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!