Helena in Wonderland

Gift of time

2008-01-30T18:57:00.001+02:00

"Sometimes giving your time to someone or something can be the biggest gift you can ever make."

This was one of the sentences from my MCP speech 2 weeks ago. Time is endless, yet it seams that we never have it enough. By giving the time, we usually get something back, though - a thought, an idea, information, a new perspective, emotion, a friend.

If a person has put 5,5 years of time into an organization like AIESEC then it gets difficult to say what she has got out of it. The list seams to be endless. And knowing that you get something good out of it, makes you to put even more of your time into it. That's what happened to me. And I was granted with the opportunity to be in AIESEC in Finland for 1 more year - this time as Member Committee President.

Please meet my team - Team Spirit - that I start working on 1st June.

Anja - a German girl, who has strong personality and opinions, has put a lot of effort into AIESEC in Finland's ER and projects.
Heli - a Finnish girl, who seams to be quiet, but has a lot of strength hidden inside and is passionate about branding.
MacDonald - a Nigerian dude, who is as energetic, as most of the Nigerians that I have met and brings smile to every person, who is working with him.

Meet the Team Spirit - Anja, MacDonald, Heli and me

A perfect team of 4 people from 4 different countries. For me it's another great experience, especially due to the fact that I have been living in all of the countries, where my team mates are coming from. It's like recapturing all the experiences that I have got when working in those countries...

By the way, I have loads of time! And I know exactly what I want to do with it - I want to enjoy every second of it, not telling "I don't have time" and appreciating other people's time that they have put into me and this organization. Thank you!

Pieces getting together

2007-12-12T23:57:00.000+02:00

7,5 months have passed. Seams to be pretty serious, huh? Yeap, working in AIESEC in Finland is fairly challenging and fun thing to do. I just wonder when was the time when I actually forgot that I have a blog somewhere...

Some highlights from the past 6 months....

We organized Scandinavian Leadership Development Seminar (simply put ScaLDS) in Finland at the beginning of August. Being conference manager for this seminar and having it as one of the first "big things" to do, I felt quite well after seeing that people actually enjoyed it and had loads of fun. I've heard that they still talk about the conference in some other international seminars several months later. We must have done something good, eh?

ScaLDS 2007 facilitator team :)

And just couple of weeks after ScaLDS we landed in over heated Istanbul for enjoying the biggest conference of the year - International Congress 2007. 2 weeks of sessions, networking and partying might seam pretty tough and you're right - it was quite tough! Still we managed to enjoy almost every minute of it, as not every day you get into some square kilometers with 700 young people from 100 countries. And I was wearing Finnish national costume, which is another remarkable fact from the conference! :P Finnish role-call was awesome (thanks to Ari, our rockstar), WENA party even more awesome (thanks to Salmiakki, the Finnish rockstar) and eventually we got also back in one piece.

Yes, we looked quite pretty with the Finnish national clothes!

And we looked even prettier at the official dinner ;-)

Fall has gone pretty much with speed of light. Recruitment, coaching visits in Jyväskylä, Tampere and Oulu, preparations for national conference ACCESS, functional weekend with my great HR/D team... It was quite stretching time and yet really enjoyable, as I probably crossed more limits during this time than I have done it during the last year at any point.

Team Kick Ass in Tampere for HR/D meeting, September 2007

ACCESS 2007 was my baby, as our lovely chair Jarda said. It was pretty awesome experience! Having "Running up that hill" as the conference theme, having 18 facilitators from 9 countries, around 150 people present... Yeah, I was pretty much running around all the time, but in the end was nice to hear that people were actually having good time there and learning a lot as well. Mission accomplished, I guess :-P

ACCESS 2007 faci team running to the conference

After the conference I have probably had the lowest motivation during my term. Recovering from the conference, clearing the head a little bit, trying to relax and find new beginnings was pretty much my priority and proved to be quite successful. Now I've got some more energy into my work again and decided to give more new beginnings to myself. So I decided to apply for MCP of AIESEC in Finland! Elections are at NatConf 2008 on 18.-20. January in Tampere, so cross your fingers for me ;-)

Yep, I continue going up! ;-)

So now I'm giving my very best to finish the stuff at the office, head for mid-term evaluation next week and then feel happy and proud to take a ferry to Tallinn and enjoy some Christmas spirit with my family. Don't worry, will be back for New Year's Evening for sending the year off with the people here, who have made this year awesome for me. If you're somewhere around Helsinki or thinking of coming here then give me a call, will surely welcome you in our humble MC flat at Kantsu ;-)

Sunrise

2007-06-18T23:32:00.000+03:00

Well well well... summer is here, the bright nights also... there's lots of work and rarely time to enjoy the sun in the middle of the night, but if there happens to be time for that then these are one of the nicest moments...

Nothing is nicer than to sit on the roof at 3-4 am and see the sun coming out from behind the trees and listen to the quietness before all the people start waking up. These are some of the rare moments from northern life that I enjoy, especially having a special person next to me...

And what is more - at these kind of moments I always remember how many things there are in my everyday life that are actually not important at all. And how good it is to remind myself all the truly important things that make me feel good in my life. I just want to be happy and I am - it's a matter of attitude anyway.

Sun rises every morning, if I want it or not, but if I see it - that's up to me.

Taking it over ;)

2007-05-27T21:33:00.000+03:00

Last 2 days we have been celebrating the end of the last term and beginning of the new term in AIESEC in Finland. In short - we had 2 head-spinning take-over parties!

Actually everything started already on Friday morning, when the new MC team named Team Supreme was asked to sleep at the same place and was woken up at 06.35 by the old MC team - Team Possible. And then it began - the whole day of adventure and crazy tasks to do, all lead by Team Possible's sent messages on our mobile phones and our actions followed by "evil" eyes in the bushes. Hehe :)

So here's how our day looked liked:

1. We were directed to the roof of our MC flat where there was very nice breakfast waiting for us. Instead of coffee we enjoyed energizing beer and as a task we had to find a key, which was hidden to a blueberry soup package. You can just imagine, how we got the key out of it! Nummy :P

2. The key lead us to the central railway station's lockers, where there were 4 bags waiting for us in the locker number 42. From the bags we found our uniforms for the day - orange/red shirts with our names on it, orange horns to carry on our heads, balloons reminding some body parts of a man and a woman, some more stuff for our hair etc. Fully equipped, we were ready to have further instructions...

3. First of all we had to go to nice shopping place in the centre of Helsinki. where our task was to change Ari (our lovely hard-rock guy) into metrosexual guy, by choosing the best clothes for that, getting the right moves from him and then saving this with our digital cameras. Mission was accomplished - Ari looked wonderful in the pink summer shirt and shorts!

4. After changing Ari into metrosexual guy and giving him back his lovely team outfit after fulfilling the task, we got the new message from the Possibles. It said that we had to find our way to one specific area in Helsinki and find one specific kind of shop there for finding one specific kind of toy for me. Yeah, we had to go to a sex shop and buy a sex toy for me. So we ended up going through different kinds of vibrators, whips, sex costumes, ending up with (a small) vibrator that fitted into our budget, given by our commanders. The result was amazing - lots of satisfied people, as we demonstrated the toy later on during the party...

(Beer break in a place suggested by the manager of the sex shop)

5. Our next destination was the harbour, but instead of just going there, we had to become disabled - one of us couldn't walk, one of us couldn't talk, one of us couldn't use hands and one couldn't see anything. My role was to be blind, which meant, that I was lead through Helsinki by Jouni, who unfortunately couldn't use his hands. But despite to that we finished up alive in the harbour, from where we were supposed to continue our way to Suomenlinna.

6. Getting to Suomenlinna is not exactly sitting on a tram - it's actually sitting on a ferry, as it's an island. So we had a lovely sea trip to an island and after wondering around there a bit, we found a lovely picnic place waiting for us with whole lunch, 2 bottles of wine and lots of other nice stuff. It was really nice and gave us some more strength for the upcoming challenges.

7. After getting back to the mainland we had a new destination waiting for us - karaoke bar! Our cute hard-rock girl Aksu was supposed to sing Madonna's golden hit "I'm a virgin", which was apparently not her favourite song, but after adding up some drinks to all of us, we ended up singing Finnish song R-A-K-A-S :D

8. Feeling very dizzy and not being really sure how alive we are going to end up this night, we got a new message - we had to find our way to another part of Helsinki and continue the tradition of swimming naked. Haha, it was pretty funny, especially when some random guys were jogging by and couldn't help staring at some crazy people going naked to ice-cold water. We got some pictures too, if you're interested! ;)

9. Luckily swimming was our last big task. After that we had to go back with metro, where we found our new mascot Muumi waiting for us. After that we had to tie ourselves into a rope and under guidance of Jouni we found our way to pizza restorant to pick up a pizza, made especially for us. Again, mission accomplised and we were allowed to return to our flat, where lots of people from different parts of Finland were waiting for us to celebrate our upcoming year.

So what happened in the flat. Well, I guess I don't have to confirm that by that time we had consumed lots of alcohol, starting already 8 am in the morning during breakfast. But of course, more alcohol during the party was also not bad, so we continued with the process. Among other things we had to find our keys to the office from a cake, using only our mouths to do that. We were not looking very pretty after finding the keys, having whipped cream all over our faces, but we were happy, as from that moment on we were officially owners of our office!

Team Supreme having encouraging drink during the take-over day.

Suomi!

2007-05-05T18:36:00.000+03:00

I'm in Finland. Not for shopping. Yeah, how did I get here...

I guess it's quite long since I've made any posting again here and last postings were from the period of time when I started loosing my mind already, because I had too much free time and no clue what would happen with my near future.

Well, now I know what will happen with my near future, because I'm elected for MC in Finland. It was somewhere in January, when I went through the rough selection process, had to stand in front of all the members of AIESEC in Finland and convince them why they should select me. And in the end I got some water on my head, which announced that I will be in MC as VP HR/D. Yeah, so here I am...

On this picture I've just got the water. I don't look so pretty here, but it was still a happy moment :)

It's May now, I've started with my transition. Since January I haven't done so many things, but mainly I guess I can say that I've been around conferences - facilitating at Baltic conference Synergy, delegate at EuroXPRO and then facilitating again at Finnish national conference Success. And then of course planning conference Input.

My new team. They are... interesting. And why everybody thinks that when I say "interesting", then I think something negative? It's actually the other way around. Interesting = something very good. I just say that they are Finnish and each one of them is very different and interesting person. That is why I'm also sure that our year is going to be really colourful. But yeah, I still need to get used to some Finnish understandings...

My HR/D team. They are... fascinating. I actually didn't expect so much power and excitement from them and thought that I would really need to push them a lot. But it's not like that at all. So far most of them (those with whom I have had a good chance to talk to so far) seam to do this with real passion and because they are interested in this area and really want to make things happen. It's really motivating for me to see that.

So Finnish. I guess most of us know how many stereotypes there are about Finnish. If I said that I didn't have any of those stereotypes then I would lie a lot. So yes, I do have stereotypes about Finnish people, but we will see how they will stay/disappear after I have lived here for some time. It's defenately beneficial for me that the rest of my team mates are Finnish and that I can learn the language as well with them.

Moving away from Estonia was weird. I didn't move too far, yet there was something that I didn't feel very good about. Maybe it was because I had to pack and leave on very last minute and I had to cancel many plans in Estonia when I found out that I have to go to Stockholm for a meeting before actually moving to Finland. Maybe it was also because I had really nice weekend in Estonia before moving. It doesn't matter anymore, though, because I feel almost good where I am right now and as long as I do what I like doing then everything is ok.

And by the way, I like what I do. So I continue being happy :)

I prefer half-empty glass to half-full glass

2007-01-09T16:17:00.000+02:00

Everyone wants their glass to be full – it’s the best option. I want also my glass to be full and if it’s not then I prefer to say that my glass is half-empty, not that it’s half-full. And this doesn’t mean that I’m big pessimist, because people who know me can say that I’m not! But there’s another very good reason for that…

WHEN YOU’RE GLASS IS HALF-FULL then you feel the positivism about the half that you have, which is very good. But usually people become very comfortable in their positivism – they are happy about the half and just thinking how nice it is to drink that half.

WHEN YOU’RE GLASS IS HALF-EMPTY then you don’t feel so positive about it, but as you want to feel better, you start finding ways to be more positive, so you start looking for possibilities to fill up the rest of your glass! During this process you just have to remember that half-empty glass is still better than totally empty glass and you should be happy for that… but full glass is definitely better than half-empty glass, so you might want to do something about it…

So to my opinion people shouldn’t settle with half-full glass, but have half-empty glass instead and find ways how to fill it up!

Wonderland is there!

2006-12-11T16:33:00.000+02:00

Continuing the last posting...

Sometimes it has striked me that maybe the world is not real, as there are so many mystical things in life that you just can't explain...

But... seeing is beleiving, or what? :)

With me there was one interesting thing about "seeing is beleiving". I studied tourism, had to learn all the world countries by heart, know so much about different cultures, their backrounds etc. I was so fascinated about all the places, about all the nice pictures and videos I saw of them. At some point of time I just thought - how do I know that these amazing places are really there? Because someone is telling me that they are there?

Well, then I decided that for beleing it I have to see it myself. I decided that I have to see, if there are all of these wonderful places, if people really live there like I was told etc. And I decided to go to Nigeria!!! And I promised myself that after I have come back from Nigeria, I will keep going around, until I beleive it all :P

Sounds crazy? Yeah, I know... but let there be a little bit crazyness in my head ;)

What if it’s not really there?

2006-12-08T17:51:00.000+02:00

All the people, houses, trees, birds, cars, planes… the sun that disturbes your eyes or is hiding itself behind the clouds… the warm breeze at summer, ice-cold wind at winter… your toes in sand, melting ice-cream in your mouth, snowball fight that takes you down… aren’t there so many of those small things that you experience every year, every month, a week or even every day?

But how do you know that it’s all there? Because you see it, feel it…

...because you want it to be there?

...because it happens to be there?

...because somebody else makes it to be there?

And what if it comes out that all those things are not actually there, that you’ve imagined all of that? What if it comes out that it’s just all in your head while you are sleeping or dreaming… what if you just wake up one day and see how it actually works?

WHAT IF THE WONDERLAND IS NOT REALLY THERE?

Would you be ready for this?

Reintegration – I thought it’s easy!

2006-09-25T11:20:00.000+03:00

But it’s not as easy as I thought… Actually it’s even a little bit funny and strange, as there are many funny things that have happened after coming back to Estonia.

After coming back to Estonia I wanted to visit some doctors as I had some health problems in Nigeria. When they asked me in recpetion of the clinic why I wanted to go to the doctor and I explained them that I was in Nigeria for 9 months and also had malaria then they had very strange look on their faces and got me an appointment with a doctor immediately. I was just laughing afterwords, as I know that actually it’s nothing serious, I just wanted to take a blood test…

And of course I had some problems with time… The first time I arrived somewhere on time was 2 weeks after arriving back. It’s just so much more comfortable not to worry about time all the time, although I must say that I was still a bit annoyed when someone was late in Nigeria… On the other hand, in Nigeria people were much more late than just couple of minutes like Estonians are…

Traffic… well, although I didn’t have very many chances for driving a car in Nigeria myself then I still got used to the traffic there a lot. So when I started driving car in Estonia again, I felt how slowly cars are moving and that it’s quite difficult to keep the rules in mind…

For me personally the funniest moments have been in some certain situations where I realize that life has really developed on here and I’m not really sure what I should do. One of those moments was in a shop where I didn’t know anymore what I have to do when I want to pay with my bank card. It’s just that before leaving Estonia I never had to enter the card into this small machine and enter the pin code etc… It may sound stupid, but for 2 seconds I actually felt confused…

Besides all of these strange moments that I have had after coming back to Estonia, I’ve realized that the most difficult part is still emotional one. It’s not easy to be suddenly apart from all the people that I used to be together all the time, knowing that I might not see them ever again (although I sincerely hope that I will see them again!). Also I must say that I went to Nigeria at the time when it didn’t go very well for me, so it was like going to somewhere where I had the opportunity for a new start. But when I left Nigeria then things started to go very well for me, so it was difficult to leave the moment where I felt myself really well again….

Before going on a traineeship I was mainly thinking about how to integrate myself better into the new society, but I didn’t think that much about reintegration. Now I realize that it was mistake, as reintegration is not so easy at all, especially as Estonia and Nigeria are so different countries. So I strongly believe that one has to think about reintegration very seriously before it actually starts happening, so that he/she could be ready for that and overcome the difficulties easier.

Leaving Naija

2006-08-29T15:26:00.000+03:00

I don’t even want to pretend that I’m a good blogger, at least some friends became curious if I’m still alive… So for everyone – I arrived to Estonia, to my beloved home country, couple of days ago. But here are some updates from my last months in Nigeria and from my trip home…

I’ ve been to 2 AIESEC conferences in Nigeria since May and both of them were especially valuable for me in order to find out more about the country and meeting other trainees. Especially I liked our trip to Erin-Ijesa waterfalls during the conference in Ilesha. Lot of climbing, lot of water everywhere and lots of fun!

My traineeship ended in July. Well, I can’t say that I was so satisfied with my traineeship, as I felt bored quite many times and couldn’t do so many things that I wanted to. But on the other hand it showd me a lot about cultural differences – it’s just not possible to do so many things so easily in Nigeria as you wish. You have to fight for everything! Nigerians are true survivors!

In the end of July 2 of my dear friends – Mari and Marko (M&M) – came to Nigeria for 3 weeks and we travelled around in the country a bit, which was a lot of fun. I picked them up in Lagos and went to Ilorin, my home town in Nigeria. From there we went on to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

From Abuja we went on to Jos, which is considered to be the coldest place in Nigeria. In Jos we went to one place where they are processing leather in traditional way and prepare all kinds of items from leather also. From Jos we went to Yankari game reserve where we hoped to see many animals in nature, but unfortunately we didn’t see them as many as we wished. Still we had a lot of fun there, swimming in natural warm spring (the water was constatntly around 30-31C) and playing with monkeys.

On our way from Jos to Yankari game reserve we made a short stop at one village, which was very small and where people were living totally alone, seperated from the rest of the world, I guess... They seamed to be a bit shocked that we just wanted to say hello to them and see how they live there, but after some time everyone came out to make a picture with us. So here's one of the pictures we had with them..

After returning to Jos from Yankari, we went to Kano, a northern city. Hehehee, this was funny… everybody told us that we should be careful there, as there have been many conflicts with muslim radicals there and that me and Mari should always were a scarf. After getting there, we found out that wearing a scarf is not necessary at all. Also the place was very peaceful and really very nice – Kano is ancient city, so one can see many old buildings, the city wall etc. We were also taken to the Emir’s Palace where the prince gave us a nice tour. Here are Estonians with the prince.

After Kano we returned to Abuja where we saw very cool show and wondered a lot about how it is possible for Nigerian women to shake their asses like that. If you want to see it yourself then ask me for videos! We were also hoping to meet the president of Nigeria in Abuja, but unfortunately it didn’t work out. Instead, we met one quite famous Nigerian actor Desmond Elliot in the hotel where we stayed. Here's the picture with him...

When we got back to Ilorin I had quite difficult good-bye with my friends. I guess it’s never easy to leave a place where one has been for 9 months and found so many nice people there and experienced so much. My only hope was that one day I will see these people again and that one day I will have the possibility to visit Nigeria again. This pictures is made after my last AIESEC meeting in Ilorin...

My trip back was long. First of all I spent 2 hours in check-in in Lagos, as I found out that my luggage is 42 kg instead of 20 kg that is allowed. Well, I didn’t think I can make it on the plane… but finally they allowed 35 kg, so I had to remove just 7 kg-s and fit it to my hand luggage (that already before consisted of 4 bags!). So finally I had 5 pieces of hand luggage and it was so heavy that I could hardly carry it and needed help from stewards in planes. They were very nice. I love Emirates!

Of course I had nice stop in Dubai’s airport where I stayed 5 hours instead of 24 hours that I spent there when I went to Nigeria 9 months ago. I felt like back at home. Finally I landed in Düsseldorf in Germany and took a train to Osnabrück for visiting my friends and meeting my family there who was having their Europe road-trip. It was nice to arrive to Osnabrück and see my dear brothers, parents and friends again. After spending couple of days in Osnabrück, meeting friends there and having too much party I joined my family on their trip. We went to Amsterdam (crazy and fun place!), Bremen (I still remembered where Beck’s bistro is!), Lübeck (the best town hall that I’ve seen!), Kopenhagen (marmaid is still there!) and then we crossed the hudge bridge to Sweden, drove through Sweden to Stockholm and took a ferry to Tallinn. So I arrived to Estonia after 1 week travelling in Europe…

So what next? I’m looking for another short traineeship in Europe, but haven’t found the suitable one yet. So I keep looking and reintegrate myself back to Europe. I plan to stay in Estonia for at least 1 month, so hopefully I can meet all my dear friends before leaving the country again.

But Nigeria… I really hope I can make it back there next year. Dear Naija has got into my heart! Really, leaving was so damn difficult. Icouldn’t sleep and eat already a week before leaving and my hands were totally shaking when leaving Ilorin… I don’t even know if all the people in Nigeria know how much they mean to me. I hope they are waiting for me back, because I definitely want to see them there again. I’m always your oyinbo!

Nigeria... so nice! :-)

2006-05-19T21:57:00.000+03:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about the stereotypes that Europeans often have about Nigeria and if these stereotypes are actually true or not.

One biggest opinion about Nigeria is probably that this country is highly dangerous place and if you want to stay alive then better not go there. Well, this statement has two sides and looking at it possibly objectively I can come up with some following thoughts. First of all, I can’t say that during the 5 months here in Nigeria I have been in any dangerous situation, although I have been around by myself quite a lot, also carrying my laptop with me publicly, sometimes even late in the evening (although I’ve been given warnings not to be out alone late in evenings). OK, maybe I have been lucky… Actually from the Nigerians’ behavior one can easily think that Nigerians are very violent people, at least I haven’t seen so many gestures, hand waving, raising one’s voice etc before. But I can assure that most of the times it’s far from anything dangerous. Well, I guess all in all I can say that Ilorin is quite safe place to be, maybe safer than my own home town Tallinn, although it has at least 2 times less people than Ilorin.

Now, talking more about Nigeria in a whole… I guess I can say that it’s very different in different parts of the country. But saying honestly – stories about armed robberies on roads, Muslim radicals’ attacks etc are quite scary for one northern European citizen and I guess these kind of stories are the ones that make the “dangerous country” impression. I don’t think that things like street thieves’ activities in Lagos is very big news for anyone, but when to think about it – which other city as big as Lagos in the world has less crime? When around 15 million people are stuck in the same small place then it’s quite obvious that something negative might happen between them.

One other negative stereotype about Nigeria is probably that this place is highly corrupt. Well, you know, I can’t help it, but I just have to say that it’s true. Giving some money away for police or being asked bribe in some governmental institution is quite common thing. But instead of seeing it with this negative aspect, I’ve learned to see the positive side of this (if you can see anything positive in bribing at all). In a way it’s supporting the poor people, as far there is no good social system in the country. Also it helps you to get things faster than you would get them normally. Well, of course you can stay half an hour with your car on a crossroad and search for all the documents that a policeman wants to see, but you can also give some small amount of money and you’ve finished in just couple of minutes. I’m not really sure if this makes any sense for some of my friends in Europe who read this blog, but after living here for some time it makes perfect sense for me.

Now, about Nigeria being so poor country… I’m not really sure about that. Of course there are so many poor people in this country that it’s just amazing and makes me feel a bit bad sometimes. But on the other hand, when we look at the general figures in the country then one can’t really say that it’s a poor place. Already the oil industry itself brings in so much money that every Nigerian should have a possibility to live comfortably throughout their lives. Let’s put it that way then – Nigeria is rich country, but thanks to not good enough management of the resources the riches are not used for the best purposes among all the citizens. That’s how the riches get into hands of just certain few people and most people are just left out, which in the end has brought the country to the situation of “very very rich and very very poor people”.

For not listing up just negative stereotypes and for bringing in just some of the nicest things in Nigeria, I feel obligated to inform about all the really nice and interesting things that this country has. Starting from the natural aspect, I have to say that I’ve never seen climate changing so obviously during just 3-hour car drive. Changes in the nature, humidity and warmth are quite impressive for me. Also Nigeria is one of the most colourful places that I’ve seen. Well, I guess Africa is very colourful in general, but for me Nigeria is a very good example of that. And what I mean under “colourful” – not only the appearance of the people is full of different colours, but their lifestyle, appearance of the streets, market places etc is full of colourful emotions, happenings and incidents. For me it’s sometimes like walking around in a movie where I want to watch every detail very carefully and not to miss any part of it. When talking about the favorite moments during the day, I can’t leave out the fact how nice feeling it is to drive in a car in the evenings after really really hot day and feel the nice cooler wind blowing in the air and enjoying the life that is going on in the streets. Although I can’t say that Ilorin is the best place for nightclub parties or other kind of parties (at least compared to Europe) then for me it’s unbelievably nice to go around in the evenings and enjoy what small places in Ilorin can offer.

Small things make difference! And that’s why all the negative aspects in this country don’t count for me, as there are so many small positive details that give the true impression of Nigeria for me.

In Estonian – Eesti keeles:

Olen palju mõtelnud stereotüüpidele, mis eurooplastel seoses Nigeeriaga tekivad ja püüdnud aru saada, kas need stereotüübid ka tegelikult tõele vastavad või mitte.

Kõige rohkem on vast levinud stereotüüp, et Nigeeria on hästi ohtlik riik ja kui tahad ellu jääda, siis ei maksa sinna minna. Sellel väitel on aga minu arvates kaks külge ja võimalikult objektiivselt asjale vaadates tooksin välja mõned järgmised mõtted. Esiteks, selle 5 kuu jooksul, mil ma siin Nigeerias olnud olen, ei ole ma kordagi olnud ohtlikus olukorras, kuigi olen omapead siin ringi käinud küll, isegi oma sülearvutit kandes ja mõnikord isegi hilja õhtul (kuigi mulle on öeldud, et hilja õhtul ei tohiks ma üksinda siin ringi käia). Nojah, võib-olla on mul siiani lihtsalt vedanud… Tegelikult võib nigeerlaste käitumisest välja lugeda, et nad on üsna vägivaldsed inimesed või vähemalt pole ma kellelgi teisel nii palju kätega vehkimist, žestide tegemist ja hääletooni tõstmist näinud kui neil. Kuid võin täiesti kindlalt väita, et enamusel nendest kordadest on asi ohtlikust olukorrast väga kaugel. Minu arvates on Ilorin üsna turvaline paik, võib-olla isegi turvalisem kui mu enda kodulinn Tallinn, kuigi seal elab vähemalt 2 korda vähem inimesi kui Ilorinis.

Rääkides Nigeeriast terviklikult, võib öelda, et olukord erinevates riigi osades on väga erinev (Nigeeria on üsna suur!). Aga ausalt öeldes – jutud relvastatud maanteeröövimistest ja moslemite radikaalide rünnakutest võivad ühele põhjamaalasele hirmu nahka ajada küll ja eks sellised jutud ongi need, mis kujundavad seda “ohtliku riigi” muljet. Tänavavargused Lagoses ei tohiks kellelegi küll üllatusena tulla ja kui selle peale mõtelda, siis millises sama suurel linnal on küll vähem kuritegevust? Kui umbes 15 miljonit inimest on ühele väiksele maa-alale kokku kogunenud, siis on vist üsna loomulik, et seal võib nende vahel päris mitmeid konflikte tekkida.

Teine üsna levinud stereotüüp Nigeeria kohta on vast see, et see on väga korrumpeerunud riik. Siin pean ütlema aga, et see väide on täiesti tõene. Politseile väikse rahasumma väljakäimine või raha küsimine mõne riigiametniku poolt on üsna tavaline asi. Kuid selle asemel, et asja negatiivses valguses vaadata, olen õppinud ka asjas midagi positiivset nägema (kui korruptsioonis saab üldse midagi positiivset näha). Nimelt võib seda näha ka nii, et raha andes toetad riigi vaesemaid inimesi, kuna riigis tegelikult ju puudub igasugune sotsiaalhoolekanne. Samuti võid raha andes palju väärtuslikku aega kokku hoida ja asju palju kiiremini korda saada. Muidugi võid oodata oma autoga kuskil ristmikul pool tundi ja otsida kõiksugu pabereid politsei jaoks, mida nad näha tahavad, kuid palju lihtsam on ju and väike rahasumma ja siis seal paari minutiga lahkuda. Ma ei ole kindel, kas mu euroopa sõprade ja tuttavate jaoks tundub see kuidagi loogiline, kuid peale mõnda aega siin elamist tundub mulle see igati loomulik…

Ja jutud sellest, kui vaene riik on Nigeeria… Ei saa öelda, et ma sellega päriselt nõustuksin. Muidugi on siin metsikult palju vaeseid inimesi, nii palju, et tunnen end vahel üsna kehvasti. Kuid kui me vaatame Nigeeria rahalisi numbreid tervikuna, siis ei saa öelda, et see on vaene riik. Juba kütuseäri toob siin nii palju raha sisse, et igal nigeerlasel peaks olema võimalus elada terve elu mugavalt ära. Ütleme siis nii, et Nigeeria on küll suhteliselt rikas maa, kuid neid rikkusi ei kasutata lihtsalt õigetel eesmärkidel kõikide elanike jaoks ära. Rikkused jagatakse lihtsalt väga väikse inimeste arvu vahel ära ja nii tekibki olukord, kus on väga väga rikkad ja väga väga vaesed inimesed.

Selleks, et mitte ainult üles loetleda riigi negatiivseid aspekte ja stereotüüpe, tunnen ennast kohustatuna rääkida ka vähemalt mõnest positiivsest poolest, mis sellel riigil on. Kas või alustades siinsest loodusest ja kliimast… Ma pole olnud varem üheski riigis, kus kliima muutumist on tunda juba 3 tunni autosõidu järel. Muutused looduses, niiskuses ja kuumuses on üsna tähelepanuväärsed! Samuti on Nigeeria üks värvikamaid riike, mida tean. No eks Aafrika ole üldiselt väga värvikas, kuid Nigeeria on minu jaoks selles väga heaks näiteks. Ja mida ma mõtlen sõna “värvikas” all – mitte ainult nigeerlaste välimus on väga värviküllane, vaid ka nende elustiil, tänavapilt, elu turgudel jne on täis värvikaid emotsioone, juhtumisi ja intsidente. Minu jaoks on see nagu mõnes filmis ringi kõndimine, kus tahan hoolikalt jälgida igat detaili, et mitte midagi maha magada. Kui rääkida aga päeva kõige mõnusamatest hetkedest, siis pole midagi paremat, kui õhtul autos ringi sõita ja tunda, kuidas peale tõsiselt palavat ilma puhub õhtul mõnus tuul ja jälgida, kuidas tänavatel tekib vaikselt vilgas ööelu. Kuigi ma ei saa kohe kindlasti öelda, et Ilorinis on väga head võimalused ööklubide nautimiseks, siis naudin ma siinset ööelu täiega ja eriti väikseid nurgataguseid kohti, mis kutsuvad oma mõnusa õhkkonnaga.

Väiksed asjad muudavad elu eriliseks! Ja seepärast ei hooligi ma nendest negatiivsetest aspektidest, mis sellel riigil on. Nigeerias on lihtsalt nii palju väikseid positiivseid detaile, mis annavad minu jaoks tõelise pildi sellest riigist.

Parents visiting Nigeria

2006-04-09T22:26:00.000+03:00

Half of my traineeship in Nigeria is over, but hopefully even better half is still coming. Since conference in Enugu a lot has happened, so here are some highlights of recent times.

In February I found out that Nigerians celebrate Valentine’s Day much more than Estonians. Having already 9 marriage proposals and lots of admirers :), I was actually quite afraid of it. Some days before The Day I started to realize how the people around me changed and all they were talking about was where, how and with who they attend to spend their Valentine’s Day. And during the day itself there were so many people in town everywhere. And although in general one can’t really see couples going around in town here and holding hands or kissing etc then this day was exception…

In February there was also pool party held in the hotel where I work. The poolside looks really different during the nighttime than during daytime! Unfortunately there weren’t very many people. I realized that Nigerian students have parties really differently from Estonians. One big difference is also that girls don’t drink alcohol at all or drink it very little. And guys are definitely the active part in having parties. When in Estonia one can see mostly girls dancing and having fun then in Nigeria it’s other way round.

At the beginning of March AIESEC in Ilorin started to recruit new members and for that we made some awareness in campuses. It was quite interesting for me, as I saw more of the campus life and talked to some students. One funny incident happened in one lecture, where I went to inform students about information seminar. The lecture room was totally full of students, it was so full that half of the students were standing and there was no space left. And everybody was shouting – the lecture hadn’t started yet… It was very easy to catch their attention, as my skin colour is noticeably different, but this doesn’t mean that they became quiet. Actually it was other way round – they started to make more noise than before. And when they finally kept quiet and I said the first sentence “Hello, my name is Helena and I’m representing AIESEC”, then they started to laugh and make even more noise than they did before! It was really unbelievable! Well, as I understood they just liked my accent… Anyway, finally I was able to deliver the message to them also…

The coolest event during last months is definitely my parents’ visit to Nigeria. I hadn’t seen them for about 6 months, so it was very nice to meet them again. They spent here whole 1 week and most of the time we were in Ilorin – the town where I stay in Nigeria. Among other things we visited one primary school in Ilorin, as my mother is teacher and wished to see some school here in Nigeria. Also we had a nice tour in the market place, where they bought lot of local things, and visited the campus, small nature park in Ilorin and the hotel where I work. We also had small trip outside of Ilorin when we visited the farm that belongs to the family who also owns the hotel. One evening we went to a lake here with some AIESEC people to drink palm wine and of course we celebrated my birthday on the 22^nd March with some Estonian vodka, potato salad and kama. My parents also tried some Nigerian food – already on their first evening they tried some amala and found out that Nigerian food is a bit too spicy for Estonians :)

During the time my parents were here, there was also census held in Nigeria, so all Nigerians were supposed to be counted. And I was extremely happy that they wanted to count me too! So am I Nigerian now? Well, at least temporarily… Actually I’m really big patriot of Estonia, but it’s exciting to experience this kind of life in another country and at least for some moments feel that I’m part of some other nation.

About work… well, it’s not going as well as I would like to, but I give my best. There are so many things that I would like to do, but that are not really possible to do because financial and management issues, so I get sometimes a bit discouraged in my work, but after all it’s one great learning experience and I want to take the maximum out of it. This kind of experience has really made me think about different business management issues and I can say that in this way I’ve learned a lot.

In Estonian – Eesti keeles:

Pool minu praktikast on nüüdseks läbi, kuid loodan, et veelgi parem pool on veel tulemas. Siin aga viimase aja eredamad sündmused…

Veebruaris sain teada, et nigeerlased tähistavad valentinipäeva palju rohkem kui eestlased. Olles saanud selleks ajaks juba 9 abieluettepanekut ja omades mitmeid austajaid :), olin isegi väheke ettevaatlik selle päeva suhtes… Mõni päev enne Seda Päeva märkasin inimestes muutusi – paljud rääkisid vaid sellest, kuidas, kus ja kellega nad oma valentinipäeva peavad. Ja valentinipäeval oli nii palju paarikesi igal pool liikumas. Kui muidu ei ole siin tavaks, et paarid liiguvad tänaval käsikäes ringi, kallistavad ja suudlevad, siis see päev oli kindlaks erandiks…

Veebruaris oli meie hotellis ka basseinipidu. Pean ütlema, et meie bassein näeb hoopis lahedam välja öösel kui see on päevasel ajal. Aga see selleks… Kahjuks ei olnud seak siiski kuigi palju inimesi. Igatahes olen tähele pannud, et nigeeria tudengid pidutsevad väheke teisiti kui eestlased. Juba see on erinev, et siinne naissugu ei joo üldse alkoholi või kui joovad, siis väga vähe. Ja mehed on siin pidudel kohe kindlasti see aktiivsem pool. Kui Eesti klubisse minnes tantsivad ja lõbutsevad peamiselt tüdrukud, siis siin on vastupidi.

Märtsi alguses alustas AIESEC Ilorin uute liikmete värbamist. Seepärast läksime nende ülikoolilinnakutesse teavitustööd tegema ja see oli minu jaoks üsna põnev, kuna tutvusin rohkem siinse ülikoolieluga ja rääkisin mitme üliõpilasega. Kui ühte loengut külastasin, et seal infoseminari reklaamida, juhtus ka üks naljakas intsident. Nimelt sisenedes loenguruumi nägin, et ruum oli puupüsti tudengeid täis, see oli nii täis, et pooled seisid püsti ja enam polnud ruumi kuskile minna. Ja kõike seda segasummasuvilat saatis meeletu lärm. Mul polnud raske nende tähelepanu köita, kuna märkan oma nahavärvusega selgesti silma, kuid see ei tähendanud seda, et nad vaikseks oleksid jäänud, pigem võib-olla vastupidi… Kui nad aga lõpuks aga vait jäid ja jõudsin esimese lause öelda (Tere, mina olen Helena ja esindan siin AIESECi), siis vaikus lopes ja kõik hakkasid naerma ja veel kõvemini lärmama kui varem. Põhjuseks oli lihtsalt see, et neile nii väga meeldis mu aktsent… Nojah, lõpuks suutsin ka oma informatsiooni edasi öelda…

Viimase aja kõige lahedam sündmus on vaieldamatult mu vanemate külastus Nigeerias. Ma ei olnud neid juba umbes 6 kuud näinud, nii et mul oli väga hea meel neid näha. Nad olid siin ühe nädala ja enamuse ajast olime Ilorinis – linnas, kus mina Nigeerias élan. Muude asjade hulgas külastasime ka näiteks ühte algkooli, kuna mu ema on õpetaja ja soovis näha, kuidas siin koolid töötavad. Samuti oli meil põnev käik siinsele turule, kus vanemad mitmeid põnevaid kohalikke asju ostsid, ja ülikoolilinnakusse ja väiksesse loodusparki. Korraks käisime ka linnast väljas, kui külastasime farmi, mis kuulub samale perekonnale, kellele ka see hotell kuulub, kus ma töötan. Ühel õhtul käisime ka osade AIESECi liikmetega ühe järve ääres palmiveini joomas ja muidugi tähistasime ka mu sünnipäeva 22. märtsil koos Eesti viina, kartulisalati ja kamaga. Siin olles maitsesid mu vanemad samuti nigeeria toitu – juba esimesel õhtul proovisid nad süüa amalat ja said teada, et nigeeria toit on väheke liiga vürtsine eestlase jaoks :)

Sel ajal, kui mu vanemad Nigeerias olid, toimus Nigeerias ka rahvaloendus, mille käigus taheti üle lugeda kõik nigeerlased (mis on üsna raske ülesanne, kuna Nigeeria on väidetavalt Aafrika kõige rahvastatum riik). Mul oli eriti hea meel, et mind ka üle loeti. Kas ma olen nüüd siis nigeerlane?? Nojah, võib-olla ajutiselt… Ma olen tegelikult üsna suur Eesti patrioot, kuid minu arust on väga põnev kogeda seda tunnet, mis valdab teises riigis elades ja olles hetkeks nagu killuke teisest rahvast.

Tööst rääkides… See ei lähe päris nii hästi, kui ma tahaksin, kuid annan endast parima. Ideid on mul palju, mida siis ette võtta, kuid kõik asjad jäävad kas finantsiliste või juhtimisprobleemide taha seisma. Seega tunnen väheke halvasti end, et ei saa kõiki asju teostada, mida tahaks. Teisest küljest võtan seda aga kui õppimisprotsessi ja üritan sellest kogemusest võtta maksimumi. Tänu sellele tööle olen hakanud mõtlema ka paljudele juhtimisalastele teemadele, seega olen ikka midagi õppinud ka…

National Congress 2006 in Enugu

2006-01-28T21:16:00.000+02:00

This time I write more about my first AIESEC conference experience in Nigeria. It was National Congress 2005 in Enugu, which is a town in eastern part of the country. The conference lasted whole week – 16-22 January – and I was really looking forward to it, as my big hope was to meet other trainees in Nigeria and also other AIESEC members from other LCs.

We started our journey on the 16^th January at 6am in the morning and were supposed to arrive to the conference latest by 3pm. But as we at last got away from Ilorin just before 8 am AND as our drivers were not the smartest ones AND as the conference site was 1 hour away from Enugu, then we finally arrived to the conference at around 8 pm instead of 3 pm. Still, the trip, which was through Onitsha (one of the craziest places that I’ve ever seen), was quite interesting. We drove all the way from western Nigeria to eastern part and could see how the architecture and way of living changed village by village. The “tax collectors” on the road, whom we met quite often, also amused me… The other interesting thing is that when most Europeans are afraid to come to Nigeria, as they think that it’s really dangerous place then it seems to me that western Nigerians are afraid to go to eastern part, as it is so dangerous place. Still, I can say now, that nothing dangerous happened to us and everybody is back safely.

So at last in the evening of the 16^th Jan we arrived to the hotel where National Congress 2006 took place. On the same evening I also met with 2 other trainees in Nigeria. One of them was from Switzerland and had been in Nigeria about the same time as I had, the other trainee was from Finland and she had come to Nigeria just few days before the conference. And little by little I started to meet all the other cool AIESEC members from all over Nigeria. I was also very glad that day by day more people from Ilorin came to the conference, so at last LC Ilorin was quite well represented.

Through the conference I learned quite a lot about AIESEC in Nigeria and generally about Nigeria also, so I must say that it was quite useful for me and also for my traineeship. It was also interesting to see how conferences are organized in Nigeria. This was my first AIESEC conference without any coffee and it felt really strange… It’s funny that although Nigerians have natural resources for coffee then they don’t drink it themselves at all…

The most memorable evening for me was when on last day some AIESEC people went to drink palm wine. It’s white alcoholic drink and tastes really good. And it was real fun to sit there under the palm trees and drink it with all these people. Nigerians are really cool! They started to sing some songs (that I didn’t understand, of course) and after the palm wine had some stronger influence, they also started to dance… So it was really great time there!

During the conference I also visited Enugu town. Unfortunately I couldn’t see so much there, but I had my first biking experience there, which I will definitely remember for very long time. The truth is that I had never ever tried motorbikes before and this time I just had to do it, because there was no other way. It felt really dangerous at the beginning, as nobody even wears a helmet here, but after I got over my fear, I started to like it and now I can really enjoy going around with motorbikes.

In the end of the conference AIESEC in Ilorin got to know about the best news ever. Ilorin was announced as the best performing LC according to the growth! And as a prize they got a new computer for their office. I was sooo happy for that and I know that there are many people who have done a lot to make it happen. I’m proud to be a part of this LC!

So now I’m back in Ilorin and I must say that I feel really happy to be here. Ilorin is so clean, safe and calm place - the best place in Nigeria! Well, ok, after the conference I had my 2^nd malaria experience, but now it’s also over and I’m back in business :)

Pictures, as usually, at www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

In Estonian – Eesti keeles:

Seekord räägin ma pikemalt oma esimesest AIESEC Nigeeria konverentsi kogemusest. Käisin siin National Congress 2006’l, mis toimus Enugus (linn ida-Nigeerias). Konverents kestis terve nädala – 16, - 22. jaanuaril – ja ma ootasin seda juba tükk aega, kuna lootsin seal kohata teisi praktikante, kes Nigeerias hetkel on ja samuti AIESECi liikmeid teistest lokaalkomiteedest Nigeerias.

Alustasime oma reisi 16. jaanuari hommikul kell 6 ja pidime jõudma konverentsile hiljemalt kella 15.00ks. Aga kuna me lõpuks saime Ilorinist minema veidi enne kella 8 JA kuna meie autojuht ei olnud just kõige arukam inimene JA kuna konverentsipaik asus umbes tunni tee kaugusel Enugust, siis jõudsime sinna alles õhtul kell 20.00. Siiski oli see reis üsna huvitav, seda enam, et läbisime linna nimega Onitsha, mis on siiani kõige hullumeelsem paik, kus viibinud olen. Sõitsime pika tee lane-Nigeeriast ida-Nigeeriasse ja küla küla järel võisime näha, kuidas arhitektuur ja inimeste eluviis muutus. Samuti oli üsna huvitav jälgida “maksukogujate” tööd maanteedel… Ja huvitav on ka see, et kui enamus eurooplasi kardab vist Nigeeriasse tulla, kuna nad arvavad, et Nigeeria on hästi ebaturvaline paik, siis mul on tunne, et enamus lääne-nigeerlasi kardab minna ida-Nigeeriasse, kuna nad arvavad, et see on hästi ohtlik paik. Nüüd võin aga öelda, et mitte midagi ohtlikku meiega seal ei juhtunud ja oleme kõik tervete ja elusatena tagasi.

Ja lõpuks 16. jaanuari õhtul jõudsime hotelli, kus konverents aset leidis. Samal õhtul kohtasin ka kahte teist praktikanti, kes praegu Nigeerias viibivad. Üks neiu oli Šveitsist ja tuli välja, et ta oli tulnud vaid üks päev hiljem, kui mina Nigeeriasse jõudsin. Teine neiu oli aga Soomest ja ta oli Nigeeriasse tulnud vaid mõni päev enne konverentsi algust. Ja siis hakkasin ka vähehaaval teiste AIESEC Nigeeria liikmetega tutvuma. Ja mul on eriti hea meel, et iga päevaga tuli ka Ilorini rahvast rohkem juurde, nii et võib öelda, et meie lokaalkomitee oli lõpuks väga hästi esindatud.

Terve konverentsi jooksul õppisin üsna palju Nigeeria ja AIESEC Nigeeria kohta, nii et võin öelda, et konverents oli nii mulle kui ka mu praktikale üsna kasulik. Samuti oli huvitav näha, kuidas Nigeerias AIESECi konverentse korraldatakse. See oli näiteks mu esimene AIESECi konverents ilma kohvita ja pean ütlema, et oli üsna kummaline niimoodi konverentsil olla… Tõsiselt imelik, et kuigi nigeerlastel on kohvi looduslikult olemas, siis nad ise seda enamasti ei joo.

Kõige meeldejäävam õhtu oli vast see, kui viimasel päeval läksime osade AIESECi inimestega palmiveini jooma. Palmivein on valge alkohoolne jook, mis on täiesti naturaalne ja mis maitseb väga hästi. Ja nii lahe oli seal palmipuude all istuda ja seda koos kõikide nende inimestega juua. Nigeerlased on tõeliselt lahedad! Nad hakkasid laulma igasuguseid laule (millest mina muidugi midagi aru ei saanud) ja peale seda, kui palmivein suuremat mõju oli avaldama hakanud, hakkasid nad veel tantsima ka… Nii et see oli üks väga lahe ettevõtmine!

Konverentsi ajal külastasin ka Enugu linna. Kahjuks ei jõudnud ma seal väga palju ringi vaadata, kuid mis mulle kindlasti sealt meelde jääb, on mu esimene mootorrattaga sõitmise kogemus. Asi selles, et enne seda ei olnud ma kunagi mootorrattaga sõitnud ja nüüd ma lihtsalt pidin seda tegema, kuna ei olnud muud võimalust. Ja kuigi alguses tundus see ülimalt ohtlik (kuna nad ei kanna kiivreid ja liiklus on suhteliselt kaootiline), siis lõpuks hakkas see mulle isegi meeldima.

Konverentsi lõpus sai AIESEC Ilorin teada häid uudiseid. Nimelt nimetati nad kõige paremaks lokaalkomiteeks Nigeerias. Mul oli tõsiselt hea meel nende üle, kuna tean paljusid inimesi siin, kes on selleks väga palju teinud. Tunnustuseks said nad endale kontorisse uue arvuti, mis tuli just väga õigel ajal, kuna nad hakkasid just oma uue kontori tarbeks vajalikke asju ostma ja arvutit oleks väga vaja olnud. Nii et olen väga õnnelik, et saan olla osa siinsest AIESECist!

Ja nüüd olen õnnelikult tagasi Ilorinis. Ilorin on nii ilus koht – nii puhas, vaikne ja turvaline, parim koht Nigeerias! OK, peale tagasi tulemist sain küll teise malaaria kogemuse, kuid nüüdseks on ka see juba läinud, nii et olen jälle täie hooga tegutsemas!

Ja pildid, nagu alati - http://www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

Christmas in Nigeria

2005-12-29T18:40:00.000+02:00

I have been in Nigeria for 1 month already and the time has gone really fast!

I actually have become more Nigerian every day. For example, I felt cold one morning (although it was probably around 25 degrees)… I also really like to go around here on my own as much as I can and try to speak yoruba as much as possible (although my vocabulary is still very limited). And my skin is not that white anymore – at least when I look into the mirror, but when I compare it with others skin in pictures then it still seams too white, but I’m working on improvements!

I also realize that I have become more comfortable with the surroundings. The traffic doesn’t seam to be so bad at all (I wonder if I could drive a car here on my own…), I’m used to send nice smiles when I hear someone calling me in streets and I actually am not afraid anymore when Nigerians are speaking so loudly! :) And finally I start to remember the faces and names here! At the beginning it was really difficult, but now I see that there is still hope for me! And I guess I haven’t mentioned before that almost all yoruba names have meanings, so I have even started to remember the meanings a little bit…

I guess the most interesting time here during the last couple of weeks were Christmas. As I was organizing Christmas activities in our hotel then I was working all 3 days, but it was still much fun and I really enjoyed it. I guess I can say that the event was a success – people really liked it and also my boss was satisfied… :) And while sitting and watching how children were playing in the children’s park during the event, I realized that with this first assignement I have learned already so much! And this feeling made me even more happier!

I didn’t really have any Christmas for my own and I can’t say that I missed it so much. The only time when I felt the missing feeling was when my parents called me on Christmas eve and they were just having nice traditional Christmas dinner with some other relatives… But without the opportunity to get some traditional Estonian Christmas dinner, without seeing any snow, without real Christmas trees etc I didn’t quite feel that I’m missing here so much. But of course I could understand that for Nigerians it was still very nice holiday, as people dressed up and went to church, wished everybody merry Christmas etc. It was very nice!

And talking about becoming more Nigerian… I actually had malaria here! Seriously! Well… luckily not very bad one, but knowing that I really had it, makes me still a bit shaky… First I had a bit high fever and symptoms of a normal cold (running nose, sour throught) and as I have had many problems with nose/throught before then I just thought that I have used too much air-conditioners here and caught cold like this. Well, after 1 week the cold didn’t get any better and I started to feel more dizzy and weak and at last my friend insisted me to see a doctor, so he brought one of his friend-doctor to visit me. Really, when he asked me after examining me if I have had malaria before, I didn’t really believe that he seriously thinks that I have malaria. In fact, I didn’t believe it until we bought some medicine and I went back home with my friend and he started to talk with me again about having malaria. And then I still didn’t want to believe it, but when I realized that he’s not actually joking then I freaked out! Maybe it was partly because I had read just couple of days ago from one information sheet about malaria that it’s a life-threatening disease… Anyway, my friend stayed with me just in case for the night, so I felt much better by the time I went to sleep. Next day the doctor visited me again and explained more about malaria. So I got to know that it’s not actually possible to die with malaria, unless you are not doing anything for preventing and curing it…. But as I’m taking pills for preventing it and also took pills for curing it then I’m totally safe! J So much about my first malaria experience… and to think that it’s not even malaria season yet! J

And the bEST news ever – I will have some visitors from Estonia! At first my father and his friend told me that they want to visit me in February during the independence day (24th Feb), but now my mother also decided to join them and they will come in March during my birthday instead. So cool! :) And Marko and Mari have promised to visit me in Nigeria during July or August, so I’m really excited about having so many Estonians visiting me during my stay here! Is there anyone else who would like to visit me here? I would be more than happy to welcome here my friends from Estonia and other countries. And I’m very sure that my new friends here would be happy also, so if you want to have nice and exciting trip to Nigeria then let me know! ;)

Some nice pictures from Christmas event and other happenings – www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

In Estonian – Eesti keeles:

Nüüdseks olen Nigeerias olnud 1 kuu ja pean ütlema, et see aeg on tõesti kiiresti läinud!

Ma arvan, et ma muutun iga päevaga üha rohkem ja rohkem nigeerlaseks. Ühel hommikul tundsin ma näiteks, et mul on külm (kuigi väljas oli vist umbes 25 kraadi sooja)… Ja mulle meeldib siin üksi ringi käia nii palju kui mul see võimalik on ja samuti üritan yoruba keelt nii palju kasutada, kui suudan (kuigi sõnavara ei ole mul ikka veel kuigi lai). Ja nahk ei ole mul ka enam nii hele – vähemalt siis, kui peeglisse vaatan, kuid kui võrdlen piltidel oma nahka mõne nigeerlasega, siis tundub see ikka liiga valge, kuid ma annan endast parima!

Ma olen ka märganud, et olen üha rohkem siinse keskkonnaga hakanud harjuma. Siinne liiklus ei paista enam üldse nii hull (ja kes teab, äkki sõidan juba ise siin varsti autoga), olen juba harjunud naeratama, kui keegi mind tänaval hüüab ja isegi nigeerlaste valjuhääleline rääkimine ei ehmata mind enam! :) Ja lõpuks ometi hakkavad ka need näod ja nimed meelde jääma! Alguses oli sellega ikka tõsiseid probleeme, kuid nüüd vaatan, et lootust ikka on! Ja ma pole vist varem maininud, et yoruba nimedel on enamjaolt ka tähendused, nii et olen üritanud nüüd ka neid tähendusi meelde jätta…

Kõige suurem sündmus viimase paari nädala jooksul on olnud vist jõulud. Kuna ma korraldasin meie hotellis neid jõuluüritusi, siis töötasin kõik 3 päeva, kuid mulle tõsiselt meeldis see ja kuigi tööd oli metsikult palju, siis ma nautisin seda väga! Võib vist öelda, et see üritus tuli päris hästi välja. Vähemalt lapsed ja nende vanemad olid õnnelikud ja ülemus oli ka mu tööga rahul… :) Ja kui ma neid mängivaid lapsi seal üritusel jälgisin ja mõtlesin möödunud paarile nädalale, siis avastasin, et olen juba selle ajaga suure kogemuse osaliseks saanud ja nii palju uut õppinud. Nii et see tunne tegi mu rahulolu veelgi suuremaks!

Mul endal siin tegelikult erilisi jõule ei olnud ja ega ma selle järele väga ei igatsenud ka… Ainuke suurem igatsusehoog tuli peale siis, kui mu vanemad helistasid ja nad olid just traditsioonilist jõuluõhtusööki nautimas koos teiste sugulastega… Kuid kuna mul siin ei ole võimalust saada traditsioonilist Eesti toitu ja samuti ei ole siin tõelisi jõulukuuski, lund jms, siis ei tekkinud mul siin nii suurt jõulutunnet kui tavaliselt. Aga ma arvan, et nigeerlaste jaoks oli see ikka väga tore aeg, kuna kõik kristlased panid selga traditsioonilised rõivad ja läksid kirikusse, soovisid kõigile häid jõule jne. Ja seda oli päris lahe jälgida!

Ja rääkides veel üha rohkem nigeerlaseks saamisest… Mul õnnestus malaariasse haigestuda! Täiesti tõsiselt! See ei olnud küll õnneks väga raskekujuline malaaria, kuid ikkagi – kui ma mõtlen sellele, et mul see oli, siis tulevad ikka külmavärinad peale… Alguses tõusis mul palavik ja tekkisid tavalise külmetuse sümptomid (nohu ja valus kurk). Kuna mul on nina ja kurguga varem hästi palju probleeme olnud, siis mõtlesin, et olen lihtsalt siinseid õhukonditsioneere liiga palju kasutanud ja niimoodi haigeks jäänud. Peale nädalat aega ei läinud aga tervis paremaks ja hakkasin tundma suurt väsimust ja uimasust. Lõpuks suutis mu AIESECarist sõber mind veenda, et peaksin arstiga konsulteerima ja nii tõigi ta oma sõbrast arsti minu juurde. Täiesti tõsiselt – kui arst küsis mu käest, kas mul on kunagi varem malaariat olnud, siis ei uskunud ma, et ta tõsiselt mõtleb, et mul võiks malaaria olla. Ja kui päris aus olla, siis ei uskunud ma seda kuni selle hetkeni, kui olime mulle lõpuks rohud ära ostnud ja läksin oma sõbraga tagasi koju ja ta hakkas mulle jälle malaaria põdemisest rääkima. Alguses ma ikka ei suutnud teda uskuda, kuid kui mulle lõpuks kohale jõudis, et ta ei teegi nalja ja et mul tegelikult ka on malaaria, siis läksin endast veidi välja… Võib-olla oli see osaliselt ka seetõttu, et olin just paar päeva varem lugenud ühest brošüürist, et malaaria on eluohtlik haigus… Igatahes - õnneks jäi sõber ööseks minu juurde (arsti palvel), nii et magama minnes tundsin ennast juba palju paremini. Järgmisel päeval tuli arst jälle mind vaatama ja siis sain ka rohkem malaaria kohta teada. Näiteks tegi ta mulle selgeks, et malaariasse nii kergelt ikka ära ei sure küll ja et see võib ainult siis juhtuda, kui selle ennetamiseks ja ravimiseks mitte midagi ei tee ja organism väga nõrk on. Kuna mina võtan aga malaariat ennetavaid tablette ja sain ka korralikku ravi, siis on mul elulootust rohkem kui küll… J Nii palju siis minu esimesest malaariakogemusest… Ja mõelda ainult, et praegu pole veel malaaria hooaegki alanud! :)

Ja parimad uudised – varsti on mul Eestist külalisi oodata! Nimelt teatas mu isa ja üks meie hea perekonnatuttav, et nad tulevad kahekesi mulle veebruaris iseseisvuspäeva ajal külla. Nüüd aga otsustas ema nendega ühineda ja nad lükkasid külaskäigu 1 kuu edasi, nii et nad tulevad kolmekesi Nigeeriasse minu sünnipäeva ajal. Nii lahe! :) Ja Marko ja Mari on lubanud mulle juulis või augustis külla tulla, nii et ma olen siin väga õnnelik, et nii paljud lähedased mind siin külastada saavad. Kas keegi tahab mulle veel külla tulla? Ma hea meelega tervitaksin siin oma sõpru Eestist ja mujalt maailmast! Ja olen üsna kindel, et siinsed AIESECarid oleksid selle üle samuti väga õnnelikud! Seega – kui keegi tahab saada huvitavat ja põnevat reisikogemust Nigeeriasse, siis andke mulle teada! ;)

Lahedaid pilte jõuludest ja muudest üritustest – www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

2005-12-22T22:11:00.000+02:00

I have been in Nigeria for 3 weeks now and I must say that this time has been full of new interesting happenings, challenges and lot of cultural learning.

The most difficult thing outside of work has been the huge attention that I get in streets and the attention got even bigger when I started to go to work alone. People started talking to me, offered me a ride, wanted my phone number, asked all sorts of personal questions (at least for an Estonian girl these questions were personal) etc. Most of the attention comes from men, of course and many of them are emotionally quite aggressive. I also have got already 4 marriage proposals! I think the most funniest one was from a policeman who started to speak to me and after couple of questions asked me straight “Would you marry me?” J I wonder what would have happened if I said yes…

I have also started my traineeship here. I’m working in a hotel named Bekandims Resort Centre. It’s 2nd biggest hotel in Ilorin and I’m working here as part of the management. Right now I’m organizing Christmas activities here. When I found out that I’m the head of this organizing committee then we had only 3 weeks to organize everything, so I was quite sceptical about how this 3-day event should pull itself through. But now the pieces start to come together little by little and it seams that it actually might work!

More about work… I think that my cultural shock in work is even bigger than outside of work. The working style is very different and as I was given this task with the X-mas event right at the beginning then I didn’t have any idea how the things should work here and where and how I can get something. So I have used a lot of Nigerians help and luckily my team has been very cooperative.

So Nigerians… They are very emotional and eccentric… Sometimes when they speak yoruba then I have the feeling that they are angry at something, as they raise their tone of a voice very easily and make all kinds of gestures with hands and face. Sometimes I get quite scared, as I don’t understand yoruba (yet!) and the body language and tone of the voice are more aggressive than the words express. And then it’s very funny and also confusing when after an “argument” people start to laugh and make fun together again… And actually I must say that Nigerians are really friendly and happy people!

One nice experience that I had was attending Nigerian traditional wedding. It was very interesting, as all the people were wearing traditional clothes and followed old traditions. Weddings are really big thing here and there are usually hundreds of people going there. Traditional wedding is combined with church wedding the following day. So what happened there? The guy asked for the girl from her parents (had to lay down in front of them) and got their blessing… And then the girl came and they were dancing and people were praying for them and then the gifts were brought in front… hmm… actually, it’s very difficult to explain it so shortly, as there were many other things happening in between and I’m still not sure if I understood the whole meaning of every activity, but as it’s wedding season right now then I might get another opportunity for going to a wedding.

Besides working and hanging around with AIESEC people I have also started to use the gym and pool in the hotel. It’s really very good opportunity, as I don’t have to go somewhere far for getting those facilities and I know all the people working there. So I’m really very happy that I have this chance. I also try to get some tan on myself. Someone made this joke here that when I leave this place I will be as black as Nigerians and noone will notice that I’m actually white. Well, we’ll see!

Nigerians are very religious! I had heard it already before coming here and on the first day in Nigeria I was thinking that how should I understand that they are so religious… But after couple of days I just knew! People ask very often about my religion, but the thing is that although I’m officially protestant then actually I can’t say that I’m religious person. And that is something that Nigerians somehow can’t understand. “You don’t pray? You don’t go to church on Sundays?” These are the most ordinary questions and it’s really difficult for me to explain them that religion is not very important part of my culture. Actually I went to church on my first Sunday here and it was very interesting experience. The atmosphere was totally different from Estonian churches. People were singing, dancing, shouting etc. and there were so many people! In Estonia I can see so many people in church only during Christmas, I think… But as I still felt that this is not really part of my life then I haven’t gone back there…

And you can see some pictures on http://www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

In Estonian – Eesti keeles:

Ma olen Nigeerias juba 3 nädalat olnud ja pean ütlema, et see aeg on olnud täis väga põnevaid elamusi, väljakutseid ja kultuurilist kogemust.

Kõige raskemaks asjaks siin välja pool tööd on osutunud ääretult suur tähelepanu, mille osaliseks ma tänavatel ja mujal saanud olen ja see tähelepanu muutus veelgi suuremaks, kui hakkasin peale mõnda aega üksi tööl käima. Inimesed hakkasid tänaval lihtsalt rääkima, pakkusid küüti, küsisid igasuguseid isiklikke küsimusi (või vähemalt ühe eesti tüdruku jaoks on need isiklikud), tahtsid mu telefoninumbrit, aadressi jne. Enamus tähelepanust tuleb muidugi meeste poolt ja siiani olen saanud ka 4 abieluettepanekut. Kõige huvitavam ja ka kõige kiirem neist oli, kui üks politseinik hakkas minuga tänaval rääkima ja peale igasuguseid küsimusi (kes ma olen, kust tulen jne) küsis lihtsalt “Kas sa abielluksid minuga?”. Võtsin seda alguses suht naljaga ja vastasin eitavalt, kuid siis muutus ta tõsiseks, küsis, miks mitte ja kas ma ikka tean, kes ta on (viitas oma vormiriietusele) jne. Õnneks oli minuga kaasas üks AIESECi meessoost liige, kes siis tuli mu juurde, võttis mult ümbert kinni ja ütles politseinikule, et ta on hiljaks jäänud, kuna ma olen temaga kihlatud.. Ja politseinik andis alla J

Ma olen alustanud ka oma praktikaga. Töötan siin ühe hotellis nimega Bekandims ja olen selle üks juhatajaid. Minu esimeseks suuremaks ülesandeks siin on jõuluürituste organiseerimine. Sain teada, et olen selle korraldusmeeskonna juht, esimesel päeval ja kuna jõuludeni oli vaid vähem kui 3 nädalat, siis olin suhteliselt skeptiline selle suhtes, kuidas me kõik nii lühikese ajaga ära jõuame organiseerida. Nüüd aga hakkavad asjad vaikselt laabuma ja paistab, et sellest saab ikka asja J

Veel veidi tööst… Ma arvan, et mu siinne kultuurishokk on tööl palju suurem kui väljas pool tööd. Siinne töökultuur on lihtsalt nii erinev ja ärimaailm toimib hoopis teisiti kui Euroopas. Ja kuna see jõuluürituse korraldamine anti mulle juba täiesti alguses ja siis polnud mul veel mingit ettekujutust sellest, kuidas asjad siin toimivad ja kuidas midagi peaks tegema, siis võttis veidi käe värisema küll… Nüüd aga hakkan asjale pihta saama ja õnneks on mu ümber väga abivalmid meeskonnakaaslased.

Et siis nigeerlased… Nad on väga emotsionaalsed ja ekstsentrilised. Mõnikord, kui nad räägivad yoruba keelt, siis on mul tunne, et nad on millegi peale pahased või vaidlevad omavahel, tegelikult ei pruugi asi aga üldse nii olla. Lihtsalt nende kehakeel ja miimika väljendavad palju rohkem agressiivsust kui nende sõnad… Ja siis on eriti naljakas ja ka veidi segadust tekitav, kui nad peale “vaidlust” järsku koos naerma ja nalja hakkavad tegema… Ja tegelikult, pean ütlema, et nigeerlased on väga sõbralikud ja õnnelikud inimesed!

Üheks hästi kenaks ja huvitavaks kogemuseks oli see, kui mul avanes võimalus osaleda Nigeeria traditsioonilises pulmas. Neil käib see nii, et reedeti on traditsiooniline pulm ja siis laupäeval kiriklik pulm. Traditsioonilises pulmas kandsid kõik Nigeeria traditsioonilisi riideid ja järgiti vanu traditsioone. Mis seal siis toimus… Kõigepealt tuli peigmees ja nö palus pruudi kätt pruudi vanematelt (selleks pidi ta nende ette kõhuli heitma, kuna see on aupaklik tervitusviis Nigeerias) ja siis ta muidugi sai neilt õnnistuse. Ja siis tuli pruut, kes samuti sai õnnistuse ja siis pruut ja peigmees tantsisid koos… Ja inimesed palvetasid nende eest, siis toodi hästi palju kingitusi nende ette… Tegelikult seal juhtus hästi palju asju vahepeal ja ma pole kindel, kas ma iga tegevuse tähendusest päris õigesti aru sain, aga kuna praegu on pulmahooaeg, siis loodan, et äkki avaneb mul veel kord see võimalus…

Peale töötamise ja AIESECi rahvaga väljas käimise olen hakanud kasutama ka hotellis olevat jõusaali ja basseini, mis on minu arvates eriti hea võimalus, kuna ma ei pea kuhugi kaugele selleks minema ja tunnen seal ju ka kõiki töötajaid. Ja samuti üritan endale väheke päevitust peale saada (kuigi mõni nigeerlane ei tabanud kohe ära, miks ma peale ujumist pikali heitsin – äkki juhtus midagi??). Mõni tegi siin isegi nalja, et kui Nigeeriast lahkun, siis olen sama tumedat värvi, kui nad isegi. No eks vaatame J

Nigeerlased on väga usklikud! Olin sellest ka juba enne siia tulekut kuulnud ja esimesel päeval ei saanud ma aru, et kuidas ma sellest usklikuks olemisest aru peaksin saama, kuid peale paari päeva ei olnud mul enam kahtlustki! Mult küsitakse üsna tihti, mis mu religiooniks on ja asi on selles, et kuigi ma olen ametlikult protestant, siis ei saa ma öelda, et ma väga usklik oleksin. Ja seda on nigeerlastele väga raske seletada… “Sa ei palvetagi iga päev? Ja pühapäeval sa ei lähegi kirikusse?” Need on kõige tavalisemad küsimused… Mul on tunne, et olen terve linna peale ainuke inimene, kes pühapäeviti kaua magab ja kirikusse ei tõtta. Kuid tegelikult käisin siin kirikus esimesel pühapäeval peale Nigeeriasse tulemist ja see oli väga huvitav kogemus. Kirik ja teenistus ise on väga erinevad Eesti omadest. Inimesed laulavad, tantsivad, hõikavad, räägivad jne, kõik on hästi emotsionaalne ja energiline. Ja seal oli nii palju inimesi! Eestis võib nii palju inimesi kirikus näha vist ainult jõulude ajal… Aga kuna ma tundsin, et see ei ole ikkagi osa minu elust, siis ei ole ma hiljem kirikusse tagasi läinud…

Pilte võite vaadata http://www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

Welcome to Nigeria!

2005-12-03T22:14:00.000+02:00

Heyyyy!!! I’m in Nigeria! How cool is that?!?

So yes, on the 29th November I arrived to Nigeria to start my 8 month traineeship here. After long trip through Dubai I stepped out from the plane and felt this tropical air (like in Tallinn’s zoo’s tropical house, really!) and met the wonderful AIESECers waiting for me in the airport! I was so happy J

So, the first impressions… There are really too many differences, so I’m not sure if it’s reasonable to compare our nationalities so much, but maybe some things that are really strange for me..

First of all, this traffic!!! Oh boy, this is something really dangerous here, I believe… It seems that there are no rules, no speed limits, no nothing! And all the cars are horning all the time! Sometimes I think that they are doing it just to see who can do it louder, but now I actually found out that this is also one way of communication – giving a horn for letting your friends know that you are there or something like this…

Second of all – Nigerians are really aggressive sellers! When car stops there are suddenly so many people around the card trying to sell you something and they don’t really care if you say no or if you need something like this at all… They just want to sell! Actually it’s quite fun to watch, but so far I’m too afraid too buy anything here, so I still have to get used to this J

And the weather… well, I guess I don’t have to convince anyone that it’s really warm here. On the first days I was really feeling some overheating moments, but now it’s already quite ok, as long as I have my sun-glasses with me. But it’s still funny that instead of heaters there are big air-conditioners in houses. And one thing that I never thought about is that what’s the sense of bringing some Estonian chocolate with me when during unpacking my things I discover that they are all melted… Hmm, well yes, at least the taste is the same…

On Friday I also had welcome party here. It was really nice, as there were quite many AIESECers who came to greet me and they all were sooo nice and friendly. It was really nice to see and feel that I’m very welcomed here and that there are so many people here who will make my experience here really a great one!

Ohhh… Nigerian English… Well, I read that Nigerian official language is English, so I thought that there shouldn’t be any problems. Well, guess what, I have problems! And many more problems than in Germany, for example, which is not English speaking country. The thing is that although they speak “normal” English (with nice Nigerian accent) then they also speak “broken” English, which is still quite confusing for me. Most of the time it’s too difficult to follow and sentances don’t make sense too much… But I have had my first lessons, so I will learn to understand it. And of course, they speak yoruba, which is their local language from old times, before they became British colony… So far I have my personal translator Niyi, who is most of the time with me these days and translates me everything that I don’t understand from others’ talk.

On Monday I will start with my traineeship. But as I have already met some staff members from the place and have seen the hotel where I’m going to work then I guess I can say that I will have a lot of fun there! Can’t wait for Monday!

First pictures about Nigeria coming up soon to www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland !

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Heiiii!!! Ma olen Nigeerias!! Kui lahe!

29. novembril jõudsin siis lõpuks Nigeeriasse, et alustada siin oma 8 kuud kestvat praktikat. Peale pikka reisi läbi Dubai astusin Lagoses lennukist välja ja tundsin seda mõnusat troopilist õhku (tõepoolest, nagu Tallinna loomaaias olevas troopikamajas!) ja kohtasin lahedaid AIESECi inimesi, kes olid mind lennujaama tervitama tulnud. Ma olin nii õnnelik!

Esimesed muljed… Nigeeria on Eestiga võrreldes ikka nii erinev, nii et ma ei ole kindel, kas on üldse mõistlik neid omavahel võrrelda, kuid siin siiski mõned asjad, mis minu jaoks kõige imelikud, kummalisemad ja põnevamad tunduvad.

Esiteks – see liiklus! Uhh, see on ikka midagi meeletut! Minu arvates on tegemist tõsiselt ohtliku nähtusega Nigeerias ja eriti Lagoses. Selline tunne on, et siinses liikluses ei kehti mitte mingid reeglid, mitte mingid kiirusepiirangud, mitte midagi! Ja kõik need autod signaalitavad kogu aeg! Mõnikord on selline tunne, et need autod signaalitavad selleks, et näidata, et nad suudavad seda valjemini teha, kui teised. Nüüd sain aga teada, et see on ka mingil määral kommunikatsiooniviisiks erinevate autode vahel ja ka andmaks teada oma tuttavatele eemal, et nad on seal…

Teiseks – nigeerlased on tõsiselt agressiivsed müüjad. Kui auto jääb kuskil seisma, siis on selle ümber järsku nii palju inimesi, kes kõik püüavad sulle midagi müüa. Ja neid ei huvita, kui ütled neile ei või kas sa üldse vajad midagi. Nad lihtsalt üritavad müüa! Tegelikult on seda päris lahe jälgida, kuid siiani ei ole ma siiski ise julenud midagi neilt osta, pean sellega veel veidi harjuma…

Ja siinne ilm… Arvatavasti ei pea ma kedagi veenma, et siin on palav… Esimestel päevadel tundsin, et olen väheke ülekuumenenud, kuid nüüd on juba täitsa ok tunne, nii kaua kui päikseprillid käeulatuses on J Aga ikkagi on veidi naljakas, et majades on radiaatorite asemel õhukonditsioneerid. Ja üks asi, mille peale ma enne siia tulekut üldse ei mõelnud, on see, et kui ma oma asju siin lahti pakkima hakkan, leian oma Eestist saadud šokolaadid ja kommid sulanutena… (nemad hoiavad siin selliseid asju külmkapis!) Nojah, vähemalt maitse on sama :)

Reedel oli ka mu tervituspidu siin. See oli hästi lahe, kuna päris paljud AIESECarid tulid sinna, et mind tervitada ja nad on tõepoolest niiii sõbralikud ja lahked siin! Oli tõeliselt hea tunda, et olen siin teretulnud ja siin on inimesed, kes teevad selle kogemuse minu jaoks tõeliselt lahedaks!

Ohhh… nigeerlaste inglise keel… Enne siia tulekut lugesin, et nende emakeel on inglise keel, seega ei tohiks mingeid probleeme olla. Nojah, on ikka probleeme küll, kuna ma vahest ei saa midagi aru! Nii et mul on siin rohkem probleeme inimestest arusaamisega, kui näiteks Saksamaal, mis ei ole inglise keelt kõnelev riik. Probleem ilmneb selles, et kuigi nad räägivad nö “normaalset” inglise keelt, siis tegelikult omavahel räägivad nad “katkist” (“broken”) inglise keelt, mis minu jaoks on endiselt üsna segane. Enamuse ajast on neid väga raske jälgida ja laused ei tundu olevat just kõige mõistlikumad minu inglise keele teadmisi järgides. Aga mul on olnud mu esimesed õppetunnid juba, nii et ma üritan selle ikka selgeks saada. Ja muidugi räägivad nad yorubat, mis on nende keel juba vanast ajast, enne, kui nad said briti kolooniaks… Seni on mul mu isiklik tõlk Niyi, kes on minuga enamuse ajast kaasas olnud igal pool ja kes tõlgib kõik, millest ma aru ei saa (kuigi see, millest ma aru ei saa, võib olla nende mõistes täiesti normaalne inglise keel).

Ma olen kohtunud ka juba ettevõtte ja selle töötajatega, kus ma esmaspäevast tööle hakkan. Kõik tundusid seal väga sõbralikud ja usun, et mul hakkab seal väga lõbus olema ja saan sealt endale väärtusliku kogemuse. Nii et ei jõua esmaspäeva ära oodata!

Esimesed pildid tulevad juba varsti aadressile www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland !

Good-bye to Germany!

2005-12-03T22:01:00.000+02:00

Hello! I’m actually already in Nigeria, but this blog entry is for summing up my last days in Germany.

So on last days I was travelling quite a lot – to Hamburg, Münster and Bremen. Every of those cities was different and interesting in its own way. To Hamburg I went with my German friends Eva-Maria and Kathrin. Although it was quite windy, we went around in the city and saw the main part of the centre and the harbour, which is really nice there. Of course, as I’m coming from Estonia, which is kind of surrounded by water and harbours then it wasn’t sooo special for me, but I must admit it was still very nice. Especially I liked Queen Mary 2, which was standing there J And there’s one really interesting thing that I noticed in Hamburg – there are so many men wearing suits!

In Münster it was very nice to walk around in the centre and I found out that there are perfect shopping opportunities there! J We also went to a very nice lake, which was actually very dirty (at least that it what we were told), but it still looked very nice (see the pictures!).

In Bremen I joined 2 things together – seeing the city and going to the soccer match Werder Bremen vs Wolfsburg. It was really cool experience! I couldn’t believe that Germans are really that crazy about football! All Bremen’s city centre was full on crazy fans singing, shouting etc. It was just unbelievable! And at the stadium there were 37 400 people (if I’m not wrong) and it was really cool feeling to be there! AND – Werder Bremen won 6:1 ;)

On the last week I had also my farewell party. It was really nice one, I was so happy that all the people came to say good-bye to me. And many people wished me lots of exciting experiences in Nigeria and as there is no snow in Nigeria then some people gave me some things related to winter and Christmas as a present. Thanks to Sebastian – the party was at his place and he helped me a lot with organizing the party. And thanks for all the people who came there and made me feel really really good!

And guess what?!? Those people who told me that there is no way I can see snow in Germany before going to Nigeria, they were wrong!! I was leaving on Sunday and on Friday it started to snow in Osnabrück! It was so cool! Unfortunately this snowing developed to a storm, so for Germans it wasn’t very nice, but I still really enjoyed it! J The only bad thing was that I really thought that I can still drive a bike with this kind of weather! Well, you know, I couldn’t really! But otherwise it was really cool!

On my last evening I went out with Kathrin, Gero, Martin and their friends. Although I was supposed to pack I just couldn’t stop dancing and leave Rosenhof, because I was just so sad to leave all the people… But it was great evening – thank you!

The time in Germany was very exicting and full of new experiences. There were lot of things happening – positive and negative, but I hope I can carry all the good things with me and find even more new good experiences in Nigeria! Thank you, AIESEC Osnabrück!

So the next blog entry will be already from Nigeria! I’m sooo excited!

P.S There are new pictures in www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Tervitus! Ma olen tegelikult juba Nigeerias, kuid tahaksin selle sissekandega teha väikse kokkuvõtte oma viimastest päevadest Saksamaal…

Viimastel nädalatel ma reisisin Saksamaal üsna palju – Hamburgis, Münsteris ja Bremenis. Iga linn oli omamoodi huvitav ja erinev. Hamburgi läksin ma koos oma saksa sõprade Eva-Maria ja Kathriniga. Kuigi ilm oli üsna tuuline, siis käisime kesklinnas ja sadamas ringi ja eriti nende sadam on väga kena. Muidugi, kuna ma olen eestlane ja Eesti on peaaegu ümbritsetud veega ja sadamatega, siis ei olnud see sadama nägemine minu jaoks nii eriline kui sakslaste jaoks, kuid pean siiski mainima, et see oli väga suur ja kena sadam (hästi palju suuri laevu ja purjekaid jne). Eriti meeldis mulle Queen Mary 2 nägemine J Ja üks asi on veel hästi huvitav, mida ma Hamburgis märkasin – nii paljud mehed kannavad ülikondi! Hästi kummaline J

Münsteris käisin ka kesklinnas ringi ja avastasin, et seal on ideaalsed võimalused šoppamiseks. Me läksime ka ühe väga kena järve äärde. Meile öeldi, et see järv on äärmiselt saastatud, kuid sellegi poolest nägi see väga kena välja ja ei olnud üldse aru saada, et see nii must oleks (vaata pilte!)

Bremenis ühendasin kaks asja kokku – linna nägemise ja jalgpallimatši Werder Bremen vs Wolfsburg vaatamise. See oli tõeliselt lahe kogemus! Ma ei suutnud uskuda, et sakslased on tõesti nii suured jalgpalliarmastajad! Terve Bremeni kesklinn oli täis hulle jalgpallifänne, kes laulsid, karjusid jne. See oli tõeliselt hämmastav! Ja kui ma ei eksi, siis staadionil oli u 37 400 inimest. Seal oli hästi vägev olla! JA – Bremeni Werder võitis 6:1 ;)

Viimasel nädalal oli ka mu hüvastijätupidu Osnabrückis. Ma olin ülimalt õnnelik, et nii paljud inimesed tulid minuga hüvasti jätma (nende hulgas ka 2 eestlast, keda olen juba varem Osnabrückis kohanud). Ja paljud inimesed soovisid mulle põnevaid kogemusi Nigeerias ja kuna Nigeerias ei ole lund, siis paljud kinkisid mulle igasuguseid talve ja jõuludega seotud asju. Nii lahe! J Suured tänud Sebastianile – pidu toimus tema juures ja ta aitas mul seda pidu ette valmistada. Ja suured tänud kõigile inimestele, kes sinna tulid ja panid mind end tundma tõeliselt hästi!

Ja kas teate mis?!? Need inimesed, kes ütlesid mulle, et mul ei ole mitte mingil juhul võimalik Saksamaal lund näha enne Nigeeriasse lahkumist, eksisid! Ma lahkusin Saksamaalt pühapäeval ja reedel hakkas Osnabrücksi lund sadama! Kahjuks läks see sadu üle küll väikseks tormiks ja paljud sakslased olid totaalses hämmingus ja paanikas, aga mulle see meeldis… Ainuke asi, mis probleeme tekitas, oli see, et ma tõesti arvasin, et olen võimeline sellise ilmaga veel jalgrattaga sõitma. Nojah, teate, see ei ole võimalik! Ärge kunagi üritage lumetormis jalgrattaga sõita! Aga muidu oli väga lahe!

Oma viimasel õhtul läksin Kathrini, Gero, Martini ja nende sõpradega välja. Ja kuigi ma oleksin pidanud tegelikult oma asju pakkima, siis ei suutnud ma kuidagi tantsimist ja pidutsemist ära lõpetada ja Rosenhofist lahkuda. Lihtsalt nii kurb oli kõikidega hüvasti jätta… Aga see õhtu oli väga lahe – aitäh teile!

Aeg Saksamaal oli väga põnev ja täis uusi kogemusi. Seal juhtus mitmeid asju – nii positiivseid kui ka negatiivseid, kui loodan, et saan võtta need head asjad endaga kaasa ja saada veelgi lahedamaid uusi kogemusi Nigeerias! Aitäh AIESEC Osnabrückile!

Ja järgmine sissekanne tuleb juba Nigeeriast! Kas pole mitte põnev? J

Ja uusi pilte saate ikka vaadata www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

Preparing for the next step...

2005-11-08T13:46:00.000+02:00

Hey! News again from Osnabrück's corner...

Time goes really fast here. There are only 2,5 weeks left! And I have the feeling that I don't manage to do all the things that I would like... But I will give my best ;)

We had small conference here and I was the chair of this conference. It was really cool experience! I learned a lot about conferences in general in Germany and also learned a lot about myself... We didn't have there as many people as we expected, but on the other hand - the content of the conference was pretty good to my mind and many people got some more motivation out of it. So all in all it was a success!

As I already mentioned I have only 2,5 weeks left to be here in Germany and then I should go to Nigeria. The only problem is that I don't have the visa yet. I thought that I would get it from Germany, but then I found out that they give visas for only German residents. So I still have to get it from British embassy in Estonia. But as visa invitation is not sent yet to the embassy by AIESEC Nigeria then I'm not completely sure how I manage to get the visa by the right time. I hope for the best!

I had the great opportunity to go to notary here in Germany and I must say that it is the most official place where I have been here so far, so I got to feel the real official side of Germany. For me it was strange that noone really cared what is my first name, but for everyone I was Frau Rebane. And I learned that Germans pronounce my name so that the stress of the word is on "ba"-part. So in Estonian it would be Rebaane. Very strange. :) And I couldn't imagine that I'm Frau for somebody... Well... yes...

Heh... Germany seams to be the place for first opportunities for me, as I for example started to drink beer here for the first time, use a bike for normal transport etc. Now I experience one new thing again that I could have experienced already in Estonia, but didn't - eating Chinese food and eating it with sticks... Well - complicated, but possible - see the picture!

Finally I also had the opportunity to make Estonian presentation here. I had been waiting for this for quite a long time already, so I was very excited about it. Besides traditional things I showed quite nice short movie about Tallinn and had my own "cooking show" where we were making kama and tried Estonian vodka - both 40% and 80% versions ;-) Well, after some hesitations quite many people agreed to try the 80% one, so not bad!

And you know what?!? This weather here is incredible! During the time it was snowing in Estonia, I was going around in Osnabrück wearing short sleeves. Well yes, locals say that it's very unusual, but still - amazing! :)

And I have been thinking lately if I have had any culture shock or something like this... Well, no I haven't! And I haven't missed home also so much, only lately when I prepared this Estonian presentation and got one nice package with Estonian things from home, I felt a bit homesickness, but even then not that much...

And there are again many pictures at www.pilt.ee/helena_in_ wonderland !

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Et siis uudiseid jälle Osnabrücki maailmas....

Aeg läheb siin ikka metsiku kiirusega! Mul on ainult 2,5 nädalat jäänud siin olla ja siis peaksin juba Nigeeria poole lendama. Ja selline tunne on, et ma ei jõua kõiki neid asju ära teha, mida tahaksin, aga annan oma parima...

Meil oli siin väike konverents hiljuti ja mina olin selle chair ehk siis läbiviija. See oli väga lahe kogemus! Õppisin väga palju siinsete konverentsi traditsioonide kohta ning samuti õppisin jällegi palju enda kohta. Konverentsist ei võtnud osa nii palju inimesi, kui me lootsime, kuid kuna ürituse sisu oli minu arvates väga hea ja väga paljud inimesed said sellest siiski motivatsiooni juurde, siis võib pidada seda konverentsi siiski õnnestunuks...

Nagu ma juba mainisin, on mul jäänud siin olla vaid 2,5 nädalat. Probleem on aga selles, et ma ei ole siiani kindel, kas ma oma Nigeeria viisa õigeks ajaks kätte saan. Asi selles, et nigeerlased pole lihtsalt viisakutset veel saatkonda saatnud. Olukorra teeb raskemaks veel see, et ma ei saa viisat taodelda Saksamaalt, nagu alguses planeerisin, kuna nad annavad viisasid ainult saksa kodanikele või elamisloaga välismaalastele. Ja nii peangi oma viisa taotlema Tallinnas asuvast Briti saatkonnast. Kuna viisakutset seal veel ei ole, siis on asi õige kahtlane, aga loodan parimat!

Mul oli siin Saksamaal hea võimalus minna notari juurde (vajasin seda viisa jaoks) ja pean ütlema, et see on kõige ametlikum koht, kus ma seni siin käinud olen. Mitte kedagi ei huvitanud seal, et mu eesnimi on Helena. Kõigi jaoks olin ma Frau Rebane (ehk siis Proua Rebane). Ja olen veel märganud, et sakslased hääldavad mu perekonnanime õige kummaliselt. Nimelt panevad nad rõhu ba-silbile ehk siis eesti keeles kirjutaksin oma nime pigem Rebaane. Ja et keegi mind prouaks kutsub - seda ma ei osanud küll oodata... nojah...

Heh... Saksamaa on nagu koht, kus proovin mitmeid asju esimest korda. Näiteks hakkasin siin esimest korda õlut jooma ja kasutama jalgratas tavalise transpordivahendina jne. Nüüd kogesin jälle midagi esimest korda, kuigi oleksin võinud seda teha ka juba Eestis... Nimelt sõin hiina toitu ja seda nende pulkadega... Nojah - keeruline, aga võimalik - vaadake pilti!

Ja lõpuks ometi sain siin teha ka Eestist presentatsiooni teistele AIESECi liikmetele. Olen seda juba tükk aega oodanud, nii et olin täitsa elevil selle pärast. Päris lahe oli - kõige muu traditsioonilise kõrval näitasin ühte päris armast lühifilmi Tallinnast ja mul oli ka Eesti "kokandussaade", kus valmistasime koos kama ja proovisime ka kangemat alkoholi ehk viina - nii 40% kui 80% ;-) Peale mõnda kõhklusi prooviti seda 80% isegi päris palju!

Ja kas teate mis?!? Siinne ilm on lihtsalt võrratu! Samal ajal, kui Eestis sadas lund, käisin mina siin lühikeste varrukatega ringi. Kohalikud küll räägivad siin, et see pole väga tavaline, aga ikkagi lahe ju!

Viimasel ajal olen hakanud mõtlema, kas mul on olnud mingit kultuurishokki ka või mitte ja pean vist tõdema, et see osa on mul vahele jäänud... Koduigatsust pole ka väga peale tulnud, kuigi siis, kui valmistasin ette Eestist presentatsiooni ja sain armsa paki Eestist, tekkis küll väike igatsus kodu järele... Kuid see polnud midagi nii hullu :)

Pilte saate ikka vaadata aadressilt www.pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland

My pictures...

2005-10-20T13:46:00.000+03:00

I know that many of you haven't seen my pictures because limited access. So I put my pictures also to http://pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland.

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Ma tean, et paljud ei saa mu pilte vaadata tänu limiteeritud ligipääsule. Seega panen kõik pildid üles ka aadressile http://pilt.ee/helena_in_wonderland.

2005-10-15T22:06:00.000+03:00

Well... this posting is coming much later than I hoped, but here it is now! What I have been doing in meantime? A lot! But I was also ill for 2 times and found out that being ill in foreign country is even less fun than at home country. But let's leave the negative emotions behind and remember what good has happened....

ESTONIANS EVERYWHERE. In the end of September there was party here for international students. And of course I participated it! It was a lot of fun, especially because I met there 2 Estonians (on the picture) that I had already met before in university here. The coolest moment was when the DJ played Estonian music that my new Estonian friends had taken with them - all the people could listen to Estonian Pankrot :)

And on the 3rd of October I had the honour to meet Mart Laar in Osnabrück. Those who don't know - Mart Laar was the first Estonian prime minister after reindependence. He had a speech in city hall about Baltic's perspective of Germany. I couldn't understand much as he was speaking in German, but after the event I went to him and talked to him couple of sentances in Estonian language. Not because I had so much to say, but it was just so emazing to see Estonian politician in Osnabrück!

And about 1 week ago I met one German girl, who had been studying in Estonia for 1 year and spoke very good Estonian language. I was totally surprised! With 1 year so good Estonian! Our language can't be that difficult then!

GLOBAL VILLAGE. A week ago I had at last the opportunity to present Estonia in AIESEC's Global Village party. For those who are not in AIESEC - Global Village is a big party where every nation presents their best/strongest drinks and food, also wear special clothes, sing national songs etc etc. At Estonian table you can always get some 80% vodka. Of course I had it with me also this time and I must say that it had huge success. At least next morning people remembered it ;) But I also had my nice dress in Estonian national colours and lots of Estonian string to put around hands. Everybody seamed to like it :)

AIESEC WORK. Some days ago I realized that my whole life here is connected to AIESEC somehow. Not mentioning my work, also the people that are surrounding me are from AIESEC. Very weird feeling... But besides that - I really like my work here. Almost every day I find out some new things that are completely different here from my home AIESEC and it makes my work even more interesting. Right now I'm mostly working with member recruitment and preparing NIC conference. Have I mentioned that I will be the Chair for NIC? So cool!

LEISURE TIME. I'm going to parties here much more often than I did in Estonia. It also has very good reason - there are many more parties for students and there are many more students who actually go there almost every day. At the beginning I was confused with all the big mass of people - I thought for some minutes that whole Osnabrück has moved there, but after some time I could really enjoy the party! Besides the parties, my best leisure time experience lately was going to Osnabrück's zoo. It's very nice one! A little bit smaller than the zoo in Tallinn, but really very nice one!

OK, this time I won't promise that the next posting will be next weekend or so... I will just write something after some time... My bEST wishes to friends and family in Estonia!

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Nojah... see postitus tuleb küll palju hiljem, kui ma plaanisin, aga parem hilja kui mitte kunagi. Mida ma siis vahepeal teinud olen? Väga palju! Kõige muu hulgas olin 2 korda haige ja avastasin, et välismaal on haige olla palju vastikum kui kodumaal olles. Aga jätkem need negatiivsed emotsioonid ja järgnevalt positiivsetest juhtumitest Osnabrückis.

EESTLASED IGAL POOL. Septembri lõpus oli üks pidu rahvusvahelistele tudengitele ja muidugi läksin sinna ka mina. Kohtasin seal oma 2 eesti tuttavat, keda kohtasin juba varem siinses ülikoolis. Nii lahe oli jälle eesti keeles rääkida (mul juba keel sõlmes). Kõige muu hulgas pani DJ peale eesti loo Pankrot, mille mu uued eesti sõbrad olid kaasa toonud. Nii et terve üliõpilaskond sai kuulda eesti muusikat ja 3 hullu eestlast hüppasid keset tantsupõrandat rõõmust lakke :)

3. oktoobril kohtasin Osnabrückis Mart Laari! Ta pidas siinses raekojas kõne teemal, kuidas balti rahvad näevad Saksamaad. Ma ei saanud suurt midagi tema ettekandest aru, kuna ta tegi seda saksa keeles, aga peale üritust läksin ta juurde ja rääkisin paar lauset eesti keeles. See oli nii äge! Mul ei olnud talle küll väga palju öelda, kuid olin lihtsalt megaõnnelik eesti poliitikut Osnabrückis kohates.

Ja umbes nädal tagasi kohtasin ühte saksa tüdrukut, kes on kunagi keskkooli ajal Eestis õppinud aasta aega ja räägib nüüd väga head eesti keelt. Ma olin väga üllatunud! Kuidas on võimalik 1 aastaga nii hea eesti keele suhu saada? Eesti keel ei saa ikka siis nii raske ju olla!

GLOBAL VILLAGE. Lõpuks avanes ka mul võimalus Eestit AIESECi Global Village'i peol esindada. Neile, kes AIESECis ei ole - Global Village on suur pidu, kus iga rahvus esindab oma riiki oma parimate/kangeimate jookide ja söökidega. Samuti kantakse erilisi riideid, lauldaks kultuurile omaseid laule jne jne. Eestlaste laua juures saab enamasti proovida 80% viina ja ka seekord oli mul see kaasas. Kõigile paistis see väga meeldivat, vähemalt hommikul... Kuid peale kange alkoholi oli mul ka kena sini-must-valge kleit seljas ja samuti oli kaasas u 15 m sini-must-valget paela, mida sai ümber käe siduda. Kõigile paistis see väga meeldivat... pean nüüd uue viina ja mitu meetrit paela juurde muretsema :)

AIESECI TÖÖ. Avastasin just mõni päev tagasi, et kogu mu elu siin on mingil määral AIESECiga seotud. Vähe sellest, et ma töötan siin AIESECis, on ka kõik inimesed mu ümber AIESECist. Väga kummaline tunne... Aga tegelikult mulle väga meeldib mu siinne töö! Peaaegu iga päev avastan uusi asju, mis on siin erinevad Eesti AIESECist ja see teeb mu töö veelgi huvitavamaks. Praegu töötan peamiselt uute liikmete värbamise ja NIC konverentsi ettevalmistamisega. Kas ma olen juba maininud, et olen NIC konverentsi Chair (ehk siis läbiviija?)? Nii lahe!

VABA AEG. Käin siin palju rohkem pidudel kui Eestis. Selleks on ka väga hea põhjendus. Siin on lihtsalt rohkem tudengipidusid ja rohkem tudengeid, kes tõepoolest viitsivad pea iga päev kuhugi minna. Alguses olin täiesti šokeeritud sellest, kui palju rahvast seal oli, aga peale mõnda aega harjusin ära ja nüüd naudin siinseid pidusid täiega :) Aga teen ka muid asju peale pidutsemise, ausõna! Viimane lahedaim koht, kus käisin, oli näiteks siinne loomaaed. See on veidi pisem kui Tallinna loomaaed, aga tõeliselt armas koht!

OK, ma rohkem ei luba, et järgmine postitus tuleb nädala pärast... aga luban, et varsti ma jälle kirjutan siia midagi! Minu parimad tervitused perele ja sõpradele Eestis!

New places and new people!

2005-09-25T15:11:00.000+03:00

Last 1.5 weeks have been really exciting - lots of interesting people, really cool events and exciting work. Some most interesting memories...

REGIONAL KAMPF WOCHENDE. This was actually Regional battle weekend where AIESEC local committes of one region gathered together to have lots of fun... It consisted mostly in numerous drinking games and competitions, but also gave me a chance to meet more Germans and spend some nice time outside of Osnabrueck. The event took place on an island in the middle of a lake and the surrounding was really very beautiful. In the evening I was sitting on a bridge and was just reminding how nice it was sitting on a beach in Estonia... :)

Besides all the other nice, strange and funny things that happened during the event, I met some people who were somehow connected to Estonia for me. For example, I met one girl who could actually speak a little bit of Estonian, as she had been studying in France with one Estonian girl and also she had been in Estonia for 1 month. It was really very suprising for me! Also I met some people who knew the famous Estonian word "Terviseks!" (and those who didn't know it before and learned it there also liked it a lot!) and also met a guy who had been working with one Estonian girl in one conference's OC. So nice :)

HACHEFEST. Big festival in small village called Nienhagen. I arrived there on Sunday and participated there in a big parade with Basti and his friends. I must say that it was one of the best days of my German life so far, as I really enjoyed the greatest party on wheels ;) and company of really great people! Also during this parade there were 2 things joined together that are very important to Germans: football and beer. It was really great!

BEER. What do you think how many beers I have drunk in Estonia? NONE! OK, ok, I have tried some and as I didn't like it at all then I just didn't drink anymore... But in Germany, as there are not very many possibilities for soft drinks, I have just being forced to "learn" drinking beer. And I must say that my "learning" has been very successful, as after 2,5 weeks in Germany I can really drink beer here! :) I must admit that at the beginning it was really weird holding beer bottle in my hand - I had the feeling that eveyone is watching me like some strange person. But after some time I realized that almost eveyone has beer in their hands and after feeling a bit more comfortable I was finally ready to drink it!

BICYCLE. Well... I have almost got used to the bikes here, although it's still weird... Sometimes I just can't understand where I am allowed to drive and where I'm not allowed... And I still don't get why bicyclers have their own traffic lights, as they work always together with the ordinary traffic lights... I guess there should be a meaning, I just have to find it out. And once I was almost hit by a bus - or at least it was passing me so closely that I almost lost the balance and thought that will fall straight in front of the wheels of the bus... But otherwise I like the freedom that driving a bicycle gives - you can get very easily from one place to another and you don't have to pay for that. And I have really began to wonder why Estonians don't use bikes for travelling, at least in smaller cities like Pärnu...

FOOD. Yes, eating habits are a bit different here, although I can't say that the food really tastes so different. During the lunch I sometimes go to mensa, which is a eating place for students. The food there is very cheap and usually also quite tasty. When going around in food shops then I can recognize that there are much less all kinds of milk products and salads, which I have used to buy a lot in Estonia. On the other hand there is a good chance to buy food on the streets in the city centre, which is very nice. Especially it's good to have a döner late in the evening after a long meeting or long party :))

AND MORE ESTONIANS! Surprisingly I met today 2 Estonians in Osnabrueck. I was going to couple of courses to promote AIESEC info evening and they were sitting in this course. Later they came to me and told in pure Estonian language "Hey! We are Estonians!". I was deeply surprised to hear Estonian language in Osnabrueck and couldn't express my happiness to see some other Estonians here... It appeared that they were here studying through Erasmus program... Anyway - they are coming to AIESEC info evening, so I can proudly say that I'm recruiting Estonian students to AIESEC, while not being in Estonia myself! ;)

Now I'm waiting for the new week to start, as the recruitment of new members and trainees starts on Monday. Read about me again next weekend! And don't foget to see the pictures from the site http://spaces.msn.com/members/helenarebane/ ! ;)

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Viimased 1,5 nädalat on olnud väga põnevad - olen kohtunud paljude põnevate inimestega, käinud mitmetel lahedatel üritustel ja teinud väga põnevat tööd. Siin siis mõned huvitavamad mõtted...

REGIONAL KAMPF WOCHENENDE. Ehk siis teiste sõnadega regionaalne võitluste nädalavahetus. See on üritus, kus ühe regiooni AIESECi lokaalkomiteed tulevad kokku, et veeta koos mõnusalt aega... Peamiselt koosnes see erinevatest (joomis)võistlustest, kuid samal ajal andis mulle võimaluse ka suhelda teiste sakslastega ja veeta aega ka väljas pool Osnabrücki. Üritus toimus ühel saarel keset järve (koha nime kahjuks ei suuda meenutada) ja sealne ümbrus oli tõeliselt kena. Õhtul istusin sillal ja mõtlesin, kui tore oli istuda mere ääres Eestis. :)

Peale muude lahedate, imelike ja naljakate asjade, mis seal juhtusid, kohtasin seal päris mitut inimest, kes minu jaoks Eestiga seondusid. Näiteks oskas üks tüdruk rääkida väheke eesti keelt. Nimelt oli ta õppinud Prantsusmaal koos ühe eestlasega ja ka reisinud Eestis 1 kuu. Samuti kohtasin paari inimest, kes teadsid kurikuulsat tervitust "Terviseks!" ja neile, kes seda enne ei teadnud, aga õppisid seal, hakkas see samuti väga meeldima. Ja siis oli seal veel üks noormees, kes oli olnud ühe eestlasega ühe konverentsi korraldusmeeskonnas.

HACHEFEST. Suur festival väikeses külas nimega Nienhagen. Saabusin Nienhagenisse pühapäeva hommikul ja osalesin suurel rongkäigul Basti ja tema sõpradega. Ja pean ütlema, et see oli mu senise saksa elu üks lahedamaid päevi, kuna osalesin vist kõige lahedamal "ratastega peol" üldse ja mind ümbritsesid ka tõsiselt lahedad inimesed :) Ja kõige lahedam minu jaoks oli see, et sellel festivalil olid minu jaoks kõvasti esindatud kaks sakslastele nii armast asja: jalgpall ja õlu! :)

ÕLU. No mida te arvate, mitu õlut ma olen Eestis ära joonud?? Mitte ühtegi! Või no ok, olen maitsnud mõnel korral, aga kuna selle maitse pole mulle kunagi päriselt meeldinud, siis vaid maitsmiseks see on jäänudki. Aga kuna Saksamaal puudub siired ja üldse on kergemate jookidega siin minu arvates kehvad lood, siis olen lihtsalt sunnitud "õppima" jooma õlut. Ja pean ütlema, et siiani on see "õppimine" olnud väga edukas, kuna peale 2,5 nädalat suudan juba täiesti õlut juua! Pean tunnistama, et alguses oli väga imelik isegi õllepudelit käes hoida... oli selline tunne, et kõik vaatavad imelikult... Peale mõnda aega avastasin aga, et mitte keegi ei vaata imelikult ja pea kõigil on õllepudel käes. Ja peale väikest kohanemisaega olingi valmis õlu joomiseks! :)
JALGRATTAD. Noh, ma peaaegu olen juba nende jalgratastega siin harjunud, kuigi vahest on ikka veel imelik tunne. Mõnikord ma lihtsalt ei saa aru, kus ma tohin sõita ja kus mitte (ja mõnikord olen rattaga keset teed ja värisen hirmust mõeldes, millised suured sõidukid mu selja tagant võivad tulla). Ja ma ikka ei saa päris aru, miks on jalgratturitel eraldi valgusfoorid - need ei muuda minu arvates mitte midagi... kuigi eks neil ikka mingi otstarve peab olemas olema, ma pole seda veel lihtsalt avastanud... Ja ühel korral oleksin peaaegu bussiga pihta saanud. Vähemasti sõitis buss minust nii lähedalt mööda, et oleksin äärepealt tasakaalu kaotanud ja bussi rataste alla kukkunud. Ma arvan, et siinsed bussijuhid on harjunud juba Osnabruecki kogenud jalgratturitega... Aga muidu mulle meeldib see vabadus, mida jalgrattaga sõitmine annab - see on odav ja lihtne transpordivahend, millega pääseb kergesti igale poole. Viimasel ajal olen ka hakanud mõtlema, miks Eestis veel jalgrattad nii populaarsed ei ole, eriti väiksemates linnades...

TOIT. Jah, söömistavad on veidi erinevad siin, kuigi ei saa öelda, et toit maitseks väga erinevalt eesti toidust. Lõuna ajal lähen ma tavaliselt mensasse, mis on siin tudengite söömispaik. Toit on seal odav ja suhteliselt hea. Kui käin toidupoodides, siis märkan, et siin on palju vähem igasuguseid piimatooteid ja salateid, mida olen harjunud suhteliselt palju Eestis ostma. Samas meeldib mulle see, et kesklinnas on mitmeid kohti, kust saab endale toitu kaasa osta. Eriti hea on võtta üks döner (ehk siis kebab) peale pikka koosolekut või pikka pidu... ;)
JA VEEL EESTLASI! Täiesti uskumatu, aga täna kohtasin Osnabrueckis kahte eestlast. Käisin siinses ülikoolis paaris loengus AIESECi infoõhtut reklaamimas ja nad osalesid nendes loengutes. Pärast tulid minu juurde ja ütlesid sulaselges eesti keele "Tere! Me oleme eestlased!". Võite aimata, kui üllatunud ma olin! Ma ei oleks kunagi arvanud, et Osnabrueckis eesti keelt kuulen... Igatahes tuli välja, et nad õpivad siinses ülikoolis mõnda aega ja tulevad ka AIESECi infoõhtule, nii et võin uhkusega öelda, et kuigi ma ei ole Eestis, värban AIESECi ikkagi ka eesti tudengeid. :)

Uus nädal on alanud ja ei jõua ära oodata, mida põnevat mind ees ootamas on! Lugege minu tegemistest jälle järgmisel nädalavahetusel. Ja ärge unustage pilte vaadata aadressil: http://spaces.msn.com/members/helenarebane/ ! ;)

Discovering the new place...

2005-09-16T23:46:00.000+03:00

I have been in Germany for more than 1 week already and quite many interesting things have happened already! So I will just start to talk about everything one by one...

KULTURNACHT. Kulturnacht (Cultural evening) took place on Saturday in Osnabrück's city centre. There were sooo many people there on the streets, museums, restaurants etc. On this evening all the museums were opened until very late and there were many cultural happenings on the streets (poetry reading, acting, fire show etc). I also went to the top of Marien church where I could see over the whole Osnabrück in night. In this evening I first experienced one more good thing in Germany - you can drink alcohol in the streets and noone cares about it, as it is allowed! I liked it, of course!

AIESEC. On Monday I had my first AIESEC meeting with the executive board of LC Osnabrück. I must say that it was a bit different from our EB meetings in Estonia. Most different thing for me seamed to be that here they have so much bureaucracy! But I have also had many other meetings already and so far I have really enjoyed them! So what I’m currently working on – recruitment, NIC seminar, ICX and OGX matching.

TUNISIAN DINNER. There is one very nice Tunisian trainee in Osnabrück right now and on Monday he invited some people to have dinner at his place. It was really very nice, as he also showed some pictures about Tunisia and although his food was a bit too spicy for my Estonian taste then it was really very good! :P Besides everything else we found out that we have one common friend from Tunisia! Small world, isn’t it??

BICYCLE. On Monday I also got a bike that I can use here for travelling. It’s so funny that bike is so common way for travelling here. They have their own bike ways and even different traffic lights for bicyclers! I haven’t used it so much yet, but during the couple of times I have done it, it seamed a bit weird and even dangerous… Some big cars are driving very closely and I always have the feeling that I will be hit by some car or bus. On one of those moments I also discovered that I don’t know what is the ambulance number in Germany. So now I know that it’s the same as in Estonia…

GARBAGE. Osnabrück is very clean (as Estonia or even a little bit cleaner!). But it’s not what I wanted to talk about… Actually I wanted to say that as in Estonia I wasn’t so used to deviding garbage according to it’s material etc then it’s a bit more difficult to do it… I still stand in front of the trash can and think “is this plastic or not??”

So I will go on with my exciting life in Germany now… Greetings to all my Estonian, German, Tunisian, Bulgarian and Nigerian friends!

If you want to see pictures then here’s the link for them:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/helenarebane

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Olen nüüd Saksamaal olnud juba rohkem kui üks nädal ja nii mõndagi huvitavat on juhtunud… Nii et hakkan siis ükshaaval asjadest rääkima!

KULTURNACHT. Kulturnacht ehk siis kultuuriõhu oli nädal tagasi laupäeval Osnabrücki kesklinnas. Seal oli tänavatel niiii palju inimesi ja õhtul toimusid mitmed taidlused, luuletunnid jne, samuti olid muuseumid avatud kuni keskööni. Nii käisimegi ühest muuseumist teise ja vaatasime, mida põnevat toimumas on (pealaval oli näiteks üks tuleshow, mis oli ülivägev)… Samuti läksin ma Marien kiriku tippu, kust sai väga kena ülevaate kogu Osnabrückist. Sellel õhtul sain kogeda veel ühte väga lahedat osa Saksamaast – nimelt tohib siin tänavatel alkoholi juua. Alguses oli küll väga kummaline käia mööda Osnabrücki tänavat Eesti siidripudel käes, aga mõne aja pärast harjusin ära … J

AIESEC. Sellel nädalal alustasin ka oma AIESECi tööga. Esmaspäeval osalesin esimesel juhatuse koosolekul ja ka teistel päevadel olid mõned kohtumised teiste meeskondadega. Nende juhatuse koosolekud on siin veidi teistsugused meie omadest. Juba see on väga harjumatu, kui palju bürokraatiat neil siin on! Aga siiani on mulle siinne AIESECi töö väga meeldinud… Praegu töötan uute liikmete värbamisega, ettevõtetele praktikantide leidmisega, saksa praktikantidele praktikakoha leidmisega välismaal ja ühe seminari ettevalmistamisel…

TUNEESIA ÕHTUSÖÖK. Osnabrückis on üks tuneesia praktikant, kes kutsus meid esmaspäeval õhtusöögile. Õhut oli väga lahe, kuna lisaks maitsvale õhtusöögile näitas ta väga kenasid pilte oma kodumaast, nii et tekkis kohe tahtmine sinna minna. Ja toit oli tõesti väga maitsev, kuigi võib-olla veidi liiga vürtsikas minu eesti maitsele… Peale kõige muu toreda saime teada, et minul ja sellel tuneesia praktikandil on üks ühine tuneesia tuttav. Maailm on tõepoolest väike, kas pole??

JALGRATAS. Ja nüüd on ka minul jalgratas, millega saan siin linnas ringi liikuda. See on ikka täiesti uskumatu, kui tavaline transpordivahend jalgratas on! Neil on siin omad teed ja isegi omad valgusfoorid! Ma ei ole jalgratast veel väga tihti kasutanud, kuid kui olen seda teinud paaril korral, siis oli tunne, et mõni auto kohe ajab mind alla. Ühel neist hetkedest avastasin, et ma ei tea isegi, mis on Saksamaal kiirabi number. Hiljem sain teada, et see on sama, mis meil Eestiski!

PRÜGI. Osnabrück on väga puhas linn (sama puhas nagu Eestiki või võib-olla veelgi puhtam!). Aga mitte sellest ei tahtnud ma rääkida… Nimelt tahtsin seda öelda, et kuna Eestis ma ei pidanud kogu aeg prügi sorteerima, siis on seda siin veidi imelik teha… Siiani leian end mõnikord prügikastide ees seisvana, mõeldes “kas see nüüd käib plastiku alla või mitte??”

Et ma nüüd siis lähen oma elu jälle nautima… Varsti kuulete jälle minu tegemistest! Ja minu parimad tervitused minu eesti, saksa, bulgaaria, tuneesia ja nigeeria sõpradele!

Minu pilte saate vaadata näiteks sellisest kohast:

http://spaces.msn.com/members/helenarebane

And the journey begins....

2005-09-09T16:32:00.000+03:00

Leaving is not easy, especially when leaving for at least 1 year... Last goodbyes with friends, family and other people, sat on the bus with mixed feelings inside and was moving towards new adventures in other places...

So now I'm in Osnabrueck - wonderful city! I really like it! As I have said to many people already, it reminds me a little bit of small doll city with small doll houses (so cute!), so at the beginning it was quite hard to believe that there are about 160 000 people living here... But you can really feel it when you go out in the evenings or when you see all of those cars here...

I'm staying at my friend Mats' place. He and his parents have very lovely house in a very nice living region, where everything seams to be very quiet.... The people take very good care of me - I can't believe how nice and friendly everyone is!! So nice!:) And my new good friend is Julchen - small dog who is unbelievably active!

So what I have done so far... a long sleep after a long trip was very nice... also eating some typical German food, which was quite good... Oh, and Mats made small presentation about Australia, as he was there for almost 2 months. There I also met some AIESEC people, but not so many, as there is no school here yet. And we also had some party yesterday in Hyde Park (some kind of club with very progressive hard rock music). To my mind very strange place, at least I haven't seen something like this in Estonia. Khmmm... for details contact me ;)

Tomorrow there should be some kind of cultural evening in Osnabrueck. I'm really not sure yet what it means and what is going to happen there, but sounds good to me! And hopefully there will be more AIESEC people also :)

I will write here something again next week probably, so stay tuned!

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Lahkumine ei ole kerge, eriti kui lahkutakse vähemalt üheks aastaks... Viimased hüvastijätud s6prade, perekonna ja teiste tuttavatega, istusin bussi oma segaste tunnetega ja liikusin uute seikluste poole teistest paikades...

Nii et nüüd ma siis olen Osnabrueckis, mis on t6esti väga lahe linn! Nagu olen juba päris mitmele inimesele öelnud, meenutab Osnabrueck mulle väikest nukulinna väikeste nukumajakestega, nii et alguses oli raske uskuda, et siin elab u 160 000 inimest. Aga see-eest saab seda tunda, kui käia 6htuti väljas v6i kui vaadata seda suurt autodehulka.

Ma peatun siin oma s6bra Matsi juures. Temal ja ta vanematel on siin väga ilus maja väga kenas elurajoonis, kus k6ik paistab olevat väga vaikne... Inimesed on mind väga hästi vastu v6tnud - täiesti uskumatu, kui s6rablikud siin k6ik on! Ja minu uueks heaks s6braks on saanud Julchen - väike valge koer, kes on uskumatult aktiivne ja s6bralik.

Mida ma seni teinud olen... Peale pikka reisi magasin väga kaua... ja s6in tüüpilist saksa toitu, mis oli üsna hea. Ja kolmapäeval tegi Mats ülikoolis väikse presentatsiooni Austraalia kohta (ta oli seal peaaegu 2 kuud) ja seal kohtasin m6ndasid AIESECi inimesi samuti. Neid veel väga palju ei ole siin, kuna kool ei ole veel alanud. Ja eile käisime peol Hyde Parkis (üks klubi kus mängiti väga progressiivset hard rocki). Väga kummaline koht, vähemasti pole ma Eestis sellist veel näinud. Mnjah... detailide saamiseks pöörduge minu poole ;)

Homme peaks Osnabrueckis olema mingisugune kultuuride6htu. Ma ei ole päris kindel, mida see endast kujutab ja mis seal toimuma hakkab, aga tundub olevat väga lahe. Ja loodetavasti kohtan seal ka rohkem AIESECi inimesi :)

Selleks korraks k6ik, kirjutan jälle arvatavasti millalgi järgmisel nädalal. Nii et hoidke end kursis!

Before leaving Estonia...

2005-09-03T00:54:00.000+03:00

So finally I managed to make my own blog... This is the place where you can find out what is going on in my life when I'm not in Estonia, but somewhere else :)

I'm leaving Estonia on the 6th Septmember and the first stop is going to be Osnabrück in Germany where I'm going to work for AIESEC. From there on I should go to Ilorin in Nigeria on the 27th November and there I will stay until august next year. There I will work for one hotel. And then - who knows!

Right now there's lot of preparation going on... I really can't believe how many things there are to finish before leaving! But I will manage, because I'm Estonian girl and nothing will be on my way! :)

In Estonian - Eesti keeles:

Nii et lõpuks on siis ka minul oma blog... Siin saate mu elu kohta infot siis, kui mind Eestis ei ole ja kui rändan mujal ringi :)

Eestist lahkun ma 6. septembril ja esimene peatus on Osnabrück Saksamaal. Seal hakkan tööle kohaliku AIESECi heaks. Sealt peaksin edasi minema 27. novembril Nigeeriasse linna nimega Ilorin ja jään sinna kuni 2006. aasta augustini. Seal hakkan tööle ühes hotellis. Ja Nigeeriast edasi - kes teab!

Praegu olen ametis ettevalmistustega... Täiesti uskumatu, kui palju asju on vaja ära teha enne, kui saan siit ära minna! Aga ma saan hakkama, sest et olen Eesti tüdruk ja mitte miski ei seisa mu teel! :)