Lurrra's first day in Cairo

In a conversation with Mohamed Fawzy:

"What is this? A market? It's pretty."
"No. This is... random. Everything in this city is random. That is the beauty about it. No one can blame you for being random."

Cairo is making me feel warm. That's not meant temperature wise, its not very hot at the moment, in the evening you definitely need a jacket. No, I mean that my feelings about this place are warm. People are making you feel extremely welcome in a honest and natural way and I just feel like spending time with them.
I also noticed that the general chaos and unstructuredness of pretty much everything I saw and experienced so far is not shocking me nearly as much as it did in Bangkok. Maybe I got used to it or I'm better prepared this time, with reading about Egypt, talking to people about it etc. But I believe it's rather the cheerful and relaxed way of the people I have been together with. It helps you to just enter the flow and go with it.
I like the atmosphere here. I truly do. It might change quickly once I experience culture shock, I know. But that doesn't matter right now. Now, I'm liking it very much, and I have nothing else on my mind, than the fact that I will come here for real and work and hang out with these people every day. I'm happy. I'm in the right place. Exactly the right place.

ready to go

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go...
My train to Geneva will be leaving in about 40 minutes. From there I will fly to Milan, from there to Cairo, where I will arrive at 1:40 in the morning.
One week Egypt. First time Egypt. Me: nervous! Very much. (And. making. very. short. sentences.) And excited, too.

Phu.... how will it be? Will I make a good performance? Will the members like me? Will I like Cairo? ...thousands of questions in my head...

I need to go there to see. Now. Off.

less and less

I have an excel sheet, in which I write down every book I read. I keep record of the title, the author, the year in which I read it, if I own it or not, if I lent it to someone and whom, and also a small rating.
Sounds pathetic when I think about it. But really, try to recall what books you read in the past 3 years.

No, really, think about it!

Can't remember much? That's how I feel. I know I read a lot, but I often can't remember what it was. Once I see the title, I remember what it was all about.

I had a look at the list today to add another book. And it struck me suddenly, how I read less and less every year. I was a reading-addict when I came back from the US. But somehow I have less time available every year. But maybe that is just an excuse for having set other priorities. But I'm not sure I'm so happy about that. I love reading and I definitely want to take more time for it.

Here the numbers:
2004: 23 books
2005: 13 books
2006: 11 books
2007 so far: 3 books

Changes are getting obvious

My live as I'm used to it is going to change in a few months. I knew that ever since Annika called me up to say that I have been selected to go to Egypt. But it's getting more and more obvious and taking shape every day.

First indicator: I'm going to facilitate the national conference and have some heavy heavy transition in Cairo in 2 weeks, when it will be the first time for me to set foot in an Arabic country, the first time to meet (some) of my team, the first time to meet my predecessors, the first time to get a glimpse of the Egyptian (AIESEC-)culture. :-) I'm veeeery excited!! Puts me right back into my nomad life, that has been a bit neglected ever since I got back from Norway in January.
:-D
(Let's hope that Alitalia will stay up in the air for at least 3 more weeks...)

Second indicator: Transition has started with Mohammed Fawzy, the current Vice President for People Development. It's a lot of topics to cover. But I'm feeling very good about the process. Fawzy is being very clear and funny, the material is interesting, new, gives me lots to think about, room to discover, room to explore. Juhu! :-)

Third indicator: Chregl and me found someone to rent out my room in Lagerweg. Contract is not signed yet, so there is no 100% security on this, but it looks very definite. An era is coming to an end for good, a very very cool era that I enjoyed every day: living with Chregl in Bern. Once I will be back from Egypt, Chregl will have moved out. We had a harmonic time, I think one could say, and it will be hard to let go. It will be very hard.

Output

After several weeks of sitting on my desk or on my sofa, reading about the welfare state in Austria, after several weeks of sitting in front of my laptop and staring into the screen, after many weeks of total enthusiasm over this thing, after many sleepless nights, and also after many productive hours during these weeks, it was finally finished on Sunday around midnight. My super-welfare-paper! It's turned in now, and I'm relieved and can dive right into the next one! jupiii!