The Netherlands and Germany… One would directly think about beer, weed, and the Red Light District. The discovery made by some lucky participants could not be further from this! The Germans and Dutchmen like to discipline people. That is why between the 4th and 19th of July, participants realised what the word “justice” means during an AEGEE event. This was a surprising summer for those participants. A Summer University based on discipline? Welcome to Germany supported by Dutchmen!
How did it begin? Organisers from the hosting antennae, namely AEGEE-Mainz-Wiesbaden, AEGEE-Darmstadt, and AEGEE-Eindhoven decided to create a community of future masters. The task was difficult: how would they make 23 people from ten countries cooperate? Our troops need to keep together: eat, party, sleep, and… behave!
Our trip started in Mainz – a town located on the west bank of the river Rhine, and also included a visit to its twin city, Wiesbaden, which is located on the opposite bank. On one hand, these cities are connected by AEGEE, but on the other hand, we could notice a silent competition between the two of them. If you had asked which one was better, you should have taken into consideration with whom you were drinking beer at that moment – it was highly needed in order to avoid a conflict.
In Germany, a barbecue is definitely on the “must-do” list and we, of course, had a lot of those. We enjoyed traditional German beer and sausages; the best barbecue-maker was the handsome Zachi Großartig from AEGEE-Darmstadt – with a little assistance from his equally handsome brother, Eugene.
The traditional beverage for the barbecue was beer, but to my surprise, we also drank a lot of it in the wine region of Germany. But Germans don’t just drink it, they celebrate it! During our visit, we had the chance to experience a national beer game, called Flunkyball. This lovely drinking competition shows how discipline and beer drinking are combined in Germany.

Just take a look at the first paragraph of the Flunkyball manual provided by Benjamin from AEGEE-Mainz-Wiesbaden:

– Responsibility

(1) You are responsible for your beer.

(2) There should never be spilled beer. You will be punished if it is spilled, even if it is not your fault.

Our hosts invented some quite creative punishments. Some examples: if the Spaniards were late, they deserved a “spanishment ” – to push a car with the Dutch hosting team inside of it. If a Polish girl showered for too long, she had to catch a ball that people threw way too high for her. A group of AEGEE participants who secretly bribed one of the staff members and took a secret trip by car, had to roll on the grass all tied up together and pretend to be a car wheel! If someone wanted to make his or her way easier by taking a shortcut, our main mentor, Loek from AEGEE-Eindhoven, would catch them and assign a suitable punishment. That’s for sure!
I can tell you that the discipline building technique that Loek developed was successful. When we continued our trip to the Netherlands, I realised we had become a real SU community. During the second week of our SU, the punishments were much fewer, and one could see that all participants were united.
The most remarkable discovery I made during the Dutch part of the SU, was that the Dutch are the masters of creativity. The engaging activities that our hosts prepared for us were fabulous. They used everyday materials like cards, paper, or smartphones to make us experience virtual reality and engage in team games. My favourite one was when they asked us to spread in a square in the downtown of Eindhoven. Our host pre-recorded an audio track for us, which we listened to on our phones and MP3-players. Loek and Maikel Wagemans from AEGEE-Eindhoven, with their sexy voices, were giving us instructions on what to do and how to dance. An outsider could see 25 people spread in a square doing weird things at the same time; we definitely got some attention while bowing to the legendary Frits Philips, who meant a lot to the city of Eindhoven.

In the Netherlands, we had the chance to admire beautiful landscapes by cycling. We followed Vincent van Gogh’s path and visited the places where he created his masterpieces. Another time, we even crossed the border and visited a monastery in Belgium where the monks prepared a special kind of beer. I loved the idea of “bike and dine” – cycling to different places and being hosted for lunch by local AEGEE members. Besides the main theme of the SU, we had a chance to learn how to prepare traditional Dutch stroopwafels.
As we know, during our AEGEE events we often experience a “Spanish Ghetto effect”, but I have to say that this time, we truly enjoyed staying all together and no one felt excluded from the group. The best proof of it was that, at the end, both titles for the female and male “Best Participant” were handed to our Spanish friends: Lidia Conejo Garcia from AEGEE-Oviedo, and Gonzalo Hernandez from AEGEE-Alicante.
We were trained to be well-behaved and cooperative beautiful freaks. Finally, we all ended being masters at making the best Dutch-German cocktail!
During those two weeks of adventure, I met some wonderful people and experienced the real warmth of an AEGEE community. It was great to learn so much about the countries we had visited, but most importantly, I enjoyed sharing this experience with the others. Thank you guys!
Written by Dorota Stangel, AEGEE-Warszawa

Not too long ago, Aegee’s own radio station, AEGEE.fm, was established in Eindhoven. We spoke to Hemmo de Vries, the mastermind of the Friday weekly shows.

The AEGEEan: Hemmo, thanks for finding the time for us! AEGEE.fm has received a lot of attention as a brand new project in AEGEE. How did you get the idea of establishing it?
Hemmo: I have worked for different radio stations in my area for many years, and had also played with making my own online radio station together with friends. Later I kind of stopped with this when I started studying, joined AEGEE and later started working. For a long time I didn’t have enough time to make radio next to studying, having a job and being an AEGEE member, but later I did, and got the idea to combine my three passions (AEGEE, journalism and radio). AEGEE.fm is the result [he smiles]

You’ve mentioned this is not your first time doing a radio show. What exactly is your previous experience with the radio?
I have been working for different radio stations ever since 2005. I did the technical part of a radio programme from 2007 until 2013. This show was a magazine type of show with local news and interviews with people from the neighbourhood.

Say someone has not heard of AEGEE.fm yet. How would you describe it to them?
AEGEE.fm is all about bringing different parts of AEGEE together, and to their members. I would like our members to be aware of what project groups are doing so they could either participate or join them. The same counts for allowing members to be aware of what events are available to visit. When you hear the organisers explain why you should visit it, you would be motivated more easily then just by checking the agenda on aegee.org

Sounds great! When can we hear the show and what does it mainly focus on?
Right now it’s every Friday at 20.00 CEST (GMT+2 during summer), but this will change to a time slot more suitable for listening by most students. The show focuses on events and projects, and on the opinion of the members on things in the news. But, it also brings listeners up to date on what happened within AEGEE on the European level: new antennae, Comité Directeur (CD) changes, and of course all the news about Agorae and European Planning Meetings (EPMs).

Seems like a lot of work! Do you have anyone else who cooperates with you on the show?
For now Eric Luckner from AEGEE-Aachen is helping me with some ideas. Also I have a close friend who I worked together with for many years in radio.

How do you see the future of AEGEE.fm? Do you have some dream about what you would like it to become one day?
I would like AEGEE.fm to become more known amongst members. I also want to establish a team with enthusiastic AEGEE members to work together in making this an awesome radio station. I have a list with a lot of awesome ideas for things to do during the radio show. AEGEE is a very broad network with remarkably enthusiastic people. The next and very specific goal I want to achieve is to be able to broadcast live from the Agora in Kyïv. For the long future I would like to expand the wings of AEGEE.fm by working together with AEGEE-Europe and other journalistic platforms like the AEGEEan.

Another thing, AEGEE.fm is a 24/7 radio station, but currently focuses on the Friday Night show. In the future, we might choose to use the technology provided to allow other DJ’s to make a radio show on the station.

Your project is quite new. What have the reactions been so far? Any idea about how many people tune in on your show?
Every single response so far has been positive and amazing. I really did not expect this many people to like the project. Currently there are usually between five and 15 listeners to the live radio shows on Friday night, and between 40 and 60 listen to the show at a later time.

You are a member of AEGEE-Eindhoven. How does your antenna help you with this project? 
The project is 100% independent from AEGEE-Eindhoven. However, since we started my board and members have shared enthusiasm and suggested a lot of ideas, of which some have been implemented. For example: the idea of having fixed hours with specific kind of music during the week.

Let’s turn a bit to you as  a person. What are your other activities in the AEGEE world?
Well I’m an AEGEE member for one and a half years now, and already had a lot of regular activities like Summer Universities (SUs), ‘Winter SU’, some exchanges, and last year I joined the board of AEGEE-Eindhoven. First as President, later as PR responsible.

You became the President quite soon after joining AEGEE. How did that happen? What had your pre-AEGEE.fm, AEGEE-life been like?
After a week long visit from another antenna I noticed that I really liked AEGEE, and also to a level where I wanted to help organising the antenna. That’s why I decided to join the board. Later on I switched with the PR responsible because we felt the different roles suited each of us better.

What are your personal and/or your antenna’s other plans in the AEGEE world?
I really hope to be able to visit a lot more events across Europe, and just enjoy AEGEE for a few more years. As I am making AEGEE.fm pretty much all by myself, it takes a lot of time. Depending on the success of the project, this will have a lot of influence on the choice whether I want to be in AEGEE-Eindhoven’s board for another year. In the future, also depending on how AEGEE.fm develops, I might do things for AEGEE on a European level. Chances are pretty high that this will be in a communication/journalistic thing.

Lastly, if you could ask yourself a question, what would it be?
Only if you answer the same question as well, Jirka. What is my favourite song?
This would be Land of Confusion, by Genesis.

I suppose for me that would be Trains by the Porcupine Tree. Thanks a lot for the interview!

Written by Jirka Lhotka, AEGEE-Praha

In the last few years, the Dutch local AEGEE-Eindhoven wasn’t very active at the European level, but the new board decided to make a change and discover AEGEE beyond their own city again. Last November, they already organised a European event for their 25^th anniversary, and now they got selected to host one of the upcoming Spring Network Meetings (NWM). We spoke to European Affairs responsible Roos-Anne Kniest to find out more about their plans!

The AEGEEan: First of all, can you tell us a bit more about your local? When were you founded, how many members do you have and what kind of activities do you do? What’s special about your local?

Roos Anne: AEGEE-Eindhoven was founded on 22 November 1989, so this year we celebrate our 25^th birthday! We have around 120 members at this moment and around 40 of them are active. We organise weekly dinners and drinks and try to have a bigger local activity once in a while. We have around five weekend exchanges per year and invite other locals if there are interesting activities in Eindhoven (like Glow, a light art festival taking place in Eindhoven every year) or a national festival (like Kingsday, a national celebration in honor of our King). Besides that we had a Summer University each year, in the last few years, and we’d like to keep organising one every summer. Our antenna has a mix of different people and diverse cultures and those members make us special. The connection between the board and our members and the connection between the members themselves is very strong and remarkable and our members help the board with a lot of stuff. They are creative and have original ideas. During our history, our members were very active as well. For example AEGEE-TV was founded by AEGEE-Eindhoven members and AEGEE.fm [a web radio, ed.] was also set up by one of our members.

Why did you apply to organise the NWM? When did the idea come up?

In the last few years we haven’t been very active in the network and on the European level of AEGEE, and we wanted to change that. Since we have a European Affair responsible in the board this year, we thought it would be a good opportunity to show other antennae that we can mean something at the European level too! We also want to get our own members more involved at the European level and show them how important it is. The idea started at the end of summer: we had our 25th anniversary in November and wanted to combine that with the Autumn NWM 2014, but unfortunately we didn’t get selected. Luckily our anniversary year wasn’t over yet and we saw a new possibility, the Spring NWM 2015! We are really motivated and so happy that we can organise this NWM!

When will the NWM take place and how many participants are you looking for?

Our NWM will be from Friday 12 until Monday 15 of June. We had some problem with picking a good date but luckily we found one. We hope to have around 30 enthusiastic participants.

Do you already have plans for the NWM?

As said we have our 25^th anniversary this year, so we want to combine it with the NWM. The activities will be related to our anniversary theme: In the Light. It’s already visible in the name of the NWM: City of Light (bulbs), referring to a product our city is known for, namely light bulbs.

Why should people apply for NWM Eindhoven? What makes you special?

We have a lot of experience in organising event and we love doing it. There are quite a lot of antennae that keep coming back to Eindhoven because they enjoy our events so much. We are really motivated to organise this NWM and we put as much time and effort in it as possible and we think this will be shown during the event. Besides that, we really want our NWM to be a complete and outstanding event, with a clear theme and vision connected to our anniversary. That’s what makes our NWM different than other NWMs.

Last autumn you had your anniversary. How did you celebrate it?

During our anniversary, we had an event with around 40 participants. We visited Glow and held a city tour with a typical Dutch tradition: the arrival of Sinterklaas [a saint whose birthday is each year celebrated in December with presents for the children, similar to Santa Claus ed.]. And of course we had traditional Dutch birthday games! We had beer tasting where the participants got their own special AEGEE-Eindhoven beer glass. On Saturday we had our big 25^th birthday party: we rented a café, invited a DJ and a band and every AEGEE member was welcome. It was a huge success.

Next to all this, you are also organizing a Summer University. What is the plan for your SU, and how do you manage to combine the SU with the preparation for the NWM?

This year we organise the SU together with AEGEE-Mainz-Wiesbaden and AEGEE-Darmstadt. We will try to visit as many amazing cities as possible, including Frankfurt and Amsterdam. We have a lot of new activities planned, like biking to Belgium and creating your own pizza. We have two different committees to organise the SU and the NWM. I am the only one who is in both committees, but as European Events Responsible of the board I feel I should be involved in both events. And of course it is a lot of fun to do it!

How is the cooperation with your Network Commission team going?

Really good! We have a lot of contact and get answers very quickly. We are really happy with our NetCom!

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

If people start thinking about travelling there is always a question that comes to our mind: which is the best way to travel? This Summer University gave us opportunities to try several different types of travelling.

Arriving in Eindhoven was easy, we got picked up by organisers who drove us to the scouting place that would be our home for the next few days. The environment in Eindhoven was perfect as you can see. To make the day even more interesting we started to play a Saboteur game while being dropped into the nearby town from where we had to find our way back. It was quite a fun game as we were divided into groups, we had to find our way back to the accommodation while texting with the other team in order to get the coordinates. The start of our SU was awesome, we were taken to an historical open air museum, where we could feel like people from the early iron age. We had the opportunity to try to light a fire with flint stones like cavemen and to dress up like a warrior. There, we had some old school punishment devices, which were used if the participant was not behaving well.

After this I felt confident that I can survive in medieval time style the whole SU, but I dropped that idea as soon as we had to cycle a few kilometers to the next park. I did not feel like walking the whole way, so I went back to the 21st century. After lunch we had a chance to play the second part of the Saboteur game, which consisted of walking around the park and looking at pictures of people we didn’t know, but who apparently were really, really famous in the Netherlands. The peak of the day was our evening Saboteur grand finale that consisted of carrying big barrels, burning a rope until it breaks and filling a 1.5 liter water bottler with our mouths. It all went well until my team’s saboteur accidentally spilled our whole water bottle and we lost. Despite that it was a good day.

Then we went to Nuenen to have a tour about Van Gogh. It was fun, we saw cows and a windmill that was featured in some of his paintings. After the tour we headed to our new accommodation place where we stayed the rest of the time in Eindhoven. The next day we got a university tour from where the brightest minds of Eindhoven come. Since most of us were quite new to the AEGEE scene, we had a great presentation about AEGEE to learn the basics.

The next thing that was waiting for us was Amsterdam. Amsterdam was for me one of the highlights of the Dutch part, I am quite sure that I was not the only one. It’s because everything was a bit different there, many things were legal, which are not in other countries. We used the train to get from Eindhoven to Amsterdam, which was easy and fast. Mostly we preferred to be as Dutch as possible, so we had bikes that we used to ride many, many miles. We actually had a bike trip from Eindhoven to Venlo that was about 60km long. After Venlo we had to go to Cologne not by bike, but by hitchhiking. For most of the people it was their first time doing something like this. Despite that, everybody was really into it and all went well, everybody arrived safely to Cologne. Most people said it was a really fun experience, although a bit boring because it depended of luck if you got picked up or not. It took me over three hours to get a ride.

Heading to Germany we had great hopes, because the previous part organized by Dutch people had been wonderful. And we were right, the German part was as awesome as the previous part. If you thought the Netherlands was a beautiful country, don’t forget about Germany. It was as pretty as the Netherlands, even on a rainy day.

After arriving to Cologne we went to our scouting place, which was a nice house with a big garden were we had a huge tent to sit and relax in. The second day in Germany started out fine, everybody was up in the morning… well, sort of. We went to the city to have a great city rally (which my team won of course), it consisted of making a fake tour guide to the people near the Cologne Cathedral, finding Wally, collecting Kölsch laws and words and many more wonderful things. The evening ended with all the group members going to a karaoke bar. A big part of the group said that they couldn’t sing, it changed instantly when well-known tunes started to play, almost everybody sang at least one song, the best of us sang more songs than I can remember. The next day was going to be even better, because in the evening there was an event of which you may have heard, it was the European Night. Every nation’s finest AEGEE members brought the best of what they had to offer for us. People who had already done a great warming up in the European Night continued to go out to a club, where everybody could let themselves free and just dance like there  is no tomorrow. And they did, they danced. Then, a day at the lake. Well that was the original plan, but the weatherman thought otherwise and it rained the whole morning. So we dropped the plan to go to the lake, because we had our own little lake in the backyard. Sadly no one tried it. Instead we went to discover Cologne. Everybody was quite sad because it was quite the bad weather, but it changed once we arrived to the Lego shop, people’s smiles got even bigger than Joker’s from Batman, even the Grinch’s smile was nothing compared to ours. Coming back the organizers had prepared a barbeque for us. It was good. The next day it was Brühl and Bonn time, Bonn was the old capital of West Germany. We were taken to the Brühl castle, everybody was really looking forward to seeing the mighty castle of Brühl. I am no castle expert but that was no castle, it was a big house that we might be called a palace. After Brühl’s “castles” we moved forward to the city of Bonn, birthplace of Mozart (which everybody already knew of course!), there we went to the House of History where we got really detailed information about the history of East and West Germany, and we saw a real original moonstone!

Sadly this awesome time ended. The last party was a white t-shirt party where we wrote good things on each others clothes. I hope that all of us can join together for at least once somewhere in Europe! Thank you all for this memorable summer!

Written by Valter Kamarik, AEGEE-Tartu

(Pictures are courtesy of Maikel Wagemans, Rodrigo Lopez Díaz and Anton Yeshchenko)

On the last weekend of June, six German and Dutch locals met in a small and completely unspectacular town in the Netherlands. There was no hosting local, there were no organizers and, officially, there was not even a program. Although the motivating title of this event was “Six in the Shitty City”, it was still the second time that this event took place. The AEGEEan spoke to Benjamin Feyen, one of the people who came up with the concept, to find out more about the event and all the word plays included in it.

In February 2013, several members of Dutch and German locals met in Eindhoven the day before they flew to EBM Valletta together. These members came from six locals, which were all located close to the German/Dutch border, namely AEGEE-Aachen, AEGEE-Düsseldorf, AEGEE-Eindhoven, AEGEE-Köln, AEGEEE-Maastricht and AEGEE-Nijmegen. Since they got along so well and because the distance between these locals is not actually that big, they decided to organize a non-formal get-together.

The name that this meeting should have was also decided upon during that discussion.”When we discussed where the meeting should take place, somebody came up with the idea to meet just somewhere in the middle between the locals instead of having a hosting local”, Benjamin tells us. ”Looking at a map, we found out that the six locals form kind of a circle, with the small Dutch city of Venlo right in the center”.  After somebody who apparently had already been to Venlo complained that this city was “really shitty” the event’s title was set: “Six [locals] in the Shitty City”. Benjamin claims that it was due to the memorable name that they instantly created a Facebook group and were motivated to organize the event.

And the event of 2013 was a success. People from every single local took part and enjoyed a weekend in Venlo including a City Tour. Due to the fact that the city center “actually wasn’t that shitty after all”, this year’s version of the event (Volume 2: “Shit me baby one more time”) was moved to a suburb of Venlo: Tegelen. Although the location changed, the concept stayed the same. Since organizing an event is a lot of work and mostly quite stressful, the people who came up with the idea of “Six in the Shitty City” decided to have “no organizers or responsible persons, but only participants (or shitticipants, as we call ourselves), who do whatever they feel needs to be done”, explains Benjamin. Mutual trust, reliability and contribution by everyone are of course necessary when an event is planned like this. That this can work, was proven by all the people taking part in the event.

The actual meeting in Tegelen worked out perfectly again. Almost 30 people from six locals (this time including AEGEE-Osnabrück instead of AEGEE-Maastricht) met and enjoyed two nights and a full day together, mostly by playing either soccer, “werewolves” or other gamesor, of course, by just talking and getting to know each other. Although there was not any official program, nobody was ever bored. Benjamin explains: “Basically it is a bunch a friends having fun together based on voluntary contribution by everyone, with the little difference that many of us do not even know each other personally before the event. Having the AEGEE spirit and believing in the concept of the “Shitty City” is what we share”. Still, “having a European Night is a must“, says Benjamin and this European Night in particular ended especially nicely by sitting at a bonfire and enjoying marshmallows and music. The favorite song of the whole group was most definitely “Everybody has a shitty time”, a song composed during the event and sung many times.

All in all, “Six in the Shitty City” is not as “shitty” as the name makes it seem! Benjamin concludes that although there were some people who doubted that this concept could work, it did! “And twice already. It’s for sure a very unique event in the AEGEE world”. People already announced that they will most definitely take part again when it is time for the next volume of “Six in the Shitty City”.

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen

Imagine going to a Summer University (SU) 18 years ago… How would that have been? Which part of Europe would be less discovered then? And how would you find out about SU’s, if back then internet didn’t really exist?

Together with Summer University 25 Booklet Team we asked one of AEGEE-Europe’s Honorary Members, Michiel van Hees (AEGEE-Eindhoven and AEGEE-Arnhem), about his first Summer University and the life since then. And yes, he is also one of Les Anciens members.

The AEGEEan: How did you find out about AEGEE and join the SU back then?
Michiel: I joined AEGEE in the summer of 1994. I was supposed to go on holiday with a friend of mine but for some reason he went elsewhere so instead I went with Stephan van Uijtregt – another friend who ‘knew’ someone in Zagreb.
I arranged my mother’s car and the two of us drove to Zagreb.  There Stephan arranged lodging and the next day we could even follow Croatian lessons with other European students. I enjoyed that very much and later that evening at one of the many parties of that SU someone explained to me that I actually was at an SU and this was AEGEE. Afterwards two other guys convinced me to go to Dubrovnik. Great place to visit, they just forgot to mention the war which was going on. Apparently I was a bit naive in those days… Nothing happened and we got home with great stories.

What a story! And what are you doing nowadays, 18 years later?
I have a consulting firm in healthcare for the past 13 years. I married a beautiful woman from AEGEE-Osnabrück (Janina Victor) and have two (Dutch-German) kids. The SU, and AEGEE, have influenced my life drastically not only on the personal level but also professional. Not only did I have much more experience when I graduated, but I also got three collegues at my work out of my AEGEE Network.

What have you learnt about AEGEE and Europe after joining the SU?
What I have learned is that anything your mind can make up is possible, especially if you have such a group of enthousiastic, energetic young people driving with you. I have also seen that our differences are very small and our similarities – big, we all strive for the same things, we just have different approaches.
The most important thing is that you can really work on European integration in the most relaxed way possible. By bringing in students from all over Europe and give them the combined task of learning something (be it language, cycling, sailing or whatever) you create understanding and bonds which last a very long time. I still have very fond memories of that very first AEGEE event and of those 200 which followed.

If you would need to sell SU Project to a new student within 30sec, what would your pitchline be?
I had a great student life. When I was a student, I could go abroad for 100 euros and learn Greek, Spanish or Croatian for 2 weeks. Lodging, teachers, food all included. Even better, I had 30 students from all over Europe to spend that two weeks with. I’ve made friends for life. And the cool thing? It is still possible.

Written by Anita Kalmane, AEGEE-Ogre

Photos from Michiel and AEGEE-Eindhoven archives

This November various AEGEE locals all over Europe were celebrating the annual European Day of Languages (EDL), giving the opportunity to the local community to taste a bit of Europe.

One of those locals was AEGEE-Riga who organised their EDL “Colour languages” already the 11th year in a row. For the first time they went out of the usual school classes and gave the lectures also in a cafe Coffee Inn.

“With every minute we learnt something new, opening ourselves to a completely different culture and immersing into the whirlwind of experiences. We were listening to French music, singing in Italian, learning Georgian children rhymes, getting to know the anthem of Latvia in the sign language, playing Danish games and enjoying loads of other wonderful and useful activities which let us experience 12 different cultures within 3 days,” says Laima Kazeka, President and PR Responsible of AEGEE-Riga.

It is also interesting to know that actually the official European Day of Languages (as organised by the Council of Europe) takes place in September, two months earlier than in AEGEE locals. However, due to the fact that students in various countries start their university later and not every university is open already in September, long time ago AEGEE decided to organise their EDL in November. Various AEGEE locals even choose their own dates and time, making it not only a day, but several days or even a week of languages. And some others do it a bit later – e.g., AEGEE-Eindhoven is just getting to ready for their EDL in December, when they will learn Latvian language as well!

How about your local and EDL? Share your experiences with us in the comment box!

Written by Anita Kalmane, AEGEE-Ogre

On T-shirts of this Travelling Summer University (TSU) we put bullets on the back which say: 1 summer, 5 cities, 25 bikes, 150 km of cycling and unlimited fun. Most of these turned out accurate, especially the fun part, but apparently we have cycled more than 200 km and saw dozens of additional villages and small towns in the South Netherlands. It was possibly a welcomed extra since instead of complaints, there was a lot of happiness. The ultimate plan was to cycle through Tilburg, Eindhoven, Roermond and Maastricht. This was the longest cycling route among the three editions of Below the Rivers, Above Sea Level.

An Unusual Dutch Summer in Tilburg

The sleeping place in Tilburg was a student church of the Tilburg University, which created a rather “unique” atmosphere during the first part. Also, the weather was clearly confused since we had five days of sun without a single drop of rain. Call it luck if you will.

This part was a solid introduction to the TSU with its packed program. First big item was Roze Maandag (Pink Monday) held in the biggest fun fair of Netherlands. Tuesday was a beach and live music day. During the concert, we, AEGEE people, even fired up the sleepy audience of the Boogie Boy and sometimes attracted more attention than the artist!
On Wednesday, there was the Pimp My Bike challenge with lots of spray paint and
creativity. Later, a private concert at the church by the artist Mr. Sick Speck followed. He had
quite catchy songs. Everyone still sings: “In Germany, in Germany…”
The only non-cycling trip in the program was a day-trip to Amsterdam. City tour in Amsterdam was slightly ironic since the guide was the only organiser who is not Dutch. After the touristic route, a group picture was made in front of the “I Amsterdam” sign. Free time, boat trip on the canals, a restaurant stop and Red Light District walk completed all the Amsterdam cliches. It was then time to prepare for the first cycling challenge.

Road to Eindhoven: First Long Distance Challenge

It was quite surprising, no, amazing in the morning. Everybody was prepared for the road on time,
and many of them had sports clothing, even cycling gloves, while organising team (who cycle every day) do not even own such things. Journey was free of complaints and problems. Midway, in Oirschot, a long lunch break followed by a brief town tour made us sleepy, but the motivation of the participants kept the party going. When we reached Eindhoven, the rain (finally) greeted us. It was quite welcomed on the sunburned skins, though.

A Little Competition in Eindhoven

This part was planned as a large tournament, first step as the pub quiz after arrival dinner. A game tournament and special city rally called Crazy 88 with 88 crazy tasks (obviously) followed the next day. All the cycling and super fast tempo had apparently failed to make the participants tired. So, they were awarded with a pub crawl, including few free drinks.

There was still no sign of tiredness, but they were let sleep late anyway. All charged up took part in
a cute tour in an eco-farm and visited the Historic Open-air Museum with actual residents
chopping wood, making swords and baking breads, which balanced our rhythm a little. This day
ended with the European Night, which not many of us have vivid memories of. However, we
did try to recall things the following day in a swimming centre, while either riding the slides or
just sitting in the hot tub. As the grand finale of Eindhoven part, our last night was “Typical Dutch

Night,” as named by the participants. That was probably the night that coined one of the most
popular phrases of the TSU: “Typical Dutch.”

Roermond: Introduction to Limburg Culture

This time, there were 60 km ahead, as opposed to 40 during the previous one. The weather was also “Typical Dutch,” except the missing rain. Although there was a clear decrease in the motivation, the scouting in Roermond, our sleeping place, had quite the view next to the Maas (Meuse), which turned the exhaustion to a peaceful calmness. Program started fast with a traditional Cantus, which involves a lot of singing and even more beer drinking. Next evening another private concert by Loek Tonnaer’s band Dageraad followed, for the occasion of Limburgish Night. Having a hardcore, solid introduction to the Limburg way of living, TSU was ready for the capital of the province: Maastricht.

Crossing the River in Maastricht

After the last and the hardest ride, last destination was reached.This time everybody easily
admitted that they were exhausted. But there is no exhaustion a four hour sleep would not solve, is
there? Next day, we had the most extensive city tour within our TSU, including a visit to provincial
government building (where the Maastricht Treaty was signed). Maastricht did not have a hard time
making an impression. Same can be said concerning the ten KM ride back to the sleeping place
after the pub crawl. Damn, the only province-with-hills of this flat country!
On the last day, we visited the limestone caves of Limburg, but the ones in Valkenburg.
Dark and cold caves were a really good break to the sun and for the exhaustion of two weeks. As
tradition, the day ended with voting, an award ceremony and a goodbye party.

And the Curtain is closed

This was a first for this series in terms of biking distance, and crossing one of the rivers that we
had been previously below (on the map, of course). Program started fast and kept the tempo untill
the end. This was our secret for a “long, aimless waiting” free TSU.
Content-wise, seeing different cultures even in a small country was the strongest
aspect. ”Typical Dutch” was a humorous phrase but they knew there is more in culture than
meets the eye, as they cycled through this two southern provinces. If you see how people,
culture and even landscape change even as you bike, it gets easier to realise the same on a
much larger region.
Considering most of the participants were not very familiar with AEGEE yet, this TSU
showed them that they need to keep exploring and observing the world and people around. And
while doing those, you can have genuine (in our case “unlimited”) fun. So join us next year in
the new chapter of the adventure book!

Written by Haluk Can Yasan, AEGEE-Eindhoven.

Thank you to Marina Roche Arroyos, Eero Vegmann, Balázs Kovács, Elena Martino & Marina Roche Arroyos for contributing with photos!

It is no secret that AEGEE is a very good place where to meet not only your future best friends, colleagues and simply great people, but even your future spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend. There are loads of stories about happy marriages between AEGEE members from the same and even different countries. But how does it work to have long-distance relationships in AEGEE?

Klaudia and Jonas

The AEGEEan asked this question to two couples who both have been together long enough to know how it is. Klaudia (AEGEE-Krakow & AEGEE-Eindhoven) and Jonas (AEGEE-Eindhoven) have been a couple for “3 beautiful years and 2 amazing months”, while Olga (AEGEE-Dnipropetrovsk) and Alfredo (AEGEE-Salerno) have counted the months of their love story for “around 1.5 years”. We asked both couples the same questions.

Do you live together or apart?

Klaudia & Jonas (K&J): We have lived together for the last 2.5 years now.

Olga & Alfredo (O&A): For now we are not living together, but this might happen at some point soon.

Before living together, how easy was or is it to arrange meetings?

K&J: At first it was holidays and we travelled together so we saw each other in Poland, Ukraine, Turkey, Poland again… And then for half a year almost every weekend in the Netherlands or Luxembourg. Arranging meetings was not as difficult as saying goodbye every Sunday night!

O&A: We meet on average once per 1-2 months. In the first year we met even more often, a few times at AEGEE meetings. It was not hard, as due to our AEGEE obligations we both had to travel a lot and could thus see each other more often, but now that we are not so active in the organisation anymore and busy with things to do at home, it is a bit harder. But nothing is impossible and we do our best to see each other as often as possible! Now we try to always meet in different places, so that we can at least discover a bit of Europe together.

Alfredo and Olga

What are the benefits and disadvantages of long-distance relationships?

K&J: The benefits are that maybe you have more space for yourself and you can combine meetings with cool trips. Every time you meet it’s special, and a moment to look forward to. The disadvantage is definitely not being able to call each other and making an appointment for same day, not being close to each other every day.

O&A: A clear disadvantage is that the “living together” part of the story is missing, instead there are a thousand kilometers of distance. Also going to the cinema or for a pizza together is missing. On the other hand, every meeting is like a big holiday for us. No routine! There is also more time for personal life and for the job… But is this really a benefit?

Olga and Alfredo

And how is it to have another AEGEE member as your partner?

K&J: You both like the same cool trips and the same great people! You can travel together to AEGEE events and have lots of friends in common. The second one could be a disadvantage for some, not for us!

O&A: It is scaring to let your partner attend a Summer University as you know as good as  no-one else what this is, but for jealous people it’s easy to know if something happened! We are joking of course, as mostly it gives only benefits – lots of common topics to discuss, friends, sharing ideas about some projects and of course attending events together. You do not need to explain where you are going and why, it’s already clear. And can it be considered as benefit that the other is able to understand that MedCom is not Medical Committee?

What would you suggest to other couples in AEGEE who are in long-distance relationships?

K&J: If you know it can turn out into something stable and serious, the best is to try. The closer the better…

O&A: Never give up. What indeed matters are feelings and the wish to see each other. The rest – location, distance, money etc. – are just temporary attributes which can always be changed. But it helps a lot to appreciate every single moment together as extremely precious.

Jonas and Klaudia

Please, share one funny story related to long-distance relationships!

K&J: A few years ago in winter, we were flying back from our holiday in Morocco, via the United Kingdom, when we got snowed-in at the airport, no planes leaving. We both had flights to different countries, but both got cancelled. In the end we travelled in many stages, by train to the Netherlands. We did many romantic stops on the way in restaurants and bars, and spent the night in the train station in London. It ended up being a great little adventure!

O&A: Ah, mostly all stories are connected with travelling. This summer Alfredo waited for Olga at the airport in Rome (there is also a similar story with Alfredo waiting in Beograd and Olga landing in Sofia instead). While at the door with a nice paper with her name in his hands, he received a phone call that she got lost and managed to get to the airport in another country… How to spoil romantic moments! It was extremely funny to try to meet again in the airport! A bit more of these and Olga will be qualified for writing a book on “How not to lose your love in airports”!

Written by Anita Kalmane, AEGEE-Ogre