STRØMSVIGT, BEVAR CHRISTIANIA & LUNCHES

After five and a half days in Copenhagen, I am in love with the city. Its has everything I want, history, water, shopping and the Danes aren't too sore on the eyes either ;)

I spent most of my time hanging out with the Danish MC, a pretty cool group of people, if you ask me. Note to anyone who needs to reach the Member Committee of Denmark, do not call them at or around 12:00, if its 11:55 and you know your business will take ten minutes, I advise you to wait to call . This is a sacred time in the FUHU building, its called lunch and you do not mess with it unless it is a bad chef day and they are stuck eating sandwiches.

So looking back, my trip to Copenhagen was quite eventful. I flew in for the Annual Colloqium of the European Academy for Business and Society (http://www.eabis.org/). It was an interesting conference for me, besides meeting some of the top European minds in CSR education..I had the chance to hear a speech by Micheal Porter, from Havard Business School about CSR and corporate philanphropy. What was most interesting was the reaction of the crowd and the evidence of the lack of interaction between North American and European research minds.

The rest of the time (in between company meetings, of course), Mark MC VP ICX, my host for the week, took me around to the sights, we walked through Christiania, a must see for all visitors and saw what was left of the little mermaid (hehe). cheap beer, a visit to the infamous cateen and the blackout of 2003 also played key roles in this visit.

But that was just the first leg of my Scandinavian tour..I'm now in Oslo for three days, its only been a 24 hours, but based on what I've seen so far, I think I might fall in love all over again :)

TOTALLY LOND - ON

NOTE: I wrote this message last week..but forgot to press 'Post'..oops :)

If you were to ask me what two words I would use to describe London I would say: Family and Food

I've been in London for the past 6 days and for the first time in my life I've truly enjoyed being here and spending time with my extended family. I don't know when the switch happened, when having a large family ceased being a burden and became something I really cherish. I'm sure its because of my newfound appreciatation for all things familiar since I've moved away from home, but regardless of the reason(s) I'm happy for the change.

Growing up here's what a typical UK visit would look like for me:

• About 3 or 4 weeks before departure an unofficial calendar of our entire visit would be circulating amongst the family, with most of it full long before we get to the airport.
• My mom, Amar and me would leave Canada as soon as the school year ended.
• We would find a base house and then rotate from house to house, city to city, never really staying in the same place for more than a week
• For two wonderful weeks my Dad would come visit and if we were lucky would whisk us all off to Paris or somewhere for the vacation part of our vacation
• Eight weeks later we would return to Canada, full of great memories and exhausted from the trip.

I think over the past 6 years or so, I avoided returning to the UK mainly because I didn't want to deal with all of the formalities and politics that come with having a family of 8 aunts and uncles, 25+ cousins, 16+ cousin in laws, 20+ nieces and nephews, and countless great aunts and uncles, and second cousins and so on.

But now I see that this hiatus was rather stupid, I can't believe I waited so long to see everyone, although it was fun for them to adjust to seeing me as a young woman au lieu d'un petite fille. The good thing is I'll probably go again in October and November, so I'm not worried about losing touch again in the next little while.

Wow..I didn't mean for this posting to become so serious, I guess its just the mood I'm in, with all the stuff going on here, its a time for reflection.

As for the Food part of my London...all they do here is make me eat. Nasto in the morning, Nasto in the afternoon, and then big dinner. For some reason they all think I'm too thin, I think they are crazy, because I am a healthy size, definitely not too thin, crazy people I tell you. I think they've planned to send me home with a ton of indian food...I hope I don't have excess baggage problems :) oh well..I'll be eating good for weeks.

OPERATION NIAGARA

During one of my many moves so far in Rotterdam I came across a roll of unknown film, somehow a film from January had made it all the way to the Netherlands undetected. On the roll (once it went through I machine or two) what I found was a bunch of very timely pictures from the Niagara Falls era of our team:

At the restaurant of our very filling (and very expensive) lobster meal in Niagara Falls, this night also experienced the first showing of the infamous "Niagara Falls Dance", and the "Niagara Falls Mandate"

Who can forget the Niagara Falls Mandate ;)?

"The End of an Era" - across from Maple Leaf Gardens, Candice beams underneath our favorite sign on the walk home. This sign didn't make it through the term and was replaced by more modern, less neon one during the spring. We will always miss you Speedy Park!!

CANDICE - I LOVE YOU!!!

This was exactly what a homesick girl needs to read!!

http://candice.aiesec.ws/2003/09/07

PS - Cyn, who is Linda?

I SUCK

I'm getting really bad at the whole weblog updating thing. I used to be a junkie and now I think the novelty is wearing off. But I just read Cynthia's and she's doing a great job so I decided to get back on the wagon.