains! So that's what we did too: we climbed from Tre Colli all the way to the top, until we reached the RAI antennas. Then we went down on the other side of the mountain, until Buti. Since it's still Ferragosto, at 6PM there was no bus to take us directly to Pisa, so we took one to Pontedera (think about Piaggio) and from there we took a train to Pisa.
Here are the pictures:
When it came to payement, I chose to open an account at the same bank that Università di Pisa (or at least the Dipartimento di Economia Aziendale) uses - Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca Pisa Livorno. I took this decision so the time required for the money transfer would be shorter.
The fact is that on the 31st of July, almost two weeks ago, the money were sent from the University... and yesterday I was still complaining about not receiving my salary yet. That is after a month and a half of work. It looks that the bank workers also enjoy their holydays :-?
Today I changed the supermarket! For me, when I'm trying to save as much as possible, the "relationship with a supermarket" becomes more intimate. So, I tried COOP and Carrefour, but:
So, today, I gave Esselunga a chance: I took the map and went to find it.
Esselunga S.p.A. is an important Italian retail store chain. Founded in 1957 by the Caprotti Family with Nelson Rockefeller, the company is now entirely owned by the Caprotti family through Supermarkets Italiani S.p.A.
It was the first supermarket chain in Italy and was the first to introduce on-line shopping and self-produced biological products.
With its 17,000 employees the company, had a €4.9 billion turnover in 2006. Esselunga controles about 9% of the Italian grocery distribution market.
Esselunga is entirely owned by the family and is not on the stock market. This fact, rare nowadays for a company of these dimensions, makes the chain even more particular.
It is ranked as the fourth most profitable company in the European retail sector (in proportion to its size) and it is Italy's 23rd largest company.
Keeping in mind that I searched for reasonable quality at the lowest prices, here is a list of things I bought:
Next time I will go with Nicolás, because he knows this supermarket better. For now I am pleased: I took products till I could barely carry the basket and I paid 16.43€ for all of them.
Still, I'm eagerly waiting for the University Canteen to re-open on the 27th: it's way better to have an entire meal for 2.5€ and moreover to forget about cooking and washing dishes! :o)
