Life Probabilities...

What are the chances of applying for a traineeship and then watching it get cancelled aka as "On Hold"??
In my case... 100%!

Aint life funny? In the last 7 months, I only applied to 2 traineeships... Only did so when I was both sure it fulfilled my requirements and theirs, being a suitable candidate.

I am wondering if my application has a negative impact on the organizational structure of companies, in general. If that is the case I better stop thinking about my "next victim"! :)

Well... at least I am back in Portugal... will go out and get some fresh air now... at least I know I will not freeze (It was snowing when I left Madrid's office this afternoon)

I am an OREO Cookies addict!!

Yes I admit!
Being coherent with my random thoughts.. I would like to announce to the world that I am addicted to OREO cookies!
Regular ones.. But without all that "dipping it in milk" crap process (Hope I am not offending people who love this process..)
Plain and simple OREO.
Just realized that I just ate more than 2 packages of 4 in the past minutes (lets say 15 so that it doesnt sound like glutony)

And more than that.. I like everything which is sweet! So that makes me a "sweet lover"!! :) (thank God I didnt misspelled as in "sweat lover".. actually swat lover wouldnt be that bad.. nice bodies ;)) ahaha. I am definitely random at this point and the thing is that I have loads of things to do right now and I feel like doing ZERO!

Following this situation, basic rules are:
1. Eat some chocolate - DONE!
2. Talk to someone about something which is completely out of context - NOT DONE (only my boss in the open space now.. it would not be a very pretty move)
3. Call a friend - NOT DONE (roaming is expensive and company's mobile is with no battery)
4. Email friends - DONE (but they didnt reply yet so it didnt work out as I planned)
5. Write random stuff in your weblog - DONE!!!!!!

(And this is almost as if I am updating it.. so I will stop hearing the same remarks over and over again;))

Back in the neighbourhood!!

Humm.. Last weekend was.. one of the most eventful weekend in, I would say, past 6 months.
Just LOVED it!!

I wish I had this power of being sintetic and short when writing or talking.. I feel this will be a huge posting. But I ll try to stick to the basics.

I always lived in this cute small city, on the other side of Tagus river.. far from Lisbon's "way of life".
Basically my times there ruled! I had a blast everyday, I was quite crazy and adventurous and also, (how can I say this and still be humble?) quite popular.
I had this very close friend and we would rock the place wherever we go! Everyone knew who we were and everyone actually thought we were sisters (some even twins, but those dont count)

Time passes by.. went to University and moved myself into the "capitalist world" where you always have to be aware of what you speak, to whom you speak, bla bla bla... Sooner or later my connections with my old town disappeared.. almost to non-existent.

At the same time I also became different.. Less "crazy" I would say, except for work and partires in AIESEC!! :)

BUT, this weekend made me see that I was missing something in the between..
So, after a perfect dinner with my "sister" and 2 of my old close friends (back from elementary and high school) I found myself back into my old self! And the feeling wasnt that bad...

I wonder if Sizzla is back? :) :)
Lets wait for the next weekend to find out! :P

Absolut Nomadlife

Well. Needed to act upon my NY resolutions soon.Here it goes... pic no.1 :)

I guess it suits!

Absolut Nomadlife
Originally uploaded by Ana Elisa.

Corporate World Learnings - Part I

Corporate world is so overwhelming!

I just Love consultancy work... You manage to change your "area" accordingly to the different projects you are allocated to, so it is a great way to break job routines.
Moeover, it gives you the insight to different companies culture and stuff in a short period of time (compared with working for one company at the time), so it is a great way to learn, especially if you are my age and eager to learn all at once.

Last week I attended one of my clients "Sales Force Conference" :) Yeap, Motivation and Training (also called NTMS in some organizations ;)) for all those guys and girls that are selling the company's product in different channels.
During the closure speech, the Commercial Manager (this big shot) was talking about the changes that their product's market has suffered and how the sales force needed to adapt and be resilient.
He continues with his speech, covers other topics, bla bla bla and at some point he says a figure in pesetas (spanish currency before the €uro). To make things worst he says that he will NEVER adapt to € currency and that he will still continue talking in pesetas since the exchange rate doesnt make it simple to make the exchange!!

HUGE MISTAKE!

How can you tell your team to be resilient and then give a personal example about you being such a "square"?!

Learning no1 - Walk the talk. If you dont do it, at least dont talk about it during your "Face the Change" Speeches!

After the conference we had a meeting with him and his Sales Managers, followed by dinner that ended around midnight! (yes I was sleepy at this point!!)

It was so good to see how they interacted among themselves, how they were flexible and a little bit disorganized eventhough part of the management team of a million worth international company.. It seemed almost as AIESEC, although with some differences. I would dare to say: more disorganized and unstructured but way more results! ;) And with a great sense of human relationships.

Learning no2 - Dont think the Big Shot Executive is dumb just because he made a mistake during his speech. There are many other ways to keep your team happy and satisfied, goal oriented and, most of all, profitable.

Learning Spanish...

Different Phases of learning spanish, by a portuguese:

1. Ah, Spanish is so similar to Portuguese. I am sure I just have to change the ending of my words a little bit and everything will be alright. Just like Coca Cuela instead of Coca Cola :)
2. Humm.. Now that I am here maybe it is a little bit more different than what I would expect. Lets change the "I am sure I will understand 90% of what they are saying" to a 60% when they are talking professionally wise and 30% of informal talks.
3. Damn. I am not getting it! In 10 sentences I only understand one word: "Vale"?
4. Wait. I can actually speak it. Just need to keep talking portuguese, change the accent into spanish, and say "vale" around 3 times in every sentence.
5. Good. "Vale" word is actually the key for speaking spanish.
6. Oops. Maybe not exactly. Damn verbs!!
7. Wait again.. I now understand things much better.. Humm, 80% now! Not that bad. I didnt even do anything!
8. Understanding is ok now. Need to improve speaking now.
9. Quieres una Coca Cuela? :)
10. Important Note: Speak all english words, used during normal conversation (like outsourcing/job description/...) with spanish accent, otherwise they will not understand it.
11. Keep talking, even if you feel like you are SO bad in spanish speaking.

12. ...Coming up next week

PS- Well, this was actually written last week but didnt have time to put it on-line.. So step 12 is just at the corner (meaning Friday) :)

Quarter-life Crisis" - Part II

Humm... Decided to analyse it deeply comparing it to my life:

1. Check!

2. Not really. (Previous posting of mine was related to this single person that actually has pleasure in hurting my feelings so that she can feel more confortable about herself...). I am blessed with many good friends. However I wish I had kept more in contact with many of them too.. Especially AIESEC ones. I guess that is one of my life's learning.

3. Loving my job. But it is all about expectations and goals I had set up for my life. Decided long ago about an AIESEC traineeship following my MCP term. Now 6 months are passed and I am in Madrid (too close to Portugal I would say). I guess the difficulty lies in having goals that appear in your life and then you have to decide if you allow them to replace your older goals. Basically, deciding if your new goals are taking you towards a new path (that you are not quite sure) or if you are only changing into a different lane.

4. Opinions stronger? Definitely! Emotional rollercoaster in the past months? Jackpot!

5. Humm. Maybe a little bit. I like changes.. Guess the "drifting past" is more related to leaving AIESEC.

6. Heart broken? Of course, who havent? Lucky enough, not that many times. Definitely the question here is meeting Mr Prince Charming. As someone (who is now placed at the center of the office, by the coffee machine, with no MSN access ;) once said to me "Seems no one is good enough for Ms. Ana Seixas". Maybe.

7.Humm.. Dont really know what to say about this one.

Conclusion: I am having a good week! eheh :) Upper part of the rollercoaster!

"Quarter-life Crisis."

Back to blogging... After a great week in Madrid !!

Got a great comment from Aloke.. So decided to upgrade it into a posting. As he said, I also believe that many of us are passing through the same "life crisis", especially if you are/were an AIESEC'er (since I dont see my "other" friends worrying to much about this issues, really!).. so here it goes:

They call it the "Quarter-life Crisis." It is when you stop going along with the crowd and start realizing that there are many things about yourself that you didn't know and may not like. You start feeling insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or two, but then get scared because you barely know where you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that, maybe, those friends that you thought you were so close to aren't exactly the greatest people you have ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are some of the most important ones. What you don't recognize is that they are realizing that too, and aren't really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that they are as confused as you.

You look at your job... and it is not even close to what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't. One minute, you are insecure and then the next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest force of your life. You feel alone and scared and confused.

Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon realize that the past is drifting further and further away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed and wonder why you can't meet anyone decent enough that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out why you are doing this because you know that you aren't a bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot starts to look pathetic.

You go through the same emotions and questions over and over, and talk with your friends about the same topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You worry about loans, money, the future and making a life for yourself... and while winning the race would be great, right now you'd just like to be a contender!"

A Special Song

After a really good weekend, on my way home.. One truly special song started on the radio. Acoustic version, of course.
Once again, it appeared just at the right moment.
Once again, powerful:

This ain't a song for the broken-hearted
No silent prayer for the faith-departed
I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice
When I shout it out loud

It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive (It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said I did it my way
I just wanna live while I'm alive
It's my life

This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky
Got to make your own breaks

It's my life
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive (It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

Better stand tall when they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break, baby, don't back down

B.J.

Decisions, uncertainties, next steps and all that bla bla bla

Sometimes you feel like you have your entire life figured out.
However that is not the way I feel now.. And this is a strange feeling for someone that always likes to know what is up ahead, way in advance.
I wonder what is up ahead now, and that uncertainty just frightens me.

Spent the entire night having dreams about things I dont want to think about during daytime, so I guess my conscience is really forcing me to wake up and react.

Some days I am sure I want to stay where I am.. Lisbon, Madrid.. loving it. Sometimes I just feel like I am stuck here instead of being far away in another country long time ago.

When I started my current job it was supposed to be a 3 month maximum routine, while I was looking for my traineeship abroad. More than 6 months have passed now..

Sometimes I think why didnt I go for an MC abroad? I still miss AIESEC.. and I would be in a different country too. But then again, my time has passed.

So I find myself in a permanent question mark, with exclamation points somewhere in the middle...
The curious thing is that right after my "2004 Evaluation and 2005 Objectives" exercise, at one of my dearest places, I was quite sure of my path until September 2005. It was water clean!!

Today I woke up and that feeling is not there anymore!
DAMN! urghh..

First Random Thoughts in 2005

Back to Madrid.

A New Year has started. Welcome 2005! :)

Last 3 days were really nice. Better than expected, indeed.
After the "I hate you stuff", I thought I would have this terrible evening. It turned out to be a nice surprise. NYE was nice (but nothing spectacular) but the 1st of January was definitely a good way to start the year.
All day eating, dancing, drinking (coke :)) and karaoking.. Yes, for the 1st time in my life, after suffering many pressures I sang my first karaoke song. Now that I thinik about it I dont even remember whose song it was. But my friends say it has been a huge progress. I believe it.

Hey, just remembered another progress. First time in a long time (past 5 years I would say) that I dont feel sad and cry at midnight... I always had this wish of being somewhere else with someone else at that point of time.. This time I didnt!! Pure fun and me jumping around Rafa's pool... Trauma #184164 (random numbers) overcome.

Also want to thank 4 dear friends that sent me lovely, customized, texts... You made my day. I know I was a b-atch for not replying but the thing is that I dont have credit on my mobile... Sorry for that. Anyway, an email will drop by in your inbox soon. Love u!

For all of you that sent me standard Christmas and New Year's texts, thanks also. But please remind yourself that I dont like them and I believe it is just a way to get companies like Vodafone richer. But good to know you thought of me. I also like u! :)

Another New Year's Resolution:
2- Upload pics to the blog. ASAP!