No one could have been happier in Alicante than me – I became a Netcommie and was appointed to the British locals.
I studied in Swansea, Wales (the Welsh name is Abertawe, sounds familiar?) for a semester, so this region has a special place in my heart. Fortunately, after a couple of months I had the chance to visit my locals there and have a quite long NetCom Trip in the UK. I spent two weeks with them, and those two weeks were the best days of my autumn. The NetCom can tell you how much I fought for these locals before and during Agora Skopje, because I saw that they still have potential and that the UK is a quite special part of the EU, where we should work hard to implement real European integration.
After a long preparation period, I arrived in Swansea, Wales to AEGEE-Abertawe, where we had several meetings, not only with other societies, but with the Student Union representatives and the International Development Office as well. These are the people who work higher levels and are ready to help AEGEE. The week’s most interesting part wasn’t our visit at the Welsh Assembly Government but our meeting in a real, haunted castle! Can you imagine a better place to talk about the future of AEGEE-Abertawe?
Swansea's haunted castle
My second stop was in Sheffield, a beautiful city with an unbelievably huge Student Union building. I visited AEGEE-Sheffield which had a quite interesting situation. Last year barely anybody was there, an AEGEE-Sheffield member from Liverpool tried to keep the local alive and help Yanike (many thanks to Hannibal!). Their last international event was in February 2010 (the world famous Valentine’s Day event). During my days there, we had the chance to participate in the Fair and have a very successful AEGEE presentation in front of many interested university students, one of whom will also join us at the EBM. AEGEE-Sheffield’s board definitely deserves applause for this!
AEGEE-Sheffield at a study fair
The last stop was pure magic: Durham. First, Harry Potter was filmed here (check the Cathedral, is it familiar from somewhere?), and second, I arrived during the Lumière which makes Durham even more breathtaking. We had a teambuilding, a planning meeting and a board meeting together which was a great opportunity to find the next generation. AEGEE-Durham has more active members than the other locals and I wish even more for them in order to realise all the great plans they have.
And what do these locals and their members have in common, besides their city’s beautiful landscapes? The passion and enthusiasm they have and I saw in their eyes. They are working hard for months and years to keep AEGEE working smoothly in the UK, which is quite hard due to the severe recruitment situation, but they are 100% committed to achieve all the objectives AEGEE is fighting for.
And what they are doing right now is magical: they started to cooperate to realise an event that wasn’t expected by anyone – a Network Meeting in London. They are not alone – more and more AEGEEans appear from the past and present to support them in every way they can.
We don’t have to wait any longer; the British locals are knocking on Europe’s door to show their awesomeness. I will be there. And you?
Written by Beáta Matuszka, AEGEE-Budapest & Network Commission