良久. 筆見

Towards the end

2011-12-22T01:06:00.000+08:00

Another month has passed, uncertainty and the haunting loneliness is still surrounding. I am looking for a way out and some changes..

Needing a break & inspiration.

Feeling stuck

2011-11-07T22:32:00.001+08:00

What a strange feeling to observe my own emotions and what I am telling myself, wondering what's going on inside of me.

The mixture of excitement and uncertainty creates a whole new wave of emotions inside of me, that I found it difficult to ID it. The good things about - keep me going and be imaginative; downside - it makes me feel nervous, difficult to concentrate and possibly, become forgetful - which is something what I wanted badly in some aspect in life, but the least thing I would like to see at work.

Speaking it out loud normally helps, but not this time. I can't even talk about it, it's something I can't describe. It's a feeling of looking for something, the deeper I dig into, the more hollow I feel somehow. What is that?

Randomly found this and was hoping it could help me to think from another perspective:

"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart…. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes"

I seldom consider myself a dreamer, and yes, I love the feeling of finally woken. What's that part of me under deep sleep that I wish to wake it up? I hope somehow I can find the answer, or get some hints from the universe, or the unknown part in my head.

What a nonsense entry.. well hope someone or someday I can make sense with it.

機遇

2011-10-29T12:11:00.001+08:00

來到了，一陣惆悵。掙扎點太多，所以一片混亂。搞掂了，卻又沒有那種膽識高昂地出發。

讓自己冷靜一下吧。沒有你們，我怎麼辦呢？謝。

的起心肝

2011-10-18T21:22:00.000+08:00

生病 - 因為有半年沒有真正做運動吧, 是時候的起心肝做運動.

為了訓練一下我的Mental Toughness, 我應該去跑步-- 一項我十分非常極度不喜歡的運動. 打鐵趁熱, 希望今晚成身散哂, 跌落床立刻睡著.

期待

2011-10-16T16:16:00.001+08:00

期待是一種快樂

我期待著紅葉, 期待著新的方向, 期待著下一個考驗, 更期待著那一個Surprise.

聽著Eason 的好久不見, 我覺得很舒服.

樂

2011-10-07T23:48:00.001+08:00

五日的新加坡之旅結束，成功地 pass 了exam. 終於得到了一個實在的認同。

每次搭飛機，都總有一種平靜的感覺。時間好像靜止不動，我可以安靜地遊走在自己的思緒，細細地閱讀手中的書，或行走在回憶中，享受著那一份安寧。

今次新加坡之行，學到了許多。更加認識自己，亦更近距離地正視自己的 shortcoming. 我需要的是一股勇氣和一份自信去解放那一個紅色的自己。站在安穩踏實的地方太久，要突破便會有點困難，但可幸身邊總有人提醒我，認同我。

再見舊朋友，又親切又新奇，畢竟大家都長大了，成熟了。很喜歡這種重新認識他們的感覺。

樂，因為我上了重要的一課，開始了新的一章。

樂，因為我有一大埋撐着我背脊的人，他們接受我的好和不好。

樂，因為我是自由的。

不一樣

2011-10-02T22:34:00.001+08:00

每一個週末我都會用懶來形容, 但今天懶得來, 有點不一樣.

記得有幾個夢迴醒來的時候, 腦裡面都浮出幾個字, Fear, Passion. 睡醒後通常都不會記得, 但在獨處的時候, 這些字總會忽然跑出來. 今天是其中一天有著這麼一個 Moment.

我的恐懼來自什麼? 我對生活的熱誠跑到哪裡去了?

深遠而令人不太舒服的問題. 大部份的時間我都會迴避著這些情緒, 今天有點不一樣.

我很喜歡看恐怕片, 不同樣式的恐怖令我知道我害怕什麼. 我不怕吸血鬼, 不怕惡靈, 不怕喪屍和異化生物, 但我怕看不見的迷惑, 我害怕血腥的畫面. Unknown, Uncertainty, 殺戮的可惡, 這些令我不安的感覺使我意識到最近纏繞著我的惡魔是什麼.

對生活的熱誠 - Big words. 從前我對自己所追求的都很清晰, 因為大部份都是放在我眼前的機會, 我只需要從它們當中選出一個, 是Decision making 中最簡單的層次. 現在要面對的是一切從自己內在的Calling找出一條路, 再選擇怎樣行出第一步. 我一直以為自己每天追求安穩的路, 但熱誠在這樣的步速下很快燒完, 從平穩中找尋改變, 行著一條不一樣的路才可以令我重拾那一團火.

今天想了很多, 想通了所以明白了, 明白了所以懂了. 懂得捨割是一門很高深的學問. 我念舊, 但要懂得捨割才可以金蟬脫殼.

今日, 我找到一點 Peace of mind.

夢

2011-10-01T02:33:00.000+08:00

那個夢的啟示想到了, 或許我正在掛念那個不理性, 不問理由, 跟著自己感覺做事的自己. 最近雖然忙, 但總會From time to time 地想著一些事情, 希望有些心結可以解開.

有時候不停為別人鬧場, 搞這搞那是的確很開心, 但我有點累了, 想出走呼吸一下無拘束的空氣, 大叫幾聲,. 我想我需要一個 Break.

可以重視身邊的人是一種福氣, 但我有時亦會想放縱一下. 想多了, 或許是為下星期重要時刻來臨前的症候群發作了吧.

Leave out all the rest

2011-09-27T20:27:00.001+08:00

Have been listening to their songs for almost a decade, watching Chester turning from a blonde crazy boy to a mature man, I feel like I have grown old with them. I love Evanescence, but Linkin Park still is my favorite. This is my favorite song from them... always feeling so much when I listen to it.

The song might sound a bit pessimistic, but it does bring up a good question - "What am I leaving when I am done here?"

Look forward to their next Tour in HK.

改變

2011-09-26T21:04:00.003+08:00

最近生活上不同的部分都發生了顯著的改變. 抗拒變動的我來不及計劃如何迎接改變已經要行動, 有Frustration 但亦有期待. 三個星期內發生的事情令我有新的看法.

終於適應了那一道天花, 那種醒來但不知身處何地的迷失感漸漸散去. $$ - 依然是那一個態度, 當年四千蚊一個月都OK, 無咩話唔夠用. 工作上有人事變動, 有方向上的改變, 這次懂得情感抽離一點, 處事作風Flexible一點, 態度進取一點. 與其静觀其變, 不如掌握大局, 也許會容易Cope with the change..

今次我將我條 Adapted Line 拉到最盡, 幾無安全感..但無我想像中甘辛苦, 只是人比較累一點.

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

我諗我個世界有D唔同左樣.

Thirst

2011-09-25T19:59:00.002+08:00

女主角令我想起湯唯. 一部很有意思的吸血鬼電影. 令我很難忘的一套韓國電影.

不是病毒讓人變成魔鬼，是貪婪.

Midnight in Paris

2011-09-25T13:41:00.002+08:00

It's a bit like Inception...stay at the time you like and escape from the reality. The magic is not about Paris, but the courage to live a different life.

Contagion

2011-09-25T02:32:00.005+08:00

It's understandable why HKers don't like this movie that much, probably too many nonsense arrangement for the scenes filmed in HK that touched the nerves of HKers, like why people spoke Mandarin in HK, using Lantu (village setting) rather that the city setting etc...

But honestly, there's no such discrimination or bad perspective against Asian at all. I think the story line was very focus on how people reacted to crisis, panic is more horrible contagion rather than the disease itself. The HK idea was being used as a kind of bridge to make people feel more real cos we had SARS. Some of the people are really overreacting.

Overall, this movie is not that bad as they ranked, not much surprises in the movie but the actors and actresses involved are surprisingly famous, such combination... should expect more than how it looks i guess.

静止

2011-09-25T01:57:00.003+08:00

最近心情怪怪的, 想法很多但人很混亂.

工作上平穩但處處有著暗潮洶湧, 人事變動, 老闆的情勢等令我有點懊惱. 可幸與朋友一蓆話, 帶來了新思維, 算是不錯的意外收穫.

人静不了下來, 唯有停下來, 試著以止牽静, 希望可以讓我有點 Peace of mind..

忙

2011-09-25T01:57:00.001+08:00

一個忙碌的週末, 三天的曼谷之旅, 另一次 Training 帶來的感動. 看著Cara 用心和精彩的Delivery, 學會了不少. 何時我才可以像她一樣, 站在台上做一個 Trainer呢?

回來後, 便忙著搬家. 終於有自己的家. 一個想像不了的 Mortgage 生活即將展開, 希望一切會安好.

寂寞最近纏上了我. 是時候重整思緒... 好好計劃一下.

那一頁

2011-09-25T01:34:00.002+08:00

書櫃上排著好幾本的日記本子, 每本日記的第一頁總是寫著 "......新的開始". 我已經數不清我有多少次為自己開脫, 幫自己振作. 這個網誌也不例外吧.

日記本子記下都是一些想法,當中有多少是一時之氣寫下的,有多少是真實的感覺已分不清楚, 但或多或少都是一些當下的感情, 我想抓住它.

在歐洲生活了一年, 改變了我對許多事物的看法,甚至對自己的看法. 每個踏足過的城市, 遇過的人和事都與我的回憶緊扣著. 回港後, 經歷和回憶漸漸被消化, 融合在生活中.

口說不出, 不如筆見.

Today

2009-08-19T00:33:00.002+08:00

離開這一刻感覺不會忘記朋友抱擁告別明天各自遠飛
難得並沒傷感依依不捨顧慮重拾昨天樂趣一堆
曾經每一天相約找美麗去陶醉美的故事互相勉勵去追
曾經望著天空一起哭泣至睡臨別說起亦笑相對

別了依然相信以後有緣再聚未曾重遇以前要珍惜愛自己
在最好時刻分離不要流眼淚就承諾在某年某一天某地點再見

Today While the blossoms Still cling to the vine
I'll taste your strawberries I'll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows Shall all pass away
Are we forget all the joy That is ours today

隨筆

2009-05-17T19:19:00.004+08:00

終於, 你有了新開始, 為許多的問號加上了無言的答案, 祝你快樂.
看不懂也不要緊, 在心中.

你知道嗎?他的調調跟你很相似, 差一點便喜歡上他.
但我還是喜歡現在的狀況. 我比較喜歡現在的自己.

林夕的詞真好, 聽了眼淚成詩, 別有滋味.
但我不可以像歌曲般裝得那麼豁達.
對自己誠實是一種鍛鍊, 不容易.

不知不覺, 時間溜走的很快. 我放開了, 亦長大了.
嗅著自由, 看著難得的藍天, 煩惱也好像吹遠了.

這個週末過得很爽, 我終於把那堵牆的塼頭拆下.
現在覺得自己正踏上回程的飛機, 每日倒數著回家的日子.
放下了一些執著, 隨緣吧.

布達佩斯

2009-03-03T05:34:00.004+08:00

Budapest, 布達佩斯, 一個陌生但又熟悉的東歐城市. 陌生, 因為未踏足前對她全無認識, 熟識, 因為聽過這個名字許多遍. 一次布達佩斯之旅, 除了令我多了一點對她的認識, 亦令我的 internship生活重新加上動力.

布達佩斯是匈牙利的首都，是 EU第七大城市。布達佩斯由位於多瑙河(Duna River), 右岸布達 (Buda)左岸是佩斯 (Pest), 未去之前, 真係唔知 Budapest的名字是有這麼一個原由.

早在一月的時間便訂了很便宜的機票,Wizz Air, 四十歐元便買到一張來回機票, 與彭同學（係呀又係佢呀）一同暴走東歐．由於彭同學負責了兩次巴黎之旅的行程安排，今次便由我負責行程．

旅行總離不開食，住，行，玩．出發前,先找好的Hostel. 經過好幾天的搜尋，終於book了一間叫 Gallery Single and Private 的 Hostel, 位於 Nyugati pu‎附近．出發前一天才開始搜尋如何從 Budapest Terminal 1 Airport 出市區，最後選擇了最便宜的方法　－－　用一歐元搭巴士到一個叫 Kobanya-Kispost 的 metro station 再搭去Nyugati pu，全程只用了兩歐．

Tips 1: Buy a 10-ticket book at the airport/train/metro station instead of buying the ticket one by one, it saves at least 15% and the tickets are valid for metro, bus and tram.

去到Kobanya-Kispost的第一個感覺，是覺得自己身在出屯門．那些天橋及空地真係好似屯門．搭左大約半小時便來到Hostel, 入了大門後的感覺是．．．功夫！

累．．．明天再續．

The Middle

2009-02-16T06:01:00.002+08:00

Next Step -- this term have been consistently appeared in the past 5 years, though in different month. Feb 2009, I am standing at the mid-way of my internship. It's really hard to believe 6 months have already passed and I still feel "new" in on this foreign land.

I had my mid-year performance review with my manager last week, the day right after my grandmom passed away. I was actually in quite a bad shape, couldn't focus on work and sat in the review meeting, however, it was surprisingly cheering and somehow, motivate me to be brave and tough to keep going.

To conclude the performance review results, my manager thinks I am doing well and met most of the tasks and expectation, the achievement I made in the past 6 months shows she picked the right person, she thinks:

- I am a fast learner
- I have the can-do attitude
- I am a good team player
- I am innovative
- I am very self-aware, especially my weaknesses

I have to improve:

- Be aware what are my strengths, not only my weaknesses
- Be more detail minded, not only the process but also data quality

What I discovered about myself?

1. I am at my best when I work in a team but also could focus on individual tasks.
2. I am detail-minded in terms of managing process, but data quality management need to improve
3. I need to improve business writing
4. I need to be more verbalized.

Some of the people might surprised why my manager suggested me to be more verbalized, more focus on my strengths and even said that I am innovative. Well AIESEC changed some of the origins of me and the internship brings the origins of me back again, its an interesting process to witness myself behaving differently in corporate and in AIESEC.

The mid-year review made me feel happy, because I perform pretty well, and I love what I am doing. The mid-year review also made me start thinking about my next step, after 6 months, where will I be?

何去何從? 天知道, 但我彷彿看見未來... :)

打中文的mood來了.

2009-01-23T02:26:00.007+08:00

Coming back to work after new year, quite a lot to do and life back to regular, and somehow, normal.

一年了, 努力嘗試著不去想結果弄巧成拙. 或許坦然面對可以自然一點,放鬆一點. 容許了自己用一年時間放下這個包袱, 還有一天,所有一切都應理清.

2 weeks of emptiness on blog, not a bad idea to write something ... especially in CHINESE.

我在比利時/歐洲的衣食住行

歐洲的生活節奏慢, 空出來胡思亂想的時間特別多, 偶爾會在夢中看見自己回到香港, 或見到大學同學, 朋友. 夢醒後發現自己仍在比利時的家. 更發現自己心廣體胖, 原因有四,

1. 朱古力 , 啤酒, belgian fries 同 waffle 是比利時特產, 每天都可以吃.
2. 所有人都覺得我..."small", 完全同肥扯不上關係. 大概只有中國人, 特別是香港人才會明白我為何會間歇性complain自己肥.
3. 我食得好, 瞓得好.
4. 我同彭同學 ( Rita Pang)一齊住，支持對方繼續增磅，重點係佢肥過我．　

說不定回香港後都衣不稱身, 冬天時會有點似企鵝....好, 講番正題, 我在比利時/歐洲的衣食住行.

衣 ---

來到歐洲後, 買衫多了, 因為有多餘錢. 本來自己帶來的衣服是在香港是普通和普遍到無人有, 但對這邊的人來說.....多了, 特別是上班的衣服. 歐洲的衣飾大減價是每年的一月和七月, 不是每季進行. 我嘗試在 amsterdam, bonn, antwerp, brussels 和 paris買衣飾, 當中以 antwerp shop得最爽.

巴黎人著衫最好看同有型格. 衫有平有貴, 在地胆 Rita Pang 的帶領下, 我在巴黎買了一件很不錯的皮褸. 阿姆斯特丹的shopping street都很吸引, 比布魯塞爾的選擇多所以比較容易找到心頭好. 阿姆斯特丹的靴有很多款式, 荷蘭人長得高大，天氣又凍，所以有著 Boots文化，亦因為甘我的鞋碼．．．好難搵．但最後我都成功買了一對很不錯的短靴．　

歐洲的店舖，佢地會將ｄ衫擺得ｏｋ高所以我都幾經常性要身高167ｃｍ的彭同學, 身高171ｃｍ的彭姐姐 (rita pang 的家姐) 或者身高200ｃｍ的售貨員幫我將ｄ靚衫攞落身黎......重點, 我沒有在童裝部買衫.

但係值得hightlight的是我居然可以在高人林立的德國買到一條合身的牛仔褲！！！上星期去了antwerp，感覺跟荷蘭很相似，買了很多衣服，一定會再去，同歐洲女人血拼！！！哈哈～

食　－－－

媽媽說得對，飲食習慣始終是植根廿多年，可以試新口味但完全換之不是很難的．發覺這裡的人很喜歡吃 sandwiches, 我仍是比較喜歡吃 hot food, 亞洲食物仍是首選. 在比利時住了四個多月, 在家造飯比較多, 但中國野很貴..

六隻皮蛋要10歐 --即係為 100蚊港紙!!
一碗麵要 7 - 13歐不等
日本野仲貴....

荷蘭同巴黎的亞洲食物比較平,好食同多選擇, 所以有時寧願慳番去巴黎或荷蘭食. 雖然係甘,但比利時的薯條同waffle真係無得頂, 食極都唔係幾厭. 仲有,係 brussels 的 st Catherine 附近有間好掂的Chocolatier (注意!這不是一個typo, 是法文. 根據彭同學解釋, Chocolatier 意謂巧克力匠. p.s. 彭同學能操流利法語)可以飲到67%濃度的朱古力,飲到超High...haha.

另外, 歐洲的cafe很舒服, 花2-3歐坐下來歎杯咖啡很不錯,在巴黎飲過超難飲同超有特色的咖啡, 果味咖啡,試了橙味,很有特色. 仲有在巴黎企吧(bar)飲咖啡同坐低飲係唔同價錢的!所以大家企多d啦.

住 ---

Fun Fact

1. 而家個廁所大過我屋企間房.
2. 我在星期六,日的生活同賓妹分別不太大, 就係買餸,煮飯,執屋同洗衫.
3. 有一次買餸, 我地買左20歐肉.....係, 無錯, 即係200蚊港紙... 食左2個星期.

行 ---

布魯塞爾有工條metro線, 最常搭的是metro, 火車同巴士, 我仍未摸熟電車線. 但在歐洲會走路走得多一點, 而且是石子路,不是石屎路, 所以在起初會有點不習慣, 特別是著高跟鞋的日子...

另外,多了一個出門前會check巴士schedule的習慣, 這裡的班次不像香港的班次那麼密, 所以每次出門都變得好似好有planning.

講講party,識我的人都知道我並不十分喜歡party,充其量都係在AIESEC conference跳下AIESEC Dance, 但來到這兒, 循例都要party下,交下新朋友,但礙於身高的關係, 有好幾次去party都猶如被摳打....一晚被批踭的次數多不勝數, 幸好身邊的朋友會出手相救.

好, 講住甘多先, 5小時後出發羅馬, 星期三再會!

2009

2009-01-02T02:02:00.002+08:00

My first European New Year just passed, its the one and only New Year Eve that I was being with myself only, gave up all the big plans I had to be alone to welcome 2009. 7 hours of thinking and reflection, I believe 2009 is going to be a milestone in my life -- I will be 25 after 5 months, 1 quarter of life will be passed.

2008 was a fruitful year for me, dreamy and intense as well. I experienced love, depression, renewal, new direction, new stage in life and the important thing is -- I found myself and I believe I grew up, to be a more mature and hopefully wiser person. 2009 is the year of continuing the transformation in life and move myself towards a state, start to explore my new "realm".

Instead of setting "goals" for 2009, I rather stick to some values that I believe to guide me a better way in life for 2009. Diligence, Love and Following my inclinations.

一日之計在於晨, 一年之計在於春, 一生之計在於勤.

With Diligence, I believe I will learn more, manage myself better and be patient to walk on my career path steps by steps. I used to have this quality when I was in high school, but I lost it in some years and it's a good time to pick it up and make it to be part of me.

With love, everything would be different even though the word "Love" is a lot more complicated than it seems. I wish to love my family more and learn to love myself. I've been loved and I gave my love, but I believe love could transform into different kinds of forms to spread it's power. There's a sentence like this appeared in my dairy, "愛情只是掌心的流沙，越想緊握越加快流失了它", I am surprised how did I come up with such comment. Let go some memories is the beginning of a new path to that door, 隨緣.

Inclinations, it's time to free myself and open up myself a bit to try and experience different kind of things in life with my will. There are a lot that I missed out during the past, with sickness, responsibilities and frames made by myself. I prefer being stable but I like things are different from the crowd, this year is the time of take a good look at the world that I am living in, and take a good look within myself.

Good bye my 2008, welcome to my life, 2009.

2008

2008-12-31T02:54:00.003+08:00

Counting down for 2009, only 2 days left in 2008.. what have I done in 2008?

Jan 2008

WNCF 2008, the conference without MCP election, the conference with Ren Chang came back to be our chair and David to be our facis. And surprised, we had Asuralian and American delegates.

He left and it was the beginning of a hard time to me, but I've gone through from it with my soul mates support, thank you Ken and Cafrany, you guys spent nights with to ensure I would be okay.

And on 26th Jan, I had my MCP elect - Cyrus. It made me feel better for the month of Jan.

Feb 2008

It was the month of preparation to IPM. Half of a month spent in Macedonia and it's the 2nd time I spent my Valentine's Day on plane. Macedonia is an amazing and beautiful country. It was great to witness my good friends got poured and selected into the new AI team. And I made promises t o myself in different aspects in life. It was the time of making some progress in life.

March 2008

I still remember it's the month for IPM bring back.. somehow the start of transition. And lots of EGM happened in LC during that time.

April 2008

It was the month of MC Direction Pre-screening and their election, and preparation of National Planning Conference. It amazed me how the delegates think about @HK and I had lots of hopes and expectation to the future of the organization and people here. And yea thats the time we bid the APXLDS 2009. Lots of sub-committees and taskforces formed.

It's the month of bringing a new life to me as well.. I have my heart back, a healthy and good heart.

May 2008

I had my b-day started with the membership criteria sub-committee, had the sub-com members spent half of a day with me, had lunch and at night I met up my golden-flower sisters. :) They are the best, same as the past 10 years, they are the best!

And it's the year of having my LC jong mates celebrated it with me. 4 years ago I had it celebrated in BU Hall Canteen, with lots of funny pictures with my mates and the knife. This year is the same, have them with me and loads of fun.

The month ended with the AP MC Transition Camp in China... :) though i enjoyed my first APMCTC in Malaysia more.

June 2008

International MC arrived, finale of my term was approaching and I was so stressed out. Annual Report, discharge report, transitions, sickness, conference management blah blah blah.... It's a very painful month to think about the performance of my MC team and performance of @HK, to face my limitation, weaknesses and my future steps.

July 2008

I had my last national conference ended on 13th July and officially discharged, and I did not have my Annual Report get done, it's the one of the regrets I had.

And then I headed to a new stage in life--- a rather relaxing but confusing time. I watched the Olypmic every day, did my best to match myself to contribute my little exchange realization with Leadership XP for @ in HK. Crazily shopped and met my dear friends. I got the news of being selected to work in DHL in Belgium at the end of this month. It's the beginning of preparing my new stage in life.

Aug 2008

It was the time i started to write this blog, a new blog and promised to myself to make a better life and new life. Lots of headache in getting the working permit, searching for my apartment in Brussels, meeting friends and get prepared for my exchange stage.

On 27th Aug 2008, I landed on this new homeland - Brussels.

Sept 2008

I started working in DHL and had lots of fun -- went to Rotterdam to meet my friends and getting used to the European Life.

Oct 2008

It's the month of travelling, went to Paris for the very first time in my life, met him again and good to know everything is fine. Trip to Paris is a very nice and relaxing one and I started to understand why people would fall in love with this city.

On 25th - 26th, Chan Alvin crushed! We went to Brugges and Gent together with Yat Wan, it was a very great time, it feels good to have old friends to visit and know they are enjoying their life. Everything was going very well and I enjoyed what I had.

Nov 2008

It's a turning point in my internship, I got mybag stolen in a party and they turned be a month of nightmare and things had to change. I had to move out from the flat, struggling to the next step, being comforted by friends and great interns here, faced the crisis in company and had to deal with my emotoins after the 2nd visit in Paris.

Dec 2008

Homesick.. or whatsoever you call it, bad emotions have been bugging me all the time, moving issues, work, emotions, relationships blah blah blah have been really annoying me. Now I am settled, discovered new direction in life and settled in company. What's left? Lonesome....

Can't believe how I spent my X'mas here and how the week passed, and I am pretty sure I am gonna spend the new year alone, kinda feel like it's not about have no friends around but it's a desire of having some alone time to think and deal with the memories. I derserve to be alone and have some time just for myself of the sake of a good start in 2009.

Year 2009, I am ready to embrace you, see you soon.

Homesick?

2008-12-22T07:59:00.006+08:00

After spending 4 years in AIESEC, I am pretty aware I might have "cultural shocks" and Homesick during my internship. I expected myself to experience it and seems like it's coming...

Starting from Dec, my emotion has gone quite unstable, sometimes getting so high and positive and sometimes act like a poor thing, drowning myself in memories. Finally it surfaced when I could smell the X'mas in the air...

Started with the frustration of Travel Plan

After getting so annoyed by the moving stuff, I finally settled down and just realized I had no plan for X'mas and New Year. I thought that it's fine to just stay in Brussels to experience an European X'mas and New Year but I changed my mind. Memories of last year and the bad, anxious feelings came back and I just want to get rid of it, so I crazily search flights and stuff and I couldn't find anything good that fit my time and budget.

Rita saved me for the Christmas and I am still figuring out my plan in New Year. Yea maybe the interns are right, why not just stay in Brussels to have the New Year with them? I would love to, but part of myself is running away from something.

Follow with the random emotions that makes me have lots of sleepless nights

I was pretty stressed for a while for hunting apartment at the beginning of the Dec, luckily we found it and moved in pretty quick. After moving in the new apartment, my sleeping quality is improved, I usually go to bed pretty early and fell asleep pretty fast, however, those nightmare and dreamy scenes just keep waking me up every night. I found myself woke up with tears for a day or two but completely forgot what happened in the dream, or what caused those tears. It's pretty odd huh?

I started feeling insecure before I sleep, just ended up staring the ceiling until I can't keep my eyes open, however, even though my eyes were close, my head was so still very sober.

Promises that made to myself

I promised myself a few things in Feb 2008, and it's all completed though not completed them perfectly. I had a few thoughts of picking up some of these things and try to make it perfectly get done, but I am struggling myself and questioning myself if it's necessary and if it's worth it to do.

Anyway... I know I will feel better after Jan 2009, it takes time and it's expected to go through it all again. Suddenly.. I feel that 2008 passed so fast, only about 10 days left. What's left in me?

Story

2008-12-12T06:02:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I was talking about The Power of Transparency. Today I am impacted by another thing from DHL that makes me feel better and happy to work in this company – DHL makes me learn.

Training and Development courses are all available in most of the company and for sure it’s not something new, putting resources on training up your employees hard skills or soft skills has been a trend for years and even AIESEC has been doing it for 60 years. What I really like about DHL is the monthly Magazine – Network. What I like about them? It is the stories of people in DHL.

What moves me is not about if their stories provide me a better idea about the opportunities I can take in the company, or how many different kind of great and big job titles that they have taken in the company, but I admire their talent and personality that led them becomes the heads of the company, when a company has good leaders, especially those who are tough and always think for the company in a sustainable manner. They are those who work hard today for the betterment of the future.

One example that I just get inspired today – John Pearson

The Head of DHL’s EEMEA region, someone who manages the East Europe, Middle East and Africa, the area he manages is big enough that across 14 time zones. His story of how he started his first job in DHL in Middle East and leaded him to spent another 8 years in Asia, US etc to gain expertise in intercultural management. The exposure enables him to have an overview of how the market and world is changing and formed his vision on the business direction.

Leaders never say no or escape from tough situation, this guy experienced Gulf War when he was working in the Middle East and managing such a challenging region, his smiles and ways of thinking makes him a good one to drive success for the company, I see passion, I see can-do attitude and practical in him.

Some reflection on my AIESEC life

I still remember in AIESEC we talk about story as well and somehow I was inspired by people’s stories in this organization to go on my path. Now what kind of story are they talking about? Titles? (He was MCP, he was AI, now he’s working in XXX Company, you know… the world-wide well-known one!)

Or

What kind of results and influence they left? (He created the first National Team for @HK, she brought in the first international in the MC team/LC team, and she made a mistake that made the organization dropped in performance for years).

Stories carries meaning, not titles only, a title don’t tell much, not even a series of titles. What so unique and powerful about story is the influence, no matter good or bad, that these people left in the organization, people learn from the goodness and badness from it.

“I want to be like you someday”, that’s what I thought when I met Shantanu in Philippines, not about if I want to be AI, but I would like to influence and be able to help others like him.

The power of Transparency

2008-12-11T01:37:00.002+08:00

After working in DHL for 3.5 months, I attended 2 CEO Town Halls, one was hosted by Scott Price, the CEO of DHL Express Europe and the recent one was hosted by Frank Appel, CEO of DPWN. Before attending the Town Hall I was expecting that Town Hall would be some regular CEO updates and could possibly some serious and a bored session, however it’s far much different from what I thought.

Regular update for sure is the must-do item in all organization, could do it by employee e-mail communication or corporate magazine etc etc, however when it comes to CEO face-to-face presenting it, it’s far more powerful. What he presented was not only the hard data or fact sheet about the business but some important decisions that he and the Group made, and how these decisions influence the company and what follow up steps are going to take place. I am just a small intern in the company and know very little about the core business of the company but the overview that both of the CEOs provided made me attach to the company a bit more and feel being engaged.

I reflected how important and why should a leader maintain the organization be transparent, and they successfully made me feel part of the organization, why?

1. Stay Focus on what is important to the organization

There are lots of things that happening around the world and in different division, but they stay very focus on talking about the identified core strategy, even DHL is just part of the DPWN but it’s the same message that presented by different level of CEO, the scope was different but it so consistent and it made all sense to me.

2. Decision Making

Both of the CEOs came cross about what decisions they made in the last quarter, they disclosed the intention and how these decision being made. These decisions were made by management board instead of the CEO solely, and they provided clear projection on how these decisions would bring new break-through and success to the business rationally, one good example, everyone knows about DHL closed their domestic business in US.

If you were the CEO, how would you manage this? Laying off 10 thousand employees in the US or watching the company losing more millions of EURO every day?

Complicated issue… not only about being kind and responsible to your employees but also talking about how these influence the rest of the employees in the world and those who has share in the business and trust the business. The issue had been there for years and now a CEO decided to clean up this mess. Nobody said it was easy.

3. Leader’s attitude matters

Both of the CEOs made them to be part of the company, you could tell by the way they talk and they just simply told you, “They care”. They are humorous and have the charm to make you trust them, because

They are confident
They are willing to listen
They treasure your presence in the company
They’re well prepared
They encourage you to be the best because they are doing their best

It’s important that a leader could move their followers by their attitude, behavior and much they could trust you. Both of the CEOs said the situation in the future is going to be tough but we are not stepping back, but get prepared. They are here to make us go forward and further but not to step back in a rough and tough situation; we still aim to have growth.

Conclusion

Tree dies from the top, if the heads of an organization think negative, the rest the organization will fall into this energy very soon, when the heads think positive, everyone will look up and make things happen magically. It’s more than positive thinking or will things happen, but the power of can-do.

It’s important to me, as an employee, they are not unrealistically pushing us to drive growth but making us know we can create a lot with limited resources, it’s time to be creative, at the same time, be practical, it’s always not mutually exclusive.

Nov - what a looooong month!

2008-12-06T06:39:00.002+08:00

After one month of staying away from internet at home, I eventually get my laptop fixed and got online again. This month... lots of things happened. After coming back from the trip of Paris, it seems bad things kept coming to me but ended up in good situation. :) Thanks god! Some BIG things happened in this month...

Phone died... Laptop died....

My laptop died on 13th Nov, as I could not login my Win so I had to format my laptop, and I just found that I did not bring the recovery disc and Win installation disc to Brussels... everything was in HK. So I had to bother my family again to send me everything I need. After a month I eventually got them and format the laptop BY MYSELF (WOW! I can't believe I did it!!). Even though I still have lots of program that need to re-install but at least I get online again :). Apparently I know some people was worrying as I disappeared for a whole month online, and its good to know, haha means I have family and friends :P

My phone wasn't working so well here and was always turning on and off every 5 mins without touching it. It's so annoying and wasted my credits, my lovely phone that saved lots of important sms in the past 3 years and have been with me to experience lots of things in my life.... I didn't want to throw it away.

My Handbag was being stolen -- Beginning of Nightmare

I was in a Sat night farewell party and so unfortunate that my bag got stolen, I did not lose lots of things, only lots of EURO coins, my Octopus Card, my season ticket here, umbrella, my make up stuff and KEYS. I thought that it was no big deal as my important cards are all at home, and most of things could be repaired or buy again. And it was 4am so I went to my friend's home to stay overnight, cos I did not have KEYS to go home and I didn't want to wake my landlord up.

However, when i got home...my nightmare just started. I told my landlord I lost the keys and he asked me if I lost it in the Sun morning, and I told him I lost it at Sat night and he was sooo shocked and told me someone got in the house and stayed in my room and he thought that it was me.

My God and I started to check if I lost anything in my room and in the apartment, and thought through if I got something that with my address written on in my bag. And we found that we did not lose a single thing and I hadn't left anything with the address in my bag, but he was so insisted that someone was in the house on the night before.

We went to the police station to report the issue and, surprisingly, no one there speak or understand English, and my landlord was talking all the time and he thought that it's my friends here stole my bag and got in the house which is really crazy idea and I couldn't say a word to the police about this. The worst thing was that he also asked me to pay for changing lock for 2 buildings and copy the new keys for everyone in the buildings, 3 keys as a set to 20 apartments.. it costs more than the sum of salary I receive for a year in the internship. I was totally broke down and soooo depressed.

I was lucky enough to have Rita and other interns here to support me to get through those down time and I was hoping fact will surface quicker so I do not need to have a bad fight with my landlord to manage the issue. I prayed and tried to calm down...

Miracle happened, to skip the long story of how things magically changed, the ending of this issue was quite surprising, and somewhat left me a good change here:

1. My landlord finally found that no one was in the house so I do not need to pay for the lock.
2. I decided to move out and find a new place to live with Rita
3. I managed it with my landlord peacefully with mutual understanding.

New Home, New cell Phone and new flatmate :)

After lots of things happened my life here goes well :). I just signed my contract today to move in a very nice and comfy apartment, just Rita and I :) we have our own apartment! It's spacey and I really love it, good landlady as well. I am so lucky!

I bought a new cell phone here and its surprisingly CHEAP! I checked on the website www.thephonehouse.be, which is recommended by my colleague, they have lots of cheap and good cell phone, the cheapest one is 39 EURO for a Nokia and the phone model is not that old as I thought. So I decided to buy a Samsung M610 which was 85 EURO marked on the site and when I bought it at the shop, it's only 69 EURO as they were doing promotion for X'mas :) Wow! Happy happy~~~

New flatmate, eventually could live with someone who has similar living habit, with matched personality. I know I am going to enjoy a lot the time with Rita as flatmate.

Conclusion after 3 months here in Brussels

1. I have Rita Pang as my best friend here

I am luck to have Rita as my best friend here, she speaks French and always look after me. And we share honesty, humor and joyful time :) I don't think too many interns would meet one of their best friends in life in a one-year internship, given the fact that it was the 3rd time I met her when I got in Brussels, who would ever thought that she would become someone important to you?

2. I reflected a lot in my religion and value

It has been quite a while since the last time I think about my religion as a Christian. I prayed for a few times for small things, like hoping the bus from Paris to Brussels would wait for me as I was late, I was praying the Key issue could be settle in my own way and both my landlord and I would be fine at the end, no one get hurt in feelings. I was hoping to find a good place to live in. It's Jesus looking after me all the time as well, I am glad that I am closer to him in these days.

Value.. I don't have cultural SHOCK here, but the cultural differences did reminds me about the values that I am upholding, no matter it's in corporate or way to live my life, relationships or even small thing like the way to live in a "green" way (environmental friendly).

3. Better direction and idea for future career, learning a lot from the internship

After working in DHL for 3 months, I've tried to do different kind of things, and I have better idea about what I am strong in doing and interested in, also learning a lot from watching how the CEO and senior managers manage crisis in economic downturn. I am learning how to work with agency and using the skills that I abandoned but learned it in ORGC.

I am the one who's being blessed to have people support me all the time, and my internship experience is really great. Time was a bit tough but I was not alone and I did not worry much because there's always someone help me out.

It's a long entry but it's worthy to write it down, to remind myself my incredible experience here :) Good night Brussels.

The second time in Paris

2008-11-13T01:34:00.006+08:00

Made a rushy decision to go to Paris last week, for no reason, no expectation or much preparation. There I went and spent 4 days there.

This time I think I know and feel a bit more about Paris. I went to the places that I didn't have time to visit last time and relaxed a lot in this holiday. Instead of writing every single piece of things I did in Paris, maybe some highlights would help me to refresh what I've done there.

Day 1: 7 - 11- 2008 Night -- First time to get on Carpooling

It's the first time to travel with carpooling, the driver is a young man and he drove us from Brussels to Paris. We all were 4 and I was the only one who doesn't speak French, therefore, I kept my mouth shut for nearly 4 hours. It's a pretty good experience though, comparing to Euroline bus, it's more comfy and less stressed.

This time we didn't stay in La Defense but at Vaugirard, a residential region at the south of Paris. We stayed in Rita's friends' place, they are Michelle and Enya, both of them are Chinese and they work in Movie industry, work with famous directors from Taiwan and France, seeing famous celebrities every day and work on their own dreams. They speak fluent French, English and Chinese. To me, both of them are very talented and friendly, how many chances in my life that I could meet such special and unusual people in one city?

We had a great and nice sleep at their house, to get ready for the upcoming days.

Day 2: The Chinese food and the SPARK Conference of AIESEC in France

We woke up in the afternoon and then went to a Chinese restaurant that recommended by Michelle, to have a fist Chinese meal in Paris. The food was soooooooo delicious :)

After that, we went to the far south east part of Paris to join the SPARK conference of AIESEC in France. The conference was for both newbies and EBs. I got the chance to meet new people, most of them are interns in Paris, lots of Brazilians! and most of them work in Alcatel Lucent.

The party was fine and it's the second conference I've had in WENA :) Well really so different from AP. We stayed up overnight to catch up the train at 5:10am to go back to Paris. We all were soooo tired and slept until 3pm on Sun.

Day 3: Shopping in Paris and had dinner at our favorite Japanese restaurant with a cute Polish friend

I was so stupid that brought a few thin clothes to Paris and ended up frozen for most of the time. Rita bought me to a shopping region that near the Centre Georges Pompidou (awesome modern building!!) I bought a leather jacket there and it keeps me warm for days :)

However, we also had the WORST coffee ever there.... how come Paris would have bad coffee huh?

After that we went to Odeon to have dinner at our favorite Japanese Restaurant with Rita's friend -- Adrian. He's a very cute and fun young man with great humor :)

Day 4: Chinese food for lunch and walking day in STRONG wind:)

It should be the only "intensive" travel day in the whole trip. We woke up at noon and then had our Chinese food for lunch. After that we straightly started our intensive tour. We took the metro to Abbesses, and then we walked to the Montmarte area, which is very famous by it's art and location (highest point at Paris). We went to visit Sacre Coeur again as I want to see the day view, so we climbed up the stairs of Rue Foyatier and finally got there. We tried to take some nice pictures, however, wind was toooo strong and we all looked like we were having advertisement for Shampoo..

After that we walked to a little bar near the Church to have some nice coffee, unfortunately, the Latte was still tasting so bad to me :(. I wrote a bit on my dairy and then we kept the tour moving. We walked down slowly back to the main street, saw some crazy shop selling very cheap clothes and the whole shop was like a battle field (a bit like H&M in Central when it just opened in 2007). We walked through those streets with LOTS of sex shops and strip clubs... eventually arrived to Moulin Rouge.

Moulin Rouge is soooo much different from what I thought :) haha and it's closed we just took a few pictures and then walked to the Direction of the Opera... and of course, at that moment we felt our tummies were calling us for attention, so we went to the Chinese cruise streets to have our delicious Rice and Lamen! :)

What a wonderful and nice day! And then we walked to Louvre, took some silly stupid pictures under the strong wind :)

Day 5: Lunch with Francois, Luxembourg Garden and last min bus to Brussels

Had lunch with our old friend, Francois at the Japanese restaurant near Odeon ( oh yea again!), ate my beloved sashimi! After that, Francois brought us to walk to the Luxembourg Garden :) Even it was the end of Fall in Paris, the Garden was still so pretty with lots of cute babies.

It's great to see him again, we walked a bit around and then I had to head back home to take my luggage to Gallieni to catch up the bus. The bus suppose to leave at 6pm... and when I got there, it's already 6:10pm. I thought that I couldn't make it but God made a miracle :) The bus didn't go and I could catch up the bus to come back to Brussels...

Conclusion

Play! Shopping! Eat! Relax! And the most important thing :) I left something in Paris and that free me from the shadow. It's great to feel refreshed and getting ready to move on.

New Discovery -- Beatrice, the ORGCer, the AIESECer.

2008-10-31T01:18:00.002+08:00

After abandon the blog for nearly a month, eventually pick up again and write a new entry. Reading the written dairy in my hands, I found that most of the emotions, thoughts that feelings were captured in this little hand book but not this blog, do I really have that many secrets and private thoughts? =P

Just had my second month here in Brussels, counting the days and months that I live in Europe, I feel dreamy, at the same time, quite practical and enjoyable every day. Lots of contradictory flashes in my head every day, I feel good and bad at the same time, I feel lost and have life goals at the same time, I feel lonely but enjoy alone time at the same time... haha what an interesting experience I am going through.

October is an important month of me, I caught up my job and performed pretty well so far. I am getting used to live in Belgium and managed to get on some trips around the country and in Europe (Pictures are uploaded on facebook :) . Life become more interesting but different. There are 2 interesting discovery I found in this month.

Beatrice as an ORGCer

I still remember how many times I complained about the major I had in university (Organization Communications -- ORGC) was so useless and how much I dislike it, everything I learned in school was so general and not specific enough to facilitate me to make a career, we had to learn about campaign, marketing related stuff, PR related stuff, digital graphic stuff, communications theories etc etc, everything was so basic and general. And I also complained about how stupid the curriculum of BU that every student has to attend basic IT course.

It became the reason why I spent so much time in AIESEC to learn stuff and made my university life to be more interesting. There was a time I forgot about the COMM cheers but only AIESEC Roll Call, I was so proud of being an AIESECer than an ORGCer.

Working on this internship in DHL here made me realized something -- I am so lucky that I got into ORGC and it enable me to become a capable person to take up the job. Most of the things I do reminds me what I learnt in university.

- Making web site for the company with the company system by html code (IT Course)
- Dealing with agency about guiding them on graphic which require knowledge on photoshop and illustrator stuff (Meifan! DGC basic course)
- I am managing different kind of project like campaigns ( Li Mei Wah and Sheer!)
- I am working in a team of 5 people that with 5 nationalities (Intercultural Communication)

The role of the department that I am working in is bridging different departments on different projects and events to achieve the organizational direction and initiatives. Now I start to understand what ORGC is about, how does it related to social science, management and psychology (I think Chen Lin explained it to us when I was year 1 about what ORGC is about..)
And I am so proud to tell my manager about what my major is about :)

Beatrice as an AIESECer

After leaving leadership role for 3 months, now I am experiencing another level of being an AIESECer in the company, I am closer to "professionaliam", "Integrity", "Self-management", "Be cultural sensitive", "Living sustainably", "Excellence".

I learned connected all these in AIESEC which are the value that both AIESEC and I commonly have and that is part of the reason why I engaged in this organization so much. Indirect impact is realizing on me slowly and I can feel how I changed and be different, sometimes, as an AIESEC Intern. We have excellent standard on our work, willing to improve and humble, at the same time, ambition on achivement. The most important thing is the professional manner.

I am proud to be an AIESECer 4 years ago and now, I learn a lot here and now I can feel myself shifting to another stage, how to be an AIESEC outside of this organization.

ORGC and AIESEC shaped what I am today, nothing more but a better person. I am so proud of it :)

Work from home and Paris trip day 2

2008-10-07T04:18:00.006+08:00

Today Belgium has a national strike, so all of the public transportation are blocked. So I work from home today (funny huh!!?). As I cannot access to my company e-mail account so I did some research today, actually quite an interesting topic and a good "practice" to fine tone myself to get back to work from holiday mood.

So to continue what's left yesterday, the second day in Paris.

2nd day in Paris -- Notre Dame and my first Japanese meal in Paris

I had quite a hard time to get on the 2nd morning. Lots of nightmares and those nightmares were so real, and did make sense somehow. I guess I was too stressed and thought too much since I came there..

Anyway we woke up late, we left home at noon. We went to sit down in a nice cafe with Rita's mum (Anna) while waiting for Rita to manage some personal business. So I spent about 2 hours with auntie Anna to chat about life and health, and I manged to spend sometime to write something on my dairy, keep my habit going on. It does help me to organize my emotions and thoughts, at least I see how I changed from day to day and at some point, writing dairy is a kind of self-counseling , made me stay focus and let go some craps in mind and heart.

After getting some nice coffee, we headed to Notre Dame -- 巴黎聖母院. It's a very impressing church, both it's history and the architecture. I was speechless and smiled so big when I saw it outside. When I stepped into the church, I heard the melody of the Christian poem and saw lots of candle lights and people inside. Some pictures :)

Notre Dame reminded me the trip I had with Cafrany, Sandy, Cyrus and Jessie when we were to Czech Republic together. We visited a very nice church there, really missed those time. Notre Dame is a bit different from what I imaged and different from those churches I've seen. It's newer than I thought, probably because they fixed up the building again.

There are some confession rooms, I am not sure if those people who listen to the visitors are god father but it was interesting that they stated the languages they speak on the door of the rooms. The church was awesome, but to many tourists, make the atmosphere not very "Holy" as it should had been. There are some model of the church placed there, also some models about how people built this church (see above). It was just fantastic and cute :)

Since there were too many to Q up to visit the upper part of the church, probably needed to wait for hours, so we decided to leave the church and have dinner. Rita brought us to the University that she studied in France, quite a nice one. And she knows there's a very nice Japanese Restaurant near the university that she used to go. It was a VERY VERY nice one! I spent about 15 Euro for that meal, then I could have soup, rice, 20 pieces of sashimi, and some salad! really loved it a lot!

After that we went to a lil bar that most of the university students around that place would go to have some nice coffee, it's so closy and full of young people. :) I can imagine why Rita loves her life in Paris that much.

Had a nice and relaxing day, we went back home. I talked to Francois to catch up a little bit then went to bed.

Okay, tomorrow will be about Day 3 :)

Trip to Paris -- Day one, 02.10.2008

2008-10-06T05:13:00.001+08:00

Finally back from Paris to Brussels. I still a little bit dreamy as I still feel like I am at Paris.

It was a great decision to go to Paris, really enjoyed my time there and I probably will go back there during my stay in Europe. I went to Paris with Rita and her mom.

The beginning -- 02.10.2008

We got off on last Thursday to take the bus (which is cheaper way to go but takes much longer time, 4 hours!!). We got there nearly midnight, the first impression I had about Paris was --- lots of metro lines. It's not like in Brussels, even it's midnight, there are still lots of people on the street and the public transportation are servicing until late night.

I do not speak French but both Brussels and Paris are French speaking regions, so I didn't feel too odd or annoyed by French, but somehow quite interested in the names of the metro station. We planned to stay at our old friends' ---- Francois and Adina, we are going to stay in their nice apartment. So we were heading to De La Defense (pronunciation is quite similar to 爛地方 LOL!!!) However it's not a crappy place but VERY commercial, modern and rich place. When I got off the station I felt like I was in Central or Wan Chai :) the skyline buildings and the setting! Thank you Francois and Adina for hosting us and let me stole your room to sleep hehe. I had a good sleep and full of energy to go on my trip.

Tomorrow will talk about day 2 :)

The bomb threat next door -- OMG

2008-10-01T04:19:00.003+08:00

What an experience and what a day.. haha

2 days ago, I back from Rotterdam and wrote my previous entries. As mentioned I was sick so I went to bed really early.. and then, Something "interesting" happened..

At around 2 am, someone kept knocking the door and rang the door bell. I woke up and checked it (I was alone in the house) and she talked to me in french, the only word I understood was BOMB! She said "There's a bomb next door, you have to leave NOW!". And then she grabbed me and ran, So I left the apartment in my pajama and slippers.. I stood on the street for hour and I was frozen!!!!!!!!! People said it never happened before and the police told me they found a bomb in the US embassy (and I live right next the US Embassy).

As the result, I got really sick on Monday morning and I did not go to work, I can't believe that... I got my first sick leave after a month in Europe!! And then I found the news about this "bomb threat"...

US Embassy in Brussels evacuated on false threat

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Belgian police say the U.S. Embassy in Brussels has been evacuated after a caller falsely told them there was a bomb in the building.

Police on the scene said no bomb had gone off by the 2345 GMT Sunday deadline the anonymous caller gave them. They found nothing when they checked the building for possible explosives, giving the all-clear shortly before 0000 GMT.

The American complex in the Belgian capital houses both the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. diplomatic mission to the European Union.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/09/29/europe/EU-Belgium-US-Embassy-Threat.php

What an experience!!! And.. ahhhhh I lost my voice :( and sounds like an alien again (oh well I sounded like that after came back from IC in Turkey) and hopefully I will be great and fine when I leave to Paris...

yes Paris!!!! This Thursday!

One month in Europe

2008-09-29T01:37:00.004+08:00

Just got back from Rotterdam, spent some time with friends in AI. Happy to meet a new friend, Lucy :) I'm so tired and a bit sick, I guess I got cold..

Well even though I am not feeling, it's the milestone (in terms of date huh) in my life --- I have live in Europe for ONE month la!!!!! Can't believe that time flies so fast and it's already a month. Now I am quite used to living in Brussels and made my first step to travel in other country by myself. And I am looking for more :)

Rotterdam -- the modern and dreamy city

Rotterdam, the first time I heard about this city was at early Sept 2004, recruitment talk of AIESEC, well I didn't even know it's in the Netherlands and anything about this city, just know it's related to AIESEC.

November 2004, I heard of this city again in my transition, and I knew that AIESEC International is based in Rotterdam and it's in the Netherlands. The impression I had about this city is GREEN, cos all AIESEC posters at that time had a pool of young people from different races, made a circle and smiling big on the grassland, and I heard that those are AI people so I thought that they must be had taken their pictures in Rotterdam.

After 4 years, the year of 2008, I finally walked on this land in this city. It was not easy but worth it. On 26th Sept, I went to the Brussels North Station to take the train to go to Rotterdam but the train unusually delayed for one and a half hour. Because of the delay, I randomly made some new friends, a dutch girl who study psychology and a dutch guy (quite handsome!!) who works to make animation for movies in Canada. We kept chatting in the train for nearly 2 hours. Started by the history of Rotterdam and randomly guessed why the train was delayed, and then moved the topic to history and current reality of Hong Kong, and finally... language.

Thank God I had them accompany me during the trip so I did not feel too frustrated and had some basic concepts about Rotterdam :)

I supposed would be there in Rotterdam at 8:30pm and I ended up got there at around 10pm. My poor friend -- Li Zhen had waited for me for HOURS!!!Even though the trip did not begin as smooth as I thought, I was still quite excited about the trip. Li Zhen brought me to "Happy Sushi", a Japanese restaurant to have my late dinner. I had a Udon Noodle and a few pieces of Sushi and it cost 15 EURO. Well fair enough.

After that we took the tram to go to their home -- house of Action. The house warming party was fun, saw lots of AIESEC people (well of cos the current AI team) and their friends. Had some great time to chat with them and listen their stories and experiences. I didn't talk much as I was abit tired. I stayed with Kate and Sophie and I am so happy to see her again :) I had a looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnng sleep on that night, went to bed at 2am and got up at noon...

On 27th, I had a lazy and quite refreshing and relaxing time with Lucy, Kate and Sophie. I spent about one and half hour to write on dairy, while drinking coffee and hot dog. People there are so tall, even the dogs are much bigger than usual. Lots of bikes, lots of blonde hair, tall and strong, solid people. I had a thought of "Maybe find myself a dutch husband is a good idea?!", but then I found that they didn't see me as I am too short and everything there seems built for big people.

Anyways, after that I joined Kate and Lucy to go to the supermarket to buy food for the dinner. We had a quick shop, and then went to have some coffee since it was so sunny. :) After that Lucy brought me to another building where AI people live , to take shower. We passed by the AI office, but we didn't go in. It was nice to just glance for once and know they are working there. The feeling was so interesting, I was like " AI works here :) "

At night, we had a very great dinner prepared by Kate and some good conversation. Monika and Phil came to join us as well :) And then we headed to bed...

I got up at noon again this morning and found that my throat was a bit sore, so I noticed I should go back home earlier so I changed my plan. I went to the city center with the AI girls to shop, it was so fun and a lot to see and things that I wanna buy! Omg, it activated my shopping mood ~~ hope that I can control myself not to spend too much la. I had a nice late lunch at a shop called dailywok, had some udon food before I get on my train.

I walked to the train station and found that the train I supposed to get on was gone so I waited for about 20 min to take the one and finally, I am home at around 6:30pm

I am happy that I chose the great time to visit my old friends before they all leave to country visit and I really enjoy my time there. I am pretty sure I will go to the Netherlands again, next time maybe Amsterdam :)

Waterloo Trip and AIESEC in Belgium Kick Off Conference Party

2008-09-22T02:34:00.009+08:00

What a long and a little bit dreamy weekend. :)

Trip to Waterloo -- 18th June 1815 Battle of Waterloo

The only thing I remembered about Waterloo was Napoleon, you know all about the history class that I used to have in secondary school. Yves (my landlord) drove me to Waterloo to take a look at what this place is famous for -- The Lion Hill (Oh yea HK has one huh?!)

The lion hill, which is the main memorial monument of the Battle of Waterloo, indicates the spot where the Prince of Orange was wounded. A total of 226 stairs leads to the top of the monument where I can enjoy a beautiful view of the entire battlefield.

King William I of the Netherlands ordered the construction of this monument in 1820, to commemorate bravery of his son, the prince of Orange, who was wounded here during the battle. The construction started in 1824 and was finished in November 1826.

The statue was brought via the waterways between Liège, Dordrecht (in Holland), Antwerp and the canal of Willebroek to Brussels. Legend has it that the statue was cast from the bronze of the guns and weapons the French left behind on the battlefield. It is only a legend ! Anyways, picture time!!

Well 226 stairs were not that much, finished in it 5 min. :) Enjoyed the wind and the view then I came down and had coffee with Yves before we go to his parents place.
Dinner at my landlord's parents' house

It's quite unbelievable that I would go to my landlord's parents' place and they even prepared me dinner! Their house is very very big and beautiful with a very nice garden, we chatted about places, their stories when they were young and they told me a bit more about Waterloo and what happened during Second World War. They were so nice and cooked lots of great and I think, expensive food for me :) Again, picture time!! Oh yeah and my lovely little dog, Tasha!

AIESEC Conference Party in Belgium

After 2 months, I eventually involved in AIESEC things, though only a party and their morning plenary. The party was cool though I watched people dancing most of the time, and I still couldn't let myself go to dance crazily. Other interns tried to help me but I ended up stepped on his feet haha. Well what can I say :P.

I talked to the chair for long til 4:30am!! We both went to IC 06 and 07, he's the VPER of AIESEC in Germany ay 0607, we shared a lot and talked about his studies and next step and my life in Brussels, haha so fun. And he invited me to join gthe morning plenary to teach @HK roll call to wake the delegates up.He said it's MC's favourite roll call after they came back from IC in Brazil :)

No cars in Belgium today, but horses and bikes

After getting 2 hours of sleep I joined the morning plenary and left the camp site. I waited for the bus for 30 mins to the Halle Train Station to take the train go back to Brussels. Interesting, I was not afraid or even nervous at all as it's the first time I went out of Brussels by myself. Maybe I was too tired and turned a bit crazy..

The 13th -- in Sept

2008-09-14T02:15:00.004+08:00

A month ago, I did an entry to talk about my imagination of what would happen in Sept 13th since 13th did mean something to me in the past few months.

Today is 13th Sept :) See how many things that I wild guessed is happening here.

The 13th Sept

"I am anticipating about what's going to happen on 13th Sept, I will be in Brussels, started my internship in DHL... family and friends will be far away from me, I will have new flat mates, new friends and might even met some old friends... everything seems unknown but excited :)"

1. Yes, I started my internship in DHL

2. Yes family is far away from me, my best friends too, however, I got Rita to be my best friend here in Brussels :) And I found my old friend, Nadya. I also got new friends from Company and from interns.

3. New flat mate... erm, somehow its right cos I live with Landlord, it's not like how I thought that I was going to live with some students or other interns. But I love my home here :) and I got a dog!

4. Yea new friends and more old friends to meet later on... Sefan, Chan Alvin, Francois, Kate, Vincent, Sophie, etc etc.. hopefully more as it's confirmed. :) Im so excited about it already.

5. Unknown but excited.. :) I guess I am getting used to living in this city, like weather (rains a lot so bringing umbrella every day), shopping (bring my own bag so I dun need to pay for the plastic bags), Cooking (home-cooking and learn cooking from old people lol), work (environment and tasks that I am working on), people... well this part needs more time as I am not a party person, but I am trying my very best to go and meet new people.

The week

The last entry was on 8th, meaning that I didn't write anything here for about a week. I was tired from work, can't believe that I would feel that tired from 8 hours of work, which is MUCH less than I used to have in AIESEC, maybe because it's too much thinking and stressed a bit, cos I am working in CEO office.. so very senior and important people are walking around.

And I found that work starts going on track so that's not too much special things happening, except some funny things happened during lunch with my team. And I spent a lot more time on watching TV on my laptop than I used to be, like at least 1.5 hours per day, which is something could NEVER happened in the past 4 years.

I did a lots of shopping today, spent around HKD 250 hehe. And I made a very delicious but simple dinner for myself :)

- Udon noodle
- Fried mushroom, green pepper, red pepper and chicken
- Tomato soup

Haha, 13th Sept is a good day and I started my life here, I miss my mom and sis and my friends, but not having sick YET. :) Lets see haha

The 2nd weekend in Brussels

2008-09-08T03:09:00.003+08:00

A Saturday with Rita - Rita's b-day, a shopping day and an eating day

It was Rita's b-day and I spent my whole day with her, haha it's a nice and great day! We went to Cleamenceau at noon with Rita to buy food and some articles for daily use. During the shopping time, we decided to make dinner by ourselves, specifically with SOUP!

After around 2 hours of shopping we got back to my home to lunch. Rita made the rice with some Japanese condiment, with the chicken thighs we bought in the market, it was a great lunch :) We chatted a bit in my room and plan about what to do in the rest of the day. At around 6pm, we headed back to Schuman.

We put down our stuff at Rita's home and then went out again to buy stuff for her b-day party. We went to the super market to buy wine, chips and I bought some milk and yogurt. And then we went to buy the BEST BELGIAN FIRES!! After q up for around 10-15 mins, we finally bought it with the sauce - Brazil :) And then we went back home.

We used the pork-bone soup base, mixed with vegetable and some pork to cook the soup after 20 min!! Wow~~~ our first soup was done! It was really tasty and we had it with the Belgian fries.

Last night, we had more than 20 interns came to the house and celebrate the b-day of Rita and Philippe, we chatted, we danced and drink a bit. It was a great time and I met lots of new people. After that I stayed at Rita's place overnight.

A relaxing and lazy Sunday

We slept until 12:30pm, I got up and headed back home and found that I am gonne be home-alone for 5 days, Yves (my landlord) is going to stay with his parents from Sun - Thur, so I cooked some lunch and then took a short nap. Originally wanted to go to Royal Park and the Beer Festival, but a call from family stopped me so I eventually stayed at home.

Actually it's quite a lazy but very relaxing day. I tidied up my room and did some laundry. I spent some time to cook a great dinner for myself

- Pasta with tomato and chicken
- Omelette with chicken (Oh yea it's a chicken driven dinner :P)
- Coffee ( I know its a bit weird to have coffee at dinner but I wanted to drink it)
- Vegetable
- Grapes

Not bad huh? I also tried on the egg mask that recommended by Rita. Hehe OMG~~ It really works and I think I am gonna do it every day :)

Ho ~~ Tomorrow will be my send week at DHL. Should sleep earlier tonight

Enjoyable moments at work

2008-09-06T02:37:00.004+08:00

Yesterday I was too tired from work so did not do any blog, today is better and in the blogging mood :P

My first task - conference planning

After 3 days of "Honey Moon" at work, I eventually got my job task from my manager, quite an interesting but challenging one. I was so happy that I finally got something to work on and time passes a lot faster than the first three days. The things that I am working on is something I really love doing - Conference planning and management :) I feel like I am like a CCP hahaha

I finished my drafted this morning and sent to my manager, got some feedback from her and more guidelines. Feel a lot clearer about what should I do and what will I do. I feel very great and delighted about it cause she's very willing to help and teach me things. The framework for event planning is very useful, I really feel that I am learning something new every day. Normally interns are not really being paid a lot of attention on in big corporate, but I am lucky to have such a good and caring manager :)

Lunch Time

Every day at noon, my manager will stand up and said "Let's go, time for lunch", then the whole team will go for lunch together. During lunch time we never talk about work but daily life stuff, today I heard some interesting things about Greek and Turkish people, something about Canada and interesting things about traveling around in Europe. And I shared about the relationship with HK, MoC and Taiwan. It's very nice that we all share things because we all hold a different nationality -- Canadian, Turkish, Belgian, British (my big big boss but seldom talk to him and have lunch with him) and I, a Chinese. :)

Office environment

The other thing I like about this office is that employee benefits and the infrastructure. Coffee, tea and hot drink is served all the time. I have a big desk for my self, with a desk top and laptop. :) I enjoy going to office.

Working /Life style

Everyone in my team is very open for giving/receiving feedback and new idea which makes me feel really comfortable and could do immediate adjustment. I think my working style and life style changed a bit since I came here which is quite surprisingly, because I did not expect that it would come so fast -- I mean the change.

Now I never bring work home, and I really can use all of my office hours to do my work. I only check on my personal e-mail account once and then only focus on my company e-mail, i.e. no random e-mail distract me and I can focus on my work. I am a night person, that's for sure but now I can manage to go to bed before 12:30am, I mean every night! It's so unbelievable to me and I can get up at 7:30am every morning, and 9am / 10am on weekend and Sunday. That's something I couldn't, or I would say fail to do in Hong Kong.

What's Next?

I will plan my exercise plan again since its quite different from what I expected.. too ambitious to make it 20 hours per week, heheh (Oh yea Freddy you're right :P ), probably gym club.

I will search for language class to learn some French.

Yup~~~ :) Its a happy and great Friday, and I am happy.

Dinner with Nadya in Brussels!

2008-09-04T04:18:00.001+08:00

Dinner with Nadya

Today I finally got the chance to meet Nadya, but she's sick after back from IC... ahh hope she will get well very soon. It's so great to meet my orange lady again after a year :) Memories of MC 0607 and lots of things flashed in head, received great hugs from her too :)

She brought us to a Chinese noodle restaurant, it was a pretty good one and could spend sometime to talk to other interns and her friends in Brussels. It was really fun and relaxing. Too bad I did not bring my camera, would love to take pics with her :)

Highlight of the day - Shuttle bus!

Today is the 3rd day at work, FINALLY! I found the shuttle bus :) Such a milestone for me huh!

Work

From 9:30am to noon I attended the welcoming meeting, so informative but quite a big part of the information is not relevant to me... cos I am under the age of 25, haha. Anyways, finally meet my another boss, Rick, Chief of Staff. He's a British and speaks quite fast but a very friendly person :) I spent some time to read through the record and things about the event held last year and got to know more about my job and developed a kind of expectation about what I am going to work on, quite a good feeling though a but insecure at the same time, because I still feel that I am not hundred percent fully catch up the things, but Sarah, my team mate, she's so good and be patient to teach me things step by step :) And she told me I probably will go to Rome and Athens during my internship to support the events, hope it's gonna come true!

After Work

Left the office earlier today and went to North Station with Rita to buy things for home :) Bought myself a cushion so I can put it at office, hehe. After that,met Nadya~ What a great day!

Met my Manager

2008-09-03T01:44:00.005+08:00

Its the second day at work and it became more interesting:

Badge of Bea

I got my badge eventually!!!

Learning from DHL info site

2. Randomly clicked on the info and found lots of very interesting and useful information about the work that I am going to do and the HR related information. I really learn a lot from it.

My Manager - Bahar

Got the chance to meet my manager, Bahar, she's a very nice, friendly and intelligent young lady. Her voice is very sincere, just like what I heard during the interview, also very caring and open-minded to new idea and questions. I can feel that working with her can learn a lot because she's not afraid to give me challenging tasks and willing to discuss if I would like to take it. She's a very busy but very organized person. I think I know much more about the company and how the company works. She also very considerate, give me time to learn and adapt the environment... " Take your time to settle down in the office and let me know when you're ready, I would more than happy to kick it off with you!" Haha I really like my Manager I lot!

To-do list is completed for this week

More information and clarification was made so I have more idea about what to prepare and how to spend my time in the office. Today is better than yesterday as I did not know where to find things and people, but today I could go to the office alone and find my ways out. :)

Long Way home

The only thing that made me quite tired today is .... transportation. It's nothing like the transportation in Brussels is bad but stupid me took a long time to go to the office and long time to go home. Even though I could go to the office and come back home by myself, still... took me double, even triple time.

This morning I left home at 8am to go to Schuman to find the shuttle bus to go to work, after 30 mins of searching, I failed to find it and then went back to Metro to go to Central Station to take the train to go to work. When I left office to go back home, I found that I missed the shuttle at 5:10pm, I could wait until 6pm for another one or I could take the train to go home. I chose to go home by train but I found that there's no ticket machine or officer there so I was not quite sure if I could get on the train so I watched the training leaving.... after that I called Rita and thanks God, she helped and explained how it works then I got the next train, well but waited for half an hour, and then I took another 30 min to go back home..

Well not that bad, I am sure tomorrow I will be a smarter Beatrice, hahahah!

First day at work

2008-09-02T03:54:00.003+08:00

Today is my first day to work in DHL. I got up at 7am and left home at 7:45am, to go to Yser to find the other DHL intern, Noelle to go to work (She's from Brazil). We went to work by train, had to take the metro to Rogier and then took the tram to the North Train Station and take the train to Diegem, where DHL offices locate.

I got there and welcomed by nice and very friendly, smiley receptionists, meet Eva, the HR respresentative to sign the employee contracts and then she handed over me to Sarah, my team mate. She is a very nice person, introduced the office and people to me, but my boss didn't come to the office today so no chance to meet her on the first day. After that I spent hours to read through the annual report and some books about the company. The more I know the company the more I feel like a DHL employee (though I am just an intern and have a month ot probation to go :P), lots of the company policies interest me.

And I found that DHL provides lots of employee benefits and their People Strategy is quite interesting. I just knew that I got transportation and meal at the office nearly fully subsidized, basically I do not need to pay much during work days which really saved me lots of money. Also, I have my own desktop and laptop to use. I eventually got my DHL e-mail account!!! hahaha so funny to see it's beatrice.wong@dhl.com... kinda used to look at my e-mail address as beatrice.wong@aiesec.hk.. :)

In my team we are 4 people, and my neighbor, who sits next to me is Erman, the Global Coordinator of DHL last year :) We are working as the same position and he's already there for 5 months, so he's my senior and helped me on lots of things :) So good to have him in the team and sit that close.

Tomorrow I will meet my team and get my badge :) very sleepy... should sleep now (OMG, I sleep at 10pm and got up at 7am, what a healthy life since I came here hahaha)

The relaxing Sunday before I start working

2008-09-01T01:58:00.003+08:00

I woke up at 10am this morning, wrote some blog about yesterday. Cooked myself some Thai noodles as breakfast and then brought my bag to start my journey today.

I randomly got off from the metro at Central Station, and then walked around, found that lots of people were having their family day in the park, and some live band show was setting up some different places around the Center. Here are some snap shots:

I randomly walked around, passed through some open markets and restaurants, and felt that the things I saw was quite family.. and then I just noticed I walked to Grand Place and Rogier, the place that normally where people to go drinking. It's much closer than I thought. After 1.5 hour of walking I got on the Metro again.

I suddenly wanted to buy some fruit so I went back to the open market that I been to yesterday, as it was quite late so people were packing up stuff and I only could manage to buy some vegetable, spaghetti and the chicken thighs that I tried yesterday (very delicious!) and then went back home.

Tidying my room a bit and then I decoded to go to park.. read a bit and wrote my dairy, wrote down some thoughts I had. I stayed there for about 2 hours and then came back home.

Tomorrow I am gonna start my work in DHL, I am wondering how is it like... I've brought lots of interns to the companies for their first working day, I am wondering how's mine going to be.

Excited and anticipating..

Nice Saturday

2008-08-31T17:56:00.006+08:00

Yesterday, I went to the open market at Clemenceau with Manuel and another 2 Romanian interns. it's a big open market that only open on weekend and Sunday. The market has lots of different kind of things, quite cheap and can find anything you need.

The market is located under a very big stadium, it looks like a an old football stadium to me.. and a bit like an abundant train station (just like the one in Czech Republic). The first thing I saw in the market was ladies undies... haha it looks a bit like the Lady Street in terms of the products that you can buy. There are lots of shoes, clothes, food and daily use product. We were very focus on buying the food. They have lots of vegetables, fruit, seafood and meat, and the price is cheaper than in supermarket, also it look more fresh and all of the fruit and vegetables are SOOOO big!. I bought some vegetable and kiwis (1 EURO for 5 pieces!! I think it's even cheaper than in HK and it tastes to sweet) :) . After that we went to the seafood section, wahhhhh, lots of the shrimp and the fish I like but the problem is... I am not quite sure how to cook it with a western kitchen. Hm... I will find a way ..

After some shopping in the market I went back home. And then cooked a Chinese lunch and share it with landlord and the litte dog, found that landlord had a very interesting experiences in his young age. He traveled around, been to China and Japan and lots of other countries, so I found that in his kitchen he has lots of different kind of saurces, chopsticks, bowls and tool for making sushi.

After a great lunch I decided to find the source of the music... Since I got up there are some noise from the window, it's a live band sound. So I went to the Park nearby and take a look. What a GREAT Park!!! :) Very greeny, lots of relaxing people, live band shows on every weekend and Sunday, nice for running and biking as well. Here are some pictures I took there

I probably will go to the park today again to read and enjoy the music there :) My landlord is a very good cook, after I got back from the park, he made an Italian dishes and the Belgian Fries. It was sooo decisious. I thought that I would lose weights here but with a good cook to live with, i think im gonna gain weights a lot. After a nice dinner, I went to have a walk and some drink with Stefan, the Romanian Intern. I went to Bontanique to find him, and then walked to Rogier (the Center of Brussels), I got the chance to see the night view of Grand Place, and they got firework :) It reminded me watching firework with someone..haha anyway, and then I did what an Asian normally do -- Pics time!

After the visit in Grand Place we went to the bar that has more than 200 kinds of beer ( I forgot the name -_-) and I tried on the coconut beer, they put the beer in a coconut-liked bowl and gave me, people kept staring at me and came asking me what is this haha. The beer was sweet and I drank all so I was a bit tipsy after.

It was so nice :) It's a great weekend ah.

What a wonderful day

2008-08-30T06:48:00.003+08:00

Today is a big day! I moved into my new home finally! Its my new home la ~~~ I have a pretty big room for myself, with a TV, a big old style wardrobe, an old style desk and a nice bed. The room is covered with carpet which make the colour of the room look so nice. As the landlord is an artist so the whole flat, of course including my room, is full of paintings :) Finally!

Its a very wonderful day, Feliz brought me to ST. Catherine, there has a lot of nice places for drinking, both coffee and alcohol. He's really so caring and culturally sensitive, he was a bit worried that I am not getting used the food in Belgium so he brought me to a Chinese supermarket as surprise. I was crazily shopping in the market and came out with a very satisfied smile. Thanks Feliz!

Tomorrow I am gonna go to open market with other interns, can't wait!

I have a new home in Brussels

2008-08-29T07:17:00.006+08:00

It's a very happy and cheerful day :) Instead of writing long long entries, maybe some highlights helps.

1.) The first time I saw mom on web cam and it looked funny, haha

2.) I spent an hour to seriously study the map of Brussels and learned better concept of this city.

3.) I met Manuel's brother and his brother's girl friend, I am going to stay in his brother's apartment for tonight and it's an interesting experience. We went to a turkey restaurant to have durun and Belgian Fries as Dinner ( And i like it!). It's the first time I spend lots of time and get along with black people for long and it goes really well, I really feel I got friends here in Belgium and they are treating me so good.

The Turkish Restaurant we went to

My Chicken Durun and Belgian Fries

My Buddy: Manuel Manuel's bro: Feliz and Feliz's girl friend

4.) I found my own place to live :) It's a very nice one, locates next to the US embassy, at the Center of Belgium, called Arts Lio, very easy to access to anywhere and convenience to go to work. The apartment is owned by a artist, so the whole flat is very very beautiful and artistic, he has a little dog so his dog likes me :) My own room is quite a big and nice one, have a great view and lots of beautiful painting. And I will get the chance to have a dog during my internship! How nice! hehe

5.) I went to join the intern drink, met lots of Romanian and a funny Macedonian, :) enjoyed the conversation and the drink. I can't believe that I drink alcohol every day after I arrived here, but today the beer is a bit bitter and I couldnt finish it :P

To conclude, new people, new friends and new home :) I can't wait to move in to my new home!

First Day in Brussels

2008-08-28T03:53:00.003+08:00

At 11am, I eventually landed on Brussels. :) During the past 40 hours, lots of things happen and I am trying to re-capture one by one..

The first Station - London, Heathrew

27th 12:40am I left from my home land- Hong Kong to fly to London. On the flight I was saying Goodbye to family and HK quietly. It was a long but very comfortable trip. I was surprisingly slept a lot during the flight from HK to London, I think I slept for 10 hours. I was sitting near the window, with a couple. It's the only time that I kept the window closed most of the time, and slept slept slept... the couple was so friendly to help, I kinda felt like I was traveling with parents.

After landing on London, I spent some time to walk around in the airport, some of the memories flashed in head, like the time I spent with Cyrus there when we went to IPM and brought me back to the time that we visited Raymond after IPM. I did not need to wait for long time then I could get on the plane to fly to my new home land - Brussels.

The New Home Land - Brussels

At 11am, I landed on Brussels on time. On the flight I didn't say a word though I had a young man sat next to me, there was a few times he was trying to open a conversation but failed. Anyway it was a fun 70 min, I was reading a business magazine, it talks about the 50 ways of having a happier life. The purpose of this magazine is business but since it's a holiday month so the Editor decided to write a bit more about tips, that make people have a happier and easier life. Some of the tips were quite funny and creative, haha I would love to try on some of them.

The time I spent on passport checking was REALLY short, I did not even need to queue up then passed the boarder, I juts spent 2 mins there. After that got my luggages and trying to imagine how would it be when I stepped out... anyone would come to pick me up? ---- And then I found him! It's Manuel, he noticed the AIESEC logo on my jacket (Oh yea the MC team jacket hehe) and he came up greet me and helped me to pick the luggage. He's a young, energetic guy, speaks lots of languages, like Dutch, French, English, German and Spanish and he understand some Portuguese.

The Nice Guidance of Beatrice in Brussels

Manuel is a very fun, helpful and organized person. Before my arrival he already arrange the house visit meetings for me so I could start looking for flats. He contacted the landlord and also brought me there on time. After meeting my guidance, he brought me to his home to put down the luggages. The things I saw on street were like the buildings that I read in fairy tales in books when I was a kid, looks so beautiful and nice, the air is fresh and pretty chili actually. As we still had some time before meeting the landlord, Manuel brought me to walk around a bit.
1* Grand Place and the tasty Pancake

We took the tram to the Grand Place and had pancake as lunch. Actually I think the tram here is a bit like the Light Rail in HK :), here are some snap shots.

The Grand Place

Manuel -- the friend guy who picked me up in the airport and showed me around :)

The Pancake I had - It's ice cream pancake with hot chocolate hehe

2* Drinking Beer at 3:30pm

Manuel told me that there's a bar nearby that has more than 200 different kinds of beer, so we went to take a look, it's juts so amazing there! The beer / alcohol cans were hanged on the celling like the shells in the dark. I ordered a bottle of pineapple beer... wowow it tasted so great and I drank the whole bottle.. well at 3:30pm... LOL Everyone know I do not drink and I know I gotta try Belgian Beer, just didnt expect on the first day and in the afternoon, but I guess its a good start. The beer tastes the juice, very sweet, maybe that's why I could drink that much :) Next time I will try ton the REAL beer!

3* The first house hunting

The location of the house wasn't nice and I think I probably will not take it, however, it's so nice to see the neighborhood, very quiet and nice, quite beautiful actually but the flat is quite far away from public transportation so I decided not to take it.

After that we went back home, we bought something to cook and Manuel cooked the dinner for us! I met some of his house mates, Goel and Rome :) They both are nice people and Goel speaks Mandarin as he studied in Taiwan for a year :) it was really fine to have someone from Belgium to talk to you in Mandarin hehe.

4* Settle down a bit at the house of interns here

I am now staying in 2 intern's flat, in Yser. They both are very friendly, sweet and smiley girls, they are Basia ( from Australia) and Noelle ( from Brazil) :) Great to have them to host me for a while before I got my flat..

There are actually a lot more to write down but it take some time for me... :) Im so sleepy. Tomorrow continue... the house hunting and feel and learn more about Brussels!

Goodnight Brussels.

Last day before leaving to Brussels

2008-08-26T00:44:00.002+08:00

The past 3 days was really great and enjoyable for me, got the chance to spend some time with my closest friends and university classmates, they were so nice and caring to organized me a really enjoyable farewell dinner, taught me some local wisdom (活塞男 hahahha!) I really miss our old days in University, the jokes, the support I got from you guys, the spicy noodle ... haha, I am sure our friendship will last for very very long, I promise we will meet again after the internship!

Kimmy's return did make me feel great and being understood. It's amazing to listen your best friend's experiences on a foreign land, how the love storied started and interesting things in Europe. It did remind me lots of memories and I believe that Kimmy's story will have another ending which would make her to be one of the most happiest women in the world. She also helped me on the buying stuff, like flags, Chinese stuff for my presentation.

Yesterday had a girl chat gathering with Kimmy and Cafrany, 3 women with very different personality, very different live style and vision of the future, similar experiences in some aspect with different stories that happened in the past 12 months. Thanks Kimmy and Cafrany, I feel being understood and being supported. Of course, I will do my very best to be strong as I am always the superwoman, solve out things by myself with you guys as back-up :)

It's my last night before leaving to Brussels, I am trying to imagine the scenes of the upcoming 24 hours. Tomorrow night I will be at the airport with my family, I don't like farewells in airport anyways. I will take a long nap.. or maybe start crying when I recognized it's a not trip like I used to have before.. for a few weeks away from home, but a year. When I got up and got on land again, I will be in Heathrew.. rushing to transit my flight, after a few hours, will be in Brussels.. my new home for the upcoming 12 months. What will I see when I get there?

Okay... I should stop day-dreaming, before everything happen, I need to get my visa... sigh, they did not call up today and I wonder if they could give me tomorrow :( Well I think it will work out as I did my very best to work on that.

Time flies without wings, it's already a month and my honey moon after MCP is over. Time to look forward and get my goals gone :)

1. Learn French
2. 20 hours per week for exercise
3. Every day 1.5 hours for myself ONLY
4. Belgian Beer
5. Personal Finance management implementation
6. Do my career goal setting

OK.. random but seriously wanna make it happen :) Goodnight Hong Kong.

Typhoon Day

2008-08-22T20:07:00.003+08:00

Emotions of today just like Typhoon Signal No. 9. sometimes it's sooooo windy, sometimes its quite peaceful.

I used to love Typhoon so much , especially when I was in primary school, I would even pray to have typhoon hitting HK so I do not need to go to school, and I would be so pissed off at the typhoon if it's not strong enough to make it black rain or signal no. 8, cos it's gonna be so messy to go to school.

I still remember when I was at form 6 or form 7, I wrote a passage about wind, used different metaphors to describe wind. The way I loved wind and typhoon changed a bit, it's not like when I was a kid but something more than that. Wind brings me the smell of flower and humidity, also destroy the things we made, it pull me back to my memories and bring me hopes sometimes.

Anyway, it's a kinda bored but relaxing day. Planned to meet up with Kimmy and Cafrany but the typhoon ruined it, I also planned to go to the beach at night to spend some time alone, again.... no more. Now I just wish the visa process will go alright since the embassy will not work today and then hold my passport, I hope they can gimme my passport and visa on time.

It's my last week in HK before my departure, met my dearest jong mates :) Annie and Tiffany Chong, thanks for Miss Chow's organization, got the chance to have lunch with them. Girls, I am gonna miss you a lot!

Some thoughts

2008-08-21T21:27:00.002+08:00

No logic, no linkages, no flow... but some thoughts in head.

1. China lost in the volleyball - female, I am a bit sad but I guess it's life, full of ups and downs and every game meant to reflect something for the team to learn about.

2. Dinner with some relatives that haven't met for long. Lots of gossips and I hate to listen to it.

3. 5 days to go, I do not feel like I am leaving.. how come? Not even start to pack my luggages.

4. Typhoon is coming, planned to have a great day with my dearest girls, I hope the typhoon will not ruin it.

5. I had a weird dream this morning, I saw him waving at me.

6. I am wondering why I found that article, I wish I knew.

Get it Done!

2008-08-20T19:51:00.002+08:00

Eventually... I get the visa application DONE! Thanks for the officer that he will try to make it before my departure... so I do not need to change my flight! Yeah! :)

Today is SUPER hot and hot day, got up early again to go to the Belgium Embassy to submit everything and paid the fee (so expensive T-T), and then randomly went to North Point to have lunch with my girls -- Cafrany and Tiffany Chong. It was so nice to have a great chat with them in the Vietnamese Restaurant. I think I will miss these moments a lot before I come back to this little Island again.

Keep going keep going!! My Olympic hot-to go!

My Enneagram

2008-08-19T17:25:00.003+08:00

After reading the book about Enneagram and finished the test, my first 3 highest scores are:

1.) The Helper (Type 2)
2.) The Reformer (Type 1)
3.) The Loyalist (Type 6)

The Helper type is at Feeling Center (Heart), The Reformer type is at Instinct Center (Gut) and the Loyalist type is at Thinking Center(Head). It's good to know I am quite evenly formulated by all types of orientation, but it's interesting to know I started with my feeling, do it and then think about it. I guess it explains a lot my behavior and my personality.

When I look at the symbols of the types I got in Enneagram, I have some images or thoughts in my head...

Helper

- It looks like a man who stands so still with his legs and arms widely stretches, looks like he's ready and welcome people in need to run to him.
- It also looks like a "stop! I am not gonna let you in!".
- It looks like a Chinese Character - "Big".
- The book describe Helpers as supporters, those who love to help or support people to prove the value of their existences.

Reformer

- It looks like a triangle-shaped house with a door open, it's a tiny one so you cannot have lots of people going in at once.
- It's a perfectly built house.
- It looks like a keyhole.
- The book describe Reformers as Perfectionist, those who are very keen on back and white, right or wrong and get things done by principles.

Loyalist

- It looks like there's a flag on earth
- It looks like a lighted bomb
- It looks like the circle would never change it's shape because there's a cross in the middle to support it
- The book describe Loyalists are those who seek for security and

To conclude a bit, it seems to me that my intention to live my life is to help people and it's the sources of motivation in my life, I want to be needed (oh yea... someone said that in his manifesto... you remember? :P ) and I do things based on feeling. When I act, it's about doing it with principles, has to be perfectly planned. After all said and done, time to think and reflect.. I would evaluate myself if my action could benefits to a group of people that I am being loyal to, could be family, a company, an organization, especially if my decision or action was responding a need.

:) Interesting ..

Promises

2008-08-17T14:55:00.003+08:00

Last night was a great night! Thanks Cafrany, CK, Gary, Mindy,Soso, Yanni and Fandy. :) We had a great talk and Korean BBQ as dinner at a Korean restaurant at Causeway Bay, and then walked to Tin Hau to have Ming's Dessert. Lots of laughters and memories. It's wonderful and amazing to forget all worries and insecure feelings but spending time with your friends to laugh and just chat about recent lives.

At the restaurant we also randomly met Ernest, the AIESEC in Lingnan past EB at Session 0405, he looks a bit fatter than he used to and very energetics, surprised that he remember my name (though not the person) and my major and I was friend of Annabella. :)

A day in hell and then a day in heaven, maybe its life and I promised to myself, I will take care of me and people around me, enjoy and live my life every day. If it's meant to have such an interesting experience, I would just take it and see what is going to happen after 10 years.

Today is a very sunny day, my Kimmy is coming back to HK, too. :)

What a day....

2008-08-16T00:15:00.002+08:00

Even yesterday I could not complete the mission of getting the doctor certification, today I made it. I got a good news and good bad news from the doctor, really shocked... but I guess I am fine.

It's a long day, got up so early to have breakfast with mum and her friend at a Chinese restaurant, pretty nice and confirmed my updated insurance plan. After that straightly headed to TST to buy a new eiderdown but no luck, she didn't remember the exact location and after an hour of searching we finally got there and couldn't find the one I like.

After the failed shopping trip, I went to Tuen Mun to visit my 92-year-old grandma, mum said that I might not see her again when I back from Belgium after a year so I should go and say hi to her. She has very serious Dementia, so basically she doesn't recognize anyone and take care of herself. Surprised, when she saw me she had a big smile on her face, and when I called her "Po Po", she smiled even bigger, I told her I am Hang Yu, she nodded and mumbled like if she remembered me. I got tears all over my face when I saw her reaction and mum acted like a kid...she said grandpa just act like if she was the nurse and doesn't treat her like her daughter and now she seemed she recognized me. I guess mum was jealous a bit but she was happy as well.

After that, she told me lots of love stories of grandpa, he had 4 wives, it's interesting to know the stories. After that I headed to Yuen Long to get the report. 5 min talk with the doctor, I fell in hell and now I am back to the world of mortals, it's not something I wanted to hear but I only could accept and face it. The good news is I am not that bad and I passed the test to be qualified to go to Belgium.

It took me 1.5 hours to go home but I felt like it took forever and everything I saw in the car didn't seem to be the same for me, sky got darker and the image of people was blur, the music I was listening from my MP3 sounded like broken melody to me. When I got home, I did what I usually do and watched the Olympic to cheer myself up. Now the sorrow is gone and my mind-set changed, it's my fate and must be some meaning there. I will just follow it and see how the future leads me to though I am still leading myself to the future that I would like to see..

I am working so hard

What a day...

A day without luck but some serene

2008-08-14T20:05:00.005+08:00

The plan of tuning the sleeping schedule really worked. After watching the volleyball female, China VS Cuba, I was sooooo tired and went to bed, it was around 11pm something and I fell asleep so quick, it was not like I had to listen to music for hours to make myself sleep... Therefore, I could get up at 8am this morning pretty easy and energetically.

As I promised myself I would settle the visa stuff by today, so I followed the plan by going to Yuen Long to get the Doctor Certification, and then go to St. John Building to submit all of the documents and check again if they received the exemption, after that meet MC to do bank account transfer.

HOWEVER....

No luck... I arrived at the doctor's place and found a notice that the doctor was sick so the clinic was closed. The very first step was failed... no point to go to the Embassy since the documents was not completely collected. I was nearly screaming at the street but... I guess it wouldn't help anyway (if it helped I probably would scream out loud!!!!)

So, I changed my plan. I called up Sandy and decided to meet up and have lunch with her. Before getting on the bus, I passed by some shops... and eventually bought myself a pair of new sport shoes. I did my very best not to go on shopping as I've been spending money like pouring water in the past few weeks. I straightly jumped into the bus to go to Tsuen Wan, during the whole bus trip I was surprisingly did not fall asleep but observing an old couple who sat 2 rows ahead, the old lady laid her head on the old man's shoulder, the man caressed the silver shiny hair of his wife when she was sleeping peacefully on his shoulder, I smiled and hoped that someday I could be that lucky like the smiley old lady.

After about 30 min ( very fast!) I got there and again.... shopped a bit while waiting for Sandy, not bad though, a new dress and 2 lovely dairies that I am gonna bring to Brussels. After that, we had a nice lunch and I straightly headed to the HSBC in Central, and then went to MC office to get the Annual Report..

I was reading it a bit and looked at the office, the feeling was so weird, I felt so familiar and so unfamiliar at the same time. As I wanted to go home a.s.a.p to watch Olympic so I did not stay long at the office, I took the MTR to go to TST to take the bus to go home. And then... the luck walked away from me again...

After waiting for nearly half an hour at the bus stop at TST, no bus came and not even a single bus passed by. Some of the people started walking at the street used by vehicular traffic to look at the direction towards space museum to see what happened, however none of us had a clue...

Not until I got home and watched the news then I knew what happened in TST.... OMG! I cannot believe that there will be some senseless and stupid people placed pseudo bombs to create trepidation and made police block the streets which seriously affect the social tranquility and traffic!!!!! AHHHHHHHHH 好無聊!

Eventually, it's 1.5 hours later than planned to got home and missed the games... well even though I can watch the re-play tonight, I do not want to though...

To conclude, still VISA- GOT-TO-GO, but I am happy with what I bought and the time spent with people today... :)

Badminton games kicked off!!! My fitness plan need to be kicked off too!

The 13th

2008-08-13T22:51:00.002+08:00

I stayed up overnight last night to adjust my sleeping schedule, so I stayed up until noon after watching the Olympic swimming matches and then went to take a nap.

I was pretty worrying about the visa application process since the Belgian Embassy in HK insist to say they did not get the fax from Belgium ministry about the pre-approval of my working permit, but good news comes in the afternoon; AIESEC in Belgium confirmed me that the Ministry did send the exemption to the Embassy in HK so I will just go to their office tomorrow again, I WILL GET IT DONE TOMORROW!!!!

After getting up from the nap, I tidied up my bookshelf a little, found a dairy that I wrote during my MC Manager term until the very beginning of my MCP term. I write a page about "4th", I said that 4th was my lucky number, because I got elected on 4th Jan 2007 and I complete my full time MC team on 4th Feb, which was the date of the election of Nelson. The 4th in March I just came back from IPM 2007 in Egypt, on 4th in April I was in the Pre-meeting for National Planning conference, discussing AIESEC HONG KONG 2008 and AIESEC 2010 sessions with Sandy.. I just realized how sensitive I was towards the time passed after I got elected as MCP and I was hoping a lot to have something great and happy would happen on 4th in every month.

Maybe this time... it's about 13th... 13th June was the kick off of LCP transition and Training for LCPs 0809; on 13th July I had my Annual General Meeting to officially discharged from the role as MCP; and today, it's 13th Aug, I am a EP and half way to be realized to head to Belgium to start my internship.

If every day meant to have something happen that could remind me how much I changed and how's my life been, I would more than happen to write it down every day. I bet it will be interesting when I look back on things :)

I am anticipating about what's going to happen on 13th Sept, I will be in Brussels, started my internship in DHL... family and friends will be far away from me, I will have new flat mates, new friends and might even met some old friends... everything seems unknown but excited :)

Life is random, I am enjoying the uncertainty.

Homey Beatrice

2008-08-12T19:25:00.004+08:00

I got up at 10am, still felt so full from the buffet last night.. :) Thanks for the great night and great time my gangs. The buffet in that hotel was pretty good, for those who are interested in having one, check out B P International Hotel.

It's quite an unexpected day that messed up my plans. Got call from doctor to get the report and schedule time to discuss the certification...no reply from the Belgian Embassy whether they receive the fax from Belgian ministry, I am starting to worry about if I could get the visa before my departure. I heard from Rita that Aug is the holiday month for most of the European countries, I hope they did submit the exemption to the ministry and the ministry did fax to the Embassy.. otherwise, I might need to change my flight and wait until Sept.. which is going cost me a lot and again.. mess up my whole plan. Well I guess I should be more positive than I should, worrying doesn't help anyway.

Today I spent most of my time in front of TV and Computer. Watching the Olympics and managing the visa document. Lots of ups and downs during the day.

Ups:

- Phelps!!!!!! Of course the swimming games :)
- Badminton
- Female Weight lifting
- When China Basketball team won at the first 3 session in the Male Basketball

Downs:

- Got the call from doctor that he still has doubts to sign the certificate for me
- Got no reply from the Belgian Embassy
- When China lost in the basketball game

Every time I see player from China, I started to smile and couldn't take my eyes off the TV, the scenes of the opening of the Olympic still runs in my head and I feel very proud of China and being a Chinese.

Found that I am really a homey person...every day spend about 3 hours to read and at least 7 hours in front of the TV to watch Olympic, at least 2 hours in front of computer (which is a lot less than I used to be) and around 2 hours in front of my dairy writing.

Counting fingers...13 days left :) Friends, watch out my calls for meeting up.

Dinner with Georgi

2008-08-07T23:37:00.002+08:00

After getting bored by the typhoon and stuck at home for a whole day yesterday, eventually did something "productive" and fun.

Mum has been mumbling about me being so lazy to change my clothes in H&M since the size was not fit... so today finally went out to exchange them, after that I had dinner with Georgi, my dear intern, also my first international faci under my management as Conference Manager.

It was so much fun to talk to her, really love her honesty and directness. We talked a lot about the people we know in AIESEC, AIESEC HK, some past impression about people and ways to do things and also some personal life :) It's so fun to talk to her and spent a night with such a sweet girl.

Looking back on things, it has been quite a while since the last time I spent time to get to know the interns, not because of work and wanna know how they think about AIESEC HK do to help them integrating, not more about making friends with them. Thanks Georgi, you reminded me what I really enjoyed and the feeling of being taken care of and understood.

She's leaving next week... there are quite a lot of people are leaving, she's leaving, Cafrany is leaving, I am leaving, LCPs and MC people are leaving to IC. I suddenly feel that I experienced a lot of welcoming and saying good byes in AIESEC in these few years. Yenny was my first intern, I got so nervous when she came and I was so sad when she left. After that more interns came, I still felt sad for some of them when they had to go back to their home countries, but the feeling was not that strong like I used to had.. and there was a period that I was a bit numb.

Even though saying welcome and say good byes are hard sometimes, I am glad that one of my best friends, Kimmy is coming back :) It feels so good to know people you love are around no matter they are physically with me there or not.

The talk I had with Georgi tonight simply motivated me and brought me the excitement again of being an intern :) hahahah I am an intern, I am an intern!!

It's a new page

2008-08-07T03:30:00.001+08:00

After abandoning my AIESEC blog for nearly a year, I decided to get myself a new blog; a blog for celebrating a new milestone was set in my life.

In my past 4 years experiences in a student-run organization, which is the largest one in the world, I found 3 things:

1. Myself
2. My passion
3. My fear

It's great to try on things, both good things and bad things. I had my down time and had my greatest moments that brought by AIESEC. Thank you AIESEC and I hope it's gonna be the last time I talk about you and thank you as I found it the more I say your name, the more I miss you.

It's so excited to get myself ready for moving to Europe, experiencing something completely different and new. I've been always thinking that I am strong and flexible and independent, and I hope this change could prove me right, well hopefully prove me wrong somehow. I am trying to imagine I will have no family by my side to support me, no close friends to talk to and everything I see would be written in foreign languages... It's so excited but also got me so nervous.

After 2 weeks of rest and started picking up my habits, I feel like I am being myself again. I am anticipating more. If every day meant to have something happen and that would happen in my life, I think I would slow down, feel more and live my life better.

Goodnight Beatrice, you should stop your randomness, that's enough for now.