For some, New Year’s Eve is about friends and family, for some it’s about partying, while others focus on reflection about the year that is passing… But some of us decided that this New Year would be about adventure and discoveries.
This New Year Event (NYE) took place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, so of course visiting and getting to know the city was a must, and a delight. On our first day there, we challenged our shyness in order to fulfil as many tasks as possible in a crazy city rally; the tasks varied from ordering oysters in fast food restaurants to proposing to strangers, but they also included some that allowed us to get familiar with the city as well as with the Dutch culture. Another activity that was really interesting for us was an atypical city tour offered by a man that had been homeless.
One of the highlights of the program was a conference held on the second day of the event at the university about the conflict in Former Yugoslavia and the peace movements that aroused during those years. Given the actual political and economical situation in Europe, the conference was incredibly interesting and enlightening for us. On that same day, we also visited The Hague (or Den Haag in Dutch), a beautiful and historical city that serves both as headquarter of the Dutch government and as international court of justice. In order to get our energy levels filled up again, and also to rest from the last day’s visit, the last day of the year was mostly dedicated to a workshop about minorities, discrimination and conflicts. However, due to our great interest in the conference, the workshop ended in a lively and interesting debate about conflict-solving, peace and the use of violence in the actual world.
The New Year’s celebration was held at the top floor of a student’s dorm building, from where we had the pleasure of seeing the whole city bloom with joy and fireworks at midnight. The first of January, challenging our tiredness, the freezing wind and the cold weather, we joined the Dutch people in the New Years Dive, and wearing the typical orange hats, we dived in the cold sea to come back minutes later, freezing, but immensely happy and proud of our achievement. Certainly, few of us are likely to forget the experience any time soon.
Changing the typical winter holidays scenario of home and family for an unknown city and a “bunch of strangers”, may seem weird at first, but attending a NYE is a decision you’ll hardly regret. If you ask me about the highlights of those days I would say they were the conference, the New Years Dive and the workshop (especially the debate) but there’s more than just that. Of course, a NYE should be entertaining and funny, but I’m glad to say that not only do I come back with funny memories of a different New Year, but I also brought new ideas and broadened views with me .
However, there is also one factor that I cannot omit, and it is the group with whom I shared this event. Indeed, if there is something I truly love about AEGEE and its events it is the possibility it brings to interact with so many different people with different nationalities, who have been brought up surrounded by different cultures. We had the luck to count with an amazing and funny group of participants and a dedicated team of organisers, that added the extra ingredient to this NYE that made this event even more unique and unforgettable. I could certainly keep writing about this fantastic and groovy NYE, but there would still be a part of it that words won’t be able to grasp. I hope I have succeeded in encouraging you to join a NYE yourself, because isn’t New Year about change? Therefore, what better way to spend it than travelling, which is all about change and opening your mind?
Written by Eugenia “Ena” Casariego Artola, AEGEE-Oviedo