AIESECers at PwC

Leaving Belgium...and moving on...

2007-10-26T16:57:00.000+02:00

Can't imagine that I have already left Belgium, and now I am back in Singapore! Can't imagine that one year is just gone like that!!! One year is not too long, neither is it short. But it had been an intensive one year for me, in terms of work, in terms of personal life...sigh...think I really miss Belgium now...

I really enjoy working in SPA. I like what I am doing, the job, the environment, the people. First half of the year was not very interesting, but soon by the second half of the year, I was fully chargeable to clients.

I am glad to be in SPA, glad to work with different colleagues, and glad be to granted the opportunities. Overall, I am happy with the learning opportunities given to me, happy in my performance, happy with the good appraisals I have received.

I managed to achieve my CISA certification. I am lucky to have a helpful Boss such that I managed to have a good referral to other office. I am blissed with fun colleagues in a fun-loving department.

Moving on, I will still be in the big global family of PwC, in Toronto office to further my career, to gain further international experience, and continue exploring the rest of the world ;-)

See you soon again...

All the best to all the trainees in Belgium now...

Madrid Calling!

2007-04-15T18:15:00.000+02:00

To say the least, lifes been quite a journey over this past month. Ive caught up on my mid night dreams in 5 different cities, on 7 different beds (which by the way has my back crying for a massage), have treated my palate to cuisines from atleast 8 countries, all this accompanied with the pleasure of people so diverse and unique (read:weird/interesting), that i swear if i had to write a book on their lives, it would be a bestseller. Basically to cut a long story short (which as you know, is rarely the case with me), after all the change in time zones and postal codes, am trying to make this huge city called Madrid, a place to call home.

Madrid, Spain's headiest city, where the revelling lasts long into the night and life is seized with the teeth and both hands. Strangers quickly become friends, passion blooms in an instant, and visitors are swiftly addicted to the city's charms, and were just getting started. My first couple of days here were spent attempting to solve the mystery of the Madrid Metro Lines. After a week, i can safely get from where i live to my office without having to take a look at the map. Having spent alot of my time in India, the closest i can compare it to are the Mumbai local trains, just that the ones in Madrid are less crowded, alot cleaner, work underground and dont have people trusting their lives with a metal bar, whilst they enjoy the pleasure of the wind in their face outside the train.Work has been nothing short of an eye opener. Moving to a big city after spending the better half of the past couple of years on the God foresaken Canary Islands, which are an hours swim from the coast of un heard of civilisations of Africa, you begin to contemplate over the identity of those islands, and if theyre actually on the same planet.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers claims that their people are their biggest assets, and thats exactly wat u first realise here. At 8 in the evening, an hour past the time we go home, I am surrounded by people all atleast 5 years older, half of whom do not understand english, but are experts at wat they do. Apart from the people, ive discovered this mother of all intranets called the knowledge curve, which practically has anything ur looking out for with regards to financial services and consulting. there is so much of info, that i spent one whole day, just getting lost in the network. Its got the works, from company`s financial reports to harvard business reviews. The work culture at PwC something ive always wanted to experience. Everyday, when i walk into office, I see professionalism and excellence being personified by the members of the firm.

When i got here, i had no place to stay, so i parked myself at a family friend`s place. This 60 odd year old gentleman of Jew origin was kind enough to let me stay at his place for a few days. He is the first character to intrigue me in this city. The dude manufactured leather jackets from some city in Uttar Pradesh i hadnt ever heard of, and made a living of selling those accross Spain. He served me Supper (read: dinner) every night which included a salad and this huge plate of french fries! Trust me, its the best supper ive had so far in Madrid. Anyways, ive found myself a place now and i live in a neighbourhood which is a 5 mins away from the city centre and 15 mins from work. Its a Duplex, wooden flooring, my room is wall to wall carpeted, i dont have a flat mate now, so am all alone! but wat i love abt the place is that at the end of the day, its a place i can go and feel at home. So just for the records, my new add is :
Mohit ChandiramaniCalle De Tarragona, 16,
6-D,28045- Madrid.Tel: 0034 695460160.

My first weekend in Madrid lived upto its expectations. Went to see the Madrid-Barca game. being a Barca fan, i wasnt the most popular guy at the bar. but yeah, had a really nice time, went clubbing and got home at 4. Sunday, was spent running errands- supermarket, laundry, cleaning. etc etc etc :(Anyways thats been my first week here. Theres alot more to tell, alot of interesting ppl met, alot of stories to narrate, but i guess ill save it for another time.

Cheers,

Mo!

In the middle of connections

2007-04-12T18:03:00.000+02:00

Swift flies the time... I have already begun counting down my last days in Belgium. Early as it might sound, I would like to take a retrospect at my past nine months.

The truth behind the curtain
When still being a member, I was always wondering why & how companies view and support AIESEC. The first one to unveil the mask is Keith Bell, whom I believe that most of the AIESEC alumni have met in ICs. Initiated in 1972's, this connection is even senior to me. From bud to blossom, this relationship has been blessed with many a person's belief in and advocacy for AIESEC throughout these years. Since the first day I joined PwC, I got continuous encouragement from the top-notch people in the firm - Karel, Rich and Paul, etc. A partnership won't be successful like this without the blue-ribbon's genuine support and the identical core values of PwC and AIESEC. That's why I'm proud of my role now - managing extensive connections with AIESEC International, 4 regions (Africa, CEE, Middle East and South Africa) and at least 50 countries. Not until the last Global Coordinator meeting when Segala sighed "PwC is everywhere" did I realize this partnership was like a "marriage" already...

My boss
Even though Karel doesn't prefer my calling him as boss, I still feel pretty comfortable with this title. I still remember the first time I met him, I said to myself "oh, he is the very man who talks about AIESEC in the famous IC 04 Germany video." (At that moment, I had the feeling that a typical Asian gal meets a movie star.) With so many hats on his head - Global Information Leader, the Belgian firm partner, the Leader for Responsible Leadership (Belgium) and the Global AIESEC Champion (and probably many others I might not know), he handles all these acrobatics like a slam dunk. Among all the things learnt from him, high-efficiency, "down-to-earth" and a prudently analytic mind is the most cherishable assets, which largely cured my post AIESEC leadership syndrome. At the same time, he is also a "family guy" (not the American cartoon for sure). The first thing he did when he landed in Egypt for IPM was to call his wife and he always talks about his kids when we share personal lives...

Building connections that matter
Go to my Inbox, you will find out the emails from Bahrain, Jordan, Kenya, Central American South, Ireland, Canada, Singapore and India, etc.. It's a "bona fida" global role which grants me the chance to have true conversation with different people from various cultures. On top of diversity, significance of this connection also impresses me a lot... Tarek, the CEO of the PwC Egyptian firm, extended the IPM invitation to all the partners and encouraged their participation and I did find the excitement from my Egyptian colleagues. Mariano, the HC partner of PwC Italian firm, is the invisible supporters: we only met up for five hours in person, however, I keep on hearing from Matteo (MC Italy) that PwC was going to launch some new item in the partnership throughout the year. On the AIESEC side, I'm constantly exposed to the proposal, suggestion and gratitude from many local chapters, which leads me have faith in the impact the partnerships exert in AIESEC network. Last but not least, my friend list has increased triply - who else are in my MSN list now? AIESEC-PwC alumni (who always give me advice and help when needed), trainees (who share the same wonderful experience with me at PwC) and other Global Coordinators - DHL, UBS, InBev, Microsoft, etc..(who share the same happiness, frustration & biz travels with me).

Belgium, a nice country to live in

It is actually the first foreign country I stay over six months after being a grown-up. Not boasting the French pride and the Dutch thrifty, the Belgian people don't necessarily have a strong national identity... If you want to argue something negative about Belgium, they might be the first one to agree with you. However, a group of diverse people are thriving in this carefree countryland. Most of the AIESEC trainees in Belgium are amazed by the hospitality and friendliness of the Belgian AIESECers and people here. As a trainee, I have enjoyed very well a trainee's right - understanding the culture, having group trips across the country, connecting with trainees of all different nationalities and tasting the decent Belgian lifestyle. Every morning, when I see the EU commission building next to my home, I would appreicate once more my traineeship in such a lovely country with those lovely friends.

The story goes on

While Norica's spam of "the story goes on"was still like yesterday in my mind, I'm going to have my own successor soon! No matter who it will be, I believe, this connection will go from strength to strength! I myself is moving to London, joining Charles Macleod's recruitment team in the UK firm, although I will still be back in Belgium quite often for my friends - Pedro, Chin, Norica, etc. and my boyfriend. Cannot wait for the new bud's flourishing~

Not a normal day…

2007-03-14T16:08:00.000+01:00

It was February 15th and all started at 6:00 am, while most of people were “waking up”, I was getting ready for a Not normal day… a day when dreams, work and fun merged together to be a unforgettable experience.

I arrived to Malpensa airport, and got a plane to a mysterious and really interesting destination, Egypt, as somebody said, “…all of us, has on mind the name of Egypt, the pyramids, the Nile, and millenary culture from when we were children…” and it is true, in my case, I was landing to a country full of this magic that can let us live more about a new culture, but it was not a simple tourism trip, I was proud to attend the AIESEC “International President’s Meeting – 2007” as a part of the PwC Delegation, composed of Karel, Mengting, the Global Coordinator, and Veronica from PwC Italy.

The first part of PwC involvement is AIESEC Symposium. It is an event to talk about “how to activate and develop the Middle Eastern Talent”.

The Symposium and the Partner Dinner were held on the “Intercontinental City-stars”, one of the most luxurious five stars hotels in Cairo. It was a pleasure to get to know Tarek Mansour, TSP from PwC in Egypt and Andrew Marritt from UBS Switzerland, Patricia from The Netherlands, and so many people from the Middle East region, who from now on, are part of the Middle East and North Africa Growth Network “MENA-GN”. It was an amazing opportunity to interact with them and get to know the reality on this region, full of history, cultural heritage as well as challenges to be solved.

On Friday morning, as Egypt is a Muslim country, you can hear their prays all the day, since their weekend starts on Friday, so, weekend went really nice, walking around Cairo streets, mosques, markets and delicious food! We were living the culture!

The Opening was gorgeous, held on a Palace built on 1864. Typical dances - the AIDA was also part of it. All of them perfectly performed with most of the Old Egyptian musical instruments. It was just amazing to be there!

Global village, with delegations from more than 95 countries, was full of color, sweets and sweeties from every part of the AIESEC World as well as the PwC Delegation.

The conference, hosted in the Pamala resort hotel off the Red Sea, was completely astonishing - the opening, the roll calls, all came to my mind like if it was yesterday and I just joined and lived the conference like a normal delegate.

The AIESEC International Team 0708, was elected at IPM, the speeches, the special events discussing about interesting topics, world issues, showing us the beautiful minds of who were applying to President of AIESEC International.

Mengting, introduced and presented the PwC Scholarship to the global plenary. We were having country Meetings during lunches and dinners, enjoying sometimes the “Shisha” (also known as Narghila). Also, together with Mengting, Marcelo (from UBS), I got some time to get to Giza, the pyramids are just incredible, to have this kind of archeological heritage.

We accomplished all the main objectives and also, we had a lot of FUN, refreshing previous experiences on IPM, joining the Roll Calls, regional parties (we missed the AP Party, “Global Legislation” rules!), and like this, 10 days of conference, enjoying AIESEC Culture, all of them were not a normal day, unforgettable experience in Egypt!

First post from the headquarters!

2007-02-19T23:15:00.000+01:00

Inspired by Andreea but a bite late though: Happy 2007 to you all!

Well, at least in my case I have no doubts that this is going to be a fantastic year, both personally and professionally - together with the start of the new year I've started a new career and a new life, in a new city, new country, new people around me... almost everything is new, except for the company and department that I work for!

Explaining this better by detailing what happened in the previous year: I joined PwC and the Data Quality group in November/2005 for a 12-month internship based in the Brussels office, with Andreea coming from Romania and teaming up in December. Needless to repeat her words posted below: 2006 was an year packed of great experiences within PwC and AIESEC. The opportunity to work in a global-wide team spread around the world was really interesting, specially the part of being coached from America by our US-based managers (Tim in New York and Sanjay in Washington). We also had the extraordinary opportunity to travel to the US and London, meet our Global Information colleagues in person and get to know the headquarters of our company (and of course, check out these great cities as well!). It was also my first year with AIESEC, I had lots of fun and made very good friends that I really miss and hope to see again, soon!

But the highest point of my 2006 was in October, when I signed my permanent contract to continue working for PwC and GI, this time together with Tim and Dave in New York City! It has always been my ultimate objective since I joined AIESEC in Brazil in April/2004 - to get a permanent job abroad after the internship. It was indeed one of the happiest moments of my life, since I combined the realization of this objective with another one I also had: to live in this amazing city!

It's been already one month since I started living and working here and I'm still very excited about it. As I said in the beginning, it's a whole new life for me in this year that begins. The company and the department didn't change, but the challenges I'll be facing certainly did and I'm really looking forward to assuming these new responsibilities. It's a career that just starts, and this feels really good and motivating!

I really can't stop saying "thanks" to Tim, Neil, Jan, Karel and all GI colleagues that made this fantastic opportunity possible. And of course, I'm also very thankful to AIESEC: not only for all the fun and great friends I've made, but also for your great work in keeping and continuously improving the partnership with PwC - I'm here in New York now writing this as a result of this dedicated work. Karel, Norica, Crystal: good job and thank you so much!

Andreea already posted some nice pictures of us in the NY office (gosh, can't believe I didn't cut my hair before meeting Sanjay and Tim for the first time!), but here go two new ones, including this one of the area where the office is (Midtown Manhattan) as seen from the Empire State Building at night. Can you see the red arrow marking my window on the 34th floor? So, next time I'll be posting some photos of the view I have from there everyday !

Till next post!

Eduardo

Winter Conference in Copenhagen

2007-02-14T14:21:00.000+01:00

1 - 4 February 2007

It's a pleasure to be invited to the Winter Conference held in Copenhagen. Also an opportunity to travel around Europe, and it's great to be travelling with fellow PwC trainees too :D

On the first night, we clashed into the MCP (Member Committee President) Election, and it was definitely a stressful moment to be bombarded with questions from over 50 members spreaded among the 6 LCs (Local Committees).

Great to be back to AIESEC conference again, after such long times ago...good place to revive my youth and energies from the younger generations... ;D

On the second day, competencies & skills workshops were organized during the conference. Christian Østergaard and Maria Addis (both HR Consultant) from PwC Denmark were invited to give a presentation and conduct a workshop for the delegates.

L>R: Agustin, Christian, Crystal, me ;D Maria

Of course, we won't forget to tour around Copenhagen... Copenhagen is a neat and tidy habour city, surrounded by the rivers and sea, thus a boat trip is the best way to tour around the city...the Opera House & the pretty Little Mermaid :D

Thank you all!

2007-01-13T13:56:00.000+01:00

Happy 2007 to you all!

This past weeks have been for me a period of reflection as I've been looking back at the year spent in Belgium working as an Aiesec intern with PwC's Global Information.

I remember the time when I decided to become an SN back in December 04; much of my desire to get a traineeship derived from the inspiration I got from 3 wonderful trainees who are dear friends of mine: Adriana, Bruno, and Misao and from my own strong feeling that I needed to see a bigger picture and put myself to another test to see what I'm made of.

Matching was an adventure in itself and at times the destination seemed elusive, but I was relentlessly pushing forward with the help of those who believed in me and the final news from Norica gave a real meaning to all that adventure. The moment I was accepted I remembered that actually PwC was one of those very few companies I really wanted to work for ever since the beginning of my traineeship search. During the interview Sanjay and Neil were probably pleased to hear that one of my reasons to work for PwC was the reputation I knew it had and also the respect I had for it, and after this traineeship I can still say the same thing.

It’s been one whole year during which I’ve been offered learning experiences beyond my expectations, I’ve met and worked with people who still serve as inspiration for me, I enjoyed the friendship of some fine trainees, I had the chance to travel.
I can look back at this experience and feel happy for one very well spent year, for the satisfaction I got out of my work, for all the support and recognition I have received from those I’ve worked with and for all the friendship.

Karel, Tim, Neil and Sanjay, thank you for this wonderful chance, thank you for both the guidance and the freedom you’ve given me to do my work and thank you for making me feel a valuable member of GI.
Norica, I want to thank you for always being there for me and for all the friendship, kindness and support.
Eduardo, thank you for all your friendship and work. Thank you to all the PwC trainees for making this experience so much more interesting.

It’s been truly worthwhile and I will treasure this experience; the valuable lessons I have learned during last year will surely be used in this new stage of my life.

Thank you for a unique experience!

PS: unfortunately I don't have any pics from the UK office

Travelling maina

2006-11-18T09:15:00.000+01:00

Currently back in Hong Kong...Time flies and it is only less than five months since I left here in July, but when I'm back to the place where I started off, my whole world has been significantly changed.

When travelling has become the routine of my daily life, I really have the feeling that "World is our playground."

In the past month, I have been to London, Luxembourg, Milano, Frankfurt and met a lot of people, including AIESEC supporters - Painters, Directors, Managers, AIESEC alumni working in PwC; AIESEC members - MC, LC, CEEDer and PwC trainees. You see familiar faces everywhere, you talk the same language everywhere and you understand each other quite well everywhere. It is just simply amazing...

What impresses and inspires me most is meeting Marianno in Italy. As a partner, he still spent more than two hours with me and the AIESEC members to talk about the development of the partnership. He also spontaneously offers help in building up the relationship between AIESEC and French firm. I felt so motivated on my role when I did meet somebody who is that open-minded and supportive to our youth organisation...

In the coming month, I'm going to consolidate a little bit on my past work...and, looking forwards to IPM in Egypt!

Crystal MT from warm and humid HK...

Trainees make the world go round...

2006-11-07T17:29:00.000+01:00

In my previous posting (few minutes ago) I was speaking about the people in PwC who really made my staying here worthwhile. It would make no sense then not to talk about the trainees…

And speaking about them, the moment I am writing this, one of the PwC trainees is on his way to the airport to fly back to Brazil. Eduardo was a trainee in PwC in Brussels and next January he will embark upon another PwC experience on the other side of the ocean, in New York. Andreea and he were the first trainees to come in Brussels after my starting the role as coordinator and gave me the motivation to try my best and enlarge the trainees’ crew. I felt most happy to still be around when the enlargement took place- we are now 10 minus 1 (with Eduardo leaving) in Brussels. I wish I could have the chance to meet face2face all trainees in PwC worldwide…you never know.

For the time being, I am thankful I got the chance to meet: Abhijeet (India), Alykhan (Canada), Andreea (Romania), Agustin (Mexico), Belha (Tunisia), Chin (Singapore), Denes (Hungary), Eduardo (Brazil), Mengting (China) and Xavier (France).

Just came back from a lunch with Abhijeet where we had an eye-opening conversation about past and current realities in Romania, India and European Union. I had a similar one last week with Agustin about Mexico.
This last Saturday Mengting cooked for us a delicious Chinese dinner at Xavier and Chin’s place- we were about 12 people (PwC, DHL, Microsoft, European Commission trainees). Among others (notably an interesting conversation about Chinese accents and name pronunciation), Leon (an Australian trainee, Honk-Kong origin) and Xavier thought me how to use chop-sticks (OK, OK, I do not do it the proper way, but at least I no longer drop the food each time I try to take from the plate). Then Belha (Tunisia) thought us how to say Open Sesame in Arabic (next thing I will ask him to teach me few basic phrases in Arabic- will be useful for my Moroccan trip next year).
All these might be little things, but they are definitely the type of experiences that help me discover new worlds.

Lastly, don’t think life with the trainees is only about discussions…oh no, the farewell party for Eduardo was as inspirational as the discussions mentioned above. Not to mention the moment Abhijeet and I dared (I admit, he tricked me into this) to put on our shoulders two huge (disgusting, I might add) snakes that were part of the show in the disco where we had the bye-bye party. No pictures were taken, so I cannot share with you the scary face I had. However, Abhijeet can testify that I was horrified…I think I left a mark when I grabbed his leg the moment I saw one of the snakes smiling at me:-).

There are more stories to tell, but I here I just blogged some highlights of my enjoying life with PwC trainees. Guys, I am truly excited you are here…I look forward to having more stories to share with you and about you.

Cya…
Norica

PS: in the previous posting I did manage to upload pictures (Agustin did not finish his consultancy job yet)- I'll try posting one with Eduardo unleashing his energy at the farewell party...

Glimpse in the past...

2006-11-07T17:13:00.000+01:00

I’ve postponed for quite some time writing on the PwC-AIESEC blog. (If you met me in person, you will have realized by now I have serious challenges with technology. Hence, it was not easy to solve the mistery of making postings on this blog. Thank you, Agustin for taking the time to consult me- hope you can use a chargeable code for this job:-)).

Now that I made it, for my first posting I would like to share with you one particular image that came back to my mind these days. It’s the image of myself waiting for one hour in the airport in Istanbul for the connecting flight to take me back to Romania for the Christmas holiday. It was 23rd December 2005 and I was coming back from a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan- see picture.

That one hour waiting there alone right before Christmas gave me the chance to have a brief looking back into 2005, but not only- tears started rolling down on my face after couple of minutes. Hm, not funny at all- in the next second all the people around me gave me a strange look, the look of “is she insane? We’ve better move one chair away, who knows what she might be up to.” But what they did not know was that I was exploding of happiness inside and on the outside that converted into tears.

As I looked back, I saw Norica in 2002 at the beginning of her AIESEC journey having what I thought it was just a nice dream- to become the coordinator for a global AIESEC partnership. More than three years later, in July 2005 I did accomplish a dream which I had forgotten in the meantime. And still, it was not the fact that I accomplished that dream which determined my outburst, but the fact that the reality was to my surprise far better than the dream itself.

The one year experience as a Global Coordinator in PwC has been the utmost experience for me. Each piece of this experience had it’s own role: I had to deal with a partnership that it’s more as a long-lasting friendship, I kept in touch with AIESEC, I travelled to so many new (exotic) countries, I had to go beyond my personal and professional limits, I was trusted and given important responsibilities, I worked hard and, last but not least, I enjoyed great results as well as I experienced non-achievements which enriched even more my learning path.

All these pieces put together formed a puzzle that I was proud to look at in the end of my journey. But the true linchpin of this puzzle, as mentioned many times, were (and, fortunately still are) the peopleI had the chance to meet, work with and get inspiration from. In the end, behind any great company/ partnership/ experience there are people who make dreams happen.

Inspiration, motivation, enlightening…I felt all these more strongly in the past year than in my whole life. And they all came from the people with whom I worked. The list starts with my boss, Karel- Global AIESEC Champion. Luckily (maybe unluckily for him:-)) I continue working with him in my current role as well. Extremely structured, fast responsive, well organized (a bit of a freak I might say:-)), attentive towards your personal and professional development opportunities, visionary, always questioning decision made (don’t think it’s always easy working with him, but that makes it just great)…yep, for me it was the perfect recipe for a truly inspirational boss. (Karel, if you ever happen to read this, I did my best to put you in a good light:-)).

Karel was not the only one that made my experience an incredible one. Meeting people such as Keith Bell, Paul Batchelor (former Global AIESEC Champions), Richard Baird (HC Global Managing Partner and great supporter of AIESEC) in my AIESEC-related role or working with Marianne Dewandeleer from PwC in Belgium literally propelled me. And the list could definitely continue: AIESEC alumni who are now working in PwC, PwC AIESEC contacts in countries all over the world, PwC colleagues in Belgium.

It was all about the people I got in contact with that deepened the positive impact one year experience as coordinator had on me.

PS: I did not mention here, on purpose, the cherry on the cake of the PwC-AIESEC partnership- the trainees…my dears, I did not forget about you, on the contrary, my next posting is entirely dedicated to you. It will be coming shortly...if I still remember how to post thoughts in this space:-)

Group picture and leaving!

2006-11-06T14:56:00.000+01:00

Well, finally last week the PwC office in Belgium decided to take a "serious" picture with all the AIESEC interns. It was no easy to find a proper "angle" for this picture, but I think we got it in the end; having all the smiling faces that reflects the youth and dinamism that is required to work in a multinational company such as PwC. Of course is something you always get when you gather AIESEC interns in any company or any place.

For the more formal pictures, we just missed Norica very much. We own her to be right now here having this great time at PwC Belgium.

And if you are wondering, the photo posted is just the "after-lunch" celebration for the formal photo (this one is going to be published later I believe) and a departure.

Now I'm talking about a leaving. Well on the other hand, just few days after this picture, one of the "old" members left us: Eduardo from Brazil. He had already about 1 year in the office and now he is moving to the New York office, but first enjoying the Brazilian summer ("caraio" I repeat it to you, I'm real jealous). Anyway Edu, if you're reading this, we are really going to miss you. We wish you the best of lucks.

So this show us that everyone is attached to cycle as an intern. At any given moment our days in one place will end, but what matters at the end are the friendships and good moments you keep with you afterwards.

By the way, Eduardo, you definitely have to post something here about your New York experience...

2006-09-17T20:01:00.000+02:00

Boarding!

It might be a good opportunity to begin our blog with the topic of welcome party for the 6 new interns in Belgian firm.

Nice restaurant, nice food and nice people. Sitting at the small table, you really feel the power of AIESEC again, with the smile faces from Brazil, Canada, France, Hungary, India, Mexico, Romania, Tunisia. (Also, Chin from Singapore, we won't forget you. :) )

At the same time, Grace from Malaysia, Carina from Hong Kong and Goya from China are landing in Frankfurt for the PwC internship of Eurofirms.

The pulse of this connection just could not stop for even a single second.

During the dinner, I also thought much of Norica, who was actually just sitting beside me. Without her, as well as the supports from so many "AIESEC Fans" in PwC, we wouldn't be sitting here and having our new life in PwC and in Belgium.

I also thought a lot on my year plan. Since in this International Congress (IC) in Poland, we got the Best Partnership Award from AIESEC International, which poses a big challenge for me to catch the ball from Norica and the efforts of last year perfectly. Also, I do feel proud of this partnership, especially when so many countries (37 countries) approached me in IC for country/regional meetings to explore the partnership in the coming year, I had the true impression that this connection between PwC and AIESEC was really something for the first time. Also, thank to Karel, Rich, Elena, Srini, Jose, Alan, Kai and all the Polish firm guests, Gosia, Magda, Ewa for making this IC my best memory ever!

Right now, back to the table, looking at the bright faces, I have the strong belief in the coming year, for AIESEC and for PwC!