There we were again. Back in Manjirón, where this popular event took place for the very first time back in 2011 and where some of the most active members of our area nowadays also started!
In some way, this event became kind of compulsory for the members of our area (La Nave, the area of the French-, Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking antennae). We cannot finish a summer period without celebrating a Renove. The main purpose of this event is to have a big reunion of motivated members, to make participants have a good time after a wonderful and exciting experience in their Summer Universities, to let them discover a bit more about AEGEE and to gather together newbies and oldies from each antennae so they can make future plans for the upcoming year. Fun, experiences and team-building are the key elements of the event.
After great organisational work from AEGEE-Madrid, we can say the event was a success and people came back home full of happiness and motivation. Thank you for it and congratulations!
As a starter, participants were divided in groups representing different urban tribes in a good combination of oldies and newbies from different antennae to help people meet each other even before the event. Emos, rappers, heavies, hunkies, hipsters, chavs, hicks, preppies, nerds and hippies went around the lodging, even if the first night it was more animal like as we started with a Cat party (Madrileños’ style).
Next day in the morning we went for a walk: to some people a delight and to others mostly annoyance. We talked about our experiences in AEGEE in groups which is interesting and also inspiring for others. There was a fun gymkhana on Saturday afternoon where all groups worked together and did their best to complete every task. And after it… let’s go for recovery tasks! As there was an antenna which kidnapped loads of mascots from other close (or not so close) antennae, there were tasks to get them back for nearly everyone. Thank you, AEGEE-Oviedo!
At night it was time to let the tribes out and most of them impressed us with their characterisation and performance during the party. On Sunday it was time for some serious stuff; workshops and talks. Before the event, La Tripulación (NetCom Team) asked all members to send their SU pictures and share their experiences with a sentence. A video was released there for the joy of the lucky participants.
The sessions started with “AEGEE in your resume” held by Gerardo García, Olga Rivero (AEGEE-Oviedo), Marta Martinez (AEGEE-Santander) and Iker Iraizoz (AEGEE-Valladolid) followed by “My life in AEGEE” by Álvaro Espinosa, Fernando Campo (AEGEE-Santander), Pablo Ruiz (AEGEE-Zaragoza) and myself. Last but not least, there was time for AEGEE-Burgos to inform everyone about the upcoming EPM Burgos 2015, to present their project and their team; as well as for AEGEE-Oviedo to present Autumn AgorAsturias.
People left on Sunday after lunch and, after a short but intense weekend full of AEGEE spirit, farewell time was as difficult as in a SU. We believe many new members will be active after Renove IV… let’s keep working and being awesome!
Written by Carmen María López Banegas (AEGEE-Alicante)
Pictures by Ksenia Lupanova (AEGEE-Moskva) and Alberto Arroyo (AEGEE-Madrid)