The Preparation Conference
So
you did it! You just gave up a promising, sunny summer with your friends at
the eternally blue Aegean Sea. You made it! You are now free of all social conformism
that wants summers to be warm and vacation to be spent in an unending effort
to get a suntan. (A natural one!)
And you got on that plane (and you didn't jump out of it) and here you are:
In a car, driving with two total strangers (this will soon become a normal situation
among AIESEC events!) and one of them claims he is from Slovenia, whatever that
is! But you know what Slovenia is…. You were there a few months ago. You are
so international, aren't you?
Or so you like to think. Because then you find out that Alex, the girl next
to you, the driver, hasn't spent more than 3 years at the same country (at least
this is the impression you get, talking to her!). She has been an AIESEC member
long enough to be working on the National Committee. And she is two years younger
than you! (And all of the sudden you feel so small and meaningless and clueless
that you realise: Who cares about a bloody summer in Greece? This is it! This
is real vacation. Getting away.) Right from the very start, everything was new.
The trip to Oldenburg, the town itself, even the Jugendherberge! (Only later
did I realise that it was just sufficient for German standards!) And then the
people of course. Five amazing young Germans (who contradicted every prejudice
about Germans being boring and serious!) welcomed us and showed us the best
time. Vanessa, Nina, Martin, Tobi, Cornelius.
At the time these were just names. Not so hard to remember, but faceless. Or
better, unrelated to any emotional experience. Their kindness, hospitality and
interest, however, made us feel right at home, right from the very start.
The other seminar delegates were these cute faces, of diverse shape and colour,
all so friendly and smiling. Students like me, that were ready to spend a summer
in Germany, working at a German company, officially invited by AIESEC Germany!
(all crazy, like me, I thought for a while!) It didn't take me that long to
realise that I was about to have the most unconventional and most exciting and
full of fun and knowledge summer of my life with them.
Then the real EXPO 2000 experience began. Never in my life could I have imagined
that I would get up at 8am, after an all night party that sent me to bed at
6am, just to hear a lecture about a new project of electricity production at
a village in Northern Germany! But I did! And I actually enjoyed it! As much
as I enjoyed the environmental report seminars, that the people from KMPG gave
for us. And exactly as much as I enjoyed listening to an amazing lecture by
one of the local university professors.
Two days later, the first part of the Seminar, the so-called "EXPO part", that
was dealing with the notion of sustainable development, was over. I must admit,
I was quite embarrassed when comparing the environmental consciousness of my
Greek compatriots with the obvious German superiority on that issue. But I soon
got over that feeling. I cherished all I had learned and promised myself to
never let go of that precious knowledge and…moved on to the second part of the
seminar. I think AIESECers like to call it "PREPARATION Seminar", but by that
time, we were all already so deep in the German culture, efficiency and awareness,
that all we needed was just some fun!
And fun we had! Get to know games, parties, intercultural exchange and long
discussions with the other delegates brought us all so close together. Everything
was more intimate, more emotional. Even the parties at night were now more fun!
Everything was just perfect. We were taken really good care of. We felt at home.
We actually felt that the whole world was our home and that it didn't really
matter who we were, where we were coming from or what we had done until then.
The only thing that was important to us by the time the four-day Seminar was
over, was when we would finally get to see this International Fair called EXPO
2000 (…and each other again!)!
Ermina Soukou
Trainee, Greece