Warsaw, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Brussels Trip

This trip started on Nov 18th, 2007. After the Austrian National Conference got over the week before. I took the train to my first Eastern European country 'Poland' for being a faci at their national conference :)..the city was Warsaw!

It was quite a transition when I left Vienna in the train and went through Czech Republic on the way..it was all snow outside..and no sign of human life..I am not sure why it was like that..but I could easily feel the difference of going from Western Europe to Easter Europe. Everything seemed quite deserted, quite empty...like some kinda post world war era (atleast at the stations where the train stopped). But anyways, I reached Warsaw and got into the conference mood which was starting in next 2 days.


















The conference was quite cool. I specially liked the cool roll calls...quite funny. Ofcourse the conference was QUITE tiring for me, but I am glad I went there. Met some very cool people, made some new friends, and had a nice time with some Romanian room-mates! Also I learned that in Polish Tata means Father and Papa mean bbye !! completely opposite to Hindi ;)

I think the best was the last say in Warsaw, when Khamba (in MC poland) took me to this shit expensive shopping mall in a even shit expensive cab ;)...we watched this some low standard hollywood movie..Resident evil 3. I think Khamba slept most of the times ;). Then we came home and Khamba cooked just the best Indian food..ooo..I can still smell it!! Damn..made my life...after such a long time..spicy MDH masala..and a bollywood movie!! AHA!! ..thanks buddy!! ;)

Now, in the meantime there were quite some communication going on to fix a exchangers meeting in AI office in Rotterdam..but it was never sure...so I never booked a ticket. But then during this conference it got confirmed and then I had to take a bus ..a 20 hours bus ride!!!...to ROTTERDAM in Netherlands!! So after one week in Poland, I was in Rotterdam for the next week :)

Now, I do not know if I can write too much about Rotterdam, because we really worked there a lot ;)...so morning 9 to night 9 in AI office! ;) Though Araz did take us one night out in Rotterdam, which was cool! One thing to mention, AI was quite hospitable :) I really loved it..they were extremely nice..and invited us on their team dinners etc!!

Rotterdam meeting got over on Sunday of this 2nd week. Now what next? Since, someone told me Amsterdam is pretty close by and its not that expensive to go..I decided to make a short 1 day trip to Amsterdam.

Me and Masha (MC Italy) went to Amsterdam on Sunday Morning (not to mention that we lost Deepti in Rotterdam and she couldn't come with us ;)). I had some visualisations of this city from all the stories that I heard about this Red Light District. And I must say, the city stood true to all my expectations!!! :)

I just loved this city!!! To me it felt like this huge party city!! ..lots of lights..people...life..and fast life..and lively!! ;) We took a cool (i think was nt tht cool tho ;) ) Canal Cruise trip! Then went to the "Sex Museum" ...my god...all over nudity, penis, real erotic pics, videos...how can they put such stuff in there...I mean then the could have named it like a porn club...why museum?? but whatever...was fun to see..

next went to this Madam Tussuad Museum..wow!! I only heard about till now..tht they put all thee wax statues in there of famous people which looks real..but this time I could really see them..they were indeed awesome!! I took pics with most of them..so now at least I am not satisfied from the perspective tht I do not have desire to meet these famous people to get pics with them ;)

I finished the Amsterdam trip with a round of Red Light District. I think I expected more..I mean..don't take me wrong..but I donno..it was not that fancy as I thought it would be. Still was fun to take 2 rounds with 3 girls ;)

From Amterdam, I went to Brussels because I found out that the earliest and cheapest bus to Vienna will be from there. So the same night me and Masha took a train to Brussels. We were picked up by Stephanie (MC Belgium) at the station.

Now, Belgium ofcourse also had a pre-concieved picture in my head. All these EU things, with the headquarters of all the companies and organisations in the world. So ofcourse need to be really really cool place! ..on reaching there, ofcourse all these big offices were there, and even the city was not that bad...but it was QUITE dirty!! I suppose too many people to blame ;)..I had an evening tour around Brussels with Stephanie! was quite fun in the rain..and now I got to know what Belgium has this random Peeing shit in every global village..the Manneken Piss !!! ;)

IC in Turkey

In August last week, After approx. 2 months of our MC term, there was the biggest conference IC in Turkey.

As what I remember today, I simply loved this conference. Not because of any session or any cool company, but because of the amazing people I met. I can still re-collect, how much I loved meeting just new people every day!! So much happened at this conference...15 days..met Shannon and Juli (Yale LCPs)...Shannon almost cried..it was just so gooooood to see them again. Met the whole Indian crew from different parts of the world...my own eb...rinti, khushi, sandy and me..cheers guys! :)...first time sex-change party...was quite embarrassing ;)...coolest ever roll-call by our MC team..people will remember it for quite sometime ;)

Da Blog is back!! ;)

Last time I ever wrote on my blog was during the Yale CEED. Some of the best memories... :)

..so quite some time passed by..EB term in Jaipur got over..Some 3 months of vacation (university exams ;))...some good times with friends [non-aiesecers ;)]...and then start of MC term in Austria on July 1, 2007...

It will be quite tough for me to recapture what happened in last 5 months in my life, but today I thought of trying it...where did the inspiration come from?..well well...when u don't feel like studying German, don't feel like doing any aiesec work, and don't have anyone to meet, and you have slept for more than 16 hours in a day...then I think it is not that difficult ! ;)

To start this reincarnation of the blog I was trying to find something exciting..and I think I found it!!

Here I present the one and only bollywood movie I watched in recent history [in poland with khamba...cooking Indian food..what a day man! ;)]...Om Shanti Om...definitely nobody can beat this scene..and no Indian can stop laughing at it...I remember me and khamba were laughing so much that whole MC House in Poalnd couldn't sleep ;)

Yale vs Harvard: The Rivalry 20/11/06

These prestigious Ivy league universities have seen a historic rivalry. It's similar to TN DT rivalry in AIESEC India ;-)

I went to this Football match at Harvard between Yale and Harvard. It was a very important match for Yale to win the Ivy League Championship. It was the last chance after Yale lost to Princeton last weekend. So there was huge excitement and the stadium was packed.

The history says in total Yale has scored more than Harvard in total. But since last 5 years only Harvard was winning. So Yale had less hopes this year as well. The rivalry between Harvard and Yale is for the prestige of the institutes and it's like their own ego which clashes quite often ;-). Almost everyone at the match was wearing something cursing Yale or Harvard. Here are some of the clips:-

I myself was definitely more loyal to Yale as I love the school. Also they are richer I guess ;-)... hehe. Yale has this wonderful architecture which Harvard can't even imagine to build. I was quite disappointed by it's conventional architecture. So I did not like it too much. Some stereotypes about Harvard are they party less and study more..I could see it when they closed a party at 1 am :-(

So the match began next day and it turned out to be damn exciting. Yale build a lead quite initially only and continued it till the end...beating Harvard by 34-13 !! Voahhhhh !! This was awesome. A Victory after 5 years. People went crazy and they were jumping in the stadium from their seats. I was feeling as if people are crossing the berlin wall...hahah ! It was enormous!!

Another intesresting fact is MIT always tries to play some prank at Yale-Harvard matches to mark their presence. Last time they did it in 2001 and they did it this year as well, So I was lucky to see it !! The nude man ran in the ground in the middle of the game with MIT written at his back..it was hilarious !!! hahaha

It was great fun to be in Cambridge and visiting Harvard, specially the stay at Erin's place (Juli's room mate). Her house is magnificent. This was an amazing place...I mean I donno but this was a beautiful house. I took a picture of almost every corner of the house. My dream house will be like this only ;-)

and yeah ...there's a famous roll call by Yalies:-

Harvard Sucks..
and Princeton doesn't matter !!

Kudos to Yale !!!...hahaha

Most expensive appointment of my life ; Adventure on US highways... 16/11/06

I am extremely sad at the moment...but will still write the entry with enthusiasm.

So one of our ICX members here fixed an appointment with a big company called "Mortgage lenders network". Her name is Michele. Since the company was exceptionally big and we did not want to loose this opportunity to raise a TN, I was making documents the whole night before and next day was busy since morning preparing for that. Wore my suit and took all the printouts etc, called up a taxi to reach at 1pm near Phelps Gate(Place in New Haven). Michele and me took the taxi and after 45 mins reached the place. This is a very small town called as "Middletown" There was a huge business complex where the taxi dropped us. Now guess how much was the bill for taxi??....fucking $60...Rs.3,000 !! I never took such an expensive taxi even in my life ! hahah
So the appointment went good and he was extremely interested and very nice gentleman. He was very friendly (COO of the company). In fact luckily we took all the great documents to satisfy his questions. He even showed us Middletown from his window when he got to know that we will go back in the evening time by a bus. He pointed some nice restaurants and the river side etc. Its looked a beautiful small city.

So we came out and were really happy with the appointment. Now thought of travelling somewhat in Middletown. It started raining like in next 5 mins so while walking we found this random community centre and we thought it might a good place to stay for a couple of mins. So went in and I never saw such a good community centre in my life before. It was awesome with all those old archaic paintings and nice furnitures , rooms etc. The lady in there was extremely polite and gave us a tour of the centre and then invited us to stay there as long as we wanted. We stayed for some time, reviewed the appointment and made the follow up sheet.

Now since this taxi was extremely expensive and we had lil money left (after eating for $11), it was a good idea to take a bus back. So after figuring out there was only one bus back at 6.40pm and starts at a place 5 miles away. Now the challenge was to figure out this 5 mile away place to catch the bus. In between I was very happy coz it looked like a great adventure and I guess Michele too ;-)..hahaha ! Almost after 20 mins we could not figure out this place and then we went into this shop to ask them the address of the place to get a bus and to my surprise they do not speak english (not good). Here Michele comes to the rescue as she speaks Spanish...this was a such a lifesaver !! wow !!...Spanish helps in US too. In fact it helped us again in our adventure 2 hours later...keep reading ;-)
So the shop people helped us to find a bus to reach that 5 miles away place. We took the bus at 5 pm. Now since we had no clue where to get out of the bus we told the driver to drop us this place called "exit 20" where we need to catch another bus to New Haven. Now bus after a 30 min ride stops at Meriden. Michele got up from seat and says "lets go, here we are". "Okay". We go out of the bus and crossed the street and was waiting for another bus to pick us up at 6.40 pm to New Haven. Its been hardly 20 sec and the bus we got out of is still in front of us. I said" Michele you sure this is the place?".."yes it is" "Are you sure?"..."You can ask the driver again". And I don;t know why I just ran across the street and asked the driver again "Is it Exit 20?"..."NO"...what???? I almost shouted "Michele come backkkkk " Fuck now imagine this place..All dark on some highway and not a single person out there..if I had not come back again. We had been waiting there the whole night, which is not safe at all in US.
So finally the bus dropped us at Exit 20. Now we still had 1 hour for the bus to come. This place was on a major highway and there was Park & Ride Lot nearby. So we went there and sat for like 45 mins. Out of boredom Michele told me this fucked up game called "Sally does not like..." Ohh god I can't play it again ever in my life. I could not figure out this game and couldn't handle it any more. I was literally running on the road to stop Michele from this game. It's too much of stress and madness...hahhah !
Now almost 70 mins have passed by and the bus has not come. We got worried...infact Michele got not me ;-)...I was still in a adventure mood. ;-). Alsmot 90 mins passed by No bus !! So Michele called up the bus service and asked them about it. They said, Bus has already picked up people from there??? What the fuck?? Impossible, How is it possible? But on Michele's request they sent the bus back..WOW !! isn't that cool. Michele says they have to send it back !!...thts so coool !! hahha
Now there is this couple at the same place and there car broke down. They were also waiting for someone and then their friend comes in a car to pick them up. The coolest part is they offered us a ride to new Haven, which is really far. So we said No no it is very far. To my surprise they also did not speak good English. So here comes the rescue. Michele converse in Spanish..and bingo they tooo !! hahah Spanish is the language to learn. So we took a ride with them and called up the bus service to not send the bus. This was a family from Ecuador. During the whole conversation in the care everybody was speaking in Spanish...so couldn't understand word. Finally we reached at 8 pm back in new haven sound and safe. The total cost of the appointment came out to be $75 in total...fucking Rs. 4000 for one appointment. US is expensive!!! hahahah
This was such a great adventure though was not safe at all (in US people generally get mugged up easily and frequently)...but still I had faith in my luck somewhat that definitely we would not die so soon....hahaha !!
Cheers!!

Coincidence with Nandan Nilekani (CEO of Infosys) 16/11/06

This was sooo random !! How can you expect something in the middle of the day...when you are not expecting anything...nice rhyming ;-)...hahah !! It was a weekend and we had a cool AIESECer Saad from NYC and the most motivated AIESEC member here at Yale, Sally. We were walking on the sideways and going to this amazing fest being organized by South Asian Society called as Roshni. So we are walking and this man passes by me in opposite direction. We looked into each other eyes for a click and he moved away his glare and we just moved, this all happened in a click almost. Something struck my mind! Do I know him?? Have I met him somewhere?? Who is he?? Sally who was this guy?? "I don't know" says Sally. I have seen him somewhere!! I guess I know him. Sally - "Go Ask him!" I was like "No, I don't know him, I donno". Saad says man go ask him he will be gone then...run fast and ask him. I don't know what happened to me and why did I run...I ran back and stopped the guy and asked him "Have we met before?" ..he says confidently "No". Me- "Are you from India?" He says "Yes!" Me- "Are you Nandan Nilekani?"and he nods !!! Fukkkkkk I met Nandan Nilekani walking on the street. My face suddenly grew big and smiled like never before in last few days I guess ;-)..hahahha !! Sally and Saad came running and I introduced them and myself. I asked "How come you are in Yale? I mean in New Haven?" He says" Well my daughter studies here..She is a freshman." Wow !!! That's amazing to know !! So Nandan Nilekani's daughter is in Yale ...isn't that cool?? ;-) He name is Jahanvi ! He was in kind of a hurry so we said bye and I thanked him.
So then we went to Roshni for the cultural fest. To my surprise he is already sitting there in the front row. So I didn't miss opportunity as well. On Sally's motivation again went ahead and talked to him for like 3-4 mins. Asked him why he got off AIESEC's board. He said a lot of work, so no point if I can't give my best. He asked me What I was doing a Yale and I explained him I came through AIESEC and it has given me so much. It's a great organization. Though there were not too many thoughts that were coming in my mind due to excitement ..hahah ;-).
I still can't believe that it happened and I met him...wow !!

Halloween and the Superman! 7/11/05

You are walking on the streets and you see ppl wearing random funniest clothes ever, ppl havin pooch, having green blue red hair, spidermans, batman, dracullaa !! and not to forget damn mini mini skirtsss....first time ever i thought US girls are hottt !!! hahaa

So its HALLOWEEN !! A crazzyy US festival. Its some old relevance where people wear scary dresses to freak out the witches. and they carve this funny pumpkin...which is like a lantern people used to put to scare the witches as well.

and I was dressed up as SUPERMAN...which was the cheapest option due to the fact that i had a superman t-shirt gifted by somebodyy !! ( I never thought it will be so usefull...thnx ;-))



Here are some more pics to show how people were dressed crazziilllyyy !! blaaahhh

At midnight there was this amazing event where whole yale community was gathered..t was this big hall and a music band...called Yale Symphony Orchestra (yales most prestigious bad)..it was rockiiing for sure..some cool dance performance and wacckky ppl !!

My first halloween...unforgettable..and embarrassing ;-)...hahahaha