First Volunteer Experience in USA
OktoberFest - the worldwide famous German festival in October every year is almost two centuries old! It is all about German sausages, German beer, German folk dances and music, arts and crafts, and many more...
I felt glad to be involved as a volunteer for the annual event here in Tampa Bay area. R.E. Olds Park where the carnival/OktoberFest is located is right next to the shore; with its gorgeous view to the Old Tampa Bay, and all the green areas and the beautiful houses surrounding, I personally found it very relaxing and enjoyable!
Being a trainee from AIESEC, especially back to the old days, when I was managing the exchange programs in HK, we all talked about integration for the foreign trainees into local community, and particularly for community involvement and voluntary work, etc...I wanted to experience it and it was great that my company helps the organizer (Upper Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce) recruit volunteers. Today I worked for 4 hours at the venue and I loved it very much!!! I am going back for another 4 hours, and I will also enjoy the festival after that tomorrow!
First "contact" with Hurricane
"Fatigue Floridians" is actually a title for some local news article here in the Sunshine state in the previous week. Well, the 21st and last named tropical storm Hurricane Wilma was heading towards Mexico and made a sharp turn to northeast and aimed at Florida peninsular. At first, the anticipated time for landfall was around Saturday afternoon or early Sunday. But then the Hurricane sat over the Yucatan peninsular of Mexico for a day or so (moving at 2 mph, almost like stagnant!). So its landfall was delayed to early morning of Monday.
Although, most comuter models from the National Hurricane Center in the U.S. predicted landfall will be around 200 km/hr from where I live - Tampa, the strong wind and some rainfall certainly got us overnight. We could see the palm trees surrounding us swinging and looked like falling. Then it came this morning which I and my roommates were wondering if we needed to go to office. In the end, I drove in the tropical storm surge for the first time. The road was pretty empty indeed, except that it was dark and quite some lightning. Apart from that, I would say it was not bad at all...adding to that, after 11am or so this morning, we had the sun out and some beautiful sky, too!
Well, Wilma did leave one thing behind to Tampa residences - the cool weather. We changed from enjoying 80-90 degree to higher 50s. It sounded like we got to Fall from summer overnight in a couple of hours. Now, I am expecting the best climate/season as people commented down here. Afterall, Fall is always my most favorite season, too (given the fact that I am from HK, similar to Florida, escaping from the summers which are occupied by Typhoons and heavy moonsoon rains is always awesome!)
Miami Weekend Getaway
Just spent three days in Miami, FL and I enjoyed the weekend trip a lot.
There are couple of good things about it:
1) I'm glad that I am back to my traveling schedule and get to see more of Southern US before I leave Tampa.
2) The flights were perfectly leaving on time and the flying was short and smooth
3) Having rented a car from AVIS, I was freer to drive and see around; actually it was the first time I rented a car and drive for leisure traveling.
4) I joined the first real trainee reception party in AIESEC US! (Surprisingly after 8 months of my 18-month traineeship). I had my reception dinner in NYC, but it was so different. This time, I attended a party held for a newly arrived Mexican trainee; there were only 4 AIESEC memers and around 20 trainees, as well as one company representative!
5) My host, Ben Samuel was a nice nice guy and we had great talks on many issues (cultural mostly)
6) The food, Latin music and water, not to mention the gorgeous houses, were all so charming and beautiful down in Miami.
7) Miami was so much like Latin America - almost everybody from the airport to South Beach, to a single person on the street, I always heard Spanish! That was really another form of internationalised, when we compare to New York City. It is really a good start to learn more about the Latin American cultures.
Back on Track
Having stayed in Tampa, Florida for more than 2 months, I have not done any traveling yet - however, I am glad that I am back on the exploratory track again! Recently, I decided to have my first visit to Miami, FL in less than two weeks time.
Miami, being the closest AIESEC chapter in the southern US territory and as a famous coastal city with gorgeous beaches, definitely fell into my list of "must-go" during my stay here in the Sunshine State. I am also looking forward to meet with some new friends from AIESEC Miami and maybe some trainees, too!
As we are slowly moving into the Fall season soon, I foresee this trip as a kick-off ceremony, as well. Next stop on the road might be Orlando, the wonderland - Disney World! Hi Mickey, I am coming...
