“I’m going on Summer University to Ukraine!” was a statement that causes a lot of raised eyebrows and concerns. With the unstable political situation, the war in the east of the country, and the downing of the MH17 a week before the start of the SU, the concerns seemed valid. Nevertheless, 18 of the bravest AEGEEans decided to not let anything hold them back, and participate in what would turn out to be one of the best holidays of their lives.
Organized by AEGEE-Kyiv, RadioACTIVE Summer University was bound to be a challenging one. With a program full of sports and cultural activities and cooperation with the Health4Youth project, the organizers put themselves to the test to organize a SU that would teach us about healthy lifestyle, as well as showing us real Ukrainian culture. On Saturday the 26th of July, participants and organizers met each other in Kyiv, and in the next two weeks, we traveled to the south of the country, visiting the cities Cherkasy, Uman and Odessa. A journey that turned out to be a crazy adventure.
On the first evening, we saw the first glimpse of the city of Kyiv and each other. After meeting in a hostel in central Kyiv, the place that would be our home for the next week, the organizers took us out for a walk in the city, some ice-breaking games, and introduced us to the Ukrainian cuisine and nightlife. In Kyiv we discovered that a combination of sightseeing activities, sport activities and a never ending line for the shower, which forced us to take a break every once in a while, was perfect for keeping up with the full program during the day, and the parties during the night.
Our days were filled with city tours, climbing, a dancing workshop, a visit to the World War II museum, workshops on healthy life and intercultural communication, and many other activities. We experienced Ukrainian hospitality when two Ukrainian girls helped us with all the answers for the city rally, and then had a coffee with us. We visited the Pyrohovo open-air museum, where we saw some traditional Ukrainian buildings, and spent the afternoon in the grass, learning a bit of Ukrainian, playing frisbee, and inventing our own sport, which basically meant throwing a ball to each other while sitting (and some interesting variations of this concept). We also got the chance to visit the Chernobyl exclusion zone, an area with a 30-kilometre radius that is sealed from the rest of the world after the Chernobyl disaster. Here we got an impressive bus tour, got up close and personal with unit 4 and walked around the ghost town Pripyat.
Apart from the interesting days, the nights in Kyiv were very memorable as well. Most of the evenings started with the same ritual: taking a shower and having dinner at the hostel, followed by some pre-drinks and the reading of the gossips, and then party. Kyiv’s night life pushed our boundaries to the limit, as we discovered each others pole dancing skills, sang karaoke, and watched the sunrise from our hostels balcony. We even had a private party on a boat across the Dnipro river, that inevitably ended with a nice swim in the river.
After a week in Kyiv it was time to move on to Cherkasy. We went by train, which was an adventure in itself. For some, the long train ride was an opportunity to catch up on some well deserved sleep. For others it was a chance to get to know the locals, and have a taste of some real Ukrainian home-made vodka. Upon arrival in Cherkasy we were welcomed in the house of the parents of our main organizer, Anastasia Kolomiets, where we would sleep the next days, learned to cook the Ukrainian dish vaneryky, and had European Night in the garden.
From our time in Cherkasy, our trip was probably the biggest challenge. Our team spirit was put to the test when we were all together in one boat. The goal: row to an island in the Dnipro river, where we would have time to swim and relax. On the way there everything was fine, we were rowing to the rhythm of the drums, and arrived on the island without any problems. But after some time, the weather began to change. For the first time since we arrived in Ukraine, we saw clouds, more and more… Eventually we decided it was time to row back, before it would start to rain. But when everybody was getting ready to get back in the boat, we discovered that we were missing two participants. While we were looking for them, heavy rain started to come down, and in no time we were in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. By the time the missing participants were found, the weather already started to calm down a bit, but the river was a lot wilder after the heavy rainfall. It turned out that, except for team spirit, the ability to listen to instruction was also necessary to successfully get back on the mainland (our instructor was joking saying he had 10 year old’s in his boat who were better listeners than us). After some close calls where our boat almost tipped over, we managed to get back safely, although with a boat full of water, and a few broken cell phones.
With only a few days left, it was time to move to Odessa. On the long bus ride there we stopped in Uman to visit the Sofiyvka park, a very beautiful place built by a rich man as a present for his wife. Here it turned out we could even make a park visit adventurous, when we got lost, and eventually climbed a fence to get out. In Odessa, the time had come for some serious relaxing at the beach, but of course that’s not all. We saw the pretty city center, took a Marshrutka (basically a combination of a bus and a sauna) to Odessa’s catacombs, where we learned about the big tunnel network that used to be a hiding place for partisans in the II World War, did some more crazy games and, of course, had some amazing parties.
When the last night came, nobody was ready to go home. The closing ceremony was full of sentimental speeches, awards given (turns out we had a lot of “best kissers”, and no “best complainer”, but that might have been because there wasn’t really anything to complain about), and the participants surprised the organizers with a Ukrainian flag filled with personal messages. The next day, it was time to part our ways, time to say goodbye to all these great participants and organizers (with no exceptions) that after two weeks felt like family. But as we say in AEGEE, we will meet again somewhere in Europe. And until then, we’ll always have some great memories to look back on. Now I guess there’s nothing left to say but: Slava Ukrayini!
Written by Adinda Werkman, AEGEE-Utrecht
Photos by Maryna Petrovskaya, Anna Smailikova, Anastasia Dzhulai, AEGEE-Kiyv