It has been a long time since my last update. The past several months were extremely fantastic. Apart from my study and @ work, I went to Macedonia for my ever first international trip, whist the first international @ conference experience! I could never imagine how wonderful the city, conference, especially the people I met was!! I will defintely cherish all my best memory forever!!!

The preparation for Euro expro is really tough and long. Despite the logistic preparation for the T-shirts, daily cosuming, materials, etc. I need to read through all the materials and information provide online or the output from IPM2005 to enable the sufficient knowledge for me to be easy to get into the conference such high profile as Euro expro!! All the 150 delegates are MC and LCPs from more than 40 European countries, and the facis are the MCPs and AI members including Brodie, our dearest PAI 05/06!!! I was so suprised how these amazing people facilitating the whole conference! Their every single word, move, expression, gesture indicate how excellent they are, and that is what we super @ers should be!!! What's more, their passion, humor, intellegence, high understanding of the global vision, etc intensively urge me to keep myself much more involved in @, not to leave this beloved organization so early, particularly when I saw how enthusiast DEY(MCP of Mecadonia) facilitate, who has already been in @ for more than 11 years and still keep the passion as it is still fresh like what a newie has when he just entred @!

Ok, Let me start to review everything happened just 2 weeks ago, but seems rather clear in my mind! On Mar 19th, After the 3 tough exams during the day, I ran to the MC office to see our dear Ralph from Australia for his 21 birthday. Then without any rest, I rush to the airport for the departure! The whole flight took me around 12 hours to get to the Turkish airport for transmition. The airport is gorgeous!!Everything is polished with bright gold and silver! It is a place where you would love to stay and shopping for every minute and searching for every coner to comb out the product you love! Stayed in the airport and wandering around for more than 8 hours I took another flight heading for Skopje,Macedonia!

Yesterday, we finally finished our second MC team re-treat during the snowing Christmas! I feel so delighted that I have finally made up my mind not to apply for the MC next year, although a little bit disappointed; I still feel very excited for the decision and be more conscious of my further development in @ and my study! I am so released!!! Hooray~~~ so here comes how I made up my mind and what's going on during the last several days!!

Dec 14th, I went to the MC office and had a dinner with Chris (MCP) to talk about my development in @, especially about her opinion on being fulltime MCP and how much more I could learn for the next year if I decided to apply and eventually got selected! Because last MC meeting, we had a very intense and difficult debate on the validity of the 05/06 MC position "country cooperation" , and finally under my strong support, we finally cancelled this position. So then, actually there is no where to fit me in the MC team next year I guess! I told Chris although there is not a suitable position for me, I will still try to apply, which was not so real, and the position would be VP Finance. She is very much satisfied with my decision and encouraged me as much as possible. During the dinner, the most important thing I learned form her is the fact that every decision we made and the action after that should has its cost, there is no escape no matter how hard we tried! And only if there is a huge cost for the affairs we are not able to do, will we cherish the reality we have and tasks we are going to do with all our efforts! So after the dinner, I found I am very much getting close to my final decision!!

Then the next day, there was a lecture of the application for the Master's degree in UK and procedure in my University, so I grasped the chance to know as much as possible for the foreign study. After the lecture, I suddenly realized if I apply for the next year MC, then I probably can not be able to focus myself on the application for the study in UK, and actually there are still a long way to prepare. I don't want to sacrifice my study for doing @, of course don't want to be the one who is on the position without contributing as much as possible to drive this country far more ahead!! That's so greedy!! Although it is painful to give up, I have to make this ever important decision. Because becoming a successful business man is the future that I choose for myself, both @ and foreign study are the catalyzer to ensure the success of my career. Maybe these two are not mutually exclusive; I can not risk myself doing them at the same time, so preparing for the study should be my priority at this period of time.

So, after that day, I felt mentally released in the end. And in the evening of Dec 16th, AIM, my LC, held the ever first Alumni gathering in one bar around my University. I got so touched that nearly 50 Alumni came; most of them are my best friends and EBs when I entered @ as a plain member. What impressed me most was the founder of @ in AIM came. Frankly speaking, we had a great time, but somehow sentimental. When we were talking about the future development after they leave @, some of them seemed very much depressed, because of the work pressure and intensiveness. No fun at all actually! Then I started question my decision to leave @ after term finishes. I went back dorm earlier, because I don't want myself to be more influenced by them, and being alone makes me feel peaceful.

On Dec 18th, one of our roommates was going to leave for home. Since we were possibly not be able to see him again, all of us went out to have a hotpot!! It was 1 year ago that all of us hanging out for dinner, so we were really high and ate & drank as much as possible!! I was wondering, even most of my friends and network are in aiesec, there are still certain parts that nothing can replace of, and all my roommates of course are!!! The next morning, after I finished my lunch, I met Matthias(Ceeder in our Univ from Germany), and he asked me for some help on OGX side, so we went to a little bar on our campus, and discussed a little bit. When we were talking, I suddenly saw NICO (member in my Univ) accompanied with two foreigners, whom I don't know. After the introduction, I knew the two boys are the sons of a CEO from the US. And the CEO is willing to support @ in Mainland China, which is so cool!! Then they, including the CEO himself invited me for lunch. Although I said I already did, they still insist me to join. Actually that's why I am going to putting on weight; big fat dinner followed with doubled lunch :) In the evening, we had a dinner around RUC, and talking about the topic "Culture of Excellence", the topic itself is interesting and meaningful, but due to my limited understanding to it, what I could contribute is to help them finish the dinner:P after the dinner, lot¡¯s of @ers went to the Bar street for the celebration of the return of the two most excellent @ers; Cliff(AI accountant04/05), Wing(Denmark ICXVP04/05). I felt so happy, because these two people are my model when I joined @. and they are originally from my University. I am so proud of that!!! And my predecessor Kevin (ISVP in my Univ02/03) also joined the party! It was fantastic to meet them within one night!! We haven't seen each other for such a long time, and there were great changes happened. After the party, Sophia (LC of AIM), Cliff, Kevin and me went to the KTV. Afterwards, we went to Kevin¡¯s house to sleep.

I should say, in aiesec, there are always heaps of opportunities to have fun as well as building up networks with people you can never met and think of. On Dec 22th, when I was just surfing on the internet, Chris(MCP)called me, telling me that there is an HR forum just like the CEO forum we had last month, and the managers there would like to have dinner with @ers. Since all the other MC members are not available right now, and Chrisi (Our MC German Ceeder) need to have some one accompany with, especially we are going to cooperate with the HR forum manager later on, we need to show our @ in Mainland of China best image. So I went to the dinner with Chrisi. The restaurant is DaDong baked duck restaurant, which is very much famous for its high quality among most of the foreign guests. During the dinner, I found that not only the managers from HR forum attend, there were also some other company representatives present. Generally speaking, the managers (all of them are foreigners)are young just like 2 or 3 ages of older than us, so the atmosphere was kind of energetic! We talked about the cooperation and some personal stuff. And after the dinner, they invited us to have a drink at Suzie Wong, a very good and famous bar in Beijing. I really enjoyed the time and drink there, and I will go there again for sure, although I don't like to drink actually.

Two days later, all the MC members gather together at the MC house for the second team re-treat during Christmas day. As a matter of fact, nearly two months passed, things changed a lot, and the feelings changed also. For me, I have learnt a great deal, and growing in an amazing speed that I can even see the difference of myself, so this time was not that challenging and difficult compared with last time. And energy seems low, because we are so tired and what's more, ROCK(MC VP OGX)resigned, which clearly influence the atmosphere of the whole 3 day meeting. During the first day, rock came and had the meeting together with us, and there was no sign of his resign, everything seems very smooth and exciting. In the evening, we had a party at the MC house for the Christmas Eve. Heaps of people come and talk, and there were always lots of foreigners mingled, some of them are totally fresh to aiesec. It was really great to talk with so many people I haven¡¯t met before, and due to the limited space, everybody has to stand shoulder by shoulder, which is interesting and noisy. After the party, some of the people from my University decided to go out and find a place to dance. I can clearly remember how shocked we were when we see the price, the lowest was 100RMB per person, and then the other disco place is 150RMB. Gosh!!! But luckily we got Tina(VPHR in AIM), so 8 of us went to her house to have a little party and played the truth and dare game till the morning. I was very excited even though I still have 2 MC team days left. In the early morning, I quickly leave them for the new orient English course, such a rush!!! And before the class was over, I had to run to MC house again for the meeting only to find that Rock resigned. All my happiness suddenly dies out!! Although Rock is not my best friend in the MC team, he was still part of the team, and then he irresponsible resigned, which made us really at a loss!! And what's more, he is the only one left on the team coming from the same University as me after Cindy resigned at the first 2 months of the MC team. But now, only I left :( So for the last two days, I really felt I can not concentrate enough and be more positive.

 So whatever, the team re-treats finished. And the final exams are coming, I don't really have time to be more demotivated, I have to squeeze my time both for work and study.