Visit at the beer factory! :)

Oh yeah baby! AIESEC in Białystok organized a visit at one of the biggest beer factories in Poland! Here is produced the Żubr beer, maybe the most popular beer in Poland. Actually, this beer is produced in 3 places in Poland, but this one produced in Białystok is the best, because of the higher quality of the water used for if. The little trick is to look for the bar code written on beer when you buy one. If it begins with "34..." then it's ok, it is made in Białystok. ;) They also make other Polish known beer like Dębowe, Classic, Lech, and others. For details, visit http://www.kp.pl . Unfortunately the security officers wouldn't let us to take pictures inside the factory, not even outside...

Here, żubr (bison, zimbru) is a brand used everywhere. There are lots of this beautiful animals in a natural habitat 40 km from this city. They exist in Belarus as well, it's a shared reservation between countries. So, you can imagine that almost everywhere this symbol is used. The most known brands are this beer, the vodka Żubrovka, and the BISON products, made at the company where I work, Bison-Biał but you can find many stores, many products that use this name or something related with it.

It was pretty nice, visiting all the departments in the factory, noticing how the magic potion is made. I was looking inside a lot after BISON products, especially for pipe chucks, but I didn't saw anyone. It was a hard day, the weather was dark again and all of us were yawning a lot. Together with AIESEC Members came also 3 Erasmus students from Turkey. These guys are really cool, we shared some things about Romanian and Turkish culture.

Here is me at the company banner near the factory.

I love that beer! It tastes great and it has a bison on it...

Body Language Training

Well, this was the first time when I was in front of AIESEC Białystok as trainer. I hold this training at LC Meeting with Wanda and Gosia, 2 members. Actualy Wanda is VPPD. Gosia hold first part, presenting Body Language basic things, Wanda presented Body Language aplication in interviews, and I presented some aplications in sales. All worked out as planned, the only obstacle was a girl who thought she's smart enough to challenge me :)) and tried to ruin my training, but I finished her in 2 minutes, demonstrating through practical examples that the Body Language position of the seller endeed counts and can influence the seling process. I think they liked it, it was full of funny examples and everyone had a good time also. They suggested me to be chair at their next LCC in December. It's a kind of Motivational Seminar that will last 2 days. I accepted, this will be my first experience as chair! :)

Romanian evening

I asked Grzegorz if my place will be big enough for 30 people, because that was the number of AIESEC members that supposed to come. He said... "Yes, of course!" ... so I invited everybody at my place.

Of course they were late for a half an hour, I told you that they are very similar to Romanians... I was dressed with my grandfather's clothes, so I had a really strong impact on them. My guests were touching me a lot, some of them were interested in my belt, because it was very old and made completely from animal leather. Actually, this style of belts is no longer made in Romania, because the artists from the village where these are made have been moved to Texas and now are manufacturing this accessories for USA cowboys.
Anyway... I have 6 international guests: My dear AIESEC trainees and 3 guests from Bangladesh. I was surprised to find here in Poland students from Bangladesh, so I invited them too because for them was something different, they wanted to find new things about European cultures.

The owner of the flat was shocked when he saw so many people into his apartment, but he liked the idea and he stayed with us until the end of the party.

I made for this guys a "mamaliga cu branza", that's one of the traditional dish in Romania. In some Romanian villages, the people still eat "mamaliga" a lot, it is mixed with any kind of food, instead of bread. It was the first time when I cooked such a thing, but it turn out OK! They like it! :)

After I finished my country presentation, we continued the party, in my flat. Hm... I'm wondering if If should say this or not... but... anyway... they were playing "beaches beaches" and they put another rule for the punishment, this time the one who made a mistake was supposed to drink and to get off some clothes also. After 2 hours... there were 2 girls topless and 3 guys in their underware :)

Whooo! The Polish surely drink a lot! After the party when I was cleaning I counted the bottles of beer and vodka and they were... over 100.

I'm very glad that the Romanian Evening was a great one! Everybody liked it! Actually they suggested me to organize a party every week at my place, but I want my flat to be as intimate as possible, so the parties will be somewhere else.

AIESEC in Białystok

What about them... they are about 50 active members and they have 4 locations that can be used for LC meetings... As in every LC, the LCP and EB are working a lot, I have seen other members pretty involved as well. I noticed that they have entrepreneurial projects and CSR also. As a planning system it's used the balanced scorecard. They are crazy beautiful people, pretty similar to Romanians. They like to party and they are going to pubs to drink and have fun... I saw a funny LC culture element, called "happy corner" :) ... they are singing to you "happy corner" instead of happy birthday grabbing you into a corner and execute all kind of sex simulation with you. Cool, huh? :)

At the moment, excluding me, there are 3 other trainees: Cassie and Kevin from Canada and Sebastian from Germany. They are ok, they integrated very well to AIESEC in Białystok culture because I saw them many times in pubs :)

The road to Białystok

The road to Poland was really interesting: I changed 6 trains... Diana joined me untill Alba-Iulia, so I had a the most beautiful goodbye in my life. From Alba-Iulia untill Krakow I was alone in the car so you can imagine what interesting discussions I had with myself...

When I was exiting Romania, the border guard was asking me about 7 or 8 minutes about what I want to do in Poland, he checked my visa 3 times, he was asking me for other IDs, put all kind of questions about my family, where my parents were born... so on. I couldn't understand why is he asking me all these stuff... I thought that guy was bored about his job, but after all that interrogatory he revealed that he was born in Targu-Mures too and he was just curious about me. :))

The most annoying thing was that every time when I tried to sleep someone came to wake me up. If there were not from the border guards (Romanian, Hungarian, Slovakian and Polish), they were ticket controllers. In fact, polish ones were most annoying: "Dzien dobre! Bilet Kontrol!" This polish guys have lots of controllers on their trains... they were 7 or 8 from entering Poland untill I reached Białystok.

Arrival in Białystok

The AIESECers were expecting me at the railway station, near the train holding a big paper sign with my name written on it. The only problem was that I was in the last wagon and I used a different exit at the railway station, not where tehy were expecteing me. When I noticed that nobody from AIESEC was expecting me, I put one AIESEC lanyard that I had around my neck. Finally after like 20 minutes a girl from AIESEC in Białysok recognized the string and she approached me. They told me that I didn't look like in the picture I sent them, and I was very inspired when I put that holder around my neck.

I invited everyone to my place and we had a small traditional Romanian drink (tuica). They introduced me to my flatmate and showed me my room and facilities. Actually when I asked them to find me a rent as cheap as possible I was thincking at 100 EUR but they founded me the cheapest rent in Białystok :). I found out that I have to pay for the room only 50 EUR. The kitchen looks nice, the bathroom and toilet the same, I have a TV in my room and acces to a computer any time in my flatmate's room on his computer. I will have an internet connection soon. In Białysto the cheapest internet connection is about 15 EUR, but is 6 times faster that the one that I have at home in Romania. So, after they showed me the place where I will live (by the way, it's placed in the center of the city) we went out for a small drink, in 3 clubs. :)

My flatmate and the owner of the apartment

I am considered to be a lucky sign (cancer) and I think it's true. I am lucky that I have a very nice flatmate. Marcin is his name and he is an awsome guy. He helped me to integrate here in Białystok, to buy some things, to decode and charge my phone. He is always nice and always helps me when I need something. He teached me also how to make some polish pan cakes :) . The owner is a kind of cool guy also. He drinks a lot, but he is ok. I'm keep telling him "mleko! (milk) and he's telling me "piwo"(beer) :) He stays in the apartment only for weekends, because he works in Warsaw, 200 km from here.
These two guys are helping me to integrate in polish culture in Białystok.