The grey Brussels sky greeted me as I arrive at the CD house on a Friday in September. The greeting from the CD inside was a lot warmer though. Upstairs in the social room Percin was already discussing proposals with Edu and Ermanno from the JC. I just had time to put my bags in a corner and the work continued. However, there were three things to look forward to on Friday night : We were done quickly, Alberto was about to arrive at some point, and it was Alfredo’s birthday party. I still think we lacked a performance of someone singing “Happy birthday, Mr. President!”, but we had a great evening anyways.
The next morning started way too early. We slowly got into the kitchen, cleaned up the remnants of the Presidential birthday bash, had breakfast (with some sweet stuff for our Alberto and Ermanno of course) – and got back to work. We discussed and selected workshops, improved the voting procedure, were impressed by the most silly invalid voting ballots Edu found in the dust of the CD archive, and of course selected each and every participant. This meant a lot of mouse clicks for Percin and Alma, the Secretary General who is practically also a member of the Chair family. It also required some discussion with Jüri, the current Network Director, and sending lots of emails to people whose applications were faulty. Even if it means that you need to spend your short break on writing lots of emails to people, we always know: Chairing is caring.
After a hard day’s work, Gizem and Guillermo strolled through downtown Brussels with us. Edu had to get ready for his first gold strike and we all enjoyed delicious chocolate waffels – and the pictures proving we had chocolate all over our face like little kids. El padre Ermanno cooked a romantic candle light dinner for 15 people (pasta, what else?!) and the evening was topped of by Jüri’s speech, Guillermo’s bitch cocktail, and the arrival of Robert! The task division was clear: Percin left to for a college party (lame!), Ermanno cooked, Alberto took the pictures, and Rob simply charms everyone by just speaking English the way he does.
On Sunday we were complete (Chair Team, JC, Alma, Alla) and the complicated puzzle of dividing prytania started. We talked to the organisers from AEGEE-Skopje and are happy to see they put a lot of effort into making it a memorable Agora. The hardest part came at the end: stuffing the entire program into the agenda. At 11 pm we decided it was time to hit the clubs. We took Gizem with us and rocked a gaybar until everyone had left and we were kicked out.
The weekend was tough, but the atmosphere was fun and inspiring at the same time. And let’s face it: the hardest part for us and real lack of sleep is yet to come. See you in Struga!
written by Yvonne Antonovic, AEGEE Utrecht