friends

*There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound." ~Diana Cortes

To all my friends who I haven't written to in ages , although I meant to many times..
To all my friends who only hear from me once in a while, although I wanted to keep in touch more regularly...
To all my friends with whom I only get to spend very little time, although I really really would like to have more...

...my thoughts are still with you, and I'm sure next time we meet, we will continue our conversations where we left them, time that passed in between will not make a difference, as only the moments we have together count! Friendship for me does not know neither the boundaries of geographical distance nor of time.

"A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world." ~Lois Wyse

We are in the Swiss Cup Finals!

Ladies and Gentlemen

Tonight is a memorable evening: for the 10th time during its 97 years of existence the FC Sion - THE valaisanne soccer club has made it to the Swiss Cup Finals! - For those of you who might not know: Valais is the state I was born and raised in.

Tonight we won against FC Winterthur with 1:0, so we will be playing against FC Young Boys- the Bernese club on Easter Monday! Yihaa!

Usually I'm not an extreme Valaisanne patriot, however I'm a big fan of the FC Sion. For nearly ten years, we had to go through tough times, but now we are BACK!
We have never lost a Swiss Cup Final ever, so the legend must go on also this year!

Tomorrow I will investigate how I can buy tickets, I absolutely have to go and see the game! It will be crazy for sure, half of our canton (state) will be in Berne and the stadium will be dominated by white and red- the colours of our team and the colours of our cantonal flag...

For those of you, who are not Swiss- in Switzerland your identity is mainly defined by the state (canton) you come from, so in the first place I'm Valaisanne and then I'm Swiss...And tonight I'm even more proud to be Valaisanne! Allez Sion!

I'm still alive

Some of you may have been wondering already what I've been up to lately and why this blog of mine does not get updated on a more regular basis...

So that's why I want to share with you some of my highlights during the last 6 weeks:
...I wrote a math, a statistic and an political science exam
..,I spent ten great, however, work intensive days and almost sleepless nights at IPM in the Netherlands
...I caught up with Marije, Heidi, Matt, Kasia, Noor, Rajiv, Amit and many others- was so great spending time with you guys!
... I went to see Stephane Lambiel at
Art on Ice in Lausanne- fabulous- in all possible ways!
... I had my last wisdom tooth removed and thus spent the last week in bed and in pain

What's next:
...a lot of studying- three more exams are waiting for me next week
...a lot of AIESEC work (ITC, WENA board, alumni stuff)
...a new job- during the next 8 weeks I'll be working in the data research for the PISA project - finally some money coming into my bank account! :-)

And now I'm off to bed...- good night!

my favourite quote of today

"Four things come not back: The spoken word, The sped arrow, The past life, The neglected opportunity." Arabian Proverb

only few can win

To all my friends who didn't get what they so much wished for: to Dhruv, Elias, Kasia, Juraj, Pierre, Taco and also to all the other AI candidates who weren't elected/selected.

It is tough to find words that will make a difference for you, to find wors that give you comfort, I doubt even that anything that I say now, makes your loss or your disappointment easier to bear for you right now. But still I wanted to let you know, I'm thinking of you and admire your courage to go for a race that demanded everything you had, moreover, knowing that in the end only a few will win it. Thank you for stepping forward!

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” - Maya Angelou