Job Hunting in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Yes Eoin has travelled half way accross the world to a city called Edmonton in the mid-west of Canada. Why I hear you ask! Well first and foremost to be with my girlfriend Chelsea who is from here and who I met while in internship in Amsterdam. So far things are going great. Within a week of job hunting I had been offered a job and a chance at a work permit but it really wasnt thetype of job I wanted (canvassing door to door for a so called "marketing" company). I didnt get a good vibe off the people working there so I declined the job. That was a Monday. On the Friday of the same week I had an interview for a Markeitng/Administration position with an industrial company. After 5 minutes of me going over my experience and backgrouand the guy tells me I am overqualified! So its going well here if by well is that there are lots of jobs and I am qualified but just trying to be patient to find the right one.

Since being here i have been to the Calgary Stampede, seen a Edmonton Eskimos football game live, done a bungee jump on my birthday followed by Superman in 3D and an extensive drinking session. I will be seeing the Chili Peppers in September and Black Eyed Peas in October and hopefully somewhere between all this I will manage to get a good job and secure a work permit to allow me to stay here.

Today for the first day in a while it is pissing rain. For the last number of weeks it's been scorching hot, averaging 27 degrees. The other afternoon it was at 32 degrees.

I will try to update my blog more often and for those resolute to keep me blogging I thank them for their "encouragement" (Ainee) and hope people come back to my blog. Same posts will go on my BEBO site too; http://TheRoutine.bebo.com

Adios!

Lightning over Rotterdam!

OK this post is to both show off my new pictures of the amazing lightning storm and to satisfy Aine and Misha who are "encouraging" me to update my blog more often. I know its been 7 months but what can I say I ain't a great blogger!

I am as it happens not so bad at photography:

http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/eoinrouine/album?.dir=1f2bre2&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//uk.photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

Happy Christmas and Peaceful 2006

Bloody spam bastards....didnt realise some people are sad enough to spam on blogs, especially mine which I've been terrible enough to leave dormant since I started my traineeship in Amsterdam!

So sorry for spam and sorry for no news.

I'm on holidays for Christmas back in Dublin after the first 4 months of a deadly traineeship with ABN AMRO. I'm not in the bank a such...its part of their sponsorship of the Volvo Ocean Race where the bank has two boats competing. The crux of my job entails the editing of the TEAM website: www.abnamro.com/team which I am proud to say has thousands of hits a day from both bank staff and the general public. Other work is distribution of high resolution pictures to international media interested in the race as well as working with Internal Communicatons on builing interest in the race amonst the staff. Its fun work and I'm gonna be 'lucky' enough to be followed to Amsterdam by not one but two previous AIESEC in Ireland presidents...yes Arthur and Russell are both setting up camp here come January 2006!

Amsterdam is fun...lovely city. Of course its got the red light district and its not the safest after 2am but all in all its very pleasant. I arrived mid August and had an amazing summer/autumn getting to know all the trianees who are there..which numbers about 50 at this stage and finding my way round the city which when you're used to it is similar in size to Dublin and has only a few less pubs than Dublin...most of which are Irish pubs so I'm not sure whether I can count them or not!

Digs, you may remember Colm Mc Getrick from when you came to Ireland?/ Well he's one of my best mates from college and he too followed me over to The Netherlands and is working for a finance company in Maastricht and has been over there for a month or so now. So we're planning trips to each others neck of the woods over the next few months which will get me out of Amsterdam to see the rest of The Netherlands which I havent really done yet.

I guess thats all for my update thus far. Having a great time on my trianeeship, have great people around me and all in all I'm a Happy Chappy!

Wishing everyone a Happy Christmas and Peaceful 2006 where ever you may be!

All the best,

Eoin

Transition 05: AIESEC comes to and end!

Hello to my faithful readers! hahah yeah as if I have any!

I guess this post is to document a very important time for me. Its transition time on the AIESEC in Ireland Member Committee! Yes finally after 5 years of dedicated service to AIESEC in Ireland I am splurging all my knowlege out and pass it onto the new team of very capabel AIESECers from Ireland, USA, Poland and India! Its an exciting time but also a sad time! A lot of my liefe over the last years had indeed been given to AIESEC and to see it coming to an end is like leaving a good friend! I guess I'll have to make new friends eh!

My future plans are undefined at the moment. I am looking for a job like any good graduate would after the expereince I have and the bank account balance I have. I am applying abroad through AIESEC and in Dublin through agencies and anything that comes to my attention! Marketing is where I want to work and advertising and branding in particular take my fancy so finding somthing suitable may take awhile but I am optimistic as always.

Tonight we had a little party in the office sponsored by our lovely landlady Helen who bought us beer, wine, and food! All good! So as soon as 5:30pm struck things got started and it is 2am now and I am sufficiently drunk to update my blog so maybe that says a lot of things for my blog and maybe also for my blogging style :)

Hope everyone is well,

xxx

Eoin

Holi Holi Days

I'm on a well needed holiday last week and this week. Much of the latter part of last week was of course consumed by drinking and acting the host to my german friend Matti who was over for St Patricks Day. Its amazing the things you see in Dublin when u open your eyes or even take the time to walk down that laneway you walk past every day. Dublin Castle, Trinity College Library and Temple Bar were just a few of the stops on the Dublin with Eoin tour.

I am jogging 2 nights a week as of next week with my friend Morgan. I'm doin it for the Presidents Award and to get myself back into shape. He's doin it too cos he's a good mate and he is livin in Dublin for the first time, an Athlonian by birth, and its a good way for us to catch up after a good few years of not seeing him at all cos I was busy with AIESEC and he was on the Students Union in Athlone IT.

I am off to Killarney with my Sam for two nights in a nice Hotel which was given as a gift from the Hotel Chain as we have used them for at least 5 years now for AIESEC conferences. The job has its perks sometimes!

I am also off to Rotterdam in about a month for a work meeting but will have one night to catch up with Leoni, from AIESEC in Holland, who was supposed to join myself and Matti last weekend but had to bail at the last minute. She'll get a stern talkin to! Not too stern cos i have to crash at her place!

One thing in the news here at the moment which has caught the ear of everybody is a 20 year old Nigerian boy who was deported by the Irish government last week. The boy had financed his own journey here to leave Lagos as it was undafe for him. He arrived in Ireland aged 17 and has attended secondary school in Dublin since then. He was only 3 months away from completeing his leaving certificate which would get him into college here and they have deported him with nothing more than his school uniform on him! Its tragic that this kind of thing can happen and I am glad to hear much uproar by opposition parties in governement and the general public. With some luck he will be allowed back. I'll keep yee posted.

AIESECers are awarded by the President of Ireland

Presidents Award Collage Gif3
Originally uploaded by eoinrouine.

John Murray (AIESEC DIT, Ireland) and Lorraine Nickelson (AIESEC Kaiserslautern, Germany) accepting their award from Preisident McAleese.

Eoin meets the President of Ireland 22/02/05

Well yesterday was one of those times in AIESEC that helps you realise your work is achieving something good. I love those days....


Those Irish of you reading this will now doubt know what Gaisce - The Presidents Award is however internationals may know it as many things such as The Duke of Edinburgh Award. A similar award is established in 111 countries and in Ireland the top grade for the Presidents Award, a gold medal, is quite prestigious being the highest award a member of the general public can achieve. To achieve the award young people between 18 and 25 years of age must complete different challenges covering Personal Skill, Community Involvement, Physical Recreation and an Adventure Activity which all in all can take 2 years to complete.

AIESEC in Ireland has recently partnered with The Presidents Award in Ireland. I am proud to be the person who from the AIESEC side at least made the partnership happen. What it is aimed at achieving for AIESEC, considering throughout a members time in AIESEC they cover the Personal Skill and Community Involvement challenges, is a highly recognised and respected external award in recognition for what we all know is a lot of personal time and sacrifices into the organisation. What the Presidents Award gains is an increase in young people at third level education entering into the award. It is a partnership where no money exchanged hands, no drastic changes have had to be made to either organization to accommodate the other but the benefit for both organizations is very valuable and I know through conversations with different people that the partnership has potential to develop in so many other directions.

So what happened yesterday?? Well the first two AIESEC members since the partnership was established received their gold medal from Mary McAleese, The President of Ireland. I was invited as the representitive from AIESEC and luckily also got to meet the President. It was a lovely ceremony in Dublin Castle Conference Centre and was attended by the Minister for State and the Minister for Education. Some of the achievements by the people receiving the award were truly amazing and when it comes to the Physical Recreation and Adventure Activity challenges I think it couldn't hurt AIESEC members to get away from their computers and discover the world outside of international conference facilities.

You may wonder how did this happen with the partnership being only months old and the award needing a couple of years to complete. Well as it happened these two members were doing The Presidents Award and already using AIESEC as one of their challenges for achieving the Award. One of them, John Murray, was a member in my Local Committee in DIT, and the other, Lorraine Nickelson, was a member of AIESEC in Germany on her Erasmus year.

So the way I see it is that AIESEC is moving up an echelon in youth organisation circles in Ireland and following my meeting with Duke of Edinburgh International Association Director of Operations, Andrew McMenimen and AIESEC International in April I hope that this valuable partnership will go global!

While I am on a nice ramble I will also mention that I just have my Physical Recreation and Adventure Activity to complete and then I hopefully will be receiving the medal this time next year. For the Physical Recreation I intend to join a running club and train to run the Dublin marathon or the marathon of whatever city I end up on my traineeship in and for the Adventure I intend to join AIESECers from Ireland doing the award with AIESECers in Portugal (only other country with similar partnership) doing the award and trek the St James Walk which I have been told is in Spain somewhere!

Adios for now :)

AIESEC in The Irish Times

In the "Business This Week" section of the Irish Times, Irelands most read newspaper for yee foreigners reading, there is a great Article focusing on Developing Leaders and AIESEC's apprach to doing so. We are all very happy with it as we get 3/4 of the half a page article! January has been a good month for us so far. National Conference in 2 weeks and my replacement will be elected...time flies when you are working for no money!

GO METRIC DAY!

Yesterday was "Go Metric Day" here in Ireland. Yes we have finally changed the speed signs on our roads to Kilometres! Previously we had distances on road signs in KMs but speed limits in miles per hour. So yes we are finally truly becoming a developed country in 2005! Come on you boys in green!

Catch a rainbow!

Catch a rainbow!
Originally uploaded by eoinrouine.

Cool pic I found while putting together AIESEC in Irelands Reception Booklet at teh start of the year. Gotta get a pic with me doin that some day!