FIESTA

bits of summer

The past four days have been in the top few of my semester...and i'm trying to block out the fact that it's monday and my apartment still looks pretty much like it did when I woke up sunday morning. A weekend full of sunny weather, fake birthdays, good friends, and a lot of setting aside responsiblity - i have to say it was close to perfect. The perfect ending was a much needed bbq, a little beer pong, and some laddergolf on a sunday evening with some people i love.

Play that rock and roll for me

Last night pretty much was amazing. Friends in town from milwaukee for my 'birthday weekend,' we headed to Ben last night at the orpheum. The show was great, one becuase it turns out he's great live, funny as hell, and we were in the front row. His string broke at one point in the show and he let two dudes come up on stage and re string it for him... Alyssa and I made eye contact with one of them and motioned for them to go up to the microphone while ben was at the paino and start 'singing.' They did- ben loved it and after the song raised his hands up and down to the guys and praised them. So great.

After being denied back stage, I ended up getting to talk to him after and asked him to sign a free XXXL pepsi shirt a rando girl gave to me. Then i told him i was bummed he didn't sing my favorite song...he leaned in sang to me

We've been in the rain
We've been on the mountain
We've been round the fire...

Ben Kweller serenaded me, and I think I'm in love.

Color Esperanza

Can't stop listening to it!!

That's a lot of dog poop.

Jaded

-How events are run in Madison/ in @/ or lack there of
-how teams work to gether or lack there of
-finding a traineeship/the process/or my ability to find a TN
-communication between team leaders and lc members
-lack of a logistics team, or lack of my ability to rent rooms
-lack of unity in the US on recuriments for people to go abroad
-repetition of the same conversations i feel like i've had since i joined- but with new members for the past 4 semesters

Right now I can't imagine being a senior having been in @ for 4 years. I might go crazy a little bit before then....

great.

I subleted my apartment and turned down my summer job.

My TN that i accepted officially for the summer just officially fell through.

newest distraction

movies-->pick your fav-->click continue to content

its a hit and a miss with quality though

alluc.org

when its starts stopping- yeah

reading, people watching, chatting, looking for someone to buy me a beer. Oh Madison in Spring.

i'm going to miss a lot of people next year.

leave your team...

with them able to do your job better than you could.

Last semseter at our HIV/AIDS event I organized there were probably 30 (thats pushing it) people in attendance- with one name and email address listed on the INTERSETED? sign up sheet. That person is now looking for a TN in Africa this summer with the ASK program.

This semester, our LOST CHILDHOODS event, had over 70 people- with people sitting on the floor. That same person looking for a TN through the ASK program helped organize this event, and our INTERESTED sheet had over 13 names at the end of the event.

Just think of the potential of those 13 people.

inhumane

(CNN) -- A lone gunman is dead after officials said he killed at least 31 people Monday during shootings in a dorm and a building housing classrooms at Virginia Tech, making it the deadliest school attack in U.S. history.

unbelievable...

I get the point.

I opened my email today to find 5 new emails. Each with the same message:

Hello Katy,

Your role, Event Coordination Team Leader, with AIESEC Madison will expire on 5/15/2007. If you would like to extend your membership in this role, please visit your profile screen by logging into http://www.aiesecng.com and clicking the Profile link at the top-left corner of the screen.


Thanks!
AIESEC United States


strange... onto my next endeavour.

matching troubles

COLOMBIA MEXICO COLOMBIA MEXICO COLOMBIA MEXICO.

bits of Mexico

Ring true? hmm...

Your Top Strength

Curiosity and interest in the world You are curious about everything. You are always asking questions, and you find all subjects and topics fascinating. You like exploration and discovery.

Your Second Strength

Fairness, equity, and justice Treating all people fairly is one of your abiding principles. You do not let your personal feelings bias your decisions about other people. You give everyone a chance.

Your Third Strength

Appreciation of beauty and excellence You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.

Your Fourth Strength

Zest, enthusiasm, and energy Regardless of what you do, you approach it with excitement and energy. You never do anything halfway or halfheartedly. For you, life is an adventure.

Your Fifth Strength

Citizenship, teamwork, and loyalty You excel as a member of a group. You are a loyal and dedicated teammate, you always do your share, and you work hard for the success of your group. Check it out.

Don't cry

if you can't read this...you can hear him for free soon.

GV and love of my life in one day?! My life is complete...

Ser mas

It's crazy how easily you can forget about the paper you haven't started thats due tomorrow, when you get roped into something new you're totally into.

Can we match 50 SNs with Colombia and Brazil with Ser Mas for summer?

You bet your ass we can.

can't shake it...

One week ago today i was climbing pyramids... I guess the next best thing is sitting in a computer lab in van hise, watching a blizzard outside the window, and listening to all of your new @ music from the conference...AQUI NADIE ESTA CANSAO!

dang remixes

laugh hard please.

MSNow you're talkin'

hayes.katherine@gmail.com

counting my chickens

With the thoughts of Colombia absorbing my thoughts on account of this lady for the past months, the past 2 weeks did me in. I fell in love with the Colombian delegation and i felt a pang of jealousy and longing as they got back on their planes for the country I so blindly have been loving, and so desperatly want to experience.

The frustrating thing is that there are not many opportunities for summer internships in Colombia- it's just a fact. And if the intership pool didn't show me this before i left, the conversations i had with every VPX at the conference did.

I just made a verbal agreement not to agree to any TNs for one week (including an opportunity waiting for me in mexico city), until a few @ers in Medellin can work their magic with these folks, trying to set me up with a sweet summer job.

Nervous and anxious to the max....

AXLDS Mexico 2007

I'm sitting alone at my kitchen table back in my little apartment in Madison, Wisconsin. My roomates are asleep and I have time to think. For the past two days I have been back in Racine after my 15 day long non stop adventure in Mexico. Extended family was in town and they all wanted to hear about my stories from the trip.

Oh Mexico. Where to begin i thought. Did they want to hear about the conference?

The conference.

Could i describe to them how i felt when I ate, lived, danced, talked and became friends with individuals from almost 20 different countries?

How about how suffocated I felt when I felt like I couldn't speak spanish. The one area in school I have felt passionate about and secure about was suddenly pulled out from under me. The panic I feltwhen I struggled through my sentences cringing at how choppy it sounded compared to the ease of the conversations floating around me. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, spanish spanish spanish... I finally was surrounded by the real thing and not 'classroom spanish' which was the onloy thing i had been exposed to for the past seven years... and i couldn't understand it. It was fast, there was slang, there was abbreviations, it was native, it was fast, i felt lost.

I couldn't describe the divide i felt inside of me of how disconnected i felt from the rest of the delegation in so many aspects but yet somehow how incredibly intertwinned I was with them. And how at one point i had tears rolling down my face because i felt i hadn't opened myself up enough at the conference and hadn't taken advantage of the situation i was in...and later had tears rolling down my face for just the opposite, saying good bye to the incredible people i had met and the friendships i had made.

Post conference...

Completeley different than the first week. Incredible by all means. A couple of days on the beach of the pacific in 8 huts with 30 @ers is bound to slide a few curve balls past you..fast forward to flight changes and unexpectedly jumping on a bus to Mexico City for four days sleeping on the couch of an @er you just met (yes i can say i have officially done what we claim so often in our info sessions) and spending some time getting to know the biggest city in the world.

Mexico City, D.F.

This city was so different than anything I've ever seen. The subway, the pyramids, the people, the food, the buildings, the houses, the streets, the smells, the nightlife, the traffic, the police... It was experience thats for sure. I can't say I fell in love with the city- but there's something about it that's lingering with me.

I'm home.

Now what? For one, I feel like someone pulled the curtains back on a window people my age never get to see. AIESEC aside, i can't say I know anyone who has friends spanning the globe. Real friends, Friends you feel comfortable enought to call up and tell them what's on your mind. Even in AIESEC, how many people in an LC have the opportunity, or seize the chance to see what I did and experience it in their own way...not enough.

I wish i could post pictures for everyone..but after a slow and painful death,(camera lost, camera found, screen break, shutter break, 200 picutres deleted) i have no visuals of my extended spring break 07.

After everything i've felt, and all the stories coming back to me, and all the people i'm missing so much while putting together this post, it's a fitting way to go to sleep and letting go for the evening, with a random one line gmail chat from a new friend in Colombia:I'm going to sleep

Luv u

Bye

Oh Si

I'm home and exhausted. A million thoughts and feelings are running through my body right now but i can't funtion or express anything tonight.

I will sleep soundly tonight, with memories putting me to sleep and knowing in the back of my mind that the incredible people i've met and became somclose to won't be eating breakfast with me tomorrow, but rather will be scattered across the globe.

But that's okay, because when it's over its over, and when it starts, it starts.