Hi,

This is as well boring … but go ahead :)

Trip
Hmmm how should I start? Well I got to Bucharest and boarded my plane on time (actually I had to wait ~60′), had no problems at customs and after 3 hours and a quick meal (delicious cookies) aboard I’ve landed in Schipol. During the trip I saw for the first time the moon bellow the horizon (under the plane). Very cool view, along with the foamy clouds and red twilight colors.

Colors
As expected, now I knew where everything was and how everything worked so I reached the AI Office at around seven-tish. It was great to see some familiar faces. I got just in time to subscribe myself to the Team Dinner :) I’ve taken some people by surprise because they weren’t expecting me to get there so soon. I’ve chatted with the people, got up to speed with things, laughed along … it was just like back in spring.

Friends
I’ve crashed at Geta’s place for the entire time I was there. Dani (4) was also in Rotterdam for a CEE MCVPICX meeting and, of course as he got to stay with us. Geta was very happy to see us both (I know the feeling, been trough it at the end of my CEED) and we tried to stay together as much as our agendas permitted it (evenings only).

During one evening me, Geta and Dani went out together trough Rotterdam, visited the Old Harbor, Market, Erasmus Bridge and some other cool places. Too bad it was too dark to make any decent videos with my camera. Anyway we enjoyed a cool but nice evening together … who would have thought four years ago we three would walk side by side trough Rotterdam, laughing and cracking jokes.

I got the same feeling as when I was returning from Hanover, Germany, passing trough Vienna with Paul. We’ve spent a whole day walking trough the city, making photos, taking naps in the city park ;).

IS Meeting
Second day I got to meet all the IS Meeting participants, very diverse and bright people that made the meeting in the end a real success. The workload was intense but concentrated to real goals. We’ve been discussing the future of IS in AIESEC, brainstorming on development of new features, systems, analyzing current ones, we covered pretty much everything. It was all I expected and more (awesome). I’m trying to stay in contact with all the people I’ve meet there.

Help Team
Another happened, that I did not expect. The three people from the Global IS Musketeers Team (AIESEC.net Help Team), myelf, Kiko and Abishek spent some more time together and actually formed ourselves as a team. We didn’t realize this till just before the end. I definitely think that if virtual teams had at least 2 meetings where they could get together for a few days, the success and efficiency of these teams would greatly increase.

Older Guys
I’ve also meet some AIESEC International Alumni, including Milan and Venky. I worked with Milan back in 2002-2003 when I first joined the AIESEC.net Help Team.

I never expected to see this guy in person (the man behind InsightXP), have a beer with him chatting about old times – IS mainly, since we’re all IS freaks :).

Venky and Milan presented us with a 2 hours history of AIESEC IS systems that made interesting connections to what I knew so far. Any systems that are sold as “free” or have to be sustained by a single country are doomed to fail … the history of our IS systems proves it. Countries can never go above the country priorities and there is no such thing as a “free” system.

Surprises
All AI Directors were away on country visits and I was somewhat sad that I couldn’t meet Mike, Taco and the others.
On the last day of my stay in Rotterdam I got a pleasant goodbye gift: Arthur got a job in Amsterdam and was passing by the office accompanied by Helena, so we got to meet :D.

On the very morning of my departure, I also took some video interviews from Geta and Brodie to play them at the NPS (see next post) opening plenary. Brodie held a cool speech for both old and new members that would be present at the NPS. Geta was all carried away and emotional but I managed to get cool material out of her ;) All these would make a cool 5 minutes clip for NPS.

Departure
I left the office, not forgetting to put a post-it and a small present on Geta’s desk that was so very kind with us during our stay there. I got to the train station with a heavy heart, too much had happened in a very short period of time.
20 minutes later I was boarding a train for Schipol Airport … another 49 minutes … I was walking into Schipol … another 2:39 hours later I was boarding the plane … 3 hours later I was arriving in Otopeni.

Raluca and Aura were waiting for me there.

Thoughts
I can’t exactly express what I felt. Everything was so familiar, the place, the people but there was something missing … I couldn’t quite pinpoint it but I felt somewhat strange. I guess I built up so much energy and desire to get back there that I’ve created myself to high expectations. I had this feeling throughout my stay there.

What I’ve learned during the past year is that the world is such a small place, that the people you encounter, places you see, beauty, simplicity, sadness, happiness make this life worth living.

“Life is a book and those who don’t travel, read only the first page.”

Cheers,
The Lion.