Sometimes news pass unobserved. On Monday, 20th of April, in Catania, the Linguistic aperitif moved from its’ usual location (a pub near the city harbour) and not for a stupid reason. The harbour had to be the scene of one of the saddest events of the last months. More than 900 people – including 200 women and up to 50 children – tragically died after a boat overturned in one of the worst maritime disasters since the end of World War II. 

Only 28 passengers were rescued after their overcrowded fishing boat tipped over at night on its way from Libya to Italy. One of the survivors, a man from Bangladesh, said that there were 950 migrants on board, about 300 migrants were trapped in the ships’ hold when it sank.
Rescuers recovered 24 bodies from the sea, soon after the disaster, which took place outside of the Libyan waters, south of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, shortly after midnight on the 19th of April.

The small numbers of survivors make more sense if hundreds of people were locked in the hold because with so much weight down below, surely the boat would have sunk. This tragedy comes just days after another shipwreck in the area claimed 400 lives.  This could possibly be the biggest tragedy to have ever taken place in the Mediterranean Sea.

Maybe Italy and Malta need more support in dealing with the migrant crisis?

“Europe can do more and Europe must do more” said Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament- can that be true? “Where is Europe?” is what I hear walking down the streets and talking with people here in Catania: the mistrust in the European Institutions is increasing more and more. We are always talking about “Spreading Europtimism”, but how, in reality, may we convince people to be faithful after such a disaster?

Maybe all is increased by the media, that is creating a gap of information (or maybe, “misinformation”) because the news they pass is not all or not complete enough.

In conlcusion, I think that it is very difficult to feel the “European feelings” when, from the main stakeholders in summits, some decisions are never taken together.

Written by Elisa Tabbì, AEGEE-Catania

Imagine you take your laptop, open the Summer University page, browse through the list and make your choice. You write the application, get accepted, buy your tickets and months later… you are THERE.

For us, “there” was at first Catania, on the island of Sicily. It all started like a unbelievable dream, because as soon as we arrived, we became pirates.

We were divided into teams, we made our own flags and we started hunting points and golden coins.

We all had great expectations but I believe nothing could prepare us for what was to come soon: the welcome party at which we ended bathing in the sea in our underwear, the photo contest in Catania which tested our creativity, the trip to Taormina and the pranks in the bus, the funny theatre plays in which we impersonated pirates, the sandcastle building, the trip to Siracusa and the famous gossip box, the European Night with its incredible stories, the Alcoholic Treasure Hunt which made us drink and run like crazy, and finally the pre-parties, the crazy pool parties and the unforgettable after-parties which we enjoyed each and every night during the whole SU.

After one week of sleepless nights and crazy adventures, we thought things could not get better. But in fact they did. Because it was time to fly to Malta. How many times do you get to see a group of 50 crazy AEGEEans embarking on a flight from one Mediterranean island to another in the middle of August? … Yes, that is what I thought.

We arrived to Malta after a sleepless night, excited about the week to follow, and it did not disappoint us. Our pirate adventure continued in the same, crazy way it started: plotting about stealing flags and asking for ransom, searching for hidden golden coins, and giving our very best during each challenge, hoping to win.

It was now time to explore Valletta during another challenging treasure hunt, visit the Three Cities and play games, discover Mdina -The Silent City- dressed like Greek gods and goddesses, watch the sunset at Golden Bay after a body painting workshop and party (again) like crazy in Paceville, the Maltese Las Vegas where everything becomes possible. By the end of the SU, each after-party ended up near or actually in the pool of our residence, sometimes because we enjoyed swimming, other times because we were victims of pranks and thrown mercilessly into the water.

Our SU started like a dream and it ended like one: with a private boat (or rather a yacht) trip to Comino and the famous crystal-clear waters of the Blue Lagoon. We danced, drank, sang and swam all day until in was finally time to come back to reality and face the end.

The last after-party found us all crying, laughing, promising to see each other again and singing the “AEGEE-Catania” song between tears and smiles, to the Catanese organisers who were returning to Sicily.

For both Italian and Maltese organisers, it was a proof that all their work was worth it and they succeeded in organising the best SU of 2012. Because no matter what the official results will say, all of us feel that this was indeed the best SU of this year.

And it cannot be otherwise, when we look back and see that two teams of motivated young people in red T-shirts, managed to pull out a perfect organisation, with great activities and insane parties in two awesome islands. And all that while keeping alive the thematic content of the SU and keeping us involved until the very end of the event.

The farewell was a little bit of a “shock” for all and I am sure that after the SU finished many of us asked themselves: “Where are the red T-shirts now?”

Well…right now they are in our memories, our pictures and our wishes. Because we all want to meet each other again and because in AEGEE there is no goodbye, but rather “see you soon”. Somewhere in Europe or beyond…

Written by Lavinia Manea, AEGEE-Bucuresti