I Don’t Like Bye Byes! But Good Bye Bananas!

14.11.2010

Maastricht

Hello everybody!

At first I want to wish you all the BEST for 2011! A lot of success, health, fun and many wonderful experiences! I hope ,you will enjoy reading! Feel free and write comments.  Meanwhile, please listen this song while you are reading my post . I put this song here to remind our memories. Just take a breath and continue to read my post. It will be amazing for you :P

Actually, I want to clarify that my dear organizer Agnija pushed me to write this blog post even I am so sick. I was about to die but she doesn't care me, I am confessing.  So I am writing my blog post on my bed. If I died because of this blog post, you should know this fact. Anyway, I am just kidding :P

To be serious, I am assigned to write last day of whole CST but I want to express my ideas about whole event with your permission. At first, I was in Köln at 3 am in front of the hostel and ringed the bell exactly 30 times but nobody  did not hear me so I was getting colder like this innocent cat.

Fortunately, God sent me someone who is working in that building to open the door and I was saved. Otherwise, I couldn’t be among of you so I can say that I am so lucky!

Anyway, at first impression after joining the group,  I have been to so many events but I did not ever met with such a people who is  rapper, banker, engineer, student, designer, basketball player , civil engineer junkie :P

I thought that it is incredible opportunity to observe people and learn new things about them.

Mohammad’s superior sense of humor, the broccoli soup that I have paid 15 Euros in Brussels, snoring parties in my room, Efe’s laughing…  Lastly, I ate some cookies that is already separated as a gift for someone since then  my dear Lenny got angry with me . Afterward, she made up with me. We together even went to party: P

When it comes to content of event, in my side, everyone has tried to do their level best as much as they can.  As in every event, there had some tiny problems but we overcame I guess. To be honest, we couldn’t!  Moreover, we had to sign some contract not to behave improperly.  As far as I remembered,

It was including these matters:

·         Don’t laugh!

·         Don’t sleep! (especially for me)

·         Don’t leave out during workshop you are in.

·         Don’t be yourself just act like you are so serious and willing to learn something here.

·         Play well in banana dancing..

I think that it was so helpful to know each other’s challenges, traditions, behaviors etc. While we were getting colder at train station,  my dear Arabic friends was singing a song and playing. Actually, it showed us that Arabic people are so lovely and cheerful. They knew how to become cheerful even if  weather  was freaking cold. 

Acting: like in subway: Please change song to continue..Because other song’s time finished.

As one of the Turkish participant, I observed some interesting things while I was conducting a survey in streets.  Because most of Europeans like Turkish people in contrast to my prejudices, of course, nobody was  perfect but I was also thinking that nobody likes us here.  I have ever met people who said that “I don’t like any Turkish people, I hate them”. Their approach to this issue was so positive. On the contrary, they have said that I like Turkish people, I started to like you now, are you single, I am just kidding.  When I met with these kinds of people, I got rid of my some prejudices about people who are living in Europe.

Anyway, while trying to tell what I have observed, we finished CST Euro Arab.  Last day, some of my friends with Egyptian guys went to their country so we were alone. After a couple of hours, we went off from hostel to go to Aachen. After crying so much (this is big lie! Nobody was upset) Just look at this picture then understand me! This was last day: P that’s the proof…

 I just want to sum up whole event but it is to hard to say “bye bye”.  It was full of action and fun except of first day of me in Köln. ALL in ALL a really great time!  A great event with a lot of fun in Europe…

See the video!

Unfortunately, we have nothing to do instead of wishing to come together in somewhere in world.                                                                                             

See you all soon somewhere in world!

So leave me alone on my bed, I just want to sleep hehe

See you in Palestine

14.11.2010
Maastricht

Some of the participants have left already, and we said goodbye to our dear Egyptian participants at 1:00 am, we were awake to see them for the last time, hopefully we’ll see them in the next CST. In the morning we said goodbye to the rest of the participants, for we were the ones to leave now. We had a lot of mixed feelings, it’s not a good thing to know many people and start to love them and then you have to leave everything. 

Christian, Andre, and Lenny got us to Aachen, it was a very cold day, and because I loved Maastricht I was looking at it carefully to keep the last picture in my mind. Luckily, we had Nazif with us, and Anan was really getting crazy that Nazif couldn’t sleep in the train, lol.. Bushra was afraid all the time to get lost, but with Lenny, Christian and Andre’s guidelines we finally reached the airport. I want to thank the three of them for coming with us and taking care of all of us. We had fun during our trip to Palestine, especially when we were in the plane from Istanbul to Jordan, because at 00:00 it was Aman’s birthday, and we sang for her, and people were singing with us. It doesn’t happen every day to have your birthday in the sky between clouds!

It was a special day because I recognized that I was in love with all of the participants, I remember now an Arabic song that says “love doesn’t know its depth till the moment of separation”.

Finally, I hope that the period that we spent with each other was longer, and I highly believe that this project should proceed in Palestine, Egypt, and Turkey. I can say thanks to facebook which keeps us connected.

Beyond the CST

13.11.2010
Maastricht

Saturday, 13 November. The last day of the programme of this study trip. One of the participants said: “I thought it will be hard to remember everybody's name, now I am finding it even harder to forget any of you.” And yet, today we have to say goodbye for the first time, as some of our friends are already leaving in the morning. We all know what this means: tears, hugs, goodbye notes and promises to stay in touch and visit each other across Europe and beyond...

In the rain we set off to the location for our last workshop, the creation and discussion of follow-up projects and activities. In the rain we waited for the man with the keys. In the rain we went to the AEGEE office instead, since he didn’t show up. Yes, it rains a lot in Maastricht, hadn’t you heard?

Damp coats draped on chairs and wet umbrellas spread on the floor of the small attic where we huddled together for a presentation of the Youth In Action programme and an overview of the EuroArab-projects still in the pipeline. After a short brainstorming session we split into groups, based on our interests.

The first group brainstormed on a PR-strategy for the EuroArab-project as a whole, with the aim of creating a EuroArab brand which can be used by future projects such as the CSTs to Palestine and Egypt, or the final conference in Ankara. A second group discussed the study trip to Egypt and a third group looked at the trip to Palestine. The programme for this last project is currently up for funding approval and therefore we focused on a number of ways to optimise the value of the study trip for both organisers and participants. We talked about how to incorporate the Israeli occupation of Palestine in the programme and agreed on the principle of the glass of water covered with a layer of oil. While we can choose to only look at the oil and therefore turn away from the glass, we can also choose to look through the oil, which is after all only a layer underneath which the pureness of the water can still be found. This metaphor also helped to solve the argument whether to organise a study trip on global challenges to Palestine at all―as it was argued that the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories would be too peculiar to be of any relevance to the discussion on a global or even regional level. Turning away from the oil-covered water, however, would exactly play in the hands of the occupying aggressor. Therefore, it was settled to focus on the Palestinian challenges regarding Education, Water and Gender Equality―as caused or aggravated by the Israeli occupation―but to extend the scope of the discussion to the regional and global levels as well. Also the profile of the trainers and moderators was discussed, as their knowledge and experience would be of paramount importance to the success of the workshops and discussions in the volatile and passion-inspiring situation that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Once all groups had presented the results of their discussions, we returned to the hostel to prepare for the final evening, the moment we had all been awaiting for so long: Arabian Night. During dinner on the second day in Maastricht, the Arab participants had discussed the organisation of this evening of food, music and dance, in which we divided the tasks, appointed responsible for the different aspects of the programme and drafted grocery lists for the organisers. The aim of this elaborate meeting was to assure a perfect evening and though we started off with some hiccups―such as the loss of one of the Egyptian food bags―we can state that the evening was a full success! Sheltered from the heavy rain in the kitchen of a cosy students building, the Arab cooking team produced dish upon dish of delicious Egyptian and Palestinian specialties, such as kushary and makluba. On the beats of traditional Levantine music the Palestinian participants taught the rest of the group some dabkha moves and when delegations from AEGEE Maastricht and Aachen―including the AEGEE Aachen Bear―joined us, the party was complete...

Delicious Arab Food

13.11.2010
Maastricht

Leaving behind that today is our farewell day, I must say that it has been a good day. We have been in Maastricht University and we have been working in groups according to our interests. It's true that more than one of us would like to take part in more than one project, but anyway...

There have been a group for the CST in Palestine, another for the CST in Egypt and another called 2 young 2 give up and mine. They have presented their ideas according to some guidelines provided by the trainers: 5W+1H (Who, What, Why, Where, When and How), SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time bordered). My group has been the EuroArab Public Relations Working Group. We have been thinking about how to promote EuroArab and we are working on it! You  will see...

After that, we are free! The project has been finished, and we have had the Egyptian & Palestinian night with costumes, Arab music and, of course, delicious food! What else can we ask for? It has been great!

Hello green rainy Maastricht!

12.11.2010
Maastricht

Maastricht part was the best for me!
Waking up on such a view and spending two days in that great hostel “StayOk” I can say that I was more than “OK” and ready to be involved in any activity. The special day started in doing the surveys, I took the chance, along with my partner Aron, to explore the city. In fact, observing people’s nature and the way of life was more interesting to me than doing the surveys. However, talking with people and asking them to fill up the surveys gave me some hints about their behaviors and way of thinking. I should say, actually, that the mall wasn’t a very good place to talk to people about global challenges, especially after we were kicked out from the place! Then, we had the idea to stop people and ask them in the streets, but it wasn’t really practical to do so, people in Europe are very busy and always on a hurry! 

The lecture we had on poverty and social exclusion afterwards by an expert professor was quiet informative. I was really shocked of some facts about Netherlands, especially when I knew that the Dutch family who doesn’t have a laptop is considered to be poor. We were able to compare at some points between our economical situation as Palestinians and European economy in general, what a comparison!
Later on, after getting wet because of the rainy weather we went to a small restaurant to meet some people from Maastricht and had a delicious hot chocolate.
The day finished with a very good chicken sandwich and Dutch fries which I love.    

Chocolate with Spirit

10.11.2010
Brussels – Maastricht

On the last day of Brussels we were getting ready to leave from Brussels to Maastricht to spend the last 4 days of our trip, so we had the chance to go around the city to discover its amazing art and architecture as well as some of its history. For me one of the best things about Belgium was its chocolate that had a taste filled with spirit. I was also amazed with its beautiful streets and buildings to the extent that on every corner or every street we go, I see something different and more beautiful than the one before. Other things as well that I loved about Brussels were, first the waffles, which were simply perfect and second was the bar that had more than 2000 beer brands from around the world. For me I tried some of the best beers I have never tasted in my life, specially the fruity flavored beer (Wish we had that in Egypt). It was very different for me to be in a country like Belgium. We also enjoyed taking pictures everywhere, and enjoyed the beautiful sight seeing around the city. Being able to speak their native language, which is French, was great for me as I was able to practice one of my language that I hardly practice in my country. It was simply one of the best days of the trip.

Generally speaking, I have spent some of the best days of my life in this trip. Its timing was perfect for me on the personal level. The sad part was meeting the right people, but in the wrong place or time as it would have been very different for all of us if we lived in the same country. I guess that we would have stayed as united as we were in this amazing trip. Our group was one of the best things in the trip. For me, I find that the trip was very successful as we had a strong integration between different cultures. I was very happy to meet such great people as each one was unique in his own way. Finally, I really wish that all of us would be able to meet up again, which might be possible in the near future, hoping that CST-Egypt and CST-Palestine would come to light.

Changing of your world in an hour

10.11.2010
Brussels-Maastricht
 
Welcome to 10th of November

Imagine that your train has delayed and it had to stop somewhere in the middle of the way! Let's say that the outside is freezing and you have no idea where you are. When you look around in the darkness, you see the group of young people who have all different faces- lookings and are singing a song where none of the words are similar to European languages. Which questions may come to your mind? Let's get closer to those people...

"We were in our 10th day during trip so we have spent all the time together for 10 days with sharing our past experiences, discussing about global challenges, trying to understand each other. I know the sound is nice even it may have many difficulties in it. Until this day we all stayed together with the whole group in Cologne and Aachen. But at this moment we were in Brussels which referred as capital city of European Union. It's such a busy city, is not it? That was the reason why we were in Brussels... To understand how European Union works, to feel a bit closer to working life style of the Europe, to meet people who are actively involved in this life. We were so excited to learn a lot as usual, to ask questions and to tell the different stories from other (our) countries...

We started the morning meeting with half of the group, the other half stayed in a different place since groups were divided into two.
Honestly, it was the longest time when some of the people could not see each other...Therefore we had a happy and smiley morning even if we felt so tired. Then, our first visit was to the European Youth Forum which aims at increasing the participation of young people and youth organisations in society, as well as is involved in decision-making processes and work actively as a youth organization.

After presentation we had a discussion which mainly focused on how to build sustainable youth NGOs in all around the world and how to create cooperation between each other. After having so productive talking, our stomachs were ringing the bell "lunch time!”
Let's try French Fries??Let's try waffles?? Let's try special chocolates??Or let us have all of them :) That was our exact lunch!

Afternoon was the time for enjoying Brussels with our lovely tour guide in spite of rainy weather. When you are in Brussels and if somebody asks you “what is that building?” try to give the answer: “wauw, it may be a parliament building” .You may be right 50% since there are many, many parliaments in Brussels!
Time to say goodbye to Brussels…We arrived at the train station almost one hour before the time of departure despite having many people from Mediterranean countries! There was a simple explanation: our organizer was from the Netherlands. After a long waiting which was strange for most of us, we took the train and got ready to change our country.”

Welcome to our beginning point: a train which has delayed…I hope you are now a bit more familiar with us. :)

Time:                             18.00                                   19.00
Country:                         Belgium                               Holland
City:                               Brussels                              Maastricht
Spoken Language:      French-Flemish                  Dutch
People:                         serious/busy/suit/orderly      Relaxed/young/jean/funny faces
Buildings:                      very high                             lower and cultural
Mean amount of a meal:   10€                                 7€

                                                                   
City Facts for Brussels

Not to do;
•    Do not choose a restaurant which is close to the center of big cities!
•    Do not trust the Belgium trains!
•    Do not buy chocolate from the shops ( cheaper in super market)
•    Do not forget to carry all the time your coats and umbrellas for in any case
•    Do not forget to go the pub that has any kind of beer in world( more than 100 kinds)
•    Do not waste money for French Fries ( mothers can make even better)
•    Do not forget to try free chocolates from the any kind of shops ( yes; it’s free to try)

                                                                                                                                                                            If;
•    If you need to make international callings , try small shops which has special phone box ( 30 cent per min. for most of the countries)
•    If you need chocolate immediately, enter special chocolate shop and ask them " can I try your special tastes?"
•    If you need to leave your luggage to somewhere, try the boxes in train station since hotel may not allow you



EU institutions, foreigners and lost in Brussels subway maze

09.11.2010

Brussels

A Geography teacher once asked a student “What would happen if Columbus didn’t discover America?” The student answered “That would have been a relief; we wouldn’t have to study a whole big chapter in Geography!”

That’s exactly how I felt every time there was a presentation to explain to us the dynamics of the European Union. What was for the Europeans (well, not everyone but most of them) common sense about the history of the EU was to me absolute fiction.

Very hard to grasp all these treaties on the foundation of the Union, the different entities and their development as well as the differences between existing institutions like the European Commission and the European Council.

Yet it remained very hard for me to tell the difference until the day we visited the Council in Brussels. Then I finally knew it! the European Commission is the more fancy building across the street from the Metro station while the Council is on the same side!

The visit to the council went quiet well; although it was the 3rd attempt for a presenter to make us understand any other difference, other than that one mentioned above, between the council and the commission. But egoistically speaking, I was happy being in the European Council wearing a full suit and listening to a presentation and using the cool microphones they’ve got there to talk and answer questions.

Moving from Aachen to Brussels in a train that took around an hour, from one country to another, from German speaking Aachen to French speaking Brussels; We didn’t have to show any passports, and even when I asked my friend Mathieu, the Belgian, if we are already in Belgium he was unable to answer me for sure!

It was pretty interesting and to me I was wondering then why can’t each and every European speak at least 4 European languages if it’s only a matter of an hour by train to be among a very different culture and language!

What was very shocking to me is the large number of Arabs present in Brussels and the foreigners in general that at one point in the metro station everyone who was walking, buying AND selling were merely Arabs (I surely was very interested in knowing the reasons but unfortunately we had to leave the city on the following day)

All in all, the 1st day at Brussels was extremely amusing. None of those who stayed at the hostel (aka. Hostel people) can never forget our adventure to go back to the hostel on our own after having dinner at the AEGEE house.. They were 2 and half hours of pure fun to have around 13 people from different countries and cultures lost in the Brussels subway MAZE.

The hustle and bustle of Brussels

09.11.2010
Köln - Brussels

We have reached the middle of our educational trip. Regarding the 9th day of the EuroArab case study trip, there were so many things that did not go according to the schedule. In fact, besides the waking up process and the departure on time, in order to arrive in Brussels, the rest of the day was full of transfers from one place to another, while it was raining, and some unavoidable delays, because Brussels is a big city and the weather was awful. The bad weather conditions did not help us conducting  our surveys, either. So, by the end of the day we were completely exhausted. All in all, there was a lot of tension and confusion during that day, because of a lot of misunderstandings caused mainly by the fact that we did not know where and when to go next. I guess that after more than one week of intensive workshops and activities we tend to  exaggerate in our reactions. Perhaps, if there was a local organizer from Brussels we could rely on, like in  Cologne and Aachen the situation would have been better. I think that spending only two days in Brussels were not enough. However, visiting Brussels and the European Commission was definitely an interesting and worthwhile experience. I am sure that for the Egyptian and the Palestinian participants in particular, it must have been a good introduction to the European policies and institutions.

Standing in Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands at the same time

08.11.2010
Aachen

Okey!!! Where should I start? The days are going so fast. Today like the other days. We had many events and activities. We walked a lot. We talked a lot. We discussed a lot. Many „lot” things. But anyway it was fun.

So if I should start from the beginning. After breakfast we went to a conference which was about gender equality. The presenter gave some informations especially the examples from Germany. I think, I learnt some important examples from Germany. It was quite good session.

After the session, we had lunch in University mensa. It was good to be there in lunch because it was easy to pass another event which is city surveys. By the way, I can say the city survey activity was not good for me generally. Why? Because it was hard to communicate with the people and not because of language but especially because of most of the people were not interested. Anyway because we were in University, that city surveys was quite easy.

The most interesting part of the day was our excursion trip to „Dreilander” which was quite funny trip. The place where we went was interesting and special to have three countries border. To reach there for us was not easy but it was funny. We walked a lot and also we missed to short cut. So it was funny that the people who were coming before us, they reached the point before we reached it. When I reached to place, I was quite disappointed because the maze was closed. But anyway it was good to be there with other participants. When we decided to go back it was already night. And it dark and the weather was so cold. And we were alone at top of the hill. It was quite scary at the first sight but again it was funny and exciting.

So as a conclusion, again we talked a lot, we discussed a lot, we walked a lot. But as a matter of fact it was a good day.

The last Day in Aachen

08.11.2010
Aachen

Finally, on a our last day in Aachen a ray of sun broke through the heavy clouds...well..literally and metaphorically!!

Today the atmosphere seemed much less tense and we could cooperate well and forget all the small misunderstandings we experienced during the first days. To some extent, from what I learned so far ´understanding each other´s challenges can be a challenge itself!! And this is not just a sort of stereotype or a common standpoint, it is a matter of fact. Obviously I am not talking about getting on well with people with different backgrounds, having fun together or start new friendships, what I am referring to is something more, how to say, ´personal´. In other words when delicate issues come up, a discussion it is never easy to moderate. What I noticed until now is that approaching politically/socially sensitive issues, can lead to serious discussions if we are not taking into consideration all the different participants´ points of view. Personally, I see this event as a ´building-up process´ where pre-concepts can easily be broken simply by discussing with someone who do not exactly live in the same context you usually live. This  is the best way to clarify  things which sometimes appear a bit confusing if not experts. From this point of view, EuroArab can be considered a successful case-study so far.

This morning, after a brief introduction/quiz about European Union institutions and their functions, we luckily had the chances to get to know more about the ´Students' Forum Institute´ in Palestine, and ´ Better World´ an NGO organization based in Egypt.

They are both non-profit organizations, which deal with youth education and develop projects to improve literacy and occupation possibilities. The two presentations were very various, but both extremely interesting.

While the Palestian´s presentation focused more on the projects linked to education in order to enhance their awareness and understanding of sound governance and democracy, with the aim of increasing political and social involvement among the Palestinian youths, the Egyptian´s presentation was very professional and it covered a lot of the projects they are recently running.

It was very motivating to hear about these two 'extra-European' associations, about their structures, goals, programmes. I hope these presentations will inspire new 'adventures' and new valuable connections:)

They are both willing to share their experiences and opinions, so feel free to ask for the material!!!

After lunch we had the second session of the surveys. They were mainly done in the university surroundings. Although the range of people interviewed was not that various, me and my partner Ruba had ten 'pretty' different results.The afternoon continued with an excursion to the place where 'Belgium, Germany and Netherlands meet. I didn't participate in the trip, so I hope that the other (Arab, European, well Turkish) participant went and can explain it in his blog :p

Apologies for the delay in writing this 'travelogue', but I hope you will enjoy it. Comments and suggestions are warmly welcome!:)

p.s. Well, after only day left before the end of this event, I want to thank you all for had shared moments, words, smiles and hugs with me!!

The 3 countries borderline and lots of German CHEESE

08.11.2010
Aachen

Heading to a point at the German borders you can actually be present in 3 countries in the same time! Only makes you realize how symbolic borders are.. Unless we could see the flags of the 3 countries  (Belgium, Germany and Holland) and the thin painted lines on the ground, we wouldn’t even realize that we just traveled from one country to another!

We were 3 walking through a German forest, carpets of autumn tree leaves varying in colors from greenish yellow to orange in a forest of endless tall trees; a picture I used to see in my German language high school book when it was describing the different seasons in the Deutschland. Air is too cold for my Southern nature (yes, in Europe you learn that Mediterranean is South, South of Italy is Deep South, and Egypt is Africa..!)

It was a very interesting and inspiring visit. The unsuccessful attempts to Hitchhike on the way up. The conversations we had in the 3 country-ial cafe and the idea of having a sip from your hot chocolate at one country, using the toilet in another and paying the cheque on a third were extremely amusing!

On the earlier half of that day, it was a pretty interesting in terms of understanding gender equality/inequality in Germany knowing that Aachen as a center for engineering studies, 70% of the students belong to the male gender; only makes you realize that something is not really balanced and that there must be reasons why not as many females are taking the same approach.

Carrying out the street surveys and knowing the professional obstacles females usually face if they want to proceed their careers as university professors or some certain other professions was pretty interesting to discuss with students at the university mensa(Cafeteria).

All in all, it was pretty enjoyable day, the only sad thing about it though was that after all the running, walking, talking and cold weather, when we came back to the hostel there was awaiting for us tons and tons of bloody German… CHEESE!

Started in a church ending in a bar ;)

07.11.2010
Aachen

I like Aachen except the weather; it has been raining the last few days not giving us a lot of time to just enjoy the beauty of the city. The last few days in Aachen were somehow relaxed than the ones in Koln and the schedule was a little flexible than before.

Day started later than planned :)  in a beautiful church called the Dome of Aachen, it was an optional visit to the church and attending the mass. Many people joined though with a good mixture of Europeans, Turkish, Palestinians, and Egyptians. A mass was running for around 2 hours with several hymns and choirs in a very organized way. Even though, I am Christian Orthodox, I can still relate several movements and songs to the mass back home. This means that if it not because of the language barrier, I could have joined them in some parts. Some people took communion and my question after this to the organizers: Does this church believe that the bread and wine changes to the blood and body of Jesus (which is a strong believe in the Coptic orthodox church) and he said it does have the same believe (which shows that even they are from different culture, some churches still have the same believes…

From Gender Equality to Misunderstanding and Respect: this was my title for the morning session. Our focus in this was not anymore the gender issues but rather the internal way of communication of the whole CST teams. Relating this back to management and organizational evaluation technique, this was a good approach to refresh the main values in this conference; which are intercultural understandings and ways of communication.

Aachen team did a great job, trying to make sure that they do the right things and at the same time tried to make sure that the CST participants are happy. The city tour was great-Thank you Andre. You can be a tour guide as a side job ;)

Later in the day after having lunch that was prepared by Aachen organizers, we went to a Mosque and we had a good but long chat with an immigrant family over there. Several interesting topics were brought to the ground however; we did not go in depth in most of them. Later in the evening, we went for a drink to celebrate the last day in Aachen.

We never stop learning

07.11.2010
Aachen

9. 00 AM : Check who wants to go to the church? We have to leave at 9.30 AM.
9. 10 AM : better checking again…
9. 15 AM : Maybe tell them to hurry up.
9. 20 AM : They said they’ll need 5 more minutes, fine.
9. 28 AM : Where are the people?
9. 30 AM : We have to leave now.
9. 35 AM : Guys, we really have to leave now!
9. 40 AM : Let’s go… all who are here.
9. 45 AM : Come on, you’re the last ones, RUN!!
9. 50 AM : *breathing heavily*
9. 55 AM : There we are… finally 
9. 59 AM : Mass starts. Germans… 1 minute earlier..

For many people it’s a weekly spiritual and religious event but for most of us it was the first time to attend a Sunday mass in church. Those of our group who were willing to get up before 10 AM went to the beautiful dome of Aachen this morning and listened to the words and choir. Although it was held in German and therefore not understandable for everyone it was still an impressing and interesting experience for both our Christian and Muslim members because we could see both differences and similarities between Coptic masses, prayers in a mosque and a so to say German mass.

What a nice warm up for the day.

Our morning program got a little bit changed and so not gender equality but another challenge became our topic: how to get along with cultural differences and misunderstandings within a group of people who all want to share their ideas and are following different aims?

Respect, that’s what all of us see as the most important base for a good working group.

But we found out that there is not a lack of respect in our group but because of our backgrounds and cultures we sometimes see behavior in another way. For one person it might be the most normal thing on earth for another one it’s disrespectful.

During the last days the groups got to know each other and had a lot of fun. You can say it’s a team. But of course sometimes there are different points of view. We just have to respect all of them. As we said on the first day, we have a lot of things in common that connect us with each other, such as same aims, fears, and expectations. On the other hand we’re still all different which makes everybody special and interesting. As long as we keep on being tolerant and open minded we will for sure spend one more great week together!

For not letting us starve our great Aachen people prepared a nice lunch for us: homemade lentil soup. Thanks by the way to these organizers who really do a lot of effort to make us feel comfortable and welcome here!!

30 happy tummies later we went to visit the second oldest Mosque in Germany and met its representative and his family who were so kind to answer all the questions people had regarding the Islam and told us about the mosque and their life.

Also this family reminded us of our first topic, migration and integration. A perfect integrated family with migration background in Germany!

This visit was another chance to compare how Muslims in the Arabic world and in Europe live and follow practice their religion.

Bilal mosque 2
Bilal mosque 3
Bilal mosque 4
Bilal mosque 5

In order not to ignore our current topic, gender equality, we used our free time we had afterwards to talk about that… e.g. the question if women can walk as fast as men, who can carry heavier bags or is there the same amount of meat in kebabs for men and women?

Again our German organizers prepared food for us and after dinner and the reflection/ complain/ discuss/ find solutions groups the highlight of the day waited for us.

Andre  from the AEGEE Aachen Team took us on a city tour which was really interesting and funny thanks to the stories and legends we were told in a very nice way!

We were shown the beauty of this city and also learned about its history. At night Aachen's sights such as e.g. the Elisenbrunnen, “the needle people statue”, different fountains, the market square with its town hall and of course the dome looked even more beautiful and impressing at night. We can say that Aachen is a wonderful charming city which is totally worth to visit it and a great place for our CST.

Let’s enjoy our last day here, keep in mind what we are talking about regarding the respect and look forward to all the other activities we are going to do in this week!

The European Night

06.11.2010
Aachen

A new topic was tackled today. Participants were oriented with the terminology of Gender equality. Though some of us might already have the knowledge needed for discussing such a topic, still sharing everyone's experience with others cannot be more interesting and beneficial.

Excited, is not the right word to describe our status, when we were informed that it was going to be the European cultural night...Nine European countries played their music, cooked traditional meals and transformed a simple room into a dance floor!

  

As it has been noticed that people may steam out their frustration during the reflection groups, it all fade away once socializing happen to be. Since the backgrounds and cultures are such sensitive issues, we have been trying so hard to cope up with the huge diversity in the EuroArab program. Some might and might not be that flexible in handling misunderstandings and cultural shocks...=)

European night with unexpected incident

06.11.2010
Aachen

Having been introduced to the City of Aachen yesterday, we began our day with an introductory workshop on gender equality where our facilitator Ramon attempted to clarify certain points to consider when discussing  gender equality. The facilitator used interactive ways to familiarize the participants with concepts of sex, gender, gender differentiations, gender-based violence. The European and Arabic participants were then asked to divide into groups based on the regions/countries they present in order to help enhance our multi-cultural understanding of these concepts by presenting gender equality and human rights situation in the regions/countries they represent. The follow-up of this workshop took place in the afternoon session after a tasty lunch at a Turkish kebab restaurant. During the afternoon session, the European and Arab participants continued to deliver the presentations and to discuss differences.

I believe that it was a productive way of discussing gender equality (or the lack thereof) with special  tribute to cultural differences, education, employment, and political representation through these presentations. For instance, for me it was interesting to learn from the Palestinian presentation that 70% of the Palestinian students studying in Palestinian universities are women. Furthermore, it was also interesting to see how 'roles' appointed to men and women by societies differ dramatically in European and Arabic countries. Overall, I am able to say the famous phrase from South Park “I've learned something today!”

Following the workshop, reflection groups gathered to review the day and address challenges that were noticed during today's workshop in order to pave the way for more fruitful sessions of multicultural dialogue and useful outputs for our project.

Saturday night was special because it was one of the cultural events, the European Night of the project in which participants from European countries, namely, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey were gathered to prepare and present their oriental foods, beverages and deserts for other participants to discover as they had a chance to dance and socialize with the rest of the people attending the event.

Unfortunately, there was a small incident that occurred towards the end of this great night. Someone who attended the event decided to have a bubble party (!) with the fire extinguisher in the building in which the event took place, thereby making a mess and leaving many of the organizers sleep deprived as they tried to clean it up. This issue is to be further inspected by the organization team in the next days.

Aachen: halfway of a journey through different worlds

05.11.2010
Aachen

After four unforgettable days in Cologne - the land where religions live peacefully together  - it is now time to move to the second part of the Case Study Trip, in the medieval German city of Aachen, where Charles Magne (one of the first men to unify Europe) was crowned.

During the past days it was time for first impressions, getting to know the participants and trainers and understanding the flow of the programme. Now, we got to the second stage, we changed the topic of discussion so deeper thoughts, a committed and open-minded attitude are required. The intensity of the trip leads everyone to exhaustion, but we all know we are here with a purpose and no one misses one single second of this experience which is truly once-in-a-life-time type.

After a warm reception at the Town Hall, we all felt welcomed in this historical city. The topic is now "Gender Inequality", to which we have been introduced when we got to Aachen after a 50-minute train connection from Cologne. A simple workshop at the end of the day was enough to prove that despite the cold in this city the discussions are going to be hot and everyone will have the chance to share their opinion. Differences are obvious but that is what makes this event unique: despite various points of view we are all working together to understand each others mindsets, aknowledging different cultures and interacting to accomplish the goal of learning about global challenges.  Furthermore, we are dealing with totally different worlds: the Arab and the European. Gender Inequality is certainly an appropriate issue to be discussed among young people from both sides who care about the diversity of our world. I am sure that in the next days we are all facing high-quality workshops and discussions about the topic and we can all expect excellent results from all our work.

The Case Study Trip has been such an experience: not only are we able to learn in a quite international atmosphere - which has worked extremely well, I must say -, but also the fact that we can merge all differences into one group of young people, friends, workshop partners, enthusiastic speakers who are willing to exchange ideas is just amazing and enriches all of us not only professionally but also socially. This is definitively a starting point for an inter-cultural project that will mark us all forever and expand our perspective of the world as a whole.

From Cologne to Aachen

05.11.2010
Aachen

As every day in this project we started our day by waking up all the participants, because today we have to transfer from  Cologne  to Aachen, so we ate our breakfast and then started to leave.

We left the hostel to catch the train, and then we took another train to Aachen and it took more than 1 hour to get there,  at 11:00 we arrived at Aachen hostel, we had a little rest, a free time and then we got out to have a city tour. After that we had lunch at 1:15 and it was good :)

After the lunch we went to a historical place in Aachen to have some information about the historical background of European identity and we had a reception by the mayor  of Aachen and we met  a woman who told us the story of the historical building and shared some information about the photos and the pictures which were in the walls of the building. After that we had our free time which we spent in a small coffee shop  and also went shopping.

Then we went to the workshop building and we had a workshop about the stereotypes we had about others especially the gender stereotypes. The workshop seemed longer than we needed to the topic, but it was okey.

We went to the hostel after that and everyone chose his room and bed and there was a small issue about the shower and the bathrooms  because of the Arabian girls but the issue solved by the organisers  hopefully

every body took a rest while they were waiting for the dinner, and then we had a nice dinner in the hostel. It was a nice day, after that some people went to have a party night.

Yet another day in the EuroArab project

04.11.2010

Köln

The day started with a round of evolutionary rock-paper-scissors. Afterward we started our first workshop this day - a series of short role plays, which were supposed to show different difficulties the immigrants might come across: the language barrier, discrimination because of the skin color, characteristic clothing and religion and customs connected with it.

The following point of our program was a visit to the NGO dealing with the problems connected to immigration and integration in Germany. Allerweltshaus is a cultural center, which hosts such organizations as Ethiopian Democrats, Eritrean Democrats, Nigerian Association and houses a library. Among many other projects, the Allerweltshaus organized a street theatre project in Palestine with the students of the Bethlehem University. In general the organization puts great weight on street theatre, which we experienced ourselves – we took part in a series of theatrical exercises including: running in circles, rapid stops and human-paintings.

We were divided into 3 groups, which went to Neumarkt, Domplatz and Hauptbahnhof. Our goal: 10 interviews per pair. I was paired with Fatma and together we tried to interview people at the bus stop in Neumarkt. We managed to gather 6 interviews before we run out of time and went back to out workshop headquarters.

There we continued with the presentation of our short plays. This time the topics were language as a barrier in education, mispronunciation and low language knowledge as a reason for discrimination and misperception of ones intelligence and qualifications and last but not least: intercultural / interreligious romantic relationships and the problems which might arise due to a marriage of people with different cultural backgrounds. After my quasi-wedding we ended the official part of the day with the sessions of reflection groups.

Then came a dinner in an Italian restaurant. Then we went our separate ways: some decided to actually get a good night sleep, others went for karaoke and a bunch of us decided to stay up for no particular reason. I myself welcomed the next day in the kitchen writing this blog.

From theater to Italian dinner

04.11.2010
Köln

In the beginning of the day all of the group woke up, had their breakfast and then went out to start their activities as used to.

After we all had gathered in the training place and started our awakeninig games, we began our workshop about integration. The group was divided into 6 groups in order to work with each other in creating a theatre that talks about immgration cases.

Every group had its case and we had to put ideas together to be acted by the group members.

Then we all had discussion to interpret the solutions. Then we left for an NGO organization of migrants in Germany.

The people there told us about the organization mission and its activities, we have played many entertaining games, and also they showed us a small show which they had filmed when they were in Palestine, we as Palestinian participarts were very happy to see the talking about our country as they understand our culture very well, we were happy also because we saw our streets and University in this short film.

After finishing the activity, we were divided in pairs to go and make street actions, we had a great time talking to people in  cologne streets and giving them surveys about global challenges to explore their way of thinking and their new ideas.

Then we were back to the social center to continue our workshops, we first continued the rest of the theater plays, and discussed them together. Then we were divided to seven groups, every group was asked to talk about a story that expresses experience of migration and integration, the groups were as follow; Imposed_ extrnal migration_ return_ internal migration_ chain_ external to urban_ step migration. All of the stories were presented by a group member, after every presentation we had evaluation and discussion.

In the end of the day we went to have Italian dinner, and we were back to the hostel.

Day 3 with Palestinian dances and Egyptian movie

03.11.2010
Köln

In the morning we woke up at 8:00 , we did some activities in front of Macdonald's, Anan and Aman taught them dabka and everybody was happy, then we went to Alte fewerwache "old fire station", we did more exercises to get to know each other.

It was really interesting, when we went at workshop room we were shocked that Ramon treated us very badly, and i tought that he want to change his attitued with us, he gave us an exam about migration, it was good another hand he collected our information and gave us some experience.

We went to a restaurant and we took our lunch then we had a city tour and we visited many places, there was a guide, he told us a lot of information about the city and many historical information and he was so exciting, then we returned to the old fire station, we took lecture we talked about migration and talked about problems we are facing, it was very important to know.

We took our dinner in the same place and really the dinner was so delicious, after that we went to watch Egyptian film but not all people went to see it, we went to a place like cinema to watch the film and I guess that we were happy and the film was nice.

Finally we had a great time.

A very first day in Köln

02.11.2010
Köln

I have to say that writing a blog is a very exciting and frightening idea. To report on a day that so many lived but experienced in a different perspective is kinda brave- like Bushra brave :D

So with almost all participants present, we woke up, or at least we tried to come back to life around 7:00 something so we would be ready at 8:15 (in an ideal world of course!). We were all very tired and completely in a zombie state (speaking for myself).

In this other body of ours we tried to keep up the schedule of being ready at 08:15, but of course we were late, but there has to be some forgiveness by the part of the organizers - it was the first day and we all were still very exhausted.

We left the hostel in two groups - the late and the non-late and headed to a school where already the first group (a.k.a. the non-late group) was waiting. At this school we all got reunited: organizers and the participants/ zombies.

When we all arrived, to loosen up the mood and to get to know each other a little bit better, we started some name and physical games. After waking up more 15% we went inside the school and went to the last floor- bad idea! some of us took like 5 minutes to arrive upstairs to realize that there was an elevator right at the side of the stairs where 40 people fit.

We arrived and we entered a room where it was already prepared to receive us with chairs, boards and posters. We started to sit down as the morning begun we started to write our expectations for this project, our fears and our added value.

After discussing all of this important issues, we had a xxl coffee break because we were waiting for the speaker of the day: Mr. Jensen- a University Professor that came to us to talk about European politics and the how and the why Europe was built.

After absorbing all of this amazing information we had a session of questions and answers with Mr. Jensen, that because of plan schedule we couldn't prolong that much.

After Mr. Jensen's lecture we went to have lunch at the Music and Dance University.

After lunch we returned to the school and heard a lecture about emigration and everything that it implies. After the lecture we had another coffee break but this one in a normal period of time and then we went of the city to have a guided tour through Müllheim in Köln- the Emigrant part of the city. Instead of being the all-same boring "show and explain buildings" story we actually went inside a Mosque and a church that also celebrates parties and Theater with young people from this area of the city of köln. A way to attract young people to the church is through music, because the pastor feels that young people don't have the predisposition to go through a whole church service as boring as it is normally.

After this city tour we went to a very restaurant crowded street, and had dinner in a Turkish restaurant.

After dinner we came back to the hostel and did some evaluation of the day dividing ourselves into three groups and analyzing what we liked and what we didn't like from the day.

As the evaluation finished, some of us went to have drinks in the city as others worked on their zombie status and went to bed as soon as they could. The very first day in Köln and I have to say I liked it very much :)

Second day in Europe

02.11.2010
Köln

We woke up in the morning at 7 o'clock but some of us ... woke up so late

so they didn't have any time for taking a shower or eating breakfast.

After leaving the hostel, we went to some school playground, so those who were late didn't have sport practice. And many other activities that Ramon made were very nice and everybody  was active and good, then we had a lecture with a professor from the university and he was so informative and cooperative.

He explained us how the European Union began and who built it. He told us many things about German history and some facts about the Germans.

The bad thing was that he arrived late so everybody was very bored and after the professor's lecture we went to a university to eat our lunch and it was delicious; we ate together and we were chatting.

Then we went back to school to have a lecture about emigration where we all talked and shared our ideas then we went to a tour with a city guide and he told us a lot of things about the city history and realities that we needed to know, then we went to a Turkish restaurant to have dinner then we went back to the hostel and did a days reflection dividing into 3 groups, then some of us went out for drinks and others stayed at the hostel to write this blog.

The start of an exchange program

01.11.2010
Köln

This is me, Diana from Hungary. Today it is my pleasure to write the blog of the day. My day started pretty well. I enjoyed having conversations with Agnija a lot at Toby’s place. As she lived in Egypt, there is a great deal of issues I am interested in about her life. I hope she is going to share more about it in the upcoming two weeks. I would kindly appreciate it. Furthermore, I wanna learn more about what was going on with him in Palestine while living there.  In the evening we had the opening ceremony. It was all cool. Let me skip to the bar where we had dinner. I really liked the atmosphere of the place. I had great time chatting with Fatma and Anna, then Anan, Aman, Naba and the others. I hope we can get to know each other better and share knowledge with each other during the event and then we will keep in touch after the event. I want to get to know everyone in the group and talk a lot about each other as individuals, as nationals of our countries and as citizens of our world. We are all very different from each other and our differences make this world a very interesting place, a place where in every single minute there is something to learn about each other’s country and culture. Our differences make the world a very diverse place, which is one of the beauties of our planet. Of course, let’s not forget about that we all have a lot of common characteristics as well; they are similarities that unite us such as the willingness of getting to know each other and do projects together so as to show the world that with cooperation anything is possible in order to create a better world for our ourselves and our children with less conflict and more peace.

There is so much to learn from each other. I can’t wait to talk to you guys and learn from you and I hope I will also have something to teach you.  Personally, I am trying to keep up to date with what is going on in the world; however, more I learn, I see there is still so much to learn. I guess learning is a never ending process. We have taken a step in order to add up to our knowledge on a few segments of our world by coming here. Let’s use the chance as much as it is possible. Just be yourself and open up!

Let me skip back to the bar where we had dinner. I was satisfied with the food as opposed to a few people. I can eat anything. I am not picky about food. However, it was big mistake to serve sausage made of pork. I guess it is not necessary to explain why. Whoever bought the sausages, it was not so smart. A guy behind the counter in the bar said to me if I do not like it I do not have to take it. No comment! You decide whether my complaint or his comment to me was right.

I stay with Clara, Burcak, Jane and Anna in the ocean room. Awesome! Before coming to write my blog we had been having a lot of fun and talking about different cultures, in particular Turkish culture. I think in each location we should always be with different people in one room. Furthermore, in my opinion the rooms must be more mixed. In one room, there should be both Arab and European participants. This way we can learn more about each other.  Bring it on!

Marhaba

Egypt
01.11.2010
Köln

This has been a very hectic, yet interesting day... An excellent start for the trip!!!

It started in Cairo at the International Airport where I met my 5 fellow Egyptian colleagues, and ended in Koln with more than 30 people from around 10 different nationalities.

We arrived in Koln in the afternoon after an 8 hour trip, where we were warmly welcomed by Vera and Agnija in the airport, and went straight to the hostel after catching a glimpse of the stunning Dome.

In the evening, we went to Koln University to attend the opening, where we met the whole gang of people “except our Palestinians colleagues”. We received warm words of welcome by Tobias, Agnija, Ramon and Christian and enjoyed hearing some stories about Beyond Europe and how the Euro-Arab program started a year ago with the aim of brining European and Arab youth to work together and create a dialogue. Finally, Hany wrapped up with some information about Better World and how the partnership built with AEGEE guarantees the sustainability of that project.

After being done with the opening and taking memorable pictures, we left for a nice dinner prepared by the event organizers, and were joined by the Palestinian participants as well; where we talked, played football, ate and got to know each other a bit better.

Indeed, it was a very special day full of interesting, diverse people with different mind-sets, ages, backgrounds and nationalities, yet a few things in common: the will to communicate, discuss openly, challenge and be challenged, and accept and respect our cultural differences.

Happy to meet you all and really looking forward to the whole experience.

Ready, steady, go!

On this nice last sunny October day yellow leaves cover all of Cologne, and so will the participants, soon.  Yesterday night, AEGEE-Köln gathered enthusiastically to do some exquisit handycraft, inspired by genuine German customs, that we want to share with our participants. Namely, we soldered masterpieces of art into wooden boards, which will play a crucial role during the traditional German Abendbrot (both the boards and the art). While it took us quite a long time to fully encorporate the process of soldering wood, it was worth the effort in the end, last but not least because of the inspiring christmas-smelling fume. For one more night, 30 welcome packs made with love eagerly await the opening of the EuroArab CST, and so do we. Looking forward to seeing you in Köln tomorrow!

Yours, AEGEE-Köln