JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF MODESTY

Summary of my traineeship

2009-01-12T07:12:00.000-08:00

WARNING: If you haven't followed my story from the start, you won't see the cream of the jest. I advise you to read from the beginning, i.e. the bottom of the page.

My internship report

By Narantsogt Baatarkhuu

I went to Romania in June 9^th, 2008 through AIESEC CEE the summer program. The traineeship, being in the educational field, was in “AIESEC Pitesti” student organization and my main responsibility was to contribute to the “AIESEC Summer School” training agenda, and co-train/facilitate the delivery of the training. My traineeship lasted for about two months.

Although I was accepted by the TN to be employed from the 1^st June to 15^th August, I had a problem (missed the bus to Romania) with arriving on the specified date. The AIESEC PITESTI welcomed me with great enthusiasm and amiability, and I was immensely drawn into an intimate and encouraging atmosphere. My impression about AIESEC Pitesti was that almost everyone speaks English at least above intermediate, and they have been eager to accept a new trainee after two years of absence. I was accommodated in one of the AIESEC members’ apartment for the first two nights, and it shaped my impression about Romanian lifestyle positively.

I was called to, and willingly complied with, the promotion of the upcoming “Summer School” the next day. I was responsible for visiting the high schools in Pitesti city, along with few other AIESEC-ers, and touting “Summer School” training modules to high school students. The students had a great reaction overall, although my nervousness hindered the first few visits. The promotion continued for five days during which I have also been guided around the city and/or brought to watch a football match in a pub.

The Summer School had five training modules: Personal Development, Public Speaking, Project Management and Living Diversity with 77, 111 and 85 students respectively. The fifth module, Sustainable Development was added in each module as a bonus. Project Management and Sustainable development were agreed to be taught by Romanian trainers, due to its complexity.

Personal Development module was taught from 16^th to 22^nd of June. Excluding the Sustainable Development class, it had 4 parts, Personal Branding and Career Planning, of which I was in charge; Self Awareness and Career Planning which was taught by my fellow intern from USA.

Public Speaking module was taught from 23^rd June to 1^st July. It had 4 parts as well, Introduction, Design and Delivery of Speech, and Simulation. This time the trainings were held simultaneously in two classrooms.

Living Diversity module was taught from 7^th to 11^th of July. Unlike the previous trainings where me and my fellow trainer had Romanian co-trainers, we held the training together. It had 3 parts, Introduction, Cultural Difference and Cultural tolerance, and the participants participated in “Global Village” open door day at the end of the module.

On average, I had 3 classes a day (morning, afternoon and evening) with 13-17 students at a time. The modules were held in classrooms in University of Pitesti building, “Corpus D”, and the AIESEC Pitesti office was nearby. I was provided with a PC (desktop or laptop), projector, flipcharts and markers etc. My typical cycle of making training was:

· To do a research on the Internet about a certain topic, possible method to teach it, and suitable jokes

· To plan the session outline with the co-trainer and to compromise on the final draft

· To find the needed items for logistics (flipcharts, printed materials) and props for games (candies, playing cards )

· To submit the outline to the Local Committee

· To carry out a mini-simulation of the training in front of the Local Committee Members and receive feedback

· To hold the actual training

· To receive written feedback from the students

So far, I have found the feedback from my students to be the most encouraging part of the whole traineeship. Also, because mostly my co-trainers would ask me to deliver the training the way I want, I used to play big role in making session outlines. In order to make the training interesting, we combined different methods, e.g. showing movies made by ourselves, having a role play, putting icebreakers and including current pop culture examples in our trainings.

To conclude, I had planned to learn 3 main things before coming to Pitesti city. They were charisma, expert knowledge in my major and personal management. I am not sure if my experiences developed all of them. However, I learned several things unexpectedly. They are too trivial to be mentioned by simple words, so I am using table.

Experience/Knowledge/Lesson I gained	Place where I gained
Corporate Social Responsibility	AIESEC Pitesti training
Audience management	Training modules
“Selling myself” a.k.a Convincing people	Promotion; Info meeting
Brainstorming	Session outline
Urban planning	General traineeship; trip around the city
Making better presentation	Training modules
Developing sense of humor and self-confidence	Training modules
Facilitating and training skills	General traineeship
Knowledge about the abovementioned trainings	Training modules

Although this traineeship did not, the consequence of it changed my attitude towards life. It helped me grasp more realistic approach in life and look at my education from another angle.

Summer School

2008-06-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

"Picture says thousand words."

No, seriously. Instead of saying "There is a big fountain behind us. Every night it shoots water in a pattern synchronized to a music, and several lamps illuminate water in different colors, blah blah blah", I can just show you the picture.

Here you can't see much of the fountian, though.

One of the training classes.

Another one of my classes.

That's right. This is me.

AIESEC Pitesti, everybody!

Memories of my traineeship

2008-06-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Meet the employers. Wow!

My Messy Room

TV in the dormitory? Me likey.

I'll never forget this view. Beautiful!

See what I mean? It's vaaaaaaassssttt, son!

Of course the other side of the room is also important.

What happened in the bus

2008-06-16T02:20:00.001-07:00

I woke up and looked around.

I was in a bus to Pitesti.

I looked out the window.

We were going through a road along a river, and there were steep mountains at the other side, covered deeply in thick green trees. Some mountains were pretty misty, forming a vignette I have never seen before.

I had a chance to think about why I am going to Romania, what was waiting for me there. I had watched a lot of clips on Youtube, and they were extremely, well, extreme.

The driver looked at me. He saw a tired guy, trying to write something on a bumpy ride.

There was another man looking at me. He introduced himself as Nikko. Like me, he was going to Pitesti from Czech Republic.

A bit drunk, yet friendly, he kept me informed about the journey -- and his life story. We understood each other in a mixture of Romanian, Czech and English.

After Nikko talked to the driver for awhile, we got off the bus at the gas station. Uhh... It's not the bus stop. It's a gas station. Why are we stopping here? Nikko keeps guiding me to go somewher, helping me with my luggage. Wait a minute! I have a feeling that this guy is going to mug me after taking me somewhere.

So I wrote a text message to the AIESECer who was supposed to pick me up. He must have been waiting for me at the bus station. Then I fared well with Nikko, after exchanging our numbers.

I am a paranoid but paranoia is competing salesman over naivety. So here I am, waiting for the hosts to pick me up. It's already a nightfall, and the streets are dark; I search for a lighted place and find an ATM of Societe Generale Bank. After having texted the AIESECer that I was here, I wondered about what they look like, how many of them were waiting for me. Most of all, I wondered about what was ahead of me that summer -- in Romania.

First Impression of Romania

2008-06-16T02:00:00.001-07:00

Sibiu city. Romania. 02:00 pm. 09.06.2008

As soon as the bus stopped, I got off immediately and deployed myself in the public loo of the bus station. Coming back, I found out that I had to stay adn wait for another bus.

And there I was, sitting on the bench in front of a bus station...

*Yawn*

hmm... Romania...

It's time to make my first impression about the country. OK, afraid of being mugged, I tried to look rough (you should have seen my travel mates), and avoided eye contact/ smile.
I didn't give the beggar kids anything. But now, I feel guilty. They are just people like us. You can feel their hospitality from their curious stare. Actually some of them tried to approach me, but were hesitant.

Ahh, such a nice people! *Cough* -- Except for the smokers.

Almost everyone on this bench is smoking, and I feel sick -- very sick.

I've gotta find somewhere else to sit... That's better...

OK, I have synchronised my watch. Damn, I've gotta wait 4 hours...

*Fast Forward*

Really? two more hours?

*Fast Forward*

Ahh! The bus (a small one with a trailer behind it) is finally here. I am sitting in it, right now. I am inclining... ZZZZZZZZZ....

Wow! that's 7 hours in total, and not a bit of food on my tongue...

Goodbye, Zlin! Hello, Prague!

2008-06-16T01:38:00.000-07:00

"I got lost in Prague the moment I got off the bus."

But mind you! Imagine living in a monotonous life for two years in a small town, and starting a new day in a freaking metropolitan city. But I got hang of it in the afternoon, though. And thanks to Milan from AIESEC CZU Prague, I was guided and accommodated in a dorm with incredibly cheap fee, and boy was the dorm diverse!

Yay!

My roommate was a British guy called Dave, and we shared a bathroom with two Hungarian girls, Melinda and Andrea. I thought I was lucky -- to make friends with people so friendly and charismatic like them. I got invited to Andrea's farewell party, enjoyed spending the evening with them. I had interesting conversations with all of them, but the girls guided me through the city, and Dave helped me until I went to the Florence station -- second time.

One of the most memorable experience was that I was asked to choose between either the Prague castle and a small museum. Well, I chose the second one. It was "Sex machines" museum.
What did you think it was?

My departure was delayed when I missed my bus to Romania, and

a) I couldn't believe it.
b) I was mad at myself.

The next day I made my decision and sold my laptop in pawn shop for 3,500 czech crown, in order to buy a bus ticket. I hated my laptop anyway!

Going to Prague

2008-06-16T01:27:00.000-07:00

I was not asleep when it was 2:30 am, obviously because I was nervous. Breaking my habitual cycle, I went to the bathroom, and looked at the mirror. The dark circle had already appeared…

2:55 am. I am walking down the hill, where my dormitory is. My suitcase is making a rattling noise on the cut stone textured cobble road. When I arrived at the bus station, there was a bus already waiting for me. This is how I went to Prague by “Student Agency” bus on 03.06.2008.