You know you are doing too much @ things when:

I got this fw mail from a friend, and I just can say: guilty!

You know you are doing too much @ things when:
1 - You go more to conferences, lectures, trainings, seminars, meetings etc than to real parties.
2 - Listen to the music that your friends never heard of.
3 - You know how to dance that music.
4 - At college, when you have to do group work, you insist to open postulation to the OC.
5 - You call your mom and dad stakeholders.
6 - You speak more english than your mother language.
7 - You never give opinions, but offer inputs.
8 - You don't accept gifts because they "don't follow branding guidelines".
9 - When you first think in the Holy Trinity, you think of @XP, Culture of Excellence and Branding.
10 - Your boyfriend or girlfriend is used to hear "ILY" instead of "I Love You".
11 - All your friends are tired of saying "no, I don't want to bring a trainee to my company".
12 - Before kissing someone, you first wonder how many points she/he is worth, not if you like her/him.
13 - You got a small lecture ready for any time when anyone asks "what is AIESEC?"
14 - You make a PowerPoint presentation to convince your dad to give you more money.
15 - Ask to your friends "feedbacks" on how your haircut looks like.
16 - Answer your home phone like that: "[your name], AIESEC, good morning"
17 - Call your parents saying "Hi, here is [your name] from AIESEC".
18 - When you have doubts in a school subject, you ask for the help of a mentor.
19 - In a wedding, you start to punch the table and shout "this is table number one, where is table number two?"
20 - Your MSN nickname is something like "John LCVP ER @PA BAZI People is cool - "I hate aiesec.net"
21 - 60% of your MSN friends have similar nicknames.
22 - Call "Alumnis" old school friends.
23 - Call old school friends gatherings as a "conference".
24 - Insist to make an output of that "conference" for a planning of the future gatherings.
25 - In a party, talking to someone is "show interest". Kissing is "matched". Having sex is "realized". Having sex again is "re-raised".
26 - If you decide to not go to class, it?s a decision based on the credit policy.
27 - It's up to you to get this list longer...

Almost Carnivals...

If you think of Brazil probably first thing that comes to your mind is carnivals, and if you think of carnivals probably second idea is one of this:
+ party
+ samba
+ almost naked girls in the street
+ beach

One cool thing is that you don't have to wait until carnivals (which happen in february) to get these things in Brazil... and better yet you don't have to go to Rio either!

Yesterday, in the end of September 5 months away from Carnivals, my friends and me went to a Samba show of Monobloco one of the best Samba bands in Rio, we had a little bit of different brazilian rythms: Samba, funky and even forro, besides some versions of MPB (ohhh guys, You might find it difficult to follow all this rythms but if there is a word that describe brazilian culture in general is DIVERSE)

It was a fuuuuun night, in the middle of the week, one more evidence that for Paulistanos (people from Sao paulo) there is no excuse for stop partying!

Juan Valdez got the award! :)

The Advertising Week, has started in New York and in its opening the results of a survey was presented with more than 200.000 votes our dear JUAN VALDEZ and his "conchita" have been awarded as the icon of the year (beating brands like Mc Donald and Michellin).

If you are asking yourself why I make such a big deal out of this news, the answer is that for a country that gets only recognized by the good quality of ilegal drugs and the terrorist attacks of the guerrilla, news like this are really gratifying as it mean for us that there are people building a different Colombia and are being successful at it, this is the generation that will change our current reality.

Of course in Colombia this news did not pass without being noticed, if you can read spanish check what our media said about it here

Thanks for your votes :)

Finding myself...

I was curious to know what could appear if I googled my name, and first thing that came was my blog, which was cool, but then I kept on digging in the results and I found something even cooler!Check this out:

Detalhe da Doação:

Ok, this was found in the Kellogg foundation database of their approved grants, so if you were still trying to figure out what the h.. I was doing in Brazil, this explains a little bit :) and no, of course that money is not in my account, we keep it in a safer place!!!

Guys I'm loving my work so much, I'm happy there are people out there investing in our youth, and young people in AIESEC preparing themselves to make great changes in the world!

Moby Concert!

"so far the south and central american tour has been great.last night we played in sao paolo and it was really, really fun, and the crowd was wonderful." Moby

Yesterday went with Fernando (Another colombian in sao paulo), to Moby's concert it was just AMAZING, great music! Highlights of the night:

• Moby repeating thousand of times the only word he learnt in portuguese: Obrigado
• Moby apologizing for the worst president of US in its history: George Bush
• Sao Paulo crowd posing for a picture taken by Moby, showing the finger to Bush
• This is was the first time that whole band of Moby comes to Brazil and they rocked!

TOP MEMORIES FROM IC

(not particular order)
1. Uninorte ex-LCPs picture time

2. Pigeons dance preparations/meetings/facilitating/bringing coffee to delegates/having fun times

3. Hundreds of people having meals sitted on the floor in Jaipee Palace.

4. AI impossible to follow but stylish dance

5. SSGN Party

6. UBS award night

7. HP/ALCATEL raffles that I didn't win

8. AIESEC 2010 candles session

9. Going shopping with the girls during GV

10. Lights on - Lights off

11. Being at 10 celcius degrees inside the hotel while it was 45 outside

12. Me loosing my MP3 player, mobile and sunglasses (I found my purse with my new camera inside!)

13. Hanging out with new and old friends

14. Samurai Intergalactico and Baila Conmigo Brazilian hits

Check more pics of IC

Time for a coffee

Juan Valdez is a cool dude, vote for him and let's go for a capuccino! :)

Back to India Stories...(Transportation)

It takes part of our normal lives the usage of transportation means to go to one place to another, to go to the school, to the doctor, to the bank, to work, to nightclubs, to shopping malls... ok, I think you got my point, we are nomads, without wheels our lifestyle wouldn't allow us to be so dynamic, visit so many different places in short time, and so on.

I remember back at school when my teacher taught me about the invention of the wheels, and the different kind of transportation the man has used since ever, but I would never thoought there was a place in this world where in OUR times you could experienced the whole evolution by yourself.

Yes, that place is India of course!!



Camels: Ancient civilizations used camels because they could go a long way without water, food, and rests. Plus they could carry heavy loads on their backs. I guess this reasons still apply in India, as it is so common to find them in the middle of the street, pulling carts, carrying people or anything you can imagine.

Rickshaws, they consist in some kind of wagon moved by cycles or bikes, and an expert driver. This should be the evolution of the horse driven carriage.
They are common anywhere from big and "modern" cities as Delhi until small towns and villages.
This is not definetely an easy job in India a rickshaw as the one I am taking in this picture can take up to 4-5 people, yes, imagine 4-5 peole in this small thing, and driven by one regular, not-super man guy, can you? well now add 45 Celsius degrees! no man... that is just too much!


Some Rickshaws I saw in Jaipur have electronic meter, however no one use them! apparently they have it installed by law, but people are not interested in changing their negociation opportunities fore fixed "fair" fares.
Maybe installing side mirrors would be something more effective, as most of them don't have them. I have to admit that riding an autorickshaw can be so much fun, but it is for sure an extreme experience, you never know when the car behind is going to overcome you, not even from what side it will come from, because although people should drive to the left of the street this is more an option for drivers than the rule, in reality they drive to the left, rigth, middle... wherever they can fit their cars into.

In a country where the only written rule is HORN PLEASE, it is surprising to see how cows, donkeys, pigs, dogs, camels, rickshaws, cars, buses, trucks and people can be in the same street without being in the wrong place.

Welcome to INCREDIBLE India!

September 17th: Love and Friendship Day in Colombia

Unlike most of countries, today in Colombia is celebrated the love and friendship day. Although this day also makes reference to St Valentine's day because of comercial reasons (February is the tipical month when school starts in Colombia and people are spending money in books, school fees, uniforms, etc), we celebrate it the second saturday of September.

I was researching a little bit about the history behind st valentine's day and I found two particular legends that explain its origin:

1. Saying that St Valentine was killed on Feb 14th, as he would refuse to quit cristianism, and secretly married some couples while the emperor Claudio II had prohibited it.
2. That this saint day was related to lovers because it matches with the time of the year when birds start getting couples.

Interesting, right?? Well, at least in Colombia we never get this stories, what we get are presents from our friends (usually we play the secret friend), and if we happen to be dating someone this day we would at least spend a romantic nite.

Being in Brazil this day is not noticed at all, I think I miss all hearts and tipical decoration everywhere as it should be happening in Colombia...as here they celebrate it in June (FEB is just carnivals here, and your lover comes in absolutely second place!!)

Anyways, without comercial purposes and means, is nice to take a moment and realize who your friends are, I think I'm lucky to have so many, people that beyond the distance truly care about me, angels as I call them. Thanks guys for always being there! I love you!

I will surely celebrate today while attending to some surprise b'day party of a venezuelan friend, I'll find the time to toast to all of you!

Happy love and friendship day, and God bless you!

Johanna

AIESEC Brazil gets the Global Excellence Award

One incredible surprise was awaiting us during the official dinner at IC, I knew we had some chances to get the regional award but I would never imagine something greater was coming, receiving the global award was such a fantastic feeling. Some of the points mentioned as reasons for getting the award were:
Implementation of AIESEC Experience
Growth in exchanges realized (the record in the history of the country)
MC Capacity (8 full time)
and others I just can't remember :)
I only want to thank and recognize all my irreverent teamates, Vedana, Rita, Elias, Virginia, Tais, Rafa and Sumesh for that amazing year, and of course all the people who were behind making things happen, AIESEC in Brazil members!!!
This is my third IC, and funny coincidence, this is the third UBS award I get in an IC (Switzerland and Canada awarded Colombia then). However this was the best celebration I had, all SSGN countries celebrated together having free beer thanks to the CC and playing samurai intergalactico!!! Latinos del mundo: SSGN rocks!!!

Incredible India

"In India, I found a race of mortals living upon the Earth, but not adhering to it, inhabiting cities, but not being fixed to them, possessing everything, but possessed by nothing"
Apollonius Tyanaeus quotes (Neo-Pythagorean)

I am speachless, there are so many mixed feelings and thoughts about this country, I don't even know how to describe it, mostly I feel 3 weeks is not enough to talk about a country that has been an important piece for the construction of the world we live in now. Anyways I will dare to share what has passed through my mind, with a big disclaimer saying that this is not the absolute true about India, it is just the part that was revealed to me.

Let's start from the beginning, last August 18th I left Sao Paulo to attend the AIESEC International Congress (IC), where I was going to be trainer (faci). In total I spent about three weeks visiting Delhi, Agra and Jaipur mainly.

And the tipical question is did you like India? If I LIKE India, well I don't feel good saying that, I found it an AMAZING country, but I can't say I like it... I can only say that is a country with so much contrast especially when it comes to richnes and poverty; with so much diversity, diversity of languages, religion, culture, people...

My head is still a mess, I will try to organize my thoughts in diferent posts, there are so many things to be told!!!