On the road again

Actually I am on the road from February 14^th :), when I left from Budapest to join IPM for the CEE premeeitng, the GN time and evantually as AI candidate.

You should all know the stories around IPM already, so this is just to give you an update about EuroXPro and my current trips.

EuroXPro

I don’t even know where to start from. The 10 days flew like 10 hours. I want to try to summarize the whole experience in several sentences, and if I want to describe the feeling that I had at the end of the conference it was of being satisfied that we have prepared the ground for an amazing 08/09 term. I was feeling happy to see the things we have been putting so much efforts in this year getting into action, many new ideas being put forward, people talking to each other, connecting and feeling a part of one big global organization.

I experienced the best national night I ever had at a conference – the CC took us for traditional Russian hand cratfs workshops, so we were able to actually try and do stuff like dolls and baskets on our own. We were playing Russian games outside in the snow, but I think the hit of the night was the fortune teller J. And imagine that even after spending 5 years in this country I was excited to try and see all those things.

Meeting the founders of AIESEC in the USSR in 1988. I don’t think that we can possibly imagine what those guys had to go through to bring AIESEC into the USSR back in that time.

The astonishingly beautiful city of St. Pete and the wonderful snow storm we got at the end of the conference.

The final touch of the whole experience, just because it can’t be boring was absolutely randonly meeting Ivan on the way to the airport and finding out he is getting late for his flight, then arriving to the airport and finding out he needs to go to another terminal, running there and checking in on the very last minute and laughing like crazy about the whole experience.

It all sounds a bit like a mess of thoughts and memories, but this how it feels rigth now J.

Than I took a 4 hour flight combined with a 4 hour difference to come to Bishkek for country visit and work with the MC on financial sustainability and revenue generation. And you can’t believe what an amazing country this is! Where AIESEC makes so much of sense, and where it is needed so much to bring the needed change in society – the needed growth and drive in young people to connect to the future of their country. Yes, it is a poor country. Yes, you don’t have wi-fi and expensive caffes. Yes, it is hard to live here. But just imagine the difference we can make as an organization in an environment where the need for proactivity, leadership, growth, entrepreneurship, drive is so obvious and so needed.

I am so happy that I came to find myself in the right place in the exact right time when I am needed.

And promotion time - GN Board applications are out! Check the CEE wiki.
Hugs from Bishkek,
Ira