Already Christmas?

Well, sorry my friends if I left you without news on my nomadic life. Most of you know by now (I hope) that I moved to Denmark to study at the Kaos Pilots. I arrived here on October 8th, soon after the realisation of the GRI Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency. The conference was an incredible experience and the team I worked with was something remarkable. Since my AIESEC time I didn’t feel so excited and committed in a team as during those 6 months preparing for the event. The event itself was a surreal experience for me, being in close contact with over 120 key influential people in the world of sustainability reporting, from business, civil society, academia and governments.

(Conference Team going for a business meeting in the "sustainable Dutch-style", by bike: myself, Annelies [conference manager], Hanna [governance assistant], Andrew [communications manager] and Tamara [organizational stakeholders manager]. Only Teresa [Director] is missing here)

I will write more about it later, but for the moment I suggest to check out the conference website (http://www.grig3.org) and listen to the sessions (all available for pod-cast or download via iTunes!). See the names of the persons involved, and if you would like to contact them, let me know and maybe I can help you! ;-)

I’ve been living in Århus, the second largest city in Denmark with about 300,000 inhabitants. It’s an University city with a vibrant cultural life. It’s still a small town, with its beautiful old houses (from the Viking times when this was a fishermen’s village), with some modern touch such as a big harbour, nice art museum, recognised University, and of course, birth place of the Kaos Pilots!

I live at the Børglum Kollegiet, one of the many students buildings in here. Mine is located “far” from downtown, which means 15 minutes by bike (not far at all actually). But as Århus is a small town, I live in fact in Risskov, another town. It is a very good idea to live in a place like that, because it gives me the opportunity to relax and forget a bit about the kaos life at the school, talk to other people on different subjects, listen and learn some Danish language and enjoy their traditions.

But the most unbelievable thing for me so far has been the kitchen. We all 14 people in the same floor, having individual rooms with bathrooms, and sharing the same big kitchen. Well, I have to confess that it’s the cleanest and most organised kitchen I have ever seen (even my mom would agree!), and it’s all based on a clear set of rules, good schedule, organisation, and the most important element: TRUST. And it works! Without power, “punishment” or bosses, our kitchen is a success that makes me proud and happy to live here, and invite my friends over for coffee or dinner ;-)

And of course the kitchen was the place for my first Christmas dinner of the season (yes, it’s already x-mas in Denmark, with decoration, lights, trees and jingles everywhere), that happened last Friday. We started by 6pm with lots of food and many rounds of “snaps”... by 10pm we were sharing presents and already quite happy. By 4:30am (as far as I can remember), we were all smashed drunk, crawling back to our rooms... I think I woke up properly only on Sunday morning...

The cultural learning point here is: Danish people drink a lot, and especially during x-mas with family and friends. Fat food and lot of “snaps”... better get prepared ;-)

Hope you are all having a good time, and I would love to reconnect with you... feel free to contact me by e-mail, MSN or Skype... for any reason that this blog might bring, conversations do matter!