Christmas Holidays

Friday 21st of December: last working day of the year for me.... which means holidays... so direction to France for the Christmas Holidays!! :)

Unfortunatelly a lot of flights from Oslo have been canceled on Thursday because of the bad weather and the cold, and on Friday all the flights have been delayed. But I managed to arrive in France, with 2 hours delay... My friends were waiting for me in one of the French restaurant in Paris for at least 1hour and half... But the most important thing is that I came! hehe
It was really great to meet a lot of of my friends again. It was like I have never left Paris...
The evening was really short, and after 2 hours sleeping I took a train on Saturday morning to meet my sister in Lyon, and come back by car till where I am living: in the French Alps! :)

It is a really good feeling to come back home and spend some time with my family. I have time to relax but actually I am missing Norway and I am really excited to come back there next Saturday.

For you to understand a bit how it is where I am living, read this short story... Yesterday, 25th of December, I decided to go out with a friend and having a drink in one of the bar in the city next to my place. We arrived in the city around 9pm, and we started searching for a bar opened in the whole city (but yes, the city is really really small). And unfortunatelly we didn't find any bar opened at 9pm!! Can you imagine that?? We entered in the Vietnamien restaurant (the only thing opened at this time) and asked if it was possible to have a drink... and of course it is not a bar and they do not have any license to sell alcohol!!
So we decide to continue by car till the next city, 20 minutes from where we were. There we were more lucky because we finally found a bar opened!!
This story to say that I love where I am living, it is a really beautiful region of France... but there is not a lot of things to do here!! even a bar, it is difficult to find! hehe!!

This picture on the top, she is my younger sister, Amandine. Yes, I know she can not be serious on pictures... (Je t'adore petite soeur!!)

The winter in Norway

We are now the 16th of December and it starts being cold in Oslo (around -10°C every day). But when I am talking with Norwegian people, they just told me that it is still ok, because in January it will be much more colder...
but actually Oslo is really nice at this time of the year. Everything is white (street, houses, trees, ...) not because of the snow but because of the cold!
But talking about the winter, I have to add that now I almost don't see the sun at all!! :( When I am going to work it is dark and when I leave the office it is dark again... If the weather is good we can see the sun from 10.00 am on the morning. The sunset is around 2 pm.
I can not wait the summer to see the sunset at 11pm in Oslo!! :)

Working life :)

Even if I have been travelling a lot, I am still working 5 days a week!!
These lasts days I am enjoying so much my work!! getting more and more responsablities, working with people from different Electrolux (Sweden, Denamark, Belgium), having a lot of meeting, even phone meetings.
My tasks can be really differents from one week to another one, and that's sooooooooo interesting! I am really learning a lot and do not have time to get bored.
I still love my intership like it was the first day and I couldn't expected better.

Last week we had "Julebord", which means Christmas table in English. It is a real tradition to celebrate that with the company, even in november! :)
It was a great evening: diner at the restaurant (and I was at the most important table with the most important people of Electrolux in Norway!!) , then we went to a Norwegian show with 2 norwegian Guys (it was supposed to be funny, but my norwegian is still not so good to understand this funny people). And after that we moved for a Pub!
I had really a lot of fun!! Was really nice to have this kind of evening with people from work!!

Copenhagen

One week after Stavanger, I went to Copenhagen!!
Trip with 3 other interns working here in Oslo!! I was so lucky, I traveled with 3 guys for 2 days! :)
My first time in Denmark, I really enjoyed it!! It was coooooooooold but we had a lot of fun!!
Sightseeing during 2 days, saturday and sunday: La Petite Sirène, Christmas Market, squares, Tivoli by night, Round Tower, and also Christiania!
If you don't know Christiania, just read that: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christiania_(Danemark)
I have a really strange feeling entering in this kind of city and I really didn't feel safe. But it was interesting to see that! Pictures were forbidden and a lot of strange people walking around...
On Saturday night we enjoyed Copenhagen going to one Pub to another one!! 4 Pubs during the night, going back to the hostel at 4pm!

Next trip Guys?? Dublin, Ireland, end of January!! Who wants to join?!

Stavanger

Long time I didnt' write somethig here!!
These last week end I have been travelling, partying, and not a lot at home! :)
Let's take first my trip to Stavanger!
Stavanger, a nice city on the west cost of Norway, in the middle of the fjords. There is around 100.000 habitants. Small city, but quite big for a norwegian city. I went there with a friend of mine, from France!! It was a great week end... sightseeing, learning about the norwegian culture, and of course of boat trip in the fjords!
In the fjords, everything is so huge!! And it is so amazing to look around you and to see montains, hills and sea everywhere!!


I can not wait to travel more in Norway!!
Next trip will be Trondeim beginning of January for a national AIESEC conference!!

Landscape

Just a picture from Sognvann. It is a lake next to Oslo, 10 minutes by subway from where I am living.
It is really common for norwegian people to go there and have a walk during week end.
During winter they go there to ski!!

Missing AIESEC

Yes, I am really missing AIESEC!!
After having worked 4 years in AIESEC, it is really strange to not do anything else for AIESEC.
Ok, I am right now intern and still in contact with AIESEC people, but it is not the same.

Last year, I had thousand of work to do. I was staying most of time late on the evening at the office. I was working even during week end!! When I traveled, it was 99% of the time for an AIESEC conference in France or abroad. My cellphone was ringing all the time: calls from France or international calls. I was receiving hundred of emails everyday.
That is for sure part of the "AIESEC Life" :)
And now that I am an intern it is complelty different... I love my internship, my work and my Experience here in Norway, but sometimes I am thinking that this kind of life now it is too relax for me. Going to work at 8am and leaving the office at 4pm.
I am missing this crazy AIESEC life!!
Even if I have some good responsabilities at Electrolux, it is not the responsabilities that I got during my MC Term last year. I realized that what we do in AIESEC it is something unique!

But I am getting used to this new life as an Intern!!! :)
I will be going to Copenhagen in 3 weeks for the week end with some of the interns here in Norway!! It's good to be an Intern! :)

Excel - AIESEC conference

10 days ago I went to Bergen for the first national conference of AIESEC in Norway! Bergen is a city on the cost west of Norway. This city is known for the beautiful weather! hehe Actually it is raining everyday and people says that even if it is sunny, don't forget to take your umbrella with you!

So I arrived there by plane on Tuesday night. Ah I forgot to mention that I was Faciliator for this conference that's why I came so early. Pre meeting started on Wenesday. We were a faci team of 11 people. We had a lot of work to do during 5 days but the conference was really great and I really enjoyed it. I facilitated some sessions for EB Members and also the simulation for the new members.

Conferences, here in norway, are very different to what I am used in France. We were hosting in a hotel and the conference took place at the university. The official dinner was a REAL official dinner. It was a buffet with Italian food in the restaurant of the hotel!! really nice.
Parties are quite different as well. Every LC is starting pre parties in some room.
But the atmosphere of the conference is the same: work, fun, @ dances, roll call...
In Norway there is only 5 LCs but there was around 150 delegates at the conference.

I really enjoy my experience as Faci. It was cool to work again full time for AIESEC, even if it was only for 5 days! I liked working with the MC and I have learnt more about @ in Norway.
I also have a lot of fun with the interns, most of them came for the week end. We started creating a kind of Intern roll call, but still need to be improved!! :)

The last day we went sightseeing in the city. After 5 days of work I could see a bit of Bergen. Really nice city. From the top of the city I could see montains and the sea in the same time!
Then on Sunday night with the Faci team we had pos meeting.
I came back in Oslo by bus and arrived on Monday morning. I just had time to go back to my place, take shower and go to work!! I was dead tired but it has been an amazing experience.
I don't know why but it has been one of my best @ conference, maybe because I was faci but also Intern!


Next conference will be in Tromdheim. For sure I will be there. But I am thinking going only for the week end and enjoying the conference as in intern. After 4 years working in AIESEC, participating to so many conferences and working hard, I am just waiting for the time when I will participate at an @ conference just for the FUN: party and sightseeing!!
So I am really looking foward to the next conference!

Cooking Training

Last week, I had a cooking training at Electrolux!! It was amazing!
Actually the training was for some of the Electrolux customers. The objective was for them to know how to use the different Electrolux products in order to sell it in the best way! My manager and me have been invited to join them, and it was so cool!!
The kitchen is really huge and you can find whatever you want!!
We were splited in 4 different teams for 4 different dishes!!
We cooked for around one hour and half and then we moved to the table and have dinner!
First we got some salade with chicken, then salmon with a French sauce, then meat with vegetables an finally cake with chocolate and ice cream!! And everything with 3 differents wines!!
So great!! Better than a restaurant!! And the best is WE cooked it!!! So you see, the products that you are using to cook are more important than the cooker!! :) Buy Eletrolux products!! hehe

Holmenkollen - Ski Jump

Here, it is a picture of Oslo taken from Holmenkollen. You can see that Oslo is a really small city! :p
The view is just beautiful!
This place is supposed to be known for everyone in the world. The ski jump is one of the most impressed construction of Oslo!!
It is really crazy to imagine people jumping here!!


By the way, at Electrolux we are our meeting room called "Holmenkollen" because from there we can see the ski jump!! nice, isn't?

AIESEC & Electrolux

Why making a comparison between AIESEC and Electrolux? or why am I going to compare my work in AIESEC and my work in Electrolux?
Because actually there is a lot of commun points!
Every day I am learning more about the company and I can see that there is a lot of similarities to AIESEC.

As MC VP (for who don't know AIESEC vocabulary, it means Vice President of AIESEC in France :) ) I have spent hours sitting with my team and talking about different topics and issues, and trying to find a solution and taking the right decision for our organization.
Regarding the Finance, how many times did I sit with my team and explain to them the current financial situation? How many times did we have inderminable discussion around finance issues? Actually I can see that is happenning the same discussions everywhere, and in most of the companies or organizations. Finance is the center of all activities, and we need the finance people to take any decision. I can see that in Electrolux, most of people are full of meetings, in Norway but also with Electrolux people in other countries. They spend hours trying to find an agreement and to take the best decision for eveyrone.
Even if Electrolux is a global company, nothing is perfect, and sometimes there is some mis-communication and people are not respecting what they have promised, a thing which can happen in AIESEC also. And because it is a global company, Electrolux Norway must send a lot of reports to the headquarter, a bit like in AIESEC, when we must fulfil the membership criteria and send some reports to AIESEC International. Deadlines, I see that everydays at Electrolux... :)
Like in AIESEC, some of the employees at Electrolux are travelling a lot: meetings abroad, seminars...

But the best story so far is the kind of "roll call" that we did at Electrolux 3 days ago!! It was the Birthday of 2 of the employees. The director made a speech for them and then he asked us to sit on the floor and we start doing the "ram-sam-sam" :) It was quite funny to do this kind of thing at Electrolux!!

But here the main differences for me so far:
- I take time for lunch!
- I am not working anymore 24 hours/ 7 days
- Most of days at 4pm I leave the office

It is still difficult to explain the similarities, you need to live it in order to undertand it. But every week I am suprised to see that in AIESEC we are really working professionally. But I am missing my MC Life and my MC Team, even if we were working most of the week end and we were getting only a"small small" salary :) AIESEC is a freedom organisation and we can do whatever we want, in the way we want it to be! and that is really nice!! That's why we can develop ourselves.

Next week I am going to Bergen for a national conference on AIESEC in Norway. I will be facilitator! That's so cool to be an intern but still be involve in AIESEC and participate to conference!!

Now it is time for me to go to bed because tomorrow I need to get up early. I am going hiking!! :)
I will let you know how it was! :)

Week end in Stockholm

Last week end (from 5th to 7th of October) I have been to Sweden, Stockholm!!

It was a great week end! :) Meeting some friends again from Brazil, Romania, Turkey... It's wat I like in AIESEC: diversity!!

On Saturday, we have been in the old city and we took hundred of crazy pictures. On Sunday we went to an open museum (as they called it) with Nordic animals!! :)

Stockholm is a really nice city! and different from Oslo; bigger for sure!
Just have a look at my pictures and you will understand why I enjoyed my week end in Sweden!! Unfortunatelly I stayed only 2 days but I guess I will have other opportunities to come back there. And it is only 1 hour by plane from Oslo!! everything is so closed in Europe!



I am now back in Oslo and working hard... it is "budget time" in Electrolux... so it means a lot of work!
By the way, you know that Electrolux is a Swedish company?! Yes it is!! So I was so proud of my company when walking in the streets of Stockholm I saw an Electrolux shop!! :)

Here, Electrolux Norway!!

It's there where I am working everyday!! :)
Nice building and nice offices! believe me!

Life in Norway

Life in Oslo is going well!!

I love my internship in Electrolux. My job description is really interesting and I get everyday different tasks and financial analyses to do. I am supporting different persons in the company and I am learning a lot! :)
People are still really nice with me!
I am usually starting at 8 on the morning and finishing at 4 on the afternoon. But actully we have flexible hours: we must arrive between 7 and 9 am and leave between 3 and 5 pm! So that's great!!
But I am not use to that!! I remimber last year living the MC Office at 7pm, 8pm or later in the evening...
There is a cantine at Electrolux so that's perfect for lunch. People are use to have lunch at 11h30! too early for me, but i am getting the Norwegian habits!
Dinner in Norway is supposed to be at 5pm (but not for me :p). But who knows, maybe in one year I will have my dinner at 5pm also!

As you maybe saw in my last post, I am taking Norwegina classes!! But that's so difficult!!!!!
I don't understand anything!!! and i don't know if one day i will understand Norwegian language!! But I still have like 5 weeks of classes, so we will see!

AH, people who want to drink... don't come in Norway!!!
Alcohol is so expensive!!!!
The beer in a supermarket costs aroung 3€!!!
And the most funny part is that you can find only beers in the supermarket!! They are not selling any strong alcohol or wine. For that you need to go in a special shop! and you know more or less how cost a bottle of alcohol (like Vodka, Malibu...)? Around 35 € (at least)
It is crazy!!
Now I can confirm that life is expensive in Norway! :p

But it is a really nice country and I like it!!
Next week end I am going to Sweden to meet some friends from AIESEC! and in October I will go to Bergen, a city on the west part of Norway, for a national AIESEC conference!

Enjoy your life wherever you are! :)

My first days in Norway

Arrival in Oslo

I arrived on Saturday night after spending 3 hours in the plane going from Marseille to Oslo. At the airport I took a bus going till Oslo (because the airport where I arrived was bit far away) and after 2 hours in the bus I finally arrived in the center of Oslo. There, a girl from one of the AIESEC Local Committee of Oslo was waiting for me and we went to my new house. Because, yes, I am living in a beautiful house in Oslo!! J I would say that it is really different from what I was used to in Paris last year! I am sharing this house with two other girls: one from Norway and one from India.

Sightseeing

On Sunday I went sightseeing with one of my room mate. I saw a bit of the city, took a ferry and went till the Folk Museum. It was really nice: we saw some typical Norwegian houses made in wood, some typical dances, etc…

So far I don’t know enough the city to talk about it but Oslo looks really nice. Streets are quite big and there are no high buildings. Compared to Paris where people are running everywhere and stressful, here everyone is relaxed! :)

The public transports are also great: there is bus, tram and metro. You can find maps everywhere so it might be difficult to get lost! :)

About the weather it is still ok but bit cold on the morning or on the evening… But I will get use to and will be prepared for the winter!

First working days

But let’s me talk about my work… my first day work was awesome!!

I started working on Monday morning and the girl from AIESEC came with me. It took us 30 minutes before finding Electrolux building but finally we found it! The finance director, the woman who I am going to work with, welcomed me in the company and introduced me to everyone. She presented me a bit about the company and my job description. I also got a presentation from the company manager of Electrolux in Norway. Actually my first week is full of meeting with Managers.

So far, everything is going well and I couldn’t expect better!

I also going to start some Norwegian classes (Norskkurs:) ) and I hope to speak I bit Norwegian soon!!

IC 2007 in Turkey!!

The AIESEC International Congress 2007 was this year in Istanbul, Turkey. Because I was part of the Congress Committee (CC) I arrived there on 1^st of August. The CC was composed of around 60 persons!

We had more than 2 weeks of preparation before the conference. Two weeks during which we got to know each other and start working together. If you want to see my team, here you are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8vCvNVL-w

Life in the CC

In one month we really had time to know each other better and to make good friends. Now that I came back to France, I am realizing such big this experience in the CC Team was. I met great and nice persons and I am sure that I will meet in the future some of these persons again. During one month we were working, living, eating and partying together.

Ok, about party, it was quite soft because we couldn’t make any noise in the university before the conference starts, but we found a way to spend the evenings together at the university: boys playing basketball and girls cheering J or some days around a table with one of the CC member playing guitar.

About work, we had some fun carrying 700 hundreds chairs from the law building to the second plenary at 1 am and singing: IC 2007 in Turkey, IC 2007 in Turkey!!! Or also making a human chain from the entrance of the building to the second floor to carry hundred of boxes full of chocolates!!

We also went sightseeing together. The first Saturday we left the venue and went to Istanbul to visit a part of the city (because Istanbul is a huge city of 20 millions habitants): Blue Mosque, Agia Sophia Mosque, Grand Bazar, etc…

Actually I really feel that the pre conference for CC was like a small conference before the real one. Every morning there was a Morning Plenary with some roll calls and country presentations. Sometimes some sessions during the day, some team meetings on the evening. We also made a Global Village, just for CC members!! :p

During the conference it was a bit different because we didn’t have too much time to spend together and there was a lot of stress around all of us. But as soon as IC was over we went for a boat trip in Istanbul. Then we continue the party in the university: party, just for CC, with beers and music on the basketball court.

Then we had 2 days to put the university and the buildings in order and the last day we went for the last city tour in Istanbul, on Sunday. But as we are AIESECers we forgot that it was Sunday and stores were closed… but never mind, we went to a Turkish restaurant, sitting on the floor and eating some Turkish foods. We met again some AIESECers in the city and I went back to university to pack my luggage and take my flight the day after.

Today, I really miss all single person of this team…

During IC

The pre meetings were starting on 18^th of August and most of delegates arrived the day before. Me and my Team (delegates servicing team) we were responsible of the delegates check-in. So just imagine how it is having hundreds of delegates arriving in the same time and waiting for getting their rooms and taking rest after several hours of travel… It was hard and tired but it was so nice to see finally all these delegates in the venue. Personally it was amazing and crazy to meet some of my friends again!!

Being CC during IC is sometimes: no sleep because we are waiting for delegates during the night or no meals because we are running as crazy that we don’t have time to stop five minutes and eat something. But it is part of the experience! J

Personally I really enjoyed talking with delegates, meeting my friends again, going to parties and making new friends in this crazy world!!

Next year International Congress will take place in Brazil… I would like to join it… but for persons you are thinking to apply as CC, I will say: “go for it”!!

Now it is time for me to move on and to prepare myself to go to Norway!! I am so exited and can not wait to be there. For people you don’t know yet, I am going there for 1 year to work in Electrolux.

I will let you know soon about my next adventures in Olso!!