Long time....

So, am now back, working in chilly-but-beautiful Edinburgh. One weekend when I have a lot of time will write about the end of my travels, and what's coming up next, for now, a friend sent me this today and I found it such good common sense that I thought I'd put it up here!

"Creativity is as important in education today as literacy"
"If you're not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original"

Full video;

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Past couple of weeks!

So, needless to say, the conference is now over! It was an awesome experience - definitely including some of the frustrating, difficult moments I imagined but overall it was awesome, am very very glad that I did it. In particular the ER side of things seemed to go more or less smoothly - running everything in a hotel rather than a university campus made everything much easier on us than usual!

By far my favourite day was the Learning Networks day in the middle of the conference, with panel discussions, workshops and speeches around the theme of sustainability. There were some really interesting people there (including the ex-president of Bolivia - photo opp!) and I got to attend some of the sessions and speeches on the day which were really worthwhile.

So, after that we did a few days debrief in Itapecericia, before I headed up to the Northeast for a holiday! Spent a couple of days in the capital of the state, Salvador which is very pretty and very very different to any of the other cities I´ve been to in Brazil so far. Last night I spent an eventful day travelling to a little town called Lençois, which aside from being very pretty, is the gateway to one of the most beautiful national parks in Brazil - I~ve got some walking and horseriding treks lined up for the next couple of days and am tempted already to spend longer than the 4 days I´ve planned here as it´s really very nice - relaxing, pretty, and there´s a festival in town!!

Day -4

We're now just a few days away from the start of International Congress - delegates are beginning to arrive for pre-stay, and the team delivering the conference arrived two days ago to begin working with us.

The feeling of excitement and urgency has been becoming gradually more intense over the past couple of weeks, and we're now at a point whereby even though there's lots of work to do, and final preparations to put in place, everyone is just willing the conference to start in earnest. Over the past couple of weeks everyone has been working hard, playing hard and trying to relax and prepare mentally for the next two weeks!

The ER team took a trip into Sao Paulo last weekend, ostensibly to view the venue of the conference (which is incredible - very comfortable), but also to let off some steam and enjoy Sao Paulo a little! After surviving a traffic jam which turned a 50 minute journey into a 5hr crawl along the motorway together, we finally arrived at a friend from the CC's flat, and got ready to go out for the evening. I went to my first churrascaria, a Brazilian favourite where you pay a fixed price (usually around £8) for unlimited barbeque, before going to a huge club to meet up with more friends and enjoy the atmosphere.

Now we're working on making the most of our time, and enjoying the conference - it's surreal to think about how quickly the time's gone past since we arrived, and to know that in just two weeks from now it will all be over...

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

check it out for an awesome video on where our stuff comes from - about 20 mins long.

And....something my mum sent me today! Some amazing photos of our Olympian athletes here;

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Naked-Ambition-British-Olympic-medal-hopes-Phillips-Idowu-Gregor-Tait-and-Rebecca-Romero/Media-Gallery/200808115065813?lpos=Home_2&lid=GALLERY_15065813_Naked%2BAmbition%253A%2BBritish%2BOlympic%2Bmedal%2Bhopes%2BPhillips%2BIdowu%252C%2BGregor%2BTait%2Band%2BRebecca%2BRomero

The photographer also has some really cool stuff on his website, have a look here;

http://www.nadavkander.com/

The end of an era...

So, today was the last day in the office for the MC 07-08. Feels very strange not to be there to share it with them - oddly enough it feels even stranger now than it did when I left 4 weeks ago, which felt very surreal. It feels absolutely bizzare to think that if I were to phone the office tomorrow I'd hear a different voice to one of the 9 that I've had for the past year. At the same time as being sad now it also feels complete - full circle. I know that I'll always have this feeling of nostalgia for the year 07-08 I have now, simply because of everything I learned, and more than that the people I got to share it with who in some way every day managed to make the experience for me. I feel incredibly privileged to have had the opportunity to work with so many talented, passionate people, and I'm really looking forward to being able to sit with them in the years coming down the line, and see what we all achieve and where our experiences take us.

Back in Brazil, we spent the whole day today meeting with every single other team to make sure we're all on the same page regarding what we're doing, and how things are going to work. It's been intense and everyone feels quite spaced out now, but it was incredibly useful - it felt as if it came at just the right time, and everyone is now so much more switched on and clued in on what they're doing, just from taking the time to have a structured chat. Everything's gradually stepping up a notch, but it's cool to see that most of the team is stepping up with it - the guys I'm working with are hugely motivated - very good at what they do, very switched on and most importantly nobody takes themselves too seriously and we all have good fun with each other. We noticed today in the meetings that the majority of the time we can now tell what the others are thinking, because we've discussed everything in so much detail that all it takes is a look to know we're thinking exactly the same thing at the same time - I guess it's because the experience and work is so intense, but being so connected makes it worth it 100%.

I'm still trying to upload pictures, but it really slows down the internet here, and stops people working so may have to leave it until my trips into SP next week.

I ♥ Sao Paulo

So, after waving the teamsters off to Rio for the weekend (more about Rio in another post!) I jumped on a bus to head to Sao Paulo for the weekend. The last time I was there I was overwhelmed with the sheer scale of it – the variety of things to do, places to go, different people and realities makes it feel very difficult to get into the rhythm of life there, or to put your finger on the heart and soul of the city. Over the weekend however I started trying to do just that – and it's proven to be well worth the effort so far!

We started out by going to the AIESEC Brazil house on Friday. Arriving in the evening we chilled out a bit before some of the AIESECers there took us out to a place they like for dinner, and we spent hours chatting over food and Brazilian cheese about our different countries, before joining the others back at the house for caipirinhas and drinking games.

After a long-dreamed of sleep in on Saturday morning we headed to Liberdade, the area where the majority of Japanese immigrants to Sao Paulo have been settled for years. We walked out of the metro into a huge market selling all kinds of things – some of the coolest stuff was recycled or created from old things, such as huge, beautiful pieces of furniture made from scrolls of old newspaper and lacquered in bright colours. I've been really impressed by the level of environmental awareness whilst here – I know that as a growing country Brazil obviously can't avoid some environmental impact, even though institutional awareness is very good here. The thing that's really impressed me though has been the individual level of awareness, and the micro-initiative to recycle and reuse things which I've found to be far higher than in most of Europe.

After wandering around the chaotic markets for a while we went to a large pay-per-kilo Asian restaurant for lunch (very healthy!) and headed to the huge Avenue Paulista – the street with all the big banks, international companies and museums. It's pretty impressive, with huge buildings and wide streets so we spent a while wandering around there before heading out to Bruna's family who live near the airport, and were really lovely. The following day we went into the country with Bruna's aunt and uncle, to go to a barbecue and enjoy the peace and quiet!

So far the week's been going well – everything is starting to feel more urgent and hectic, as people get into their roles and as the date of the conference starts inching closer and closer! But it feels as if everyone (including me!) is now more certain about what they're doing, and the details are starting to come together. Everyone's still got a long way to go, but that's what makes it fun! We'll be working and partying hard right through the week, and I'm going to use my Sunday off to go and explore some more of Sao Paulo.

Teamsters arrive and a trip to Texas!

A very busy week!!

The rest of the training with the other Team Leaders went really quickly, in serious discussions spent sitting in the grass in the sun – even though it's winter here and the nights are UK-style cold the days are still very warm, and as we're in the mountains the air is always fresh, the sky blue and the sun bright.

We spent Saturday in a training session and in the evening went to Sao Paulo's best samba school, where we'll hold a massive party for 600 delegates, 200 alumni and around 50 external guests during the conference. The school is called Mocidade Alegre (Happy Youth) and has a wonderful atmosphere – as well as being an award winning samba school, it's also a community centre and gathering place, meaning there are lots of excited children running around and families watching the world go by too. After spending the evening there we went to pick up some of our teamsters, who were arriving in a steady stream at this point!

Sunday night was spent in Brazil's answer to the Wild Wild West – Itapecerica da Serra was hosting a week long rodeo, and Sunday saw a gaggle of 50 gringos descend upon the madness to take part in all the fun. There were many shops selling very large cowboy hats, and we even saw one that was devoted solely to oversized, diamanté studded belt buckles. We were treated to some bull riding which saw me biting my nails not for the men but for the bulls which were being really badly beaten and provoked before going into the ring – this in the end resulted in one man being thrown off, and tossed around like a rag-doll on the horns of his suitably enraged bull for a good 30 seconds or so before anyone could rescue him – we were assured that he was OK, I can't imagine him wanting to 'get back on the bull' very quickly though! We then went to a stand selling caipirinhas...

Very foolishly, myself and my friend Bruna disregarded the (expensive) 10 real price tag, thinking it was just the inflated rodeo stall economy. No, 10 reals was the price for a caipirinha served in a plastic cup roughly the size of a pint glass. So, off we merrily went with our buckets of cachaça sweetened with passion fruit and a liberal heap of sugar, to dance at the disco and take many humorous pictures of ourselves kissing the stuffed bull heads on display on all of the stands, before going to watch some 80's style Brazilian cowboy music and getting the bus home.

So on Monday the hard work with the teamsters began! As some people are learning about International Congress and their role, it's been almost like running a conference this week, preparing sessions, doing lots of get to know you activities and partying in the evenings! We're now at the stage of assigning responsibilities for the different tasks, and I'm lucky enough to have an incredibly experienced and motivated team – so everything so far has been very smooth and efficient – we're getting through things really quickly and there's a really cool team vibe already, which is wonderful as the time is flying by so quickly!

This weekend I'm going to head into Sao Paulo with my friend Bruna (who is Brazilian, but has lived in Spain for years and Ireland for the last year so now speaks perfect Spanish and English with a strong Dublin accent!). Looking forward to actually getting to see Sao Paulo – have bypassed it almost altogether until now and am looking forward to the wide-eyed feeling being in such a vast city inspires...

Itapecerica da Serra

So the past couple of weeks have been wonderful - travelling through huge cities to tiny islands around the Costa Verde in Brazil. I've now arrived in Itapecerica da Serra, a town in the mountains near Sao Paulo to start on the work of the Congress Committee for International Congress 2008!!

There's too much to write about from the past two weeks in one post, so I'm going to split it up into several and add some photos over the next week, and write a bit about the Congress Committee I'll be working in for the next 6 weeks just now.

I had a bit of an eventful journey here due to an unpredictable bus schedule! Nevertheless, early on Monday morning I caught a bus to this tiny town and found my way to the hotel we'll be staying in for the next 4 weeks. The hotel seems to be a mountain retreat for people from Sao Paulo when the city gets too hot in summer - as it's now winter here that means the days are warm but the nights are pretty chilly! They also have a riding school here with some beautiful horses, which I 'll hopefully get the chance to use once the Congress is over and we return here.

The work so far has been great - intense but the fact we're in such a peaceful place makes this OK. The team of people I'll be working with are fantastic - the core CC have made a big effort to include us and as a result we already feel really comfortable with each other only after a few days. I'm really missing my team in the UK, but the atmosphere here and the natural feeling of the team makes me certain I'm doing the right thing here - this conference has so much potential it's overwhelming and I feel so lucky to be a part of it. At the moment we're waiting on the teamsters arriving (15 of us will be joined by another 40 on Monday!) and preparing as hard as we can for that, as well as catching up on all essential information, making plans and coming up with ideas!

Yesterday we took the afternoon to go to a Buddhist temple in the middle of nowhere in the mountains outside of Sao Paulo, and spent the sunny afternoon playing games, soaking up the atmosphere and feeding the ducks! At the weekend as well as a lot of preparing for the teamster arrival we'll be going into Sao Paulo for the July festival parties at Sao Paulo's most famous, award winning samba school. On Sunday we'll try and drop into the local Rodeo and see some cowboys and famous Brazilian country and western singers!

Am very excited about the coming weeks!

Arrived!

So, after a rush to finish packing and get to the airport, and a long flight (through which I slept, thankfully!) I arrived in Sao Paulo this morning! Am getting ready to head off to Rio and see everything a bit, likely to be out of touch for the next couple of weeks but I am very excited to finally be here after thinking about the next 3 months so much.

First impressions of Sao Paulo;

~huge, yet not very cramped despite the size: the streets are wide and there seems to be tons of space
~buzzing with people, as you would expect there are around 22 million of them!
~the driving standards are actually marginally better than I expected; this is either an indicator of spectacularly bad driving in other countries I´ve visited (likely), or that it simply get worse (also likely!)
~the area I´m in is very nice, really colorful with lots of nice restaurants and oddly, lots of familiar shops from home!

Got lots of things to sort before heading to Rio, primarily leaving a load of my stuff at the AIESEC Brazil office something which is likely to improve my problem solving skills, as I´ve no idea where it is, and have deleted the email with the address.....google?

Countdown!

So in a little more than 4 weeks I'll be boarding a plane to Sao Paulo in Brazil, and I am ridiculously excited...