The Shiznet Bam.

AHAHAHA. Yay for blogging when I know I have to read 100 pages of Guns, Germs, and Steel tonight. Procrastination for the win...

Right, so Hbizz was in town this weekend. So so so so so so good. The comfort, conversation, meals, walks, shopping... such peace. Hrm... hard to put it into words, just... thank you, Helene!

One of the best parts of the weekend was stumbling upon a crazy Earthday Picnic. Rocking festival off of Queen Street with folks with booths (e.g. Green Party, Green Peace, etc) and cool performances. We showed up just before the last two, a drumming group and some Chinese dragging dance. Holy crap WOW was the drumming good. Hell of an eclectic crowd all really rocking to the beats of about 20 drummers all dancing around. My absolute favourite had to have been the guy in the picture below... you can probably just barely make him out, but he is the one with the green shirt and helmet: he is so hardcore. He had his bike helmet on the entire time he drummed. Seriously, its like, wait, no time to take off my helmet, let's get my drum on, ya'll. Too cool. I really should have listened to my father and taken up drumming. What was I thinking!?!

What Are the Odds...

So I go to this wicked conference called Alternative Approached to Development in Asia hosted by U of T's Munk Centre last Friday, of course as a way of gaining more insight for my role next year. I took the day off from work as a personal development day. Pretty cool agenda for the day... "What is Development" as the intro, then a panel on foreign aid, civil society, and health care. I went there trying to stay low key, not go crazy AIESEC on everyone... but of course, as soon as the first panelist for "what is development" started speaking I got super geeked... writing down the 50 things I wanted to touch base with her on afterwards... (free IDD conference attendence for my staff, sending out adverts to her mailing list of Canadian manufacturers and exporters, using AIESEC to facilitate the internships to Africa she was organizing...)

But of course, as luck would have it, it wasn't until AFTER this first panelist started speaking that I decided, screw it, let's get my AIESEC on. Why does this timing matter? Well the ONE person I had wanted to speak with at the conference was the gov't rep, of course to gain insight into renewing our partnership... turns out he was the GUY SITTING NEXT TO ME. For the love... in beginners sales sessions, people ALWAYS say, introduce yourself to the person next to you on the airplane, etc., you never know who it might be. OF COURSE it is a Director of govt... The ONE person who's name I starred in the pamphlet to try to chat with. Hehe, I didn't realize HE was my target until he was called to the front of the stage for the next panel! Buggggger. I chatted with him later, but was just awkwarddddd. :)

Overall was a great session for me in regards to learning about theories of economic development, folks there from World Bank, Canada's Dept of Finance, Canada's International Development Agency, etc., but sadly much less helpful in terms of learning about the reality of development in Asia... poop.

The Hum Drum Life :)

Frack. So much energy today... need to mind vomit for just a bit longer... I LOVE MY JOB! WEEE! The last few weeks have been intense in the office. From feeling super far from one another and disconnected as a team, to coming back together and revamping our plan to acheive our vision, to some crazy mad fun at the Ontario Science Centre... nonstop action. This week has been wicked awesome. Its a four day work week so the level of focus needed to be productive has been kicked up a notch. Just today we were talking about how we have about 30 working days left to acheive the goals, the results, the vision that we set. Went straight from that team meeting into a great meeting with TiG... so fun partnering with other organizations. With TiG I've met with three different folks there about three totally different partnerships. WEET WAAT WOOT. Getting to the end of the year... there's a choice you make. To say, fuck it, things are almost over, or fight til the end. Some days its hard to choose the latter, but days when you do... purr. And you just have a sense, by this point, that YES, this is IT, these are the priorities and deliverables that will really make a difference. I know it. Feels gooood.

Trying to balance the massive excitement I have around my current priorities at work with my upcoming role is a bit tricky!! To manage it, I save my AI/AP excitement for lunch and post work. GN Board Applications for AP have opened! ZOMG. Starting to chat more with the AP family, and... hehe, this week post work I've been reading ROUGH GUIDE: FIRST TIME ASIA. :) Really cool to read about every country, starting to familiarize myself with the names of cities, the main religions, population sizes, feel of main cities. I remember when I was first selected for AIESEC Canada, everything I heard and saw was about Canada... at the grocery store, I'd see maple syrup and giggle. Now its happening with Asia Pacific... but there's so much stuff remiding me about AP all over the place, its sensory overload! KEKEKEKEKEKKEKEK. :)

Breaking it Back in the Blogging Scene on Refugee Rights Day

Three weeks post Egypt I am settling back into Toronto life. Finally starting to cook and eat in again… talk about some massive groceries runs. Both refrigerators in the house are totally out of control despite all my best efforts and skills at obsessive-compulsively organizing them. Aiyo. I've worked out a whopping twice… oh man, the half marathon is going to be ROUGH. Good thing is I've managed to get out to some great great community events. It's a happening time of the year in terms of building community.

1. International Women's Day: Film Screening: KILLER'S PARADISE. One word: sobering. Its been a few weeks, but the statistics on how many woman that are murdered each year in Guatemala is really scary. The numbers have increased each year since 1999.
2. International Women's Day: Performance and Party: BROWNGIRLWORLD7: Dreaming Freedom. Fuck yes. Amazing evening of spoken word, drag, and performance by queer and trans artists of colour. The trans scene is definitely pretty new territory for me, despite all the readings and discussions I had had in my ann arbor bubble back in my social justice courses. Generally, the masses thing of drag as men dressing as women, but this evening was full of surprises, not to mention a hilarious comedian. It was a crazy intersection of identities, as it was also, actually, a mostly sri-lankan based community.
3. Refugee rights Day 2007: Celebration and Performance: In Solidarity with Refugees. C'est bon! Jam packed at "Ethiopian House", a quaint Ethiopian restaurant far west on Bloor, were a shit ton of folks, cheering, listening, eating, and celebrating together. To be honest, I knew very little about refugees, and still don't know much, but this was one hell of an introduction. Percussionist and spoken word performed by people from Colombia, W. Africa, Palestine… What a feeling having them all cheer in different languages, as certain lines of the spoken word resonated with folks from such seemingly different experiences. This kick off last week was a prep for today… Refugee Rights Day "marks the historic 1985 Supreme Court "Singh decision" which declared that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms protects the right of refugee claimants in Canada to life, liberty and security, and that claimants are entitled to an oral refugee hearing, in accordance with principles of fundamental justice and international law."

Frack. Its just soo good. There is this feeling when you walk in of community that is just... you can feel lit in the air. An energy. There has been so much happening its hard to balance going out and breathing Toronto in with every day hum drum life. :)