Our AIESEC Experiences Abroad: Iasi

17/3

The night train took me 9 hours to arrive in Iasi, which was quite near the eastern border of Romania. It was also the place where Iashington Conference took place last year, in which Connie, Geoffrey, Eva and Christy visited before. The train was surprisingly that arriving on time. Adee and Tibi, who were the OCs of TTX2010, picked me up at the station. We went to a small cafe to drink a coffee and I just knew that Tibi was the Iashington OC before, which meant that he knew Connie and Eva. The world was just so small. Tibi also told me that there was a new version of roll call after the firewalking of last year! LOL Romanians just had fun even it was not a very good thing to tell.

Tibi drove the car called Dacian, which was made in Romania and quite old. OCs needed to get some sponsor in kind from some shops. I was just staying in the office of AIESEC Iasi for a while. The office of Iasi was comparatively small in size, but it was a large LC indeed. TTX stickers were fully posted in the office.

Another OC, Meme, brought me to walk around the city. She had a really good camera and loved to take photos. Iasi was huge and it was different from other cities I had visited in Romania. It was the capital of Moldovia, so the architecture style was more Moldovian. The university was as large as ours, which was no longer scattered into different parts like in Brasov and Cluj. The library located near the university was just spectular, which was also used as the logo of Iashington. We have visited two churches, which were stunning too. Inside the Orthodox Church, there was a Saint that you can touch and it meant good fortune. Another church with a dome shaped was just breathtaking. I liked the second one more because it may be one of the most beautiful churches I had ever seen. The Palace Museum was large and in Gothic style, yet, it was closed inside due to renovation project.

Meme took me to the place where I will be staying. One AIESECer, who called Jesus, let me to stay in his place for one night. Jesus was his nickname since he had long hair and beard, just look like Jesus. The apartment was decent and he even let me to eat some of his food. How nice he was!

After taking a little nap, I joined Marius, who will be the Iashington OC 2010 for filming the promotional video. The theme of the conference was to find a seat for yourself. We filmed it in a cafe, which was very funny. Stay tuned for the final output and you will see me there. =P

Marius was also an experienced AIESECer, who was really good to PR and publication. He needed to pack something as he was also going to the conference. From him, I knew that people in Romania spoke a bit faster in the Eastern side. For example, people in Oradea will speak a lot slower than Iasi. LOL. He also told me some funny stories after he was drunk and his conference experience in Turkey. He was also planning to go for exchange after Iashington. Cool~ =)

I got back late in Jesus's place, but I still needed to prepare for sessions as there will not be internet access in the conference site. Sadly, I needed to get up at 4 in order to go with OCs together to Slanic Moldova.