Sick0

Few days ago I was seeing an old documentary that made me conclude some thought that I was having on the past weeks. I am back to Brazil and since I came back I was again surprised with the violence wave of violence that is hitting my country. There were 2 episodes that really shocked me: first, the guy that collects money on a city bus was killed without reacting to anything – the internal camera showed the exactly moment when he was hit on his head. Almost same week, there was a girl in a restaurant that was also murdered without reacting to the robbery that was happening at her place of work.

Those episodes are relatively common in my country but I still have the capability of being completely stunned by it. Maybe it’s just because I came back after a while abroad – not in a much safer country – but away from a constant touch with the news. Anyway, I was wondering, “what could I actually do to change this situation?” Since a long time ago, it was clear for me that the main problem about Brazil was impunity. We don’t keep people in jail, they don’t go to jail, our penitentiaries are terrible, the sentences are smaller even when the crime is horrendous, and so many other factors.

Some years ago, after a huge scandal with the politicians in our country – a huge scheme to control deputies and senators to buy their votes and impose the will of the government under the country – it was released a survey done by an important magazine, asking the population: “if you were in their place, would you do the same to get the money?” more than half said yes.

That’s something that mixes with my mind. I always remember one of my professors saying: “we need to stop with this thing in Brazil of always try to take advantage of any situation.” It doesn’t seem to be something easy to conquer. The conclusion is: even when the politicians are doing bad things, there would be a battalion of many other people, eager to do the same. That’s a non-ending cycle that must go wrong.

So it takes me to the documentary. It’s called “Sicko”. It’s a bit old now and it’s from the acclaimed and also super hated director Michael Moore. I know that some of his things are manipulative – and so are all the other sources of information. The documentary is about the health system in US and a comparison of it with some other countries in the world. There you can learn a lot about how to manipulate the people, how to change their opinion, how to silence some others. Incredible.

But there was one specific sentence that made me reflect for a long while during this documentary – and it came from a person on it and not from the director: “In France government fears the people. In US people fears the government.” It has everything to deal with our reality here in Brazil.

Something that surprises me incredibly about Brazil is the single fact that we NEVER had any general strike in our history. There were some important strikes on important economic centers in São Paulo on the beginning of our democracy and some other important manifestations, but never a general strike. One teacher used to say: “if they increase the price of the bread in France, there is a general strike installed.” A bit exaggerated, but still close to the truth.

And then I was making a parallel. Even in US the democracy is not very strong. If you see, there is a difference between the representativeness of each state, tons of people doesn’t vote, and yes, people fears the government. When you look at countries in Western Europe, they actually had a millenary construction of a strong democracy. Due to that, now, they can have their governments under their control. It’s not perfect. It will never be. But it is still much better than we have in Latin America.

After a reflection, still thinking about what we could actually do, I got to my partial and for-now conclusion that we will need to… wait. It will be very hard to change the country in so many ways that is needed for us to reach a true and inclusiveness democracy. We would need decent politicians, decent pensions, a fair health system, decent educational systems and above all, people thinking more about their society than about themselves.

The steps you take...

Generally it’s not the easiest job in the world for me to find a topic to write here. I really take care of the few people that take their time to come here and see what I am talking about. In this post specifically, I had some troubles defining the title. Now that I have it, I can go ahead.

I was born in a small city, moved for another one and during this period until the time that I got old enough my family lost the resources that could allow me to see the world. I needed to find my own way to do it.

Looking back the most important moment that comes up to my mind in this journey was when I tried to join the Junior Enterprise (if you don’t know what it is, check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junior_enterprise ) in the engineering school. When I was accepted to the engineering course it was already the 6th call for students. Just I and one more were called that time. I saw the folder about the Junior Enterprise and went there to know how I could participate on their selection process. They told me that I couldn’t apply because they have already closed the applications to the process. I talked to the HR Manager and explained him my situation and they decided to accept me. That small act changed my life.

I joined the Junior Enterprise and got passionate enough to decide to quit the engineering course and join the business management one. It was funny because at that time, I used to spend more time on the enterprise than at the classes.

I was accepted to the business school and there I already knew: I wanted to join the junior enterprise. It’s funny but, the one from the engineering course at that time seemed to be better organized than the one in the business school. Because of that, at the beginning, I wasn’t very excited about it. But afterwards with my plans for that organization I started to dedicate more and more. In the end of my first year there, with one vote of difference I was elected president.

I had a very successful year and due to that I received the invitation to participate in almost every other student organization in our faculty and afterwards in AIESEC – the person that insisted so much for me to join AIESEC was a very special friend that have seen me working on the Junior Enterprise.

From that time on, what I have “conquered” during these years:

- I flighted for the first time in my life – from São Paulo to Porto Alegre;

- I met people from more than 10 states in my own country. I have friends on each of those states right now;

- I learned how to speak better English – even staying in Brazil – by living with foreign people;

- I spent an year working as national director and also have the chance to work closely to the most important conference held in the history of AIESEC in Brazil;

- I worked with people from 6 different countries while in AIESEC in Brazil;

- I left my country for the first time (my dream from the beginning of this post). I not only did that but I visited a total of 7 countries in less than a year;

- I’ve learned Spanish and lived in Mexico a country that stole part of my heart;

- I have friends now from all over the world. Some of them are from countries that I barely knew that they existed, before I joined this last position of regional manager.

Well, I could write here MUCH more. But that’s not the meaning of this post. The idea of it is to make you to think about the importance of that day that I needed to convince the HR manager of the Junior Enterprise of the Engineering School that I should be able to apply for their selection process. And that’s what I am asking for the AIESEC network more often right now. Why all of this people are not stepping ahead? What exactly are you winning and what are you losing just because you’re not trying to do your next steps?

There are hundreds of opportunities in our organization for good people like you and they are being left without anyone, just because nobody is applying. If AIESEC supposed to be an organization to provide you the opportunity to try, why so few ones are taking this risk?

It makes me a bit disappointed with the organization – to see that amazing people are just afraid of themselves. And this unconsciously makes me think if it’s exactly what’s happening – for example – with the politicians worldwide. If the ones that are accepting the challenges, are doing that not because they are good, but because all the others just gave up on their will to do so.

I don’t know the answer for these questions. But I will always remind the few steps ahead that I took in my life that brought me here (and also the many ones that I tried to take, but I just couldn’t).

Back to the rootz

I am currently living a very interesting experience: be back to live with my family.

It’s being an interesting experience. Somehow I can be outside of the group and analyze it... I don’t know exactly why – but I guess it’s mainly because I spent many years completely away from everyone here... I can join them, but not to make part of them anymore.

It should be bad... To do not belong to your family anymore... it should be. But I don’t feel like that. I can see now that I became a much better person in many senses. I am not saying that my family is bad. I couldn’t ever say that. But I felt clearly that some of my bad habits and behaviours, that gave me so much trouble along the way, are really much weaker nowadays. I am mainly talking about being aggressive, being negative and living with a lot of prejudice in my life. In some aspects (especially about the prejudice) I used to have a different approach of my whole family. But in the others... specially related to being aggressive I was always just like that – or one of the worse ones.

During my whole life I was criticized because of that. I always understood that I was wrong but couldn’t see how much. It’s incredible how living with my family takes it to another level. It’s common to scream, to fight all the time for everything... I changed. I am no longer that much like this.

I believe that the time spent in AIESEC changed me in this way. I am really much more de-attached of almost everything. I don’t buy almost any fight. It doesn’t seem to be worthy anymore. There are thousand other ways to get to the same endpoint – apart of fighting.

However, I am particularly surprised about this capacity of putting myself out and just understand what’s going on. I can understand my true roots... what made of me what I am right now. A clear example is about the concern about the environment, about wasting and being economic. Every single thing in my house is about reducing costs. It made of me a very cheap guy. Actually after living outside of Brazil for a while it helped me to be able to spend more money! :D

But the main learning point here for me is how we’re able to change almost anything we want – even in our personality – and into a very short span of time. If someone would stop on the past and tell me that I would be able to change that much about my personality, I would doubt forever. And I could actually do it. Some time ago I asked my first boss in AIESEC to give me feedbacks and points of improvement. He was totally right about the points that he wrote, but it was about the Marco that worked with him. I am now a very different person.

Now I would like to spend some time trying to rescue the things that I would miss from the old Marco. Something that I felt that I lost was my idealism. I used to be the person blind for an ideal - which is not the ideal state but for sure can drive a lot of good things and change many others.

After writing this post, I am asking myself if it should be a post or a page in a diary. Is it completely irrelevant? Should I have written it in a way that it could be more motivational in the line of: YES YOU CAN! or... is it good enough for people to know about me now or to inspire them to change themselves?

As I told before, I am much more de-attached to the things... so, I can say that... I just don’t care :D

John Mayer - 83 (all to deal with what I am talking about! :D)

My Theory (2): About gifts...

Few days ago I received a comment from a very important person for me that my blog is too sad lastdays. I totally agree and I decided to change it :). Therefore, I am back to my theories.

I don’t know about you – and it may sound as another sad topic for some of you – but I am (and I always been) particularly interested on the topic of the existence. It could be summarized on the most common questions, such as: why are we here? What is our objective on Earth? etc. Generally, those are easier questions for people attached to any religion – and I am truly happy for them in this sense. I am not one of these people, even though I must confess that I am daily more favourable to the existence of a God. For those that didn’t know me that much, it’s a huge advance – believe me. But this conversation here has nothing to deal with religion (except for the part that I already wrote about) hehe.

When I was in my high school I had the chance to meet some awesome professors that really changed my life. One of them was my “writing” professor (redação) – hope this translation is somehow okay. If my memory is not betraying me, her name was Luz – light, in Portuguese. (Such a nice name for a person... :) ).

She once told us a history that never left my mind. There was a philosopher that some years ago found as a conclusion of his studies that it wouldn’t matter WHAT you do, if you’re the BEST on what you’re doing. Sounds to be a bit obvious but the repercussion of the history shows us that is not that simple.

Having this idea in mind, he decided that he would be the best thief in the world. He was quite successful for a while and stole many important things from many places in the world. Obviously after a while he was caught by the cops – I guess he realized he could even be the best, but not perfect.

That small story always brought me the question: “What could you do that you feel like being it’s the BEST thing you can do?” It’s a question that I never could answer easily. I’ve met some people in my life that were able to say that: “If I am doing something (generally a position in a work related position) it’s because I know I am the BEST on it”. I felt many times I was very good doing many things, but to answer: what’s the best I can do... I don’t know what to say.

For a while my answer was: to play FreeCell. :D I used to be addicted to that game and able to finish all matches in a very short time. I know that’s a stupid possibility and I was just joking even with myself about it, but again the conclusion for this stupid hypothesis is what matters for me. Let’s imagine that indeed there is someone that is the best person in the world playing FreeCell. Where to this “gift” could take this person? It may sound silly, but if you change the “gift” for soccer (or any other sport), management, health issues, even poker, being a lawyer, and many other examples... it could take this person to the top of the world. Could the person that has as the “gift” to be a FreeCell player reach the top of the world?

And what if my (or your gift) is something that is not appreciated by the society? What should we do?? And for the ones that didn’t find this gift? Until when should we search for it? What about the people this fooled by a hypothetical gift for years and figured out that it wasn’t his gift? *** What if some us just doesn’t have one (I really don’t believe on that... but the proof would be so hard, that I should leave the doubt here to do not compromise all the theory)?

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*** Extra: Now I reminded something else there I would like to share with you. If you’re not interested, just jump this part...

When I think about this topic, it always comes to my mind the movie about it. It’s called Amadeus (1984) and tells us the history of Mozart. The history is narrated by Antonio Salieri – a “colleague” of Mozart that makes a pact with God to give him the gift of playing piano incredibly. At some point on the movie, Mozart is on the piano and they ask Salieri to go there and perform his last composition – he was “Vienese court composer”. Mozart – that heard the song just one time – performs it perfectly. It makes Salieri extremely disappointed and frustrated and he feels like he was betrayed by God on his pact. At that moment, somehow, he realized – at least for his standards – that he didn’t have an actual gift.

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And then, how could we go further? There are some people that clearly already know what their gifts are. It doesn’t mean that they are the best on it in the world. But it’s definitely the thing that they can do at best. That’s a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7fxIWIQ0ww

And there are also some people able to show that they can do something really good even when nobody would believe on that.

That’s another good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7ijwEwAvdo

I don’t know about you, but I am seeking for my gift. And... What about you? Have you found yours already?

The value of the things...

I’ve heard tons of things in my life. Many of these things were really inspiring. Some other ones were very interesting. Finally there are the ones that I kept with me.

“You just give value to something when you lose it.”

At some point of my life I was studying engineering in one of best schools (and one of the hardest to be accepted in my country). It meant a lot for my family – the first “grandson” to go to be accepted in a public university in my family (in Brazil those are generally the best ones). But I wasn’t happy there and I decided to quit. It was again a hard decision for me to make because I was disappointing many people that believed on me. The most important one: my grandfather.

He was the proudest grandpa in the world for having me studying engineering. He used to tell that to the whole world. I would be the next engineer of the family – after many years. I knew that quitting would be a huge disappointment for him. So I wrote him a letter. In this letter I said how sorry I was that I didn’t like to be there studying engineering but more about how much I felt bad aboud him because of how much he appreciate that I was there. I took the opportunity to tell him how much I loved him and how much I was proud to be his grandson.

I called my mom to check if she had printed the mail to give to him and asked about his health. She told me that he was good, but he was going to do a surgery. After around 3 weeks he passed away during the surgery.

My grandfather was an example for me in many senses. In his funeral I saw from the mayor of the city, doctors and lawyers to people that used to work doing home services at my home. He was a big inspiration for me about of what does it mean to be a good man. I missed him a lot when he died. But I was lucky enough to have the chance to tell him how much I loved him and how important he was in my life.

From that moment on I knew clearly the meaning of this phrase: “You just give value to something when you lose it.” I feel that right now... I miss my friends in México. I know that I did a lot to take the most from my time there – especially regarding the people around me. No conflicts, good mood, making fun with them... having fun with them. About the country itself... not that much. I didn’t take the opportunity to go around and see the wonderful places that México hides... but I know that I will come back.

Now I miss the small things from my life in México. The weather, the coffee in Starbucks, to work in La Salle, to be joking and having fun with Joss, Ponny and David all the time. I even miss a bit the food in México – my biggest challenge there. I miss my daily walk to the supermarket to buy my breakfast.

There are some things that you won’t learn eternally. You will just learn it more... once and again. I’ve learn the value of those small things again. I am having a nice, easy and balanced life in my city now. But it will take some time to pass this feeling that I am missing something every day.

If you constantly read this blog and I could advise you to learn something definitely it would be what I told you that I’ve learned here about giving value to things. Constantly in the lives of many people I can clearly see how much they don’t perceive how much the people around them are really important for their lives. How much they will miss each of those people when they leave... for any reason. It may sound obvious but as the best things of life, it’s also very simple but at the same time, changes completely your way to deal with your life. It made me a much more dedicated person and kind one. I hope it can somehow help you to do the same. :)

"(...) They paved paradise and put up a parking lot (...)"

My daily walk in Mexico City... I will miss it...

Left México City

And I left Mexico City – México. It’s funny to say like that because one of the things that I learned in México was that, in México City they call the city just as México – which makes sense from an internal perspective. And so, I left México.

In the airport I was surprised. I had much less information and observation that I thought I would have. To be more direct, the only thing that I have about the flu was a questionnaire asking about the symptoms of the flu and advising that, if you had all of those symptoms, you should postpone your trip and look for a doctor ... quite useful.

But the moments before were much harder. Being honest, I really thought that I wouldn’t leave the city when I was trying to. I was waiting for a confirmation from the flight company and since it meant that I needed to leave the country in a bit more than one day, my heart just didn’t want to believe. The confirmation came. I packed and started to say good bye to México.

From my – not so few – experiences while leaving a place to move for another, the hardest part is always packing. First, for obvious reasons: it’s boring, it takes a lot of time and you’re threatened by the constant feeling that you’re forgetting something important. But also, for not so obvious part, I realized that packing is the final confirmation that you’re leaving. It’s the turning point. From that moment on... you probably won’t get back on your decision. I never got.

To increase the hardness of the moment – obviously not on purpose – my roommate was hearing some sad songs from a presentation online. I was starting swallowing my tears. It was just the beginning of something that I would do a lot that day.

I had a lot to do in the short time due to the fast confirmation that I was leaving. I was happy for that. I had things to do – I had less time to think. My goodbye was hard and it was divided by the people. In the night before I said goodbye to some of the people that went to my home: for a bye-bye party: Pau, David, Joss, Juan Carlos and Ponny. I cried like a kid. I would do it a lot more in the next day.

Then, it was Jandris, Juan, Mari Jimena and Mariana. Crying, swallowing tears and saying the only three things that I could (mumbling) say: << Thank you – I will miss you – I am sorry... >> I was sorry. I was specially sorry because I could not see Aninha and Paula before leaving Mexico. I was sorry.

David – my new Venezuelan friend came with me to the airport and helped me during all the time. It was good because I had more time to be smiling than to be sad with him.

In the airport, something else called my attention. In every country that I visited this year, I bought post cards to keep my memories of the country. When I went to the store to buy some from México I was hit again by a hurting conclusion: I haven’t seen most of the things that were there on those post cards.

People talk to you. They say to you some phrases that you listen and you agree. You are surprised about how meaningful those sentences are. It doesn’t mean that you learned that. Life will teach you. That’s what happened to me...

“Don’t let to do tomorrow, what you can do today.” I was planning to go to get to know more about Mexico City with Paula. I was waiting for my vacations in the end of my term to travel. (...) I waited too much. (...)

I arrived in Brazil and despite of all of my expectations nobody asked me a single question about the flu. Almost no one was using masks. I was interviewed by 3 television channels – the reason why: I was wearing a mask.

The following days were slightly weird or hard for me. I arrived in Brazil coughing and it rapidly evolved to what took me to Brazil: flu. I came to my city and I woke up with a low fever, coughing, sneezing... fortunately the fever was low; I didn’t have much headache and pain in my body. Most likely, it wouldn’t be the swine flu. It didn’t meant lack of prevention.

The first decision was to do not let me to go to my cousin’s wedding. I stayed here for my grandma’s birthday and finished my weekend with my whole family wearing masks. It meant a lot for me...

- It meant that they were happy and really wanted me with them;
- It meant that I was in my country, but still isolated somehow;
- It meant missing my friends from México again. I was pretty much as I would be if I was there with them.

Tomorrow I start my actual new life. It’s so interesting to see how your life can change completely in 10 days. When I was young I set a principle for my life:

“I won’t make part of someone else life just for making part. I want to leave a (good) stamp of me on every single person that crosses my way.”

I hope I was successful doing that on México. Together with this hope, I bring stamps from my dear friends from México City.

Thank you. I miss you. I am sorry.

[we will meet soon ;) ].

Our Lady of Guadalupe (Spanish: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) with the wonderful Mexican Flag. There, I've been.

My Mexico City, today!

It’s hard to comprehend how life makes us to take decisions that are so far away from your initial plan. The situation here in Mexico is really hard to handle. Yes, it seems like a scientific fiction movie. Most of the people on the streets wearing masks, much less people in the streets than we used to see before, most of the bars, restaurants, cafes and others either closed or just serving to take home. It’s not my Mexico. In this period that I was here I learned how to love this country. There are some things that I don’t like about Mexico. I would dare to say – under my not regular emotional conditions – that there are fewer things that I don’t like about México than in Brazil.

Yesterday I was afraid. I went to the supermarket close to the time that it closes and I’ve saw a scene that I’ve never seen before. It was funny because I really think that this supermarket makes part of my cultural experience here in mexico. It must sound crazy, but it’s true. I discovered there what is a Pan de muerto (Dead’s bread) and what it had to deal with a specific date that they celebrate here in Mexico. They sold a lot of especial breads for Christmas and I got to know about it also. I’ve been there almost every single day that I was here in Mexico, because I used to buy my breakfast everyday there. Yesterday, it was completely different.

Because of the fear that they are going to start closing the stores under quarantine, people left their houses to buy products for storage. I was chocked to see that most of the: pasta, milk, water, tuna (every single can), bread, meat, some other stuff made in cans, rice... was almost all gone. It was impressive. And then, without any will to come back home more than 2 months before planned, I started to shop storage also. I bought tons of things. That was the first time in my time in Mexico that I bought things that I could eat in 2 weeks... most of the non-spoilable products that I could buy. And then I went to face the line – bigger than I ever seen in my time in Mexico. There, staring at the people, using masks, with tons of things on their shopping carts, I thought about my parents and relatives. It was hard to think how desperate they could be for me to be in this country, without insurance and under all of those conditions. I left the line and gave back most of the products that I had bought. It was a hard moment for me – I was decided to come back to my country.

I will miss Mexico. I will miss it a lot. I really like to live here. I live in one of the best neighbourhoods of the city, in a very nice and cheap city that I really like. I have a beautiful park one block from my house. Nice coffee shops, some nice and cheap food... nice life. I will miss it all. But more than anything I will miss the people here.

Due to an accident, I won’t meet my best friend here – Paula. She will stay – fortunately – for 15 more days in Culiacán, recovering herself from a car crash that happened with her around 20 days ago. I’ve just talked with one of my best friends here, and we will not be able to meet because he is lightly sick and it’s not advised for him to leave his house. Since people are not in classes, for sure, I won’t meet most of the magical people that made my experience here so nice. I am truly sad about that.

I had to take probably the hardest decision of my life. I am giving up on so many things that I was planning that it couldn’t make me sadder. But I have the support of these people as well. They want to see me healthy and ready to come back to my country 100%. That’s my best chance. I just changed my flight. I am coming back home tomorrow. I will leave this country and I leave it with the sensation that it wasn’t complete. I gave up on the dreams of travelling around Mexico, making a movie about my life here, getting to know nice and different things, people and places. Shopping random things. I will miss this all.

I leave this country feeling like a coward, leaving the people that I really like by their own. And I don’t have much more to say than: I am sorry... I am sad about it... I will miss you all!

:(

From México to México (Final Part) - About Guatemala

So, I went to Guatemala. I learned a lot of things on this trip and here I will have the opportunity to share that with you. The conditions were: still a bit tired from the trip to Italy, going before everyone (together just with Janeth) to provide support for the Organize Communication (OC) to perform and to check the financial situation of the conference.

I got there and started to work. I faced a lot of challenges since the beginning. The OC were facing 2 main challenges: financial issues and with communication. Let’s talk about to the one that is more complex: communication.

I and Janeth come up with some dynamics and we had the chance to have one day with the OC to work with those points. The mood wasn’t the best and we were a bit scared. From what we heard from them – I can be honest now to say – that we were really afraid about how this event would be delivered.

Then, the last harder to fix, but definitely the one that could generate harder consequences: money. When we finally could have clarity about the numbers in the budget – and it really took a long time to happen – I realized that the OC was starting ILC with a loss of 19.000,00 USD. I couldn’t be more afraid because the situation was indeed chaotic. The MC had no idea about this number, the OC wasn’t very concerned about the budget, no financial incomes, few opportunities to fundraise – a real hard situation to deal with.

After a while things were improving massively: the other facis arriving, the chair arriving, the start of the preparation of the conference itself. Everything was much better. I had a lot of fun with the Brazilian corner and my friends there. Keeping in mind all the challenges that we still had with the OC, we started the conference: 3 days pre-meeting that I was much more involved in OC stuff than with stuff related to the sessions that I had to deliver. In something around 2 days I was able to see one of the most drastic changes that I saw in my professional life.

We changed things in the budget: reduced meals, re-negotiated with the hotel, looked after sponsorship for beers, and checked every single line in the budget to search for possible expenses to cut. The OC finally started to work together and delivered an amazing conference. And also showed up another character in this history that I truly believe that had a huge impact on all of it: the chair.

This English dude, 22 years old – younger than most of the people in the faci team – with a great mood, the will to work hard, the ability to do everything in a very smooth way, to deal and have effective communication with a very diverse group of people, to adapt and change due to external impositions, to manage people to take the best of them.

And the content of the conference was also very appreciated by the delegates. Indeed I was experiencing the best AIESEC conference I’ve ever seen happening. I had some challenges with some stuff: DHL almost disconfirmed and confirmed the participation one day before the conference started; I still had meetings with the OC to attend and it took a lot of my time for sessions; some of the sessions needed to be done under the running-tired mode. Obviously, the results weren’t the best for my sessions.

This experience drove me to get to some important conclusions:

- You don’t need to be great, if you’re able to take the right decisions. If those decisions are related to the people that will be working with you, you’re halfway to succeed.

- Prioritizing has a cost. People will see what was damaged, but most of them will never get to really know what was preserved.

- Sometimes, one person can make the whole difference. If this difference is made by being able to manage people, somehow, it would be possible to deal with almost any circumstance. It seems to be something desirable to be chased by everyone that wants to succeed. (Yes, I’ve learned that with JJ)

- You can have some of the best time of your life... working.

- You can be effective and have loads of fun at the same time. It will depend who will be on your side.

- Shit happens. The art of life is to be able to clean it without anyone noticing. The rule for that is: don’t go against laws or ethics. Keep your boundaries with you.

- The best plate that you may taste in your life can be a mushroom soup in the presidential house of the Republic of Guatemala.

The results of the conference almost couldn’t be better: the OC left the conference having profit; the facis did some of the best sessions that I’ve heard about in my life; the delegates were extremely happy: I’ve never seen a mood good enough to let all the delegations to evaluate with the highest grades the OC more than one day; the connections between the facis was incredible – it’s been a while since I’ve seen people having that much fun; delegates learned a lot and are now able to come back to their countries to apply what they have learned: we empowered a region. The dream of many people was realized: we had a GREAT ILC.

And I was ready to go travelling around :)

I was happy that I had this crazy group of Colombians, Ruthie and Mishu to go around Guatemala. We went to: Tikal, Panajachel, Antígua and we climbed the volcano Pacaya and saw lava 3 meters away from us. It was all magical. I was really happy to have received this nice invitation and I truly enjoyed every moment of this trip.

I am happy I am finally finished this huge history. I was missing writing about random topics that I know that you that are reading this blog also like. But since I started, I thought it would better to finish. I hope you have enjoyed this history that finishes with me coming back to Mexico, where I am going to stay for the next 2.5 months.

Thanks again for reading it. And for the ones that didn’t like, don’t worry. I am sure that in the short term I won’t have such a huge route to talk about.

Cheers! :)

Ps.: I’ve also learned – again and again – about that people generally won’t recognize what you have done. But I am still happy that I am in AIESEC to learn about these things. It will help me a lot on the future. :)

From México to México (Part 4) - It's missing just one :D

So, when I started to write the series of these posts, I was clear that I would like to be as positive as possible with all the aspects. Definitely I was mainly talking about the period between the interviews and the next announcements. I really have many opinions, that I had the chance to share with some of my friends there in IPM – especially with other candidates and my GNB Family. Those thoughts would be around: the AI selection process, the process that we passed through, some questions around some of the people selected... but I really don’t want to talk about everything. In the end, what really matter is that: I wasn’t selected.

I guess everything in our lives somehow contributes for us to learn better how to lose. When you win, you get to know people that lost and that makes you think about how it would be to be in their places; all the situations that you pass in your life that takes you up and down and how you learn with them; the attempts that you did for something much bigger that you were already expecting to do not be elected; many other things. I was thinking about these situations, in my case.

I came from a rich family that suddenly started to have a lot of financial problems. I honestly think that, despite of all the pain that we had in our lives due to this big change, it was the best thing that could ever happened to me. I needed to pass from the situation of living in the best places in my city to some ones that were almost inhospitable. For a short while I was sharing a room with my father that almost couldn’t fit a bed and a closet. The whole house was small and very hot. That was a hard moment for me. After we came back for a better life condition – but then my brother had a hard accident.

Due to these facts, I needed to move from my city to another 4 times in a period of 2 years. After 2 more years, I changed again. I knew that I needed to study and then I came back to be one of the best students of my class. In the meanwhile I lived for 5 months in a room of 1.5 meters by 2. I knew that because my bed was beating both walls and if I put my feet on the wall in one side, my head and shoulders would come out of the door. Since I am 1.83, I imagine those were the dimensions.

After, I went to the Management School. There I was elected president of the junior enterprise in odd conditions. After I got into AIESEC and it started my journey of losing elections. I applied for President of AIESEC in Brazil. I didn’t get it. I tried again, I didn’t get it. I applied for AIESEC International, I didn’t get it and I applied for Regional External Relations Manager when I was finally chosen.

Those processes were very hard to me. Somehow, all of them were. I learned a lot about it and I grew a lot which makes me completely not regret about participating on them. But after all getting to this selection process of AI I got to the conclusion that: you cannot learn how to lose. It is really hard to handle that. Actually, what happened during all of those experiences that I had is that you learn how to deal better with the sensation of losing, but not how to deal with all of it.

In the first day I was really frustrated because I couldn’t understand some things that happened in the selection process. In the second I got to know much more information and instead of frustrated I became just sad with the results. It was a tough time. And one of the things that I thought during this period was “would did I lose and what did I win not being elected?”. So here comes the list:

Things that I’ve lost:

To be part of AIESEC International was a dream of mine since I went to my first national conference in AIESEC. It’s hard to see that you must give up on your dreams.

I knew that I could contribute a lot for AIESEC International, AIESEC Globally and for any region that I could be elected. I feel sad that I cannot show this contribution.

I was really aiming to live in Europe and in Rotterdam. I know that the city is kind of boring but I was really looking after it for different reasons.

I feel like I waste a lot of time in the application process, without much reason. I really worked like hell, many weekends to ensure that I could have a good application and get prepared to the process. Somehow I feel like I’ve lost my time in this sense.

It may sound stupid but whenever you are travelling and getting to know more people you get connected to them. The fact that I was being able to somehow inspire these people really attracted me. And it would be also reflected to this blog – that by the way I write in English because somehow I feel like many people can get connected to my way of life and to my ideas. It really gives meaning to this experience in AIESEC.

The things that I won:

I am tired. I am really tired. I feel that it is physically and work related. For sure there were people with much more time in AIESEC applying and they were probably not as tired as I was. I tried to find an explanation for that and my conclusion is that, I had some hardcore experience. Working in ER in the year of IC in Brazil and my experience in the IGN really drained my energy somehow. I am happy I am coming back home then, for main reasons: rest, to do not damage my performance as director, to finally finish my university, to meet my friends and family again. In the end, I am happy about it. :)

I don’t feel connected to the way that AIESEC is currently doing many things and with some of the people from the elected AI team. It’s better for me to do not be elected because I feel that I could be bringing conflict about many points of AIESEC International. It maybe wouldn’t be nor useful for me neither for the organization.

I am getting reconnected to my professional future and I must be happy for that. I never cared much about money, but to have some is also very good. I am very tired of living under the conditions that I am living currently and I am sure that I can finally find my independency in the short term.

I want to be able to show that I can be again a great professional in a company. I’ve done it before and now I have the chance again.

I am coming back to Brazil: food, family, friends, home. Not much more to say.

Coming back to IPM, I ran for AIESEC International for the 3rd time in my life: VPOS. Despite of everything that I said above, this time I was ready to lose. :) I didn’t get any surprised for not being selected. Indeed, I was much less surprised than I was for not having 3 VPs elected. And then, I spent the rest of IPM more hanging around than doing anything. Thinking, reflecting, having fun with my friends...

After IPM I had another great moment which was the trip through Italy. I finally had the chance to go around Rome and also to go to Naples (Nápole, Nápoles). I loved all of it. To see Vesuvius with my eyes, to see the Vatican, the Fontana di Trevi, to drink the hot chocolate of Naples, to taste the Marguerita Pizza from the place that it was created... all priceless. I was there in Naples with a trainee from my city (Enzo Busiello) that was a great friend that I had in Brazil. We had a lot of fun together – in Brazil and in Italy. I am still frustrated that I didn’t see the Sistine Chapter. But that’s a great reason for me to come back to Italy. :)

In three days was heading back to México for 2 days before going to Guatemala for another conference...I am heading for the last chapter of this large story. I truly hope that you’re enjoying.

To be written the last part...

Ps.: you can see the pictures of my trip here:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mtkaiesec/RomePlaces

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/mtkaiesec/RomePeople

Ps2.: Seeing now the pictures I reminded me about something fun. During the global village Driss made me eat something very spicy from Tunisia. I kept a black spot on my teeth. Nobody ever told me and I took all the pictures with this mtf black spot. People after was asking me: "But nobody told you?" The fact was that... I was taking the pictures, so nobody could see. One more time, kehding :D

From México to México (Part 3)

So I arrived to IPM. The first days were for the preparation of IGN Pre meeting. I didn’t have my luggage and the hostel was a bit lousy. But it was okay, we would stay just some few days there... so no problems with that. We delivered IPM pre meeting and everything went smooth. It was really good to be there the IGN people because they were always very supportive and they were also cooperating a lot with the sessions and everything.

I had one of the hardest moments there which was presenting my results on ER. It was interesting because, due to the situation, all the MCPs were able to understand why we couldn’t fundraise in our period. It was a personal tough time for me, but I really think they understood the point and were again very supportive.

Afterwards we got to the conference. First day it was opening ceremony and then global village. The host guy of the opening ceremony was one of the weirdest things that I’ve ever seen in my life. But anyway, on the ceremony there was a classical band playing that was simply amazing. I really advise you to take a look, even the people that doesn’t like much of classical music. It changed a bit my concept. This Harmony.

In the meanwhile between opening ceremony and global village we took a time to go to Coliseum. It is funny because, due to my impression made with movies, I always thought that it was much bigger than I saw it indeed. Global village was really cool and there were a lot of people visiting us in a warm place and we had a lot of fun shouting the shouts of our regions.

IPM then finally starts. First day was dedicated to the PAI speeches and special event. Second day we got to the stage and did our speeches. It’s funny because actually at this point most of the people not even know that you’re a candidate. But after the speech it changes a lot. It was a great sensation. Tons of people – most of them that I’ve never seen before, come to you and support you a lot. My speech I think was very different of the average and expected speech from a director candidate. I must confess that I was a bit scared after talking to some people (specially the current AIESEC International team) and they said that their speeches were much more turned to the organizational perspective. I really disagreed that it should be our approaches because, they will elect someone that is good or not on something based on ourselves. Who defines where we are going is actually the President elected and there is a huge contribution of the current AI team. Imagine all of that, without knowing for which Region in the world would you be allocated!? ...

I took my shot and did it differently. I talked about myself, my history, why I was there why I wanted to be there... somehow it worked out. After the question and answers – where they had the chance to check more about specific knowledge we passed for the announcements.

Something made me really frustrated in the Q&A. When we were in Central and Eastern Europe – Region that by the way was the one that I was prioritizing for my elections – they did the funny question (all the GNs generally always do). The question was: “Does size matter?” It was frustrating because in the beginning Mehmet and Driss didn’t get the question and when they got it they just answered: “Yes it matters.” :( I didn’t have time to think about a good answer because they were so fast... and afterwards I came up with some very good ones:

- It’s not the size of the entity that really matters but how further it can gets.

-
No, size doesn’t matters. There are some big entities that are showing no performance and in the other hand small ones being able to growth a lot and increase the volume of high quality experiences delivered.

Unfortunately my answer at that time was only, something around: yes, size matters. The funny thing is that after one girl came to us and said: just FYI all the girls answer that it doesn’t matter. It was funny.

We went smoothly through the process and we get the confidence vote. It was very interesting for us because, apparently there was a balance among the Presidents candidates. But when we got to the results, Aman won with a huge difference of votes. For the first time in the last 3 years, we had a PAI elected in the first round of votes. It was a surprise for us, mainly because we couldn’t see what happened in the Q&A and I honestly think that it was the moment when Aman actually won the elections.

Next days: interviews. I was really dedicated to the process itself, trying to relax, to think about myself, do not get too much stressed and everything. But there was someone very special in this process and I am very thankful to her. Since the beginning of the process when we met in pre meeting we spent all the IPM (and some days after together). Since we were both candidates, we were all the time supporting each other on the process and talking all day long, having fun, making fun with the rest of the people and etc. So I really would like to thanks Eva (Madeira) for all the time that we spent together there.

I was heading to the interview. I did it. At this point of time it was really interesting because most of the MCPs of IGN said explicitly to me that they really wanted me to be the next director for IGN. It was really good mainly because somehow it was a nice recognition to the work that I was delivering at that point.

And we went to the announcements... to be continued :)

From México to México (Part 2)

I left my flight and I had some difficulties to find the places where my luggage supposed to be. After going around for a while I finally found it out. After I found it, I had troubles trying to find something else: my luggage. It was lost. When I went to the place to claim my luggage, everything went fine... except for the fact that I forgot the address of my hostel there with the guy that was attending me – for them to know where they should send the luggage.

So I left the place and tried to withdraw money with my 2 credit cards. Obviously, none of my cards worked out. Without having many more options, I went to change the dollars that I had. The 100 dollars that I had became 61 euro. I am telling the details because they’re going to be important in the story, believe me. So I got the train that people told me to get. I either got the wrong one, or the indications that they gave me were wrong. Any of the two options would screw me up. And I actually got screwed.

Besides that, after I got into the train I discovered that I haven’t authenticated my ticket – which also means that, it wasn’t valid then. If any guard stops me at this time, I would have to pay a huge fine. One important part is that my ticket cost 11 euro – which means that I had exactly 50 euro left.

Finally, I’ve got to the wrong station in the metro. At this point I was lucky: no guard checked my ticket in my trip. :) From the wrong station where I’ve arrived I could either to get a metro or a bus. With my non-existent Italian, I couldn’t ask for information. When I finally could, I asked for a guy from the information centre and he told me to get the bus 910 and then the 218. When I tried to buy the ticket it cost 1 euro. I had just a bill of 50, so I needed to change the money. I went to a place with sandwiches inside the station again and there I changed my money. Went back, bought the ticket and get into the bus. After I got there, I’ve got the news from the driver that it was the wrong bus. I supposed to get a metro (do you remember that I’ve lost the address of the hostel, right?) to somewhere.

So I went to the metro station. With the stamp of tourist in my forehead I started to check the map of the metro to see where I should go. The place was the emptiest metro station that I’ve ever been in my life. After some seconds that I was checking there the map a guy came to ask me for money. Considering that he was all the time looking behind his shoulders and came to me and asked for 5 euro to do something (speaking in English) – for me it’s was a robbery attempt.

I got to 2 conclusions:

- Shit!! That’s a robbery! With 5 Euros I can spend almost 2 whole days in Mexico with all my meals!

- Man!! Thieves in Italy are so smart that they speak English!! He was speaking English better than the information guy... and thinking by this perspective, he could be providing information instead of stealing people...

So I went back to the information centre for metro station. The guy that spoke a little bit of English could teach me which metro station I should go. When I asked about the bus that I should take there to go to the hostel he said: “here is metro information! We don’t give information about buses.” I was holding myself to do not laugh reminding the public services in Brazil. :)

I followed the information, got the metro and arrived to the station. When I left the metro I didn’t know where to go... into a very deep cold weather... I walked for something like 2 blocks, got some new information and came back to get the right bus. I followed the instructions that asked the guy to stop close to the hostel. He did it, but when I left I had no clue where should I go again. I saw a street going down for a group of houses and I thought that could be there.

That was one of the most exciting parts of my trip. Since the weather was really cold there was nothing on the street. I really felt like I was any version of “Resident Evil”. I was just waiting for the first zombie to come to me and start to try to bite me and get my blood. Fortunately it didn’t happen. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the place. I checked for some place to ask for information and there was a bar around but my fear of having some zombies taking drinks on that place was so big that I decided just to come back. It was almost midnight.

In my way back I found a person parking its car. I tried to speak with it in some languages and he finally explained me how to get to the hostel. It was around 2 blocks from where I was. I thanked him and finally arrived in the place. By the way, the money that I had left was exactly enough to pay for one night for me. I just bought a very expensive internet card to tell my family this history and that I was fine. Few minutes after I started Mali arrived. She and Mo couldn’t get why I was so white and without reaction. I guess after reading this post they would understand better. :)

Until that moment my conclusions about Italia were:

• People are incredibly beautiful. And they do use the weird fashion things that we see on the television. And it works out.


• Everything was really expensive. For me, it was almost like Paris.


• I didn’t like the Coffee machine of the hotel. It swallowed 1 euro from me.


• The water to take shower was hot, but the restroom was a small fridge. I am serious about the possibility of storing some ham above the beds there.

To be continued...

From México to México (Part 1)

That’s going to be a big post. The reason is that due to the responsibilities and trips that I had in this period, I couldn’t write on my blog. So this post is actually to tell a huge story between the day that I’ve left México to go to El Salvador until the day that I came back from ILC. My full route was:

México-San Salvador-Pacific Ocean (don’t remember the name of the beach)-México-Rome-Naples (Nápoles)-Rome-México-Guatemala City-Antígua-Tikal-Panajachel-Antígua-Volcano Pacaya-Antígua-Guatemala City-México.

That’s why this post will be in parts. I will actually right everything and then post by parts to be easier to read. I will also assume another premise for these posts: I will keep myself positive. I passed through some great and some other very sad ones in these days. So let’s keep the positive ones :) I know that it would be better for everyone.

So my first destination was El Salvador. I loved being there. We had tough moments because the MC is facing some challenges dealing with the expansion in the country and also we had some with the meetings. But anyway I really liked to be there. Some of the reasons were: The MC Team, Cindy’s house and family, Estela’s house and family (my host there), Terezita, Caliche and above all PUPUSAS!!! For those who doesn’t know what is a pupusa, in a failed Mexican trial to explain it, it’s a tortilla filled with something. The original pupusa from El Salvador is definitely much more than that. :) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupusa I ate at least 5 times. And I still don’t know why did I ate anything else in the other meals.

In the end of my trip there, more precisely in our weekend, we went to the sea. I was just about to have some surprises in my life. For the first time: I saw the pacific ocean!! It was sooo cool! And a very funny thing happened. The people that were there together in the beach was preparing a surprise party for one of their friends: Mario. Unfortunately, Mario couldn’t go to the beach. Since they already had a cake and everything done for his party, they needed to change a bit the plans. Since my birthday was just one day after his, they did the party FOR ME! :D It was sooo nice! The funniest thing is that, between a Mario and a Marco there’s only 1 letter of difference :).

I spent a good time in the end in El Salvador. I was connected to people and with this same people cheering for my future plans. It was nice to be there because that people believed that I could be the person to be the next year leading their GN. I was energized, happy and motivated... ready to go ahead.

And in this mood, I came back to México. I came back just one day before my birthday. It was again a nice week here. In the other day I’ve received the best gift that I’ve ever got in my birthdays: a surprise party. It was funny because it was a very tough day for me. I received the news that one more of our regional partners were renewing the partnership. Besides that, some other things were bothering me on that day. I was really in a sad mood.

But when I got home, there were all these nice people waiting for me to get there with a huge smile in their faces, a great energy and one of the most delicious cakes that I’ve ate in my life. It was incredible. As it wasn’t as good enough they gave me a cup from Starbucks. They all know here that I am kind of affiliated to franchise :) It was really nice.

And it made me remind me about the time that I’ve got here. It was so different that I was expecting. When I came, Mexico had to handle some problems due the negotiations regarding my host. We needed to find an office where I could work and a place for me to stay. I couldn’t speak Spanish. I thought – wrongly – that it would be a tough time for all of us.

I was received here much better than I supposed to be in my own country. It made me really happy. I have some friends here that I trust much more than some people that I know from a long time ago. Besides that, they make me feel very at home. When I leave, they say – not from their mouths but from their hearts – that they were missing me. That’s something really priceless. I owe a lot of this experience to them and I am glad about it.

And I enjoyed my birthday and the next week here. I had to work in the crazy time of ILC support and IPM agenda preparation. It was a very hurried time for me, but a nice one. Before I was leaving to Italy, people in the MC office gave me a call. I honestly didn’t get a single word of what they said, but by the fact that they were all screaming like crazies in the phone, I think they were really supporting me to go to Italy and to come back elected Director of AIESEC International.

I did it! (?)

I did it. It took me a lot of time. I’ve been working even in unexpected days, such as December 25th, December 31st and January 1st on this. I’ve got in touch with many people – really many people. I’ve managed to get other people to join me in this journey. And the bottom line is: I am applying for AIESEC International.

When I started my term as ER Manager I really thought that I would be just leaving AIESEC. I thought that the time to leave the organization has come. But, I was just living the wrong experience. The final evaluation of my National Board term is that... I wasn’t anymore connected to this organization. To the ideals and the people that work towards those ideals... I wasn’t just connected anymore. But I had the great opportunity to get in love again with what I was doing... to work for a region, to make an entire continent to growth... to get connected with some of the most impressive and wonderful people that I’ve met in my life. All done... my motivation was back.

But during this time for the application some incredible things happened to me. It was a great moment. The first of it was to have some people pushing me to apply. It sounds a bit cliché but considering my President of AIESEC in Brazil application, I was really happy that people were supporting me on that. I had friends, co-workers, colleagues and even people that didn’t know me much... supporting me on that. It was amazing. I felt reconnected with my first steps in AIESEC, more specifically with the time that I was applying for National Director in Brazil. I was young, very motivated... and there were a lot of people supporting me on that.

And something else also surprised me. I feel like I am successfully coming back to be the old and good Tulio that I was for a big while. I am getting reconnected with some magic people in my life that I wasn’t for a long time – some people from my city, from the city that I lived for a long time before moving for my city... some of the most important people that passed through my life. Isn’t it amazing?

Another thing that really made me happy, I was pushing some crazy dudes to apply with me. And they just did it. It makes me sooo happy! But not because “I did them apply” (I not even feel like that) but because I know that they’re the best people to be driving this organization in their regions... and that’s why I am in AIESEC – because I believe that we have these great people and they should be working managing this organization globally.

So... it’s all good. I am very happy... most of the things that I was expecting to happen, seems to be happening: great people applying for all the positions (chances for having a great team ahead), people helping me with anything I needed, motivation up. It’s all set. Now, it’s just about hardworking more and more until the elections.

In the end this post is to tell you that, definitely our tasks were split for this job. I got the more operational one: write the application, the design and these less relevant aspects of the application process. And you all were responsible for the more strategic part of it: supporting me, giving inputs, feedbacks, wishing me all the best. Therefore, I should rephrase the beginning. I didn’t do it... we did it! And... nothing else to say but:

The power of the simple things...

My grandmother once told me about a philosopher that had a theory that the world is just the things that you can see in front of you. It means that immediately after you start staring at something else all things behind you, for example, doesn’t exist anymore. It can be viewed as a very selfish theory, but I tried to get the best of it to understand that our world is really small.

In my life I always believed on the power of the simple things – the things that you can do in your world. It has a lot to deal with many things that happened in my life and the experiences that I had. Some of the most interesting, I can also invite you to enjoy. Those happened when I was seeing some true stories in movies.
The ones that carved me a stamp were: “Patch Adams”, “Music Within”, “Civil Action” and the last one and that inspired me to write this post “Freedom Writers”. And not being a real story, the classic “Pay It Forward”. Well, if I keep saying names of movies, as a completely addicted person... I could use more than one blog.

What does people did was basically stare at their world and do not accept the reality that they had in front of them. And for that, they didn’t use of a very wide and complex set of things, but simple and impactful things: intelligence, creativity, persistence, great will...

When I was running for the national directory of AIESEC in Brazil I wanted to tell this for the people. “Dudes! We don’t have to come up with complex things... let’s make it simple and ensure results.” To do not look like it was a too crazy theory, I looked forward some “endorsement”. And I found it. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci – the most brilliant person that that ever passed through Earth for me... and “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.” Albert Einstein the person that the rest of the Earth recognized as the most brilliant one... :D

Those things always inspired me. In all of my actions I have in mind to always achieve the biggest impact with the simplest actions. And I really don’t like some people’s behaviour that doesn’t believe in this power. When it is for the negative perspective, it is easier for people to see how simple things can be impactful: shooting another person. With one bullet, one weapon and one will many people in this world ruined their lives and the ones of so many other people.

So, we come back to one of the principle that I also always take with... the Spider-Man principle :D “Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.” And it makes the whole sense because the power of doing simple things can be extremely powerful.

And how the hell does it impacts my life? All the times when I get to know these stories – through movies, books, conversations, whatever... I get so anxious about my future. Will I be able to do the great things that I want to do for the world? Which are going to be the simple things that I will be able to do to impact positively the others life? How big will be my range? Will I give up of all in a short while?

Those questions makes me reflect a lot about my future. But also and more importantly they make me reflect about the present. It’s like a checklist of my duties regarding the simple and powerful things. Am I smiling enough? Am I getting to know the people’s name? How many chocolates did I gave for people with no specific reason this month? How many emails did I sent for old friends just to tell how I am doing and how them how is it going? How many smiles am I being able to put in the others’ face? How many times did I offer some people to cook for them this month? How often am I using the words: "thank you" and "please"?

How would you be your checklist? By the certainness that it wouldn’t be composed by: “How many advanced math solutions did I developed in my life?” “The cure for how many diseases did I find this year?” “How many life changing movies did I produced in this month?”

I hope people are going to be kept doing great things. Like Einstein did with the E = MC2 or Leonardo da Vinci did when he created the first drafts of the helicopter, the hot air balloon, Mona Lisa... all around 500 years ago. But as much as I want people to keep doing this, I want them to keep smiling, giving free chocolates, hugging each other... saying: “I love you”.

Well, I feel happy after all to have those feeling to start 2009. I hope with my simple actions I will keep people cheered up for the long road :D

As well, I hope this post is making it somehow.

Trailer of the movie: "The freedom writers"