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thank god it's friday.

feeling the effects of a 65 hr work-week...really drained out from a heavy 5 days so far.

just a bit more. leaving the office now for some individual classes. and one more work day tomorrow.

"unas frias" (some cold ones.) this evening will be good.

thinking of a day-trip to the beach this weekend.

maybe sunday?

Moving AIESEC offices

Today is the day we say goodbye to our lovely AIESEC office, and move into a new one temporarily for a period of time before finally moving to the University, our new home.

Below are some pics of the "Headquarters of AIESEC Central America South". It was located in a building of a language institute of which we have had a long relation with. The owner has decided to sell the building, and thus we will have to move.

Our office

Our conference room
The entrance from outside

The entrance from inside

The award we won in AXLDS in Brazil, 2005 for our growth!

Paintings of the our lives from a teambuilding activity

Our clean washroom!

The view from the cafeteria where we eat lunch each day!

We are probably going to miss this part the most!!!

Juraj, Magaly, and me!

A typical week

I made a point to focus on my social/cultural side during my stay here. I will make an exception in this post, and talk a bit about a typical week for me.

Currently, I'm working 6 days a week balancing two jobs. AIESEC as my full-time job, and teaching English at a university and giving private classes as my main source of income.

Monday - Thursday:
8:30am - 5pm: AIESEC Office
6pm - 8:30pm: University

Friday:
8:30am - 2pm: AIESEC office
3pm - 7:30pm: Private Classes

Saturday:
8am - 1pm: University
2pm - 4pm: Private Classes


Doing the maths, I figure I'm working about 60-70 hours per week. Although I must admit it is very tiring sometimes, especially when I return home at 9pm and finally cook my dinner...my brain being dead by then. I have been able to pick up on my time management skills, as well as the focus on life-work balance.

Indeed, a life outside AIESEC has been very beneficial to help me balance that. And well, with over 300 hours of teaching in the university, it has given me lots of extra facilitating experiences, =) compliments one of my passions in languages, while also accidently recruiting some potential AIESEC members in my classes!

Now to clear up the misunderstanding some of you have in communicating with me, I do not go to the beach everyday or even frequently! Though I really would love to!!!

Look at my weekly schedule, probably this is when I really need those 8-day weeks (referring to my previous post).

How many days in a week?

From my years of experience with managing days of the week, my view on the issue has been extremely challenged during my time here in a Spanish-speaking country.

Today's date: Friday Feburary 2nd.
If I want to express the date: Friday, Feburary 9th, in English, I would say.

1) next week
2) in 7 days. (having a comprehension that a week has 7 days: Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun)

Easy?

Not quite.

In Spanish, this same concept is expressed as "hoy en ocho" ((From)Today in eight (days))


Following the concept that one week has 8 days. I presumed that 2 weeks have 8+8= 16 days. Or maybe 14 days just like in English.

Answer? "2 weeks" translates to "quince dias" (15 days)


Now, last week (or better said: during the past 8 days), I was asking my collegue Magaly "In how long do you think we will move offices?"
She replied to me rather quickly: 22 dias (22 days).

I was quite surprised in which she was able to reply so rapidly with such accuracy. After some moments of shock, I gradually realized that 22 days refer to 3 weeks!

So in conclusion:
1 week - 8 days
2 weeks - 15 days
3 weeks - 22 days
4 weeks ?

Now I wonder how many days 4 weeks have for a Spanish speaker. Any ideas?