Quelle week-end! (What a weekend!)

1. Gares and Taxis

I thought I had my Friday lined up perfectly. I had planned the whole day hour by hour, perhaps even minute by minute. But I didn't count on a certain fact - there were two train stations, not one, in Aix. One for the normal local trains, another for the TGV (fast intercity trains). Good thing I arrived 45 minutes beforehand at the normal train station; unfortunately the only way I could get to the TGV station in time was by taxi...

NEVER EVER EVER TAKE A TAXI IN FRANCE. EVER. I MEAN IT.

For a 12 minute journey, it cost me 35 euros. It was more expensive than my one way train trip to Paris. I would have killed the taxi driver, were I not late for my train.

A lesson learnt...but at least I made my train.

2. Arrival in Paris

The TGV is insanely fast. It got to Paris in 3 hours...or maybe I am just used to massive distances in Australia. When I arrived in Paris there was ice covering the top half of the train...not sure if that was due to the cold, or the speed, or a combination of the two.

Anne-Laure was waiting for me at the platform; I stayed at her place that evening. She has a nice little apartment not too far out from Paris city. We spoke about random AIESEC stuff for many hours; unfortunately in English but I think I was still too stressed from only just catching the train to be able to speak in French.

3. AIESEC Culture shock

I started the day working with the AIESEC France Member Committee with a good deal of excitement; I ended the day in a state of despair and shock.

I met the French MC team, everyone except the MCP (President). I am not sure why, but he couldn't be there this weekend. Anne-Laure who I had already met was the VP Finance, Karim was the VP External Relations, Nelyenka (or Nely) their VP ICX, Daniela (or Dani) their VP PD, and Jany their VP OGX. The last three were internationals, a curious fact. Apparently at the moment AIESEC in France lacks the existing talent to produce a complete, or near complete, MC team - or at any rate, the talent never stays around long enough. Nely is from Slovakia, Dani from Germany, Jany from Romania. Everyone was extremely friendly. For the next two days, we were joined by Julie from Bordeaux (a fellow ground level member selected into the steering team), François from the NTT and an MCP candidate in the upcoming conference, and Marc, LCP of one of the Parisian LCs (ESIEA I think). I knew Marc well, as he had done a CEED in Queensland last July and had attended the National Conference.

For those of you not familiar with AIESEC, I apologise for the excessive number of acronyms in the previous paragraph. Count how many there are, and post it in the comments!!

We started off with a breakfast of fresh baguettes and jam and/or cheese...I enjoyed it as it is still something very exotic for me, but I could see for the rest it was just a cheap breakfast on an MC salary.

We started the day with a bit of a get to know you, why we joined the organisation and why we were here sort of thing...Marc seemed rather cynical actually, and was not sure wure why he was here. I thought he was going through a down phase, but it seemed to be consistent across the weekend.

There is no need to bore you with the details of everything we went through, but I must point out what happened in the measurement survey section. All the 15 LCs had been asked to fill out a survey resembling an audit, so we could do some data analysis and find out the current state of the organisation. Of the 15 LCs, only 9 filled them in, and after some number crunching, I realised the results were atrocious. Most of the LCs were doing no exchanges at all, had no members, and in general had no clue. Some LCs were spending their time and money running massive parties, whereas others existed in name only - for example, in one LC, the ENTIRE Executive Board had left the country for half a year, and only just returned. After the upcoming conference, there would be no LCs with full membership status...Bordeaux (Aurelie's LC) would be the only LC that qualified, but they were only founded recently so were yet to obtain membership status. There is some hope - Marseilles and Bordeaux seemed to be heading the right way, but with such a weight of national problems I don't know how long such hope could last.

Why had this situation come about? The problem for me lay in the MC activities. They are certainly well-intentioned, but their priorities are quite stuffed. They have been bogged down in managing the partnership with Alcatel - matching, delivering and receiving 40 trainees per year, amongst 6 people. This clearly leaves little time to assist the LCs, who are deeply in need of assistance (and who had called for it in the survey). The Parisian LCs are completely insane - one of them has a 15 person reception team, but they refuse to help receive the MC interns (even if the LCs are paid for it), instead spending their time running huge parties and welcoming exchange students (???). They are loaded with money given to them by their universities, so the excuse of bullying by the uni adminstration existed. Bullying into what the university wanted, that is.

On that note...excuses. This deeply, deeply frustrated me. I noticed this particularly in the French in the room (with the exception of Julie), and even to an extent in the internationals. Everyone seemed to be saying why things couldn't work, but nobody was keen on proposing solutions - at least at first anyway. I found myself pushing everyone in the room along to think about the organisational vision, and why all their excuses and saying 'no' would not lead to the vision. We have no choice but to hit the vision no matter what, and unless they committed to that, then we should just give up now and go home. Most people were moved into a more creative mode after this, and became more solutions focused, and we started to produce some tangible and useful output. I think the only thing separating me from them was that I had only just arrived, and I had not time to slip into this organisational depression...

I have heard that this kind of misery is an element of French culture. It is only in AIESEC I have run across it, but then again, it is the only place I have had to work with French people on non-academic work; i.e. somewhere where morale is an absolute must. At any rate, AIESEC France needs to move out of this state of misery and problems-focused thinking if they want to go anywhere.

By the end of the weekend, we had chosen a series of steps to be taken to fix up the country. Some were the 'hard line' - a kind of self-selection process to take place at the national conference and with the assistance of the MC on their LC visits. Then there was the middle line, which the strategic task force would be responsible for: we would be finding one key person in as many LCs as possible, and getting them to help us drive discussion on aiesec.net and on a local level too. This discussion would concern things like the state of AIESEC France, the global direction, how AIESEC France can be made relevant to the issues faced by the country, etc. Then there was the 'soft' line, which involves national recognition and encouragement of those LCs which are headed the right way.

We seemed to end with a kind of excitement in the air, which was energising for me. I know that the moment this country flings off its state of despair, it can achieve utterly extraordinary things. I say that because as a nation France faces massive issues in society right now, has a strong need for new leadership, and above all, has people who care. AIESEC France simply needs to look inside itself and revolutionise itself to draw in these people, and it will become extraordinary.

4. Les rues de Paris

I should describe the night activity that took place as well, as the steering team was over the weekend and I had 3 nights in Paris. The first night I just slept. The second night, I went to a trainee party at an AIESEC pub - there were 30 trainees there; incredible! Most of them were Alcatel trainees. Most incredible of all was the fact that I ran into my old friend Subash!!!! He had spent a year on the Australian MC as the Australia - India Young Leaders Program Coordinator, and was now on an internship in Alcatel Paris. It was certainly a surprise, as I expected him to be in India, and he expected me to be in Australia. We talked for many hours catching up...he seems to be having a blast here in Paris, and his French is non-existent. I am glad now that I chose Aix, because in Paris I know I would not have been able to learn French with everyone speaking English at me continually. Subash will be here for another 5 months or so, definitely will catch up with him again when I am in Paris.

I met some other fun trainees...a bizarre and hilarious guy from India called Manu, and a fun guy from Estonia called Marius.

The next night I wandered through the streets of Paris with Julie, Neli and Dani for about 4 hours. Got all the obligatory Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe photos...but there seems to be much more to Paris than these two icons. Under the Arc de Triomphe is the worst traffic I have ever seen. There were simply no rules. It kind of looked like dodgem cars...and yes, there probably that many bumps. Even driving in India was nothing compared to this!!! There cars nearly doing head on collisions, side-on collisions, any kind of collision. There were no lanes, no lights, nothing...i expected better from France, but drivers in this whole country seem to be quite bad. Or worse than Sydney anyway.

I had many long conversations with the 3 of them during our long walk. Dani was particularly interesting...she has been in AIESEC for 6 years, and had considered running for AIESEC International, but finally decided against it. We traded opinions and understandings on AIESEC and the world at large, and most of all on French culture. Especially the 'desperation' element of it...it was something quite extraordinary for us to comprehend. Having been in France for 6 months she had a much stronger understanding than me, but tells me that every time she looks a little further into AIESEC France or French culture, she gets a massive surprise. I enjoyed the chats of the evening even more than walking around Paris. It was during this walk a bizarre feeling came over me...homesickness, not for Sydney, but for Aix-en-Provence! It seems Aix has truly become a home for me. I tried to cast my thoughts back to Sydney...yes I remember it well, but the attachment seems to be dying...certain rooms in my house seem to have the feeling of being long-distant memories. While I still have a long way to go before I understand French culture and even the language (which I must say I have improved in considerably), on some basic level, France has become my home.