Agora Bergamo is approaching day by day and you’d better prepare yourself both physically and mentally for it, because it’s about to become real in less than a week! Beside the necessary things you need to take with you undoubtedly, we want to help you with a few cool tips which you have to take into account once you are there in order to survive! So, take notes because you will need them! Especially if you are a newbie at your first Agora! 

#1 Tip: Drink A LOT of Coffee!

Every oldie in AEGEE knows that at each Agora, during morning plenaries, half of the people in the room are sleeping, or are half asleep because of last night’s party, of course. Whether it’s on the floor, on the chairs, on someone’s lap, it’s the same scenery. The “Sleeping AEGEEans” Facebook page is full after each statutory events with weird sleeping faces on weird positions or even places. Yeah, we have seen a lot of creativity among those people! So, as you can already imagine, the most essential thing to do at an Agora is drink COFFEE and A LOT OF IT! There are lots of intensive activities which require your attention and full cooperation sometimes. So drink a cup or ten or you might lose a lot of insightful information or the key moments of this event!

#2 Tip: Take an External Battery everywhere with you!

That’s right. You will need it to charge your phone during the event, so as be able to use it during boring times or if you need to check some important issues. If you don’t own an external battery, you can also buy one from the Summer University Coordination Team (SUCT) who are selling them during the Agora! Dibs!

#Tip 3: Take Vitamin C every morning! 

It’s well known the fact that if you take vitamin C after a long night of party and alcohol, it kills off the hangover. It couldn’t be more true! Vitamin C is an antioxidant. Alcohol depresses your immune system, leaving you wide open to colds and other viruses. As alcohol metabolizes and our body detoxifies itself, a substantial number of free radicals are released into our body. Vitamin C’s antioxidant qualities help fight free radicals in our body and generally alleviates headaches. So, you can say it’s also a good way to prevent getting the flu or other illness. It’s a win-win!

#Tip 4: Take earlier showers in the morning or later during night! 

It’s not a surprise that during every Agora there is a queue of people starting from the gym and all the way to the bathrooms. People in their towels wait in line for their limited time to use the showers. It’s crazy. It’s messy. It’s hot. It’s Agora’s most often problem, not enough showers, not enough time. However, it has been said since “ancient times” that you would have a better chance at taking a normal shower, if you wake up in the morning earlier than the others, or during the night when everyone is at the party or even sleeping.

#Tip 5: Don’t come late to the European Night!

Yes, we have arrived to the most important tip of an AEGEE event. European Night! It’s always great when people bring a little bit of taste from their own culture and nation during a nice small event organised in AEGEE. However, when it comes to an Agora, it’s the mother of all European Nights in one place! With large quantities of alcohol and all kinds of sweets, you cannot be late for this party! No, sir! Everyone knows that the best drinks finish first and fast! Come late and you will also miss the chance to enjoy your time with others at the same time and it will be sad for you when everyone is really enjoying themselves and you are still sipping some weird drink from Finland.

We gave you some tips, now you figure out the rest! See you at Agora Bergamo!

Written by Gabriela Geană, AEGEE-București

 One of the cheapest ways to travel is hitchhiking, which is also used by AEGEEans, with some locals even organising hitchhiking competitions. Still though, many people haven’t tried it before and might even be scared to try. Are you one of them? Don’t worry! The AEGEEan has written a short hitchhiking course to help you out!

How to prepare?

Before you go to your final destination, it’s a good idea to look at the map and see what cities are on the way. It’s not very likely that you will get one straight ride to your final destination, so you will have to hitchhike from city to city until you reach your destination. Write down which cities are along the way and make different signs for those cities (use the front and back to save the trees) so you just have to use the signs in the right order. While making the signs, make sure that the letters are at least as big as those on a number plate so people can read it. It can also be a good idea to make a “fun” sign with for example smiley faces or ‘free hugs’ to make people smile (which gives you a better chance of getting a ride). Last but not least, save the telephone numbers of your lift partner and a friend at home who knows about your plans so you know who to call if you lose each other or a problem occurs.

Where to stand?

When you are looking for a place to get a ride, it is best to go for a place where drivers are able to stop or have to stop anyway. Good examples are gas stations, (just after) traffic lights, special hitchhiking spots and parking places along the road. Wherever you decide to stand, make sure that the drivers passing by can read your sign, and they have the ability to (safely!) stop to pick you up.

How to act?

In general, it’s most important that you behave like the kind of person you would give a ride. This means that you will have to smile, be polite and friendly when you ask for a ride and in general give of a positive vibe. Some people are scared to take people, so show them that you are nothing to be scared of and change their mind about hitchhiking. It can and will be done! Also, be prepared to wait for fifteen to sixty minutes, since hitchhiking sadly is not the fastest way of transport.

You found a ride!

Great!! Do remember that you are not obligated to accept any rides, so if you don’t trust someone, just (politely) reject them and search for another ride. Also make sure that you remember the number plate of the car or even write it down, so you can text it to your friend in the (hopefully unlikely) case something goes wrong. To keep you from forgetting your personal belongings (backpack, coat, etc.) it’s best to keep them on your lap or on the seat next to you and not in the trunk. You would be very lucky to get a ride straight to your final destination, so if this isn’t the case, ask the driver to drop you off at a gas station or hitchhiking spot so you can easily get your next ride. Once you are in the city center it’s often hard to get away, so try to avoid this!

And, remember: have fun!

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen

Once every four years it’s time for the biggest soccer event again: the World Cup of soccer. Many AEGEEans will be watching, which can also be done together in the Facebookgroup, but not all of them will be soccer fanatics in their daily life. Especially for those people, the AEGEEan has created a guide: how to survive the World Cup without soccer knowledge. Do you watch soccer because your friends and family are watching too, are you the one asking a lot of questions during the game or do you really only watch the European and World Cup games (and maybe not even all)? Then this guide is meant for you!

Before the game

The easiest way to deal with a lack of knowledge, is to find a group of friends or family who have the same (or even less) knowledge about soccer as you. This way, the walking soccer encyclopedia’s don’t have to get annoyed at your – in their eyes – dumb questions, and you don’t have to feel stupid, because in your carefully selected group nobody will know the name of all players on the field ánd the reserves. Who needs to, anyway? However, if you don’t know how many players are in a team normally and you therefore can’t find people who know less than you (likely to happen sadly), it might be good to look at some Soccer for Dummies pages, like this one.

Since World Cup matches are normally watched with a group of diverse people, the chances are high that you will still encounter a few ‘professionals’. Keep calm and read on, because we have some tips ready! First of all, look up some trivia facts about the World Cup or match of the night to impress your fellow fans with. Did you know that every time a South American country hosted the World Cup, the trophy went to a South American country too or that The Simpsons dedicated an episode to World Cup 2014? Neither did I, but now you do! The true soccer fans, who can name all the scores of the last twenty years, might already know this, but in general there will be some fun trivia facts you can impress people with, leading to them thinking that you do know something about soccer (and that’s a secret we will keep). Find more trivia here.

During the game

First of all, if you are planning to watch a match, it’s important to make sure you are wearing the right colors. Don’t be the Dutchie who shows up in red to the match Spain – Netherlands, because you will be disliked no matter how much carefully prepared knowledge you have to share. Once you are present, wearing the right kind of colors, there are two options to use during the game: ducktape or ‘fake it until you make it’. The first option doesn’t need much explanation, since it’s a simple matter of applying ducktape (preferably in your national colour too) to your face, and shutting up for the rest of the match. The second option is a combination of copying what the commentators, your friends (the ones with knowledge) and newspapers say, while screaming at the right moments. Rooting for the wrong team and wearing the wrong color are a close call, so make sure you know on what side your team is playing (and what color they are wearing) to prevent yourself getting killed.

After the game

Whether or not you have watched, if you want to keep the conversations going with your soccer loving friends it’s important to have some basic knowledge about the match. If you won’t miss your friends that much, you can always just book a holiday and come back after the finals, but if you do, it’s mostly important to know the score of the game. Luckily, Google is always there and looking up matches isn’t that hard (unless you need a course of Google for Dummies too, but then you probably wouldn’t be reading this guide either). Besides, it might also be helpful to have a memory of the highlights (watched live or not), which luckily FIFA has made a page for with videos, to be found here.

Is your head spinning with knowledge to gain? Don’t worry, most important about the World Cup is to have fun, watching the games with your friends and enjoying some nice drinks and food. Besides, at the end of the day people might just be happy that you are the one asking dumb questions, even if they roll their eyes, since at least that means they are smarter. If nothing works, you can always make people feel good about themselves and have another drink. Keep calm and watch soccer (even with a lack of knowledge).

Written by Svenja van der Tol, AEGEE-Nijmegen