The company I've been working for in the past two month is falling apart. They don't have enough money. One of the projects is not going to continued, so the whole team working on that project is going to be fired. The whole production team is going to be fired, except for one cameraman. Half of the assistants and both testers have to leave. The company is only going to consist of one team, ours. But even then, our graphic and I will have to leave, and two programmmers are going to quit because they don't want to work with the new conditions that the boss has set.
At least the owner of the company is trying to find a new job for everyone he can, at another company that is closely related to ours. Initially, it seemed that I would have a place too, and I even had a brief interview with someone. Then it turned out that the guy I was talking to had no idea what kind of job they had in mind, and presented the only option he could think of. Bad job, badly paid, in 3 shifts. Wtf, I thought. I asked him to ask his boss whether this was really what he had in mind. Maybe there is something else... If not, there's no way I will accept their offer.
Then, once again, I'll be without a job. At least, I'll have the time to write my papers and prepare for my exams. If there's ever a good time to lose your job, it's during exam period.
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Monday, 20 April 2009
EVIME selection 2009
And the day has come. I remember how excited I was just before the last selection round 6 years ago. I got up early morning and we all met at the South Railway Station to take the bus to the campsite at Csillebérc, in the mountains surrounding Buda. (Mountains. That is, hills if you are from France and definitely mountains if you're from the Netherlands... Anyway, a gorgeous place in the forest with old social realistic buildings.) This time, 6 years later, it was time to go back and play a different role. I didn't get the chance to be a selector, because I couldn't be there throughout the whole weekend, but I happily took the position of one of the organizers.
It's been a great weekend! Kaszi offered to drive me to the campsite Saturday early afternoon and I immediately joined the activities. I hardly recognized the place, but then, slowly, bits and pieces of information thought to have been lost long ago started to emerge. Memories of the games, the feeling of being observed, the company of the other students competing for the very same thing I wanted so much. This weekend I saw 16 young people full of energy, trying to give their best and it made me feel very happy. Happy, and also proud that a small group of people, our national committee, takes the time and energy to provide students with this wonderful opportunity of studying abroad every single year. Based on what I've seen of it, EVIME seems one of the fairest, most exciting organizations to me. And let's not forget that all the people that help making things happen are unpaid and work voluntarily.
The last selection round is very demanding for everyone. The organizers have to make sure that everybody is where they should be, the rooms are booked, the food is ordered, the props are at the right location, etc. The selectors have to pay attention to the students all day and the students are just busy all the time. 6 years ago I had been feeling very tired by the time we went to sleep, and this year it wasn't any different. I entertained our 16 candidates for half an hour or maybe for an hour after dinner and once the selectors accompanied them to their rooms, we had an organizers' meeting to divide tasks for the day after. Once we were there, I had another short meeting with Kata, our main organizer, to decide which energizer games we should start the second day with.
I felt a bit as if I somehow popped up at First Year Camp again as a second year camp leader. First Year Camp and being a camp leader was an extremely popular Project Week activity. The first years arrived to AC the beginning of the week, I think, and the camp took place during the weekend. It was led by a couple of enthusiastic and somewhat crazy second year students, and the sign-up sheet for being a camp leader filled up in seconds. The buses took us to England and we spent the weekend getting to know each other, walking in the forest, canoeing down the river and playing dozens of games led by the camp leaders. Luckily, I didn't forget all the games...
This time I was leading around a group of students that had to be at the right spot at the right time to take part in the activities. We were surprisingly accurate in terms of starting the games on time, but there was some time reserved for relaxation and energizer games, too. So, I put my thinking hat on and made them do everything from "Down in the jungle where nobody goes..." to "I said a boom-chiqui-boom" and the ninja game... Instant success! A couple of people from the older generation actually came up to me to acknowledge how good these games were.
It was interesting to see other students play these games. It's amazing what 6 years can do to you in terms of thinking and expressing yourself. It's such gradual development that you don't even realize how much more you know, how much better you understand the way the world works and how you now communicate about that. The kids were lovely, smart, cool. My memories tell me that our group of 16 students was much more heterogenouos than this group, but I might be mistaken. Already during the first day I thought that selecting the people who were going to get the scholarships was going to be a hard decision once again.
I've never had the chance to be at the decision making session - or the last selection round, for that matter - because I've always been abroad the past 5 years. I've only heard accounts of how long making a decision takes... And I have to say that it's all true. I bet all our candidates were fast asleep by the time we put down the final ranking. They are going to hear the news in a couple of days... Exciting!
It's been a great weekend! Kaszi offered to drive me to the campsite Saturday early afternoon and I immediately joined the activities. I hardly recognized the place, but then, slowly, bits and pieces of information thought to have been lost long ago started to emerge. Memories of the games, the feeling of being observed, the company of the other students competing for the very same thing I wanted so much. This weekend I saw 16 young people full of energy, trying to give their best and it made me feel very happy. Happy, and also proud that a small group of people, our national committee, takes the time and energy to provide students with this wonderful opportunity of studying abroad every single year. Based on what I've seen of it, EVIME seems one of the fairest, most exciting organizations to me. And let's not forget that all the people that help making things happen are unpaid and work voluntarily.
The last selection round is very demanding for everyone. The organizers have to make sure that everybody is where they should be, the rooms are booked, the food is ordered, the props are at the right location, etc. The selectors have to pay attention to the students all day and the students are just busy all the time. 6 years ago I had been feeling very tired by the time we went to sleep, and this year it wasn't any different. I entertained our 16 candidates for half an hour or maybe for an hour after dinner and once the selectors accompanied them to their rooms, we had an organizers' meeting to divide tasks for the day after. Once we were there, I had another short meeting with Kata, our main organizer, to decide which energizer games we should start the second day with.
I felt a bit as if I somehow popped up at First Year Camp again as a second year camp leader. First Year Camp and being a camp leader was an extremely popular Project Week activity. The first years arrived to AC the beginning of the week, I think, and the camp took place during the weekend. It was led by a couple of enthusiastic and somewhat crazy second year students, and the sign-up sheet for being a camp leader filled up in seconds. The buses took us to England and we spent the weekend getting to know each other, walking in the forest, canoeing down the river and playing dozens of games led by the camp leaders. Luckily, I didn't forget all the games...
This time I was leading around a group of students that had to be at the right spot at the right time to take part in the activities. We were surprisingly accurate in terms of starting the games on time, but there was some time reserved for relaxation and energizer games, too. So, I put my thinking hat on and made them do everything from "Down in the jungle where nobody goes..." to "I said a boom-chiqui-boom" and the ninja game... Instant success! A couple of people from the older generation actually came up to me to acknowledge how good these games were.
It was interesting to see other students play these games. It's amazing what 6 years can do to you in terms of thinking and expressing yourself. It's such gradual development that you don't even realize how much more you know, how much better you understand the way the world works and how you now communicate about that. The kids were lovely, smart, cool. My memories tell me that our group of 16 students was much more heterogenouos than this group, but I might be mistaken. Already during the first day I thought that selecting the people who were going to get the scholarships was going to be a hard decision once again.
I've never had the chance to be at the decision making session - or the last selection round, for that matter - because I've always been abroad the past 5 years. I've only heard accounts of how long making a decision takes... And I have to say that it's all true. I bet all our candidates were fast asleep by the time we put down the final ranking. They are going to hear the news in a couple of days... Exciting!
Friday, 3 April 2009
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