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!