Where's George?

No real interest in the the current US President!

I got a $1 bill out of my wallet while waiting in Burger King's drive thru to get some dinner for tonight. I got the money I received as change from a random souvenir shop in Cancun.

I was couting the money to pay for my burger when I saw a stamp on the bill, at first I thought it was something like "Fake bill", however, and to my surprise, the stamp said:

"Track this bill's journey
Enter series and serial #
www.wheresgeorge.com"

Curiosity beat me, paid with a $20 bill instead and kept the $1.
Came home and entered the serial number and all at that website... it was really cool.
Even though my bill originally came from an Air Force base in Nevada, and I was the only one to post afterwards, it was really cool, random and bizarre to find a webpage like that.

So, now I know, my bill traveled a lot before getting to my hands.

Cancun - the land of no return

You can't turn 30 and not have been to Cancun (specially if you are latin) ever.
It was part of my plan to go to Cancun someday, but I needed to get a group of people, set a date and just do it.
I missed my graduation trip from university to Cancun, because Ana Paola was only 2 months old, so impossible... another day would come.

And so it came, my boss' boss (the director of the department) called me and this other girl to his office one day and tells us "due to your performance and effort, we are rewarding you by giving you the chance to attend to a Lufthansa System's conference... in Cancun" nobody could have avoided our laughter... a conference on Cancun? what kind of masochist invented that!!?

And so, after TACANAT, I went 1 day to the office and the next day... "so long again... I will be "working" in Cancun for 4 days.

We did work... for 1 day and a half.

The day we arrived (we were 4; the director, a manager in charge of the Lufthansa system project, and the 2 of us - the funny thing is the 4 of us are still under 30) we did the classical tour... walk through the hotel zone, visit Hard rock Cafe, eat some tacos and hop from bar to bar... beer through beer, tequila after tequila, yard after yard (for the ones that don't know, a yard is a glass the size of a yard with any kind of drink inside it... mine were Long Island Ice Tea to start and Cuba Libres to end)... until we had to go to the warm up cocktail with the LH people in the hotel.

Then we had an entire day of conference... and during the night, we decided it was the night to go out and party "the Cancun way"... entered a new club called The City, they let us in for free... so fair enough... it was huge... and a great show, entertaining bar tenders, etc... we had a couple of drinks and then went walking again... out minds shifted between the idea of going to bed (it was 1 am already) and entering the hippest disco in Cancun (so it was stated by every press release I could imagine) called Cocobongo (soon to open in Las Vegas)... the cover? $35... OUCH! free drinks inside... but still sooo expensive... but we went in anyways...

The result!? completely worth it... great shows, performances, full crowd, lots of music, imitators of Michael jackson, Beetlejuice, J-Lo, The Mask... everyone... I had never seen anything like it... Vegas clubs were nothing... european tourists everywhere cute guys for the girls and small skirts for the guys... we had our night...

New York meets Vegas in a a latin way of doing parties...

after that... 5:00 am... 3 "Tacos al pastor"... one "michelada"... a $10 taxi back... 6:00 am watch the sunrise from our ocean view balcony at the hotel... and wake up at 7:30 am to attend our 9 am session.

Afterwards, the LH guys had hired a "Catamaran" boat to sail for 3 hours in the sea... we had an amazing time, saw the sunset, the moon rise, the stars in the skies, beers, margaritas, tequilas and rum... all included

No wonder why I came more tired than how I got there. Now I need to rest.

I just have 1 more thing to say:

"Suzanne, be prepared, next time I go there, it will be with you....!!!! and I won't wait that long!"

PS. This was the view from my room.

A glimpse of internationalism in TACA

I got selected to attend TACANAT ("TACA New Analyst Training") seminar.
From colleagues that have been in the company for more time, I heard it was spectacular. Really high profile seminar, given by the SDG (Strategic Development Group) - acronyms, some things just don't ever change - which is primarily a multicultural group within the company, in charge of Strategic Development in every sense.

The seminar was 7 intense days in the middle of nowhere, receiving different sessions on matter related to the company, industry and general aspects of a professional life.

I felt like I was going to a National conference in my AIESEC days. I was longing to attend a conference, and just remember the environment, the excitement, the hard work, the long nights, the big parties... everything. It turned out to be very aproximate to it.

One of my SDG friends, Giovanni Donaldson, manager in the SDG, new zealander, former LCP of AIESEC New Zealand and good friends with my colleague Michael Mooseberger, MCP 01/02 AIESEC NZ, told me just that during a conversation one random night... "You have the AIESEC spirit, you will enjoy it, the thrill and excitement is really similar, applied to a professional level"

He was right... I enjoyed everything, long agendas (8am - 3am), great party (just one day, hard partying), multicultural environment (1 new zealander, 2 south africans, 3 australians, 1 german, 1 canadian, 2 guatemalean, 5 costa rican, 28 salvadorean), high levels of learning (we had to present the final case - a real case- to 3 senior executives of the company)...

Those it sound familiar? it was really refreshening to have this seminar, it made me learn a lot, have a different perspective of the company, meet new people and enjoy!
Seems real life can be as good as life when AIESEC was around.

Life and its small pressures

It is this time of the year, when senior graduates are preparing their finals and asking themselves, what next?

Entering supposed "adulthood" life can be the most frustrating experience there is.

Leave aside the quest for the unknown job, and just think on the many changes that implies: paying your own stuff, thinking of future responsibilities like cars, houses, etc., the range of choices you can make and the series of difficulties that can come your way...

Its just exciting!!! its like I said on my last post... I love the feeling, I hate to start it.

It was this time last year when I was experiencing the exact same thing.
By 22 I was entering "adult" life, getting started as a mom and also having to make a decison of "where do I want to devote my entire day to during the next couple of years"... probably too much to handle at the same time... I apologize for the inconveniences that may have caused!

What about you... what were you doing this time last year? has life changed that much too? answer that question for me!

Random mumblings I call life...

I hate starting over.

I enjoy the feeling of the new adventure ahead, but to take the impulse, motivation and time to start something new, requires a little bit of comfort zone displacement.
Probably its because I am a perfectionist person, I can't start something until I know I have found all the variables I need to make it work.

Same thing with my blog. After 2 week struggle to find the template that actually described what I was trying to communicate, that illustrated my approach to the things I would write about, I have finally made it, now I am ready to start.

Welcome nomadlife.

I always liked this name, I used to envy Digs for having such a cool domain and email, now I can brag that I have my own. ;)

Probably my life is getting less nomad every day, except for the random weekend getaways once every 2 months... things are turning pretty stable (not that I like it). However, I still envision myself "nomading" a little bit more in the future.

So again, welcome all to my new home. Feel free to join me and my random mumblings I love to call life.