What do you do? What do you do? Do do do do do...

That's a line from Across the Universe (for everyone who is NOT Amelia, and won't get the reference otherwise.)

It's recently come to my attention that a lot of people (friends, family, strangers, etc) don't really know what I do, or what it is that keeps me moving farther and farther away from home. So, here it is. What I do. I warn you, it's a very long winded explanation.


Part I: AIESEC, The Global Organization.
AIESEC is the largest student-run organization in the world. It is run for university students by university students (and recent graduates). We function at the global, regional, national, and local levels. We started just after WWII in the late 1940s. Originally, AIESEC started in Europe, but it spread. We are now in 110 countries. Overall our aim is the "Peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential." That means that we believe that given the right tools and motivation that humans, particularly youth, can make a positive difference in our world. We can shape the world into a better place, a place in which peace is the overriding theme, not hate.

So how do we go about building peace and all that jazz?
We operate through two main functions. 1) Exchange 2) Leadership

Exchange - Parts of our organization focus on creating relationships and contracts with local/national/global companies to create internship opportunities for international interns. The other side of this is the group of people who recruit local students and AIESEC members to prepare and send them for internships to other countries. So, our exchange facet focuses on sending students (both AIESEC member and non-AIESEC member) around the AIESEC network for internships.

Leadership - We build leadership skills through putting people in leadership positions and letting them learn from the experience. There are tons of leadership opportunities in AIESEC. Students can do anything from leading a functional area team for a year at their local chapter. So, for example, leading the incoming exchange team to create contracts near their university. Or, they can lead team of 4-10 people to plan, organize, and run a conference. AIESEC has regional, national,and international conferences every year in every country that we're in - someone needs to plan those, and someone needs to lead that planning team. There are a lot of different opportunities, but you get the idea.

So, how do these two things create peace and happiness?
The idea is that if a person goes on exchange to a country they are able to build a more accurate idea of that country with less prejudices and assumptions. They make friends in that country and form a better opinion of that country. When they return home they talk to the friends about their experiences and how awesome this other country was. It's hard to hate a country when you have friends and good memories there. It's hard to hate a country when your friends at home talk so highly of their experience. This is particularly important between countries that have negative or wrong views of each other. Mongolia to China, India and Pakistan, US to Bahrain, France to England, the list goes on...
By putting people into leadership experiences they are forced to learn and recognize parts of themselves that may have never been uncovered otherwise. They learn how to motivate their peers, how to relate their experiences in AIESEC to the "real" world, how to be a role model.
By combining the two experience you get someone we in AIESEC idealistically call a "change agent" - someone who realizes the size, scope, and potential of the world AND has the ability to go out and make a positive difference. Wham, bam, peace and fulfillment of humankind's potential.

Yeah, that's great...but what do I do?

Part II: AIESEC in Mongolia

AIESEC started in Mongolia about two years ago. We are very new in a country that has a lot of potential to develop both in AIESEC and out in the rest of the country. My team is the national staff of AIESEC in Mongolia. We run AIESEC in the whole country of Mongolia. Right now AIESEC is just in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city, but we'll get bigger. My team consists of three people. The MCP: Member Committee President, Gina Palmisano from the US. She oversees everything and is the boss lady. MC VP ICX: Member Committee Vice President of Incoming Exchange, Tomas Petrzela from the Czech Republic. He works with the businesses in the city to create contracts for internships for international students. MC VP TM: Member Committee Vice President of Talent Management, Bridget Mailley from the US. I work with the university student to create and deliver leadership training, soft skills training, and other organizational education. I am responsible for generating leadership positions, coaching conference organization teams, coaching my local counterparts, and monitoring the satisfaction of members with their experience.
My team is also the first team to come to Mongolia to do what we do. The last "team" was one international guy and a Mongolian girl. I am the first MC VP TM of AIESEC Mongolia. Before me, there was little to no leadership generation, and certainly no one making sure that students were satisfied with their experience.
Since the beginning of our one-year term, my team has done a lot in the way of building structure and precedent. I have run recruitment for new members; run induction training for those members; built local structure for leaders; created the procedures and run the first local leadership elections; created the first conference organizing committee (OC) for the first ever AIESEC Mongolia conference; taken that OC to China to experience an AIESEC conference before they had to plan one; coached the OC for that conference; wrote (parts), edited, and ratified the first compendium of AIESEC Mongolia; and that's just the stuff that's easy to explain. And, all of that was just the first seven months. That's what I've been doing.

Some context...
AIESEC is particularly important in a place like Mongolia. The education system is lacking. The education content is poor and they expect very little from their students. There are few or no other organizations like us here, that give students the opportunity to challenge themselves and learn valuable business skills and life lessons outside of the classroom. Most other exchange organizations here are expensive and offer opportunities abroad like dish-washing and fast food service. We offer everything from financial internships with Pricewaterhouse Cooper (one of the largest financial consulting firms in the world, and one of AIESEC's largest partners) to educational internships teaching language or arts around the world, to IT internships in the gaming industry in Europe, to internships helping run the administration of an NGO in China. We offer an attainable opportunity for Mongolian students to access the rest of the world in a field of their interest. We tell them that it's not only okay to dream about seeing the rest of the world, but that it's a possibility. In the US, this is not as big of a deal, American students have all kinds of opportunities thrown at them on a daily basis. Mongolian students don't. They especially don't get opportunities from their current university system to take ownership over their projects or goals and the chance to learn through experience. that's what we offer. We offer real-world experience in generating business skills, soft skills, international education, CV building activities, along with international exchange, and leadership opportunities.

When I was explaining some of my recent activities to my Gramma, she said, "So, you're changing lives." I'd like to think that she's right. That's why I'm so far from home, and going even farther away from home. I believe that my generation has the opportunity to change the world if just given the right tools. I'm equipping my peers with the tools to go out and change their world.

Around the world in 18 days...

Dear hecklers, you know who you are, I haven't been posting in my bloggy blog, because I'm way cooler than you and have been traveling. Also, China blocks blogs - so there's that too. Anyways, here's your update. Enjoy.


Christmas
Coming in to Christmas was a little rocky. I know I'm a big girl and everything, but this is the first Christmas I've spent away from home. And, at home we have a very specific way of celebrating Christmas. And, there was no way I was going to be able to replicate that this year. It wasn't home, but it was still good. Christmas Eve I started out getting drinks with friends, which turned into a Christmas part back at my apartment. Small, crowded, and very boozy. I opened presents with my parents over Skype, put present under our Christmas tree (both compliments of my ridiculous (wonderful) parents), and finally kicked the last guest out of the apartment around 4:30am. On Christmas morning I went and made eggnog with a foodie friend, although I ended up skipping the party at which it was present. Then came home, opened presents with the roomies, and watched movies all day long. It was glorious. My favorite part of the whole holiday was late on Christmas Eve after I had placed the present from my parents to my roommates under the tree. I thought that those would be the only presents for anyone, but more and more just kept showing up. Some from Tomas, my roommate and teammate, some from Ula and Sylwia, "the Polish girls". It was great to see Santa at work so far from home.

New Years
This one passed relatively quietly over a 13 hour movie marathon. Hooray movies!

Although the fun thing about both Christmas and New Year's is that the Mongolians claim that they don't celebrate Christmas, but there are Christmas decorations and trees, and Santas everywhere! But, if you ask a Mongolia what they're for, they're respond "New Years." They are "New Year's Trees" And, every time I would think. "No, you silly Mongolia, there are no trees on New Year's. Those are CHRISTMAS trees..." Oh well.

Conference
After 3 months of planning, and a lot of blood and sweat (not so many tears, that's an AIESEC China thing...) we pulled it off. 3 days of trainings, dancing, companies, and scant potty breaks. The facilitators did a great job, the organizing committee pulled it together and did a fantastic job, and of course, the delegates were wonderful. AIESEC Mongolia has officially had it's first AIESEC conference. And, it went over very well. I'm so proud of my AIESECers taking responsibility and changing their reality. You go guys! Like my gramma said, "So, you're changing lives and stuff, huh." Yeah, gram, I am. It's okay, they're changing mine too.

Italy
Yum.
I finally got to see my parents for the first time in 7 months, and we didn't even kill each other. Hooray! And, I didn't kill them, even if I did have to play tour guide for a week. Silly parents.
We covered Vicenza, Rome, and Venice. Mostly we just hung out in Vicenza I got a healthy dose of all of the *wonderful* things about American culture on the Army base, and decided I don't need that again for a while. But, Peggy (family friend) was great in putting up with us and sending us on our way. Thanks Peg!
After a few days we drove down to Rome and stayed in a little bitty hotel right.next.to the Vatican. Seriously, I could have spit on the outer wall of the Vatican. If, ya know, I wanted to go to hell. Did Vatican Museums (and didn't get lost this time)and saw a bunch of stuff. The best (new) was Rafael and the School of Athens. Suhweet. Sistine Chapel is always awesome. Actually got to walk by JPII's tomb this time, but it was quick because there were a BUNCH of nuns praying at him and I didn't want to block their prayers... Day 2 in Rome was spent walking the whole city from Vatican to Coliseum to Trevi Fountain to Santa Maria della Vittoria. Got to see the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa. So. Awesome. Her with her tricksy little cherub. Then back to Vicenza for a night to regroup and on to Venice. Sigh. Mostly we just wandered around the city. Spent some time on Murano looking at glass. Skip the glass museum if you have the opportunity - so not worth it. But, I did finally find a statue that I've been looking for all three times I've been to Venice. Not a well known one, just a simple statue of a dude sitting on a stack of books - it was in a book I read a while back. So, win for me. And, finally got to go into San Marco. So, obnoxiously golden. And, the originally horses are inside, upstairs. So cool, so. cool.
I've also decided that I way prefer to be an off-season traveler. Way less tourists, lines, etc. Better for sightseeing, better for moods.
After a few days in Venice it was time to take off and start the second leg of my journey.

Shanghai
I guess when you travel a lot you can eventually expect something to go wrong or weird. Lost baggage, irritating passengers, mechanical issues - eventually you run into something. Well, I certainly did on the way to Shanghai. (And, I'm not just talking about the smelly dude I had to sit next to for 10 hours to Beijing. He smelled homeless, honestly. And, he had terrible breath...) No, when I finally got to Beijing and got on my flight to Shanghai, that's where the fun started. So, we're sitting on the runway waiting to take off when the voice of god (or an attendant) comes of the speaker announcing that due to mechanical difficulties we are taxing back to the gate. They offload all 300-400 of us back to the terminal to wait for further instructions. Lots of angry Chinese people are yelling angrily in Chinese. (A very scary noise for you who haven't heard it. Almost as scary as Nigerian accents. Actually, I think the worst would be an angry Nigerian yelling in Chinese.) After about 45 minutes they herd us back on the bus to get back on the plane. And, I'm pretty sure it was the same we're-having-issues plane we were on before. But, we're still not leaving. After a while, god comes back on saying that there is an issue with a passenger and the police are on their way. Oh good. It turns out that one of the angry, yelling men was also and angry, punching man. Someone punched a security guard and was in custody. The kicker, needs-anger-management wanted to get back on the plane and all of the attendants were flipping their shit because they didn't want him on board. Duh. HE PUNCHED A SECURITY GUARD. You can't punch security guards. That's against the rules. Anyways, I think they finally came to a decision that he couldn't get back on the plane and we left for Shanghai. Three hours late. No big deal.
Being in Shanghai at the conference was cool. It was the most relaxing AIESEC conference I've been at but, I was also sick and dying for most of it so whatever. Yay fever! My body got significantly happier when I told it that I was bringing it back to Mongolia. Silly body. Don't you know there's smog and cold here?

Anyways, I'm back to the land of smog and ice now. Hooray! Back to work! Which I'm actually very excited about. There's a lot to get accomplished in the next few months before we move on to different things. For me, that will mean moving to Australia to work for AIESEC there. I'll be based in Sydney, but I'll get the chance to travel a bit. (And, if I can swing it International Congress in Kenya...but I'm not counting that egg yet).

There, that should keep you kids busy for a while. :)

Dear Mr. Colbert and your writers,

This week Cosmo officially started printing in Mongolia. This is pretty cool. The women of Mongolia are already stunningly beautiful and incredibly well dressed. It is not uncommon to see Mongolian ladies strutting their stuff down Peace Ave in 4-6" heels over ice covered and slick sidewalks. Do they slip? Rarely. Do they even look apprehensive? Never. Now, they have an international publication recognizing them and including them in fashion and women's issues. Superb.
Only there's one problem, Cosmo's move into Mongolia is the brunt of late night TV jokes. I understand that no topic is sacred and that anything can be fodder for comedy. However, they piece that you, Stephen Colbert, did is both ill researched and insulting.
One line insinuates that Cosmo will now be able to help Mongolian women feel self-conscious as well as women all over the world. This could be true. However, the part that you seem to think that is most concerning for Mongolian women are their beards. Here's the quote, "Now that Mongolian women have Cosmo, they'll finally know which body parts to feel insecure about -- it's the beards." Dear Stephen, Mongolian women don't have beards. Actually, Mongolian men rarely wear beards either. One idea that I've heard is that wearing a beard is a sign that a man has lost his father, and is nearly an orphan. Beards are not a good sign on Mongolians. Cosmetically or symbolically. Thanks.
You also posit some possible headlines..."This Season's Hottest Unisex Leather Gerkins"; "Go From Stable Girl to Yurt Flirt"; and "Does Your Mongol Have a Horde on the Side?"
Where to begin? Steve, dear. They're not gerkins, and they're probably not leather. It's called a deel, and you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a warmer piece of clothing. In fact they're absolutely beautiful. Deels are often made of bright, patterned silks and lined with various furs or hides. They are warm and yet pliable to allow for things like riding horses, and conquering nations. Leather, while great for shoes, wallets, and things, would be too heavy to wear for manual labor and riding. Which is mostly what they're worn for because deels are most common among countryside folk. Most people of the younger generations in the city have deferred to western wear, which is a shame. Deels are beautiful - like most things in Mongolia.
Next, "yurt flirt"...really? Fooling around, dating around, and multiple partners doesn't seem to be the style of Mongolian women. American women maybe. But not Mongolian women. Most women I've talked to either live with their parents while they go to school or work. Or, they live with their husbands and families. It's kind of hard to date around when you've got mom and dad and honor looking over your shoulder the whole time. They seem much more interested in finding the one person they can actually share a life with - not just the flavor of the week. Also, it's not a yurt. It's a ger. Kind of like - it's not Genghis. It's Chinngis.
I was recently listening to an interview with John Stewart and he seemed to think that research was one of the most important parts of comedy - because if you don't have the right facts you're not funny, you're just an ass. And, that's what this piece makes you look like - an ass. Most people in America don't even have an inkling of a clue of what life in Mongolia is like, and now you've painted a picture of a homely, backwater, Mongoloid existence and it's simply not true. Mongolian people, men and women, are beautiful and proud people. Who else can look as sexy as Mongolians while surviving -40F/C temperatures?
Don't get me wrong, Mongolia is by no means perfect - it's got it's share of problems. But, fashion is not one of them.
Stevie, dear - get it right please.

With embarrassment and frustration,
An American in Mongolia

If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home I've ever been.

I suppose that this is the time of year when people start reflecting on the past 12 months. We start measuring how far our lives have come, and plotting a course for the next 12 months. Well, I have come pretty far if I do say so myself. Starting the year at an AIESEC conference, learning about this far off, magical place called Mongolia. Spending a week in India on a mission trip, of all things. Seeing my family in Michigan. Road tripping across the country with my best friend. Moving to Utah to move to Mongolia. Getting kicked out of my apartment. Taking "black" taxis, trains, sleeper buses, and other fun things to get in and out of China. Moving into a new apartment. And so,so many other things.

In 5 days I will have been in Mongolia for six whole months. That's crazy. It certainly does not feel like 6 months has passed. At least, not at a normal rate. In school, time always felt like it was dragging. Not this time, no sir. 5 days until I've been here for six months, one month the first ever conference for AIESEC Mongolia will be closing, in one month and four days I will be going to Italy, and then shortly after that we will have elected and selected the next MC team for Mongolia 2011-2012. And, my team will start passing on the legacy we have been working our butts off to create. Then we will move on and dive headlong into another year of craziness.

In the spirit of reflecting on the last year, I think it would be fun to do a "things I've learned this year" list:
-Road trips are best done with good friends and loud music
-Never eat unwashed street vegetables
-Traveling on a poor man's salary can result in interesting adventures
-Supposedly you can get chlamydia from koalas
-Teammates make tough, awkward situations so much easier
-Skype is truly a gift from the gods
-Downloading is fun for everyone!
-Camping in the cold without a sleeping bag is probably a stupid idea, but will result in great stories and hours of enjoyment, well, for your friends
-Poker is an internationally appreciated way of buying friendship
- -20C really isn't that cold (-4F)
-Getting dragged into teaching English is not at all related to your ability to teach
-Coats can be magic
-If the electricity, the hot water, and the internet are out it's probably time to go out for a beer
-Drinking and working don't have to be mutually exclusive activities
-Sometimes strippers show up at the most unexpected places
-Labels on food should always have pictures, languages are unreliable
-Walking on ice in boots without treads is fun! Or dangerous...
-Sometimes the smallest ideas can lead to the biggest adventures








"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

Winter camping

What's more crazy that spending the night in a ger without a sleeping bag in -15 Celsius? Probably hiking up a mountain at midnight in the same -15 degrees. (5 Fahrenheit). Or driving down the road with 7 people and a dog packed into a car with 5 riding on the outside of it. And, where else is all of the possible, but in chilly, crazy Mongoland.

So, it was one of my friend's birthdays this weekend and for her birthday she decided that an 8 hour hike out to a monastery (which I skipped)and overnighting at a ger camp would be the best way to celebrate. So, 14 crazy people hiked out and another 10 crazy people joined them post hike to party hardy in some gers about an hour outside of the city. And, of course the ger camp was at the bottom of a hill/baby mountain so why not climb it in the middle of the night? I couldn't find an adequate answer so I climbed it with two of the other campers. It was cold, but gorgeous. There was a fully moon to light everything up, which made hiking easier. The stars were big and bright. And, all of the mountains and valleys we could see from top were lit up beautifully. Then I spent the night bundled up in my parka sans sleeping bag huddling between a fellow sleeping bag-less, parka bearing camper and the ger stove for warmth. Fortunately one of the guys in my ger used to live in a ger for real during his Peace Corp days so he got up early and re-kindled our fire. Which was awesome. We hung around for a bit in the morning before Jocelyn's car could get a jump so we could drive back to the city. Most of the people who hiked in to the camp on Saturday were hiking back out to a nearby town to catch rides back to the city. We crammed a few into Jocelyn's car just for the short ride - 7 and a puppy in total. Then when we passed some of the hikers on their way to town to catch a ride a few of them jumped on the car and stood on the runners and held on for the 5k ride to town. All in all we had 12 people and a puppy in or on the car until we got to town. And from there back to the city it was a mostly normal car ride.

Today is team day for MC Mongolia complete with massages at home (from a blind Mongolian lady trained in Japanese style massage - whatever that means), dinner and movies. Yay!