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