My life here

I’ve been here for a two month period of development internship through AIESEC, the world’s largest non-governmental student organization. My work here is to complete the communication works of one of their project named UniCLab. The purpose of UniCLab is to offer the local students an opportunity to put their business knowledge into practice and also to help the local enterprises with their development. I, with another intern Rafael who is a smart Brazilian guy, am in charge of the communication work, such as creating website, wiki and all promotion materials of the project.

In fact I used to do this kind of works in the past especially for my association of PRSCUT. But now, when I have a lot of time and start to think about how to promote a new brand or a so-called “product” to a new market here, things seems more challengeable. But as a student of a communication faculty, this case also means a chance for me to understand my study better.

About my life here, I hope I can find a word more accurate than “enjoyable” to describe it. I enjoy my life here not only because of the good living conditions especially this quite comfortable small city, but also for everyone I met here. I can remember some of my most enjoyable moments here.

One is outside my room door in Golgi. On the second day I arrived there, I met some problems with my lock. And when I was worried about it, a girl from my neighbor came to me and helped me with it. Though this Italian girl can’t speak English, I can also feel her kind heart through her smiling face and gestures.

The other time is in Nick’s room, a Italian guy who have stepped on more than 10 counties’ land of the world. He invited me and Rafa for a dinner after the country presentation. We had a simple but nice dinner of pasta. After that we, one Italian, one Brazilian and one Chinese, talked a lot from our three countries’ university education to each cities’ character that we’ve ever travelled before. From Roma to New York, from Madrid to Hongkong, from Philippines to San Paulo, from Romania to Cuba, I tried to know the world in a new angle as if I had gone with them to start a world trip.

What’s more, there was one time that Francesca invited us for a dinner with her family. Though we can’t communicate with her parents very well, the laugh that they expressed by heart, the dishes they prepared elaborately and even their old photos they took in their hometown, all of these remind me of my family. Maybe the custom or the food differs from China to Italy, but the love filled in every home is the same.

I think these moments I can’t experience in a ordinary tour. But these kind people I met here, and also with these fantastic life I saw from them, are the most meaningful and enjoyable things to me.

The silk road

This is my forth weekend in Italy. I have been reading quantities of blogs this afternoon. Some of them are the reports of the returnees, some of them are my friends’ 2009 review, some of them are the comments on current events and the rest of them are just the simple but genuine words that I wrote several years ago. It is too marvelous to imagine that one day I can stay here, a tiny but quite beautiful city in Northern Italy, to recall my past life.

My name is Harriet, a Chinese girl who came from Canton and started her first exchange experience to Italy 25 days ago.

-“Is this the first time that you come to Italy?”
-“Actually this is my first time of being abroad.”
-“Wow!! Really? Why for Italy?”

This conversation appeared every day in my first days here. “Why Italy?” This question has also come out everyday during my match time. I think there is no doubt that Italy has the longest history in Europe. And there is no doubt either that Italy has the complicated but attractive culture in its religion area, political area, art area and even in their daily life. For a boy, it’s a place where it has the most exciting football match. For a girl. it’s a place where it holds the most amazing fashion week in the world every year. And for a tourist, it’s a place that combines the mount of Alps and the sunshine of Tuscany. I would hardly give up Italy if I had the chance. So why not? This thought turned out to be a belief and became stronger and stronger after I sent several emails to Fede, the lovely VPX of AIESEC PAVIA.

The process of match is tough but meaningful to me. With the pressures of my colleagues and my parents, I learned how to insist on my dream and to face the pressures all by myself. I think the meaning of AIESEC exchange is not just about the experience when we’re abroad. We also gain a lot from the preparation till some years after. I think several years later, when we reread the words in our diaries, we will also remember these sparkling days in our most beautiful age.

From China to Italy, a 22 hours journey not only just brought me from a Eastern country to a European country, but also brought me to a new kind of life where I can discover more about the world and myself. So when I stepped on the land of Italy, where Julius Caesar have said the words “Veni Vidi Vici” and founded the Rome Empire, where Marco Polo began his journey to China, where the Renaissance or even the new age of Europe originated, I finally began to smile, to this wonderland, and also to my dream.



“Change by soul, change by steps.” This sentence was written in my diary when I flied over the land of Siberia and became to the credo of my life here.

Benvenuto!

Ciao Pavia!

It's officially released the blog of the exchanges of AIESEC Pavia! \o/

The objective of this blog it's to put together the stories of all the exchanges realized by @Pavia, so this blog is gonna be written by us, the interns of this particular LC in Italy!

I'm Rafael Campos, from Brazil and I`m here in Italy to work in a project of AIESEC Pavia called “UniCLab”, but I talk more about it later! The exchange has 2 months of duration and I have also a partners in this job, her name is Harriet, but I think that she is gonna show up here soon.

Right now, I'm in the middle of my forth week, and I what I can say so far is that I`m really enjoying my stay here in Pavia! Actually I can’t even say that the fog suck anymore, since the weather is getting better and better! (But fog is in fact a characteristic of the city!) The people here have been really friendly and helpful! Pavia is a small town, but the city is good for the exchange life! I mean, you can do everything by your feet! 

Another good thing about Pavia is its location. Pavia is really close to Milan (30 min or 3 euros!) and also to some others cities in Italy, like Torino, Genova, and so on.. 

Last weekend I went to Torino with Harriet and our particular buddy and friend Valeria! It’s a really nice town, which has almost 1 million people, but actually it looks more like a small town in some country side. It's charming and calm! We went to this Egyptian Museum and we walked around the city checking the ancient and historical buildings and streets, like you can see in the following picture.

Ok... this is just a small post to get the blog started! But I'll try to came back soon!

Até mais..

Tchau!