Panama

So we finally arrived in Panama City. Let me tell you how the journey went:

It was plain.... great! I never imagined a bus to be that comfortable. Honestly, I've never experienced such great comfort! Even I had legroom and was able to sit comfortably. We were traveling in an executive bus with food and drink included. We departed from San José at 11 p.m. and took off to the Costa Rica / Panama border. Alberto fell a sleep right away but I was looking out the window and took my last, imaginary pictures of San José by night. It was incredible to see the illuminated city from the mountains top - something I will never forget. I soon also fell asleep and enjoyed my comfortable chair. Both Beto an me woke up when we arrived at the border. It was already 5 a.m. and we had almost slept for 6 hours - wow. When we were standing in the line Beto told me that we had to wait for an hour until the border actually opened. It was already getting warm and the sun was shining. Waiting for one hour? We just woke up from a 6 hours long baby sleep. We decided to get a coffee at the bar opposite from the Passport control. We crossed the border by feet, I had never actually done that before :). Next stop was the Panama immigration where I had to prove that I have booked a ticket to get out of Panama. I thought, great now lets go back into the cold bus and roll... but noooo, we had to grab our bags and get to customs control. Every single bag was supposed to get checked and after a while the customs officers said, that in order to check the bags, everybody has to get into the small room we were already standing in. It felt like two hours until the officers finally started to check the bags. When it was my turn he wanted to see my passport and asked from which country I was - Alemania. Ok, you can go. Ok, you don't want to check my bag?! Again I was "favoured" because of my European passport - great success for me. I encountered my first cockroach in Panama - so Costa Rica doesn't have any :P.

Back in the bus it time for a breakfast. Afterwards we were disappointed that we haven't ordered the gallo pinto at the bar, because the breakfast consisted only of a soft toast and one cookie. I headed back to sleep right after the breakfast and woke up for lunch out of a box. When we finally arrived at Panama City we were met by an incredible heat. Since the air condition kept our bus on a nice temperature, when we headed out it was unbearable. We took our luggage and went to the close by shopping mall and grabbed some food and coffee until somebody would pick us up and take us to the university.

There we met some members of LC USMA and were impressed how hot it still was - at this time it was already 7 p.m.

The time in Costa Rica was incredible and the people as well. THANK YOU!

We're off!

So, now it's our turn to leave. We'll take the bus down to Panama... the bus. The BUS? The journey will take approximately 17 hours. Pough! I've been on bus journeys several times but never has one been that long. I don't know how it will turn out to be, but hey we're young and we can still do these things :). I will tell more when we arrive tomorrow. Good night or Good morning to you guys in Germany!

Accessment Center, the second.

What? Oh yeah, I was an observer at our last AC and got to know how the whole procedure works. On Saturday it was time for my second experience and it was actually interesting to see how it's done over here. you have 5 stations which a team of 5 has to complete. But first you apply for the AC and have an interview. If you then decide on going abroad you have to pass a review board which will allow you to apply for internships around the world (hopefully only for Hamburg). We presented the cooperation to the new applicants and actually met two willing to go to Hamburg soon.

Goodbye?!

Well yeah, not for me, but a member was having his goodbye party at a club close to university on friday. It was actually the same club that Beto said goodbye before he left for Germany. We had some nice talks and dances and I was, once more, impressed by the way latins just dance. I mean, I was dancing for more than 3 years and took several tests, but I don't know if I could ever get it to look so good. It seems that it's a way of being: you grab a girl listen to the music and off you go :). Very interesting - I should try to get it to look so good when I'm back in Germany taking my classes :) (hint to Kira).

That was nice :).

So the first company meeting went very well. Amway, an American company, just established an office in San José and has agreed on a meeting with us. We met the HR-Manger and had a very nice talk. There were four of us at the meeting: the VP Sales & Delivery, Byrol, the OCP for the conference Jump, Daniel and Alberto and me and were able to convince her about the advantages of AIESEC both for conferences and the internship cooperation between Germany and Costa Rica. After the meeting we headed back to the University and talked about how we proceed with future company meetings and the promotion of TNs/EPs.

At night we met the VPOGX elect, Susan and talked about the Hamburgs TNs for potential interns. We later headed down to Eljuan ( :P ) and had a couple of beers with some interns and members.

Our next day started with some work as we were preparing an information sheet for the next company meeting at Heidelberger Druckmaschinen. Our contact unfortunately had no time but eventually fixed a meeting with the general manager instead. He was also German and sounded interested but told us that the company at the moment could not offer any internship. He gave us the contact to the Costarican / German Chamber of Commerce.

Great things can happen

Last week was all about acclimatization and experiencing the country, this week is all about the work :). The last days we planned the next steps and sorted all the TNs CAS has to offer, I called the german company Heidelberger Druckmaschinen and got an appointment on thursday and today we have the first company meeting. The current VPICX / ER will accompany us. Yesterday we were lucky to arrange the two first internships especially for Hamburg. One is a technical and the other an educational (re-raise) trainee ship. Both required good Spanish and are already open for application. If you're interested just send me an email.

The volcano

Costa Rica has numerous volcanos and yesterday we took a trip to one of the most famous ones. As I said before, the roads in Costa Rica are great and so was this one. Our way took us through the mountains and famous coffee-plantages. It was incredible to see the city from up there and the weather was great. Not too hot and not too cold. Unluckily the wind was not too good so all the smoke from the crater was blown in our direction. But we got a glimpse at the lake and half the crater. The way to the lagoon seemed like park walk through the exotic part. All kinds of flowers and trees on each side dripping water (almost like in a rainforest). The place was very exotic in my eyes and we even saw a bird :P. After the walk we were very hungry, I was craving for frijoles molidos (mashed beans) the whole morning. Beto said, we would have lunch at Rosti Pollo, where you get chicken and of course my favorite costa rican dish. The night was pretty calm and we had some traditional food at a restaurant near by.