It's not sexy to smoke.

A little or procastination on the internet has brought me some worthy news.

Hong Kong, as of January 1st, 2007 is now smoke-free in all indoor places! Bars, restaurants, offices!


Following the trends of government around the world, like a majority of cities in Canada, smokers must smoke outside buildings! That aspect was something that I realized I appreciated a lot when I returned to Canada. I realize a night out at a bar no longer meant a disgusting smell on my clothes the next day.

Unfortunately the clubs and bars here in Costa Rica do not have that law. Well, at least most of the bars here are outdoors, which already is an awesome concept taking advantage of the warm climate. So at least there is some fresh air if non-smokers like me need!

It's not sexy to smoke! AAAOOOWWW!!!

COCAS 2007

The 4 day COCAS (Congreso Central America Sur) was I would say quite a success!

Highlights of the conference:

As a teambuilding activity with the MC-faci team and the chair, we were given a box of matches and were not allowed to bring any money to somehow get food for 7 people. We were "choqado" in the beginning, but well, we somehow managed the situation and got quite creative. We proved to ourselves why we are on the MC, and managed to trade some matches for: a bowl of fruit salad, 2 warm ham and cheese sandwiches, 2 cups of ice tea, 1 empanado (pastry), 2 lollipops. Not bad for a some matches, eh?
Just for the heck of it, I wanted some dessert, and took a match and managed to get a delicious coffee-rum flavoured ice-cream cone. =) Mind you, it was a 28 degree day.

The conference site!!!! It was cabin-style and was located up in the cloud forests of Costa Rica, and we were literally above the clouds. We were in cabins, and were quite chilly (10 degrees at night) especially because there was no heating. Our Panamanian delegation was completely frozen after experiencing 38 degree weather in Panama before travelling here.

As the MC, we stayed in one cabin together, and had no blankets. We were completely frozen, and in the morning we realized that all the blankets were neatly stacked in a cupboard.

MCP elected! Congratulations Franklin!!!

"exchange" and "bomba" (bomb) were buzz words. Everytime the MC said "exchange", all delegation had the change seats. And everybody in the delegation had one "bomba", and when heard, everyone must dug down on the floor as if there was a bomb. This was a spinoff of a Costa Rican tradition of "bomba" which happens during a party, and people in turn cracks a joke after someone says it.

One of the morning roll calls of an local commitee, was screaming "exchange". "bomba". "exchange". "bomba". "exchange". "bomba" ...etc =)

The song "hung up" by Madonna which was the AIESEC dance brought into the National Congress in Canada by the MC & Faci team, was also introduced in this conference as the MC's opening plenary roll call!! ...time goes by....so slowly....

One of the coolest conference nametags designs I have seen, in addition, I was a verb "Marting"

Again, it was 6 of the MC members present out of 7. (I left the conference before Tati recovered from illness and came to the conference). We are cursed as since the MC term started, the 7 of us still have not been in the same room at the same time =(

Choque: Hot or Cold?

As we are having our Central America South Congress (COCAS) this week, our members from Panama have arrived in groups in Costa Rica where the conference is held this year.

One of the Panamanian members have logged on his MSN with the following nickname:

"Frio en Costa Rica" (English: "Cold in Costa Rica")

It is 28 degrees full of sunshine outside.

Later I gathered information that it was 38 degrees in Panama when they left.

Who am I?

I realized I haven't introduced much of who I am. Below is an excerpt I have created for my facebook.com info of myself:

"Crazy, stupid jokes, leafs fan, cute, crazy, FOB, brain loaded with useless information, CBC, crazy, energetic, motivating, random, passionate, fun, weird, dreamer, crazy, HAPPY, international, talks too much, sexy, happy, crazy, saprissista, open minded, inspiring, human-equivalent of prozac"

These are how some of my friends have describe me. I will be more than happy to have input to add to this list! =)

I was born in Hong Kong, and since 5 months old, my journey has started. Due to my dad's work, our family have been re-allocated many times throughout my childhood to Belgium, USA, Canada, Switzerland, and of course Hong Kong. That has been a challenging experience with attending around 9 schools in 13 years. However, this has planted the seed for my long term dream of understanding new cultures. As a result, I was determined to return to Canada for university, and promptly after, added Costa Rica as a place I would call "home".

One of the hardest questions for me to answer is to say where I'm from. I would probably say I am a proud Chinese born in Hong Kong, who enjoys having Swiss chocolate on a Costa Rican beach watching hockey, eh?

On a sugar cube I once recieved at an AIESEC conference, a person wrote to me: "Home is wherever all your loved ones' hearts are" - that has left an impact on me. And I think it's true. Our homes are exactly where your loved ones' hearts are - wherever they may be at the moment.

All throughout my childhood up till I was 20, my dream has always wanted to be a doctor. I asked myself why I wanted to be a doctor, and I answered I wanted to help people. I then realized there are many more ways to help people apart from being a doctor. And so here I am in the midst of a journey to discover how I can achieve that goal of helping people.

As I always believe that things happen for a reason. It is not a coincidence that AIESEC came into my picture after I have made that realization.

I have recently graduated from Queen's University in Canada with Bachelor of Science degree with Honours . My major was Biology (due to my interest in medicine) and my minor was Linguistics (due to my deep passion in learning languages, currently speaking 5: Cantonese, English, French, Mandarin, Spanish)

I have been fortunately enough to participate in an internship programme through AIESEC Canada to a work which happened to be 11th United World College in Costa Rica. The AIESEC and the United World College (UWC) movement have clearly defined what Martin Chung is right now, by having the values of international understanding and activating leadership. Being fortunate to be a UWC alumnus from Hong Kong (my last two years of high school), I was able to mix both organizations at the same time during my half year at the internship.

The two organizations which have contributed in defining who I am right now.
http://www.uwc.org

"UWC makes education a force to unite peoples, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainabe future."

http://www.aiesec.org

"AIESEC, the world's largest student organization, is the international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential so as to have a positive impact on society."

I'm right now residing in Costa Rica, being actively involved with AIESEC Central America South which also includes Panamá. My role is to handle the People Development area of the region. I'm humbled to say that I am having the time of my life living and working in an AIESEC environment in the Central American culture. It has been thus far a very challenging, yet a life-changing, impactful, rewarding experience.

Where will I be tomorrow? Ask me in two days.

Cultural Ambassador

As an cultural ambassador during my stay in Costa Rica and Panama, I want to show why it is cool to be a HongKongSwissCanadian. The following are my KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) of my progress thus far.

HongKonizing

1. 3 members of AIESEC Central America South are able to count up to 9999 in Cantonese



2. 1 Costa Rican member (LCP) who have never met a AIESEC Hong Kong member (I'm not one.) is able to lead the AIESEC Hong Kong role call for his Local Committee, all of which in Cantonese.
   
   
3. People I interact with now clearly understands now that I do not speak Japanese, or Tokyo is not the capital of Hong Kong, or Korea is part of Hong Kong, or we are not the same. Just because we have slick black hair, sexy brown eyes, high metabolism that keeps us slim at all times, gets "happy" easily from one or two drinks, and have a face-turning-red indicator (due to "happiness" consumption), we do not speak the same language, that Asia is not one big Chinese country that export our Chinese food everywhere.
   

Canadianizing

1. 20% of MC teammates are spelling "about" as "aboot" in communication emails



2. 33% of Central America South LCPs (Local Committee Presidents) is prounoucing it "aboot" in everyday speech


3. 1 Slovak is using "eh?" in natural speech, every other sentence.



4. 1 Mexican - "eh?" in Spanish speech aside from fluency of "eh?" in English



5. "Eh?" is heard in natural speech in at least 7 % of AIESEC Central America South membership.
   
   
6. Grammatical rules of applying "eh?" aligned regionally: It is grammatically INCORRECT to use it after a question: for eg: "how was the conference, eh?" Is WRONG "The conference was a gongshow, eh?" is CORRECT.



7. The most significant achievement: Background: Czech Republic, just like the rest of the hockey world, claims to be a tradition rival of Canada in Ice Hockey.

For result, please refer to pictures.

Above: A Czech who found out what hockey really means. Flag, Hockey Jersey of a team (Toronto Maple Leafs: arguably the hockey mecca of the universe) that hasn't won the championship for 40 years: it's the Faith that counts, Cap (that says Canadian on it: a brand of beer), holding a Canadian-made hockey stick, wrapped so ever fittingly by a Canadian Flag with over numerous signatures of Canadians on it.

Above: A Slovak (already betraying his home hockey nation, wearing a Czech hockey jersey) "before" and "after" picture. Notice the difference in the smile.

Swissizing

I do have to regret on my performance in this regard. This will be one of my focus areas of the coming semester.

Ticolizing

As I am in fact living in Costa Rica, there is a reversal project on myself being Ticolized (Costa Ricans = Ticos". Below is the progress thus far:

1. Instead of "hehehe" or "hahaha", I express my joy on MSN as "jejeje" or "jajaja". ("J" being the Spanish phonetical equivalent of "H" in English)
   
   
2. I have fallen in love with football, and Saprissa as my particular team. Having comments from members that I am part of the "ultra", the hooligan society of Saprissa. Faithfully rooting for the ticos when they opened the World Cup playing against Germany.



3. When I returned to Canada, I was so paranoid to leave my valuables: camera, wallet on the hotel floor during our conference for 15 minutes. The Canadians were "choquado" why I really wanted to bring my stuff with me, even if I were to be away 15 meters away. I realized I was not in Costa Rica, and left my valuables there. When I came back, surprise surprise. They were still there.
   


4. I refer all my addresses using "... metres (east, north..etc) from the church or bank". I'm confused when I returned to Canada and they had addresses with numbers and street names. I was quite lost in that Canadian environment, honestly.



5. The Spanish I picked up is hard to recognized for those not familiar with Tico vocabulary. "mae" = "dude" is used (without exaggeration) every 3 words in a regular sentence especially among men. The classic example being "mae, seguro, mae" = "dude, sure dude." when only one word of the sentence had a real meaning.



6. "R" is pronounced uniquely when compared to Spanish spoken elsewhere in the world. No "rolling" is done in Costa Rica, and a more "english" "r" is used with a twist.



7. When I see foreigners around, I say to myself "f-ing tourists". =P
   
   
8. When I left I Canada last week, it came out of my normal speech to my friends: "my flight home is on the 7th". I'm refering to Costa Rica is my home. I'm from Costa Rica. Yes, I admit, I'm "ticolized" and I'm proud of it.
   

In a little place called Mayfield Inn.

I arrived in that hotel in the night of Dec 27th, 2007 at 11pm - and left on January 4th, 2007 at 11am. In a little place called Mayfield Inn, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

What happened between those two dates. During the 9 nights I spent there at the hotel has given me yet another impact in my life.



I was witnessing 300 delegates in their highest ever energy spirit. The 27 LCs all jumping up and down, screaming on the top of their lungs on their cheers to encourage the rest of the delegates to chant with them. I met an amazing crew of a professional MC team that just carried out the 5 day conference so smoothly and well prepared. I was able to witness AIESECers who have just joined AIESEC 2 months ago, and diving into the @ culture in their first conference. I was also able to witness @ers who claims this to be their last ever conference after 2 or so years of conference cycle. I was able to meet some international delegates came JUST for the NC, and not as a CEEDer or exchange was something very special during a conference such as NC. I was able to be part of the conference where we have the highest number of delegation in history. I was able to witness an election process that blew the entire delegation away. I was able to work with a dedicated conference team of over 20 individuals. I was able to work with a 8-member faci team that got the materials so well together. I was able to meet numerous individuals who (depending on how communicative we are) will potentially be life-long friends. I am humbled to say I was part of National Congress 2007, of AIESEC Canada.



It was a very special conference for me as it was my first Canadian conference in 1.5 years (my last being NLDC 05, at McGill) when I was an SN ready to go on internship, and leave AIESEC. And well, being able to return to a familiar AIESEC environment, experience the AIESEC culture in Canada and has revitalized me to continue the second half of my term in AIESEC CAS.

...It was a life-changing experience in which I remembered exactly why I am proud to be an AIESECer...


...in a little place called Mayfield Inn.

A dear friend of mine Varun who I have gotten to meet after one year. It's his fault for helping matching me and launching my experience in Costa Rica. Blame him!

When I say FACI - you say BANG! FACI! BANG! FACI FACI FACI! BANG BANG BANG!

The New Year's Eve Crew!!! It involved with Tom teaching us this game that I still don't understand. All I know was that I was no longer thirsty after the game, and I was quite HAPPY. =P

The NC 2007 Crew of QUORK (Queen's + York)

Back in action.

As I'm sitting in the MC office of AIESEC CAS, preparing for our COCAS (Congreso Central America Sur) conference that starts on Sunday. Our members from Panama have already trickled in Costa Rica the past day or two, and have been making a gongshow at our MC office this afternoon! (Gongshow being one of the new words I learnt in my trip back to Canada: meaning "wild" from what I understand)

I've been back at the office now for two days, and basically have spent the entire day yesterday answering all the emails from the past weeks, and setting my mind and focus in managing this conference coming up.

To back track a bit, last week's National Congress 2007 in Edmonton, Canada deserves a seperate post, as it was a very special conference for me as a facilitator back in my native @ country.