How do you start a post that should recap the past seven weeks...maybe by saying that I have had a great social life! Haha. Busy at work, and busy seeing friends, which is why I haven't posted in so long. I think this busy life isn't sustainable though, because I am sick now, bummer. I shouldn't be blogging in my state, but I know exactly that if I don't blog now, then it'll take another seven weeks before I update this thing correctly. So here goes, in an reverse chronological order (note that between all this, I started to work again on 22 OCT). Btw: Madrid is at the very end, incase that's all you want to read, hehe...
My 4th DO-IT (this is AIESEC in Switzerland's largest national conference). What shall I say, it was rather strange for me, since I went as an alumna. I didn't feel like being in any track, just wanted to party, spend time with friends, let go of some stress and celebrate the end of my studies and my new job. At the same time, I felt forced to participate in sessions, and couldn't say no because I knew the facis and know that it's not cool to have no delegates. Also, we had some Geneva alumnae at the conference, and since I used to be part of the National Support Team for alumni relations, it would have looked like I don't give a shit about what happens with our alumni now, if I don't participate in the track. I felt like I'd loose my credibility. But you could see it in my face, I am sure, that I just didn't give a damn at that moment. I was a delegate in sessions that I have delivered before myself. This is nothing against the facis or the other alumni, it was entirely personal. I wasn't doing well, and you could tell, I am sure. I had a very hard time motivating myself for anything else but sleeping, chatting, partying. However, it WAS cool to see those alumni (the older ones) again, and hear their ideas. It was just two years too late for me.
This conference was truly a collective of "first times": First time I didn't attend a closing plenary, first time I didn't see a faci dance, first time I forgot my shoes in the party room (my second pair I dragged along, mind you, not the ones I was wearing for dancing, haha. I retrieved them the next day in the lost-and-found box), first time I didn't dance on a table in ages, first time I was the only part of the Sue-Rico-Carissa dancing sandwich (I wa s a lonely piece of bread, haha), first time I didn't sleep in a room with regular delegates, first time I never had breakfast, first time having a new dance partner, and first time I went to the conference by CAR !!! That was fun, right Chiara, Aïda and Lukas? Hahaha. "Gimme gimme, gimme gimme, gimme more...". Poor Lukas, I think he was kind of scared being in the car with us girls. By the way, another first timer: I felt really sick on the w ay home, as in sick from alcohol (I didn't even have that much, as usual. Must have been the fact that I didn't eat much, and drank beer after that cheap Tequila, eow).
- Reunion time (2-4 NOV) with former AIESEC interns in Geneva
Ah, my cutiepies. From left to right: Jörg aka Yorkito, Mike, Jaspal and Eric. I had a great weekend seeing my former AIESEC interns again (the girl in the pic is a different story, haha, she wasn't one of my interns), the ones I was a coordinator for in 2004/2005. We went dancing, had fun flashbacks, had dinner and went bowling. And had a couple of drinks. Good times, good times, remembering the old times! Bowling was very memorable, because I was listed as "Honka", and nobody knows why! They spelled my name to the girl behind the counter, who first wrote "Karissa" apparently. I guess that "Honka" was the result of telling her sans K (without a K). That's pretty hilarious. And you know what? I played rather well for a change! Came in third, even beat Eric and Jörg, haha. As usual, Jörg had to kick something, because he's a bad loser, hehe, we were waiting for that all weekend! That weekend was also my first time at the Bypass Club in Geneva. What shall I say, it's okay I guess, and we were lucky not to pay anything to get in. The girls, that is. Thanks to Leila ("Leila, who the f... is Leila?" was the running joke of the evening. None of the former interns knew her, but it was thanks to her birthday that we got in to the club I'd say, hahaha) and Julia and Chiara too!
- Friends Friends Friends (OCT 10 - present)
Loads of catching up with friends: With
Joëlle and Vincent over a lovely dinner at their place (yummie! and congratulations on the finished
doctorat!), with
Vero over a drink at Café Jules Verne (she's my
married friend from University, haha), with
Jaspal over a drink at Deco Café, with
Nicole over the phone (another friend and partner in crime from University. Girl nailed a great job already! With her first ever CV, her first ever letter of motivation and first ever real job interview. And she's already driving a company car, a BMW as a matter of fact, and has her company laptop. You go girl! Simply incredible, really), with
Ravaka at my place (she spent the night), with
Aïda all the time, haha (phone, eating, over coffee...), with
Julia at Starbucks, with
Sanja at Starbucks, and with
Nadine in Fribourg over dinner at some local Amnesty International event (and running into a random AIESECer from LC Fribourg there). Plus, bumping into
Yemi at the laundromat next door, for the second time! Moreover, I even met friends of friends, right
Natasha? Haha, thank you facebook I guess. I met up with Natasha's friend Jawad from Cairo, who was visiting Geneva for a couple of days for a conference. Jawad,
de son tour, brought along a friend of a friend, Omar, also from Cairo, who has been living in Geneva for five years now. Interesting discussions we had, and it brought back nice memories from my two months in Egypt earlier this year...
- Bob Sinclar concert in Lausanne with Aïda & Kenza (18 OCT)
In order to celebrate Aïda's successful soutenance de mémoire de licence, we three ladies headed to Lausanne to the Bob Sinclar concert. From now I shall remember to bring ID with me when attending a concert in that city! Do I look like under age???? Okay, no, it's just some strange rule they have there. EVERYONE has to show ID for concerts, even if you bought your ticket online with your own credit card. Pfff. Anyways, it was a really fun night, even though we all pretty much agreed that he's only a good DJ for his own songs. Otherwise, we would have preferred to see David Guetta instead.
- Quality time at home, and removing my last two wisdom teeth (okay, this last point might be oversharing...)
I don't think this needs explanation really...It was just wonderful to be at home with my family (everyone there, for a change), and Christian came to Weggis too again. Been ages that we've all been under the same roof at the same time. We also had nice guests that weekend, and I got to hold a baby, after so long (after emphasizing
married friend further up, here I am emphasizing
baby. Probably just because I still feel so far away from that, haha, yet somehow can't wait either...).
- Weekend in Friedrichshafen (D) with Christian (13/14 OCT)
Christian and I decided that we needed to get out a bit again, the last time having been at the end of June already. Given our limited budget, we just "hopped" across the liquid border, i.e. across the Lake of Constance to visit Friedrichshafen in Germany. I thought he might like that, since Friedrichshafen is home to the
Zeppelinmuseum, and Christian loves anything that can fly, haha. We had a cute little hotel, walked around the city a bit (even though it feels more than a village), had dinner at a place called
Trulli (which reminded me of one of my favorite pizzerias in Geneva that carries the same name), which was very good, if not only I had gotten sick literally thirty seconds after finishing my salad! Isn't that just so wrong, getting sick from salad in GERMANY, not in India or Egypt or wherever I've been abroad. We also found their version of the
jet d'eau (see picture), which is quite pitiful, haha. Since we didn't know what to do besides being outside in the cold, we went to watch a movie, thining of going for a drink afterwards. But don't expect a nightlife in Friedrichshafen, Jesus, we had a very very hard time finding anything that was open at 10.30pm on a Saturday night! Just an ice-cream parlor and coffee shop weren't closed yet, and they were frowning when we asked if they were still open! Goodness gracious, haha. We of course visited the Zeppelinmuseum the day after, and found one superb coffee place right by the port, before heading home again.
- Madrid with my girls !!! (4-8 OCT)
Oh boy, that particular weekend almost deserves its own post! Hahaha, it was awesome to say the least! Rrrrrrrrr
viva España! Julia and I flew to Madrid with EasyJet on an early Thursday morning, were picked up by our dear
Sarita (3/4 of the AIESEC EB Geneva 04-05 reunited right there!), and first strolled around Madrid, me basically sleepwalking. Oops. I was so incredibly tired, you should have seen it. Poor Julia, she had to endure me that afternoon, sitting next to me on a bench in front of
El Retiro park for like thirty minutes, because I fell asleep on the spot! Hahaha. Afterwards, we picked up Sarah at the AIESEC in Spain MC office (holaaa! I got to meet some Mexicans again, how cool. Uh, yes, there are two Mexican girls on the Spanish MC), and also met
Regi there!! And who would have thought, Ira was there too! We were like, um, we know each other! "Didn't we work together once?" goes Ira (she's not in AIESEC). I go "Oh yeah, we distributed Denner Energy Drinks for like nine hours at the Geneva train station a while back!" HAHAHAHA. The world is such a small place. Did we party that evening? I can't even remember. I just know that we checked out Madrid quite a bit, athough we didnd't even go INTO the palace (...ladies ladies, next time, I will drag you in there...), went to a great Erasmus party one night, hung out at the
El Retiro park one evening (on the way back home Ira goes "Eow, what's that smell....oh wait I know...." and I go "Oh yeah, I know what that smells like, it smells like warm fresh....hehe, I can't write that here!), watched Fanta4 videos, Gad Elmalek and Goodness Gracious Me videos on YouTube together, travelled to Toledo together and almost died laughing at Julia speaking Swiss-German (where is the video???), had great
tapas and
tinto de verano together, went shopping together and just had such a great time !!! Girls, we need to repeat this sometime, I love you! :-D
- THE END -
(pat yourself on your shoulder if you got this far, haha. I sure am proud of myself for this, because it's like three hours later!)
Labels: Friends, updates
