Aug 16, 2009

Getting Ready for International Congress

Before I mention my latest adventures, I should explain the reason I'm travelling to the other end of the world. That reason is to attend AIESEC's International Congress 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is the biggest international conference in AIESEC with over 600 delegates from over 100 countries. There are five of us will be representing AIESEC Canada, our MCP (AIESEC Canada Member Committee President) our MCVPX (Member Committee Vice President of Exchange) and two other LCP's (Local Commitee President's). We won't be the only Canadians though. There are 3 Canadians on the Congress Committee who are helping run the conference, 2 on AIESEC International, 1 who is on the MC of AIESEC Spain and 1 on the MC of AIESEC Vietnam. Please let me know if I have left anyone out. What we will be doing at this conference is receiving direction and training from AIESEC International, meeting with other countries and local committees in hopes of creating exchange partnerships, meeting with international partners and much more. The conference is from August 22nd-August 31st. I can't wait to truly experience AIESEC in a global level. This is the first year, that our members worldwide who won't be attending the conference, will be able to virtually. Check out these videos for more information: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSxOvFdXbws, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amAU8A3rIjE&feature=related. Everyone is also twittering about this conference with the hashtag #ICMalaysia09. And we will be having IC bloggers writing about different discussion topics at http://theaiesecblog.wordpress.com/. Along the navigation bar on this page are links to the "Youth to Business Forum" which will be happening at IC, as well as links to three topics areas that we will be writing about: entrepreneurship, mobility and sustainability.

Now on to my travels. Thursday night, I took a ferry to Vancouver. Friday, I hopped on a plane to Hong Kong. I had an 11 hour layover starting at 7 p.m. Hong Kong time, so I left the airport, took the express train to the city center and from there hopped on the Star Ferry to the Kowloon Peninsula where I ate late night dim sum (char siu bau, hau gau and rice--my favourites) at the largest mall in Hong Kong, and then walked to the harbour where I took photographs of the skyscrapers across the water (see picture). After that, I hopped back on the ferry, went back on the airport express train and slept at the airport until it was time to check into my flight to Singapore.

I was lucky enough to travel on the fantastic Singapore Airlines. I arrived at noon and checked in at the YMCA International House, which ended up being a great pick. It's incredibly central, clean, friendly and affordable. I spent the afternoon walking around Little India. I checked out a Hindu temple and a Buddhist temple. I bought tevas and a memory card for my camera at the fantastic Mustafa Center. The only way I can describe it is the Indian and more excellent version of the Army and Navy store in Vancouver. I had curry for dinner. Then I headed back home and slept off my jet lag. Today is my last day in Singapore and tomorrow, I will be taking a train to Kuala Lumpur.
There is something about both Hong Kong and Singapore that make me feel at home. Maybe it's because I'm Half-Chinese and I'm from Vancouver. They are both lovely cities that I could see myself coming back to.

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