I just had a chat with Raphael, one of the LCPs I met (and talked to) at IC 2005 in India. To my pleasant surprise he has been elected for Brazil MCP 2006-2007. He will be the big Kahuna MCP! I remember one day at IC when we had an LCP functional time, I sat there looking around and wondered how many of these people will be in the MC next year. Will I be at IC 2006 next year to see them again?

The month of December was a month of pondering whether I should fill one of those babies out and send it to Ryan by January the 4th. It involves late night chat 'til the break of dawn, an-hour-long long disctance calls, a few tears shed every now and then and the sleepless nights. It has been a very very long , energy-consuming thought process. Trying to take into account everything that matters most in my life, trying to find a way to make everyone happy and satisfied (which I came into a conclusion that it is IMPOSSIBLE!), trying to convince not only myself but the people who are close but yet so far away from me - because I need their support. It does sound like I have to decide whether to pull the plug out of a life-support machine.

In AIESEC, I have never met people who are more supportive than those who I have been talking to and asking for opinions from. From my long-lost AIESEC friend whom I met on my first year in AIESEC, to my former LCP who came, after receiving an "emergency" email the night before, to talk to me at my last hour before departing Wellington to a former MC member who always giving me hard time regardless where he is located at that point being.

Outside AIESEC, I can't ask for a better friend than my two best mates currently scattered in OCSEA. I think they have ears bigger than elephant's and thicker than rhino's! I am forever grateful for that. They are not aways agreeing with me, calling me "selfish" for so many valid reasons but yet still support me for whatever decision I'm taking.

As for my parents. They are parents afterall, I can't blame them for not fully support me on my decision if I decided to run. I understand where they are coming from, they are just doing their job as parents. I think they have done quite a wonderful job at it. But I decided to step out of my comfort zone and take the challenge. It will not easy as I have to prove to them that this experience will be much more rewarding that being stuck at home and working for some random company in Indonesia. Then again, if it ain't hard, it's not worth doing, right?

There will certainly be a change on this little plan. Omitting some plans, changing the time and adding new plan onto it. I might create something like Gitti's to keep me on track. Focus, focus, focus!

The review of year 2005 is coming soon, although if I wanted to write every single thing - the good, the bad and the ugly- it will take me forever. So, stay tune before 2006! To close off this post, I will leave this quote from some lady:

When I said the last year has been a "Rollercoaster emotion ride" I did not exaggerate and the year hasn't ended yet. Since feeling pumped up and energised after NZLTM, challenges have come ... and haven't gone. Despite all those, I try to enjoy 2005 to the fullest before it ends in 9 days!

So, I hosted a dinner party. Yes a Christmas Dinner Party at my place last Sunday. Although it is called a Christmas Dinner, nothing Christmas-sy about the dinner... except for a pathetic "Christmas Tree" standing in the corner of my living room.



We surprised Nick with an emergency birthday celebration. I realised that his birthday was actually on November because Vaish brought it up when I was in Wellington. So we devise the "Surprise Birthday Party" for him and act as if that day was his birthday! Clever, huh? ;) As we expected, when we brought out the Pavlova/Birthday cake and started singing Happy Birthday he sang along with a puzzled look on his face. Funny that! Anyway, Happy *belated* 21st Birthday, Nicholas Edward Owen Hodgson!



It has become a tradition in Canterbury to always have some kind of Karaoke game everytime we got together. Since none of us keen enough to try the new Singstar '80 nor Buzz (because we think it won't be as fun), we went for Singstar Pop.

As always, Nick kicked butt in every song - except for one.. haha! I scored higher than him on Good Charlotte's "I just wanna live", though! ;) At one other song (which I can't remember the name) I scored higher than him, but being a competitive human he is, he insisted to replay and then of course he beat me. D'uh!

The Moral of the story, "Do not beat the cream too long and do not let it sitting for 3 hours without being used."

1. Excercising firmness
If anybody asked what is one thing I have learnt during my LCP term, I guess "Being firm" is the ultimate answer. Let say that I am not good at being nasty. I suppose it is good and bad at the same time. However, now that I am able to excercise my firmness, it does feel like I did something that I supposed to be doing. And I tell ya...., it felt good!


2. Being productive
A lot of things got done in the past few days. A few contributing factors are the time limit before Christmas (and everyone wants to get everything done before that!), the fact that we are out of office - literally (which means no couch to sleep on, less procrastination), and the last but not least the never-ending to-do list on everything - personal and AIESEC.

3. All good in the AIESEC front
I'm not saying that everything is perfect, but certainly it has improved a lot. I don't know whether after my refreshing holiday in Wellington I see things in a diferent point of positive view. Let's hope things will be like this until the end of term.

4. Good long chat with familiar faces
I talked to a lot of people in Wellington about the decision whether to run for MC. Yesterday, I finally got the chance to talk to my best friends about it. It was a very rare occasion where the three of us could come online together. They are against the idea - as most of any non-aiesec friends do. However they said whatever my decision is, they will support me. Well, they are best friends for a reason.

5. Good long chat with strangers
It is not very often when you got involved in a good quality conversation with the people you have never met. At least it never happened to me as long as I can remember. I spoke to an LCP elect from Columbia - we talked about running for leadership position and how "you can do it if you put your mind into it"! I think I can learn a thing or two from him.

6. Good long chat with mum
After my last conversation with her, I thought I'm in big trouble and they won't speak to me again. I told her last night about my plan running for MC next year. Somehow, it is really important to me to know whether they would support me. She said she will "talk" to my dad. When it comes to him, slim chance that he will say OK. But hey, at least I have told them.

7. Practice makes perfect
Last night was my second attempt on baking brownies. Not the Kiwi brownies/cookies - which I burnt when I baked peanut brownies for the MC. This time my brownies taste so much better (Thanks to the extra grams dark chocolate!) although the texture is a little bit .. unusual. It's still too hard and dry to my liking. I wonder how to make it more fudgy.


8. Home alone
My cousin has gone back home. I practically have the whole house for myself. I can be as messy as I want and have noone to tell me off. Of course I wouldn't be as irresponsible as that, they would'nt trust me flatting if I can't prove them that I can take good care of myself. But having 24/7 internet connection and watching whatever TV I want is a joy in itself!

9. All work, all play
To be honest, I'm suck at selling myself. I'm not good whatsoever in finding a job, let alone a decent one. Thank goodness Jo helped me to get my first interview in a..aages! Nothing fancy about the position, it's just a waitressing job, but I really need to try new things and get out of the routine. It's summer, it's Christmas and I don't have anyone/thing to spend my time with/on. It can't be more perfect.

10. Guess who's graduating next year?
Yeah baby, I AM! Over the past 4 weeks I was worried that I would fail this one particular paper which would mean a total disaster for me because I would be 3 points short from graduation. But only last Wednesday I know that I passed every single paper and will definitely be joining Ryan and Alan for graduation on April next year!! It's about time!