The Original Cano (Busy Bee)

10 July 2011

Haha. Yesterday we woke up at 8am. We needed to check out at 9am. We had breakfast early around 8:30 and ended around 9am. After breakfast, we went on the Lake and spent a half hour there. Suzana basically rowed the entire way. After that, we split up because Suzana and I wanted to go parasailing and everyone else wanted to do some shopping. Suzana and I found the ad for it and asked around and there was an accident so the company got shut down. We then decided that we wanted to rent a bike. We were close to renting one when they said, “Sorry, the guy I’m talking to said that no girls.” We were shocked. Discriminated because we were girls!! We decided that we needed a coffee break and so we went and had a coffee. We were looking for the other when we encountered a friend that Michael had made. Harry, the friend, had lived in China and had returned to India. We told him our dilemma and he got us a bike! While he was talking to the bike person, we found a foreigner from New Zealand. His name was James and he wanted it for the entire day. We paid just for one hour and went around the roads. I went on first and Suzana then tried. She liked it but it was too heavy for her so I continued. We needed to return the bike at 1:30 but needed to meet everyone else at 1:00 so we showed them that we rented the bike. Emily went on and said that I drove nicely. Emily picked a restaurant for lunch and dropped her off there while Suzana and I went to return the bike to James. We ate and got to the bus at 2:15. I slept for a bit on the bus but I woke up when we were at a rest stop. I stayed up the entire bus ride after that. When we got to Ahmedabad, it was pouring and we got a rickshaw without anyone’s help!! We got to the school at 10pm and now it’s the next day!

Couple of things I noticed:

It’s true that you have to bargain for everything. It’s false that you don’t get help. It’s true that you will get asked to take pictures. It’s false that it’s just one picture. It’s true that you can get ripped off. It’s false that the people are not friendly. It’s true everyone gets heart attacks especially here in India, with what we’ve noticed with the girls’ parents. It’s false that everyone is thin.

I’ve been here for four weeks and leaving in 5.25 weeks and I can’t believe it. When we left, the girls signed that they were going to cry and there was a huddle of people just surrounding us. We can’t imagine how it’s going to be when we leave for good. Emily is the first one to leave on July 30^th and I know I will cry and for now, I’m the last one leaving. I’m already attached to the girls and I have to distance myself or be careful at least.

We got to Abu Road around 6 in the morning. We were expecting to be there at 4 am to Mount Abu. Luckily the bus took us instead of having to take another bus. We reached Mount Abu at around 7:30 and needed to find a hotel. We searched and asked for hotel rates. Vittoria had a great idea: to be near the lake so that we can do the other things quickly. We went to Nakki Lake and found a room: 2 beds, 5 people 1000 Rs. Sold! We put our stuff in the room and food in our backpacks and left. We weren’t hungry so we didn’t eat. We started walking to one of the further temples, 17 kms = 3 hours. We got lost and took pictures at that rock. Couple of minutes afterwards, we found a taxi that would take us everywhere for 800 Rs. Good deal, I would say since the original price was 1000 Rs. If we had continued walking, we would have seen maybe one or two temples. The first temple was a lot of stairs and when we got there, it felt very spiritual. It would have been more appreciated by someone who believes in the different gods. I don;t have the card of all the names but several places didn’t allow us to take pictures. One places where I took a jumping picture took about 15 minutes since many people wanted to take pictures with us foreigners. The famous temple in Mount Abu didn’t open until about 12pm and when we got there we spent a good hour there. The while marble and the history and design took my breathe away. It’s not something that you can see everyday in the USA. The temple was built in about 1000 AD and it was jaw dropping. It was a nice break from our feet because it wasn’t wet. It was cool and dry for our feet compared to the gravel pavement that was wet. Honeymoon Point would have looked great if it wasn’t cloudy. We finished around 4pm and slept til about 6 or 6:30 pm. We were starving. We had dinner but didn’t like the food. Thankfully we didn’t get sick. We visited the Tibetan market where there were fix prices but persistent Emily tried to bargain. She would only get 10 Rs. off but she still won, tehehe! I bought two thing and tried to find the shot glass and tablecloth but nada. We stayed out to drink some juices as well as tea. We got to the hotel at 10 and stayed on the balcony just talking til midnight. Our conversations are so interesting.

The temples were Jain and the ride was curvy that reminded me of the trip to visit my great uncle in Chantal, Guatemala.

8 July 2011

Happy Birthday Mommy!! In the morning, Vittoria and I were talking and I might have a place to stay for Christmas and New Year’s. Vittoria might be in Belgium or in Italy, depending on how she’s feelings with her exams and I’ll be celebrating with her! I’m excited! We were discussing it while we were packing for the trip. After that around 10am, we decided that it would be best if we picked up the tickets just in case anything goes wrong, we could fix it right then and there. It was raining and we didn’t dropped off at the exact location. We got dropped off at the central bus terminal which is about 10 minutes away from the place. Thankfully, we asked directions and got our tickets. It was a normal day after that. Around 3:00pm, Swathi called us and our sarees came! We need to get everything measured for the blouse and we’ll do that on Monday. We stayed in and started to figure out what we needed. We played for a bit. We also decided that we need to go to the supermarket, by ourselves, and get a couple of things. While we were waiting online, we found met up with Jeet and Aalab. We arrived back at the school around 7:15pm and found ourselves just waiting around. We all took showers as we didn’t know what the conditions would be in the hotel in Mount Abu. We left at 10:00 only to wait for the bus to arrive at 11:37pm. The bus was awesome! The sleeper was so comfortable and slept for most of the ride.

7 July 2011

I didn’t get a chance to blog yesterday because Suzana and I came home around 9:45 and we were pooped out. It was a long day to say the least. Our day started at 6:00 am like usual. We didn’t do anything and around 11:30 Swathi, the office manager, took us to the Old City. In the Old City, I bought three bangles for 400 Rs. Afterwards, we went to the alleyway of a road and there so many sellers! It reminded me of Chichicastenago, where my grandmother is from. It was a lot of people and a lot of bargaining. I felt like out of place or back at home where I belong. I was greeted with a “Hello, madame!” Or a suckling of the teeth where you can tell that the vendors just was look at us like a piece of meat but why wouldn’t you? We are four beautiful foreigners and you’ve lived in a town all of your life, why wouldn’t you stare at us? Anyhoo, we went and took off our shoes at this little place and had to go downstairs where we sat on mattresses and Swathi told us, “Now don’t look at the color but at the design.” We were greeted with a man who treated us and said, “Here’s the design and this is the price.” I couldn’t decide on a design. It was all so sparkly and colourful. I decided on one and then saw different designs and changed my mind to one that is more to my taste. It’s an aqua saree and it will be ready tomorrow. It was only 375 Rs compared to Emily’s 1,000 Rs. When she heard that, she started nervously laughing and we felt bad but I knew that sarees had to be cheaper. After we bought our sarees, we had to buy the undergarment so that it’s not see-through. Afterwards, we saw many things and I wanted to buy a couple of things but no luck. We went to this backway when a man saw us and said, “This is a museum. Let me show you the way.” I was very hesitant but Swathi wasn’t so I followed. It wasn’t even a museum but the vendor’s place was near a very old temple that was just magnificent with its arches and the artwork. We tried a couple of things on the street and again I didn’t want to but later found that my stomach was fine. We had a very famous sandwich that we had at the school along with sweet lychee, and something else that Emily made us try. That girl, Emily surprised us all yesterday. She was so confident and bargained for what she wanted. Emily is this Chinese girl and she’s very quiet and shy but recently she’s been getting out of her shell and going to places by herself. Yesterday, it was one of her student’s birthday and she told Swathi, I am going by myself to get cake. Swawthi freaked out and said no its dangerous but literally the place is down the block from us. We went in separate rickshaws and Emily told the driver, “Leave me here,” which was the cake shop and she continued on her way while the rickshaw dropped myself and Vittoria to the school. When we got to the school, Swathi asked, “Where’s Emily?” and I couldn’t help but laugh. I explained that the store was near McDonald’s and that she would be back in no time and literally within five minutes she came back. After that whole ordeal, Suzana, Vittoria and myself started playing cards until the girls got out of school at 5:00pm. After a couple of games, Emily tells us, “I got a text from Namita saying that she is coming to visit us!” We were so excited. We hadn’t seen Namita since Sunday. We continued on with playing the game and then Namita comes and says, “Get ready. You are going to meet the CEO of a company.” I’m sorry, say what now? We started getting dressed and I asked, “All of us?” She says, “Not all of you. Just you and Suzana.” Wait, say what?! Why just us? Is it because we speak English? Namita doesn’t know but it was just about to become six and we were going to miss dinner. Can we go after? No, you need to go now! We get dressed and we smell magnificent! We get on the rickshaw and it was maybe like a 15 minutes ride. We get off and Namita told Suzana, “It’ll be a tall building.” We get off and say, “This is a tall building?” The rickshaw left us at the wrong place. It dropped of us at a store that sells tea. We get on another rickshaw and thankfully a man told us, it’s about ten minutes from here and he told the rickshaw where to take us. We get off and people immediately welcomed us. They took us to the first floor where we saw a few AIESECers that we recognized. The company basically gave a corporate presentation regarding where they are located and asked us to fill out a questionnaire. If that questionnaire was a test, I would have failed. I don’t drink that much tea so I don’t know many tea companies. We recognized Oleg’s name and hadn’t seen him in two weeks so Suzana and myself were excited when he came as well. We wanted to eat dinner at the flat so we went and heard that there would be a party and curfew is at 9:30 so we left to eat at Pizza Hut via Sheil’s jeep. We got there and it was renovating so we all ate Subway instead. At Subway, there was two lines for veg and non-veg sandwiches. They were also couches which could only be described as a similar atmosphere as Starbucks in USA. We got to the flat at 9:45 and fell asleep. I blogged earlier today in the morning and now in the evening. Today, I got henna done again. It looks pretty cool. I skipped first session of class until 12:45 pm. Nothing really happened as usual but around 4:00 pm, Suzana came to my room and said, “The new intern is here.” Guess what? I was right! It is a boy! He’s from China like Emily and a bit younger. We went out to eat and I shared a veg pizza with Suzana and ate ice cream. We wanted to go bowling and Shyam got a call from someone in the LC so we decided to join. While we were at the place, it started to rain and pour! After a phone call from Namita, who said that the school called her, we left. Rickshaws didn’t want to stop because they either had people instead or were heading home. We split up into two rickshaws. The walk to get a rickshaw was disgusting. The water was muddy and ughhh. It’s an experience to say the least. There are bugs like moths that were in the school and it was disgusting but we closed the windows and now I’m here. I think everything’s good for now and we need to pack for tomorrow. I’m super duper excited for Mount Abu.

5 July 2011

I’m writing in the morning of the 6^th. Time passed by quickly yesterday that I didn’t have time to blog. AHHH. I got frustrated yesterday. I kept saying I’m going to take a bath yesterday at 9am. I come and the warden is bathing. I wait and wait and wait for 40 minutes approximately. I was close to crying then I didn’t why I was about to cry. It is a bath for goodness sakes. I can take one or not. I washed my hair and spent more that five minutes and while I was changing, the bell was ringing for breakfast. PHEW, I made it to breakfast! During breakfast, the interns were telling me about Mount Abu and to be honest, I don’t care where we go on the weekends. They seem to care and go sightseeing which I should care too but I honestly love these girls and yes sometimes I just need my space but I’m receiving my space now. I do miss my independence that my parents gave me. Despite living in NYC, I understand why they call and ask where I am and who I am with. I feel like I am a teenager or younger because we need to do be accompanied everywhere. I understand their concern but at the same time if we are supposed to get to know the city and not be afraid, we should be able to things at our own pace. Culture difference. My parents were surprised when my mom’s best friend’s nephew came to stay with us for literally two days and he just came to our apartment on his own and explored the city by himself. It’s something in our nature: the youth like to do things on their own and rebel, in a way. We need to find an AIESECer to come with us. We wanted to bond with Vittoria because we can see that she’s still a bit uncomfortable possibly.

Yesterday, I went into my classroom and as normal and while I was putting the hearing aids, the teacher Vayshali [spelling](yes I knew her name but totally forgot it until other teachers kept calling her yesterday) said no take them out because they are competing remember? I forgot that SR KG was going to compete because I thought it was going to be solely JR KG but it was two activities for both. They practiced for a while and then started at 1 or 1:15 we started the competition. JR KG was up first with relay. Prepping for the competition was fun because we used white powder to make up the lanes but later we found out that it was baby powder, to cool one off to prevent from sweating. Suzana and I were so hot that we need to take a break when lemon spoon was going on SR KG. It was so tiring and by the time we got to snack, I took a 15 minute nap only to be woken up and told that the bell had rung. Luckily, I didn’t have to do anything since I had helped with the first half of the competition. I just watched and saw the teamwork that the kids had for three legged race. I was chilling when a girl came and sat by me. She had so much energy! I was told that she was new to the playgroup and she wasn’t this energetic on the first day. She was trying to escape and the teachers had to put two chairs in front of the door. She wasn’t crying when I saw her. She kept telling me orders and had to listen because she was a strong little one. I escaped to get the prizes.

We were done at 4:30 and the teachers said don’t worry you can leave. It’s been a very long day and hot as well. We left and I decided to read for a bit. While I was reading, some kids were trying to get my attention from SR KG that live in the hostels. They don’t live with us because they are too little. After that I was asked if they could listen to my music and I said sure. I put the volume on maybe 80 to 100% and they heard my music. They were loving it. I left them alone for a while and started to do something which I wanted to do since conference and that was to whip someone with the mini towel that Jil had given me. I started to do it to a couple of girls and then started to chase girls around. They were scared because they assumed that I was going to do it hard but when I finally go to them it was a nice little tap. It seems that everything I do involves a big crowd of people and a playing game. I am also known to be the prankster. Since we have a balcony, and now I have a reusable water bottle with a lid, I’ve been pouring water on girls. It’s refreshing at least I think but I’m doing it sporadically and not every day. I’ve even influenced a girl to do it and that’s bad. She did it once but I don’t want her to get into trouble in the future so I might stop.

After prayer, Suzana and I exercised from a workout video she has from the biggest loser. We stopped like maybe halfway through and started doing our own thing. I showered twice yesterday. After the shower, the girls literally sat me down and started to show me a book with pictures. I saw the word and started to interpret things on my own. It seems logical and I got some things. These girls are so fascinating.

Yes, I am safe and I am having fun. I finally have girls to be around. I’ve lived with boys my entire life and not saying that I didn’t enjoy my childhood but I have younger sister to show pranks and just smother. I smother my younger cousins but not I do with these girls. I love my friends but we have mature conversations and not its not taking care of them. These girls are different. I will live with them until August and sometimes on weekends. They can be overbearing sometimes but it’s understandable. They see the things that we have and who we are and when will they get the chance to be with foreigners again? If we do a good job then hopefully next year but we are making an impact on their lives as well.

Suzana gave me Adele music and I can now have it on my iPod!! This music made me think more and write more as you can see. Until later…

4 July 2011

Happy Independence Day!! Happy fourth! Happy BBQ! Ahh fireworks. Its 9:15pm. I would be watching my television and seeing the fireworks. Instead of doing that, I hung out with monkeys. Yes you read that correctly monkeys. This is not our first encounter with the monkeys. This time the girls told us about it immediately and started feeding the monkeys! It was cool and pictures will be up. Reflect reflect reflect. This is constantly in the back of my mind. Today with my kids, I tired to make them happy. I am getting into the rhythm of things. Ha! I spoke to Suzana last night and yes I bring her up in my blog a lot because I talk to her about random things and she keeps telling me about my confidence. I spoke to Ash today and she said the same thing. I present myself with confidence and the fact that the girls and possibly one leader, from conference, liked me best. I feel odd about that. I don’t seem to believe that.

There are a lot of things that just hmm are indescribable feelings. I was feeling sick today and think that it’s because of maybe missing one holiday. I can just predict how I’m going to feel in the future about Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Years. My computer is being weird like not backing up my things like pictures. Today I recorded this adorable little girl and she has such thin ankles and couldn’t even walk. My teacher though was dancing and she was dancing. She just had this energy about her and is so precious. The class was helping the little ones, not Senior Kg but JR KG to do activities for tomorrow. There are three activities that they are going to do tomorrow: relay race, balancing a book on one’s head, and three-legged race. Relay race was fun to see since they don’t know what to do but this one girl was just amazing and ran so fast and was so into it! The competition tomorrow should be exciting.

Reflect: I keep pushing off my Peace Corps essays. It’s 27 months of my life and it would be pretty hardcore. I don’t even know what I am going to be doing at the end of July, if we are going to Agra (Taj Mahal) or not. 27 months on my life. It’s something that I have yet to fathom or wrap around my head. 27 months of my life. 27 months ago, I was second semester of college. I was still a freshman. If I could tell myself the things I knew now. Economics wouldn’t be the master of me and I wouldn’t have that D in my GPA. I would work hard to be in Golden Key, and that is the one that hold me back. I have the experience and it leads to not being good enough.

I wrote about not being good enough almost a year ago but there are some things that a girl just can’t get over. I have a lot to work on, myself and working on me. Why am I still affected by what happened one year ago? A year, 12 months, has been a long journey and I am still I the process of accepting who I am and who I can be. I need to just accept that there are just some things that will never change. I can’t change the past but I can change my decisions now for the future. I can decide on myself and not allow myself to feel like crap all the time. I can allow myself to feel crappy and bitter and literally pick myself apart but what does that do? What do I learn from picking myself apart?

The person that I am today is because of my past and there are some things that will forever be a part of past that I may want to forget but they changed me, for the better, for good. I have to say that I still to this day like myself but I know that I still need to work on me. I need to work on things that I have lost or are just a memory. I need to remember how to be happy and not appear sad all the time. I need to just not put on that fake smile and claim that everything is alright but in sincerity life sucks and everything’s not alright. It’s okay to say that life’s hard and there are bumps on the road and maybe it’s a learning experience but one has to believe that and take their own advice about things.

I constantly say things that I have yet to do or to back up so maybe I should just keep my mouth shut then. Reflect, reflect.

3 July 2011

Ahh finally, sightseeing! We woke up outside as usual and did our normal routine. Namita took us to the Himalayan mall which we have seen before and been to but we went into to a scary house and it was like a regular haunted house, whomp whomp. We ate at a chocolate bar and it was okay to say the least. I bought a shampoo and two reusable water bottles. I figure, I’ll give on as a prize to a girl in the hostel when I leave or something. We decided to go to a place called ….Emily is in the shower so I need to know the place from her. Anyhoo, it was a good nice place to take pictures. It’s been there for about 500 years so it’s pretty cool. I really have nothing to write today. Just that we went sightseeing I guess. Emily is back from the shower and we went to Adalaj (stepwell)

I’ll play true or false today:

True: It is hot.

False: You don’t get accustomed to the heat.

True: The people are friendly here.

False: It’s like NYC where foreigner don’t get stared at, just bumped into A LOT.

True: Everything converted is cheap here.

False: There isn’t any sort of class distinction here.

True: The food is spicy.

False: Everything is curry.

True: It’s very crowded in India.

False: You don’t get lost in the crowd and feel lonely sometimes.

2 July 2011

So today found out some news. I was suspecting it for a while now but its conflicting. On one hand, yay I’m not being left out despite being in India but on the other hand, its unspeakable. I don’t want to write about it anymore. I’ve had a lot of time to reflect today. Let me tell you what I have done so far. Wake up at usual time. Today school was from 8 to 11 so we really didn’t get up except to put our beds inside. Suzana and I took a nap and Emily had to wake up so that we could go to school. We spoke to my teacher regarding Emily and Suzana not feeling well. Suzana has a fever and a sore throat while Emily just has a sore throat. We blame it on Conference since we didn’t really get to sleep. AIESEC has this saying of “Work hard, party hard.” They exceeded every expectation on that aspect. All of senior KG has a mini gym class session and after tea, I went with Suzana and Emily to a doctor. He just diagnosed them on the spot and said take all of these pills at this time and you should rest for two days. Right now, Suzana is sleeping, which is good but she wants me to go to the flat and not get sick. I am protesting because everything so far has been done together and I don’t want to leave them alone. Yes, this is why I am the “mom” of the group. Emily said that to me about maybe a week and half ago, which is hilarious. After the doctor, they slept for about an hour and then we had breakfast and we all slept til Suzana poked me and said, “The new intern is here.” I immediately jumped up because we had to meet her. Shyam brought her and all the girls are hesitant about her. One girl even signed to another girl saying to me, “You’re the best out of all the girls.” We don’t really know her as of yet but she seems pretty cool. Emily is right now in the office chatting with her and getting to know her, as usual. Emily has this instinct of getting to know people, while it will take me a while to let people in. I guess I know what Hector was saying about his trainee family. I feel like the three of us are a family and there is an intruder but she’s not an intruder. She probably feels like an outsider since we already know the girls and each other. I need to be kind and get to know her. She is closer with the other interns from the flat since more interns had arrived while we were at conference. Tomorrow we might go sightseeing and explore the city! We have yet to do that so it should be interesting.

On another note, I feel very confused at the moment. I don’t know how I feel at the moment. It’s still surreal to me that I am in India for goodness sakes but I look around and everything is in Hindi or Guajarati. I have yet to cry and actually feel home sick. It’s been three weeks since I’ve been in NYC. Monday is the fourth of July and last year was a hectic Fourth of July. I just found out that I had been accepted into the major program, international business and I wasn’t talking to Christian. This year, I’m single and in India. Last year, I was just with my mom feeling alone and not caring about Independence Day. Hurray for the USA. I feel conflicted this year. I feel like a guy. What I mean is that I can’t put my feelings into words. I can’t find the word for it. I’m trying to listen to Dashboard Confessional to feel something but nothing’s come up yet.

I’ve been thinking about why I came to India. What if I don’t travel and been thinking about my life. I can’t plan out everything. I can’t always be what if, what if. I think to be in the present and not care. I know I say that but I also need to believe it and feel it.

I was in the middle of writing when the new intern, Vittoria, tapped me on my leg and said, “What are they saying?” and we started talking.  She seems very excited about being here. Although she is closer to the other interns from the flat, she seems pretty talkative and wants to get close to us. We talked pretty much til dinner and then after dinner, sports, yet again. She doesn’t play any sport unlike Suzana and I but she was talking to the girls and is catching sign language pretty quickly.

It’s about prayer time and everything that is a routine for us is a new experience for her.

6.5 weeks to go… I shouldn’t count down but appreciate the time I have here and stop thinking about what is going on in NYC.

**From June 24 to June 30^th, I was at conference and did not blog on my computer but in my journal that conference had given us. This is what I was feeling during conference. Some things I say are very blunt but I felt the need to express myself and I am sharing those feelings now. **

24 June 2011

So today we went on a train and had slept for a couple of hours. We boarded at 5:30 and the train left at 5:45. It was a bit awkward because we only knew a couple of people. Thankfully, they spoke to us and vice versa. Something that Suzana said to me which I find interesting is that I appear to be confident and its not the first time I heard it in India. It brings me to the point about the difference between confidence and being obnoxious. I met some people that are obnoxious and honestly it’s giving me a bad taste of India. One thing I have noticed is shoving or not saying excuse me. I am used to it not being said in NYC but if I’m a foreigner then why do it if I’m a part of your organization, wouldn’t you want to get to know me and talk and be nice instead of being obnoxious and not talk to me or my friends and treat us like we are trash. We are students just like you and two of the interns are in AIESEC. Talk to them! I spoke to Suzana and it might be good for them to see what could be better.

On the 23^rd we left around 3pm at the school. We miss the girls already and can’t wait to see them again. The train ride was a good one (kind of). The inside of the train reminded me of Eurotrip/Harry Potter. The LC (local committee) bought 15 while we are 21(-1) since one was coming on Day 2. We played charades and the guys that we were sitting with, strangers wanted to sleep. So how it works is supposedly 3 people are one “couch” and the person closest to the window sleeps on the bottom. The person in the middle pulls the back of the cushion and sleeps in the middle. The person nearest to the aisle sleeps on top. Thing is we were over so Suzana and I slept in one bed. Tehehe we almost cuddled. It’s a joke. I couldn’t sleep so she slept for a half hour and allowed me to sleep until we got to the station. We then waited maybe for a half hour for the bus. AIESEC Kolkatta joined us. We got to the “resort” and went to straight to do stuff. The day was long and fun.

25 June 2011

Yesterday, yes I’m writing during one of the sessions at conference, SONAR happened. It was interesting. It seems like a numbers game in all honesty. I wonder how many exchange participants are fully happy with the experience. I spoke with an intern from Baroda, just two to three hours away from Ahmedabad. She said that she didn’t get picked up from the airport from about two hours and the airport closed and she was by herself. The she quickly realized that the place that she was supposed to go for her internship is two hours away from her free accommodation. They also claimed to provide internet but she says at her job and not at her home.

This is one experience but they should be aware and not claim that this does not happen. Awareness is key.

26 June 2011

Yesterday was a pure AIESEC day. I think personally a lot of LCs are here to party. That’s fine but when there are people requiring your attention, it’s just rude to not pay attention. Think about it- paying for a conference to party at night and then not learning/realizing that you did not learn anything about your LC or expanding your leadership skills or the new ideas (forecasting) in your organization then PAY ATTENTION and suck it up. The MC’s are treating them like teenagers because they are acting like that.

AIESEC India was explaining new goals and it seems like they set up goals every couple of years and the LCs need to adjust to change which is great! Then we learned more about the MC’s and they had fun. The LC likes us and are starting to talk to us a bit more. I finally danced and went to the MC party that we had to have dates for. The night was fun and interesting. There was a lot of dancing and I’m friendly with the CHAIR! The chair is someone who is in charge of the conference who is a foreigner. She’s so chill and its funny to see how to locals treat her. We only slept three hours. And we can’t wait to go to the school and have a curfew (sleep at 10). Dana, US intern, informed me of an intern conference but we might go to Agra so we’ll see.

27 June 2011

I was at my breaking point today. The shoving of people as well as the talking over the chair are the reason why I might have had my breaking point. It seems that people don’t give each other respect. The lack of being green with regards to water bottles is irresponsible. Save your water bottles and use them. Stop asking me for water from my water bottle. Yesterday, I totally did not feel well. I had a headache and felt lightheaded. I’m guessing I was hungry, frustrated and a bit dehydrated. After dinner and a nap, I felt a bit better. We had evening plenary and had a bit of conversation. It was frustrating because an LCP did not understand where I was from. He seemed overly confident that every intern was happy from ICX (incoming exchange). When I went into a bigger group, they explained that it was a culture thing. They have stereotypes of foreigners and it was explained that we need to approach them and they think that we are constantly bombarded with questions.

I spoke to an EB member and everything that I noticed about the LC has been clarifies by him. He believes that it is true as well of some things that I didn’t put on the blog because it would seems bit weird to write down bad things about the LC when they have accepted me into the internship.

28 June 2011

I didn’t journal on this day but wrote down notes like the fact that one of the MC’s spoke to us and later on we spent a couple of hours just talking to the chair.

29 June 2011

I didn’t journal on this day either but had to do any exercise that I need to write a letter to myself. I learned that I need to find my passion. I need to be patient and remember to breathe and just let it go. Here’s the letter to myself:

Dear 24/25 year old Analucia,

HA! Graduated college huh? Is it a great feeling? Do you have a job that you like? Are you happy? Is there someone special besides *blank* in your life. Have you honestly enjoyed the last couple of years of your life?? Are you at the weight that we have always wanted to be at? Are you still friends with Ashley, Ana, Robert and Junior and Liz? Do you remember having food time with them? Are you applying for grad school? Have you taken the GRE? Have you lived with some choices with no regret? Are you living your life or are you just idly living? Are you working to live or living to work? Do you have a better relationship with Mom and Dad? Are you happy? Are you more positive?

30 June 2011

Notes from conference:

Don’t act like someone you should, act like someone you are.

Remember the coin punishment.

The future belongs to those who see all possibilities before they become obvious.

Random: You must give Brian access to GK Calendar.

Remember how the rain effected the fans and made them turn faster as well as the sound.

Motivation is something that I look back on and reminds me of the first half of GK last year. We need to improve ourselves and we did. I am so glad that I was a part of that team<3.

Remember to translate talent.

Remember the videos from Bene Brown and Caroline Casey from TED co.

They used the 212 degree saying like Carl did at Leadership weekend.

Watch the Goods.

1 July 2011

I didn’t blog yesterday because I did not sleep. My day started the night before and I had taken a nap at 9:30 to go the train. We took the bus around 11:30 to get to Jaipur at 1:30. Our train was at 2:30 and we had arrived around 1:45. Thankfully, it was an AC Sleeper and I had my own sleeper!! I fell asleep around 3:30 and woke up maybe around 9:30 but woke up an hour in between for a couple of minutes just to switch positions. I slept again around 10:30 to be woken up at 1:00 since we had arrived. We had nowhere to go so we went to Namita’s place and crashed there for the night. We woke 8:00 and then we left to go to the hostel. We missed this place so much and went right into work. I miss my parents and my friends. It was a typical day today and we have to organize several competitions for the kids on Monday and Tuesday of next week.

Tomorrow there will be minor competitions that we have to think of yet. I should work on my Peace Corps essays but I don’t feel any impact yet. I’m unsure what to do because my recommendations have already been written and I need to take control of myself and do my part. I just need to think and fix on myself before I write these essays. Until tomorrow world!

June 23, 2011

Yesterday I didn’t blog. Well, you wouldn’t know this because I’m writing posting once a week. Yesterday same thing, breakfast and all the usual, except when I went into class, I didn’t sleep. Yes, I was tired but I only closed my eyes for a couple of seconds. The class noticed but since I sit in the back, you can’t really tell what I’m doing. There’s a new old kid. This means that he’s new to me but the class knows him. My teacher recommended that I teach the flashcards again but later she then told me about the drawing competition that she will suggest to the Secretary. She told us that we should implement it and that it should be done to each standard (grade level). Today it was be senior KG. We organized what they should colour because the class can’t draw as of now, but the girls here can. They showed us a preview of what they are able to do. We decided on the Indian flag. Emily made the certificates for first prize, second and third. We will give them a certificate instead of prizes with the school’s seal on it. Namita from the LC (local committee of Ahmedabad) came yesterday. She spoke to us about conference and that she needed to know today (well yesterday) if we were going. We had firmly decided not to go but Suzana kept saying she wanted to go. She didn’t directly say it but I knew that if we didn’t go, she would feel bad but so far, we’ve done EVERYTHING together. We are a family since we don’t know anyone else but each other. It will be interesting to see the dynamics of us and of the girls when the new intern comes.

We did decide to go to conference because we came here to travel and work but also to meet new people. I haven’t been to a conference and supposedly this is a known one. For those AIESECers in Baruch who are reading this, it’s the JNC of India. Suzana, who’s an AIESECer in Canada has heard of it, but I don’t know if it is famous or not. It took us an hour to make this decision because it is 6,000 for delegation fees and traveling expenses. Good side of it is that we will be able to experience the train!! OH yesterday at the LCP house, there was an elevator. It was like the elevator in Titanic or in Inception. It was cool to see that we could see the floors when we were going up or down.

Yesterday was a girl’s birthday and we surprised her with cake. In the trainee flat, it’s a tradition to cake them in the face, so I did it, naturally and this is what she looked like afterwards:

We also saw monkeys!! The girls showed us the monkeys by doing the money sign, which looks like a bamboon after we finished school.

I really like it here but I’m starting to miss my friends a lot.  I miss my family too as well but I e-mail them everyday, so it’s like hearing from them. This week we’re going to Jaipur to conference. I shall bring this laptop and hopefully we’ll get some internet, if not, I will talk to all on June 30^th, when we come back!!