December Experience

November was really crazy month for me. Recruitment was happening, also MOSEM- most important conference for AIESEC Macedonia took place. Then we had follow up after the seminar- new members had final selection, LCs organized Local Congress, that was a kind og bring back MOSEM. Apart from that we were straggling with the new office, which, thanks to Vida and Titel is working already!

And then, December came. 1.12 I was invited by Polish Community to celebrate something called Andrzejki. The party took place in one of restaurants, many people from Poland came with their families, also macedonian students who study polish came for celebrations. It was so funny, coz it reminded me of village wedding, with all those dances! Especially when I was dancing with polish soldiers from Kosovo =)

I couldn’t stay long, because the next day I was leaving to Turkey. Of course soldiers wanted me to stay (no wonder! When they drank a bit, every girl seemed to be beautiful that night for them!)

My bus to Istanbul was leaving at 6pm Macedonian time. Before that I had last coffee this year with Kara (the gossip team =) and finally, at 18.00 I left. The bus was full of turkish people, I understood nothing. The trip was supposed to be 12 hours, but it was 4 hours longer actually. I guess it took more time at the borders, coz they were opening every single bag that we had. Ones I was affraid that they will take away my Learning Planner that I took with me, but fortunately they left them alone.

I arrived to Istanbul around 10 in the morning. Thanks god Adam (CCVP of IC 2007) was waiting for me.

When we were traveling to MC office I realized that such a big city scares me. I spent exactly 5 months in Skopje, where everything is so close, where I walk or take a taxi, and, what is most important, I more or less understand what people say.

By the end of the day we visited the most impressive mosque in Istanbul- the Blue Mosque. It is really amazing- from insight and outside. We had a nice walk with international facis and at 19 we were ready to go to Alanya, where the conference was taking place.

Aha, exactly! I forgot to mention why I was in Turkey! Of course- I was facilitating their national conference ATEMKO 2006. I was really escited about it, because of several reasons:

- it was the first ATEMKO in the history of AIESEC Turkey where international facilitators were invited

- it was the first national conference that I have ever been to, where 500 delegates arrived

- i was about to see how the seminars in high exchanging AIESEC country look like

- …and the venue was at the seaside!

The travel to Alanya took us another 14 hours in a very luxurious bus (i felt more like in a plane than a bus =) And the hotel was really amazing! With the beautiful view at the sea, with awsome facilities, all inclusive… wow! If the national conference is organized on such level, I can only imagine how IC 2007 will be like!

Premeeting finished on Friday morning, which was all together 4 days. It was enough not only to prepare all the details for the conference, but have a lot of fun with facis.

Friday morning, it must have been 7 in the morning, I heared a terrible noice. I tought that in my dreams somebody is plaing drums, but It was Bursa delegation preparing for their roll calls. From early morning LCs were arriving in their LC T-shirts and getting ready for opening plenary. I felt like at the football pitch, when people are cheering for their beloved team…

To make sure that the conference will go smoothly, some of facis decided to swim a but in indoor pool and then we went to turkish bath… heaven!

The conference was increadible as well. The AIESEC culture is so different from the one I know in Macedonia! But it was so exciting to see all those AIESEC traditions, customs and roll calls! And there were soooo many delegates! Wow! Comparing to this experience, my MOSEM was very mikruskovy!

Monday evening, when all delegates left, we still stayed in the venue. Next day we had some postmeeting and again, the bus took us to Istanbul. It was very funny when we were going from the venue to catch a bus- our luggage were traveling in the open car, and we were with them! I thought I’m gonna die, it was freezing there!

In Istanbul i had only few hours, so we went to the bazaar to buy some suvenirs, then I visited Aya Sofia. At 17.30 I was already waiting for my bus to Skopje, and 116 hours later I was home.

This is not the end of my story! No way! In Skopje I had not more that 6 hours, at 5pm I had to catch another bus- to Poland. I managed to repack my stuff, visit new MC office in Chamber of Commerce (it is f@#$ awsome!) and cook something for Titel and Vida.

Fiday night I already spent in my own bed in Lodz in Poland…

So to summarize my bus adventure: Skojpje- Istanbul: 15h, Istanbul- Alanya 15h, Alanya- Istanbul- Skopje- Lodz: 15h- 15h- 30h! I will be telling this to my grandchildren!

Right now I’m in London. Thanks god I was flying here, but! The return tictet is a bus ticket…

Anyways, when I was writing this story I came up with the idea to summarize how much time did I spend travelling since I was selected to MC in Macedonia (all LC visits, conferences, traveling home and to macedonia)

My calculations gave me result of 234 hours, that is almost 10 days in the bus, train or plane.