Ayman Ahmed in Bucharest, Romania

Buna (or Hello in Romanian ) ! 

I'm Ayman Ahmed, a pharmacy graduate from the German University in Cairo (GUC). I have heard so much about AIESEC, as many of my friends went on exchange programs before and that encouraged me to go on one as well. It turned out to be an amazing experience. I have been to so many countries on my own but going to Romania to participate in an exchange program with AIESEC was, by far, the most exciting and useful experience I have ever been through.

The project I participated in was called " Make it green, Make it count!".

It aims at introducing the Romanian students (age: 12 years old ) to the concept of recycling and various ideas that they can apply in order to help in saving the environment. I was working with a team of eight interns from Ukraine, Brazil, Peru and many different countries. We went to six schools in Bucharest and showed the students how to make useful objects like wallets from very simple materials such as juice boxes. In addition, I have talked to the students about Egypt through various presentations. They were really interested in knowing lots of information about the Egyptian culture and most of them actually want to visit Egypt in the near future.

From the first day, I felt like I was at home. All interns participating in different programs were staying together at the same place and we were like one big family. I met friends from AIESEC Bucharest who were very nice and helped me with everything I needed to know. They introduced us to the Romanian culture and even taught us many words in Romanian.I tasted so many delicious local kinds of food there, like Sarmale. We were working together, sightseeing together and going to local restaurants and parties together. We became good friends and we are still in touch.

I also participated in many events like the global village where I showed the visitors many aspects regarding the Egyptian culture and even sang an Egyptian song with my Egyptian colleagues, which the audience seemed to enjoy.

Romania is a very beautiful country. I visited 3 cities other than Bucharest which are Brasov, Sighisoara and Sinaia. The country has many amazing land marks such as the Palatul Parlamentului, which is the second biggest building in the world and the legendary Bran or Dracula's castle, in addition to the amazing mountains and beautiful museums and palaces.

I will definitely go back since this country has much more beautiful places other than the ones I visited.

I think that going on an exchange program with AIESEC helped broaden my horizon as I worked with people from different cultural backgrounds, improved my presentation skills which will be a major benefit in my career, helped me develop the society through volunteer work, helped me understand the Romanian culture and gave me the chance to make so many friends in Romania, who I will surely visit again. 

I would like to thank AIESEC Bucharest for being so helpful during my stay there and I would like to thank AIESEC Cairo University for giving me this amazing opportunity.

Perihan Emad in Eskisehir, Turkey

I consider myself as one of the luckiest people to have been chosen for break up the barriers project, my experience in Eskisehir was the most amazing thing that could  ever happen to me, the project was so inspiring, the city is beautiful, the local committee of AIESEC Eskisehir is fantastic and my organizing committee was just awesome. 

Since day 1 I felt like they were my family, and I never felt far from home, we shared everything together we worked together, had fun together, laughed and cried together. I have learned a lot and I have gained a lot, I can talk about those 6 weeks for the rest of my life and I will never forget any moment I have lived there.   

If I could I would repeat this experience millions of times, it was truly a life changing experience in every possible way which exceeded my wildest dreams. Thank you so much AIESEC Eskisehir for everything and thanks a million AISESC Cairo university for giving me this amazing opportunity.

Shaimaa Hedaya in Novosibirsk, Russia

"Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing"

I’m Shaimaa Hedaya from Alexandria, Egypt. I am 21 years old and I study at the faculty of economics and political science, Cairo University.

I always love to learn and discover new things, and do anything that would reduce the routine of life. Therefore, I consider my travel to Russia The best experience of my life. It was really an adventure for me to travel by myself for the first time in a foreign country and deal with a total different culture.

During my internship, I worked with an NGO called Sibecocenter, my project was named "EcoACTION" which was solely dedicated to raise environmental awareness, educate children and people about ecology-related topics and involve citizens in environment preservation-related events.

I have participated in a culture festival in Novosibirsk organized by AIESEC in which I represented Egypt and there were around 25 other countries. And “Yeay” :) Egypt won the 4^th place. I will do my best for Egypt to win the first place next time. ;)

My favourite memory was our camp on the Izdrevaya River. We helped in organizing an ecological “educational” camp for kids. I had a lot of fun and gained real life experience in teamwork and overcoming obstacles. It was fun despite the difficulties of the weather at night and insects.

Finally, I can say that AIESEC gave me the chance to enhance my personality, I learned how to take care of myself, I learned how to cook and gained friends from different countries, I really had life-changing experience. I lost count of the things I have learned. I’m really looking forward to the next adventure with AIESEC Cairo University.

Ahmed Karam in Ankara, Turkey

I would like to say that I am so glad because I have managed to achieve one of my goals which was to travel to turkey.

I had a great time with AIESEC Ankara and I had the chance to see different cultures and interact with different people.

I learned about their language and culture and we taught them ours.

My project was called the “International Taxi drivers”, in which we worked with other 9 interns from Egypt, China, Indonesia, Poland, Nigeria, and Bahrain

I learned a lot of things, of which is the most important was how to organize your project and that a person must be proactive and learn from previous mistakes

And I learned that if your project is related to a big organization like AIESEC, you must put different plans in mind, in case anything went wrong in the future.

Because problems happen suddenly, and sometimes you need to handle them as fast as possible to avoid any losses.

In my case, there was a problem that the drivers were not flexible with learning a new language and solving such a problem needed a lot of thinking and planning and was very challenging. And I am sure if we had enough time, we could have managed to come up with a great strategy and help the manager avoid such problems on the longterm.

I cannot wait to go through this experience again and go on an internship somewhere else with AIESEC. I learned and gained a lot of experience

Finally, I want to thank both AIESEC Cairo University and AIESEC Ankara and I am looking forward to continuing my AIESEC experience