Aspirations - enabling to dream

I am now back to my studies from a wonderful weekend - thanks Maja, Caro and Mike!

My dissertation is keeping me busy but at the same time I had the chance to explore a new issue I am interested in: enabling the capacity to aspire.

Throughout my time in AIESEC, I was always passionate about supporting people to achieve their potential. Now, through meeting people from many different backgrounds in England and reading about 'the poor' for my dissertation, I thought more and more about the following:

Could it be that in order for people to fulfill their potential, they need to be able to dream?

If someone doesn't have dreams, hopes or ambitions, is it likely that they will fulfill their potential?

What are the conditions under which people 'dream best'? Basic needs satisfaction? Networks? Knowledge of options (education) ?

When I was a primary school student I thought a classmate of mine was stupid, she did not want to learn, did not seem to want anything with her life as it seemed to me at the age of 8. Only later I found out she had been abused at home, came from a deprived family and faced many difficulties.

Appadurai's article (the capacity to aspire) made me think: he says that the capacity to aspire is not evenly distributed in our world. I know now that the girl in primary school was no bit stupider than me, maybe more intelligent. I am asking myself: what needs to happen for everyone having equal capacities to aspire?

Tomorrow I have a meeting with Tom, a very inspiring person who is also interested in the subject - let's see what I learn from him!

Visit to Switzerland

Around Easter, I had a wonderful visit to Switzerland. It was my birthday, so my sister and my mum invited friends and family to celebrate with me - I had a fantastic time, cooking for everyone, chatting and catching up. My sister was even so cute to try to organise a surprise party for me (which didn't work out because too many friends were abroad over Easter) - I really felt overwhelmed to be spend such a nice time with my family. Who also contributed to this was Ginny, a friend from Manchester visîting me in Switzerland. At first I was really stressed because I had to study but also wanted to take care of her at the same time, but she was really sweet and we had a great time together - because of her being there me and my family did some really touristy stuff like visiting Lucerne or Planplatten. Of course I also spent time with my donkeys who are some of my greatest loves in life :-) I also met good friends like Corinne, Nadja, Suzan and Maja - it felt like there was no time gap from when I saw them last time. Now I am back in Manchester again, studying intensively and developing myself, but enjoying to think back of those beautiful memories!

Yes, I am still here

After half a year of silence, it is time to write an update on this blog!

I am still in england, experiencing a country which is much more exotic to me than Nepal, Brazil or Singapore:
- Strange English breakfast (no, Dean did NOT manage to turn me to a baked-beans-on-toast-lover)
- the British obsession with the class system (a usual conversation: "Well, me as a typical middle class person think this and that")
- the enormous diversity in the society makes the heart of an anthropologist beat higher - within walking distance in Manchester I can go to the Pakistani/Indian Curry mile, Chinatown or the traditional British Pub!

I am enjoying my course a lot - it is very challenging and demanding, I am meeting really interesting scholars and feel like my mind grows a lot. But there is also the fighting with texts, forcing myself to read 8h a day and having a less action oriented life than when I worked for AIESEC.
I am spending a lot of time with Dean and nurturing ties with Swiss friends and family that will hopefully endure over distance and time.
My course will end in September, and the options at the moment are: Go for an internship, or find a really great job in Britain.

My new hobby - dancing!

One good thing is about a British university are the endless opportunities in terms of student life. With a campus of 90'000 students, Manchester offers a society for everyone: the clubbing society, AIESEC, the Malaysian society, the knitting society and many more.

I joined the dance society, and I am enjoying it enormously. I am taking a Salsa Class and a ballroom dance class. After the classes, you can go for 1.5 h practice, where they just play the music and let you dance. Students of all levels participate in the practice, and that gives you the opportunity to see some real tournament dancers - a fantastic sight! I always come back energetic and happy from the classes. The atmosphere is totally relaxed, and you always find a partner (very often a girl, as most guys have been dragged there by their girldfriends and are already "taken").

So far I learnt: Salsa, Tango, Quickstep, Valse, Chachacha and Rumba. I am - mildlly said - only an average talent, but because of the frequency of the practice, I feel like I have made already big steps! The good thing though is that there is no competition or stress: One of the best thing of the dance classes is how much you laughbecause you stumble around.

Yes, dancing is one of the things in life that just make me happy :-)

Studying and thinking

Yes, life in the UK got normal for me - baked beans, student flat, dance classes and of course: studying.

It is my experience as a student that stimulates me most. Due to the chosen courses, I read a lot about about topics that are simply sad: An example are the structural constraints to children in the crack shanty towns of New York. According to Philippe Bourgeois, most of them turn into drug dealers/rape victims/violent individuals/adoscelent paternts despite them having "normal childhood dreams like becoming a doctor or a policeman. Although I believe in the power of the individual to shape her own life, the conditions make this very hard for the adolescents mentioned above.
This is only one of the shocking topics I am currently reading about. I have gained leadership characteristics through being in AIESEC, have grown up in priviledged conditions in the best country in the world, have a university education, a good social environment and much more.

I really really hope that I can turn all of these great starting conditions into action, that I find a career where I can put myself fully in and make a difference!

When I left AIESEC, I believed becoming a Social Entrepreneur might be the right choice (as business is one of the most powerful agents), but maybe I should consider working for a government? Or still for an NGO? And what is the field I can bring in most of my competencies?

Manchester: A new place - and new options arising!

Arrived in the UK!

Yes, now it finally happened: I arrived to spend a year in the UK as a Masters student of Social Anthropology in Manchester!

After a wonderful month with family, friends, donkeys and mountains in Switzerland, I boarded a plane together with Dean to London. In my first few days in Manchester I got a phone number (email me and I will tell you :-) and I got to know my accomodation and the university.

My accomodation is very small and ugly - the bed wouldn't fit in twice, the build is from around the 1960s and there are many 19 year olds who left home for the first time and party like crazy, so I woke up last night to a firework in front of my window! I pay around 670 Swiss francs.

Besides the accomodation, the impression I got from the university so far is great: They take really good care of us internationals, and everything seems well organized and striving for excellence.

It looks as though the masters will be more challenging than I thought: I was in an information session today, and they told us we'd be working around 35 hours a week if we didn't take any holidays all year round! Now, let's see if this is just the usual university scarer at the beginning or if it is actually true. I like to be challenged at university (one reason for choosing the UK and Manchester) and it seems this university will challenge me.

Everyday feels like an adventure, because you don't know who you are going to meet and what you are going to learn. For example, today I found out that my course lasts till September, and not just till June, I meet a really nice Canadian woman and I am going to a Barbecue organised by the international society. Overall, I like it here and I am happy to go through something which looks like a unique learning experience, meeting lots of English and international people and exploring a new (more academic) side of myself!

First steps of reintegration! Or: About being Swiss.

This week I took my first steps of reintegration!
Nadja, a good Swiss friend of mine came to visit me inDenmark and we had loads of fun eating chocolate, shopping and having deep and meaningful discussions.
She helped me to realise that I actually really changed my behaviours during my stay in Denmark. For example I am speaking in a much more imperative tone, such as: "try that dress on now, and let´s go to a caffee afterwards". For a Dane or for my Indian flatmate a total normal tone, but Nadjas face told me that it wasn´t polite at all in a Swiss context! A "maybe you can try on that dress now? It could be great to go and get a coffee afterwards, what do you think?" would be much more appropriate in Switzerland. Funny cultural encounters!
Thanks to Nadja for helping me realising these things before going back to Switzerland for a few weeks. I wonder what my time England will "do to me". Will I still be Swiss? Will I loose my Swissness? Will I become a "European"?
I am looking forward to the adventures to come!