NaLDS

It's about time to update my blog and share with you one of the most amazing experiences that happened to me recently - NaLDS. This is an AIESEC conferences that annually is held in Sankt Andreasberg, Germany. Throughout the years it had gained the popularity of one of the best conferences in AIESEC on the theme of leadership. Although a German conference every year it's becoming more international and there you can find delegates from all around the world. I was the only Bulgarian but I managed to meet very interesting people from Kenya, Romania, Denmark, Czech Republic, Serbia, Hungary, Nigeria, Columbia, Italy, Norway, Iran, Slovakia and many more. You can imagine the diversity we had during the Global Village :)
What is special about NaLDS is the atmosphere it creates. For one week you are disconnected from all your troubles and concerns back home and you have time for self-reflection and deeper understanding of your goals, vision and values. It makes you think about a lot of things and throughout the process you realize a lot of things about yourself. I really enjoyed the time spent with my home group - 12 amazing individuals (including 2 facis) with who we had great discussions, practical games and a lot of sharing. I once again realized how important is to share your thoughts and ideas and get a feedback from the others. I hope I managed to wrap up all the knowledge I got there and make use of the discussions and the reflection time. However I'm sure that NaLDS was very useful for me - I managed to align my thoughts and get really close to a very important decision about the next year of my life. Not to mention all the new friends I got there :) I love you guys and hope to see you again soon! Flyyy Eagles :P
Here are some pictures from NaLDS so that you can feel the incredible atmosphere there:

Home group 7 - The Eagles!


The whole group - Sami, Gustavo, Veronica, Ivan, Andreea, Maziar, me, Sascha, Martin, Martina, Davide and Sebastian

Official dinner

Work during the sessions

AIESEC dances

Me and Martina :)

Me and Peter - my host in Cologne

White, green and red - Bulgaria, Hungary and Italy

Can Bulgaria and Kenya be neigbours? On Global Village anything is possible :)

Nice snowy picture after the snow ball fight

LIS

So it finaly came - THE CONFERENCE - Local Induction Seminar of LC TU 2007! This was one of the most amazing experience I've had!!! It's hard to describe with word all the emotions I experienced, all the thoughts that were passing my mind, all the fun I had, and the satisfaction when everything finished!

So what happened and how we did it:

In LC TU we do it good, we do it interesting, we do it at the last possible moment :D We had so little preparation that I can't believe we made it. Instead of taking a good sleep before the opeing of the conference I was preparing sessions till 03:00 only to continue doing it from 05:00 on. We lacked time but we had a lot of passion and willingness to show our best and meet the delegates' expectations. We also had Ivo (MCP) who helped us a loooooooot and who made it possible for us to deliver such a good conference that will stay in the memories of the delegates.

And there came the delegates - around 35 curious people who had no idea what was going to happen to them in the next 2 days :) We left them no time to be bored :) I'm quite sure they enjoyed our sessions - both amuzing anf funny but also useful for them. It was my first time as facilitator. I thought it will be a bit uneasy and nervous for me but when I faced them and saw the friendly attitude in their eyes everything just came naturally. I was enjoying it so much :) My positive attitude and smile must have been contagiuos because the delegates were enjoing it as well. I was so proud back home reading my sugar cubes (short messages that everybody can send to whoever wants) where they were stating their approval of me as facilitator and of the conferense as whole :) It really touched me. Believe me the experience to face so many people and make them play, make them have fun, make them passionate about something is a feeling so great that I recommend it to everybody!

But what about our guests - we had quite interesting party delegates - a big group of alumni and members from LC UNWE came to see us and share the fun and the party with us. They were quite cool and really contributed for the good mood. Always in the middle of the party, they showed they have the AIESEC spirit in them and made me enjoy the night so much. Maybe the only bad thing about the party was that I slept only for 1 hour and barely made it home the next day, where the first thing I did was to jump in my bed and spend the next 12 hours thare ;)

I bet the conference was a bit tiring for all but also quite memorable and a cool start of a wonderful year in AIESEC! I do hope everybody was so inspired that those 2 days will keep them motivated for at least 2 years (:P) and lead them to success!

My thoughts are getting very random and I should stop writing. Instead I'll post some pictures :) I'll post more when i get the photos from Rumen who was not only an important member of my punishment team (oh my god this team was wild ;)) but also the person who made more pics than all the others together :D

Home Sweet Home

Last week I ended my 3-month traineeship in Coca-Cola and officially I’m unemployed now :) I needed a little break and I took it – I went home. It was 2 months since my last visit and my family was very happy to see me again. My brother went home with me so we were the 4 of us again.
Actually I had a reason to go home, a very good one – my grandfather had a birthday! It was his 70th birthday! We had a huge family reunion. My uncle, aunt and cousins came also so it turned out to be a big celebration :) My grandfather was extremely happy :)
I used the time in Shumen to catch up with some old friends, get a new phone number (+359883394826) and vote in the local mayor elections. Those were some nice relaxing 5 days that filled me with energy for the upcoming conferences – LIS on 1-2 November and NaLDS on 5-11 November. Looking forward to my next visit home!

My grandpa happy on his birthday

Nice family picture :)