2011 Annual Review

At the end of the year, the blogosphere is alive with many annual reviews as a way to reflect on the past year and to help in the planning for the upcoming year. Previously, I’ve done more comprehensive reviews and found them to be a good way to see all the adventures, successes and failures I’ve had in a year.

This year, I’m going to this review process slightly differently. Chris Guillebeau, one of my favourite bloggers, challenged his readers to answer just two simple questions: what went well in 2011 and what did not go well in 2011?

What went well in 2011

Leaving a job I didn’t like for a job that I really enjoy – This was probably one of the best decisions I made all year. Having a fulfilling and enjoyable job goes a long way to happiness. Its not just a cliché! I’m happy that I was able to get myself out of a miserable situation and into a fulfilling job. I’m learning loads with each passing day. Not to mention in another country! Which brings me to my next point…

Living and working abroad – I had always talked of going on an AIESEC internship. I wanted something where I would be living abroad for a long period of time – at least a year. Well, I am currently in month 8 of an 18 month internship in Budapest. I was scared to be away from home for so long, but it has worked out so far and I’m really enjoying my time in this European country.

Hero`s Square in Budapest during my first week.

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Today I’m Thankful For

This post should have been posted on Monday, Thanksgiving for those back at home, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, I’m posting it now. So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, here we go!

Today, I am thankful for…

- The amazing friends that I have at home who are making every effort to keep me connected to home, arranging Skype chats and keeping me sane.

- The fantastic network of people that I have met here without whom I really would have lost it. Being able to find a strong network of friends where I can be 100% myself has been such a blessing. And I know, if anything were to happen to me, they would have my back in a heart beat.

- The job that I currently hold. The past four months of working at SELTI has been the most fun I’ve ever had at work. Yes, there have been many trying moments, but at the end of the day, I enjoy what I do and I do it well. There still are days when I don’t really want to do anything, but once I get started, I can move past it. I love being able to decide for myself what is important and what needs to be done ASAP. I love the ability to make decisions and to impart changes that affect how things are done. I feel like I’m actually making a difference.

- The technology that enables me to keep in touch with friends and family at home. I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t have Twitter, Facebook, Skype, and Whatsapp to keep in touch with those at home. At a drop of a hat, I can send a note off home to share my current thoughts and moods. I can schedule impromptu Skype chats with friends to catch up on life. Without these little things, I don’t think I would be as well adjusted as I am here. This online network that I’ve built keeps me grounded and not overwhelmed when dealing with the challenges of living abroad.

- And the most important: my parents without whom I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be here in Budapest if they didn’t support me. When I told them of my plan to go work abroad, certainly they were concerns, but ultimately they let me go and that has made all the difference. I will be forever indebt to them for raising me in an environment that allows me to explore the world and expose myself to new things.

All in all, I’m really loving where I am today and what I’ve created for myself. It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop pushing my limits and it definitely doesn’t mean that I’m going to settle.

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The Power of the AIESEC Network

Mid way through the day yesterday, I received an email from AIESEC International from the online AIESEC system. Even though I cease to be an active participant in the AIESEC organization (other than being an exchange participant), I still subscribe to their news as a way of keeping up to date on what is happening world wide. It was shocking to read the most recent update:

Read the full letter here.

Even though I’ve never met the Bolivian AIESEC President, this news still came to a shock. News of this spread quickly through the AIESEC community online and off. My Facebook and Twitter feeds were filled with condolences and shock at the news. The AIESEC community here in Budapest was all abuzz over this as well. It seems like everyone knew about what happened and everyone all felt the same way.

I was speaking to my roommate who was at last year’s International Congress and she was saying that if this happened last year, it could have been any one of the people that she met. And that is what it boils down to. It could have been any one of us. We’re a network of 60,000 students from around the world, united in one way: providing exchange and leadership opportunities to young people.

The AIESEC community has rallied behind this news. Its actually rather awe inspiring. People that don’t know one another and yet, we all feel as one.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II

Last night I went to watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II in 3D. I managed to find a theatre here in Budapest that was playing the movie in its original format aka in English and no Hungarian subtitles.

Going to the movies is pretty strange in Budapest. You can book your seats in advance. The theatre has assigned seating. You show up at least 30 minutes in advance and you pay for the seats that you book. Its not general seating like in Canada (apparently there is assigned seating in India and New Zealand as well according to those I went to see HP with).

I’ve been a long time Harry Potter fan and I’ve been eagerly anticipating this movie coming out. I love the books and probably have read all of them at least a couple times. In many ways, I feel like I grew up with Harry. I was 11 when I read the first book. I have many memories of waiting in anticipation for the next book to see what J.K. Rowling had installed for the threesome.

In the past, I haven’t been that impressed with the Harry Potter movies. I really did not like the first 3 movies (especially as these came in the height of the Lord of the Rings movie craze). The 4th was acceptable, but not spectacular. From there, I felt the movies got a lot better in terms of keeping true to the books and cinematography. I was fairly impressed with Part I of Deathly Hallows so I was looking forward to seeing the movie.

For the most part I was really impressed with the movie. It kept fairly true to the book and told the story well. I was careful to not read the book before going to see the movie otherwise I would have spent so much time getting upset when things weren’t completely true to the book. I was surprised at how well I remember the events taking place. I think the last time I read the book was over a year ago. I watched it in 3D, but I felt like it wasn’t really needed. For most of the movie, I forgot that I was wearing 3D glasses.

If you haven’t seen the movie or haven’t read the book, stop here! Spoiler warning!

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Exchange!

This past weekend, I moved to Budapest to work for a company called SELTI International, an English language school, where I will be teaching English as well as taking over as Chief Operating Officer for the company. I found this position through AIESEC, an organization that I volunteered with during university. I will be in Budapest for a year and a half.

While I will maintain this blog for my social media, technology and productivity tips, I will occasionally cross post some of my adventures in Budapest.

In the meantime, check out my blog where I’ll be writing about my time abroad!

Adventures in Target

The best part about going down to the States or any country for that matter is investigating the store shelves and seeing what randomness you can find – especially at a grocery store!

A variety of different animal crackers. Every wanted a Chicken in a Bisket? I wonder if these are Chicken flavoured, or just salted. Or what about these pink Circus Animals? The colours just turn me off. I know we have Goldfish here, but what about RAINBOW goldfish? C. made us buy these, but we haven’t opened the package yet.
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Seattle – A Doughnut Adventure

Last week, in a last minute decision, I decided to go to Seattle for random adventures. These random adventures ended up involving ridiculous amounts of food and shopping. What started out as a day and a half trip, turned into two days. We would have stayed longer except I had to come back for my last dental check up before heading out to Budapest.

The trip involved many doughnuts – in total we went to three doughnut places! First was Top Pot Doughnuts where we tried their chocolate glazed and cinnamon sugar. The chocolate glazed one tasted stale and a bit dry, but the cinnamon sugar was delicious. Light and fluffy with the right amount of sugar.

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Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver vol. 16

Last week, I attended my first Pecha Kucha Night Vancouver and was completely blown away by the number of passionate people in the city. Pecha Kucha is a style of presentation: 20 images, 20 seconds, resulting in each presentation being approximately 6 minutes and 40 seconds. It keeps presentations short and concise and keeps the momentum going from presenter to presenter.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect. In many ways I thought it would be like TED talks, which I absolutely love. The line up of presenters sounded really interesting and I was looking forward to seeing and hearing what they all had to share.
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Campbell Mithum Lucky 13

While emptying out my RSS reader, I came across this interesting article in the New York Times about how one agency in Minneapolis is using Twitter as a way of recruiting interns for their summer internships.

The campaign, Lucky 13, revolved around the idea of have applicants submit 13 comments on Twitter in 13 days using the hashtag #L13. Initially, 425 people registered. Campbell Mithun then sorted through the thousands of comments to identify 32 finalists who were then interviewed in person or through Skype.
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#YVRTwestival

Last night I attended Twestival 2011 Vancouver at the Vancouver Lookout at the top of Harbour Centre. I’ve lived in Vancouver for years, and I’ve never been up there. It was a perfect evening to go up as well. The sun was shining and we could watch the sun set from the top. So gorgeous!

The view from the top

Twestival (aka Twitter Festival) is a gathering of social media users in communities around the world to fundraise for a charity. This year, Twestival went local with each meet up fundraising for a local charity. The Vancouver Twestival fundraised for Beauty Night Social which “builds self esteem and changes lives of women and youth living in poverty through 3 streams of programming: wellness, life skills development and makeovers.”
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