Chicago: The Windy City

Something about traveling just really excites me.

To be placed in a new environment, surrounded by strangers, mystery, and unexplored adventures. Wandering the streets of foreign territory in negative degree weather in search for a comedy show, or walking half a mile to see a giant bean in the middle of a park, or simply understanding the city’s public transportation system.

Today, I write about my experience in Chicago. I attended AIESEC’s United States Winter National Conference for 6 days and spent the next couple of days exploring the beautiful city.

If my mom had to ask me what I did, I would say something like,

“For the first 6 days, we as AIESECers were evaluated on our current ranking compared to other countries. We were tested on our currents skills we acquired and went through multiple tracks to improve our own special committee. In the process, we built personal relationships to people across the nation and developed our leadership skills.”

 

In which is true. But in the process, the conference was greatly entertaining and informative. The details are very technical and hard to explain to someone who isn’t in AIESEC, but we learned practical skills on how to continue exceling at everything we have been doing. The days were long as it went from 9am sometimes all the way to 11pm and let’s not forget the “late night hangouts.” But overall, it was a great learning experience and I’m glad AIESEC offers opportunities like these to be a part of something greater and work together to change the world. I strongly encourage anyone reading this to ask me about AIESEC and why we do what we do, I’ll be more than happy to share.

After the conference, the study tour the organizing committee had planned out was unfortunately cancelled because of a huge blizzard that hit our region (which ultimately delayed our flights…) but this gave us a chance to hang out with whomever, whenever, and wherever we went while still renting the hotel rooms at a discounted price. Together with a small group of friends, we bonded closely over great food, great view and cherished everything we could at Chicago. As I cannot explain my experience in great detail, I hope these pictures and a quick video I have created can help share my experiences with you guys. 

More Photos

School or New York? Definitely New York

To start off, let's just say it is an absolutely miracle for me to venture to New York in the most random time of the school year.

AIESEC US (Find out what AIESEC is here) was hosting "Train the Trainers" event, which was an intense 3 day training seminar where participants learn about themselves, learning theory, and training techniques. On a personal and professional level, participants enhance their personal development, learning, and skills and become certified trainers in the AIESEC network.

With more research, I'm thinking to myself, this is an awesome opportunity. Even though this was only my first year in AIESEC, I applied on a whim. I thought, why not? For the TtT in New York specifically, only 10 delegates got chosen out of all of AIESEC United States so my hopes were certainly not high for this. At first, I was rejected and the email explained how I lacked experience, lacked conference attendances, and I was already at a disadvantage because I lived on the West Coast (their goal at that moment was to strengthen the clubs in that region). But a week before TtT, the National Trainers Team Coordinator sent me an email that someone dropped out last second and asked if I was still interested. I was like, hell yes! I booked my flight that same day and the rest was history.

So my plan was to depart San Jose on a Thursday morning and arrive in New York City in the evening. From NYC the next day, I would take a bus to Ithaca where Cornell University was located, and spend 3 days and 2 nights on campus. On Sunday night, I would take a bus back to NYC and spend all of Veteran's Day (Monday) exploring the beautiful city.

Everything was quite an adventure and I also had the chance to practice some photography as well. If you are interested, my adventures are separated in the three links below.

Day 1: The Flight

Day 2-4:Cornell University - TtT

Day 5:24 Hours in New York

Photos

Day 2-4: Cornell University - TtT

Day 2:

My bus to Ithaca departed at 8 am so Nat and JJ walked me to the Bus Terminal. Even at 7 am, the streets were crowded and you could really see everyone up and about. While waiting in line for the Shortline bus, I luckily met a girl named Lelenia who was actually from Cornell University. She was majoring in Labor Relations and was interning in D.C. for this semester but came back for this 3-day weekend. We sat next to each other on the bus and let's just say the 5 hour ride there didn't exactly feel like 5 hours. She was very kind to give me directions going to Caldwell (The Building), which was such a struggle finding my way around. If there was one thing about Cornell, it's that there are hills, it was freezing, and everywhere you need to go was noticeably distant from each other. I used to get tired just walking through the quad back in high school.

The campus was amazingly beautiful. 

I felt like royalty walking past and through castles everywhere I walked.

I thought NYC was cold but it was sleeting during the bus ride here. I eventually felt a little bit of snow but I was too absorbed noticing Cornell's beauty. I was an hour early anyways so I didn't hesitate to capture some photos on the way. 

I was actually the first one to arrive so I had lunch with Mahrusah, a member of the Organizing Committee, at the dining commons. Went back to Caldwell to meet the 9 other delegates I'll be spending the weekend with. Everyone was extremely cool, and they were all from the East Coast. Madison, Illinois, Yale, Georgia, Purdue, and I was the only guy from the West Coast entirely, but that didn't stop me from bonding with all of them. After many ice breakers, we started into our sessions and it went on until about 10pm. Exhausted, I traveled back to Tim's dorm who is a member of AIESEC Cornell, to crash for the night. Everyone else wanted to go watch a movie or do something but if anyone really knew me, I cherish my sleep. The next day, I would be training for over 14 hours so I really needed my rest. Tim and his friends even invited me to go party but I really did not feel like going out. I spent the night reflecting on my trip, my life and catching up with old friends back home. Got a good 7 hour sleep and prepared for tomorrow's rigorous session.

Day 3:

Training went from 8 am - 10:30 pm. I don't want to go much into detail since this event was kind of a "You need to be there" moment, but let's just say everything was very technical. A countless number of activities and presentations, but overall everything was extremely informative and I learned a lot of skills I wish I had during my time in Interact District Council. 

Instead of crashing back at Tim's, I hit up my old high school friend Rehan who attends Cornell and she gave me a little tour. She let me crash at her place and I met all of her floor mates who were all super friendly and welcoming. I had to prepare a 15 minute session on any topic I wanted to so I stayed up until around 3 am to perfect everything. I created a two page speech and a Powerpoint to help my session and I was too sleepy to continue staying up and memorize everything. I ended up bonding with the other floor mates and Rehan's roommate talking about life until we finally called it a day. We both needed our sleep.

Day 4:

Woke up at 7 am to get ready. I was pretty sad I didn't get a chance to say good bye to everyone, but I left a little thank you note on my way out. (Thanks Rehan & Rachel!) Today's session was all about using everything we have learned over the weekend and applying it to a practice session. I volunteered to go first but my session was more of a Ted Talk than an actual session. I received valuable feedback nonetheless, and everything is indeed a learning experience. Sessions and feedback for everybody went on until 3:30pm and we spent the last hour concluding the whole TtT experience. The facilitators described what opportunities TtT will open up to us in the future. 

My bus back to NYC was at 6 pm so before heading to the bus stop, I toured College Town, which was the area where all the best restaurants and parties were. I went to Jack's Grill to purchase a quality burger with Cajun fries (Thank the Lord). While waiting for the Shortline bus, I met a woman named Marcella. She's at least 50 years old and I offered her some fries. She reluctantly took one and I discovered she was actually the wife of a professor at Cornell. I could tell right off the bat she was a warm-hearted person. We talked for half an hour about my plan for the future, her experiences, how she never saw a Jamba Juice ever in her life, and it just goes to show how everyone in the world has their own story; it's beautiful. The Shortline bus arrived so I had to cut the conversation short, but I gave her my card in hopes she'll stay in contact with me (You never know who you'll meet again in the future!).

On the bus back, I sat near one of the other TtT delegates who introduced me to members of AIESEC Baruch. It was a dark ride back in Ithaca because the sun was only out for such a small portion of the day. We all ended up sleeping on the way back. From the bus stop in NYC, I took the subway back to Nat's. Jimmy refreshed my memory about which train I should hop on, and while waiting for the money machine to be back up, I joined in on this conversation these 3 cops were having about Prison Break. It was ironic because they were actual cops analyzing the plot, and I don't know, I thought at the time it was pretty funny. After I got off the train, my Google maps led me the wrong way home. It took me West instead of East and as I was heading back, my phone died so I was walking around the rural areas of NYC with a very expensive camera, a fat backpack and was dragging my luggage  everywhere. I tried asking people for directions; some didn't know, one guy looked at me and told me that he was so drunk, others ignored me. I eventually found myself at a McDonalds and charged my phone with my laptop. All eyes turned to me; this Asian teenager with a ton of baggage sitting down all alone. Once I reached some battery life, I eventually found the way home and note to self, never walk around NYC at midnight by yourself with all of your belongings. On the bright side, NYC was so beautiful. I am still amazed at its beauty, maybe because I'm so used to California but observing my surroundings and analyzing all of the differences just makes me appreciate my visit even more.

I finally arrived back "home" and everyone treated me as if I have lived there my whole life, which was very welcoming (': I updated everybody on my trip and eventually everyone went to bed except Nat and I. We were watching a super funny ass show I forgot the title... But we just bonded until 2:30? ish I lost track of time but we got to sleep in the following day anyways so sleep wasn't crucial for me at least. I prepared for the next day and was ready to spend a whole 24 hours in the beautiful city of New York :)

My Wild Weekend in Arizona

 

This is a long overdue post but a few weeks ago I took a road trip to Arizona with an organization I joined, AIESEC, for their regional conference known as West Coast Fall RoKs 2013.

First off, "AIESEC is the global youth network impacting the world throughleadership development experiences. AIESEC has been facilitating youth leadership activities as well as international internships & volunteer experiences for over 65 years, developing a global learning environment across 124 countries & territories."

In my own words, AIESEC focuses on global exchange to give students a valuable experience to travel and volunteer/intern abroad. As AIESEC members, we are responsible for receiving and sending out students to help give them an enriching life experience. We are the largest student run organization in the world, and some of our many responsibilities include convincing companies to hire interns from foreign countries to help their business, recruit students who want to volunteer/intern abroad specific to their major and location, match students from other countries to companies' specific job descriptions, find housing and making the intern feel at home here in the U.S., managing multiple budgets to fit certain needs, etc. We do have a professional side of AIESEC which practices real life business and leadership skills, but as a club, we are like a family. We want to work towards a common goal: peace and fulfillment of human's potential. 

The conference over weekend with AIESEC was definitely memories to cherish for a lifetime. It was cool because we got to connect with AIESEC chapters from other schools such as SLO, ASU, UCD, SDSU, and Cornell so I feel like my network has expanded at such a greater scale. I even roomed with a student from Germany who is part of the AIESEC chapter there! It's so inspiring to see how AIESEC brings together the youth to give students a chance to enhance their business and leadership skills and really make a difference in people's lives; that is just awesome. The topics we learned during the retreat was very technical specific to AIESEC, but it was enriching and inspiring to say the least. For me specifically, I spent 5 hours learning how to sell AIESEC to companies and how things needed to get done after the contract is signed, etc. What was also pretty cool about this this retreat was I think I found one of my passions in life and that is with Sales/Marketing. Practicing how to sell AIESEC to companies and the process behind everything lets me sort of visualize a career in that sort of field. I'm definitely interested in the psychology behind of what makes people do what do in a business aspect so West Coast RoKs allowed me to have this opportunity. I partnered up with next semester's president Imran to my first sales meeting with a guy from Juniper Networks and I just found out how the power of communication really is. Even if I don't pursue a career in Sales, it's a great skill to have regardless of your major and I find it quite enjoyable thus far. 

This blog post was a bit lengthy, but in short, I'm glad I joined this wonderful organization. I hope that with AIESEC, I can change people's lives and one day go on my own exchange.