EROS 2006 is over

Hi folks,
last weekend we have been at EROS 2006, an AIESEC conference in the Roman region (this is how our region is called within AIESEC Germany), because we had to attend the RIS (reintegration seminar) after our internship in India.
For those of you, who do not really know AIESEC, some of the rituals on a conference may seem a little... sectish.
Everybody shouts stupid things, there are lots of sing-alongs, punishment and dances.
Let's start with a moderate example of AIESECers dancing:

AIESECers are dancing at any time possible. You can see them dancing at the beginning of each and every plenary, and not only until everybody is ready, but until there is no more music available. They are dancing, when the different LCs (local committees) introduce themselves by performing their roll call. They are dancing, when they want to teach you something and if they want to show you other country's roll calls. Did I mention that they are dancing, when plenary is over?

But AIESECers do not only dance. They also punish obstructionists. In the beginning of an AIESEC conference you get a badge with your name on it plus a cup for your beverages, which you are supposed to use throughout the conference.
If you lose one of these, or if someone can steal it from you unwatched, you are going to be punished by the punishment team (AIESEC is very well organized...).
During the morning plenary the next day you will have to do nasty things to get your stuff back:

This time you had to lick jam out of a strangers belly button or dance limbo connected to someone via a banana stuffed in your mouth.
At this conference the CIA had to intervene, because of the severity of the punishments:


Good to know that your LC is backing you all the time. The CIA quickly realized that AIESEC is a sect you better not mess with. May I introduce the current LC of Koblenz:


Saturday in the afternoon there was the soccer match Germany vs. Sweden. The whole planning of the conference was completely turned upside down, just because some members threatened the OC (organisation committee) not to join the conference, if there wouldn't be the opportunity to watch the game. To put it straight: It was a damn hot game, and if you know me, you also know that I usually hate soccer, but, hey, we won. SWEDEN'S OUT.
And I had never imagined, how structured, calmly and boring Germans watching soccer can be, if you don't allow them to drink alcohol (since there had been further workshops afterwards). Just have a look yourself:

Even the delegation from Koblenz could not make it a "hooliganianized" event. By the way, do you know the guy with the arrow pointed at?


But of course not everybody could be a party animal like me, and so the majority of the "future global leaders", as the AIESEC sect prefers to call their members, looked more like a bunch of neo hippies, yes, it was a friggin hard time:

Just kidding, surely every AIESEC member is a party animal per se. If there is a party, they will be there and rocking it:

Maybe they should avoid some parties from time to time...

Saturday evening we had a small global village (Isn't that pervert? Small + global), where all the repatriates presented their guest countries. There were people who had been to Columbia, Japan, Turkey, Morocco or Australia. Unfortunately nearly all the willing stayed with us Indians for the whole 90 minutes...
Some of the other returnees were a little... disgruntled.
There were three of us Indians, Hanna, me and Florian from Mumbai:

Does anybody of the old Indians out there remember Sonja of Project WorldView? She was also there, and I think, she was always a bit suspect about me smiling at her, when passing by. She did not recognize us at all. I am sorry to say, we did not have the chance to talk to her:


And last but not least I want to show you, how popular I was. Not only that everybody was rushing to be on a picture together with me,

but also that I never had to stage myself:


I'm such a glamour boy...

So you can see, AIESEC is just an average sect with its own rituals, drinking games, loss of individuality and outstanding opportunities to have great adventures abroad getting to know cracking good friends from all over the world. "It's up to you!"