October

October is always the worst - but still somehow the best - period during the year.
Let me explain.

October is the busiest, we are closing the old fiscal year, and starting the new one. This means, we have to prepare for the sales letters to be released before end of November.
This year, however, we had an even more agressive readiness plan, countries have 3 weeks to release the letters to the sales force.

On the other hand though, this rush, the stress, the ongoing movements, the long office hours (with ordering pizza in), the continous phonecalls, meetings, trackings, that's what it all makes it so great.
Ok, I am not saying that it is not awful, but i like it... i like it more comparing to the days when there is nothing good to do.

So, work.
October is all about work.
I had my 4th contract started Noember. It was uncertain what i am going to do after December.

I went to interiews, I got job offers, in poland, in Wien, in Ireland... not just from HP, but from companies outside...
There was also one quite good and serious in Geneva too...

Everybody was suggesting me, i should just go for it, and leave HP behind...
Howev,er somehow, i just can not do that.
It is a love&hate relationship.
Sometimes I could just stand up and run away, leave my boss behind, and leave the whole thing in a deep shit... but who deosn't feel it from time to time at work?

It is however strange, I admit, that they first can not offer me any position. Than - out of nowhere - exceptionally, I could get a contract for 2 months! 2 months!!! I am that idiot that i take it, so yes, i deserve what i get.
Than, they offered me a position in Poland!!???!!
In Poland?? I mean, why not than back in Hungary???
What's the difference?? Seriously... They thought I would take everything...

Than, exactly on the same day when i had my extrnal interview, and it was obvious that they want me and i also liked them a lot, on exactly that day, my boss was telling me, that ever since he otld me there is no way i can stay with this team, he was devasteted, and he was so sad, so he was fighting for me, for me to stay... so i should be happy and grateful, that he was fighting for me a lot... as a headcount..

ààààà

so, those political games.. i dont like...
you are either good at what you do or not.
the rest is politics.. which.. unfortunatly.. part of the game.
So yes.. don't hate the players, hate the game...
but...
it is a vicious circle, the players determine the game...
aawhh

anyways, if recent hirings happens.. than life will be very very strange at work..
And i keep on asking myself what did i do.. why did i deserve that?
If that is charma.. than i really should apologize for all my mistakes...

But... bottomline is: I accepted the 2 year contract, I am happy. but also I think this is the minimun, and i think of it as an other chance, an opportunity to finish and accomplish my goals, why i came to switzerland at the first place. (hm. afterall, sth sticked out of those aiesec years... ;))

Also, October was special, as my childhood friend (our friendship just turned 18.. ;)) and her boyfriend visited me :)
It was so good to see them.

And you know, when you are spending lots of times with married people, you keep on thinking marriage is missing from your life, than when you are spending lots of times with single ones, you keep on thinking, partying is cool...anyways, so it was just great to see them together, couple. spenidng some really good time together... having fun, long discussions.. so yes, it was fun :)
Missed you Reka!!!! Can't wait for that hot wine... ;)

Guess what... : Gruyeres... love that place ;)
I have been there like 6 times.. or more :)

Oh, boy...! What a weekend! ;)

Last weekend I went back home...

I had to get some injections... (hep A+B... stuff like that... as we are going to travel to Africa... .;)

And no, i didn't have to get those vacines because i was traveling back to Hungary, as some of my friends applied... saying that I changed...now I become one of the burgouise.... hahaha...

So...

Recently I took a very clever facebook quiz: "What type of alcoholic are you?"

The result was: Avarage Hungarian - of which I am very proud!

It means, that for me weekend parties start on Thursday...

We went to say good-bye to our awsome-st australian friend, Fiona...we ate fondue, than we went to Mulligans.. she also did sing a song!

After a few hour sleep, I was heading to Budapest... ;)

On Friday night I had a great party with Sanka and some university friends...

Still waiting for THE VIDEO!!! ;)

And finally, I know also, what's going to happen in August!

Yes... Zsicu & Zsozsi's wedding!!!

Can't wait for it!!! ;)

(And neither for the hen's night... :P)

AND!

Also, after a few hours sleeping, I was bumping down to Jaszbereny....

to the annual

"TRADITIONAL SPRING CELEBRATION PARTY..."

Maybe, because I missed the last 3 traditional parties,

or maybe , because I haven't slept a lot,

or maybe, because I missed Hungary (&my friends...) soooo much,

but.. I can't tell you about this.. the whole athmosphere, the people, the food, the drinks..

Oh, boy!

You have to experience it!

From 9 am on...

17 kg of sheep...

20 liter mutton-stew...

outside,on fire...

sun is shining (sometimes..)

lot's of cans of beer...

lots of Jagermeister...

than some whisky&coke... (which we could have missed... but anyways...)

No wonder, that we were already in a good mood at 11... ;)

Bally - THE host; Beci - THE cook

friends I haven't met since 3 years,

friends I really missed,

people I have just met...

Oh boy! What a weekend!

Sysy, SuTi, Bally & me

Weekend stories...

A week ago we went to Gstaad - the Hungaraian maffia: Andras, Eszti, Norbi, me - and the greek intern, Dimitris. ;)

The original plan was to visit the Iglo-cave, Iglo - restaurant and hotel over there, (300 CHF for a room..and they have to build it again every season...)







but than the weather was sooo great, that at the nd we didn't eat inside, instead outside, under the sun.
(I think Jägertee is something avaiable only in Austria...I've never seen in any swiss or french ski resort...)

So, we did some sledging..
Yes, back to the childhood...
But, maaan, slediging is hard... and it is very scary.. and you can not always turn.. and it can be very fast...
Ok, sometimes it can be also very slow.. and tiring...

We did 2 rounds.. it was really funny :)))


First, i was alone...

Fairy & Froggy are back

The second round was more fun, we went with Andras together, oh boy... we were fast, and once we fell a huge.. :))))

Than, on this weekend, Tompi & Enid came from Zurich to visit us... They went to the car show.. (biggest in Europe..) tried to apply for test driving, and they checked all the cars... I have no idea, how could they spend their 5-6 hours...

Anyways, than we went to dinner...

Peter, Enid, Monika, Csizi, me, Alberto(PT), Elodi (FR)

The place was ok, it is rather for cocktails.. (mojitoooo) I guess: The 3s... in plainpalais...
After we went to Scandale - for celebrating Carissa's birthday, then we ended up in Shakers... And.. of course, we had to bump into 9 other hungarians...

But in Shakers I had soo much fun :)))

Alberto was very great, I hope he'll forget what we discussed... We actually had a deal, the party in Zurich will be on me (partly)... khm... ;) well... one is for sure... the expectation now is high... :DD
Aida managed to get us free shots: uzo on flame... hahaha... Just smile to the bartender guy ;)

A few weeks earlier, we had Ravaka's graduation party :) Oh, boy! What a party! The theme was 80's party...

Aaaand... I went to a french movie... ;)

Ok, it was: He is just not that into you...

But, VF - means: Version francaise...

hahaha... Lucky me.. the movie is nto a drama, and also the discussions are easy to understand:

"Tu es mon exception!"

"Je vais coucher..." - "C'est une invitation?"

hahaha... hilarious... ;)

And, it means, that when Aida is in Budapest, I can take her to a hungarian movie... ;)

bisous

You can't touch the Swiss

I got this video from a collegue... check it out.. it is funny... ;)

Yes on immigration referendum

Well, well, well...
Long time no update.. I know.
So, here I am...back from Snowattack - skiing week in France - it deserves an other post... ;)

On February 8th there was a referendum held in Switzerland for extending the right of EU citizens to live and work in Switzerland...actuallly it was for renewing the already existing agreement allowing migrant workers into Switzerland and extending it to Bulgaria and Romania.

Despite all the negative campaign, swiss voted yes...
59,6% of the voters backed this deal.

It was quiet a big deal.. as the EU has already indicated, if Switzerland would vote "No", the EU would use the guillotine clause and will cancel also the first package of bilateral agreements.

There were some very interesting negative campaigns as well... mainly by the ultra-rightist Swiss People's Party.













I understand that in this economic downturn swiss are also afraid of a huge wave of immigrants, and that poor romanians and bulgarians are taking the jobs instead of the swiss, since eastern europeans are cheaper labour.

However, the free movement goes on the other way around too... Swiss people are allowed to work in the EU as well, and cancelling all the bilateral agreement would not help the trade within the EU too...

Actually, it goes like this:
- you earn the most if you graduated in St. Gallen University
- then the rest of the swiss universities
- then the french people
- then the rest of the world...

So, of course, the fear of huge influx of eastern europeans is understandable...

December

Hey,

Well, in December I got my degree (finally), I said good bye to 3 of my good firends in Geneva, meet again my high school firends and had great parties, long (late night) discussions, worldchanging ideas, sport (ahm..sauna...), work, concert, work, museum, work and alcohol, strike, and lots of Christmas and family and candles...

Shortly, that was my December...
(and i still have a Pre-New Year's Eve party and the New Year's Eve party...)

For some great music, just click:
Music

On my graduation with my family

Julia's farewell party

High school reunion (Budapest & Győr)

Friends visit meee!!! :)) (100th posts...)

Not that end of October, beginning of November wouldn't be busy enough... ;) (year-end closing, new year start up, quota setting, quota deployment, closing preparation for december payment...)
BUT, also 5 of my best friends visited me!!!

Sysy, Kristóf, én, Móni, Isti, SüTi

I am sooo happy they were here, however, I was not the best host actually...
I had to work several times...
But, I managed to take them to my favorite restaurant ... despite my very good advertisement skills (i.e. kind-of illegal restaurant, 2 kind of food: with or without meat! ;)

After the 70's party at CERN:



we managed to go to Gruyeres!!


I missed them soo much!!!
And still..
I think I have homesick... :(
They wanted to bring me home...
And you know how it is, the more you hear sth, you start believing yourself too...
Soo... who knows? :)

Big boss in Geneva

Well, October is the busiest month for me.. I would say...

We have the year-end closing, H2 closing, the new fiscal year quota setting, quota load, deployment guidelines, training to the countries, etc. Really interesting, but tough period. However, I don't want to complain, because this is how I like working.
Under stress.
I know that as I am so lazy, I don't do anything till it is not burning..
Than I am working on 200%...
Ok, some may say the key is time management.
I agree... I do...
But it doesn't work for me.
I tried several methods, DO-IT lists, prioritizing, rating methods, still... my best performance is under pressure! :)

That's why I was happy - ok a little bit threatened too - when my new boss arrived to Geneva for a 2-days training.

IT WAS AMAZING!!!

You know, when there is a really good manager in the team, a teamleader... he might not understand anything at all what u are doing... but he has always key questions:
- Who is accountable for that? (RACI questions...)
- What is the aim of this...?
- What is the process/the flow?
- Who and how will control it?

You can always apply those questions.
And it was so great to see our team working together, really working together, in one conference room for 2 days, having real face-to-face meetings.
I totally understand the aim of HALO room (a great product of HP), I get it that we have travel freeze, but still... u can not compare the efficiency of a f2f meeting with a netmeeting or a virtual classroom training... :) Not to mention the evening team dinner ;)
Matching the voice to the face..getting to know some gossips about your team leader ;)

back to serious again:
At the end basically we are all analysts.
At yes, we do things by heart...
And we forgot to stop and THINK OUT OF THE BOX!

And yes, here we are again... aiesec...
;)

And basically Sales Compensation EMEA is the same as aiesec.
(We are going to have a great inner meeting in Germany... and for that we have to prepare our communication and marketing strategy... to reach out for the sales force... very very familiar tasks to what we did in aiesec... ;))

Anyways, so coming back to the big boss...
Amazing, how he can turn things up side down... just with asking those basic questions...
Than with that motivation speech he delivered at the end of the 2 days training...
Well yes, that's why he is the manager, and we are the analysts.

And.. also really amazing, that 3 days passed, and the motivation is back again to normal, our way of thinking is back again to normal. Why???
I want him back! :)

Ok, I think it will help when we get our own direct manager... and we won't be anymore a headless team... :)))

And also about the economic crisis that we are all facing now...
Well, in Switzerland you can also feel it... ;)
Ok, not at all in the same level as in Hungary for example, but definitely impacts our work as well. Who wants to buy a new printer now?? When the growth of countries are slowing down? China for example as well...
Or in the Middle East and Africa... the fastest growing region was dropped by 20%...
shocking...

Or when the political situation is not that stable in a country... how can you set a terget for your sales force knowing all those facts?
How can u implement new compensation schemes?

Don't even mention the exchange rates... $ against €...
Hmm... nice... work is great! ;)

Going out in Geneva 2

Hmm... long time I haven't written anything...
well.. it was because every weekend basically was the same
What's more, not just the weekends but party from Thursday till Saturday... 3 days in a row... with a Friday working day in the middle...
hmm...

Where to go on a Thursday night?

- Well, first choice would be: Mulligans
Nice, charming, irish pub, with an old friend behind the bar...

Live music, good music... roll and rock :) Beatles as well as other older hits...

It was soo funny, somehow I always wanted to go there... I know Anthony's favorite place was this pub, but somehow the timing was never good for me...
So, the first time when I went there, I bumped into one of my old schoolmate from the french course.
Thanks to my great face memory, (not that it was so difficult to remember an old guy, around 45, gray hairs, deep, deep cigarette and alcohol voice...yes, my type indeed...) I immediately recognized him...
So, I was like: "Helloooo.... what a surprise!!"
Yes, he didn't have a clue.. who am I...
So, i continued... "You don't remember me, do you? French class.. Migros.. 2 months ago??"

And than he realized... i am that Hungarian who was always talking about the famous paprika pálinka, that he almost has to taste on the very last class... :)

So we started talking, and it turned out that he works there... hahaha
Cool! :)
hmm in the meantime i got to know that he went back to Holland, sth happened to the girl he lived with... anyways, i got to know the other guy behind the bar..we played paintball together :)

- Other option would be: Lady G - Lady Godiva, the English pub...

And now, as the beer of the months is Becks... and the price is also good... the pub is getting better and better :)
With good, more nowadays hits music! :)
The pub usually comes up with an idea or a theme for the night: "End of the world party"(=CERN), "Russian night" (=yes, cheap vodka...), "UN party night"(=it was more a usual party...) etc.

- For more than just a beer... visit Shakers.

Actually, I like this place, even if the entrance costs 20 CHF... The entrance fee covers 1 drink (you should choose either Kamikaze or Sex in the sky cocktail...) but this club remained smoking free.... even if now the clubs can decide on their own whether smoking is allowed or not in thier venue...
However, last Saturday the DJ was crap... probably he was drunk too... don't know.. but terrible...

During weekdays they are throwing partys like: Erasmus/Student party, with student friendly prizes of course...

- Krazy party in Crystal

Hmm.. Julia's graduation party... on 2 October...

Sarah (she also graduated on that day), me, Julia, Sylvie, Zuzana in the HEI parc...(i lived in this parc... :P)

yes..then we went for dinner THAN definitely a great party...
free champagne for the girls before midnight... :)

Sylvie, me, Rachna, Julia, Ravaka, Kenza

Than the others went to Java.. but that was on a Thursday... hm Friday workday.. i am not that cool.. yet.. oh boy... ;)

- Sometimes on Fridays, there is Lady's night in Bypass.

That means whole night = free champagne... OR.. any cocktail or other drink for 1 CHF!!!
OH MY GOD!! 1 CHF!!!

Ok, the place is not really my taste.. neither the music..
but for 1 CHF a cocktail... ;) (ok, they didn't have gin nor vodka when we were there... so had to survive the night with "bakeszkokesz"... :D)

- This Saturday we tried MOA... but... there was such a huge queue... amazing...
And it is more out of Geneva... so even if the music is good, we didn't wait.. rather went to La SIP...
3 girls, normal clothes, nothing fancy, and still we got in.. :)
Yes, u should pretend as if u are always going there and getting in... ;)


And my favorite Monday-quote:

"Oh, boy... what a weekend again!" ;)

The end of the world...

No, it is not again because I feel really depressed, or it won't be again complaining about the miserable and pathetic life in general...
(By the way, I don't think I was ever so negative...anyways...)

So, now I would like to write sth about CERN , the world's largest particle physics laboratory.
Anyways, CERN is located in Geneva, actually just a few minutes away from HP... ;)

I have some good friends working there... and that's why i know a lot about it...
hehehe...ok, not exactly...But at least I've already heard about those experiments that is happening right now among the walls... or underground...

Actually, in April we had the Open Day, when people, average people like us could visit the uilding, and see how the protons will meet, etc. :)


I think I wrote a post about it... but now I couldn't find it, anyways, to cut the long story short, the Opening Day was on a sunny Sunday. We met at 7 (!) on a Sunday morning, and went to CERN, the door supposed to open at 8... and at 7:30 there was already a huge crowd in front of the gates... CRAZY PEOPLE!


Seriously... who cares what a proton is doing???
Ok, at the end it was really, really interesting... Specially, because we had our own guide, Nikolai was explaining us all the small details about it... ;)


And, we could also win a piece of history... (I really think I've already wrote about that...)

And anyways, if after the first beam injection they could create sth similar what could have happened after the Big Bang... that would be really something...
So, but, why is tomorrow the end of the world?

Yesterday at 9, the LHC, the Large Hardon Collider will be started...


The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest and most complex scientific instrument ever built and the highest energy particle accelerator in the world. The accelerator is located 100 m underground and runs through both French and Swiss territory.

And yesterday was a very big DAY...A first beam of protons circulated in the LHC.

Even Google went for this event...

So, on Tuesday night we went out for celebrating the End of the world.
We went to Lady Godiva, which is quiet ok place, and it is an English-friendly place...

It was so funny, there was an older cool guy, with a sticker in his T-shirt:
"This is your last chance for sex!"
Last chance in general or with him? ;)

I really thought it is going to be a Cern-party, with all the cern nerdies... no offense... ;)
But it turned out that not all phisysist or computer engineer is an idiot :)

And, actually, we were afraid of LHC.. Large Hangover Coming... ;))

kisses

Sushi, Maki sushi, sashimi

I am not a sushi-virgin anymore. :)
Yes, I ate row fish, with rice and alga yesterday!! ;)

The place was called "No sushi", hahaha, and the atmosphere in the restaurant was amazing :)
There was music, TV, high bar chairs, and the food was moving on a conveyor belt like in a factor on an assembly line, the different type of food was on different color of plate, and you could take whatever you wanted, than at the end, the waiter came and counted according to the color of the plates...
It was very cool!!!

First, Swati and Julia was really patient and nice to me... they were staring at me only once... if I can handle the chopsticks... (come on, I do knit...) ;)


We made the soy sauce with wasabi... I got to know that it is rude if you waste the sauce, and the sauce is more fore the fish part, not the rice...
Of course, I was using the sauce with everything...

So, here are some more tips I got to know about sushi etiquette...

http://sushinow.com/etiquette.htm

Of course, the first rule says: Do not "whittle" your chopsticks... ;)
Hahaha... you could guess what Swati had to do to my chopsticks...

I also got to know the different types of sushi:
Maki sushi are rolls of sushi;
Temaki is a hand roll of sushi;
Sashimi is raw fish with no rice;



I tried salmon, tune, caviar and chicken as well :)
Traditional one and really spciy one.. I liked the California roll as well - which is definitly not for 1 bite... ;)


And of course, just to be traditional Japanese.. we drunk beer.... no comment :)

To sum up, I liked the sushi, but definitely can not compete with the Hungarian cuisine...
hehehe... I know I have to cook finally for my friends here!
And I do it, no more excuses... promise! :)

Fete de Geneve and a boat trip

The Fete de Geneve is over.
It is so strange, as it was 1 year ago, when Eszter and me went to Marseille, then we came back together to Geneva, and watched the fireworks together.

So, while I was watching the fireworks, I was thinking about the last 1 year...
So many things happened...
And on the other hand: so few things happened...
How did I spend this previous last year? If I have to sum up my last year, actually nothing really moved forward...

But, maybe later, I will see these months, these events in my life differently... ;)

On Friday we went out.
Ok, I wanted to go out... but at the end we didn't...
We were drinking and talking at RDL.
We played "I have never..." :)))
So, I got to know some friends a it more... ;)
Good game!

Than on Saturday we went for a boat trip to Versoix. :)
This time we took the car... not the bikes ;)

Our boat: Daniel, Ravaka, Eszter and me

The view...

The Spanish guys: Jose, David and Ravaka


Drink or drive???

I was driving the boat!!! Poor Daniel, he was really patient, explaining me the "physics of the waves..."..stilll... ;)
jajajajaja... it was sooo much fun!!! :)

Actuallly, the idea of renting a boat came from the will to watch the fireworks from a boat!!!
It would have been soo great... but.. imagine, for that day (I mean, the very last day of Fete de Geneve, for the fireworks day) all the boats are reserved till 2012!!! 4 years ahead!!! Crazy Geneva!!!
We could have reserved a boat for 2013... for a Rue De Lyon Reunion...! ;)

It was really great day... the sun was shining, the view was perfect, the waves were ok for my stomach ;)

After a 1,5 hour boating, we had to go back to Geneva for the fireworks... actually we had a "little" traffic jam, as everybody wanted to head to the city center... so, even though Versoix is 15 minutes maximum by car, for us the way back took more than 45 minutes... amazing...

But than we had a great place, from where we could see the fireworks:

The 1 hour long fireworks

During the fireworks I was analyzing my life, my 16 months in Switzerland, thinking about my future, my options, etc. And than, somehow my thoughts went forward to the noise of the fireworks. You know, when the rackets are going in the air, it is loud, and yes, it sounds like guns, or like real rackets...
I was thinking about Georgia and Russia.
I am here in Geneva, listening to that noise, and I am happy and satisfied. And than for somebody that noise doesn't mean the joy, happiness and beauty...
on the contrary...
It was a strange feeling.

My great weekends...

Hmm.. I don't really understand, why only the weekends are great?
My "worklife" is sooo boring....
Anyways...

Last weekend we had an other sporty weekend... with biking in the rain...;)
I hope Ikran didn't get the virus because we were cycling around 1,5 hours in the rain...

First, the plan was to go till Versoix. This nice, small town is around 8 km "far" from Geneva. :)

Versoix

But of course for my very sporty friends, it was a little bit easy, so we decided to meet in the next town, which supposed to be Coppet...
Yes, but Andras is sooo great with the orientation (khm.. the pot calling the kettle black...), anyways, so we went till Nyon. Which is 23 km far from Geneva.

I really enjoyed the bike-trip!!!

The crazy team: Laura, Andras, Xavier, me, Ikran

Have you seen my perfect biking-outfit? Yes..typical...
Than check Andras' out!
And we even talked about doing a bike-trip around the Lac Léman... That would be something.... ;)

We will see...

Than, on Sunday, we went to Chamonix... in the bottom of Mont Blanc.
First, I didn't want to go there, as Chamonix is for the winter, it is a really famous ski resort.
How stupid I was!
OMG!!!
Chamonix is sooo amazing, and Daniel, the expert of the place explained me, that Chamonix is even more visited during the summer than in winter.
We went up with a téléféric till 1900 m, than to the famous "Lac Blanc" we had to hike up till 2400 m! Among rocks!!! :)
But it was amazing...breathtaking view!!!
The funniest was: on our way up to the mountain, we saw 4 guys... with the perfect hiking.outfit ever... seriously, helmet, perfect shoes, clothes, etc.
We were 4 girls... Eszter and me had our "petitit sac", Ikran's T-shirt was not sporty at all!!! :)
And Julie was also very girly... absolutely not for hiking!!
It was soooo funny! :)

But, just enjoy the photos:

The view...

The rocks...

The team: Julia, Daniel, Eszter, Laura, Ikran, Andras, (and Julie...)


:)

At the Lac Blanc