I asked where they were from and it turns out they were MBA's from all over the US and a couple from the UK. Two days later, I run into 5 guys at the bus stop speaking English again. Turns out one of them was from Michigan so we had a nice little chat on the way to Koblenz from where I live. It's been a great week cause I've made some good strides at work and also met some cool people along the way. Lately I've been speaking more Spanish than anything cause my boss is half Mexican and insists on talking to me in Spanish. I guess it's cool. My Spanish needs practicing, hehe.
Work is gradually getting better. I am going to start working on the welcome package for the students of the Summer Academy, which starts in little over a month now. It should be pretty exciting times this week. I will write more about these welcome packages later as I start to work on them this week. Other than this, most of work has been a constant communication between some of our participants and me, trying to figure out all the things they need for entering Germany, enrollment at the university and getting them a place to stay in for the duration of the program. It's actually quite funny when I know some of these people so well even though I have never met them.
More friends from AIESEC
AIESEC Koblenz, as I mentioned in earlier posts, is right in the middle of their recruitment cycle. So far they have a couple new members, a couple of which I've gotten to know kind of well. To top it all off, they also recruited two international people to come help them with recruiting. This kind of "working for AIESEC somewhere else" is know as a CEED, or Cultural Envoy for Exchange Development. For this reason, we now have another American in town with AIESEC. His name is Daryl and he is the VP of Finance for AIESEC Yale next year. Pretty cool guy, and we've hung out a bit the last couple of days.
Also this week, they brought in a girl from Brazil. Her name is Carina, and she is a law student in southern Brazil. Very nice girl, and the funniest part was when we went to pick her up in the airport. The only person who had seen a picture of her had told us she was a blonde. So obviously, when people are coming out we're looking out for all the blondes. This one other girl is just standing there looking lost, but she's brunette. Obviously, it can't be her. The plane is emptied, and Daryl just yells "CARINAAA!!!" hoping she would hear us. And of course, it was the brunette who was standing there. Quite the funny story, if I say so myself.
We spent the night in Koblenz, at one of our friends' house, and then we went to old Koblenz in the early afternoon. The weather was beautiful, and we had some breakfast at 2pm, which is always nice. Then 20 minutes later it started pouring like I have never seen in Germany. Weather so far has been great here, but it started to rain the likes of which I have only seen in Puerto Rico, which was pretty impressive considering it's a tropical island, which are known for heavy rain. I had to get out of the car and to the bus stop so I got drenched, and then finally made it back home to a nice, warm shower. But seriously, the rain was hardcore...and I'm usually not impressed by rain. If you're one of those people who know and understand my hatred for rain, you will probably feel bad for me. It was nuts...
I'm actually looking forward to this week because this welcome package should be fun to design. I'm getting a lot of autonomy on what I want to do with it, so I'm going to try to make this into an awesome looking booklet. I will probably publish it here once it's done so anyone can look at it if they so wish to. More updates to come. Now let's chat about something important...
So let's talk about life-changing decisions
I was talking to a friend recently, and she asked me what I planned on doing next year after I graduate. I was actually a bit surprised because, I actually haven't been giving this as much thought as I should. So after this I started thinking about it and that's pretty much what I've been doing all afternoon. I think I have narrowed it down to 4 options, ordered by alphabetic order and in no specific order of priority:
- Consulting firm job: Consulting has become the field I want to work on. It allows me to have projects that change constantly. I'm not stuck doing just one thing, which will motivate me to always do more. There is also quite a bit of travelling involved usually, which is nice. I think that starting in a consulting career is a great way to learn a lot about businesses quickly, then decide what I want to do later on, whether that is more consulting, going into an industry or opening up my own ________ (insert wild, crazy idea which may or may not be possible here).
- Higher education Master's program: Let's face it...I love college. And the more I think about it the more I never want to leave this atmosphere, so it makes a lot of sense that I would want to work at a university. And the reality is, if consulting is #1, then this is either #1b or #2. If I can get a Master's in Higher Education I can most likely find myself working in upper management for a university in the next decade. Wouldn't that be sweet, especially if that school can be Michigan?
- Law school: This one is mostly a "I can do anything after I get a law degree" option. And it also gives me 3 years to decide what I actually want to do. Having the knowledge that a lawyer has can be very beneficial, and let's not forget the value that the letters JD have when applying for a job. The question is: how bad do I want to attend law school? The answer to that is to be determined, and
- Long term traineeship in another country: This is the wildcard option. I'm doing it right now for 3 months, but wouldn't a year (or year and a half) in another country be something special? My parents might kill me if I take this route, but this one can actually lead me into any of the other three options. After however long I'm gone I'll have to come back and decide what I want to do again. It would be a great opportunity and I would learn a great deal about business somewhere else. This time I would like to find something in a country where I speak the native language, which is a bit limiting. But I believe in my ability to find something. We'll see if this can be done.
Some last words
My cousins graduated from high school last week. This is scary. I remember them as little kids and now they're all grown up. They're going to Indiana to study, which brings up some amusing thoughts. With me being the first in my family to go study in the US (at least in my generation), some family members freaked out and asked "BUT WHY WOULD YOU EVER DO THAT??!?!?!?!?!"...and 3 years later my sister left and now my cousins leave. No one's making a big fuzz about it. You're welcome, sis and cousins, for me getting all the "you're crazy for doing this" comments.
No, but really...this isn't about that. It's about the fact that I feel old. Friends graduating college, cousins graduating high school, deciding what to do after college...I feel old. I guess life happens, huh? Sorry for those of you older than me (parents and the such, particularly) cause I technically am calling you old. I would like to think I've changed a lot in the past 4 years, mostly for the better.
**Damn, this post is long.**
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