Moving on

How bizar that in the past 10 days, life turned around 180°. I moved to a new studio in central Brussels, started a new job, said goodbye to the people that I spent nearly every single minute with in the last 13 months, and suddenly have time again to watch a movie, meet up with people, or walk around undiscovered neighbourhoods in Brussels. And strangest of all, slowly but steadily, all the stress flew out of my body. When I leave work at 6PM, I stop thinking about it. Fantastic.

It didn't all start smoothly. The first few days were genuinely bizarre. On the 1st of September we decided all to go for dinner at the Thai underneath my flat. And afterwards for coffee. Percin had to go to catch his flight. The rest still didn't want to say goodbye, and after a few more hours of dancing and cocktails in empty O'Reilleys we all sqeezed into my mini appartment. It felt strange that it was over, that we had to say goodbye, we were happy, sad, melancholic, proud, victorious, excited and also a bit scared to start new lives on our own.

Next day went to Rotterdam with Ivonne. Nice day, but again a bit weird. That night I got acquaintanced with my new neighbours. A woman screamed and cried like she was being murdered, and I could hear the beating and sounds of furniture flying around. After 30 minutes, at 1.30 am, I decided to call the police. Didn't have a phone so went to the nightshop. With a knife, in case I'd meet the murderer. Police came, stayed for 15 minutes, and left with the message: "We think there's no serious danger but if it keeps going please call again". Great.

Then the toilet broke down and miraculously started working again after 2 days. Crashed the Youth Forum reception with Ana, where we met the hots and not so hots of Brussels youth work. Wrote my activity report. And spent way too much time online talking to my beautiful ex-colleagues.

Bisou from Brussels :-)

How It All Started

Yes it is sentimental melodrama time - and here is my candidature speech from Agora Eskisehir on November 2, 2007. If you find anything stupid, blame it on my youth :-)

Dear Agora,


It is an utmost privilege to stand in front of you today, an honor and experience I will never forget whatever the outcomes will be.


It is an honor rather forgotten, to vote and stand to be elected, to overcome the boundaries, to reach other places and people and let others reach to and within you. To learn and to teach, to ask and to answer. To be informed and curious, critical and constructive, to be young and full of courage yet wise, both patient and persistent. To be competent, competitive yet humble and open-minded, to debate, discuss, tackle the issues but with respect and empathy, to take an action, make a change, however small and hard it may seem and never lose the belief that everything is possible and you are making an impact. To be inspired yet realistic, able to stand high and to stand corrected, self objective and constantly improving. Yes, it is an honor to be a true European citizen, member of AEGEE. And it is an honor as well for Europe to have AEGEE working so hard and so much for its present and its future.


It is a new Europe that we live in today, an ever-changing, open and dynamic. When most of us here were born democracy was just a dream for half of Europe, academic mobility was still a concept waiting for Erasmus to happen, frequent flying was just for businesspeople and mobile phones and internet were still waiting to come about. Peace and stability, based on respect for human rights and rule of law, trade and industry growth through open market economy and social progress based on respect for diversity - all these things that AEGEE has been working for, for more than twenty years, are getting momentum in modern Europe.


It is a challenging time as well, with battle against global terrorism, religious and political extremism, unsustainable European social model, natural resources endanger and immigration.


For AEGEE this is a time of opportunity. Opportunity to redefine ourselves – what we stand for, what we do about it and how we do it. To be better in what we do well, to learn lessons and improve where we are lacking behind. To be new and brave, to lead and push for things that are important and relevant tomorrow rather than today. We should put new efforts to increase quality and attractiveness, widen scope and audience and enhance impact of AEGEE activities and find new ways to promote and support understanding and cooperation among students in Europe and the values of the European unity.


I am standing in front of you today willing to help that change to happen now. Am I the right person to do it is for you to decide. Credentials that I think might help you make that decision are listed in my candidature and I hope you will read them, as I won’t mention any of them here. Instead I will tell you what I plan to do.


1. I want AEGEE to organize a wide scale campaign for young people’s participation at next European Parliament elections with extensive use of online services. It will be a fresh platform aiming to defeat EU democratic deficit by encouraging youngest European democrats to take a stand on issues that concern them the most and bringing their democratic representatives to listen and deliver.


2. I want to promote and support AEGEE true practice of European Citizenship, which is for majority of people still a distant concept rather than set of real policies. Everything that we do to point out the problems and make even smallest contribution for their solutions, from grassroots to European level is important as this is the issue where we can lead the way and advocate for European citizenship to become a political, legal, social and cultural framework for European civil society.


3. I want to support and encourage new and existing AEGEE non-formal learning activities and internal education formats and their constant development to become the brightest examples of educational experience in non-formal settings and our trademark towards both institutions and students, when it comes to generic skills acquirement.


4. I want AEGEE to become a champion caller for recognition of non-formal and informal learning by developing high standards and innovative instruments for quality assessment and quality assurance of all our activities. It is an only way to move things forward to complementary role of formal and non-formal education.


5. I want AEGEE to become vibrant place for exchange of opinions and development of policies. I want to encourage our members to think, discuss and take a stand. I want our working groups to become real and relevant think-tanks on major developments in Europe today.


6. I want AEGEE to influence European policy makers and action takers by delivering results oriented and solutions driven projects and making sure that their outcomes are promoted, understood and recognized.


7. Finally I want our network to regain its thematic focus in whatever we do. In my opinion there are no serious or fun events in AEGEE. Everything that we do is contributing to the big picture. And all our events, especially statutory and summer universities, should have more thematic input.


Dear Agora, I strongly believe that AEGEE is a unique collection of remarkable young people that is doing so much and can do more, just with a little change in practices and attitudes. I hope that we can make this change together. And I hope that we can make it now.


Thank you for this opportunity and your patience.

Cultural exchange and active citizenship

1. Cultural exchange: Dutch-Belgian-Italian cooking

There is one general rule when you live with an Italian: do not attempt to cook Italian food, because you will fail. Luckily our Italian is not that strict, still we generally don't want to take the risk and just stick to other cuisines.

However with Tena scared of the mice and also rather busy last night with filling out dozens of forms, I decided that the courgette risotto should nevertheless be prepared. Pennyless as we are from time to time, I only had money for some simple Belgian sausages to add. Ivonne was appointed as sous-chef, cutting the courgettes and preparing the salad.

Courgette risotto with Belgian sausages

Tomato mozarella salad

And to complete the intercultural experience: ketchup, a raspberry beer, and a lot of salt!

2. Active Citizenship: The PO Box

Where the European Parliament has its time consuming and rather senseless move to Strasbourg every month, AEGEE has its PO Box in Etterbeek. A CD many years ago decided it'd be cool to have a PO Box in the same area as the European Parliament, about 45 minutes to 1 hour traveling by trams and metro away from the Head Office. The poor Secretary General usually wastes half a day to pick up a few letters. Brussels bureaucracy...

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So today it became somehow my turn, and it was a nice and sunny day I thought why not to go by bike. It's a bit risky in Brussels with all the traffic and hills, but what the heck, better than a sweaty full tram. Now that after Percin, also Tena and Ivonne started to get active with their squash, I can of course not stay behind. The joy of peer pressure.

Forty five scary, life risking and exhausting minutes later, I arrive sweaty and tired at the Post Office. And damn it, I realise I forgot the key. Grrrrrrrr. I call Ivonne to complain, she laughs at me, and tells me to come home.

I decide to give it a try, as luckily we are after all in Belgium, and here they do not care that much about rules and procedures. A friendly face, a vague paper having something to do with our statutes, and 2 minutes later I am outside with the mail already. No ID, no key, piece of cake. Phew.

Back to the house, where I crash on our new sofa. Active Citizenship makes you tired.

Brussel's Fairytales

After Thursday's Agora kick-off party in Leiden where Ivonne and I had a jolly-green time, on Friday Tena came back home (home? wow we even call this place home now...) after two weeks of touring the UK (check her adventures here). It was reason enough anyway to postpone bedtime for a few hours and catch up in the warm cozy head office kitchen with a glass of wine left behind by some guests or maybe even Les Anciens.

This weekend furthermore marked itself with social, non-work related and private events. What happens in Brussels, stays in Brussels ;-) 

But to just give you a little bit:

Saturday, Gay Parade! 

Dragan & Ana nearly missed it because they were hunting for good restaurant deals for next week's Sparks of the Future event in Brussels. Ilona, Tena and I however did our best to represent AEGEE in this jolly fest of extravaganza. We were a little bit overwhelmed (Tena and I more than Ilona) but had fun. Politicians of course did not let this opportunity pass by to win over some votes. We should have done a Y Vote street action, it was the perfect ocassion, but we didn't bring any materials. Too bad. 

In the evening the Head Office started preparing for more extravaganza of the Eurovision Song Contest. AEGEE-Europe officially supported Norway and was happy to see this endorsement pay off. With a diverse audience cheering (and boo-ing) loudly for different countries, a wall-wide projection of the show and plenty of Slovenian orange juice, the night was considered a success. 

On Sunday the President left to the UK. I did what any vice-president would do: occupied his bedroom. Big mistake, as the Presidential bedroom (formerly known as Presidential bathroom) is very centrally located and therefore has a strong attraction to passerby'ers that came knocking on the door waking me up with important and less important questions/issues as many as FIVE times. 

Today we tried to start another work day. One or two important servers are not working, meaning most of the important files are inaccessible. So a good reason to have a long CD meeting, with lots of breaks and too much sidetracking. 

Ah well. At least the sun is shining. And I am on Euronews this week (OK, my forehead is). Check that here. Minute 4 more or less. Dragan and the letterbox are easier to catch. 

Almost weekend again

Yesterday was a day of hard work. While Dragan was assembling a guestlist with everybody interesting and important in the field of creativity, innovation, sustainability and youth for Sparks of the Future, I searched for a venue and also finally had the printing house contract signed and finalised. It includes a nice discount and quite some free posters and flyers for this year. 

At the end of the afternoon, Ivonne and I went to Mediamarkt for a new AEGEE Camera, which was closed, so we went shopping for second hand dresses instead. The CD is committed to sustainable consumption, in the framework of our current flagship project Sustaining our Future. 

At night, Dragan, Ivonne and I retreated in the social room for another movie session. 

Nice movie, but a bit depressing.

So Ivonne put on movie number 2:



Dragan wasn't fascinated and went to bed.

Today again a lot of work. Had a CD meeting as quite some decisions were to be taken. Tonight AEGEE-Brussels + event guests, AEGEE-Leuven and AEGEE-Maastricht coming, so high time to start cleaning.

Tomorrow: AEGEE Y Vote stand at the European Parliament during the 9th of May Open Days!

Mexican times

Yesterday I was quite convinced to be the first case in Belgium with the Swine Flu (aka H1N1). With all other CD members out on meetings or traveling, Ivonne and I took a recovery day which consisted basically of shopping for fruits etc. She did some gardening, I sent out the website poll. Dragan came back from Paris and tried to relax and watch some TV, until I came to bother him about a workshop to be given at the EU Russia conference. Bedtime: 1.00 am. 

Today we were supposed to have CD meeting at 10.00 am, but somehow most of the CD was now infected with Swine Flu and in coma. Percin was up on time and went to the conference to help them out. Dragan and I also joined for a few hours to give a workshop on advocacy methods for youth. Me mostly as background decoration, but OK. 

Coming back to the house, I cooked dinner, something Mexican, to celebrate the fact that I probably don't have Swine Flu but a normal one, and am feeling much better now. 

Ivonne said several times that she particularly liked the tortilla chips, which I didn't make, but came straight out of a bag. She still has something to learn about appreciation. 

Now it's almost 10 pm. Everybody is still in the office. CD-elect Denis came by to say hi and deal with some visa issues. We are listening to eurovision songs. Norway is particularly popular, though Percin keeps cheering for the Turkish entry which is in fact a Belgian girl. 

One more calm day tomorrow (though with a LOT of work, uffff) and then again a crazy weekend with way too many visitors.

The way forward?

Three members of the External Relations Department took a field trip to a chique conference of BusinessEurope, the umbrella for Chambers' of Commerce all over Europe. Despite the presence of some fancy speakers (amongst which 3 European Commissioners), a nice new report, their 50th anniversary and it being a sunny autumn day; the mood was somewhat depressed amongst these business men. The financial crisis seemed to dampen the networking mood as the businness leaders gathered in small groups of friends, all speaking in their native languages. Outside the Commission, scared consumer protectors and other political activists demonstrated against this business meeting and the free trade policies of the EU, asking for more protectionsim in troubled times. The businesses and European Commissioners present were not feeling too intimidated. A fitting cartoon in the European Voice explains the issue quite well.


But at least we got to admire the force with which Vice President of the European Commission says 'NO!', met a friendly AIESEC'er with excellent PR skills (yes we're envious), got some more inspiration for companies to stalk and had the general impression to be part of something important.

+ a very extensive lunch buffet
- waking up at 7.30

House of hell, where did the shower cabin go?

Day 1:

Thijs Huijbers arrives.
Last time to shower.
Last and only one to shower: Robin
Shower cabin removed.
End of day: 1 o'clock.

Day 2:

Removing floor and shower cabin.
Sanding starts.
Cleaning shower cabin on the balcony.
Ivonne goes to French class, dusty because of the sanding.
Dragan, Evren and Tena leave us to go to places where there are such things as showers.
End of day: 2 o'clock.

Day 3:

Still no shower.
Sanding the walls.
Started painting.
Wrong paint used.
The people in the house are almost not able to stand each others smell.
Percin leaves the house to help Ana moving. Leaving Robin to paint alone after giving the people in the house uncooked pizza. Bastard!
Ivonne is sick, sanding, taking minutes at the CD meeting, painting and working on the travel overview.
Anita is sanding, painting and working on final report of SUPS Beograd. All night long.
End of day: 3 o'clock (except for Anita).

Day 4:

Still no shower.
Anita missed her French class and is high on cafeïne, not able to sleep.
Ivonne is still sick and working on travel overview.
The people in the house are disliking Thijs more and more. When is this hell going to be over?
Robin went to pick up publications and was stared at in the tram with white paint in her hair.
Cry for help!
External associations offered their showers, but the CD members already have a far developed case of agoraphobia (fear of open space) and are unable to leave the house.
End of day: still ongoing.

It's all about networking!

In the eve of the new term we welcomed European boards of our fellow international student associations based in Brussels - ESN, BEST, ELSA, JADE, IAAS and EPSA. Just as in our case all of them have fresh, newly elected teams ready for new partnerships and joint successes. We will keep you posted about further cooperation - both the parties and the serious work :-)

Our Great European Bodies in Brussels

Strategic Planning Meeting - the final stage in 5 months long consultations for the drafting of the Strategic Plan 2009 - 2011 - brought together members of the old and new CD, and representatives of the Academy, IPWG, HRWG, PRWG, Netcom, SUCT, EnWG, LO, LA, SuFu... 22 in total! During three long days (August 15 - 17) they discussed the history and organization of AEGEE, current developments in the world, revised vision, mission and values statements for organization's identity and started defining new focus areas for next three years. The nights were as much exiting with floral carpet exhibition at Grand Place (showcased only once every 2 years) and Miljan's and Tena's marvelous guitar concerts ;-) Big thanks to everybody!