AEGEE-Aachenawa: Two Locals, Two Beary Mascots and One Twin Antennae Contract to Sign

In less than two months, the Autumn Agora in Cagliari takes place and all participants will have the chance to see how AEGEE-Aachen and AEGEE-Warszawa will become twin antennae. To find out more about this German-Polish friendship and the apparent love between their mascots, The AEGEEan spoke to Joanna Pankowska, president of AEGEE-Warszawa.

 It all started as a classic twin antenna love story: AEGEEans from Aachen came to Warszawa for an exchange in May 2013. “Maybe it was the bears, maybe the fact that we were not experienced in doing exchanges. The fact was: it felt like something more than just an exchange”, Joanna tells us. Less than a year later, AEGEE-Warszawa organized a pre-event shortly before the EBM Lublin in February 2014. After a great time with some Aachen people – wearing their famous bear suits, naturally – the two antennae spent even more time together during the EBM itself. It was there, during the last night, that they decided to stay at the gym and chat instead of going to the party. And it was in that night that they came up with the idea to become twin antennae.

So far, AEGEE-Aachen and AEGEE-Warszawa had two exchanges, visiting each of the two cities once – both times having a lot of fun. However, Joanna is sure that the best is yet to come, meaning the next exchange, which is going to take place at the end of September in Aachen. Members from both locals are looking forward to this event, where they will be able to spend time together and get to know each other. Joanna emphasizes that another important fact in the course of the locals’ collaboration will be that they “are trying not to forget about sharing good practices, knowledge transfer and such”. Both locals are quite strong and experienced with organisational duties. It will therefore be interesting to see if they will become even more successful when they can share their knowledge.

Moreover, the twin antennae-to-be have something else in common: they are both proud owners of very beary mascots. While the members of AEGEE-Aachen are rarely seen without a white polar bear costume on them, AEGEE-Warszawa people keep good care of their cute little panda bear called Wanda (the panda). Although this is just a very handy coincidence, one cannot get around the fact that the two bears form a cute couple. The mascots seem to agree and take their relationship to the next level. No one speaks about “becoming twin antennae”, but just about “the wedding”!

One can be curious about what the two locals will come up with to celebrate this moment during Agora Cagliari! All in all, Joanna concludes: “I believe it is just the beginning of our love story”.

Written by Katja Sontag, AEGEE-Aachen