First SU, first report, first of many! If being in a foreign country (lovely Czech Republic) and meeting Aeggeans of all across Europe is not enough, developing ourselves and getting to know better AEGEE has been great.
Before even arriving in Brno, our host city, we already met some other participants and started to plan our trip with foreigners. A broken bus, some delayed flights and the language barriers wouldn’t stop us. After all, we all were determined to have an awesome time and make the most of the SU!
Once we arrived, and after some ice breaking games and super-fast Czech lessons, we started to know each other; only 12 participants and other 12 organisers. Being a small group led to better interactions and made it easier to know each other. Since the very first minute we mixed, almost with no difference. They even slept with us in the gym and every night went partying. The last ones standing were always the Spanish, Czech and Slovaks!
Teambuilding was the main topic for this SU. Workshops taught by professional coaches, with the help of Tereza as a translator, were an absolute success. Team cooperation and group dynamics workshops taught us mainly how to deal with decisions within a bunch of people and how to make everyone commit to the group. It also let us see the cultural differences between countries and regions, as leadership and teambuilding is really shown in different ways depending on that.
Feedback, coaching and conflict dealing where the other main workshops and made us realise how important it was to give feedback properly to make others improve and how to help others to develop not only themselves but the group as a whole. All these workshops led to results ASAP. For example, whenever we went to a trip, even in smaller groups, everyone had its role, we knew how to deal properly with conflicts and even make decisions satisfying everyone. Personally, I had never felt so comfy within a group of people.
From an AEGEEan’s viewpoint, workshops on Civic education, Eurooptimism and Interculturality were also superb. Listening to opinions from all across Europe on how the education and customs influence our point of view or on how we perceive the EU have really opened our minds. Together with all this, we came to understanding other cultural differences deeper, thanks to a well-organised European night, to an awesome orienteering role game and to other many small games where we had to mix with each other. It was not easy for us (we were 6 Spaniards out of 12 participants) but I think we succeed. By the final days, we weren’t divided into small groups but we acted, thought, decided and worked as a single one. Amazing.
Brno, Mikulov, Lednice, Viena, Brnos’ Dam… We went to so many places… We visited two different chateaus, a wine-cellar, and so many pubs… Katka, Zuzana, Eva, Petra, Lenka and Lucie became tour guides for us, teaching both cultural issues and local habits. We learnt a lot about local culture, habits, behaviours, (huge) meals… All this thanks to activities such hiking, going to the swimming pool/dam, wine tasting, beer tasting (of course) or just by hanging out for a drink at evening. Organisers were great. Lubomir, Matej and Juraj made sure no one got bored, and that there was someone to party with.
Lovely place, great people, awesome experience. Looking forward to meeting again and for the next one! Díky a na shledanou!
Written by Jesús Pérez Gil, AEGEE-Bilbao