: : Got my Gmail account today!!!! : :

All the storage you need...

Yep, thats pretty much the posting. I joined the Beta testers today for a preview of web based mail that stores mail by conversations, not dates, can store 1GB of mails and best of all - its free!!!!

Its not avaliable for public use yet, I had to get invited by a goober friend of mine who already had it, but you can check it out here: Gmail

: : Got my Gmail account today!!!! : :

All the storage you need...

Yep, thats pretty much the posting. I joined the Beta testers today for a preview of web based mail that stores mail by conversations, not dates, can store 1GB of mails and best of all - its free!!!!

Its not avaliable for public use yet, I had to get invited by a goober friend of mine who already had it, but you can check it out here: Gmail

http://gmail.google.com/

: : Dreaming of a one bedroom apartment somewhere : :

Musings of a pissed off roomate


Roommate Etiquette by B:
Occupant as used within refers to me or you the reader
Second Occupant as used within is to refer to the roommate.

1. Living Arrangements
The space to be shared by the occupant and second, and or third occupant is to be considered available to all with the confines of what is agreed to be reasonable hours of the day. This applies to all available space in the dwelling with the EXCEPTION of ALL occupants private sleeping rooms. If invited into the bedroom this invitation is valid as per the terms stipulated in the verbal agreement between the occupant and other occupants. As a general rule, use the vampire methodology – once invited the vampire (otherwise known as the second occupant) is free at the leisure to enter as much as they want.

To avoid the Vampire situation, state explicitly at the time of invitation the rules governing future entry. If only governments could provide us with such clarity.

2. Hygiene and Maintenance

Shared dwellings are subject to the “Extra Muckiness Factor” – a symptom attributed to excessive use of toilet, bathroom and kitchen facilities. It is the responsibility of all occupants to ensure that the Muckiness is removed and in a timely manner. A written agenda (preferably prepared in an excel spreadsheet) is the ideal roster of shared duties or “chores” however such an agenda is very difficult to implement and can cause future disagreements if the occupants idea of “clean” differs from the second occupant.

A verbal agreement to all “chip in” is appreciated but usually renders the occupant responsible for ALL tasks up until the point known as “pissed off and fed-up” where the occupant refuses to provide the benefits of a Muckiness-Free bathroom to the second occupant, instead waiting until “the bastard moves out before I clean that!”

3. Food

Food is to be considered the property of the purchasing occupant unless otherwise stipulated in verbal agreement between occupant and second occupant.

Such verbal agreement renders all property claims by the occupant to the second occupant null and void due to the adverse situation created by the, “Well you said it was ok last time” argument.

Whilst there is differing opion as to whether or not Milk is infact considered “Food”, it is not considered acceptable to take a “drop or two” for one’s tea unless stipulated in verbal agreement above.

In the case that the occupant does not earn more than a trainee salary, particular attention should be paid to all of the above. Every beer is an individual and losses are noticed.

4. Music/Television

Access to the apparatus involved in the provision of music of television programmes is to be used on a first-come, first-served basis. If the occupant is watching for example “CNN” and leaves the room, this does not indicate an abdication of tv-rights. The television must be turned off via remote or on/off button located on the apparatus before rights are officially transferred.

Singing is acceptable if maintained within the second occupants bedroom or, should none of the other occupants be present then anywhere in the dwelling. If the occupant is cooking breakfast in the kitchen early in the morning, it is not acceptable for the second occupant to “sing shit, stupid songs louder and louder just to get on my tits” right next to the occupant.

5. Guests

Significant others belonging to the occupant, the second or third occupants are more than welcome and once admitted are expected to adhere to all of the above. The second occupant giving ones keys to the dwelling to acquaintances met just weeks earlier so that they may fornicate or participate in any other extra curricular activities with random partners unbeknownst to the occupant is strictly forbidden. This is considered impolite and, well just really bloody freaky!

:: A quick train trip? Not really... : :

Are you even in the right city Andrew? Strassburg yeah?...

Went to Strassburg on the weekend. A group of trainees from Luzern (a huge group that have all been working together for some time now) are all finishing up at the end of this month, had organised a weekend there.

We just caught a dirt cheap train - 25€ for 5 ppl return - bargain. Beautiful little town, I loved it. This is not why I blog today though. For a good account of Strassburg check here

The real reason I am inspired to write is to tell the tales of Andrew, the new trainee in town, previously of Seatlle, he now rides the GM Wheat Combine Harvester with us here at Syngneta.

The day started with 4 of our 5 cheap-as ticket crew waiting for Andrew. Informed via Cindy (by him the night before) that he would be at the station an hour ahead of time, we infact had 4 minutes till depature time, whilst he was still heading into town on the tram.

Running and nearly missing the train ourselves, the four of us just made it and had to leave a man behind....
A phone call later and Andrew was going to catch a train 2 hours later and meet us there. We figured we would meet up with the group, have some lunch, a quick look around and then meet Andy at the Cathedral - a massive church and centre piece of the town.

Well, we arrived, we did lunch, we met the Luzern ppl and then after a brief walk around we met at the cathedral and waited for Andy to show...No sign of him...Text messages back and forth, him saying he was at the cathedral, us saying that he infact wasn't....Finally after 2 hours of waiting and searching for the poor lad, we received a message that he was going to head back home.

Extremely cold (don't even get me started on the crap weather we are having in the middle of summer), slightly annoyed and having not seen much of anything, we journeyed on to see the European Parliament - a real funky round building that reminded me a little bit of the record company building in the movie Ford Fairlane - not sure if it was maybe Tower records? Anyways....

Back into town we found a restaurant that resembled Denny's but was self-service, called "Flunch" we had a great all you can eat meal really cheap and received another message from Andy that he had missed his train and wanted to catch the train home with us at 23:05.

To give an idea of what this looks like, we caught a 12:17 train, arrived around 14:00; waited from 16:00 - 18:00 for Andy; walked about, shopped and then had dinner at 21:00 and then had a beer before making our way back to the train. Andy was lost from about 15:00 - 23:05. Suffice to say by the time we found him back at the train station, he hadn't seen much; confused the Prefecture (old govt. building) with the Parliament (new and funky) and had been drinking to drown his sorrows.

Ah well, there is always the next trip!

Oh and did I mention he also got stiffed a 31CHF ticket to Strassburg one-way aswell? I don't think he really is a fan the way I am of Strassburg!

: : Up to Date? : :

Just realised that for the first time in my history of blogging - I am finally up to date....

Maybe I could start talking about current affairs now...

: : Missing the Anzac cookies... : :

Feeling Homesick
I don't know if its the fact that I know a huge gathering of Aussies are practically at my door step but still too far to reach (have fun in Hannover guys, but as usual $$$$ and lack of vacation time to spare is always a menace) but I am feeling a bit home sick today and found the following in my wanton webpage surfin...
Do you remember the Fosters Ad? - This is a little bit different...

"I ate my pet Kangaroo.
I am shit scared of crocodiles.
And I wear a baseball cap.
I love Star Wars.
And the wookie is my favourite.
I would rather get pissed.
And watch someone else carry the country's flag with pride.
I like to rock.
To Billy Ocean.
I am blind to my incompetence.

My brothers are the Smiths, the Wilson's, the Santerelli's, the De Costis, the Wong's and the Jagamarras.
I watch football with a tinnie.
I take the beetroot off my hamburgers and throw Macca's pickles on windows.
I do runners from taxis.
I believe the world is flat.
And Australia is fucking miles away from anywhere.
I believe Australia has the best address on earth.
And Australians brew the best beer on earth.
And that's why we never touch Fosters...

All the best Aussie's abroad - aussie, aussie, aussie, oi, oi, oi - have a beer for me and remember Full Cream Poof on the hash run...

** The Real Fosters Ad:
I don't have a kangaroo for a pet. / I don't wrestle with crocodiles. / And I don't wear a cork hat. / I fight wars. / But never start wars. / I would rather make peace. / I can wear my country's flag with pride. / I am a rock. / I am the island continent. / My brothers are the Smiths, the Wilson's, the Santerelli's, the De Costis, the Wong's and the Jagamarras. / I play footbal without a helmet. / I like beetroot on my hamburger. / I ride in the front seat of a taxi. / I believe its a prawn not a shrimp. / I believe the world is round and down under is on top. / I believe Australia is the best address on Earth. / And Australians brew the best beer.

: : Back to Italy, second time is a better time : :

Milan, Venice and Florence - 4 days in a 4 door...

Went back to Italy, this time with Laura, and without Esteban and his 180+km/h driving…

Driving through Switz we found a really cool lake to sit, chill and eat lunch – really got a big thing for canned, tomato sauce tuna now – and its so cheap!!

Laura crashed out most of the drive, so whilst she was out I drove us to Bellinzona so she could see the 3 castles near there. She loved it and it meant a free get out of jail card for me later. Nah not really…Although I still haven’t cashed that one in yet…Hmmm.

Back on track – we arrived to Como in ok time, but I lost 2 hours trying to find the friends place where we were staying – have been there a few times now and it is really easy to find, providing you find that first turn-off which no you never bloody can!

Anyways – a nice pizza meal in Milano followed by some brief shopping the next day (should see my new porn sunnies – they are huge!!! Courtesy of vogue and a small country foreign debts’ worth of cash)….Next stop was Venice.

Been there done that, but to go back a second time and share the beauty of the place with someone you love – it was unbelievable….I have tried to black out from my memory the fact that I was lost here for about 2 hours as well trying to find our hotel room….In all seriousness though it was soo great. The 14€ gin and tonic was just a bit too touristy though – ripped off!!

Next stop in our Black VW Golf (after some initial difficulty with gears, I have grown to love this car) was Florence….Real beautiful city, but again, lost for 2 hours, this time driving round and round the city trying to find a park for the car that wouldn’t cost over 30€ for a night! Insane man….

Did the leather markets and found out from one rambunctious salesman that “to try is free, to buy is a pleasure”...Well let me tell you, there pleasure would be all his if we paid the 240€ he was asking for a jacket…pffft!

We settled for a new handbag for Laura and a work satchel for me.

Will stick up a photo mix to give you a look when I get the pics from Laura.

As always can check my pic library at Sony Image Station (I will upload some pics in the next week or so then post a new link) for a look at the whole Euro Trip (which on a complete tangent is the name of a movie I saw recently….Starring some random guys, Buffy’s Sister and Vinnie Jones in the part of a football hooligan – this movie is so funny…wet your pants, fall off your seat kinda funny – check it out here....

: : An email from Lato, and I was off to Turkey... : :

Quick trip...
Turkey was amazing and so good to see Lato again. Hanging at his house, walking the streets, eating enough food to gain 2 kilos in a week, the Turkish Bath, real döner kebab - it all rocked. The best part of the trip though was definitely going to Gallipolli.

You start the tour by watching a documentary and we also scammed our way into a screening of the Mel Gibson movie…It was so powerful to be there and watch the movie – it really shakes you up.

The most surprising thing about Gallipolli is that the place is so beautiful. To imagine these poor young lads going at it for so long, trapped on what is virtually a holiday island – well it would be if not for the fact it’s a living museum.

Met up with a couple of Nurses on the Gallipolli tour, newlyweds who live and work around the corner from my nan – small world….

Beer was cheap, the food was so great after the past few months of cafeteria food at work, and the shisha was aplenty – I had an awesome time and would definitely head back there – lets eee if Lato gets Ausl residency...

It did really make me realise how much I miss the Aussies back home, especially my friends.

Trying to catch up my blog means sacrificing detail, but ah well…When its caught up you will probably be cursing my random musings and appreciate months of inactivity in the past!

: : Music Festivals, more pints puhlease... : :

St Gallen open air and more...

July 9 - The last few weeks have been quite a blur...With the Euro Football going on, its meant that every free night was at the local watching the game, spending copious amounts of cash on over priced beer - and I have to say, all I have to show for it is a lighter wallet, some bad headaches at work and an ugly green Carlsberg cap! In all seriousness though, it was great fun though to be in the pub each night with people from each of the different country teams -Basel is nothing short of a foreigner city, with a few swiss that live here. I have never seen so many blondes in one place as I did when the Swedes and Denmark were playing...

Went to a music festival in St Gallen last weekend. Faithless, Ben Harper, Muse, Black Eyed Peas, The Darkness, Kaizers Orchestra (Suprisingly good norweigians)...

Speaking of which, my Norweigian room-mate moves out this week, his 2 month traineeship finished last week. It will very sad to see him go as in the short time, through many shared experiences we have become very close mates - it is so difficult for him to leave the place and the trainee group, he is looking to find another position in a bank here...

In any event we will be having a kegger for him this weekend at our flat. Its become a small tradition (tradition in such a short time - I guess I mean a regular occurrence that when one of the trainees has a birthday, we have a get together and buy some cheesy presents...We celebrated mine last week.

Anyway the reason I mention this is becase we went for an awesome dinner at my favourite Greek restaraunt, and then watched Greece enter the finals...My presents were bottles of bbq sauce, lighter fluid, a fish grill and a pink apron - all of which we will be testing out this week at the farewell party.....

Next week I will be heading to Turkey to catch up with Latif, a turk now studying in Adelaide - we were on the MC together back in Oz...Anyways, he is home to see his family and is going to host me. We will be staying in Istanbul, but my big hope is to try and see Gallipoli....

: : So tell me about... : :

"And now some questions from Kezza..."

>>Honestly, you trainees sound like all you do is party, drink, eat, smoke and sleep.
Well I have to admit there is a lot of fun to be had...I am with a very diverse group of trainees, some who were AIESEC members before; some who come from professional AIESEC countries like The Netherlands, where the EB takes a year out from study, receive a govt. student subsidy and work full time for AIESEC; some who know what the @XP is all about and some who couldn't give a rat's arse and have just come to make some cash, travel and party during the summer...

So to answer that, after that long winded diatribe - (From Lean Cuisine) "Yes Mum, I am looking after myself"...

I try and balance the partying with trying to take up some development opportunities...I started an e-learning project management assessment at work...I have assumed most of the day to day running of the project that I am working on - which means that a training and support role has turned into managing the intranet for the global marketing group of an MNC - very cool and great experience, but has meant that I have had to spend a lot of time learning the background, upgrading my IS understanding and generally start the meet and greet game with a lot of the important characters in the company...So far the opposition from I.S. dept. is proving to be the most educational as the office politics evolve...

>> Tell me the truth- are you FULLY loving your trainee experience, much more than your MC experience? Why/why not?

FULLY Loving it - absolutely. I am learning a lot; am surrounded with a great deal of experience in my area of career focus; have made a great network of similar minded trainees to party with and learn from; and I have enough cash to have a little fun and travel too! As for more than the MC experience? That's not really a question I can answer. They are two completely different experiences...Obviously, I can liken the experience of living in different countries, the learnings and shocks - but I cannot really compare much else as the living day to day is so different.

You know that when you do the MC, you will be living and working with a small team (7 in Ausl, 6 in France) every day, all day and very long hours...You love them, you hate them, your team mates are family...In my traineeship, I have been very fortunate to establish a very close mentor relationship with one of my bosses - (infact, he wants me and Laura to join him with his partner sometime during the summer time at his summer house), and also am mates with my predeccessor, but that is about it...I work in a huge company, and have single serving colleague relationships (blatant Fight Club rip off here). I meet new people every day, and email strangers all the time, but I do not have a close relationship with any of them...I spend most lunch hours with other trainees, we just have more in common.

Obviously the money thing - I knew before getting into the MC that I would be living the povo life, but even knowing it in advance does not fully prepare you for living in a foreign country with no cash, no credit and no sometimes no real food...Here I have a trainee income, and an over-draft facility (found that out last weekend )

Its two different experiences and am learning different things from both. I could not say do one over the other, as what I get out of one, feeds into the other and vice versa. Do both I say, but do it younger than me Although, I think I have been able to do other things and have different perspective than those who walk into MC young, so everyone is different I guess...Sorry rambling now aren't I , back to the questions...

>> If you could have your MC experience again, what would you have done differently?

Hmm, good one...Well I don't know if I would have done Ausl MC and International...Doing the same position twice didn't allow much for learning more...I think in @ you generally spend a year learning how to do your job, become an expert and then leave....Staying on after that year means that you know what to do, know what to expect, there is not enough challenge. So definitely (for me anyways), I would have chosen a different role for my 2nd MC term...Especially going from a country with good finances, to one with not so good - I went from being a company director managing a decent budget, to being a book keeper worried if there would be cash in the back account from one week to the next.

Having said that, I was lucky that I could apply a lot of Aussie experience to France and can say that I contributed to moving the country forward a lot quicker than it would have done without me there - of course, not taking anything away from my team mates, we all pushed it forward. My contribution was my Australian @ background and @ knowledge.

What else? I think I would have worked my arse off in my external jobs (bar work etc) and saved a lot more cash before I went to the MC. "smiley" It sucks, but the money does play a big part of it. Being on the MC and having to avoid trainees or members social outings because you cannot afford to go financially is really shit.

And I guess the other one would be wishing that I could have planned my personal life better. I have the best girl anyone could ever be with, and in pursuing my @ path, its meant having to leave her back home...I am really lucky that she has been incredibly supportive...Effectively, I got to know her, fell for her then left the country! So I would say I wish I had better timing?

: : I found a little bit of football fever.... : :

"Aussie, Aussie, Aussie,..No Oi's then?"

June 14 - Friday we caught a train to Bern after work. I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but not only can you smoke on the trains, you can byo alcohol and they really don’t care if you smoke a spliff either. Well I didn’t do that, but I was half cut drunk by the time the train arrived. A long trip too, all of about 1 hour…I had a feeling it would be a messy evening…

A few weeks ago we met up with trainees from all over Switzerland and the same crew was in Bern too, so it was good to see friends again…We were all gathered for the MC takeover/reception weekend in Bern…

Ended up Friday late at a Latino bar with cheap beers and crap music – translation: the music doesn’t matter if the beer is cheap. So quite drunk I took to the dance floor – now you must realise that I don’t really dance all that well. In a Latino bar, I am infact the whitest guy in the room with the least moving hips – however, next to all of the other AIESECers I actually came off not looking too bad…

The evening played out with a mixture of dancing, holding back hair for those that didn’t make it to the end of the evening and finally walking quite a ways with Italian directions to get home (we are in Switz "smiley")….We found the MC office eventually and crashed out….

Breakfast with everyone started way to early around 11 am. The small group I slept with at the office were the last to arrive – not a good way to win friends, they were all starving…. So we woofed down breakfast, took a tour of the city and ended up having a few beers in front of the parliament…Now I have mentioned that they smoke a lot of weed here, but the biggest shock I have had so far was watching the 13-14 girls sitting on a bench in front of the parliament building skinning up. I could not believe it!

Saturday we went to a park called Gurten, which overlooks the city. A nice big park, reminded me a little of King’s Park. Had a barbeque dinner and tasted horse – well they told me it was horse – I don’t recommend it…. I felt a bit ill after that…. Killed the remaining daylight hours throwing a Frisbee, drinking beers and finally watching the outgoing MC team give speeches, presents and make their goodbyes…Most embarrassing time I have had since arriving - the AIESEC crew brought a laptop, projector and screen to the park (I don’t even want to talk about how long the extension leads were to reach the bbq). They were playing Video CDs of Karaoke. ALL but three of us were singing and stomping and dancing in the park. I just stood there saying over and over, “I am too cool for this.” No one seemed to believe me though….

Arriving back into town about 11 or 12 we made our way to a club. Music turned to 80’s cheese by the end of the night and I had lost my passion for dancing…Arrived home about 5am after another Italian directed walk to took us in the complete wrong direction (You think we would have learnt the night before)…He did feel guilty though and came back to collect us in his car.

When we were really far from home…

Highlight of this evening was definitely the smiles on the faces of the 2 Greek girls that were with us when Greece won the football match. The Portuguese girl was not too thrilled…

Next day a late breakkie, early lunch and then we went to another park for some unnecessary exercise in a game of soccer. Playing alongside the river at one point the ball was kicked in…Years of hapless television kicked in…I started to have Baywatch flashbacks and before I knew it, I was undressed down to my jockies and diving in after the ball!!!

Now, I cannot even begin to describe how cold the water was, but the current didn’t give you time to think as you were pulled along and down the river…. Some many metres down from where I had jumped in, I finally crawled out, found my clothes and returned to the park a short lived hero – in the time I was gone, people realised they were bored with the game and were not playing soccer anymore – I could have left the bloody thing to head downstream anyways!

Ah well, it was a little adventure for the day. We sat in the park for a while longer, finished the slab we bought with us, waited for my underpants to dry then made our slow way back home.
After living in France for a time, I do feel a connection with the place. And seeing as there is no Aussie team in Euro 2004 Football, my support must remain with the motherland that adopted me – France…Last night after getting back into town we watched the English/France football match…We were in the main street of town with other French supporters. The English pub was down the street and the English were screaming and chanting and making a general ruckus. I have to say, the last 3 minutes of the game we went wild, leaping out of our chairs, absolutely amazed and ecstatic to see such a turn around…Funnily enough, those same 3 minutes silenced the English bar – it was absolute bliss!

That’s it for now, say hi to your mum for me!

: : 2 months in - So this is what being a trainee is like... : :

What goes up...

June 9 - Ok, so I have been here two months this week...I jumped onto @.net earlier today and filled out all the measurement surveys...I am going to print them out and introduce them to my local committee....Having been here this long, I have quite a bit of feedback, well me and all the other trainees, but we are struggling to communicate it without scaring the poor little buggers in the LC...

And the thing is, we are living in Switzerland...We earn Francs, we have a place to live and good jobs...It makes the things that we want to talk about seem a bit petty, however, they are things that really make a difference.

For me its simple things like getting our apartment fixed...The LC have the best intentions and have had a fella come around and fix a wall in our bathroom. This is really nice of them, but for a month now I have been waiting for a key to the apartment buidling washing machine (I cannot find a laundromat and have been doing the wash at another trainee flat - Yes Kezza, I am washing myself, and my clothes too!)

Another thing is as simple as communication. Today I received a call at my office from an LC member who was very angry with me that I had not replied to an email he sent requesting (demanding) that we attend a global village and represent our countries...I mean, I like beer festivals and global villages as much as the next guy, but it is also nice to feel invited, not expected to come....

Ok, I am moaning a bit...I guess after two months it is so much clearer to me now than it ever was, what makes our trainees happy...We spend all this time talking about integrating learning, making teams, having meetings etc etc..and all they (we) want is to have basic living expectations set and met, and to feel invited! Don't get me wrong - I am all for the @xp, but as me towards providing a learning platform, I think we loose sight of some of the smaller, but just as important details, responsibilities we have as a service provider...

Enough of my AIESEC commentary for today...Now for the update....

So last weekend I wanted to just chill and stay home...Friday we ended up doing dinner in Germany, at a Greek restaurant - So much meat, so cheap and free Ouzo shots! The coolest part of it, is that in a Greek Restaurant in Germany, we were an Aussie, an american, a german, a dutch, a colombian, a french, an irish and 2 norweigians...

After dinner the group decided that a beer at the local (Paddy's the Irish pub) was in order...They soon decided after that that they wanted to go home, leaving my norweigian room mate and I to carry the flag for our team at the bar...A sorry walk home early in the morning....
Saturday, I think I slept until about 2pm then lazed about the house in the afternoon...I would have been happy to spend the evening at home, but my other room mate, a nigerian, he gives his house key to friend of his so that he can bring his gf to our flat on dates...(Incidently, I have arrived home on a few occassions now to find these strangers in my flat without my room mate, "On a date" - I told my room mate that I don't like this, but he doesn't seem to understand that it really weirds me out to find strangers in the house...

So anyways, after that digression, I didn't really feel like staying in the bordello Saturday night, so I let some of the trainees drag me to an IAESTE "party". I use the term party loosely, they do not know how to party the way that @er's do...They were sitting in a bunker, almost silent eating big sausages and playing cards...After drinking our fill of the 5CHF all you can drink beer, we made our way to some French girl's birthday party...Her small apartment was chock a block full of people that she didn't know, but she didn't seem to care...even her Landlord, a big bugger (must weigh in at over 200 kilos), no teeth, and looked liked he had been drinking vino since 11am was there partying with us...He kept trying to talk German to me, and was too pissed to realise that I don't understand German! He thought we had a good conversation though, and thats the important thing...

Sunday I spent all day sleeping and since then have been at work, pub Monday and Tuesday night and maybe today heading to Germany again for a bulk, cheap shopping experience...That pretty much brings us up to date...

On the weekend I will be going to Bern, so there may be some tales to tell....

: : So Jun Jet asked why I would live in France and work in Switz? : :

Hmm, did somebody say taxes?

June 4 - Basel is in the corner of Switzerland, bordered by Germany and France. You can pretty much stand in the three countries at the same time....

So Living in Switzerland they tax my salary a whole bunch....Additionally I came to this part of the world to learn to speak French...As luck would have it, I have ended up in the German speaking part of Switz!

So if I can get a frontilier permit (basically means a border rider deal) then I can work in Switz, tax/deduction free and live in France and apprenez le français...

So we will see what happens there...talking to HR department today, they are not so sure that I can do it, but there are ways around the French visa paperwork.

So I leave it there on this Friday afternoon in sleepy Basel....Tonight we start with dinner in Germany or France - the group is not sure yet....but I can be sure that a bar will be involved!

: : Lugano - The best thing this side of the Italian Border : :

Lugano, it's just beautiful...

June 3 - Ok, so picking up from where I left off...

I spent the last weekend in Lugano; it is in the bottom of Switzerland, just this side of the border from Italy. And I can tell you, it is the most beautiful spot I have seen in Switz so far!
Friday night we had a tortured train ride, where there were no seats so we sat squashed with about 25-30 others in the doorway in front of the loos. We tried to make the most of the time by having a Bacardi party with cheap purchased contraband from Germany….Was all laughs and semi nudity (kidding) until some old hag started yelling at us in French because she thought we were smoking hashish….

(Incidently, they smoke sooo much green here, it is not funny! I don’t think I mentioned it last time, but two floors down from my apartment is a computer/pot shop that blows so much smoke out of the window and into my room its like getting smacked in the face. In Basel, the law is a lot more loose with pot than in other Kantons, however, jump on any train around the country and you are bound to be sitting next to someone having a toke.)

So anyways, we were on the train to Lugano. Received by the local committee at the train station, they took us to drop off our luggage; crashed their van into a wall, damaging the side door (this meant all weekend the person next to the door had to hold it shut and kind of fear for their life at the same time); back to their HUGE office for an apero before heading to a bar and getting suitably liquored up.

Saturday we started with a typical AIESEC breakfast of bargain juice and cookies before heading to an Islamic Centre (this was the learning event part of the weekend). A bit out of context with the rest of the activities, but still interesting nevertheless. We had a tour of the centre, watched some videos, had an explanation of the Pillars of Islam and Ramadan before having tea and chips….

Next we headed off to Ascoa for a 3 hour Italian influenced lunch, which was my best meal in Switz so far! We sat outside in the sun drinking wine, eating salami, cheese and pasta…Such an awesome meal…Next stop was visiting the Castles in Bellinzona. The break down, 3 super cool castles, recently restored and nationally treasured; once fought over for the valuable access to trade routes, these castles were the starting site of the first 3 Kantons of Switz…Ok, Kanton is like state/suburb kinda deal, and they have 26 of them…Each with its own rules/regulations and sometimes people. Basel and Zurich have this on going rivalry; a few weeks ago, Basel kicked their asses in the Football…it’s the equivalent of The Eagles beating the Crows or the Port I guess…

So the castles were beautiful, a history lesson and fun all at the same time. After a busy day of visiting castles and eating, it was time to eat again! So we ended up in a local bar where the girl organising the event normally worked…She had organised a spare rib bbq for us!!! It was the closest thing to being back home!! I ended up eating my plate plus another girls dinner as well….Later after some reasonably priced beers, I was pretty loaded again….They had a blues band, I was bopping away…The Norwegian guy I live with was totally broken, dancing on the tables and nipple–riding.

Ok this is a term related to how a bass player, plays guitar…It was new to me too! But apparently this is what my room-mate was doing before passing out at 11.
We made it back around 1pm (this time I was holding the van door closed and fearing for my life-actually I kept falling asleep and the rest of the van were fearing for their lives-that’s how they explain it anyways…)

Sunday we drove to Tassino Park which is this mountain that overlooks the entir valley and lake – breathtakingly beautiful, but same crappy breakfast….Spent the rest of the day drinking beer in the sun and eating 3 hour meals in the local cafes…Definitely my idea of a vacation!
Monday was the last of my public holidays until August, and I spent it in bed mostly except for a very short shirt-ironing episode….

And that’s about it for this week, been at work and the pub with trainees, but that’s it. This weekend looks like a quick trip to Germany, but hopefully just chilling in the apartment.

Not so Much a New Beginning, More of a New Environment

Border Jumper

Ok, so I have been in Basel, Switz for about 5 or 6 weeks now (Written in May). A lot has happened, and I wil try and get up to date with this posting, so apologies if its a bit long....

-- The Job

Real Life, Real Work...It has been a while since I have been in the workforce, spending the last 2 years working full time for AIESEC. Its surreal to be getting up at 6/7am, and going to "The Office".

I am working in the Global Marketing Department for a Multinational Agri-business. I chose this position as I figured being Australian, a grounding in an agricultural business is a good platform for later on when I am back home. Additionally, I have enjoyed my time in Europe thus far, and needed another year to travel a bit more I am responsible for providing support for the Product Intranet. It is a role that requires me to market and sell the application in-house, make it appear "sexy" to our end users and also train users on how to use the application. The company I am in has recently undergone a merger and so they are still re-shaping the management structure. Watching the politics of it all is quite impressive. Infact, I only found out this week that my project now has another manager - I am switching bosses. This is a bummer for me, because my current boss, very French, very sarcastic, with a great sense of humour, is someone I really admire and respect, with a great deal of experience that I can learn from. He has agreed to be a mentor for me, even though he is no longer my boss. My job is secure, but what I will actually be doing may change. My current manager tries to involve me in all meetings with the global marketing support team. At first I was really intimidated about walking into this environment, but I soon realised that I am well ahead of the game. In the last few weeks, I have spent hours in meetings where the outcome has been that the team agrees that a decision needs to be reached. AGREEING THAT THEY NEED TO AGREE!!!! I am sitting in these meetings thinking that my old AIESEC team would have made a decision in the first 10 minutes of the meeting. Having one year to make your impact really does improve the decision making process!!!

I have to learn an entirely different ball game in this company, and infact I will continue learning about this business and the company all year and will still not have come to grips with all of it....
Oh, and every time they pull out the butchers paper in a meeting, I nearly wet myself laughing. I thought moving on from AIESEC I would never have to use butchers paper again!!!! Ok, so enough of the propaganda, lets talk about the lifestyle.

-- Trainee Life

I have fallen in with a good crowd, the trainee network is pretty cool here. There are a lot of trainees and we tend to go out to the pub a lot, go hiking, bit of travel (we drove to Italy the other weekend) and just yesterday I went with 2 other trainees to my first yoga class. I am so sore today...I have not done anything that physical in months...I thought it was about breathing -whatever!!!! You really work up a sweat!!!I guess though, I am mentioning this because after AIESEC, you find that you tend to have a lot of spare time...At first I found it hard to leave the office before 7pm...Just that used to working back...But you slowly adjust - the offices here are lonely after 5 or 6 so then you want to leave soon enough....

So yeah, working normal hours, you have time to apply yourself...I am still trying to teach myself French (failing miserably, but will soon be paying for lessons), there is the yoga, and I am on a bit of a fitness kick now, heading to the gym, going hiking (Switz is cool for this, the landscape is really beautiful, and yes, plenty of cows everywhere too!)

I fill in most weekends so far with travelling or helping with AIESEC events - I had to facilitate an exchange preparation seminar 2 weeks ago....Its a bit hard to step away entirely, but its also good to be able to still contribute a little bit...

-- Money

Normally traineeships are reknowned for providing an income to live, but not always so comfortably...My case is a little different...

MC life is its own reward, the team, the experiences...You are really poor, but you do not care because you know that the experience is unlike anything else you will ever do. That said, I have been extremely poor for the last 2 years. (Thanks again to Keru and Kezza for being my sugar mommies when they came to Paris ) I ate a lot of potatoes and pasta.

The thing about having no money, and then earning cash is that you find it hard to break the old povo habits....Like I still go to the supermarket and will buy the 2nd grade 5 kilo bag spuds, because it is what I am used to...I buy a side of pork and cut it up myself into steaks that I can freeze....I walk to Germany to shop to save like 10 - 15 euros instead of shopping here in Switzerland. I guess my povo time has made me a little bit frugal. A good thing I think. My advice for those going on a traineeship: The salary is not so much, but 2 or 3 months before you leave, limit yourself to spending 1/5 of your usual income (in my case I was earning 1/10 of what I get now as a trainee) - then when you get that first pay check - you will think you are rolling in it!!!

-- My Apartment

I share an AIESEC trainee flat with 2 other trainees...It is a big place and close to work...One of the trainees has been there for over a year, and from what I can tell, has never cleaned it in that time...I have been told there are no cock-roaches in Switzerland. Well I am sorry to say that the few roach border jumpers that have made it into the country, reside in our apartment. I spent 2 days cleaning when I first moved in, but I have given up - it will be easier to move!! I can't fight them - and you cannot find any roach baits in Switzerland either!!!!

Well I have kind of skipped over a few things, but its already a bit long for a single posting...