Why does it always rains on me...

The weekend in Split was really great. In the first day I went to an amazing coffee bar with a great view over the city. In the second day I had the opportunity to try Octopus cooked via a typical cooking method from Dalmatia Region which is called “Peka”, I also went to an amazing sightseeing place in memory of the war soldiers from which it was possible to see the islands and cities around. In the third day I went climbing this mountain in Split called “Marjan” with an amazing view also and also I went up the St. Domnius’ Bell Tower of the Palace of Dioclatian. I was completely fascinated with the old part of the city, the palace, and the streets, so full of history. What I liked most is the fact that local people are still living inside the palace in so pictorial small houses. Also, a funny thing that happened is that I was walking in the Riva at night and suddenly I hear Portuguese. There was a large group of Portuguese people doing some kind of study tour to the palace and I found myself following them just to hear a bit of Portuguese. It’s was such a great feeling :) Besides all this, I went everyday to the beach and I had great parties. Thank you all guys for such great moments. Now I’m back to Zagreb, its 18 Cº outside, and it will probably rain. Actually, in this city I think it rains every week at least once. This is a picture from the beginning of July, so you can see. And now, I’m going to take advantage of the fact that I am in the center of Europe and start travelling. Today the destination is Slovenia.

Wine with Coca-cola

Last week I had a lot of work because I was going to have an AIESEC Conference (5 days with the 5 local responsibles for HR, all girls!) mainly for knowledge sharing, decision making and define actions steps for the term.

So, after 1 hour of sleep I left Zagreb on Thursday to Starigrad (it means old city), a small city in the coast near Paklenica, a National Park.

We really had a good time, we have covered everything we needed, we were very flexible but effective, we made important decisions, we danced, we still had time to go to beach everyday (the water is around 26-28 Cº), to get to know and to drink. One interesting custom here is to mix wine with coca-cola. Young people normally buy very cheap red wine and mix it with coca-cola and also in AIESEC conferences the same happens. With white wine, they mix it with mineral water.

(This is a photo when we left home one night; the one that we took when we arrived is censured). I had a great time and I am very satisfied with the final outcome. It was somehow challenging but I’ve learned a lot of important things about the country and especially about the AIESEC culture in Croatia.

I can say now that one of the biggest strength of AIESEC in Croatia is the mindset that people have that they are One AIESEC. Just to give an example, in LC Meetings it’s normal to present the activities and projects of others LC’s. So, it was very interesting to see them discussing about things such as “How to communicate selection to new members” because they were concerned in transmitting the same message, otherwise it wouldn’t be good when different members from different LC’s talked about it and perceive differences in the process…

So, after those five days I’m back in Zagreb, I’ll soon start my vacations until 10th of August and I’m going to Split and to Belgrade for sure, and probably some other places...

Last Month Update II

Continuation...

- Fourth week: I went to do some sightseeing with Geet (Indian) to downtown of Zagreb. I really like this city, specially the coffee bars in every street, the parks, and the large roads with a lot of space to walk.

- Fifth week: this was a very busy week with a lot of work. Me and Sinisa we manage to clean the office and now it seems a new place (I think it’s smaller than the Portuguese MC Office but it was a window, and that makes all the difference).

Also that week, there was an AIESEC’er from Brazil here, Luis, so it was pretty cool to speak in Portuguese with someone heheh. Another coincidence is that he is Lilian’s friend, an intern of AIESEC ISCTE in 2003, they were from the same LC. So we went clubbing in Zagreb (finally!) with AIESEC people and we went to a barbecue near a lake in Zagreb in the weekend.

Well, we started playing drinking games and this is the photo after the four of us going inside the lake (including the mobile :\) - Sixth week: in the last week the highlight was to go to a football match: Dinamo Zagreb (2) vs. (1) Wolfsburg, a friendly game. It was pretty cool so see that the lyrics change but the melodic of cheering groups are the same as in Portugal football matchs heheh. So, were it is a very brief resume of my weeks here, ufa…

Last Month Update I

So, what happened during this first month?

- First week: it was mostly preparation to visit the LC (Local Committee) of AIESEC in Split, for which I am responsible to coach. Here you can see photos from MC (it’s the team that I belong to and it stands for Membership Committee) house (we live in the second floor) from which I take 45 minutes to get to the office and 40 to the city center.

- Second week: the visit to Split. It’s a very beautiful city and reminds me Funchal.

I had the opportunity to visit the castle and the beach (twice, and I even went to swim once). More than once, we went to the beach at night to drink (in Croatia that is very usual among young people, to buy drinks, go to some place outside and then to go clubbing). I was very well received and it was very interesting to get to know better the LC, but there is definitely a lot of work to do.

Two interesting episodes: one German guy that last year was in Split for an internship was there during my visit period in vacations and I had the opportunity to meet him. The funny thing is that it wasn’t the first time because we knew each other from EuroLDS (AIESEC conference in Spain 2004 where I was delegate and he was from the organization). What a coincidence :)

Second episode: the EB (Executive Board) from Split wanted to learn a Portuguese Roll Call, so I have teach them “Estou Alegre” song, and here it is one photo from what they have wrote to be able to tape the video I have sent to the communities heheh. Can you understand anything?

Then I went back to Zagreb and finally I meet the Indian girl that had arrived meanwhile to Croatia. That week I also went to an LC Meeting of LC Zagreb (they have LC Meetings every week!).

- Third week: finally we manage to gather all the team together. We started with the MC planning and we also had some Teambuilding moments. We went to this very beautiful and big park in Zagreb, Maksimir.

To be continued...

My first days in Croatia during May 07

For me, this blog purpose is also to assure that by the end of my experiences abroad I have my own testimonies in place. So, it makes sense to post an old e-mail I have sent in May during my first days in Croatia:

“Bok!

I’m writing you directly from Zagreb, Croatia. The city where I will live for one year in the next term. These last week has been amazing and there is a lot that I would like to share with you guys:

The City: I haven’t seen much, but it’s very green, I haven’t seen traffic until now and there are people in the street until very late, which is great. An interesting thing is that from 9pm on no one buys tram tickets because they know that there isn’t anyone at that time checking heheh.

The Language: These will be definitely my biggest challenge. I have learned some key words, but the pronunciation is quite difficult for me. Just a curiosity, there is a girl who people call “Keka”, so you can imagine my reaction when I first heard it, and what goes through my mind when someone calls her :)

The People: I think that in general they are similar to Portuguese (from my perspective until now): going to the coffee doing nothing after lunch, not being that much worried about time, sometimes is difficult to people to be focus, they also in a discussion start talking at the same time as others, are friendly, are very often saying jokes.The main differences until now are the ratio of smokers, in this country is huge, at least in young people! They say more jokes than we do, they have an amazing capacity to laugh from themselves much bigger than Portuguese, the men seem and act more as gentlemen’s, they eat a lot of sweets, most women use make up everyday…

The MC 07/08, my team: One of my main expectations was concerning my MC team. For those that don’t know, we are by now 7 people (MCP, VP Finance, VP ER, VP Exchange, VP Talent Management, VP Communication and IS Coordinator): 4 from Croatia, one from India, one from Serbia and me. I only knew the VP ER, so I have really looking forward to meet the rest. What I can say by now is that they are mature people, committed and able to deal with time pressure. I also feel that we are aligned with what we want to achieve and there is team cooperation. By now, we had a great time together and I already have a lot of good memories to take with me :)

AIESEC Croatia: The other main expectation that I had was to meet the real AIESEC Croatia (the people, the attitude …) and in the last 4 days I had the opportunity for that in the National Planning Conference (very similar to Start). There are a lot of differences in the processes and in the state of AIESEC Croatia, but on the other hand, there are many things that are exactly the same. I don’t have much time now (we are already late heheh), just would like to share the main difference that I noticed, the honesty, transparency towards others: they admit their mistakes in front of others (whether MC or EB, doesn’t matter), they talk easily about their problems, they say what they think, they are not political as AIESEC Portugal, as far as I can see. And the parties, well, everyone dances a lot and many people don’t sleep at all :) They also have the “Azeiteiro” party, but with another name heheh.

Last thing, I already have a new LC for which I will be responsible for this term: LC Split :) They have a very strong culture and challenges, but I really feel I will be able to deal with it and contribute to support them. Can’t wait for it.

I think that it’s all for now, miss you all and see you soon. Pozdrav.”

14-05-07

Welcome...

After a month in my first destination, I resigned to the fact that creating a blog is the best option to keep track of my experiences and, off course, to share with my friends what I’ve been doing :)

Therefore, here is my blog for those who are interested to know what I’ve been experiencing. And if it’s not your case, well, don’t waste your time here heheh.

Just to remind: a month ago I travelled from Portugal to Croatia, to start my one year term as Vice-President of Talent Management (HR) in AIESEC Croatia, being part of a team of 7 people (6 full-time, 1 part-time) with 3 Croats, 1 Croat from Serbia, 1 Serbian, 1 Indian and me, Portuguese. This also includes living with the indian girl, the serbian girl and the Croat/Serbian guy in Zagreb, being the responsible to coach the local office of AIESEC in Split, to learn this country language, to travel around East Europe and to face a cold winter heheh.

And after this year, we will see what the future holds.

Welcome…