Under construction

These days, there's a huge construction site in Berne, that pisses everybody off: the one at the Train Station Square, literally in the heart of the town. When I passed there by today, I was looking at these huge escalators lying around and it got me thinking.

It sounds very silly, I know, but isn't life some sort of construction site, as well? I mean, problems arise constantly, and you try to fix them only to be confronted by new ones. You work a lot, you get challenged everyday and sometimes you need to dig very deep in order to fix things or get things right.

Anyway, my life right now resembles a huge construction site. There's a lot of things to be fixed, changed and built. The thing is, I barely know how to approach those things. I guess time will tell. Luckily, my life doesn't need to be ready for next year's European championship. I guess, I'm lucky enough to be able to start with fixing small things first, instead of tearing everything apart. As I said: Time will tell!

Impressions from the Train Station Square in Berne, taken today:

"Hasheket Shenishar" - Shiri Maimon

Busiest Time Ever!

So here we are, yet another blog entry about my stressful life. Quite some time has passed by since my last one, again.... So once again, a short list of what has happened these last weeks:

Skiing: Went to Savognin GR for a few days of skiing and enjoying the fresh air in the mountains. Was cool. Not too much snow, but really good one high above. Went home on Thursday. Over 60 e-mails waiting for me. Great!

WENA LDS: The whole EB elect went to WENA LDS (Western Europe and North America Growth Network Leadership Development Seminar), a AIESEC conference in Goytre, Wales, UK. I had a really good time there. We traveled with the EB elect of Lausanne together. My first international conference. 5 days without cell phone, internet. 5 days on that old farm on the Welsh countryside. 5 days of intensive self-discovery and team working. G-Stars, cru cru cru cru!

"Everybody of you is a role model."

"It has only been my second conference and my second home group, but the fact, that we can share so much, our fears..., even our tears, says a LOT about this group. Topping that in another home group is going to be very, very hard."

"I love you, guys."

First week of university: Besides some (surprisingly) really interesting lectures, I've been to the office at least once a day this week. The recruitment work is taking so much time, and the classroom presentations, info tables and info events haven't even started yet.
We had our first LCM on Monday, highlight: "Ice cream and cake". Had my first "studi-party" on thursday, quite strange. Selling training in Zurich on Friday, as well as 40 Years of AIESEC Fribourg - party in the evening. Today: sleeping in, going to the office, eating, updating my blog and now... taking a bath! Take care!

"I love the rain most when it stops" - Joe Purdy

...just a weird time...

I haven't updated this blog for quite a while now, I've been busy with exams and after that with a little bit of work, studying and several private (and emotional) things. It's difficult to write down one or two main events from these last weeks, I'll just try to do my best.

- Exams: Some went rather well, others went... well, not that well. The results aren't all in yet. The funny thing is, also in University, you write exams and you just can't always trust your feeling on whether it went well or not. The final results can be quite surprising.

- Birthday: I had a quiet birthday this year. Family members were on vacation, so were friends. In the end, I was at home with a friend, watching MusicStar, some DVDs, the Oscars (Ellen DeGeneres is a genius) and after that I went to the Morgestreich in Basel.

- Fasnacht I: For the first time in like 2 or 3 years, I attended die drey scheenschte Dääg in my hometown and for the first time in my life, I went to the Morgestreich, the big opening of the carnival. It was a very strange experience. Even though I'm glad, that I'm not studying in Basel and that I challenged myself by living in another city, it was... just amazingly cool to be home. Living old traditions, hearing my lovely dialect all over the place, seeing all these people having a good time at this celebration. It made me realize that even though, right now, I don't see myself moving back to Basel after my studies and living there for the rest of my life, Basel is always going to be my home. Those are my roots. My mentality, my view on the world, hell...: my dialect! Basel shaped me! And I’m more than ready to let Berne having a similar impact on me.

- Music I: I have been downloading music like crazy, lately. I’ve discovered some great artists over these last weeks. I get very often inspired by TV series like Scrubs, Grey’s Anatomy, and One Tree Hill which have all an amazing Soundtrack. Whenever I hear a beautiful song playing in the background of a scene, I’ll get it after the episode. Also, I searched through my iPod and found some pretty amazing music I completely forgot about. Happens, when you have 20GB of sound on such a little thing.

- Diary: Unlike my blog, I’ve updated my diary quite often lately. Additionally to my normal diary, I’ve been writing down almost every dream I had in the last 2 months. I can’t even go to bed now, without putting a sheet of paper and a pen next to my bed, so that I'm always ready to take notes. When I look at my dream entries from last December, I can see, hear, even feel what I dreamt that night and how I felt then. Even though this was more than 2 months ago. I can only recommend this to anyone. You will learn more about yourself, when you take a deeper look at your dreams.

- Music II: On Thursday evening, I was in Berne. I had to clean up my room and put everything on one sid of the room, so that the people bringing the piano in had enough space. Yes, that's right: I have my very own piano in Berne now. Finally! When you’ve played an instrument pretty much everyday for several years and then suddenly, you just get to play it when, or if you go home on weekends, it’s incredibly hard. Especially when you’re in a new city, not knowing that many people and spending a lot of time studying at home. Now, I’ll be able to play more often and hopefully improve a little.

- Fasnacht II: As you might have heard, a little boy got killed at the end of carnival by one of the Waggiswagä, one of the traditional carnival wagons. A whole city is in shock, but I guess nobody can imagine, how it is to lose a child, especially on an event, that is supposed to be a celebration. I was at the place, where the accident happened today, on Barfüsserplatz in Basel. There were so many candles, flowers, and carnival items, so many people there paying their respect. It was such an intense moment. One man was crying, maybe a relative. Another woman just unwrapped a rose and put it on the ground. A mother tried to explain to her child what happened. Me, I was standing there, not really knowing what to do. I hope the boy’s family and friends have a good supporting environment right now. Nobody’s supposed to be alone in such a time.

So, what now?

Tomorrow, I’ll be going to Savognin GR for a week, hopefully there’s going to be enough snow to go skiing. After that, I’ll be busy with transition, I’ll have to do the flyer of our National Learning Event and on March 14^th, the new EB will go to Wales to the WENA LDS Conference. And on March 19^th, University’ll start again.

I’m still very excited about my election to the EB. In general, I think this year is going to be good for me. Not only because of AIESEC, I feel like 2007 holds some changes for me. I can’t really tell what they are, when and how they will arrive. But they will come. Sooner or later. I’ll keep you updated…

"You Belong to Me" - Jason Wade

Busy Times

There are so many things that I have to do right now. Tomorrow, I have my first university exam ever, and I'm not as well prepared as I wanted to be.

I have to pay all kinds of bills and the only bank account, where I'm not in the red is the one at the "Basel-Landschaftliche Kantonalbank" (Cantonal Bank of Basel-Country), but I'll be in Bern for at least the next three weeks, so God only knows how I'm gonna survive.

And of course all the studying... my advice: At daytime, go to one of the numerous libraries at university. Just pack your books and a bottle of water, no other distractions. At night, alway have a can of syrup and some candy next to you.
--> Today's special at Scheurerstrasse: Orange-Lemon syrup (be creative & mix different flavours together) and Stalder Chocolait Crème with banana slices.

It's delicious, very sweet and therefore keeps you going...;)

Good luck at your exams and have a nice winter break! Let's hope that there's gonna be a lot of snow!!!