M
Mornings. I've got to get used to early-morning wake-ups, because traveling within Colombo takes a while and if we are going to meet a client it's usually far away from the city centre. This has forced me to go to bed quite early. At times I'm thinking if I really need that 7-8 hours of sleep, if I could actually prolong my waking hours and do something more than just wake up, go to work, come back, eat and go to sleep. But being a zombie the next day is not my cup of tea, so this is how my weeks go. Dull? Maybe. Work-oriented? Yes. Balanced life? Not at all.Management consultancy. I'm still perplexed how good tools being in AIESEC gave me to excel in the area of management consultancy. All the things we did in AIESEC - from personal development planning to Balanced Scorecard implementation to leadership trainings - they all make sense now. People in the business sector haven't got these tools while they were studying, and now I'm guiding them on these although I'm much younger than them. Weird.
Moving. I have moved twice already. First time I moved about six metres from a hot-like-hell small room to a cooler and bigger one. This happened after just a few sleepless nights in my new flat. The second moving happened last week: This time I moved about 15 metres to another house, that we call ROME. K-house (the other trainee house) became AIESEC office, due to lack of trainees occupying it and hence being costly to AIESEC. I like being in ROME, with my new roomie Shek. Actually, even before moving in to ROME I felt it's more cozy than K-house. For instance, I had my dinner only once in K-house (the evening before I moved away) since ROME felt more like home. It was a bit weird to go and eat in someone else's house but now I can do it without having to feel awkward.
Mine. Please, don't become hysterical when I tell this! Three days ago the police found a claymore mine installed to a bicycle that was standing on a street that I take to go to work every morning. I was happily unaware of the fact until I read the news. I realized I had passed the spot just fifteen minutes before they found the mine. Luckily it didn't go off and luckily I wasn't there at that time. Detailed article about this can be read here. You might have heard about the explosions in Colombo, killing a few civilians too, but did you ever hear about Sri Lankan Airforce slaying 60 school girls up north?
Movies. Last weekend I saw altogether four movies. On Saturday we went to see Superman Returns in Majestic City Cinema and the whole rainy Sunday we spent watching movies from a laptop. I hope this weekend is more action-oriented. I'm actually planning to go to an event called Rock Saturday (organized in Women's Hall) where a local heavy metal band Stigmata is playing. I've heard Stigmata is the only proper heavy metal band in this country. We'll see. Actually I read their interview where they mentioned being fans of Sentenced. Cool! Go Oulu!
Mom... and dad. Being so far away of the people I love has made me appreciate them more. I even miss my mom and dad, although I haven't been living with my mom for 15 years, nor with my dad during the past 5 years. My dad finally sold the house where I spent my childhood and teenage years. That's good because it was stupidity to have two houses (the other one they called summer cottage, although it's quite luxurious house). Mom sent me a postcard and I've tried sending her a couple of SMSs but since she doesn't know how to use the phone she just replied with an empty SMS. :) Poor mom.
Money. I finally got my local bank account! Over three weeks ago I went to my local branch of Commercial Bank and asked if I could open a bank account. They were really helpful and everything went smoothly: I signed some papers, paid 250 LKR and made the first deposit of 1000 LKR. But the initially perceived smoothness was deceiving... According to the clerk, the next step was to wait 2,5-3 weeks to get the PIN number by mail. Right. I asked whether I could just pop by and get the PIN number from the same local office because I lived only 300 metres from it. No, they said their procedure is that they send it as registered mail and there has to be someone to receive it. I said there is no one at the house during day time. They replied that then the PIN number goes to the local post office where I can collect it. I asked where is the local post office, but they didn't know. Marvellous! After a couple of weeks I found my way to the closest post office, after several inquiries, and they said there is no such address that I had given. Splendid! I checked from the other interns and indeed I had a bit wrong address (then again, no one seemed to know what actually is the right address). So, all this took just a few minutes and I went back to the person I had talked with in the post office. He had gone away. I asked from another fellow and he said the person had gone to a cantine, but I wouldn't want to go in there because it's not the most hygienic place (indeed, there was a dead rat outside), so I just asked him to deliver a message to this guy, stating my corrected (or possibly correct) address. Cool. I return home just to find out that the Commercial Bank office has disappreared. Great! Well, later I found it had moved just to another location in Kirulapone (the same area). Finally this week, after well over three weeks I received the PIN number (still I have no idea how it found its way to our living room table!). This morning, I walzed in to the bank and collected my ATM card. Again, it went smoothly, required only a few minutes and a couple of signatures. But I gave up with them when I wanted them to make the correction in my address in their system and their answer was "You need to write us a small letter stating that your address has changed.". "Fuck that!" I thought, but just smiled at her and let it be wrong the wrong address...
Mentoring. I'm about to start again a mentoring process. Sifaan, a local AIESEC alumnus that I already met back in 2004 in Estonia, agreed to be my mentor. Once he gets back from global Sri Lankans reunion (gathering of former interns and MC members in Poland) we'll start the mentoring by setting clear goals to my internship and finding ways to get there. That's cool and I'm really looking forward to that. At this point I'd like to show my gratitude to my former mentor Janne Korpi who helped me to make the best out of last term in the leadership of AIESEC in Finland. Without those discussion sessions with him I might still be the same unbalanced emotional roller-coaster that I was a year ago. Thanks man!
Meditation. Although the mentoring is yet to start I've already taken steps towards some of my goals concerning my time in Sri Lanka. For example, last Monday I experienced my first meditation class. There was a Buddhist monk who was originally Dutch, I think. He was a really funny, laid-back fellow. For instance when we were discussing about the proper way to sit while meditating, he said that lotus position (your both feet locked over each other) is not recommended if you're not flexible enough. He referred to himself being unable to get to that position "because of my bodily structure, or just because I'm so fat". :) The whole thing took about 1,5 hours and consisted of four parts. First he explained what meditation is and how the process goes. Secondly we tried meditation while sitting down. It was a weird but pleasant experience. Being in the centre of Colombo in a temple without proper walls, cars tooting their horns, I was still able to reach a peaceful state of mind and concentrate only in being there my eyes closed. I don't know if it was solely a physical reaction of blocked circumvention or if there was something psychological about it, but when I opened my eyes a bit too early and quickly I couldn't move my left foot. I was a bit scared at that point, closed my eyes again and only when the monk clinged a bell and I opened my eyes reeeally slowly I regained the control of my foot. The last two parts - walking meditation and a shorter sitting session - were not that powerful but I still left the place being quite pleased, and decided to do it again soon.
Mosquitoes. I don't know if they don't like me anymore or if I have developed some kind of tolerance towards them, but the mosquito bites are not itchy and visible anymore. That's good, since the first few weeks were really annoying, having to scratch yourself all the time and in the back of your mind being a bit worried about catching malaria or dengue fever. Now mosquitoes are generally out of my to-be-worried-about list.
Maldives. I'm so much looking forward to my three-week christmas holiday. Paula is coming to Colombo and we head to the paradise islands of Maldives for a couple of weeks. After that I need to be at work for the 2 January for a common kick-off event of the year, and then we head to explore Sri Lanka together for one more week. I think it's a really cool thing from her to come all this far and spend as much time together as possible. I love her! More than ever.
Mediocracy. Last but definitely not least, I want to share with you my biggest feeling of success so far. There is this local company we are working with on a long-term strategic planning project. I've got to know their way-of-thinking quite closely already, and one thing bugged me big time: They were really humble and trying to find excuses to remain mediocre company. They were thinking they cannot control their destiny that much and they shouldn't make too much fuss about themselves. Their ambition level was low and they didn't want to rock the boat too much. Still, they were talking about striving for excellence being an important value for them. Now, when we were setting their four-year vision, I couldn't hold it inside me anymore but I stood up in front of everyone and criticized them openly about this. I said that if they continue the same way, there is no one to have these meetings anymore in 2010. As I sat down, there was a moment of silence during which I could hardly breath. I was thinking, what will my boss say, what will they say, and are they just going to walk out of the room in frustration. Suddenly, the CEO opened his mouth and had a heartfelt motivation speech for the room full of managers and employees, starting with words "I agree with Tomi...". Sigh! That was such a relief and paved a way towards a brilliant future for the company. Suddenly all of them stood behind the newly stated ambition level and now the arguments towards the bold vision were just grammatical. It was the most rewarding moment so far for me personally and seemingly for this company, too! Yeah, baby, yeah!
Mmmm-bobb! If you didn't notice yet, I decided to organize my thoughts (and blog postings) according to alphabets, starting logically with letter M. To make it a bit more interactive, you can request your favourite letter to be showcased in the future postings! :) Just give me a letter and one issue starting with that letter, and I'll deal with it. Thank you for reading this far!
posted by Tomi Astikainen @ Friday, August 25, 2006
2 Comments:
Morjens Tomi, päädyin sitten vihdoinkin tänne sinunkin Blogiisi. En ole ehtinyt vielä kaikkia aikaisempia postituksia lukea, mutta tämä nyt tipahti news-agregaattoorin ruudulle tänään, niin sillä oli sitten hyvä aloitella Brasilian päivä Sri Lankan kuulumisilla.
Ehdotan kirjaimeksi F:ää niinkuin Family.
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