Life Update

Yes, I know ... long time.

But I won´t start one more time with the typical "oh sorry, it´s been a while, bla, bla ..."

Lately I have identified I fall under the category of "expat" or "tourist" blogger, then it looks like that my high seasons for blogging have been the ones when I´ve lived abroad ... too bad, specially since it´s kind of unfair with my current life, one might thing there is nothing interesting going on! But it is .. :-)

So, I decided to stop procrastination today (see my previous post on this blog, how inconsistent am I!!!) on this my personal blog, as well on my Entrepreneurship Blog - let´s see how ot goes. So, what have I been up to?

- I started trekking a month ago. I used to do that when I lived in India back in 2006. With so much work going on back in Colombia, we tend to become sedentary, so Javier took the lead and we joined a Trekking Group called Viajes Clorofila, in Bogotá.



You can also check other trips here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=135326&l=db845&id=787435612 and http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=137230&l=f8bd8&id=787435612

- Oh yes, I started using Facebook, but that has nothing to do with my lack fo blogging. I realized after trying it that, sure, you have to be on Facebook and it´s indeed fun and "light" (you re-estabilish contact with so many old friends and family), but it will NEVER replace or be equivalent to the experience of blogging. So the ones that changed the blog for Facebook, you definitively changed "strawberries for nuts" - both good, but certainly different.

- Job gets every day more instense and challenging. After almost 1,5 years at Endeavor Colombia the "excitement/learning" phase is over and now it´s all about maximizing performace and increasing contribution. The portfolio of the Entrepreneurs I manage keeps growing and that demands more focus. But it still is an amazing experience - we started to set up real Talent Management Systems (perfomance appraisals, development plans, upgraded job roles) and that has increased even more the motivation towards what I´m doing!

- I kept volunteering. I closed my third course on entrepreneurship for children with Junior Achievement and closed my trainning on NGO mentoring with Alianza Social Uniandina. I guess by next month I shall get some NGOs assigned to start consulting them.

- I went home for vacations last april/may.


- We celebrated the 50 years anniversary of AIESEC in Colombia. Nice party (awesome organization) and great to meet with friends.

- I happen to be in the organizing committe of the 10 years anniversary of my school! It will take place in december this year, in Barranquilla.

All that ... but now that I´m writting this, I realized how much I´ve missed blogging!

Random B-day pics

So, maybe bit late to report, but I turned 27 last 23.01!

Below some random pictures of the day! It was a working day, so there was not much space for wild party, still was a very special one ... as always, the winning gift of the day was Javier´s: a wonderful 2-hour wine-therapy (all kinds of messages and aromatherapies based on grapes/wine)!

Highlights of family holidays 2007 - 2008

Last Xmas and New Years festivity were very family oriented ... well, it was about time after so many years randomly travelling around the world!

Xmas (24th of december) we spend in Manizales at Javier´s family. It was fun, it was the first time that I spent such a date in Manizales and also the first time that I ate really home made natilla, instead of buying it ready to make from the package! Natilla is typical desert for Xmas in the center of Colombia, and it´s a custard-like pudding made with corn starch instead of eggs.

For new years we came back to Bogotá and received my family that came from Barranquilla. It was a really different experience (I guess specially for them!). Normally when you think of Xmas and new years holidays you rather imagine you going to your parents house and letting them hosting you and taking care of you in all senses ...! well, this time was the opposite, it was them who came to our flat and Javier & me the one that took care of them for a week.

What better than pictures to show some highlights of those days!

One recommended site to go around Bogotá, where we took my family, and also was the first time for me to visit:

PANACA - http://panaca.com.co/: Which in spanich means PARQUE NACIONAL DE LA CULTURA AGROPECUARIA (National Park of the agricultural/farming culture) is one of the best and more structured options that one has to experience the agro sector without needing to have an own farm. It´s a well dotated place with fauna and flora that you can closely appreciate and interact with. Panaca, a colombian enterprise, has parks in Colombia (2) and also one in Costa Rica and one in Mexico.

Cheers!

New York, New York ...

To see the complete picture set, click here.

I feel almost bad for not having shared before some highlights of my first visits to New York! I visited New York last December 2007 for 5 days, short time but what can I do!? It was primarely a work trip. However thanks to my amazing hosts (my cousin Reuben and his wife Perla) these few days were more than enough to discover the main aspects of the city!

New York Skyline seen from New Jersey

The city that never sleeps

It´s true, New York never sleeps ... I arrived from Colombia to NY on a saturday evening, that must have been 7.00 p.m. and I was a bit suprised when my hosts told me this same day we would start doing sightseeing, "bit late to be around", I thought. But no ... for NY standards seemed to be a perfect timing, specially during X-mas, that is one of the coolest seasons to experience NY. As a matter of fact, all the next photos were taken between 10.00 p.m and 1.a.m. (if a look kind of tired in some of them, now you know the reason!) and the city was as alive, as if it would be 10 a.m. in the morning ...

Walking around Rockefeller Center!

Discovering good street/junk food: Grays Papaya´s

Gray's Papaya is famous for its very inexpensive, high-quality hot dogs. The "papaya" in the name refers to the fruit drinks sold at the establishment, which include orange, grape, piña colada, coconut champagne (non-alcoholic), and banana daiquiri (non-alcoholic) in addition to papaya. Come on! even my beloved Carry Bradshow likes the place (I´m sorry, but I can´t hide that I love Sex and the City)!

Welcome to Times Square and Broadway!

Times Square is a major intersection in Manhattan, New York City at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets. Times Square has achieved the status of an iconic world landmark and has become a symbol of its home city. Times Square is principally defined by its animated, digital advertisements.Times Square was named after the Times Building (now One Times Square) the former offices of The New York Times.



Central Park

Central Park is a large public, urban park (843 acres, 3.41 km², 1.32 mi²; a rectangle 2.5 statute miles by 0.5 statute mile, or 4 km × 800 m) in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. With about twenty-five million visitors annually, Central Park is the most visited city park in the United States, and its appearance in many movies and television shows has made it among the most famous city parks in the world.

Don´t confuse me with The Apprentice!

The Apprentice is a television franchise that originated in 2004 in the United States. As originally conceived, the show depicted 16 contestants from around the country with various backgrounds competing in an elimination-style competition to become an apprentice to Donald Trump. The following two pics were taken right on front of two of the many (Donald) Trump Towers in NYC.

FAO Schwarz

FAO Schwarz is the name of a specialty toy retailer based in New York City. The New York City store, located in the General Motors Building at Fifth Avenue and 58th Street in Manhattan, is still very popular and a famous destination in the city. I seriously loved to go there, I have to admit I did not feel random taking picture is Bob Sponge or sitting down to design my own Barbie by computer ... !

And to prove that it was a work trip ...

The working reason of travellin got NYC was to make part of an Steering Committee of the organization I currently work for. We were around 10 people from all Latin America, Turkey and US mainly redesigning for one week the global IS tool we currently use. It was a great experience, since it was all about mapping the core processes we do and trying to figure out how a system could support us to deliver those processes in a more efficient and collaborative way. Below you can see the team (yes, we were on 2 girls, and precisely from Colombia) during one of our meeting in Manhattan.

A big Thank You

Even if 50 % of my travel I stayed in a hotel in Manhattan, the other 50 % I was hosted at my cousin´s home in New Jersey. I want to end this post thanking him, his wife and son for being excellent hosts and showing me the best they could New York and surroundings. I had a very good time and I really hope to come back some day to keep discovering NYC!

December starts with casual enjoyable reunions

Yesterday, 1st of December was a day of incredibly nice, not very long ago planned reunions with special AIESEC friends in Bogota.

National Committee 2002 - 2003 of AIESEC in Colombia reunion

Since I came back to Colombia in January was so cool to start going out to party ocasionally with Santi (originally from Medellin), who was part of my MC team back in 2002-03 and also Local Committee Presidente of AIESEC EAFIT in 2001, same year I was LCP of Uninorte. But the feeling became every more special when we met, the three of us together, with Andres, also part of the MC team that year (and LCP of Cali, also in 2001). In the MC 2002 - 2003 we were all Vicepresidents, me of A night full ot FAT (f%$#cking AIESEC talk!!), nice food and drinks (being those last two the main differences experienced since the last time we were together back in 2003, when with our poor MC salaries we could hardly survive) and the most important, a night full of memories and gossips ...

Me, Andres and Santi: MC 2002 / 2003 AIESEC in Colombia

Mr. Elias in Bogota for couple of hours

Elias is a brazilian friend of mine, that during 2005 - 2005 was National President of AIESEC in Brazil and also that same year, was the chair of the Spanish Speaking Region and therefore, a big support that year that I was the Director of the region. I've always appreciated Elias a lot because he has been a perfect combination of challenging views and opinions and sooo much fun and randomness. We met for couple of hours for lunch in Bogota, while he was doing a stop from Brazil and on her way to the US, where he lives and works for DHL.

Me and Elias, same as a we are ... a very random picture!

Happy Halloween 2007

Some snapshots of the Office random celebration the 31st of October!
Now, let´s just wait for Christmas!

"Love and Friendship" day

The "Love and Friendship" day (día del amor y la amistad, in spanish) is the colombian version of the well known Valentin´s Day. For a reason that not even wikipedia knows, in Colombia this day is celebrated the 3rd weekend of september. As in many other countries, also here the "Love and Friendship" day is mainly a commercial event ... it´s all about giving presents, going out to party, buying flowers and candies ...

One of the most common "traditions" (if I may call it like this) is a game called AMIGO SECRETO (Secret Friend). It´s pretty much the same as playing Secret Santa (not that Secret Santa is a common game to play here in Colombia, but it´s at least the best I canf ind to explain the non colombians what Amigo Secreto is), in the sense that it´s about involving a group of people exchanging anonymous gifts.

What did I get as a present? a pen!

What did I give? A mascara!

Well, at this point is also important to tell, that normally there is a limit or at least an average of what ideally the gifts that we´re exchanging should cost. It´s purely about having fun and doing something different, in the office, at school or wherever is played.

My team ... Serving the food prior the game


My secret friend

Well now you knwo another funny colombian thing :-)

Some highlights of our flat in Bogotá

Here we go with some highlights for the curious ones! We live in a nice and comfortable flat in a very central district of Bogotá (it´s called Chapinero Alto). Best of the best is that the flat lies only 7 minutes away from my office place ... isn´t that cool?

Ah! and we have a well dotated guest room, if you are a tidy person (very important criteria of the house!), you are always welcomed!

Some last events

August has been a hectic month, but also a full of satisfactions one ... a sucessful launch of the company I work at, funny working lunchs and dinners, pretty a lot of volunteering (pics and stories to come soon) and a very nice weeding are some of the highlights of the last weeks ...

August 17, 2007

After the company lauch, team mates and myself (August 15,2007)

Not all has been work in the last days! Here we go with a picture taken at the wedding of Juan Carlos López and Claudia (August 18 2007), the groom is an old AIESEC friend and Javier´s current partner. In the pic (third from left to right afer Javier and me) you can also see Kris Müller, also an old AIESEC friend, former MC member in Colombia 2001 2002.

Happy Bday!

This last weekend was Javi's bday and taking advantage of my new camera (yeah right ... I wish, it's just the mobile camera, tha's why some pics are so crappy!) here are some photos of a very small gathering done on monday with few friends, where we ate MOTE DE QUESO (wich is kind of a cheese and name soup typical from the north colombian coast- prepared by a friend from Monteria)!

Happy Bday!


Some pics from the cooking and gathering!


Javier & me!

And yes, the house in the background is our flat, specially our "indian" dinning room, that's why we sit and eat on the floor, hehehe ...

Tomorrow ... Punta del Este, Uruguay!

"Projecting towards the South Atlantic, one narrow strip of land emerges proud, dividing the waters of the Río de La Plata and the Atlantic Ocean... Punta del Este"

I´ll be off to Uruguay tomorrow 13.03 and until 18.03 - my first work trip with Endeavor.

Uruguay was one of the countries that I did not manage to visit when I was Director of AIESEC International, so I feel more than lucky to have the chance to do it now with Endeavor as part of my induction process. I´ll be participating the Endeavor Latin American Selection Panel - the event where Endeavor officially selects entrepreneurs to become part of our network. Entrepreneurs passing through interviews by wonderful international panelists and Endeavor staff all together ... can´t wait to get inspired. Particularly Endeavor Colombia is bringing 3 pre-selected entrepreneurs, which we hope in the best scenario all 3 will be selected.

I can´t help to remember back AIESEC ... back to the travelling mood!

A bright 2007

As natural in the life of human beings, a new cycle has started for me with the start of 2007!

I came back from India end December after ending my traineeship in Mumbai. I feel that I never properly wrote a post to describe all the "good bye" feelings from India, but well, at some point maybe I´ll find teh time to do it ... in general as you know given all my last posts, it was a unique experience that I would repeat, if I have the chance to.

Since my arrival, I´ve on one side a great re-discovery process of Colombia and one the other side, on also a great job serach process. Luckily, the Colombia re-discovery process has not finished yet but the job serach process has! I was selected recently to join an awesome organization called Endeavor, a global non-profit organization that identifies and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets to facilitate and encourage long-term sustainable growth. Endeavor is forging a new approach to private sector development in emerging markets. The organization is so amazing that for sure I´ll dedicate a separate post to it and the way my selection process ran.

Coming back to the feeling of being in Colombia, I must say that the main aspect that we felt gaining back was the PARTY factor. Being here and engaging ourselves back in so many "social" activities, has made us realize how different and hectic our life in India was. Imagine ... all started in Dceember, with all the Xmas and New Year´s celebrations, second week of January we headede to the Feria de Manizales and well, recently mid February we were at the Barranquilla Carnival. This, of course omiting all gatehrings with friends that are always there ... honestly, we´ve consumed more alcohol and danced more than what we did in the past year 2006, just in this last 3 months after coming back.


FERIA DE MANIZALES: Enjoy some pictures specially from one of the times we went to the Bullfight Square (Plaza de Toros), on of the highest points of participating in the Feria.

The Manizales Fair was born in 1951 with the first centenary of the city. It began with the presentation of grand Bullfights and with typical Manolas parade (Spanish parade). Due to its huge welcome by people, more shows and presentations have been brought into the Fair, such as International Coffee Beauty Pageant which toghether with the bullfighthing season turn into the main events of the Fair.

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CARNAVAL DE BARRANQUILLA: Barranquilla's Carnival (Spanish: Carnaval de Barranquilla) is a carnival with traditions that date back to the XIX century. It takes place for four days preceding Ash Wednesday. During the carnival the city of Barranquilla's normal activities are paralyzed because the city gets busy with street dances, musical and masquerade parades. Barranquilla's Carnival is reputed for being second in size to Rio de Janeiro's but is far less commercialized. The Carnival of Barranquilla was proclaimed by UNESCO, in November of 2003. How was it this year for us? Lost of music, lots of parades, lots of foam and white powder wars, lots of concerts and closing with a great party at the HOTEL DEL PRADO dancing live with Joa Arroyo (salsa), Sergio Vargas (merengue), Eddie Herrera (merengue), El Gran Combo (merengue) , Peter Manjarrez (vallenato) and Diomedes Diaz (vallenato) ending at 6.00 a.m...

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Good to be home, ah?

About coming back other tales

If it was not official before, be sure now it's confirmed. I am coming back to Colombia on 16.12! So to save you some e-mails, let me assume some questions you have and answer them straight!

1. Wasn't your traineeship supposed to end Feb? Were you fired? Did you quit because it was a bad quality indian Traineeship?

Yes, my Traineeship was supposed to end in Feb but NO, I was not fired, I did not quit and I have not experienced any problem with my company or AIESEC in India at all. On the other hand, simply plans changed and I will be still working for some time for the indian company I work here, but based in Colombia. I am working on an entrepreneurship based traineeship and my main objective is to open markets and bring some money (sales) to the company. That is one of the reasons why I be will working as a representative for some time more visiting personally prospects that we have in the pipeline and cathalyze some negotiation processes we have open with colombian companies, being there physically present - and not just communicating my e-mail and phone, which has been proved not to be very effective.

2. Will you keep working for this company for ever? or what are you doig next?

No, I won't work for this company for ever, allthough I appreciate my boss and the team a lot. I will act as a rep for them until I take another job offer :-) I am actually exploring job opportunities and my strong preference is Colombia, at least for the next 1 year. I've been out of Colombia for the past 4 years. Some interviews are happenning in December and January in Colombia, so hopefully the new year brings me some hot confirmations.

3. Is your boyfriend coming also back?

Sure he is :-) we are ready to see our families and friends!

4. Will you live in Barranquilla? or where?

I will spend Xmas in Barranquilla and the plan is to head to Bogota (colombian capital) early January, since my work prospects are based there.

5. How do you feel?

Challenged, but extremely confident about myself at the same time. There is no AIESEC International, MC position or AIESEC traineeship waiting for me this time, as it has happened in the past 7 years - but I have never been so confident to package my own AIESEC experience. I am aware of my competitive advantages, which motivates me a lot! but at the same time I am humble enough to face the amazing job quest with serenity and joy. You learn so much about yourself.

6. Would you bring me something from India?

NO! heheeh ... seriously we are too packed! But for some of you of course there are little surprises coming.

Ps. Thanks to Flying Blue (Miles Program of Air France/KLM and other associated airlines) for issuing me a free award ticket Mumbai - Bogota ... it's the first time that I change my for 4 years saved miles for an award ticket and it's nice to see how years of fidelity turn into a real compensation ... sniff, sniff ... However even if I love Air France/KLM NOTHING IS PERFECT: NEVER try to use an award ticket in December or other similar hight seasons otherwise you will need to make use of "desparate options" as the Open Miles Option to get a place. When no seat is available in the award booking class (which will always be the case in a month as december from Europe till Latin America), you can still travel for twice the regular amount of Miles "thanks" to the Open Miles option. It was really painful to give away 90.000 precious miles, for a flight that normally would have costed me 45.000 miles ... anyhow, be back home for Xmas is always worth ...