Online Autumn Agora 2024
From October 31st to November 3rd, the Online Autumn Agora brought the entire AEGEE network together! Hundreds of members from locals across Europe connected to discuss, present, and vote on key proposals shaping the future of AEGEE. The week kicked off with a Pre-Agora Input Evening on the Monday before the Agora, where members shared their insights and opinions about the proposals. Throughout the Agora, engaging presentations highlighted major events planned for the coming year, including the upcoming European Planning Meeting (EPM) in Istanbul from February 5-9th! The application period for this event opened TODAY, so ensure you have a working MyAEGEE account! Furthermore, the Spring Agora will take place in Bilbao from April 22-27. The Spring Agora is the biggest Statutory Event in AEGEE, bringing hundreds of enthusiastic AEGEE members together! You can get involved in the Agora by becoming a delegate. It is also possible to join the Agora as a visitor, this is a great way to get to know the European Level of AEGEE! So save the date, you do not want to miss this! On Friday afternoon, a themed Pancake Lunch brought everyone together to enjoy delicious pancakes while reliving the best moments from previous European events, including roll calls and opening ceremonies (check out the “2024 Agora Novi Sad” playlist on Youtube)! On Thursday and Friday evenings, members joined watch parties organized by the Board, featuring Domino’s pizza and leftover pancakes.
Introducing the Dies Committee: Vivat festum! Vivat AEGEE-Groningen!
As AEGEE-Groningen’s birthday approaches, excitement is building up! Every year, our beloved association turns a little older, a little wiser, and celebrates this milestone in style… and this year with even more style and thunder! ⚡️This year’s week of celebrations is specially brought to you by the Dies Committee!???? Who are those birthday enthusiasts working behind the scenes of the Dies Committee? Let’s Introduce these party warriors real quick! Meet the team Ola – Chairperson This valiant warrior has been part of AEGEE for 5 years, bravely studying European Languages and Cultures. In an unexpected situation of a gladiator fight, Ola sees only one viable strategy: “Step 1: scream and act crazy (to distract the opponent) Step 2: when they lower their guard because they realize they don’t need to put a lot of effort to win this fight… change the strategy and attack them out of nowhere! Bam???? surprise, that’s how you can win.”. At a Roman banquet, you’ll likely find Ola sticking to the corner with wine and olives. The reason? Simple survival instincts: “Seems like a safe choice” (or, as some might say, a healthy fear of food poisoning ????). Lastly, which Roman god would Ola summon for help in a battle of Archery Tag? Bacchus is the answer! “In exchange for a good bottle of wine the Roman god Bacchus – the bringer of festivities would help me out and distract the opponents with a celebration, meanwhile with my questionable aiming skills I would take down the opponents.”. Romy – Treasurer Our fearless Quaestor, with great care manages our modern day denarius (Euros for those who don’t know). Romy has been in AEGEE for 6 years and counting, and currently studies Youth, Society, & Policy. If Romy were a gladiator, she’d choose a unique strategy to fight: “I guess I would run around and hope the other person would get tired faster than I would. Then I would take advantage of that and strike them down.” And in times of war (or during an Archery Tag match), Romy would join forces with the Roman god Mars. Why? Because he’s the one that’s supposed to help in such times. Final Roman fun fact about Romy – where would you look for her at a Roman banquet? Of course next to Romy’s “go-to” which would be some good meat and a few cups of wine. Cedric – Secretary As the Scriba, Cedric takes his role seriously and uses words cautiously. Cicero would be Cedric’s pick for being a Roman figure. Frankly it’s not because of having the same amount of letters as Cedric, but because of his skill as an orator. If Cedric had found himself at a Roman banquet, what would he feast on? “Haha wine”. This is a dead giveaway for the next Roman fun fact about Cedric. For an Archery Tag match a supporting Roman god would be Bacchus! Why? “I think Bacchus the god of wine would support me because of my love for wine. At the gala at least I will have enough wine to convince him”. On a daily basis, Cedric is busy studying International Relations, and celebrating his 4 year AEGEE membership. Nine – PR As the youngest warrior of the Dies Committee, with only 2 years of AEGEE membership, and an untamed passion for Art History (which Nine studies when not planning birthday activities). A Roman figure that resonates with her is Agrippina. Why? “I would like to be Agrippina the Youngest, as she was quite rebellious. She was an influential woman in the Roman empire, refusing to be a boring wife, and behaving as a wife should. She broke all rules of appropriate woman behavior. However, there are also elements I don’t like about her life, such as the fact that she married her uncle. But she had a lot of power, even over her uncle (emperor Claudius) as he changed the law to be able to marry her. But to get rid of him (Claudius), Agrippina poisoned him, so that her son, Nero, could become the emperor.” In a scary (and luckily highly improbable) scenario of a gladiator fight, Nine would try to stay alive. You might wonder how… here’s the secret: I think my strategy would be one that would keep me alive ????. I’ll probably just try to protect myself, and not necessarily attack. I think that would be the safest to survive the longest… but I would like to avoid getting put into a gladiator fight altogether. Last Roman fun fact about Nine is that at a Roman banquet she’d feast on the dessert and drinks! And avoid all the meats and fish as Nine is vegetarian. Shenza – General Member Outside of the Roman shenanigans, Shenza is a dedicated student of Information Science and she has been part of AEGEE for 7 lucky years! (Vivat to more years to come ????). Diving deeper into the Roman shenanigans, Shenza has quite a strategy for a gladiator fight. Her approach? “Always aim for the center. Unless I was fighting an animal then I would just pretend to be dead.” Wise, indeed. If Shenza could embody any Roman figure, her choice would be Marcus Aurelius. Why? Because aside from being known as a good emperor he also had time to philosophize. And when it comes to an Archery Tag showdown, you might wonder which Roman god or goddess would Shenza pick for their divine support. She gives us a secret peek into her strategy: “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Roman (and Greek) mythology is that it’s always best to just not be noticed by the gods, it usually doesn’t end well. But otherwise I would obviously want Diana on my side.” So, Diana it is, the goddess of the hunt and the perfect ally for a fierce game of Archery Tag! ???? Get ready to celebrate! Prepare yourselves for a week of festivities that would make even Julius Caesar jealous! To warm up your
Places to eat after clubbing!
Dear reader, Are you ready for a journey that will take you to all the best and worst places to grab a bite after (or during) a whole night of partying? Let’s go! First of all, we’ll start with the one and only Caïro! This is a sacred place for AEGEE-Groningen. Or well, it was a sacred place because Caïro isn’t open anymore 🙁 After the constitutional drink of the new board, the (drunk) president would give a speech standing on the tables in Caïro. It is definitely an experience and this is why Caïro was the one and only place to go for a midnight snack! This year, the tradition of the speech after the consti took place in Antalya! I didn’t even know this place existed but I guess I have to say, you should now definitely go there since this will be the new Caïro for AEGEE-Groningen. This year Jacob gave a beautiful speech, standing on one of the tables at Antalya. The owner looked a bit confused but he will get used to it, I’m sure. When you go to Antalya, I can recommend the fries. That tasted amazing :)) Next up we have a Greek restaurant, right in the Poelestraat, called Filoxenia. I, Jennifer, only ordered chicken nuggets here, but those tasted amazing so I can highly recommend it. And to be fair, that’s basically my go to order after a night out so I am the person to ask where you can get the best chicken nuggets 😉 And I’ve also heard good stories about the other, more traditional Greek food. This is the go-to place for some of our AEGEE members to get their food after a night out so it must be a good place! Thirdly, how could we forget about the famous Hasret. Some people love it and some people always get sick after getting food from here. So you should try it and see on which team you belong. Then we have a place next to Hasret called Donerix: the place where Joris and Ben once had some food after a constitutional drink (no not our own consti) and they don’t remember that much of it besides it being really oily and rude employees. Last but definitely not least: Hoek. This one is an old classic. This place, located in the center and beating heart of Groningen, has opening times, which will even shock a red-light district. The famous snack wall will provide you at all times of the day, with a huge variety of not-so-warm, close-to-cold snacks. The prices are a little bit higher, but in return, you will get amazing Eierballen. If you want fresh snacks or fries, you can always go to the counter, where a (sometimes) friendly man will help you. And as a small tip, choose the chicken burger. After a few beers, this will taste like heaven on Earth. I hope you all enjoyed reading it and see you somewhere in Groningen <3 Lots of love, Jennifer, with the help of Joris
Members experciences: Ellen!
¡Hola gente de AEGEE! (Hello AEGEE people!)As a kid, living abroad was something I never imagined I would ever do. But just likebelieving in Sinterklaas, some things change as you grow up. Because in the last six months,I did live abroad and proved myself wrong. Something that seemed unimaginably scary in thebeginning, is now something I am looking back on with gratitude and happiness. Let me takeyou back to the beginning, when it all started thanks to the inspiring experiences I had duringmy time in AEGEE. Because honestly, without them I’m not sure I would have dared to takethis big leap. During my years in AEGEE, I began to love traveling. Among others the amazing excursionsand hitchhike trips I’ve joined in these years made me realize there is so much more to seein the world than only the place we live and grow up in. And I can hear you thinking, “Nothinggoes above Groningen!” True, but that’s why I decided to move south—to Barcelona, to beprecise. With shaky knees and nerves on edge, I landed at the airport of Barcelona. I was going to bepicked up by a Spanish family. A family with whom I only had a video call twice and withwhom I was going to live for the next 6 months. The first thing they said to me? ‘Wow, you’revery tall!’. It was a strange comment but it made me laugh. It broke the ice and soon after, Igot the biggest hugs from two happy little girls who run up to me. I was the au pair of these two girls and I became a real member of their family. In the first fewmonths it was a challenge to adapt to their routines and lifestyle, which is completely differentfrom the Dutch one. The Spanish ‘mañana, mañana’ (tomorrow, tomorrow) mindset was a bigadjustment for me. From one day to the next, my whole life was completely different. In thebeginning I also hadn’t made any friends yet. So yes, there were times I really thought, ‘whatthe hell am I doing here?’. But this feeling, although with ups and downs, gradually fadedaway. And before I knew it, my days were filled with fun activities with the family, trips and gettogethers with new friends. As my life there began to take shape, I truly started to feel athome. It was the diversity of people I met that made my stay there so special. It was reallyinteresting to speak with people who had a completely different life than, for example, the lifein the Netherlands. Five years ago, I never would’ve imagined to become close friends withpeople from literally all over the world (there were a lot of Erasmus students there). It wasfunny to see that besides all the different backgrounds we had, we still created a group offriends that connected really well. So besides the fact that yes, it was sometimes difficult to be far from home and being waaayyout of my comfort zone, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for the world. I learned a lot and gotso much inspiration from my stay, it is something I will always be grateful for. But also nowback in Groningen I can really appreciate my life here more, because I’ve been away for awhile. Living abroad in whatever way or form, is something I would recommend to everyone. Lastly, I can’t forget to mention the power of the AEGEE community. As a friendless newbiein Barcelona, I contacted AEGEE-Barcelona, who had an activity planned, and I asked if Icould join. This led to meeting another group of amazing people, joining their kind of SUevent where I met even more people. This eventually contributed to my summer plans to goto Sziget in Budapest to meet with a few of them again. Besides that, it gave me theinspiration to join a real SU this summer, which I will combine with a solo trip of a monththrough Italy. That is perhaps the most important lesson I’ve learned—let the butterfly effectwork for you. Create your own opportunities and say yes to new experiences. You neverknow where they might lead.
Member Experiences: Dana!
Hi everyone! My name is Dana and I became a member of AEGEE Groningen in August 2023. I must say I’ve had my best year as a student after joining AEGEE. Throughout the whole year lots of great activities, trips, and excursions had been organised. Unfortunately, I couldn’t join all of them… But I was still able to make the best out of my first year by joining lots of activities and showing up to most of the social drinks. It all started with the introduction period in September/October 2023 where I met lots of great people who I can call my friends now. My favourite activities during the Intro Period were the Intro Dinners and the Intro Camp. For the dinners I was in intro group 6 where I met so many great people who became some of my best friends. We have experienced so many fun things together; many social drinks, galas, excursions, active member days, etc. During the Intro Camp, I was able to connect with other new AEGEEans but also with older members which made it easier to find my place in the association. Everyone was very welcoming, open, and happy to meet new people which makes it very easy to make friends. This year I have joined two excursions to Brussels and Tirana. Of which my favourite one was Tirana. Together with my friends I had signed up to go to Tirana where we had a great time exploring the city, eating great food, having cheap drinks, and hiking. I was very lucky to join AEGEE when it was celebrating their 7th lustrum which made it possible for me to have two galas instead of one; the lustrum gala and the galant gala. I enjoyed both galas a lot. At the lustrum gala we had a 3 course dinner before and afterwards access to an open bar which everyone made use of of course!!! The galant gala was also lots of fun. Together with fellow AEGEE members and other associations we enjoyed good music and most importantly lots and lots of FREE drinks from the open bar! Furthermore, I decided to become active within the association by joining the AlmanakCie. Together with 3 other members we spend lots of time creating this years Almanak. Next to working we also had lots of fun together. We enjoyed many delicious meals together, went to the social drinks together, participated in a pub quiz, worked at bevrijdingsfestval together, and and and… I wanted to write something about my favourite activity or memory of this year as well but while writing this I came to the realisation that I just simply cannot choose one thing as my favourite… All of the activities I had participated in, the social drinks I went to, and the people I had spend time with had made this year so incredible. But to list at least some activities I really enjoyed; here are my top 6:
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