My one-third review (10th May - 11th Sept 2006)

Thats the tower of the company i work, juxtaposed by the summer end sunset.



I ve been wanting to do this post as a quarterly review of my one year here. Entering into my 5th month, there are heaps to review about. From my perspective of this country to my job, from my social life to living in Bonn...but nothing is to late to start anyways. So instead of doing a quarter review, lets just do a one third review (for every 4 months).

And thus, lets begin with Portuguese Tarts 1st third review, capturing moments and highlights from the moment he touched down in Germany (10th May 2006) to his 4th month, (Sept 11th 2006).

Portuguese Tart and Germany
- The people are ACTUALLY friendly, people do say "hello", or "hAllo" here despite being new.
- I ve met Germans who do have a sense of humor, but i ve met these people before anyways.
- The national unity behind their country was unprecedented during the World Cup, boosted of course by the ever present alcohol! But then flags are all brought down and not publicly shown, it indeed brought back memories of war time Germany for someone to be "so nationalistic", but i believe its just feelings within this country only. Totally didnt know it was deemed "sensitive" to be waving the German flag.
- Funny how you re able to drink so publicly, anyone could just bring a bottle of beer around anywhere! And then this brings to what i find totally despicable, bloody drunkards all around the streets!
- You would think that in China, or the Chinese in particular would flood your streets with phlegm and saliva! Well you ll be shocked to know that it seems the louder you cough up your phlegm here, the more manly you are! And spitting in style is supposedly in fashion! Gross...!
- Weather here has been really nice, i came at the right time of summer! As it has ended, it does get a little chilly but the sun is our most of the times. And i love the sun out with chilly winds...and its doing wonders to my breathing (i have sinus), so knock on wood, i have not had the flu or fever ever since! Hearing that its hazy once again in Boleh Land makes me really lucky to be breathing fresh, summer or autumn air!
- Bureaucracy is always a pain...and thus the "its so German" assurance! Or the mentality of not being flexible. Example; I asked the canteen operator for an extra bit of chicken on my lousy pasta and he says "only 1"! KNN!
- Now who say German girls are ALWAYS big...theres always really gorgeous ones around (surprising fact though), and they re as slim as the Chinese babe in Bukit Bintang! But when they re BIG...they re HUGE!!! They put the capital 'O' in Obesity!! I meant the men too ok...which explains the huge servings during meal time!























Portuguese Tart and Work
- Work is simply GREAT! You know it when you wake up eager to go to office, or staying late just to complete some errands! Not only am i responsible for the MBA Internship Program in general, i am part of a team of coordinators that work on Internship Programs of the company. Hence i am also in charge of the marketing materials of all programs plus touching a little on the induction itself. And if i am able to travel to the many Business schools we work with (think Milan, Barcelona, London, Paris...), that would just be very very SWEET!
- I ve got great colleagues, plus the two other trainees that are coordinators! Namely Sandra and Segala...and how me and Segala especially hit it off is really awesome! Not to mention Elias, the other Brazilian in Miami. Imagine working really well in a team of 3 in Bonn, plus 2 more in Miami and Singapore! No wonder the Boss commented on our team...the GIP (Groupwide Internship Program) Team.

- Every lunch time would be awesome as we ll meet other trainees and NEVER EVER fail to have a super time! Our group will always be the loudest, noisiest and coolest!

Portuguese Tart and Trainees
- Inevitably these will be the people that will form the crux of your social life here, and i have been lucky to be blessed with such an amazing group of internationals that really has provided 80% of the magic in my traineeship! Being a people oriented person, i thrive in this really wonderful group, soaking in their enthusiasm, learning everything i could from each and everyone of them and enjoying every others company while it lasts.
- What i didnt prepare while being abroad was the friendships that will be lost while in a traineeship! Totally unexpected...you re always preparing the logistics, for your job, how to settle in etc, but never how to cope with losing people you re dear with! Thats whats been happening over the past few weeks...indeed affecting me very deeply! Two people whom i am here for (Amit and Mon) has left, people whom you ve grown to be affectionate and like so much (where do i even begin...Eva, Dee, Piyush, Andrew, Claudia...) have all left.

Me and Natasha

Me and Andrew >

Me and Clau>Me with Mon and AmitMe and Piyush

Me and Dee

Me and Eva

- But not all people are perfect and you would expect a few black sheeps. These people who either dont appreciate the cultural differences, not respecting other individuals, lack of proactivity and personality or plain dumb and ignorant will forever be labelled the black sheep, despite our efforts of "understanding" them. Sad but true, most of them are of half the race i am.
- All in all...the ones that are close will forever be bonded and the friendships formed will never be duplicated. Surprisingly indeed, i have much guy friends that i am closer here than back home, ratio wise. :)

Portuguese Tart and Learning
- You ll be really stupid and dumbright ignorant not to learn anything new if presented with the opportunity such as what i am going through.
- As such, although rather ironic that i am picking it up in a non latin country, but yes...I know how to salsa!! My "dummies guide to Salsa" class went on for nearly 2 months! My partner in crime was Jennie Lee and we ve gone from "ouch my foot" to "look at us dance"! Our little meringue lesson also wiped out any imagination of us humping one another from the back as we re practically were HUMPING EACH OTHER FROM THE BACK! Grrowwwll...! And instead of being complimented for my dancing, the instructor said "he is good in bed" while pointing at me after a series of warm up humpings. Head blew up with ego juice as the whole class looked at me doing my humps...there were quite a few cun chicks there too!
- And of course, i ve been learning the language. Started a little late, but in Segala i ve got the best classmate ever, you know you ll be better than him in pronounciation! Ahahaha! So i consider flirting in German to be my ultimate goal... *winks*, now lets see how "du bis das bomben" would generate a reaction!
- Also, not to mention i ve learnt how to drive on the left...oh wait...right side of the road...at speeds of over 200kmph! Now, seatbelts are on the left, not the right!

Portuguese Tart and Travelling
- One of the biggest reason for being in Europe is that i am able to be a travel whore overnight! With the cheap rates and multiple ways to travel, not to mention heaps of places to go...being at home on a weekend in Bonn has become slightly rare!
- So read on be jealous...Berlin, Baltic Sea, Brussels, Brugge, Cologne, Gent, Munich, Rotterdam, Warsaw...nice! Money is scarce but i will need to budget them for this, apart from saving for family. So up next would be UK, Amsterdam...and am still hoping and praying that when people ask me where was I during Christmas and New Year... I am able to answer "Christmas in Lisbon and New Years in Madrid".

All my trips in a collage

So to sum it all up...here are the TOP 10 Portuguese Tart eXPeriences (not in order)
1) Being in Germany for the World Cup and soaking in the football mania!
2) Crying on the first weekend alone here.
3) Octoberfest in Munich (ok so its after 11th Sept, who cares!)
4) Berlin trip (parade, dancing, Snickers moment...)
5) Amazing work related trip to Warsaw for Intl Congress and meeting Malaysian friends there!
6) Doing a great...no make it really good job in the MBA Networking Event, organizing this one after only 1.5 months here for MBA Interns, Managers, HR and Board Members...and getting heaps of compliments. Still, wouldnt have done this without the help of predecessor Natasha.
7) Amazing friendships formed...and the more ;)
8) Emotional trauma with friends leaving
9) The sending off (I have to put this in...still play it in my mind soo much)
10) Knowing that you re being missed...

SAM Conference in Bielefeld, 6-7th Oct

One of the perks of being in the Coordinators Team is that i work closely with the other AIESEC coordinators, namely Sandra and Segala. Sandra being the German AIESEC Coordinator and Segala, the Global Coordinator. This means any AIESEC related events involving our company will involve my participation (the "could be less catatrophic launch" in IC, Poland was another example).

The Latin Coordinators (mininum 2%)

The HUGE cake


So with our company celebrating its 10th year of partnership with AIESEC in Germany, we re heading up north to Bielefeld for a national strategic conference called SAM (Strategic Alignment whatchaMacallit...dont really know what) where our company will once again celebrate the decade of cooperation, the key word being CELEBRATE. Like all great ideas, they would like to emulate our idea of a celebration held in Poland here too! So bring out the HUGE CAKE, balloons, party atmosphere and wait a minute...the confetti cannons wouldnt work here as they planned to have a chill out atmosphere with candles all around...and confettis might burn!

With Sandra helming this one now, i was merely the person in charge of music! It was way exciting than Segalas...he wasnt sure of his new role of Nothing To Do Executive! Oh yeah, i was in charge of navigation too...(thank God for Google maps!), whereas Segala would be driving! Wasnt that much to plan for this event, but did get into some unnecessary little debate of which sequence is better; Boss speech, cut huge birthday cake, birthday song (Sandra's) vs Boss speech, birthday song, cut huge birthday cake (could be anyone elses common sense idea). The debate went on till we re to confirm it during the dry run!

Cool thing bout events like this is that its considered a "businees trip"! So on with the company car (a sweet Audi wagon with a GPS). Turns out all my maps printed was a mere waste as we could make do with the GPS, even if its in German!

Trip was pleasant and it took us not more than 3 hours...we were put in a cute hotel (sigh...i cant complain) on some hills, akin to those cottage houses in Cameron Highlands! Short while later we had one of the OCs to transport us to the venue some 15minutes away.

After lunch and it was straight to the dry run, our session begins at 6. We ve decided not to go with Sandra's sequence (duhh!), plus also we could push the cake in...this time with sparklers and some fireworks! Awesome!! Although the cake didnt look that pleasing...it was rather plain. Huge yes...all yellow with our black logo on it. Hmmm...but well if its employer branding...that ll do the job!

As for the Nothing To Do Executive, i was introducing him the art of Corporate survival...a concept Sun Tzu wouldnt have thought of...the Art of LLB (Look Like Busy)! Well as we were there doing nothing, while the other people were arranging chairs and the plenary room, we decided to "help"...that is to just move around some chairs and act like its the most complicated thing to do. Note that if you do the facial expressions the wrong way...it might look as if you re constipating! So practise is all thats needed!

Dry runs over...where the heck is Boss? A few panicky moments later, she arrived half an hour before our start! A collective sigh of relief later...and it was our event.



Crowd with their yellow caps

Along with Segala, as we re both from the National Committee of our respective AIESEC countries, we were curious to see how conferences in Germany ran. Plus this was a strategic one...which means you ll have the executive boards of all local committees here. With that, let me just say how many local committees AIESEC in Germany has...over 30! Wasnt sure of the exact number...but this is heck a lot!


Venue of where the Celebration gonna take place and cake being rolled out

Anyways, our event went really well! Freebies like caps, notepads, memo pads and bags were given away, Sandras session went well (especially for the boys) plus I didnt screw up on the ppt clicks! On with the celebration, and you have to give it to German efficiency...they set the venue up in less than 30mins and when we came back, balloons were hung and candles were everywhere! The place was awesome! Had that pleasant, romantic feel to it as well...then the birthday cake rolled out after the short toast by the Boss, cake cutting, photo session...everyone loved it! Nice...!


Our "reserved" dinner table and one of the sessions we were observing.


Very cool AIESEC Promo materials

So...work was done! And its time for the "Red and Yellow" Party...which will happen close to midnight. We sent our boss back (shes got a MUST NOT MISSED appointment with her hairdresser in Koln the next morning!), we then headed back to the hotel for some shut eye before heading back to the venue again. In between my nap i got a disturbing call from a new trainee, who sounded exasperated on the phone. "....Bonnie, theres a spider in my house!"
'§$%§"!&!!!!

Its not like the spider is up there or what! Horny little spider!

Anyways the party started slowly...turned up a few notch when the super cool dj (I'm being sarcastic!) played AIESEC dance songs! Sooo...it is the same as parties in Asia Pacific conferences after all! Well although you wont be surprised to see a few hooking up and making out in any avaiable (read: WARM) corners, but the party always never fail to live up when there are AIESEC songs played! Gosh...its either they dont know what PARTY means or they only know how to dance to pre determined dance steps!! Sigh...so when mine and Segala's fav office Monday song came up ("I Cant Wait for the Weekend to Begin"), we were the only ones dancing in the dance floor! How fantastic!?


No prizes for guessing what they re doing...and i didnt know George Michael was an AIESECer!?


Hmmm...looks similar?? Well thats cuz they're sisters! Anna's loving Mace(donia) and Kate's asking me whats 2+2. Small world...the one on the left is the LCP while the one on the right is the "Snickers Girl".

Oh by the way...surprise of the night came in the form of one of the AIESEC dance songs. Now the bhangra dance song (Tunak Tun) have been one of Europes favourites...which started during the 2001 Natl Leadership Development Seminar, now another Malaysian creation is gaining popularity, and i am puzzled at how! It was the "Si Swah Swah" song from AIESEC in UTM...and i wanted to make sure if this was the exact same moves (not that i remembered all), but i do remember the Washing-window-with-a-sponge-move"...so this must be the same one! PRetty awesome...despite me not liking AIESEC dances, you re still proud how dances from your own country are becoming favourites elsewhere in the world!

Oh and funny...when i was in the toilet there was a huge flipchart with marker pens tied to it for you to cast your vote of Most Prettiest! Sandra confirmed there was something similar in the girls loo too!
Creative...!

Of course the party was complete with FREE alcohol...although i was fine with apple juice! Looks like beer...tastes even better!

Me and Segala noted this sad observation though...not that we were desperate for friends, but in our own countries, when we see 2 random trainees in an AIESEC conference, we talk to them and make them feel welcomed! Well, except for 2 or 3 people, that wasnt the case here. We didnt want to conclude, but it was inevitable, at the end we were questioning the same thing we question countries with lots of trainees...Do you see your Trainees as mere numbers, or their country's ambassadors to your country? Well...its up to them!

Anyways we re back only at 4am! We had to get up at 10 for our breakfast and head to Munster, some random place near Bielefeld which i wiki'ed and thought it was nice to visit. Well, what we didnt anticipate was shitty weather and that pretty much spoilt our plans. To conclude, Munster was cute...we had lunch and coffee there (plus deelicious apfelstrudel!) then left for home! I wished we could stay longer at the conference...to understand how the local AIESEC conferences ran and would love to also interact and get into a few discussion with them. I am sure this wont be the last German AIESEC conference for me.

Colors and sights of Münster

October Fest; 22nd - 24th September

Gorgeous Girls...


















Crazy, Thrilling Rides...!



And heaps of THIS!!!







Head on over to bonniearthur.blinklife.com for the Best of October Fest!!

It took a while to upload it as i was recovering from my hangover...and yes, i ll try to not make it looonnnggg (so iluvtina wont complain about too many words...!).

Sommerfest at the Tower

One of the most anticipated events of the summer amongst the employees have always been the annual Sommerfest (Summer Fest). Held within the vicinity of the Tower, the event is highlighted by lots of free food, games, live performances and the disco (sounds 70’s but its typical clubbing music).

It has always been the highlight of trainees past and present (the ones that stayed longer) and one never fails to hear of this persons experience or that persons experience during SOMMERFEST.

Well, the publicity of this years event had begun nearly a month ago…and finally it has arrived!

Held last Thursday (14th Sept) from 3pm…offices were already empty from lunch time onwards. But as the coordinators need to prepare a VERY IMPORTANT PRESENTATION to the new Head of Dept the very next day at 10am, we know we had to finish heaps of work plus not staying till reaaalllyy late!

As the promotion went;
- breaking of the keg by the CEO at 3.45pm
- drinks and food at very low price (1 euro for all)
- live performances
- 8pm, mega disco by DJ Bjorn

The moment they saw that they had to pay…everyone went up in arms! “It has been FREE all the while, so doesn’t mean if the company is on a major budget cut across all depts., doesn’t mean Sommerfest had to be spoilt!!”…echoed all employees.

Well I think if you would want to know the effectiveness of a “workers council”…this was one thing you wouldn’t want them to go on strike for! So after about 3 weeks of promotions, they had to do a whole lot of new posters to promote the fact that…

“Food and drink for FREE”

Well we were a bit skeptical over the singular usage rather than the plural of “drink”, but anyways we were all happy nevertheless.

Party was in full swing from 3pm onwards…but before I left the Tower I saw a spot where they were giving FREE haircuts and styling! Being the Asian (or Malaysian) that I am…I quickly rushed and lined up for my free hair do! To complete the Asian lineup and proof that the event would be an Asian haven (since everything is FREE), Amit, Jennie Lee, a few Chinese as well as a UK born Chinese was lining up as well!

The result was a funky hairdo that is so unPortuguese Tart, plus a 45° angle Mohawk on Amit that’s not even on top of his head!
We nevertheless had fun watching our gay hair dresser cutting our hair. It was sure as thrilling as it was for us as it was for him to creatively redesign our tresses!

New hairdo, a few touchups for vanity sake in front of the mirror, more photoshoots and more free stuffs (shampoos and wax) later…we were ready to go out! Oh yeah…apparently we both agreed (and the others who had their hair cut) that getting a new look was far more important than seeing the event being officially opened by our CEO! And already people were calling me “AstroBoy”!!

There were heaps of tents, serving traditional German food, alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages, game booths and many more!! Its not that I savored all the really nice food…but I was savoring the fact that it was all FREE!! Yummy…

Really cool event, plus the fact that all trainees were there hanging out, we even brought some illegal ones in (read: Dee)!

The guys and me were literally stunned with the huge amount of gorgeous looking things which we never have met before! Even the canteen girl looked uber hot!! She actually had her hair made plus went for the free make up as well… a real life Cinderella!

The “mega disco” which followed during the night wasn’t a disappointment either, although the music choice was a little too lousy! I guess for some it was a bit weird seeing colleagues whom you ve never seen away from the office really partying like mad! Some was still in their suits on the dance floor!! You know when the alcohol and wine is FREE you’d expect this to happen! We were busy spotting if the CEO would be on the dance floor though! Super awesome time…but it had to end before midnight as me and the coordinators got some presentations the next day.

Cool thing about having events like this on a Thursday, it just compliments the Friday Feeling…where there is no mood to work, come in with a hangover, or leaving before lunch!

What about the presentation...it was POSTPONED to the following week! KNNCCB!!


Sommerfest at the Tower


Me and Amit with our new "do", the Astro Boy look and the "tilted Mohawk"!
The Sommerfest poster of 2005 The Sommerfest poster of 2006


Mega disco...

And speaking of Fest’s…

It is known as the LARGEST PEOPLE’S FAIR IN THE WORLD, with over 6 million people visiting it!

30% of the year's production of beer by Munich breweries will be consumed in the two weeks of celebration.

12,000 People are employed, of these, 1600 are waitresses (75% are C cups and above)

There is available seating for 100,000 people.
6 million mugs of beer was sold in 2005 (5.5 million in 2004) alone…

Roasted oxen: 88
Sausages: 219,443 pairs
Roast chickens: 459,279

Yup…after work today, along with 20other trainees, we re heading to Munich for OCTOBERFEST!!! Well, to celebrate the occasion, I would actually DRINK THE BEER there! A once in a lifetime opportunity and much to the envy of my beer drinking Malaysian friends…I would be there!
Come what may…sober or drunk, you ll be posted!

"You ll love it in Poland i tell you..."

“You ll love it in Poland I tell you! The girls will go crazy especially since you re a foreigner! There are soo many beautiful girls in Poland and the guys are all ugly…”. Those words from a Polish trainee was ringing in my head the whole time as I prepared for to leave Bonn with Segala and Sandra.



That apart, I was really excited over this trip for the reasons below;

- Being in International Congress (the BIGGEST AIESEC international conference for national committee members and presidents in their local chapters) for the 3rd time playing a third different role. Back in 04 in Hanover, I was a delegate. 05 in Agra I was part of the facilitator team (plus the mission of wanting to see what opportunities I could grab my hands on in terms of working abroad - that resulted in my being in Bonn now) and now in Warsaw, Poland…I am representing the external partners, seeing that my company is one of AIESEC’s biggest and long running partners.

- Coming back to an AIESEC conference once again. You have to trust me on this, nothing ever beats the energy and enthusiasm of young, dynamic people congregating in a huge plenary! The vibe really makes the hair on your back stand…the feeling is electric!!

- Meeting fellow Malaysians, this years delegation consist of good friend and country president Anisha (whose mum always want to talk to me about the powerful teachings of Amah), Sandy as the external relations (continuing the trend I started where we were Local committee president rejects but having 2nd chances in the National Committee), my mentee Yoke Yen (also my suc-successor) in charge of People Development and 3 local committee presidents, Kah Heng (of which I remember us having a chat on his future in AIESEC once in a bus in Penang), Ethan (very promising talent from UTM) and Shavonne from UKM (one of the many bright talents that have emerged from the local committee that I mentored).

- Meeting old AIESEC friends. These could be less than 20…or it could be over 100! I am not sure, but I know for sure I ll be seeing familiar faces around! And for that I d rather not expect too much…

- Representing the company I work for and showcasing it to a global plenary! Now this one I used to remember vividly how I envy those interns who was priviledged to wear the “yellow shirt from the yellow company”, simply because it has positioned itself as one of the leading companies to work for after your AIESEC experience. Now I got to play this role, something which I know I ll cherish and I would be proud off…and moreover I am responsible for the Partnership Re-launch, of which I promised that it would be the BOMB! A launch which no one has ever witnessed before!

Read all about this exciting journey to Warsaw, the fun times I had there and the people I met, a different virginity lost, the hectic traveling and much more…!

Its gonna be a looonnngggg one....but its worth it! Its all at bonniearthur.blinklife.com