Trainee flat

Some of you asked me to write more about people featuring my pictures from the previous post, so it seems it is the right time to present the trainee community in Chandigarh.

Basic facts
On Friday May 22nd, 2009 in the evening I moved to a trainee house "180, Sector 17, Panchkula" (I had my home stay up to then). As you can easily notice, I'm not staying in Chandigarh, but in Panchkula, which is a neighbouring town closely adjacent to Chandigarh. If Cerny most in Prague had 900 000 inhabitants and was a town on its own, we could call it Panchkula - in terms of accessability and geographical position to the centre of Chandigarh/Prague. Just check the map...

There are mostly very nice houses/mansions in the neighbourhood, which makes the area a nice play to stay. However, it doesn't mean there would be no noise and cows on the streets, but at least we don't have problems with water supply.

House #180, sector 17, Panchkula. 8 trainees live in the first floor.

View from the balcony. Lobby.

General description
The flat has 3 double bedrooms, 1 living room & lobby, 2 bathrooms & (European-style) WC and kitchen. There is 1 refrigerator, 1 messy sofa, 8 metal-frame beds, furnished kitchen and a fan in every room. That's it. Oh, we also have a wifi router, originally a broken one - it took us over 1 week to fix it. Eureka! So the flat is pretty empty, and airy. Which doesn't mean the same as "cool" - when there is 45°C outside, it can easily be around 30-35°C inside. But that is OK, who would expect something different in a trainee house in India in the middle of June, right?:)

Me in the living room.

People
I started with people but still didn't get to the point... so who is in the house? I share a room, a living room:), with Collins from China, then there is Anika and Georg from Germany, Katy from Colombia, and Gisele, Megan and Fred from the United States. There is actually many more trainees in Chandigarh (and almost hundred more is expected in summer - these AIESEC guys really mean it seriously with becoming the best local committee worldwide... but let's talk about AIESEC later) and because our flat is pretty empty and airy, they often gather here for whatever occasion. Therefore we sometimes welcome Lia and May from Malaysia, Sachiko and Taka from Japan, Magda and Justina from Poland, Gisele from Brazil, Rafael from Colombia, Davi from Singapore, Al from Indonesia and two more American and Canadian girls who arrived recently. Last but not least, there is Rosy from Mexico, who arrived ca. 5 days ago, and who is my co-worker - in another words she is the second intern in my company! And we expect the third mate - a girl from Russia to join us in July.

Playing jungle speed, without a stake.

Sounds familiar?
Attentive reader must have noticed the situation is pretty similar to Prague, at least regarding the number of trainees and flats, and high ambition in AIESEC exchange. Just add to it, that Chandigarh has the same population as Prague, and AIESEC in Chandigarh has approximately the same number and profile of members as AIESEC Prague. It's really hard to avoid any kind of comparisons:) To be continued...

Around the house.

Czech corner
Zatimco nekteri trainees vypravi zdesene pribehy jake to bylo strasne, kdyz jeste tyden pred priletem nevedeli, kde budou bydlet, zvladal jsem celou situaci o poznani klidneji (zejmena kdyz jsem jeste 2 pred odletem nemel letenku). Zamerne jsem se na ubytovani ani poradne nevyptaval, protoze jsem vedel, ze i kdybych bydlel nekde v "guesthousu", nechalo by se to. O to vetsi bylo me prekvapeni, kdyz jsem zjistil, ze budu prvnich par dni (oficialne 1, ve finale temer 5) zustavat s Indickou rodinou a pak jsem se prestehoval do vilove ctvrti rekneme Chandigarhskeho predmesti.

Soukromi po indicku
Rikal jsem si, ze takhle by to bylo cele prilis jednoduche, takze abych opet trochu posunul hranice komfortni zony, usidlil jsem se v obyvaku (v dobe nastehovani to byla jedina moznost, nicmene po cca 2 dnech jsem se mohl prestehovat). Ma to svoje. Vyhody (nic mi neunikne; docela dobre klima; kazdy den jiny program) i mouchy (nic se neschova; hluk; az 20 lidi) ...ale zajimava zkusenost za kazde situace, kazdopadne zde chci zustat, alespon prozatim.

Velky bratr
Pravde cela tato konstalace mi od sameho pocatku pripomina Big Brother:) Jen tu nejsou kamery. Kdyz jsem doma (temer vyhradne pouze po 20:00) tak jsem vzdy v obyvaku a lze sledovat jak lide vari, bavi se spolu, chodi do koupelny, zase se o necem bavi, pracuji na pocitaci, pak se zase bavi s nekym jinym, relaxuji na balkone, kde se taky s nekym bavi... no sranda:)

The Sims
Vzhledem k tomu, ze kazde rano prijde uklizecka (ktera me kazde rano vzbudi, a ktera mi nastesti jeste neukradla ani jeden ze 2 mobilu a ani jeden ze 2 pocitacu, ktere mam volne pristupne okolo sve postele), nasledne zacina boj o koupelnu a lide postupne odchazeji do prace... nemohla me minout ani paralela se hrou Sims.

Nevim, zda se toto necha rici o kazdem trainee byte kdekoliv jinde, nicmene v tady to tak je, a prozatim je to zabava:)