International Friendship Day

Last Friday, the 13th of April, Singapore celebrated International Friendship Day in its public schools. Hei Chin, an NTU AIESEC Alumni and the National Education coordinator of Queensway Secondary School, sent me a desperate plea for help; she had run out of ideas to show her kids about international friendship.

Thus we hatched a plan; that day, I, Attila(from Hungary, working in DHL) and René(from Germany, now back in Germany) went down to the school to address the WHOLE SCHOOL during their morning assembly.

It was an interesting experience for myself, I don't think I've publicly addressed so many people at one go, certainly not a secondary school assembly like that. Heck, I've not even gone to a secondary school assembly since 2000. Haha.

But it was pretty fun! The children were quite lively for 740am, and quite supportive with 'whoo's and 'yeah's and clapping. I have to admit though that I was a little nervous. Basically I shared my own experience about making friends all over the world through a few opportunities(mainly AIESEC), and encouraged them to explore the world too, and seize all the opportunities available. I think the 3 of us shared a psychic link so Attila(or Pixi, as he is known by his friends) and Rene also spoke about very similar things.

After that, Pixi, Rene, I took a picture for the school magazine, sitting with the kids in assembly (and doing cute 'v' signs), we're still waiting for that picture from Hei Chin. And we proceeded to have an authentic secondary school breakfast, with kaya toast, sandwiches and tea.

Fun!

Queensway Secondary School



Myself addressing the school



Rene with a class(and a snake)

Pixi addressing the school(he was very business-like, haha)

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When the music's over

After a great year, full of success stories for @NUS, one would expect the last LC gathering to be one with tears flowing (not only from Imran's eyes!) and a lot of sharing. Well, no one cried and the tissues I carried with me went to waste. But it was a deeply emotional LC gathering nevertheless.

Apart from the usual AIESEC dances, rewards and recognition this time we had a few other things. The 2006-07 EB team and LCP are almost finished with their term, and we (the new EB team or "Vikings") brought out a cake to show how thankful we are to them for giving us a good foundation. At first, Shubhangi wanted Imran to cut the cake as LCP but then she handed the knife to Khim because he is graduating this semester. At least some were disappointed after the cake was cut and there was no cake on Imran or any of the EBs' faces. Everyone enjoyed the coffee cake. Lastly, Hefang shared how glad he was to have the 2007-08 EB team as their successors.

LC NUS EB Team 06-07

Shubhangi held a very insightful session where the lights were dimmed and she asked us to relax and close our eyes. Raising important questions about the past year the LCP elect made us delve deep into our own minds to quantify our personal as well as @ achievements only so that we could compare them with the goals we had set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. Among other things, Shubhangi asked us to cut down to at least three people who have made our @ journey remarkable, and to send them thank-you notes as it really boosts their ego.

It's called meditation, they're not asleep (except for the ones who are cheating by keeping their eyes open!)

On this note, I would like to say that most of us don't use "magic words" as often as we should or we could. In Hebrew it's just one word (בבקשה) for "please" and "thank you" but in English we have two so there's more choice. As kids we have all been taught magic words but by this time most of us have forgotten about it. Another thing I often tell people is using "need" instead of "have". Rather than saying "you have to do this" you could say "you need to do this". Trust me, it makes a big difference too.

Shubhangi shared a very emotional presentation with us to show her appreciation and gratitude to Imran, her LCP predecessor. It really stirred up everyone's sentiments. Later, everyone who could afford to spare more time met up at KGourmet to have dinner.

Everyone has final exams coming up - not only in NUS but also in NTU, and I believe @ers in SMU are suffering from the "exam disease" right now. So on behalf of everyone everywhere, I wish everyone everywhere the best of luck. For the people who are looking for internships - abroad or locally, hope you find what you are looking for soon. And for those graduating, we will *sniff*sniff* miss you! Thank you for being a part of @ even in your last and most demanding semester. Wish you all the best! Just focus and we all know you will graduate in flying colours and find a great job!

Happy EBs!

What is Henri's body language saying to Imran? (More importantly, what is Imran thinking?)

Silence!