FACES OF AEGEE
The AEGEE House: Moving in The AEGEE house is located ten minutes away from the traffic of the city centre of Brussels, in Schaarbeek, where nine students permanently live in a residential area. Although it does not show anymore, the house was once a Belgian museum of underwear. It is painted in lively colours, giving each room a very cosy living environment. But it is not only the coloured walls that these students have inherited. They also have nine new friends: chicken, living in the backyard. One chicken for every CD member.
Life in
Brussels
Making Noise Very soon after moving in the new members of the European board get used to a noisy atmosphere in the house. The sound of the fax machine, the telephone ringing, the typing on the keyboards, Magda's quiet singing. The Head Office on the ground floor is the most crowded place in the house, and is almost never empty, except perhaps after four o’clock at night. The mixture of nine different foreign languages is part of everyday life. Very soon, the Comité Directeur becomes like a family, spending every minute together, be it for working, going to a movie, cooking, discussing, running, meetings, brainstorming sessions. Seeing Pepijn feeding the chicken in the morning even before lighting a cigarette, Ivana calling for the vet and writing down every single detail that he mentions, Magda cooking lunch for the whole house, Calin repairing the printer, Sergio screaming "I am coming!" whenever a bell rings but never moving from his place, Karina waking the whole house up with the sound of her hair-dryer, Voichita fighting battles with the administration of Schaarbeek, and Stefan keeping his nutella on his shelf, becomes the norm. Something to miss when it is gone.
Tolerance as Key Factor Nine different people means nine different personalities, habits, wishes, ideas. But it also means nine different cooking skills, cultural backgrounds, humour. Somehow, these nine people learn to complement each other, because they all have one thing in common: they believe in the same thing, they believe in AEGEE. This gives the basis for finding a common language and bridging all difficulties which may come across their way. They are faced with the challenge to act as a team, thinking and acting for the same purpose, handling difficulties and success, as one!
Planning Things would not be the same if it were not for this magic word: planning. Heated discussions on an Integrated Europe and the future path of our association fill the daily agendas of these nine volonteers. Different life experiences and cultural differences give an additional spark which very often leads to very different directions. But it is this cultural diversity that gives a special flair to life and enables each member to manage to work in such a diverse environment. Little by little, while their working strategies become clearer and more effective, their commitment towards work turns to commitment towards one another. After a few months you have a Dutch man addicted to an Italian coffee machine, a Croatian speaking English with a Romanian accent, a German getting used to sounds of folk music from the East.
What we Love Most The bell signaling the revered and most respected dinner time, building a fence for the chicken, house cleaning, receptions, computer troubles, successful meetings, less successful meetings, seeing yourself in an AEGEE article in the newspaper, sleeping in a bed after five days spent in a gym, a smile on a member's face after a successful event, receiving a thank you note or a postcard, 120 e-mails per day, learning to say "thank you" in as many languages as possible, being trusted by the network and making them proud to belong to AEGEE, feeling the spirit of the whole Agora the day of your election: all this is part of the life of the Comité Directeur. As president Karina Häuslmeier puts it: “What brought us together is the motivation to do more for the Association. Some call it AEGEE... we call it home!”
KEY TO EUROPE
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