World Water Week 2015 summary - The Phantom Pain

Hej everyone!

Don't be tricked by The Phantom Pain mentions as I will not talk in detail about the latest Metal Gear game. It is about some of my own thoughts.

It has been a while since the latest post that featured my involvement in the amazing World Water Week 2015 as a volunteer. The last 2 days of that week were way more relaxed compared to the huge influx of people that flocked in the venue in the first 3 days. It still had a lot of standing still and smiling and being helpful and having an awesome time while people said hi on your way back to the train station while not on duty simply because they recognized your face.

On that last Friday i worked in the closing ceremony. I had prepared a small handwritten letter that was for everyone in the SIWI staff to read along with some greek pasteli, a very famous, healthy delight from Kalamata. I still remember how Sofia Widforss hugged me that day with a huge smile on her face. I want to personally thank Irina, Erik, Adrian, Darius, Gabriella, Yvonne for this awesome opportunity.

What was the result of all of this? Well for starters i don't think there is a better opportunity to meet and network with people than such a conference. I met important people from all over the world, CEOs from Sweco, i got invited to the Finnish Environment Institute and hopefully that will lead to work one day.

This past week has been a mixed bag. I started my new courses and that marks an important period in my life, since it is the last academic semester where i will have actual courses, not counting the master  thesis as one. Some of them have become increasingly weird and involve a lot of drawing and sketching.

Well, that is a course about sustainability.

On the positive note i had quite some fun, i met many new people, students that i have been contacting through the phone to welcome them in their new master's, working a bit in student nations wearing pink shirts, going out for amazing food and walks and a lot of shopping. A lot of shopping. I also visited Jaime's family and they invited me for dinner and they scared another certain individual that got scarred for life from over-socializing Mediterraneans :D

When it comes to the pain, i have actually been watching Big Boss's latest adventure. In fact i am watching the uknighted twitch stream right now with Drk whining about the conclusion to the series. Please support them if you like the series. They are running an awesome 500+ hour marathon which is completely insane!

Other than that i have had several internal conflicts i had to handle this past 2-3 weeks. I can only imagine how hard it is for the other affected people as well. It is that fragile point where you don't want to hurt anyone but it happens whether you like it or not. And then all that trust and integrity goes to hell and it all spirals down in a ghostly pain that eats you from the inside.

It will all be fine. I just wanted to keep writing a bit today. I am alone at home now. Hopefully now that i am starting to recover i will have more interesting things to say or do. I was hopping to make a tour of all the student nations and write a small review about them. That will depend on my workload and my mood really. I still wonder how i keep going but whether i like it or not this blog has survived for 1.5 year now.

Until next time, stay tuned! En stor kram dear friends!

World Water Week 2015 - Being the face of SIWI

Since i arrived in Sweden last Wednesday everything has been like a snowball, moving forward and gaining momentum like a fist ready to punch through concrete. I did not imagine in my wildest dreams on May 21st this year what would happen during the World Water Week 2015 where i was selected from the cream of the crop of applicants to be an ambassador for Sweden and the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) from the 23rd of August until the 28th.

Norra Latin, one of the two main buildings of the conference.

As i arrived last Saturday for the meeting of the volunteers and the staff of SIWI i knew something special was brewing. We were briefed for 3 hours about our duties and given a quick look of the premises which consisted of two main buildings, Norra Latin and Folkets Hus. It is a change of venue from the previous years and a welcome change for the 25th anniversary of the World Water Week conference that has been held since 1991.

We would host important people like ministers from all over the world and Africa, the prime minister of the Marshall Islands and Jordan, the prime minister of Sweden and mayor of Stockholm and the Water Laurette Winner from India. Who is a fantastic person i might add.

The exhibition area with a lovely view near the fountain.

Sunday came and we got off on a flying start. I held my posts proudly and with an aura of positivity that accompanied my never ending beaming smile. I was strutting around assisting people, saying hi and chatting with them in every opportunity. 3500 people registered for the event and i have talked to most of them and it still staggers me that i can remember so many faces and names.

The volunteers are awesome people from all over the world. Africa, Mexico, USA, Spain, Germany, Sweden, the UK and other amazing countries. I have met and talked with most of them and everyone is so warm and receptive, though i probably look a little bit odd to them. But i am Mediterranean, that is what i am supposed to do right?!

Long story short until today i have been snowballing relentlessly with every day being better than the previous one. My confidence is building so much and i have made valuable friends everywhere. From my partner in crime in shitty jokes Amanda to Clair from the Australian Murray-Darling Basin and everyone in the Finnish Ministry booth. Today we had some wonderful chat with Nynke and special credit goes to Esther for the fancy outfit she wore today and the awesome pictures we took with important people.

Left to right - Yvonne, Amanda, AwesomeMe, Anna, Constantin and Nynke.

My most valuable memories are so many it would take me hours to write them all down. It has been an engrossing and immersing experience that i recommend to everyone. Not only you network and improve your visibility to the job market but you also assist in a great cause, whether it is for water, for land, for poverty or for sustainability.

I met a managing director in Sweco that sent me an SMS with her details, i got an invite to the Finnish Environment Institute and have won the affection of everyone and that makes me so unbelievably happy that i cannot express myself right now. A whirlwind of emotions has taken over me and even though i am tired from commuting every day from 5 am from Uppsala to Stockholm i am able to find the strength to power through and give my best self as the image of SIWI.

And i haven't even talked about the SIWI staff yet. The other day Gabriella, the woman in charge of the logistics came to me in the SIWI sofa booth and told me that everyone loves me, from staff to people. I felt such joy and pride that i completely forgot how sore my feet were. Irina, the project organizer is always so busy yet she approached me today and remembered i speak Russian and we had a wonderful exchange of words. Ingrid is a Duracell-Powered robot that never runs out of battery and she walks from end to end managing and fixing things. Erik, Adrian, Sofia are more busy people that we don't talk to them so often but they are always approachable and receptive. Lastly there is Yvonne, the event and volunteer coordinator who even though i know her for like 4 days i would stick my neck out for her blindfolded. She is awesome and deserves credit. WWW is her baby too.

Did someone say the city hall is made of PURE gold?!

I can go on and on and on. I can talk about the people i met from HSBC and their work with WWF, WaterAid and Earthwatch or about the wonderful Finnish lady Oona Rautiainen, a junior expert in the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy of Finland treating me with unprecedented respect and friendliness.

And the best thing of them all is i never asked them for anything. I just was myself, doing my job and always smiling. I seized my chance by the hair. You can do it too! Volunteer for anything you can! Volunteer for WWW 2016! In the meantime my flatmates have arrived, Dimitra with a lot of Tsipouro and Ruta with a lot of Harry Potter lizard jokes. Oh lets not forget Marta. Her memory is getting worse. Sort of like the Greek economy to quantify it.

I will go die now as i am in dire need of rest and as usual i work tomorrow. I will keep you updated!

Until next time, Goodnight Sverige, Goodnight World!