Last year, AEGEE-Utrecht organised a Winter University with the theme name “Try Before You Die”. This event took place in three different Dutch cities: Utrecht, Amsterdam and Gouda.
Before the event took place, the committee, consisting of Adinda Werkman, Josje Hiddink, Sanne Bleekers, Simon Bak, Johan van Houten and Miriam Frantzen, selected twenty enthusiastic participants out of 53 applications. The participants came from the 
Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, Ukraine and Russia. In the end, however, a group of thirteen participants participated in the New Year’s event. The group was accommodated at a very nice and central location, the Office for Refugee Support, in the Telingstraat, Utrecht. The event officially started on the 27th of December, 2011. On the first day the participants were mostly occupied with ice breaking games such as “try before you die” speed dating, krantenmeppertje (name game) and other fun TBYD games. They were also given free time and were accompanied by local AEGEE members who showed them the city. Because the event was called “Try Before You Die”, the showers were not, as one would expect, at the location, but a 15min. drive from the city center. This evening the whole group went to the “Poema” where there was a big international party. Later on in the week the participants got acquainted with the lovely city of Utrecht during a city tour and an exciting city rally. They also got acquainted with Dutch hospitality with the imitation of the Dutch TV-program “Nu we er toch zijn” whereby the participants had to ring doorbells and ask if they could stay and enjoy the hospitality of the Dutch people by being invited for a chat, drink or dinner at people’s homes.
At the European night the participants presented typical food and drinks from their countries and were partying all night long. Later that week the participants were introduced other “try before you die” games such as making sandwiches as dirty and nasty as possible which other groups had to eat. We also had games such as a contest in jumping/walking in big bags to the finish, egg throwing in a big circle, and twin and quartet soccer playing.
Another interesting part about this week was the discussion about the gay community in the Netherlands, and what the differences were between the acceptability of gay people and gay relationships in the Netherlands and in the countries where the participants came from. Later on that week we experienced the gay scene in Amsterdam where we visited some gay bars in small groups of participants. The participants also got the opportunity to show their cooking skills where they were presented with a bag of different products and had to improvise a meal out of the available products. After dinner, the groups prepared themselves for a night walk, a “dropping” as one would say in Dutch. The groups got in the car where they got blindfolded. They got some clues about where to go, and what to do and after some hours of walking and getting cold the lost participants were picked up and brought back for a hot shower and some glühwein. On the 30th of December, we all went to explore the city of Amsterdam where we had a city tour, and visited the Heinkenmuseum. After that we had dinner and went to explore Amsterdam’s gay and heterosexual nightlife.
The next day we had a busy 
schedule in front of us. After the participants were divided into couples, they had to try and hitchhike to Gouda. Everyone started to hitchhike at the official hitchhiking stop. After waiting for some cars and asking drivers if they were going into the direction of Gouda, the first couple managed to get a ride in less than half an hour. Everyone arrived in Gouda safe and sound where they were awaited by an AEGEE guide who was ready to give a city tour. After this, it was time to go back to Utrecht by train to enjoy a special dinner where the tables were covered in aluminum foil and everybody was able to make a drawing of mayonnaise or ketchup. A lot of fries and some typical Dutch snacks like “frikadel, kroket, and kaassoufle” were placed on the aluminium covered table. After everybody was ready, we all went to the van Lieflandlaan party to celebrate New Year’s eve. This was a big party with around 300 people. At 23:50 everybody went to the roof of the building and waited till the year ended where the crowds started the countdown to 2012. At 00:00 everyone screamed “Happy New Year!” and started to kiss everybody and celebrate the beginning of 2012. From this floor, you could see the amazing fireworks which were lid everywhere in the city. On the 1st of January everybody just slept for a couple of hours, recovering from the night before. However, we had to be gone before 11:00 for the New Year’s dive.
After bringing the swim clothes and towels everyone was brought to the “Maarsseveense plassen” (lakes) to 
participate in the New Year’s dive. Having arrived, the group saw a new challenge; they should start the New Year a bit different where they all ran in the water at 12.00 with a group of 40 local people. This was the way to start the New Year. After this freezing moment, everybody got some typical Dutch sausages and pea soup and could hit the showers. Around 18:00 everybody prepared themselves to go out for a farewell dinner. After having enjoyed their meals, the group went to club “Ekko” where there was a lounge party. After hanging and chilling, the whole group came back to the location, where they played some card games. On the 2nd of January it was time to say goodbye. That was the end of an amazing event full of new memories from nice people, activities and crazy anecdotes.
Written by Miriam Frantzen and Johan van Houten, AEGEE-Utrecht
Photos by Simon Bak and participants