AIESEC Austria - LC Graz

Future II in Fürstenfeld, April, 2nd to 5th

2009-04-09T17:42:00.002+02:00

Last weekend Future II Conference took place in Fürstenfeld and for sure also LC Graz was quite well represented. Although it was hard to say with how many people – starting with about 15 on Thursday up to about 30 on Saturday plus minus some random party delegates…
Nevertheless LC Graz rocked the house! :) We broke the tradition from the last conferences with kind of feeling ashamed for our role call because this time we had a really cool one (“We are green, we are white, we are Styrian dynamite…!”). At parties we were present with outstanding costumes and won even one award!! And in general I dare to say that we were the delegation with the highest motivation from all. So conference feeling was really great.

Facis had put a lot of effort in preparation and so we could enjoy some interesting, challenging and also entertaining sessions. Joining the Leadership track I found out some new things concerning for example which leadership style I am, which tools I can use as team leader and so on. And we spent the whole day of Saturday to see what is going on now in AIESEC in Austria, which areas (definitely) need improvement, why they need it and how we can achieve this. In this context one of the most interesting and memorable sessions was “Questioning”. We got the question: “What stands between us and greatness?” and had to go on asking questions for a whole while until in the end we had about 400 of them. The special aspect of this task was to leave the pressure of finding an answer always and for everything but just to ask whatever comes into your mind and what is the absolute contrary of what we get taught in our society. In the end we all agreed that you learn more by looking at the question than by learning the answer.
About the other tracks I can’t say that much because unfortunately I could attend just one… but from Induction track I know for example that many of our delegates enjoyed the simulation sessions a lot and that Exchangers had some funny games and found that whatever happens you should ask Carlos! (For better explanation, please ask them! ;))

But what we all did together was PARTYING! On Thursday in Rocky Horror Picture Show style, on Friday in PJs or as traffic lights and on Saturday multicultural (Global Village) and “Futuramic”. And there really must be mentioned that Graz did a great job at the Boat Race, also the winner team (the Ps) included two of us! :) Congratulations Rainer and Stefan!
And then there were still many other things making this conference so enjoyable: A cool OC ;), perfect weather to even have breakfast outside, an inspiring chair, motivated delegates who contributed a lot, etc.

So all this bigger and smaller factors together created a comfortable atmosphere full of energy and motivation to develop and enable the development of others… Bla bla, I know. ;) But what I really want to say is that all people whom I talked to about the conference, told me that they liked it very much. Many of them even a lot more than expected. And I want to say that I am really happy that I was part of LC Graz delegation because I got so much out of this conference that I almost can’t believe it. And a big part of this was thanks to being with you, enjoying it together (and doing crazy stuff)!

In my opinion we soon should attend the next conference together! :)

2009-02-12T16:18:00.001+01:00

On Saturday, 17th of January, 16 interested, engaged and motivated people participated in the workshop “We eat the world?!” organised by the CSR Team and held by Südwind (Renate Sova from Südwind Vienna to be exact ;-))
We spent a great day, getting to know new people, opinions, ideas and visions, talking about “Food” in all it’s numerous facets and sustainability in general. In addition, we were provided with some facts about the topic and the possibilities to get more actively engaged (in Südwind, for example, or in Rudi’s planned new NGO, and of course in Aiesec… ;-))
All the day was so fun and interesting everyone was surprised that 7 hours had passed so quickly…
And one thing is for sure: CSR Team will be back with other great stuff soon!!!

Communication Teambuilding

2009-01-11T15:03:00.006+01:00

Yesterday, communication team had a really cool teambuilding. Starting at 14:00 we spent the whole day and also a big part of the night together.
Through various games and tasks, we got to know each other even better than before and created a strong team spirit among us.
After the official part of the teambuilding (thanx to Stefan Moll and Matthias Kahr), we went to Zeppelin and reflected about what a cool team we are and how much we love each other :D
Afterwards, we went back to office to watch "Hide and Seek", but unfortunately it didnt work, so we decided to watch "Mirrors". But as Luci and Sofie werent able to watch such cruel things (after 2 minutes :)), Markus introduced us to another "great and special" movie called "Dänische Delikatessen". Hmmm.... strange but interesting. The story is about butchery in Denmark and crazy people eating other crazy people. We really recommend it to everyone!!
The right Communication guy :)
Luci: "For leading a team of 4 different people, its really important to get to know all of them from different sites. Not only as a teammember and AIESECer, but also as a "normal" person. This day helped a lot to see that also when we all are different, we can learn from each other and behave as a one strong team. We built a spirit among us and I hope every other team will use this opportunity from TM-Team to have a teambuilding!"

Stefan: "On Saturday we had our first communication team building. I think it was well spenf time because it helped a lot to improve our team spirit. Through several games and tasts, we got to know each other better than before. Personally I really enjoyed thes team building, it was a great time and also a very interesting team experience."

Sofie: "Our Teambuliding was an enriching experience that gave us the chance to grow together as a team. Honestly, before I attended my first teambuilding, I was quite sure that such games are not very senseful and time could be used more effectively and in a more result-orientated way. But as I experienced the great amount of motivation and team spirit that comes out of it, it turned out to be time that was not wasted but very well invested. And in this respect, I recommend to every team to use that offering!"

Bernhard: "Teambuilding is a great opportunity to get to know my team members better. This is a great basis for working together more efficiently. And most important, it was a great afternoon thanks to Stefan and Matthias."

JQC Christmas Party

2008-12-22T18:37:00.008+01:00

On Saturday, 20th of December, the last "offical event" in 2008 of AIESEC Graz took place: the christmas party of our learning partner JQC.

There, little Georg received an early christmas present: a JQC-award.

Georgie's pride and joy ;)

The holidays have already started, Christmas was all around and so we really had a lot of fun:

Some by preparing themselves for their future model's career...

Some by expressing their christmas feelings...

Or they used the time for philosophical thoughts...

And some others enjoyed intellectual challenges...

Of course, it was also great to see Anna Kubin again, who spent the last months in stone-cold Canada!

The night was long, very long. I left around half past three, but honestly I have no idea when our LCP went home... ;)

Probably, this is going to be the last entry of 2008, so the "Blog-Team" wishes everybody Merry Christmas and a happy, challenging and exciting New Year!

Communication X-Mas Meeting :)

2008-12-20T01:07:00.011+01:00

Christmas are coming, so we - the communication team - thought, why not to make the last meeting in this year and celebrate Christmas together?
After one our "normal" meeting, we went to the city center and visited the Christkindlmarkt.
After drinking Beeren-Glühwein (mmmm..) and Orange-Glühwein, eating banana in chocolate and some sweet stuff, we wanted to go to the Big Wheel, but it was closed already :(

So we decided to go somewhere and watch some cool movie. The decision which movie, was reaaaaly difficult: 2 boys and 2 girls.... dirty dancing? titanic? pearl harbor? Greys Anatomy??- the ideas from girls :)

But we finally chose Madagaskar II and spent some really cool evening-night together!

We all wish you Merry Christmas!!

Stefan, Markus, Sofie and Luci :)

Singstar Party

2008-12-04T19:10:00.005+01:00

On the 27th of November we had a Singstar Party in our Office. It was a lovely night. We drank capirinha and sang a lot of songs: We had several different CDs so the songs where ranging from the golden 80ies till the new german rock-pop songs. Everybody tried his best, but the absolute star of the event was Christina, who won two times. Most of time the girls sang better, but also the male AIESECers put their whole emotions into singing, wchich touched the souls, like, "Dieser Weg" (This way) fron Xavier Naidoo.

Champion!

Everybody had fun and after a few drinks it seemed like you could sing even better then before, although everybody smiled on you. We were singing the whole night. I liked this event very much because it brought AIESECers together. The "Oldies" stood equally together with the "Newies", so we were growing into a group. This is very important for me. Because personal connection is the thing, that makes AIESEC more personal than a usual company.

We were also splitted up into teams, so we learned something about teamwork. I think that this events are very usefull for our team experience and I would like to have more SingStar events.

Nenad Pantelic

NPS in Amara, Romania

2008-11-28T11:13:00.005+01:00

Because we couldn’t attend the Future in Salzburg we decided to go to the National Preparation Seminar in Amara near Bucarest.
Sarah from LC Vienna joined us on our flight from Vienna to Bucarest, so the three of us where the austrian delagation representing our country at this conference in Romania.
The journey was quite exciting and kind of a survival training, from banessa airport in bucarest to the Amara where the conference was held we hat to take several different busses, one needed 3 hours for 100 kilometres so you can imagine how the streets look like in Romania. Thank god we met Alina from LC Bucarest in Bucarest downtown, she told us which busses, trains, subways etc. we had to take.
At around 3 in the afternoon we arrived at the ‚charming’ Lebada ‚hotel’ in Amara. It looks like a huge communistic ‚Plattenbau’ in the middle of nowhere. No real streets, no shops, no houses, nuthing but the hotel.
Just look at the pictures.
After we dropped our luggage in our room we crashed the main plenary room where all the newies and the chair of the conference, Bene from LC Vienna, just held a workshop. We where splitted into different homegroups and were from the beginning part of different teams mainly consisted of romanians.

After some minutes we were asked on stage for being introduced to all the newies and facies. The crowd (about 500 Romanians) claimed an austrian roll call so we performed together with Bene a ‚Jodel-roll-call’ we didn’t even know...
A really nice experience was the open-minded collegues from AIESEC Romania who welcomed us really warmly and were kind and helpful at any time. We made a lot of friends there, if everybody keeps his promises, we will have hundreds of visits during the next weeks, let’s see. We got to know interesting facts and insider information about Romanians and there culture.
During the day we hat plenaries, workshops, meetings with our home groups where we discussed and reflected the daily issues and last but not least insane parties at night!
Thursday we learned about the AIESEC culture for a better understanding of the organization. The Facies of our home-groups were our contact persons and at every time friendly and available. On friday lectures about leadership were held. Saturday was sustainability-day. In our opinion the most interesting day, representatives of international prestigious enterprises such as Microsoft or the Royal Banc of Scotland, ING, or Junior Achievement gave talks and workshops to the newies.
On Saturday night there was a big awards gala, the different LC’s of Romania were honoured and got prices for special achievements. Everybody had to dress up. Afterward there was a huge party again where we met some AIESEC Alumni from Austria who are on exchange in Romania now.
During the whole conference we were amazed of the passion of the AIESEC-people and defintely proud to be a part of it, even though it was really much and sometimes surprising for us in the beginning.

The parties didn’t start before 1 o’clock in the morning and lasted til the sun rised at the nearby lake.
Our personal highlight regarding the parties was our stand at the global village party where we had to present Austria. We put on our ‚Lederhosen’ and Sarah from Vienna wore a ‚Dirndl’. We carried Schnaps, Stroh 80, Speck, Bread, Schmalz, Kernöl, Mannerschnitten, Mozartkugeln and many austrian flags to decorate our little area. After some minutes all the stuff was gone, maybe because the meals were usually not that enjoyable at the hotel, they even tried to eat our bacon rind and drank the oil purely.

After that we partied all together really hard and everybody was pretty wasted because the Romanians brought their traditional Schnaps Pelinka.
Another highlight are the unique Romanian roll-calls that sound much better than the austrian ones. Make your own picture:
Summarizing we can say that our first conference, an international conference, was a great experience for us because we got to know much about basic structures of AIESEC and of Romania as a culture and ist people. An international conference has many advantages and we would recommend it to eyerbody who is interested in international contacts, making friends and and an adventurous jouney!

Phillip Fröhlich and Elias Resinger

Faci Experience in Slovakia

2008-11-28T10:48:00.007+01:00

Equipped with a printed google map I jumped into the car and drove to Bratislava the meeting point for all members of the conference teams. My target was the MC flat somewhere in Bratislava. I arrived there at 0.00 in the night. The first time in this city and confusing road signs made me feel lost. No one on the street to ask where I am in Bratislava. Finally I found a police car. Because we had difficulties in understanding each other the police man said in broken English: "Follow me" I followed the police car back on the highway there I took the right exit and some minutes later I arrived at the MC flat.

Next day we were driving to the conference side, which was some where in the woods in Slovakia far far away from the civilisation. One day for all the facis to get two know each other, get into the conference spirit and shape our conference team culture. Our faci team consists of AIESECers from Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Roumania, Latvia, Poland and a chair from New Zealand which lives in Netherlands. The best preconditions to have an exciting and challenging conference experience.

Our goal in the Leadership Track was: Let the delegates find out their personal passion and bring it into reality with relevant actions. The delegates were grouped in home groups. This means you are together with 6-8 ppl in one group the whole conference. This leads to strong group dynamic effects which makes your role as faci even more interesting and intensive.

Highlights of the conference

First Day: Opening followed by challenging team building exercise for the groups. Halloween Party.

Second Day: Company work shop from Henkel about Innovation and delegates start to discover them self and find their passion in life. 60th Anniversary celebration of AIESEC International.

Third Day: Get to know your 24 individual and professional strength. Alumni talks about be an entrepreneurial. Alumni were sharing about their pitfalls, their ways of using their potential for creating a life of joy and successful working career. Hot Peperoni Competition Extreme. (Record 25 Peperoni!!!) Global Village with completele new and funnny ways to discover other cultures.

Fourth Day: Every delegate find out the answer for them self to the question: How can I bring my passion into action by living my own style.

Summa sumarum. It was entirely worth to go on a national conference abroad. You meet and more important work with people from different cultures and afterwards you are friends. That's the best what you can do with your time. Go for an AIESEC conference abroad.

I am looking forward to read your bring backs from your conferences.

Matthias Kahr

Future I in Salzburg

2008-11-23T11:01:00.007+01:00

As I am a newie I was very excited about my first Future-Conference. So when I arrived in Salzburg I didn’t know what to expect and what’s going to happen during the next three days. I just heard that it’s going to be a “new experience” and of course, it really was a completely new experience for me. Especially, the first day was kind of weird and funny: When the newies entered the room for the first time the other AIESECers began to dance and it looked a little bit like we landed in a sect or in a vacation club. But this feeling changed after minutes when other newies tried to join the dance and I recognised that this was the famous AIESEC-Culture I had heard of before. So after every LC presented their selves by doing a role-call we were split up into groups and the workshops began.
During this three days we had a lot of different workshops, some of them were pretty interesting but some of I didn’t like that much.
At the end of each day there was also a party, which differed from the parties that I have been to so far. The special thing was that every party had a certain topic and you were supposed to dress according to the theme, which was really fun...

All in all I can say that the Future Conference was really cool and a great experience. I learned a lot (teamwork, more things about AIESEC), there was a lot of fun (parties, AIESEC-Culture), I got to know a lot of interesting and cool people, but it was also very exhausting. Personally, I also feel more connected to AIESEC than before and I recommend to everybody, who hasn’t been to an AIESEC-Conference yet, to go, because you will really get a great benefit from it (at least you will learn, that you don’t need much sleep. ;)

Stefan Janisch

Local Induction

2008-11-01T19:54:00.005+01:00

Local Induction - the best way for a Newie to get into the organization.

Two LIs are already over and one more will take place next week. So it's time to strike an iterim balance: We got really cool Newies so far!

And of course we're already looking forward to the last (but definitely not least) LI to welcome the remaining Newies to LC Graz.

Stammtisch with our lovely newies!

2008-10-31T15:58:00.008+01:00

Propeller 20:00

On wednesday we had our Stammtisch again.

The special thing was, that we were really mixed up, that means it was not an ordinary Stammtisch.
We had MC in the house :) (thanx zsofie and vlad) and also our newies!
I personally enjoyed this evening and already looking forward to the next one.

See u all next week!

AIESEC-Stammtisch

2008-10-09T09:35:00.007+02:00

Following the request of many members, yesterday our first so-called "Stammtisch" took palce in the nice atmosphere of by students well known "Propeller". While not talking too much about AIESEC, members were able to see each other aigain after summer holidays, share thoughts, experiences and feelings or just have fun.
From now on, wednesday is going to be the night to meet other AIESECers in a casual and relaxed way. So if YOU want to join our next "meeting", feel free to come to "Propeller" next wednesday, 8pm and spend a nice evening among your AIESEC-friends.

LCEM Conference

2008-10-04T17:34:00.010+02:00

University is starting ...
Graz is again full of students ...
AIESEC Graz is recruiting new members ...

This is the present, but what happened before?
As you know, before you start something big, you need to plan and make sure you know, what are the action steps, you need to do.
Thats what AIESEC Austria did at the LCEM Conference, which took place on 18th till 21st September in Murau.

LCEM is one of the conferences, which is very important for the upcoming term. All the LCPs, VPs and TLs meet together and get a lot of important information (thank you MC).
There is a lot of stuff I could tell you about these 4 days, but I picked 3, for me the most important things.

1) Sozialing
As you know, when you are VP you have to communicate a lot with the other VPs from Vienna, Linz and Innsbruck. Also the contact to the MC can help you a lot. BUT! Would you like to travel to Innsbruck, only to meet the AIESECers there, share information and come back? I know, there is skype and email, but its not the same as talking to these people and smiling together :)
Therefore we have conferences, where you can meet aaaaall the cool people and have so much fun together.
Thats what I liked so much at LCEM. You have sessions together, where you discuss all the issues you are interested in, plan together the next steps in your LCs and listen to these people, talking about their experiences and suggestions.
In the evening you go to the parties together and get to know each other not as AIESECers but as (hmmm, how to say it?) normal people :)

2) Education
Recruitment already started and before this happen, you neet a lot of information about how to run this recruitment. We had a lot of sessions about promotion, induction, selection and also about how to talk about AIESEC. All together, we plan our next steps and looked at the inovations and at the situation in every LC.
After the conference I felt really ready to start our recruitment.

3) Comissions
Whats that?
Comissions are meetigns, where the functional areas sit together and talk about all the thinks that are coming soon and all the problems they have. For me, as VP Communication, it was very helpful to talk to Karin, Viki and Viktor and I got a lot of new ideas during this meeting.

At the end I want to say, that I really recommend you to go to the conferences we offer you. Use this opportunity and meet really cool people! Do not see it as something you have to do, but take the time and have fun there! It will really help you and you will get your motivation for AIESEC :)

Thanx a lot to Romana, you was such a cool OCP. I had really a lot of fun with you and I hope, you liked the time at the conference. I really saw, how much you enjoyed reading the gossip :)
Also our lovely OC (Bernhard, Marlene, Becca), maybe OCPs for the FutureII ?? :)
Aaaaand the last but not least, thanx to my communication VPs (girls power :)) and to all delegates, esp. Magdalena for being part of the conference!!

hugs
your Luci

Triest - News from the adriatic sea

2008-08-21T17:23:00.004+02:00

Hi LC Graz,
after my relaxing and motivating holidays back home at my parents place I got back to Trieste well. I had to change the building of the "Studentsasylum" and now I´m in a very nice room that gets 100° C because of the afternoon sun. But fortunately I now have a fridge in my room. It is so small that you can only store sliced bread and one small bottle of water. And as if this wouln´t be enough, the heat the fridge produces as an external induces the thought it would be run by a middlesized nuclear power plant.

But ther is also some positive to tell:
This week the paper I was working on together with two professors got published on the webserver of the University and in a few days it will be published in a Journal. YEAH!!! Check it out: http://www2.units.it/~nirdses/sito_inglese/working%20papers/files%20for%20wp/wp121.pdf

That´s what you can archieve with AIESEC!!!!

This evening we (the LC Trieste and his CEEDers - Ljupka and Stephan) are going to celebrate the birthday of our LCP at the seaside. Whoa!!! Party!!!

Keeping you always on my mind!

Stephan, the poot guy that has to work at the sea.

ProjectEDU in Estonia

2008-08-19T12:29:00.021+02:00

ProjectEDU in Estonia
5th - 15th of August

"I'm in love with Estonia!"
Alin (Romania)

"I think it was the best time in my life..."
Beata (Poland)

"I miss Estonia..."
Ramona (Romania)

"Estonia a culture full of gracfulness and joy combined with ProjectEDU a real life experiment with happyness and space for being human. All this on one timeless place called Paatsalu with ppl who where reflecting each other like a mirror. simply great."
Matthias (Austria)

On the 3rd of August the Austrian delegation, Roland, Matthias, Jakob (Vienna) and me, left warm Central Europe in order to go to Helsinki. We stayed there for two days, enjoyed the city and the "Finnish Fairies". It was great to see Saana again and I really want to say thank you for the nice sight-seeing tour.

In the evening of the 4th we went to Tallinn by ferry. We expected a normal ferry, but we received Baltic Princess: 212 metres long and 29 m wide, capacity for 2,800 passengers - quite nice ship... After exploring our Princess we had to try this delicious Finnish vodka. :)

At ten o'clock in the evening we arrived in Tallinn and went to our nice hostel in the middle of old town. Our first impression of Tallinn was just amazing, such a cute and sweet city...

Next day the conference started and we went to Paatsalu, a small village at the coast.

two members of the great OC-team

at the port in Tallinn

at home in Paatsalu

All ten days of the conference in Paatsalu and Tallinn were simply great: We had a wonderful chair, Marjam. I will especially remember her song "We are connected"...

I can't write here about every single session - ten days are quite long. But I really loved for example the workshop about Intercultural Communication by Amy from China - I'd describe this session just as eye-opening. Another great thing was the session about Modern teaching methods we had at the Rocca al Mare kool in Tallinn.

We also had to work out a curriculum for a subject that isn't taught in school yet (or maybe not in the way we'd like to have it). For that we built teams and for example my team was working on a subject called "Politics and World Issues". We made interviews in the streets of Tallinn and tried to find out, what people from different countries (we interviewed people from India, Finland, England, Estonia, Russia and the USA) think about this issue. This was really interesting (especially because my team was so ambitious, motivated, open-minded and competent in this field).

Here's a short introduction:

The subjects of the other teams were: Art, Science, International Communication, Psychology, Soft Skills and Preparation for Future Life

Although the sessions were really good, I enjoyed most the "cross-cultural atmosphere" there. Altogether we were 28 people from 9 different countries. So you can imagine how intensive the cultural exchange was.

But of course we weren't working all the time. :) There was enough time for cool parties, an Estonian night, time to explore Tallinn by night and day, visit an open-air museum, go to a nice club and of course to sauna (ther's a sauna in the MC-office in Tallinn!!) and particularly there was plenty of time for great conversation.

Global Village

Unfortunately, on the 15th the confereence was over and we had to say good-bye to all that great and lovely people we met there.

But the journey wasn't over for the Austrian delegation. First of all we went accompanied by some other participants of the conference to Pärnu, the summer-capital of Estonia. There we spent one day at the beach in order to relax and recover our strengh - this was absolutely necessary!

Beach in Pärnu

In the evening we went to Riga by bus. Our hostel there was marvellous! The next day we did a sight-seeing tour. Well, Riga is very beautiful, but in comparison to Tallinn it's nothing. (But this is just my personal point of view.) :)

On the 17th we left our cute hostel at 5am and tried to reach the airport (yes, we had some troubles...) ;) But at the end we caught our plane and arrived safely in Vienna.

Altogether I loved this trip and I think we're all still somehow in Estonia...

Hi from Szczecin

2008-07-20T15:43:00.015+02:00

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen!

After being 2 weeks in Szczecin it is about time to let you know how i'm doing up here in Poland.

"It all began on a nice Sunday morning 2 weeks ago. Getting luggage sorted, travelling to Airport and checking in. Flight went fine and i got my train in Berlin that was taking me to Angermuende, where i had to wait for 30 min for a 2nd train that was supposed to finally bring me to my destination Szczecin.
The weather was fine, i was enjoying the peace of the small charming village Angermuende.

Suddenly i could hear a german female voice sounding from the speakers at the station telling with passion: "Der Anschlusszug nach Stettin ist ersatzlos gestrichen. Ein Schienenersatzfahrzeug wird sich in der Bushaltestelle am Bahnhofsgelände einfinden."
Well, being still in a good mood, as the sun was up and softly kissing with it's beams the train station. As we were only 3 people waiting for any trains, no crowd and chatter was there to interrupt the peacefull scenery.

After like 30 minutes i started getting nervous, but as due to strikes of the DB in Germany, no employees to ask for the bus were to be found. Finally after like 70 minutes it arrived and after 11 hours of travel i finally got to see Szczecin."

work in Szczecin:
I'm working for arvato services (Bertelsmann media) which has Microsoft as a customer. In Szczecin is the call central for authetification of Microsoft products for the German, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian and some other hotlines.
My task is to listen to the call agents answering requests on the phone, take notes how it can be improved from the German point of view. Sometimes i t feels like being a German teacher, as no native speakers can be found in the German hotline. A working day looks like 4-5 hours listening to phone calls, then preparing 2 coachings and holding 2 coachings. Can be quite tiring but also is fun now and then, listening to angry MS customers and hearing questions like: where can i find the / button on my keyboard. But i'm working on a best of list already :p

Internet in Szczecin:
Sucks!
We are having chello.pl over here. 4 days it was just working for 1 person in the flat and 2 of us couldn't get it working. Took 4 days to get this sorted. A flatmate called me during the day, that it would be working again. Once coming home from workt, the electric power went out in our part in the city and guess what - that screwed our modem again ... another 3 days of no internet. But finally since yesterday i'm able to communicate with peopel again :)

Szczecin itself:
Szczecin is a nice and charming city (roughly 400.000 inhabitants), with a lot of green areas.
Here a small view from my balcony ...

... some monuments and a lake in the park (it's a freakin huge park ... u can walk for 2 hours without even noticing, that you are in a city)

Behind the pope you can see the city government building.

But it isn't the richest of cities. As it is situated at the borders of Poland, the national government isn't investing many funds in Szczecin but trying to improve the cities of Warsaw, Danzig and Krakau.
So the looks is more old fashioned and a bit grey, but with not too high buildings and loads of green areas, it gives you a cosy and warm feeling.

People in Szczecin:
The people i met so far are really nice and open towards foreigners. At the beginning most are a bit afraid of talking English, as it isn't so commonly used in Poland due to it's history but in the cause of time you can communicate with almost everybody.
On Friday was the first time seriously going out to a local club with some Aiesecers from Szczecin and friends of them. During summer not so many people are going out, as most of the students are gone but still you can find enough people. We stayed at a club til 2 and ended up til 4 in a flat drinking zubrowka (bison vodka with apple juice - it's more than delicious), that we got from a 24 hours shop for around 6 euro if i calculate it right :p
Yesterday was a private party in a house of a Aiesec members (Hauseinweihungsfeier - don't ask me for the English term ... not that easy to type with a headache)
Here some pictures of some people (only nice pictures before drinking too much Vodka)

Well this is just in the smoking room, that's why it's looking a bit clean and empty.
The room with the couches and drinks was next door. But what happend in there, stays in there ...
The party was great fun and i was able to try a couple of different types of vodka (which names i can't remember that good anymore - Zubrowka still is the best!), being challenged to a Vodka drinking competition with polish people (my head is really happy bout this today ...), having a lot of talks with many people mixing up english, german and polish words and meeting loads of new people. To put it in 3 words: Having a blast!

That's a small insight to Szczecin. I will try to make more pictures and keep you all up to date now and then.
At the moment i just feel the urgency of finding myself some Aspirin and getting my head some rest, i guess ...

Lukasz and Derek from Poland

2008-07-09T21:59:00.003+02:00

On the 2nd of July two interns arrived in Graz: Derek and Lukasz from Poland. They are going to work at the TU Graz during the summer.

our welcome-delegation

here they are...

"Hey AIESEC! About one week ago we started our adventure with Austria. The journey was long, but beautiful landscapes makes it pleasant. Just after arrival, we were cheerfully welcomed by some of your LC members. People were very open and friendly, not only AIESEC'ers, but them especially ;) Our job at TU Graz is not too hard, but still interesting and challenging. We have very kind boss, some nice workmates (girls especially ;] ), free tea and coffee – just everything what we need :D. But the biggest impressions makes on us the city! It's beautiful, old and classic but on the other hand very modern. We're very happy to be here right now!"

exploring Graz...

JQC Sommerfest and my birthday party

2008-07-09T00:08:00.011+02:00

On Saturday the 5th of July, not long after the LK1, we went to the Copacabana (near Schwarzlteich) to the JQC Sommerfest. But this was not only the summer party of our learning partner, it was also the birthday party of Alix (boss of JQC), Wolfgang and me! We became together 100 years old!
Thanks to Anna (Kubin), Anna (Zügner), Luci, Rainer, Birgit, Becca, Lisi, Dora, Karoline, Sebastian, Darek, Lukasz, Zsofia, Viktor and Matthias who joined me at this special evening.
We enjoyed not only a very sunny (and later unfortunately quite cold) evening, but also very tasty food from a big buffet.

The highlight on this evening was without doubt the incredible fire show from the cosmic circles (www.cosmic-circles.cc).
A video of this show will follow soon.

You can find two videos from the fire show on youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtxShGDiu1Q
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4ZgagnQQCw

LK I

2008-07-08T22:43:00.003+02:00

5th of July - LK I

The first LK of our new EB took place last weekend.
At the beginning we celebrated our two "birthday-childs", Nina and Roland. After a soulful "Happy Birthday to You" and some chocolate we started out with the official agenda.

We had one applicant for becoming an official member. After her presentation we warmly welcomed Magdalena.

Our really nice chair, Zsofie, did a great work and guided us perfectly through the agenda, which constisted mainly of a revision of our statutes, the presentation of our next-term budget and plans for the future and an intense discussion during the question-and-answer session of our new EB.

After the LK we went on to the entertaining part of the day: JQC Party at the Copacabana..

AIESEC New Year's Party in Triest

2008-07-07T22:55:00.022+02:00

When? 1st of July 2008
Where? Somewhere outside Triest

This year LC Graz was invited to join the New Year's and Transition Party of LC Triest, and LC Graz answered the call. So a small delegation formed by Birgit, Dan, Karoline, Roland, Rainer and Bernhard went to the beautiful city in the North of Italy.

After a three hours odyssey across the Slovenian highways they reached Triest, still having enough energy to go right into sightseeing on a town walk guided by Stephan Kropf. Our delegates were immediately enchanted by the flair and spirit of history delivered by the classic architecture of the city and the delicious gelato.

Unfortunately the sea was too cold on that day, so our delegates didn't go for a swim but headed directly to the nearest café which had a magnificent view on the seaside.

Eventually, there was the party which took place in an alumni's weekend residence with a great barbecue, plenty to drink, and most important the lovely people of LC Triest. As a sign of gratitude for the invitation Rainer handed over the EM Trophy for the best New Year's Party and and Austrian flag as a souvenir for the visit.

Finally, after partying until the early morning our delegates closed the evening by sleeping under the starry evening sky. In the early morning they headed back to Graz and arrived just in time to welcome Derek and Lukasz from Poland.

Once again thank you to LC Triest for inviting us and for the great party. We are looking forward to returning the favour.

CSR Event and Fashion Show

2008-06-30T21:56:00.026+02:00

Hey! Finally I managed to collect some thoughts about the super cool CSR event. Just for those who weren't present:

Where? Afro-Asian Institute
When? Thursday, June 12 th
What? a cool Pimp my Shirt Contest

We really had a whole lot of old stuff to make new shirts, it is amazing how much material the CSR Team raised!

I think the participants felt really comfortable, with lots of cake and juice....
OK, we had some problems with the sewing machines, but nobody's perfect

These hard working people desinged funny clothes;-)

Thanks to our lovely jury!

It was the first event for me I helped to organize and it was a really great experience. I learned a lot and got to know people better. Congratulations to the CSR Team - you are great! It was really worth organizing the event - shame on everyone who wasn't there! You missed a cooool afternoon.

Oh sorry Lucy, I forgot to turn you around, but your shirt is cool!

Fashion Show

Where? Karmeliterplatz
When? Saturday, June 28 th

AIESEC had the chance to present itself and the shirts from the Pimp your Shirt Contest at the Future Icons Festival It's been a very............ hot show.
Poeple will remember us for sure: Those who did something crazy, but cool.

It was not so easy to get the whole thing done, but after having changed the concept a hundred times, we crushed into the middle of the Karmeliter Platz and shocked everybody with an awesome show.

Now people know about AIESEC!

Suddenly Sofie was in great danger.... but she's still alive!
Thanks a lot to everyone who came on this hot day to wear a black jacket ;-)

Good bye, Maggie

2008-06-26T12:08:00.007+02:00

Unfortunately I have to tell you all that today a really passionate AIESECer is leaving from LC Graz!

Maggie our lovely trainee from Kenya has finished her three-months-traineeship in Graz and will go back to Nairobi to keep on working on the project she has started here at the geographic institute at UniGraz! She was one of the most motivated and helpful AIESECer LC Graz has ever experienced: Maggie was part of all events were organized by our members during her time in Graz, joined the drinking (games) parties we had (interesting experience with vodka and dice games...) and, additional to her work at university, she really open to help our LC in the area of Exchange. I was really inspired by the way Maggie organized the teambuilding for the new EB in the farmers house in Gleinstätten: This was an amazing experience for the whole EB!

All these aspects can be summed up that not only trainees can learn a lot by going on an internship, but also whole LCs can benefit highly!!!

Thanks a lot Maggie for the time in LC Graz!!!

Rainer
Local Committee President 08/09

Buschenschank

2008-06-24T10:41:00.011+02:00

Saturday 21st was a blast! Roland, Becca and I went to Wildon at a Buschenschank up a hill. We went by train then walked for around half an hour up the hill. We were tired but the food that we ate there took care of this. We were served with freshly baked bread, a wide variety of meat products as well as very tasty juice. The ambience was beautiful and the company was great. That was one of my best experiences in Graz and with the Austrian culture. After eating we went for a mini hike at a small hill still in Wildon and interacted with nature in the woods. It was like a replica from a movie scene....awesome!

I am very grateful to Roland and Becca for sharing that day with me. We totally enjoyed ourselves and i highly recommend the same to any trainee who comes to Graz, it's an experience that will stay in my memory!

Maggie

Kleeblattlauf + USI Fest

2008-06-21T14:18:00.014+02:00

Participants: Matthias, Thomas, Rainer, Anna Z., Sye, Emanuel, Birgit, Dan, Luci, Rebecca, Lisi, Martin, Stefan, Roland, Anna K, Bernhard = 16 cool AIESECers :)

Yesterday, that means on Friday the 20th of June, there was one of the biggest sport event in Graz, called Kleeblattlauf 2008. We formed 4 teams and did our best.
We had a lot fun and with the motto: Just for fun (some also added: and for the 1st place :)) we made it in time limit 1 hour and got our coooool USI T-Shirts!!!
And the result:

Afterwards we went to the USI Fest (wau, soooo many ppl were there!!!) and celebrated till I dont now when :) Because of so many ppl, it was hard to stay together, but thanx god many of us have 1000 free sms (I think we never sent so many "Where are you-SMS") so finally we found each other and had a lot of fun!!!

I am looking forward to the next USI Fest :)

And the best one comes in the end:

-luci-

EB Teambuilding

2008-06-17T22:19:00.001+02:00

What? great, funny, special, OUR Teambuilding
When? 14th and 15th of June
Where? hmm somewhere in Styria (nice green land :)), near to Gleinstätten, a small village called Prarath (I think...)
Who? EB = Rainer, Anna, Stefan, Luci, Georg and Walter
Facis: Maggie and Matthias
Why? why not?? ;)

Ok, now you have the most important information, but what happened on these 2 days? Why is it called teambuilding and not only a trip?

After a teambuilding, you have to get to know your team better and also to take some information with you at home. You have to be able to work with these people, to have fun together and to see you as a team and not as 6 individuals trying to plan next year.

Is this what happened at our Teambuilding? have a look...

On Saturday, we met a little bit later (do not forget, there was transition party on Friday), we took 2 cars and started our teambuilding. In few minutes, I already learned something from my LCP: when you are driving through the highway, you have to take the small Austrian flags from your windows down, cause they would not survive this (you see: new info for me). After one hour, we arrived to "our" house: really big, cool, with garden!!

We started with small (but challenging) games: to hit a bottle with a soccer ball, to run between some stuff and play soccer....
But then, the real teambuilding started. Thanks to Maggie, who prepared really cool games for us, to get to know each other, to build trust between us and to see, why being one team is important for us.

The funny thing was, that exactly on this day, there was a big event in the village called: Firefighter-event/party/celebration (I dont know...). That means great healthy food, even greater music (tradition Austrian music), cool village people that know each other, so we were as aliens there :)

In the evening, we also watched the soccer game. Not all, some of us slept out the transition party, some of us made a long discussion about the color of the (sorry for this explanation guys) socks for soccer players ("Stutzen")
Afterwards we continued with teambuilding and we also played UNO and watched some funny animation movies.

On Sunday, the big day for LC Graz came. We made (started) the planning for our term.
Maybe not an easy task, but a really important one. This was also the first prove, if we are able to work together. If we are able, you will see when we present our planning :)

We went through some important points as a statement, principals and finally we decided on our goals and focus areas.

After the way home, we discussed a lot and Anna, who was sitting in a car with 3 guys also know now, how important is a good steak for our male part of EB :)
Really want to thanx to Maggie and Matthias to be facilitators and to give us their knowledge, to have fun with us and to prepare for us a cool weekend, thanx to Rainer for "raising" a cool house and to the whole EB for being there :)

And now, we - the new EB - are prepared to start our term!!

- luci -

Soccer Game

2008-06-17T15:07:00.003+02:00

Wir singen rot, wir singen weiß, wir singen rot, weiß Österreich!

Yeah, we also participated on this big event: Austria-Germany Soccer game.
We meet in City park, full of hope and good mood. After a very, very exhausted way to come into the areal, we find a good place and started with the preparation for the big game.

Although we did not win this game, it was a nice time that we spent together and I am looking forward to the next soccer game.

TRANSITION PARTY

2008-06-15T13:51:00.002+02:00

TRANSITION PARTY TRANSITION PARTY TRANSITION PARTY TRANSITION PARTY TRANSITION PARTY TRANSITION PARTY TRANSITION PARTY

Friday the 13th - an unlucky day? Hard to believe, if you think of our TRANSITION PARTY!
I hope all of you enjoyed the evening, the night and also the morning - although I'm not so sure if there really was a "night" between the 13th and 14th, because when I came to the party the sun was shining and when I left it was still/already (?) light outside...

For all the people who didn't attend the party (or for all who can't remember for any reason) :) I want to reflect some "special moments":

After the very important soccer match we started out with the "official part": a heart-warming foto-presentation of the old EB - sometimes pictures say more than a hundred words...

After that the awards we received at LK II and the Annual Awards of the LC were presented and handed over.

Mid-term AIESEC in Austria Selling Competition AWARD 2007/2008
"I am a SELLER"

Mid-term AIESEC in Austria AWARD 2007/2008
"Fast Forward"
-growth - innovation - ambition-

The annual AIESEC in Austria AWARD 2007/2008
Most Progressive LC
-quality - growth - development - innovation-

The annual AIESEC in Austria AWARD 2007/2008
Project of the Year
-relevance - performance - innovation-
learning-
"Wear Fair"

The annual AIESEC in Austria AWARD 2007/2008
Synergy
- empowerment - achievement - living the values -
FUTURE 2
OC Team

End-term AIESEC in Austria
Financial Management AWARD 2007/2008
"Water & Bread"
Thomas Janisch

LC Graz AWARD 2007/2008
"Most actively joined AIESEC opportunities in Graz"
Stephan Kropf

LC Graz AWARD 2007/2008
"Strongest personal development through AIESEC"
Anna Zügner

LC Graz AWARD 2007/2008
"Showing broad commitment and rolemodel behaviour as Newie"
Bernhard Wenghofer
Sofie Waltl

LC Graz AWARD 2007/2008
"Most active supporter in LC Graz"
Dorina Peshtani

The most important thing during the party was of course the "handing over" of the keys. It woulnd't be AIESEC, if the new EB would just get the keys without doing anything. So they had to drink a really "delicious" cocktail (something with Kernöl, different spices, various kinds of alcohol and other things - I'm not sure, if I really want to know all ingredients). But they coped with this "challenge" and at the end they all got their keys and can now start working!

Next action: a match between old and new EB. It was really nice to see how ambitious our EB-members are - also when playing kindergarten-games :)

Finally the new EB showed its power and won! (Maybe the last year was too exertive for the old EB...) :)

During the party all members were aseked to vote the person with the Coolest Hairstyle, the Best Dancer, the Hottest Newie/Oldie, the LCLC (Local Commitee Lady Checker) and the LCMC (Local Committee Men Checker).
The winners got a cool award and a red-white-red girtle of flowers (it's impossible to find such things not in the national colours of any EM-participant these days).

Of course there was also time for some AIESEC dances, a turn of Bitches, Bitches and "I have never, ever...".

Alltogether I think we really had a great time during the party and I'm already looking forward to our next "activities".

Last but not least I really want to say thank you to my great OC-partner Bernhard!

MiSi

2008-06-12T00:13:00.001+02:00

Hey LC Graz!
I just came back from our MiSi and somehow, I am still not tired so here it comes: MiSi output!! yeeaaah!!

But, before I start with MiSi, we had also MM Meeting today. A short one, but thanx to all participants! We discussed a lot problems/ideas/next steps and I am really looking forward to the next MM Meeting. Do not forget: not only EB and TLs, but all members are welcome!

After MMM (cooool :) ) we started our MiSi with our wonderful chair Rainer aka Rainaldo/Rainique

What was presented at the MiSi?
TM
- cool Roll Call :)
- Please: Send your goal setting and member tracking back!
- opening position for RASTA

Communication
- Article in University Newspaper
- Newsletter regularly to avoid
- Blog: everybody will be invited to be administrator
- Annual Report in process

X
- Derek (maybe the Greys Anatomy Derek??? :) ) from Poland is coming on 1st of July. We should warmly welcome him in Graz!!
- 2 people are matched
- 3 people will be matched soon

ER
- people started with calling, getting meetings!!! :)
- also not ER people started with calling (Bernhard f.e.)
- guideline for calling, meeting from Georg coming soon

Finance
- Transition finished
- there will be a found training in June for everybody! feel free to use this opportunity

LCP
- We have seen pictures from EM Event and Finance Event. Both of them were great success (more than 70 participants!!!)
- next conference LCEM, feel free to join OC or become OCP

We also had a really nice presentation from Maggie about Kenya!!! Thanx a lot!!!

Preparation for CSR Event. Good luck!!!

See you tomorrow at the CSR Event!

- Luci aka Luuuusi -

NK II

2008-06-10T21:37:00.001+02:00

Did you ask yourselves on Thursday till Sunday where all the office keys are?

Have you missed some wonderful people in the office?

Oh yes, old and new EB took part at the National Conference II / Evolution 05.-08. June in Innsbruck :)
Thank you Rainer, Stefan, Matthias, Becca and Roland for being there!

This conference was really different as a Future Conference.
First at all, there were only about 45 participants, so you had the chance to speak to everybody. We went through the reality in AIESEC Austria, got a lot information about other LCs in Austria and we formed a new AIESEC Austria vision. It took us a long discussion round, but finally we also set new goals for AIESEC 2010 and also for our next term.
On Friday, there was also a workshop on networking held by booz&co, which was from my side, one of the best workshops I have ever seen.

A special thing about this conference, was the feeling inside me. It was the first time, that I felt as a part of EB. This feeling I got from other VPs, LCPs and MC, because we talked a lot about everything. Interesting discussions were part of a day and through this, I want to thank everybody for sharing their ideas!

BUT!!! On Saturday (also called LCGRAZDAY) there was an award ceremony, where LC Graz got plenty of awards (Anonym Quote after the ceremony: Who took all the stuff?)
- Most progressive Award (Hier regiert das LC Graz)
- Synergy Award (OC, OC, OC, oi, oi, oi)
- Project of the Year (We are, we are, the CSR!)
- Bread and Water Award (Dr. Thomas Janisch)

Congratulation!!!!

Here some pictures for you:

We don´t need the LCPs :)

Bene and Vlad (old and new generation)

Yeah, that was also part of NK :)

Graz delegation!

Award Ceremony

Jump - LC Graz on top

Our Leader (oh je...)

I love AIESEC Austria

Welcome!

2008-06-10T21:28:00.000+02:00

Hi my dear AIESECers!

I warmly welcome you to our LC Graz Blog!
You will find here summaries about important events and also lot of nice (funny) pictures.
Through this blog, we want to give you an overview about whats happening in our lovely LC.

Have fun and feel free to use this blog!