I am at a beach resort for a 3 day/2 night conference called Acamp. It is an introduction to AIESEC conference for new members where I will be giving a training session on how to market AIESEC. COnfidence, elevator spiel, and 8 facts you NEED to know about AIESEC and they are set! The New Davao LC marketers!
Cheerio!
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Island Hopping Tour
So, one of the interns - Lukas - set up an island hopping tour for all us interns here in Davao city - there are alot of us - about 40?? Yikes!! So last saturday we woke up early and made our way to wharf to catch our boat for our island hopping tour!!
The boat was nice enough - have side panels to sit off of and these wooden pieces to balance the boat but which also worked as climbing structures for some water fun. It was crazy how the boat workers could just walk all around across these wooden planks while the boat was moving while the rest of us struggled to wander onto them while the boat was just floating!!
We swam all day - some scuba dived, some snorkled, and the half which were chinese....stayed on the boat cause they dont want their skin to get darker!! While those of us who are exceptionally pale went out in the hot sun and got verrrrrrrrrrrrrry red. haha LOVELY! Then we finally landed on our overnight island! Got into a room with a nice bed shared with two other ladies. They cooked us bbq meats for dinner...mmmm tuna.....and then we drank (not much for me cause I'm battling a cold) and sang for the evening - with one of the Czech interns playing guitar for us. Earlier we saw some Filipino's playing volleyball and we joined in with them for a very fun game - although my legs were sore afterwards - i didnt think I was that lazy! apparently I am! :)
When I finally went to bed about midnight, I wrapped up in my blanket and was out like a light....until it started to rain....hard.....which normally i wouldnt wake up during.....BUT.....the roof above ONLY MY BED.....leaked....ALL OVER ME AND MY BED!! ugh! I woke up and saw that the other two girls beds were fine and not being leaked on but mine was getting soaked!! Talk about karma!! haha So Yeah I slept cold wet and shitty and woke up feeling 20x WORSE than I felt the day before....stupid sickness. But it was STILL raining in the morning so we all got up and boarded the first boat home to davao city! back in my nice warm DRY room :D Happy as one can be with a nasty cold and a bathing suit bottoms sunburn!! haha
Davao Davao - What is there to do?
Heya Friendfolk,
So I am now working in Davao City, Philippines. It is on Mindanao Island, the most southern part of the Philippines. Davao City is a very large city but it does not feel that way. There are no tall buildings and not a lot to do here. It is a quiet place to be living and working. I live in "My Studio", an apartment building with about 30 other interns working here. I have two Chinese room mates- One speaks great English and the other speaks very minimally.
So what am I doing here? Well I am doing a 2 month CEED for an organization called AIESEC. CEED stands for Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development. I am working with the local AIESEC here in Philippines. My intended job was to be a market consultant and contact companies and raise management/business related internships here in Davao. Since arriving my job as developed more into a marketing consultant for the local members since I will be taking time to train the members on HOW to market to companies since currently the AIESEC has only raised un-paid development internships. Am I ok with this change - yes - it is good practice for me - does this take more time to get started - yes - the locals plan everything which means it goes on Filipino time and not my time. Thats alright! Cultural adjustments! :)
My actual job is a very SLOW process. Since Filipino Time is equally as slow as Thai Time.....things take way longer than they should to get moving. Hopefully things will pick up soon cause I want to learn and I want to teach.
Since I had that little fiasco in the Jakarta Airport with the requirement of having a booked onward ticket OUT of the Philippines....I booked a ticket home for September 2nd. But I am now feeling I should go home earlier so that I can spend more time with friends and family and have more time to relax at home prior to returning to Ottawa for a busy semester of University. We'll see if I can make these changes.
So far, 2.5 weeks in, I have gone out for dinner ALOT....and Filipino food is very un-vegetarian friendly.....there are NO vegetables here. ANYWHERE. haha So there is basically ONLY bbq dinners....EVERYNIGHT! but hey....atleast its still cheap....about $2-$3 a meal. But all I crave is a greek salad! Because of this lack of vegetarian options I have now adopted Chicken into my diet - MAN CHICKEN IS DELICIOUS AFTER SO MANY YEARS NOT EATING IT!!
I've also been wakeboarding and on an island hopping tour. Both were great fun except on the overnight of the island hopping where the roof above ONLY my bed leaked and I got soaking wet and thus the slight cold I had turned into a full on sickness after spending the night sleeping on wet blankets. Ugh.
Now I am working to complete my National Support Team -Exchange role for AIESEC Canada which I hold from June 2010-May 2011 - for Thursday Night, while trying to figure out when my training schedule for the locals will be here for my CEED placement.
Cheers
So I am now working in Davao City, Philippines. It is on Mindanao Island, the most southern part of the Philippines. Davao City is a very large city but it does not feel that way. There are no tall buildings and not a lot to do here. It is a quiet place to be living and working. I live in "My Studio", an apartment building with about 30 other interns working here. I have two Chinese room mates- One speaks great English and the other speaks very minimally.
So what am I doing here? Well I am doing a 2 month CEED for an organization called AIESEC. CEED stands for Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development. I am working with the local AIESEC here in Philippines. My intended job was to be a market consultant and contact companies and raise management/business related internships here in Davao. Since arriving my job as developed more into a marketing consultant for the local members since I will be taking time to train the members on HOW to market to companies since currently the AIESEC has only raised un-paid development internships. Am I ok with this change - yes - it is good practice for me - does this take more time to get started - yes - the locals plan everything which means it goes on Filipino time and not my time. Thats alright! Cultural adjustments! :)
My actual job is a very SLOW process. Since Filipino Time is equally as slow as Thai Time.....things take way longer than they should to get moving. Hopefully things will pick up soon cause I want to learn and I want to teach.
Since I had that little fiasco in the Jakarta Airport with the requirement of having a booked onward ticket OUT of the Philippines....I booked a ticket home for September 2nd. But I am now feeling I should go home earlier so that I can spend more time with friends and family and have more time to relax at home prior to returning to Ottawa for a busy semester of University. We'll see if I can make these changes.
So far, 2.5 weeks in, I have gone out for dinner ALOT....and Filipino food is very un-vegetarian friendly.....there are NO vegetables here. ANYWHERE. haha So there is basically ONLY bbq dinners....EVERYNIGHT! but hey....atleast its still cheap....about $2-$3 a meal. But all I crave is a greek salad! Because of this lack of vegetarian options I have now adopted Chicken into my diet - MAN CHICKEN IS DELICIOUS AFTER SO MANY YEARS NOT EATING IT!!
I've also been wakeboarding and on an island hopping tour. Both were great fun except on the overnight of the island hopping where the roof above ONLY my bed leaked and I got soaking wet and thus the slight cold I had turned into a full on sickness after spending the night sleeping on wet blankets. Ugh.
Now I am working to complete my National Support Team -Exchange role for AIESEC Canada which I hold from June 2010-May 2011 - for Thursday Night, while trying to figure out when my training schedule for the locals will be here for my CEED placement.
Cheers
Friday, July 16, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Manila Philippines!
So I stopped over in Manila Philippines to visit some friends I met in Taiwan! It was a nice relaxing week filled with old city charm and laughter. But getting out of Jakarta was TERRRRRIBLE!
SO I get to the airport in jakarta for my flight and there are these 9 American highschool boys infront of me who are more interested in playing stupid games than actually checking themselves in....it took 50 minutes! 50 MINUTES! to get them checked in.....so I only had about 30 minutes left until boarding....so Its me next I hand over my passport and put my luggage on.....and then the check-in clerk asks "Do you have a visa or on-ward travel plans out of Philippines?"...I reply " No, I don't need a visa I get a free tourist stamp, and I havent booked my ticket home yet, Im staying for for 2 months"....his reply "You may not get on this flight without one or the other of those things please step out of line"....me "WTF ARE YOU JOKING ME?!?!?!?!?" I only have 25 minutes now!! So I ask where there is internet to book myself a flight home to Canada - which is about 1KM away....so I put my ;luggage behind their counter and RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN to the hotel that has internet! I am in no shape to be doing this! I Get there and their internet is closed, so i VERY quickly explain my situation and they let me on - but my visa doesnt work when swiped so I had to run out and get money from an ATM first then come back and pay them I got on and the internet was sooo slowww....I was almost in tears I was so panicked!!! But I finally booked a ticket home off Expedia, printed it, and RANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN that 1KM back to the desk with only 5 minutes to spare and they GLANCE, like SLIGHT SLIGHT SLIGHT GLANCE, at my ticket, and say ok have a good flight. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!??!?!??! And when I arrived in Philippines they NEVERRRRRRR checked or asked for anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW. Hating Jakarta and CEBU airlines for scaring me almost outta my flight!!!! but I arrived PHEW!!
So its 5:30Am, I get off my flight....and nobody is around....hmm??? haha So I find a bistro and try to talk to everybody online but nobody is online cause its 5:30am....so I call Gabe, who is the only one whos number I actually have, but he is in the South oh Philippines in Davao, but he works his magic for me and everybody sorts it out and I meet them on their University campus, De La Salle, which is near the Airport. Woot. And my week was happily ever after. I stayed with an AIESECer in his HUGE mansion of a house in a gated community and just relaxed. Francis took me to Intramurous which is the old walled city and we saw beautiful churches, and I met lots of AIESECers and just hung around Manila :)
Now I flew to Davao and life is good. I am in a hostel for a few days before moving into an apartment with other Interns! Just exploring Davao City. :)
SO I get to the airport in jakarta for my flight and there are these 9 American highschool boys infront of me who are more interested in playing stupid games than actually checking themselves in....it took 50 minutes! 50 MINUTES! to get them checked in.....so I only had about 30 minutes left until boarding....so Its me next I hand over my passport and put my luggage on.....and then the check-in clerk asks "Do you have a visa or on-ward travel plans out of Philippines?"...I reply " No, I don't need a visa I get a free tourist stamp, and I havent booked my ticket home yet, Im staying for for 2 months"....his reply "You may not get on this flight without one or the other of those things please step out of line"....me "WTF ARE YOU JOKING ME?!?!?!?!?" I only have 25 minutes now!! So I ask where there is internet to book myself a flight home to Canada - which is about 1KM away....so I put my ;luggage behind their counter and RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN to the hotel that has internet! I am in no shape to be doing this! I Get there and their internet is closed, so i VERY quickly explain my situation and they let me on - but my visa doesnt work when swiped so I had to run out and get money from an ATM first then come back and pay them I got on and the internet was sooo slowww....I was almost in tears I was so panicked!!! But I finally booked a ticket home off Expedia, printed it, and RANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN that 1KM back to the desk with only 5 minutes to spare and they GLANCE, like SLIGHT SLIGHT SLIGHT GLANCE, at my ticket, and say ok have a good flight. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!??!?!??! And when I arrived in Philippines they NEVERRRRRRR checked or asked for anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW. Hating Jakarta and CEBU airlines for scaring me almost outta my flight!!!! but I arrived PHEW!!
So its 5:30Am, I get off my flight....and nobody is around....hmm??? haha So I find a bistro and try to talk to everybody online but nobody is online cause its 5:30am....so I call Gabe, who is the only one whos number I actually have, but he is in the South oh Philippines in Davao, but he works his magic for me and everybody sorts it out and I meet them on their University campus, De La Salle, which is near the Airport. Woot. And my week was happily ever after. I stayed with an AIESECer in his HUGE mansion of a house in a gated community and just relaxed. Francis took me to Intramurous which is the old walled city and we saw beautiful churches, and I met lots of AIESECers and just hung around Manila :)
Now I flew to Davao and life is good. I am in a hostel for a few days before moving into an apartment with other Interns! Just exploring Davao City. :)
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