Slice of life

Italy, night train from Milan to the Eternal City, arrival at 4:52.

Couchette reserved for 45 EUR.

Lowest bench, 1/3 occopied by my luggage, because there is no other place to put it.

I can still fit, I'm small enough.

White paper sheets and blanket.

Laptop open, headphones on.

Going to watch Event Horizon, the horror movie I wanted to see since I was 8.

Train is running, constant feeling of being on the move.

Feeling suddenly very happy about the whole situation, feeling thrilled, pleasured, small goosebumps.

This is my life.

This is where I'm gonna sleep tonight.

And I belong here as much as anywhere else.

Dear railway!

I love trains. THIS is real travelling.

Seeing the landscape pass by, imagining the railtracks cutting their way into the map, always finding new sights, weird city names, abandonded buildings that keep my fantasy moving. Following the parting tracklines with my eyes, and wondering where they might lead.

My favourite game is to stretch my imagination to find my own stories behind the interesting things I see. Why does that sidetrack suddenly end in the grass, why was it built at all? How can it feel to wonder inside that huge abandonded factory building? How would it be to climb that mountain in the distance, and look down on this train? How come there is so much water glittering on the cornfields, was there a flood? How is life in that small house in the middle of nothing? How did they put those safety nets on the rocks up there?

I can easily spend hours just gazing out the window.

This is real travelling - gaining experience with every milestone the train is passing by.

Flying is kind of ,,not fair", a bit like the cheats in a computer game. You just sit in the cabine, and then you are there, and the only experience you gained is about airplane food, silly movies and about how to sleep in the weirdest positions.

Airplanes are for getting from one place to another.

Trains are for travelling.

Stretch

“A mind that has been stretched will never return to its original dimension."

Albert Einstein

In Asia

Sudden bitter-sweet longing for Asia. I want to go back.

The warm air, the humidity, the people, the mystery behind every corner, the past, the future, the dazzling sensation of life, human creation and nature.

The richness of culture, the dignity of tradition, the shining power of ambition and will.

The wondrous feeling of discovering the world anew.

And the taste of adventure, adventure, adventure, the gift of being a traveller, a ronin, a free man.

Dear Asia, part of me will always long for you.

An ordinary day - June 9

8:25

Waking up, and realizing everyone is already moving around in the kitchen an bathroom. Asking Jasmer (my roommate from India, ER manager next year) about the time, expressing my dissapointment, then sleeping 10 more minutes. Preparing to leave in 15 minutes, creating a quick sandwich from the Dutch cheese and olive pasta that I bought yesterday.

9:00

After 5 minute walk in the unpredictable Rotterdam weather, arriving to the office just in time.

9:00-13:00

We have sessions until lunch about the organizations global current state with presentations from the different functional areas, then asking our questions and drawing our conclusions.

In the breaks

Dramatic ping-pong battle between Hungary (Dávid and me) and Australia (Jake and Tristan), which ends in bitter defeat.

13:00-14:00

Walking to AlbertHeijn to buy lunch, buying a sushi box which had 35% discount. I ate it and I still feel OK, so I hope it was not yet out of date.

14-19:30

Back to the boardroom for further sessions. In the afternoon we have presentations from all the directors about the current state, external reality and main challanges of their region.

After a few hours, the realization strucks me: this is really the ,,final room" of a global organization, and we are managing operations in the whole world. It feels natural to talk about strategies across groups of countries, to analyize similarities between continents, to compare cultures, and to see how all of us are trying to understand each other's regions.

19:00-20:00

Checking mails, sending some answers, working a bit.

20:30-21:00

Going for an ice-cream with some of the team members.

21:00-22:30

Team dinner in Hofdijk (our apartman building, where eventually all of us will live), vegetarian rizotto and salad with special dessert a lá Jake. The PAI is heroically distributing the food in the kitchen, while people from both teams are squeezing in the other room drinking their beers and chatting.

22:30-01:00

Trying out Hugo's (PAI elect) karaoke set! Truly amazing device, with separate microfons and a software that can recognize how properly you are singing, and can give you a score for that. Of course there is a ,,battle mode" as well, which results in a competition amongst the talents in the room. After spending enough time with pretending to sing, we change the software to another game called Buzz!, a really random pop-music competition and quiz.

01:00-01:30

In the middle of the 3rd round we play, Hugo arrives back from Portugal. He just had a lunch with the President of the Republic, being recognized as one of the most outstanding young Portugese people this year. We talk a bit about how his day was, and I wonder if this is just the beginning - hopefully invitations of similar significance will follow.

01:30-2:00

Walking back to the transition house from Hofdijk, trying to wake up my flatmates unsuccessfully for 15 minutes by ringing the bell. Just before giving up in final despair, Marina (VP CD from Canada) turns up in the street, holding her key in her hand.

I'm saved - a nice end to the day!

Leaving

And it is time to say those goodbyes properly at last.

But it's not me who's going to say them, I pass this over to Michael Stipe this time.

For everyone I am leaving in one way or another - goodbye!

Here I am - it's a new day - it's a new plan

Here I am.

Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Sitting in the dark living room of our apartment, after a day of long sleep-in, lunch at Bagels&Beans, shopping in the 1-EUR shop, ping-pong practice in the office, and watching Depo Man in the cinema (which was only saved from ,,worst movie of the year" title by random twist in the end).

A short moment of rest before the next week starts.

Definitely not long enough to put my scattered thoughts into any kind of comprehensible structure, but long enough to feel the need to answer the calling in my head: ,,write something at least, since you've already spent one week experimenting with the blog design".

So let's just jump right in the middle, as I usually do.

After 5 years of working for AIESEC in Hungary, I got the opportunity to spend a year in Rotterdam and around the world as a member of AIESEC International, the global headquarters of the largest student-led organization in the world. As usual, I didn't leave myself too much time to let it sink in - I made my decision, I wrote my application during a few nights in Taiwan, I got selected, I tried to finish all my tasks in two months, I flew to Rotterdam for Steering Team meeting and back, I tried to pass some of my exams, I packed in a frenzy, I said my goodbye's way too fast, and I failed to clean my flat and finish most of the administrative stuff.

So here I am - it's a new day, it's a new plan (as so simply sung by Brian Adams).

It's a new day.

We were presented the 7 week long transition agenda, learned the most important internal regulations, passed the first sessions focusing on AIESEC general and AI history, had phone calls with previous PAIs, and created a game for the current AI team as the highlight of the week.

I got to know my new teammates better (we are alltogether 20 individuals from 17 nationalities), we went kayaking on our first teamday, and we had dinners, pingpong matches, lunches, discussions, picnics, even a first mini-project we worked on.

I have a room, a seat in the office, a Dutch SIM-card, and even a plastic carpet in the bathroom. I know where is the local TESCO called AlbertHeijn, I can get home from the most important bars even if I'm tipsy, I know where to register myself in Rotterdam, I can find the Erasmus bridge, I can even remember some pickup lines in Dutch, and I know some of the main regulations (crossing the road in red light or drinking alcohol on the street can result in serious penalties, no joke).

And the sun doesn't go down until 10:30 PM.

It's definitely a new day.

It's a new plan...?

Not yet.

Feels very much... inbetween. What is behind is long, heavy, valuable, and what is ahead is also grandiose.

It is now a short time to observe, to learn, and to be a beginner - which is not easy to do after years of being an expert. Visibly there are also a few things to unlearn, and there are things I constantly have to remind myself of.

It is now a time of training and peace, but very soon, a lot will be expected from us. Still figuring out how to live up to it best.