Sunday, March 28, 2010

The Road to Germany

MEILENSTEINPLAN

Task

Deadline

- information event: embassy gives all important information about the visa procedure

- IO informs about university application procedures

March 23rd

Exchange Officers will contact you regarding

final distribution of students to German universities

March - April 1st

Legalization of bank account application (by German Embassy

Mid April

Opening of Bank Account and money transfer

April

Students hand out the university application to IO

April 25th – 29th

Training of how to apply for a visa (IO)

beginning of May (not sure yet)

Students apply for visa (at German Embassy)

beginning of May

obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11

Farewell gathering

After June 6th 2010

Obligatory seminar for all outgoings fall 2010/11

C.V.-Training

After June 6th 2010

obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11

Interview-Training

After June 6th 2010

obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11

Intercultural Training

After June 6th 2010

obligatory event for all outgoings fall 2010/11

Seminar: Academic working in Germany

After June 6th 2010

Departure to Germany

Sept. – Oct. 2010

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Goalless Living?

This is a topic that's been on my mind for some time now. Embedded in this post is one of the most inspiring videos I have ever seen. It is a video of one of the speakers at NewThink theatre, a concept coined by Maher Qaddoura (the father of late Hikmat Qaddoura who was killed in a car accident). The idea is to get speakers from various domains to inspire to create change, to result in actions rather than talk. Their first event was a huge success and the second event was recently confirmed to take place in May. I will definitely go.

Back to the subject. The video below is of Sanaa' Abdo, a woman who underwent tremendous hardship, from being born with a handicap to having a stroke in her twenties. Yet she believes in being happy, she refused to give up and feel sorry for herself and as a result she is talking about how we, as a society, are negative and tend to bring people down. I strongly urge you to watch the video.

In the end, she speaks about the importance of living life with a goal. She says how she wakes up every single day with a goal, and how no one should live their life without a goal in mind.

That got me thinking.

Do you have a goal? I don't mean ambition, as in becoming successful, earning a good salary, being a good person. We all have ambitions. I mean a goal. An analytical study of how you want to live your life and what you have to accomplish in the coming week, month and years.

I don't. I never sat down and wrote I want to have accomplished A, B and C in 5 years. Is it wrong to live day by day?

This is a comment I found on some site about the subject: "In the speech by Steve Jobs, he talks about trusting your gut and doing what you love and how that you have to "trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future". It would be hard to say that Jobs has pursued goalless living given what he has achieved. However, he does seem to have based his life and career decisions on gut instinct rather than analytical planning."

Do you have a goal?


Sunday, March 7, 2010