Smiles in Warsaw

In the end of the week when I wrote that sad, gray post, I decided I have to leave the used scenery and the people I get to see everyday, for something new. So I left to Poznan, after all the pushes of Eve.

It was great to meet Asia, the girl I worked with for months but I’ve never seen till then, Protoku and Natali, the crazy VPs from Poznan, Barka, the polish-turkish friend of Protoku and to meet Kamil again, my dear friend who had a sad smile – haven’t found out why yet! They were all some super people that brought me up to good spirits.

I left Poznan with a lighter soul, starting to dream about the IC, were I was to meet my beautiful MC and sweet friends.

So, last Thursday I left Olsztyn for another amazing long weekend. On Thursday evening we participated in the AIESEC International Congress Opening Ceremony. It was full of dances, colors and 2000 people smiling, shouting and clapping. 95 countries together, a whole world in a sports hall in the ambitious Warsaw.

The same night I meet my darling Romanians: my full of energy smiley Mo, my pink Nico, and the opposite Vlad who held me and rose in the air, fulfilling my longing for a Romanian hug. Thank you guys for coming here!

On Friday, there was the Global Village. I dressed in my traditional suit and started visiting the tents. I met many of the people I’ve worked with in the past: ex TN Managers from the time I was matching my SNs, MC VPs that worked on Leonardo, delegates or facis in the conferences I attended... we were all very glad to meet, shake hands and kiss on the cheeks. I must say that regarding the richness of the stands, the GV in IPM in Bucharest was better. Here, the countries were not allowed to bring drinks – no sake, no wines, no nothing and there was no actual food, mostly chips.

I bought a lot of presents for my friends at home. So, don’t be surprised if I’ll bring you some Chinese or Egyptian stuff instead of a white red polish thing!!!

On Saturday we visited the rebuilt Warsaw. It’s incredible how much they achieved in just some decades after the war, taking into consideration the dust and ruins that remained after WWII. Warsaw it’s by no doubt, really ambitious but I have to admit I like Bucharest more. I miss Calea Victoriei and a boat ride in Cismigiu.

In the evening, we went in the bright flat of 2 Romanian trainees in Warsaw (actually one of them is Hungarian as nationality, but he considers Romanian being born and raised in the beautiful Cluj-Napoca). There we started cooking salata orientala, tochitura with mamaliga, carnaciori and omleta and friganele dulci (they are all Romanian dishes – the only chance to understand the words is to taste them!!!). The guests started arriving: Serbians, Polish, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, Russian, Macedonian, German, Croatian and of course, Romanians. They all enjoyed our dishes, watched the Romania presentation and congratulated us for the great evening. The secret was in their enthusiasm and passion for knowing our culture but don’t tell them, ok?

After climbing up in the tower of the Culture and Science Palace in Warsaw – a communist building similar to the House of Free Media in Bucharest, we breath the high air of clean Warsaw and let ourselves towards the train station, and then back to our trainee homes.

It was a full weekend indeed and it’s very hard for me to tell you all in just some lines...

I’m in the middle of my traineeship here and I’m getting reflective when I see there are just some more weekends to spend and so many places to see and people to meet...