Can just as well call this blog post "AGM Warsaw"
Door: Kevin
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Kevin
16 April 2016 | Zweden, Jönköping
Hey guys,
Don’t ask me why, but for some random reason I always tend to start writing a new blog post the day after a Raslatt party. And yes, this is controversial, because I can’t say this is the most appropriate time of writing a blog post because of lack of creativity due to one or more alcoholic drinks the day before. But well, with some music at the background and still many unfinished bottles of strong liquor in my room thanks to my Dutch friends, I will give it a shot. Not that kind of shot...
As many of you might have noticed, last week I have been to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ESN was held in Warsaw and therefore I went there to represent ESN Jönköping with Louise. Even though, the trip was not for touristic purposes, I have been able to see a few highlights and slightly experience the Polish culture.
This AGM was hosted for approximately 1.000 ESN volunteers from 38 different ESN countries. Traditionally, an AGM takes off with a flag parade and so also this one. All participants were representing their country with flags and traditional clothing and this resulted into one big parade through the city. Even though the weather was not perfect, many Polish people set their work aside and started to come outside to make pictures of the whole parade. I mentioned this to show you how big the parade was. For pictures you can check my Facebook page.
After the flag parade it was time to go to the Hostel and drop my stuff. However, I got lost and this resulted into another activity called “Experiencing the Polish culture the hard way.” Being lost, I started to ask Polish people to help me finding the Patchwork Hostel. 50% of them kept on walking like I had the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter on. The other 50% only responded with “I don’t know” or they didn’t even know English. Well, make that last 50% 49%, because at the end one guy could help me and told me that I had to take the bus for at least 10 minutes. All this to find out that the Hostel is basically 5 minutes walking from the Novotel where we ended our flag parade. Good job Kevin. Didn’t really help that my phone died, so I blame it on that.
Now that I found my hostel, I dropped my stuff and rushed to the Opening Ceremony, which I was obviously late for now. The Opening Ceremony was held in a stunning building, the food was good and once we got stuffed we went out to one of the best clubs in Warsaw. Some dances later, it was time to get a well-deserved rest. Well, not yet, because on the way to our hostel we found an English guy that got lost (why is it always the English ones ending up in these kind of situations?). At the end, he seemed to be one of my 9 roommates, so we ended the night with a small beer, which is still 0,5L, in a pub next to our hostel.
The next day we got a city tour through the old part of Warsaw. However, this tour was done by a bunch of students that used Wikipedia as a guide on what stories to tell. This mostly resulted in: “This building was destroyed during WWII, as you can see it’s rebuild….. So, uhm…. Let’s move on.” Next social activity after the plenaries and the city tour was the Euro-dinner. One of my main favourite activities, if not my favourite. Once again, all participants represented their ESN countries, but not with flags this time. To give you an idea, the participants represented themselves with snacks and shots from their country. Yes, this time it is that kind of shot. I will leave the idea of how that ended up for your imagination.
On Saturday we started with plenaries again. It seemed that the Dutch delegation replaced their drinks last night with non-alcoholic drinks, because they were fresh enough to raise question after question concerning the finances of ESN. The afternoon was reserved for an info-market where Louise and me were representing Jönköping University (JU). This was kind of cool, because one guy that already got his letter of acceptance came to talk to me about how student life is in Sweden. I told him that if he has enough money and does not mind cold weather, that he is going to have the time of his life. After we made JU famous in Warsaw, I had to go to the workshops but got lost once again. I blame this one on my good karma, because during getting lost, Karolina bumped into me. She is from Warsaw and studied last semester also at Jönköping University. The funny thing is that neither she knew I was in Warsaw and even though I knew she was from Poland, I didn’t know she was from Warsaw. This was really cool and made me late for the workshops even more, but it was definitely worth it. After the workshops, the night got concluded with a Spanish pre-party in Novotel and the AGM Festival in a cinema. The worst part about doing a festival in a cinema, is that they only had one toilet for men and one for women. It’s no high math that this is not going to work on a night out.
The next morning we started with a beer- and wine tasting. Well, my poster in my room says that this is the Dutch way of getting rid of a hangover. In between I also had the time to try some real Polish dumplings. This Sunday evening we had the last social activity which was a gala dinner. This dinner was held in the Tower of Culture and Science. The dinner and party afterwards was the perfect way to end this experience.
After a few hours of sleep, it was time to check-out. We still had a little bit free time to spend our last Zloty’s. But as easy as it seems, it’s not, because the currency is super low. So we had a couple of hours left to live like kings and queens and then it was time to leave Warsaw and go back to Jönköping.
However, no grief, because on Monday I am going on my second Sea Battle!
Sea yah, uhhh.. See yah!
~Kevin
Don’t ask me why, but for some random reason I always tend to start writing a new blog post the day after a Raslatt party. And yes, this is controversial, because I can’t say this is the most appropriate time of writing a blog post because of lack of creativity due to one or more alcoholic drinks the day before. But well, with some music at the background and still many unfinished bottles of strong liquor in my room thanks to my Dutch friends, I will give it a shot. Not that kind of shot...
As many of you might have noticed, last week I have been to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of ESN was held in Warsaw and therefore I went there to represent ESN Jönköping with Louise. Even though, the trip was not for touristic purposes, I have been able to see a few highlights and slightly experience the Polish culture.
This AGM was hosted for approximately 1.000 ESN volunteers from 38 different ESN countries. Traditionally, an AGM takes off with a flag parade and so also this one. All participants were representing their country with flags and traditional clothing and this resulted into one big parade through the city. Even though the weather was not perfect, many Polish people set their work aside and started to come outside to make pictures of the whole parade. I mentioned this to show you how big the parade was. For pictures you can check my Facebook page.
After the flag parade it was time to go to the Hostel and drop my stuff. However, I got lost and this resulted into another activity called “Experiencing the Polish culture the hard way.” Being lost, I started to ask Polish people to help me finding the Patchwork Hostel. 50% of them kept on walking like I had the invisibility cloak from Harry Potter on. The other 50% only responded with “I don’t know” or they didn’t even know English. Well, make that last 50% 49%, because at the end one guy could help me and told me that I had to take the bus for at least 10 minutes. All this to find out that the Hostel is basically 5 minutes walking from the Novotel where we ended our flag parade. Good job Kevin. Didn’t really help that my phone died, so I blame it on that.
Now that I found my hostel, I dropped my stuff and rushed to the Opening Ceremony, which I was obviously late for now. The Opening Ceremony was held in a stunning building, the food was good and once we got stuffed we went out to one of the best clubs in Warsaw. Some dances later, it was time to get a well-deserved rest. Well, not yet, because on the way to our hostel we found an English guy that got lost (why is it always the English ones ending up in these kind of situations?). At the end, he seemed to be one of my 9 roommates, so we ended the night with a small beer, which is still 0,5L, in a pub next to our hostel.
The next day we got a city tour through the old part of Warsaw. However, this tour was done by a bunch of students that used Wikipedia as a guide on what stories to tell. This mostly resulted in: “This building was destroyed during WWII, as you can see it’s rebuild….. So, uhm…. Let’s move on.” Next social activity after the plenaries and the city tour was the Euro-dinner. One of my main favourite activities, if not my favourite. Once again, all participants represented their ESN countries, but not with flags this time. To give you an idea, the participants represented themselves with snacks and shots from their country. Yes, this time it is that kind of shot. I will leave the idea of how that ended up for your imagination.
On Saturday we started with plenaries again. It seemed that the Dutch delegation replaced their drinks last night with non-alcoholic drinks, because they were fresh enough to raise question after question concerning the finances of ESN. The afternoon was reserved for an info-market where Louise and me were representing Jönköping University (JU). This was kind of cool, because one guy that already got his letter of acceptance came to talk to me about how student life is in Sweden. I told him that if he has enough money and does not mind cold weather, that he is going to have the time of his life. After we made JU famous in Warsaw, I had to go to the workshops but got lost once again. I blame this one on my good karma, because during getting lost, Karolina bumped into me. She is from Warsaw and studied last semester also at Jönköping University. The funny thing is that neither she knew I was in Warsaw and even though I knew she was from Poland, I didn’t know she was from Warsaw. This was really cool and made me late for the workshops even more, but it was definitely worth it. After the workshops, the night got concluded with a Spanish pre-party in Novotel and the AGM Festival in a cinema. The worst part about doing a festival in a cinema, is that they only had one toilet for men and one for women. It’s no high math that this is not going to work on a night out.
The next morning we started with a beer- and wine tasting. Well, my poster in my room says that this is the Dutch way of getting rid of a hangover. In between I also had the time to try some real Polish dumplings. This Sunday evening we had the last social activity which was a gala dinner. This dinner was held in the Tower of Culture and Science. The dinner and party afterwards was the perfect way to end this experience.
After a few hours of sleep, it was time to check-out. We still had a little bit free time to spend our last Zloty’s. But as easy as it seems, it’s not, because the currency is super low. So we had a couple of hours left to live like kings and queens and then it was time to leave Warsaw and go back to Jönköping.
However, no grief, because on Monday I am going on my second Sea Battle!
Sea yah, uhhh.. See yah!
~Kevin
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
