Friends from all over the world!

It’s with lots of pleasure that I write this post!

Besides me, there are 6 other AIESEC interns currently in Sydney: Siddharth (India), Gerardo (Mexico), Augusto (Italy), Alenka (Czech Republic), Salih (Turkey) and Salma (Romania). Isn’t it cool? And all of them have been part of AIESEC national committees before, which mean everybody is quite competent, experienced and definitely have friends in common.

Last Friday, we all met for our weekly happy hour. Besides us, there were 3 Australians and 1 girl from Lithuania, which means we were a group of 11 people, from 9 different countries.

After some beers in our Rugby Bar, we went to eat the best hot dog in the city (!) and visited 2 other pubs. I think I don’t need to say we had lots of fun!

Australian cultural programs

Last week, I had at least 2 very Australian cultural programs, as I went both to the theatre and cinema.

The play I watch was a very strange adaptation of the Peter Pan story. It was interesting to challenge my world view, but I didn’t really like it, as it was quite aggressive and odd (in my perspective).

The movie, on the other hand, was very, very good. It’s called 2:37 and it talks about many issues faced by teenagers: homosexuality, sexual harassment, anorexia, drugs, relationships and suicide. As I said, it’s very good, but also very heavy. I went with Sid, my Indian friend, and arrived home kind of speechless. Alex (my flat mate) talked to me for about 40 minutes or so, until I was recovered. More about the movie at http://www.smh.com.au/news/film-reviews/237/2006/08/16/1155407887243.html.

New house

During my first 2-3 weeks, I stayed in Steve and Leah’s house and they were just amasing hosts! Always a good company, they took me to many places, explained me quite a lot about Australia and made me feel at home. Thanks, guys!

My new house (the permanent one) is close to Town Hall, in the city. It’s a pleasant 2-floors old apartment, with 4 big bedrooms, in a very nice neighborhood and close to absolutely everything (but my work ;o)). I’m living with 3 other people: all guys, around 27-28 years old, very kind, friends of an AIESEC alumnus. As you can imagine, my house has stuff like a datashow projector, but no fridge so far.

I think I’ll be able to dig into men’s psychology throughout the year…

Meeting AIESECers

Another random but quite nice surprise I had last week was to meet Uzo. Uzo used to be president of AIESEC in Nigeria in 1999, is currently working in USA and staying some weeks in Sydney.

Somehow, he got my email and wrote. Interesting, isn't it? We definitely met, had nice conversations, figured out we had friends in common and showed a bit (not too much) how Latin American / Africans can shake their bodies.

Snowing... in Sydney!?!

On Tuesday last week (August 15th), something very uncommon happened. The sky was quite strange during the day, kind of dark and cloudy. Then, in the afternoon, there was a small snow storm.

Look at my sight from a park in the city, at 5:30 p.m., when I was headed to the AIESEC in Sydney president election. Weird!

Beach - oh yeah babe!

Today (20/08) was my first lonelier day. It was very good to “re-equalize” the batteries, spending some time on my own.

As I’m fanatic about sea, guess what I did? Beach! Bondi Beach. Although it wasn’t hot, many people were there, including some old surfers (it was fantastic to see an old lady leaving the sea in her neoprene clothes), some Brazilians and other foreigners, with whom I obviously talked to.

As you can see, it’s very beautiful. And look at the swimming pool of a fancy hotel by the beach!

Social life every day

One of the things I like a lot about Australia is the general philosophy of enjoying life. People don’t work too much and the social life is quite busy.

This atmosphere is helping me a lot on my objective of having a more balanced life style. So far, I’m having some kind of social moment almost everyday. Yesterday (18/08), for example, it was Aleka’s (Czech intern) birthday. We went to a pub, celebrated, welcomed the new Turkish intern – Salih, changed pub and had some more cool conversations.

While we were there, a German guy appeared and – guess what – I knew him! He was from AIESEC in German and was part of the organization committee of the conference I went in India, last year. He is doing a MBA in Sydney right now and showed up in that specific bar that night. Small world…

Not that foreigner

Australia hosts a good amount of foreigners in the country.

Some data:

- One third (!!!) of the population of Sydney is comprised by foreigners;

- The biggest number of foreigners is from UK;

- Besides English, the most spoken languages are Chinese, Arabic and Spanish.

Some facts:

- According to Australian students, about 10% of the university students are foreigners, generally Asian, and generally in some sort of exchange program;

- In AIESEC, there are several members with foreign parents or born in other countries, such as China, Japan, UK and Lebanon;

- In my team at work (6 people), we come from 5 different countries: UK, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines and Brazil ;o)

- Coming back home today (20 minutes walk), I heard at least 4 other languages being spoken in the streets: Chinese, Spanish, Polish and some other eastern European that I didn’t identify.

Well, all this reflection started because yesterday was cold and rainy, and I entered a Chinese restaurant in order to have a soup. The place was completely Chinese: the food, the attendant, the decoration, all the other people in the place and even the bill!

In such a place, I don't feel that foreigner...

More beautiful Sydney

Last Friday, I was coming back from work, a little tired from the week, and suddenly saw a fantastic full moon rising. I was very beautiful!

So, I recharged my batteries and went directly to the Harbour area, where I saw the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, the moon and a lot - really a lot! - of people chilling out, talking and having a beer with work colleagues and friends.

Beautiful!

YUM CHA

On August 12th (Saturday), we went to a Chinese Restaurant for to have Yum Cha. It is a kind of Brazilian rodizio, with all sorts of Chinese food and it comes from a Chinese tradition of gathering people together to drink tea and talk.

Check what wikipedia tells us about Yum Cha:

“Yum cha a term in the Cantonese spoken variant of Chinese meaning "drinking tea", refers to the custom of eating tiny servings of different foods while sipping some well-brewed Chinese tea in southern China. It is an integral part of the culinary culture of Hong Kong and the Guangdong Province. In any city with a sizeable population of Cantonese people, Yum cha is a tradition on weekend mornings, and whole families gather to chat and eat Dim sum and drink pots of Chinese tea. Yum cha is also a morning ritual for the elderly to spend a good part of the morning after early morning exercise of tai chi or walk. The tea is important, for it is said to help digest the rich foods, which may be included in the choice of offerings. In the past, people used to go to a teahouse for yum cha, whereas dim sum restaurants have been gaining an overwhelming popularity of late.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yum_cha

Very interesting… It reminded me of a chimarrao round ;o)

Fish market experience

On the weekend (August 06th), myself and 3 people from the AIESEC national committee - Kyle (Sydney), Michael (Melbourne) and Ausra (Lithuania) - went to the fish market.

For a fish market, the place is very organized. There are all kinds of sea food available, the food is fantastic (a lot of Asian restaurants, not surprisingly) and there's a pleasant place for eating outside, close to a not-that-clean water (I'm not sure if it's part of the harbour).

It was a lot of fun!

Middle East talks

On my 3rd day of work, I took a lift back home with John, one of the company directors. John is English, around 35 years old, very friendly and worked for Cola-Cola in various countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Yemen.

Talking about tolerance and gender issues, John said that the countries are quite different. In Yemen, they are quite tolerant with western women; in Egypt, they would see them as sluts; and in Saudi Arabia as blasphemous. The whole problem is all this “structure” is supported by local governors, who posses 90% of the wealth and do not really live the things they preach.

Continuing our Middle East talk and moving to the conflicts subject, I said that many times I didn’t really see a solution for the area (or to Brazilian drug dealing in slums), as the complexity is huge and there are no compromised efforts towards solving the problem.

John, on the other hand, said everything people need is hope and the possibility to have security, a house and a family. Supporting that affirmation, he brought the IRA episodes in UK, which happened in the last decades of the 20th century. Who wouldn’t prefer peace and opportunities to insecurity and war?

Very deep and political, I know…

First days of work

On August 2nd (the second day I was in Sydney) I started working. The company I work for is called Real World Marketing (www.realworldmarketing.com.au) and is a start-up marketing consultancy, focused on innovation and category management, and with a strong implementation proposition.

Besides me, there are 5 other people in the team: 2 from England, 1 from Australia, 1 from New Zealand and 1 from the Philippines, this last leaving in some days. We are located in Colman Brunton's building (a big Australian research company), which brings us some comforts and more friends.

So far, everything is being good. I'm having transition with the previous intern, all the managers took some time to welcome me and have an informal conversation, and the manager director said the job is flexible and can evolve according to my competences and wishes.

Isn't that cool?

Arriving in beautiful Sydney

Welcome to beautiful Sydney!

As the plane was arriving in the morning, we could already see the harbour and the beaches of the city from the air. A wonderful reception!

In land, the reception was at least as good. No complications in the immigration and a big delegation of AIESECers was waiting for me (even with the delay!). Thanks AIESEC in Sydney!

In the afternoon, I went with Carl (alumnus) around the city. We walked a lot (really!) and it was just awesome! There are some older building (not too old though, as Australia is a young country) and many interesting places - art galleries, restaurants, pubs, bookshops, etc. Although the city is big (more than 4 million people) the feeling is of being in a village, in most of the times, due to the not too busy traffic, complete sense of security and parks all around.

Some of the places we've visited: Botanic Garden, Oxford Street, Kings Cross, Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Queen Victoria's Building. The sunset was amazing!

To finalize the day, Thai food with AIESECers. Good start! Tomorrow is the fist day of work…

Things happen when we're open to them

On October 30th, my parents went with me to the airport in Porto Alegre. I need to say it involved some emotion, as I was leaving for a long time and for a very, very far place. Anyhow, it wasn't sad, at all. I think people who love me are getting accustomed to see me far - and I really don't know if it's good or bad.

My 30 hours flight had the following itinerary: Porto Alegre > Montevideu > Buenos Aires > Auckland > Sydney. In Buenos Aires, we faced a big delay. Following my philosophy that every place is place for making friends, I joined a fantastic conversation of some Brazilians and Argentineans about Australia and New Zealand, all of them with different stories and different expectations - some of them were going for visiting, some for living, some were coming for the first time, some coming back. One of the guys was very special and we sat close in the airplane afterwards - a very good company. I exchanged phone numbers with the girls and we might meet in Sydney. Cool to have friends even before arriving, isn't it?

Starting a new cycle

My term in the National Committee of AIESEC in Brazil was fantastic: very challenging, intense, always surrounded by fantastic people, with lots of traveling and very good opportunities popping up. And, at this point, I'm very convinced it lasted exactly the time I was taking the most of it.

After leaving Sao Paulo, I had 4 weeks for resting, enjoying my family, meeting friends from different phases of my life, go to the beach and get prepared for Australia: study the country, solve visa issues and, most importantly, assess my personal goals and momentum.
Doing such, I learned a bunch of things:

- not being developed in all aspects of my life is not a lack of balance, but a characteristic that tells a lot about me (thanks Ivan);

- capitalizing on our dreams, interests and desires is the best way to discover and fulfill my personal mission, if we're very far from being able to explain how, from where and why we're here (thanks Tici);

- friendship is a great and strong linkage we have with a few special people, not completely dependent on interests and choices - and we'd better cherish that feeling (thanks Marcelo and Paolla);

- great experiences are around the corner every second of our lives!

Well, seems like I'm learning a lot. And I truly expect to continue this process in Australia, exposing myself to new situations and people, and taking care of my affections and spirituality.