AGORA Valletta

Article posted: 29.04.07

Elina Malkamäki

Event report from Spring AGORA 2007 (Valletta, Malta) 26.-29.4.2007

After (and actually already during) my very first AGORA in Naples, fall 2006, I decided that I want to participate in the next AGORA too. I had such a great time in the fall AGORA, learned a lot about AEGEE, made new friends and met old ones. I think I would have applied for the next AGORA no matter where it would take place but when I heard it would be organised in Valletta, Malta, my enthusiasm just increased. And now, many months after the AGORA, what else can I say than YES, it was definitely worth paying over 400 euro for the flight tickets and having to retake some exams that I missed during my trip; it was just as good an event as I expected and I’m so glad I took the chance to go there!

Wednesday 25th April

At 6am I was back at the airport again… in spring I was working as a check-in agent at the airport and in fact I had been working on Tuesday evening too. After work I went home, packed the last things to my luggage, slept a couple of hours and drove back to the airport in the next morning. Well, the job at the airport had also some advantages; I had checked us (me, Kostya and Susanna) in the day before so we didn’t have to queue at all. Our flight was via Frankfurt and we met a lot of AEGEE-people already there. Thanks to the early flights we were in Malta already in the afternoon. The friendly organisers of AEGEE-Valletta brought us to the hotels that were located opposite each other. We accommodated ourselves to our rooms (I ended up to the same room with three guys, not bad ;) ) , and decided to make a little sightseeing tour with Kostya and a couple of Polish Aegeeans.
The first day was all in all quite relaxed, in the evening we went for a dinner with Johanna to restaurant Paparazzi (which in the end of the week became quite popular among us). One thing that I really appreciate in Malta is the food and eating out; the portions in restaurants are huge and still the prices quite low. Service may not always be that good but I didn’t mind.

Funny dishes at restaurant Paparazzi

Thu 26th

Thursday was the first official AGORA day. However, the opening ceremony begun only in the evening so we had the morning and afternoon for sightseeing and relaxing. Johanna and I went to explore the city/town of Valletta and a beautiful blue cave on the southern coast of Malta. In Malta all the distances are short so approximately a half an hour –drive will take you from the west coast to the east cost or from north to south. Malta is very scarce in nature, actually in the city areas most of the trees are chopped down for building houses and everything is cream-coloured, the houses, the soil, the streets… But in the south where the cliffs rule the coast we actually saw some very beautiful nature: the sea is absolutely beautiful (so blue!), the cliffs steep and trees greener than in the city areas. We made a boat trip to the azure water caves and were astonished by the clearness of the water. Water was chilly but looked so clean and bright!

Trip to Blue Grotto, that water was so clear!

After visiting all the caves and a little town nearby we headed back to Valletta and made a longer walking (and horse-carriage- !) tour there.

The opening ceremony of the Spring AGORA was held in The Grand Hall of the Corinthia San Gorg Hotel, and we even had a chance to listen to a speech by H.E. Dr. Edward Fenech Adami, the president of Malta. We also enjoyed some local folk music and performances.

After the ceremony, we headed for a party to T.G.I. Friday’s, located in a historical British fort on the Sliema seafront.

Fri 27th

After breakfast we headed for the university area where the plenaries were being held. The campus was a very nice and pleasant area. It was also good that the plenaries were not held in the same place where the accommodation was; most of the people that went to the plenaries really stayed the whole day there.

For me the most interesting part of the day was the prytanium that I attended with Johanna. It was my first time in a prytanium and I understood how important it is that every local has a representative there. You get to vote for/against proposals, listen to other’s opinions and learn new things all the time. You also get to know other active members. We took part in a prytanium which was named “CD Cycle”. There was a proposal of electing all the CD (Comité Directeur) members in the Spring AGORA instead of electing them in every Spring and Fall AGORA.

After the Prytanium and lunch I took part in a workshop. The workshop was about Cyprus- its current and past status and what AEGEE could do there and how to effect there. We did small group works and presented our ideas to the others. The workshop seemed to be very popular among the people since over 50 persons took part in it!

After a break and another plenary session we headed for dinner and a party in to Axis Discotheque in St. Julien’s.

Sat 28th

Saturday also consisted of long hours in the plenary room, listening to the discussions, speeches and candidates applying for certain positions (like to the CD, Network commission etc.). There was again a prytania session, me and Johanna took part in “Changes to financial working format – nutrition budget for the CD”, the purpose of which was to make sure that there is enough money in the CD house to assure a healthy life for the CD members.
The second prytanium was called “Joint Proposals: FECT – Netcom – SU”. The suggested changes for them were:

• FECT (Find Europe Co-ordination team): to facilitate the organising process of a Find Europe event by giving clear categories for Find Europe events. This way Find Europe events could be distinct according to their focus.
• Netcom (Network Commission): eleven network commissioners instead of ten and abolishing the possibility for antennae to apply for the Network Commission.
• SU: to make the SU working format comply with the statutes.

On Saturday was also the first signing of the Convention d’Adhésion, i.e. new antennae joining the AEGEE-family. This time there were so many new antennae involved that the signing session was divided for two days.

After an exhausting day we relaxed in the European night which was maybe one of the best I’ve ever seen in my AEGEE-events! Our hotel backyard had been transformed into an outdoor club with CISK EXPORT (official AGORA beer) / KINNIE (official AGORA soft drink) tents, covering a massive area where the Valletta Bums Band played for us. All the countries had put up a table with all kinds of local food and drinks. The Maltese table especially was huge and filled with local pastrys, pies, sweets etc. The Maltese were also wearing local outfits

Sun 29th

Sunday was the last AGORA day and included a lot of voting, clapping hands and singing The new CD was elected as well as f.ex. new netcommies and members to the Members Commission and the chair of the AGORA. I also took part in a workshop called “SU 20 years, past, present and future”. For me it was very useful since I had never participated in a SU neither as an organiser nor as a participant. We discussed interesting issues, for example about the PR work of the Summer University campaigns.
In the afternoon was the second part of signing the Convention d’Adhésion and we were delighted to see Päivi and Laura representing AEGEE-Tampere when they joined the great AEGEE-family and signed the Convention d’Adhésion!

Päivi hugging Theijs, the president of AEGEE-Europe, after signing the Convention d’Adhésion

We also heard a touching and emotional speech from Susanna when she left her “job” as Secretary of the AGORA after many many years. Susanna also helped Silvia Baita, vice chair of the AGORA, to make an erotic roll-call of AEGEE-locals…
In the evening there was again a party but the music inside the club was so loud that most of the people gathered out to the street for clubbing… Something I’ve only seen in Malta

Mon 30th – Thu 3rd

After the official AGORA programme most of us stayed in Malta for at least a couple of days to relax and to explore the island better with time. On Monday we made a trip to Gozo island with Laura and Johanna. It was a beautiful and relaxed place where some Maltese also go on vacation instead of going abroad. We also had little time to visit the silent city of Mdina.
In the evening we joined those who had been lucky and got accepted to the official post-event of the AGORA and went clubbing and eating with them.

On Tuesday morning my roommate Johanna left for Rome (yeah, I didn’t get to sleep with three guys after all but maybe it was better that way…) , and me and Laura enjoyed the sunny and warm weather on a roof terrace. I have had a Maltese pen friend in Malta for ten years and I now got the chance to meet her in real life. So Melanie and her boyfriend took us for a 10-hour (!) excursion around Malta! It was maybe the best part of the Malta trip. We got to see more in one day than we had seen during all the previous days together. They took us to a fishing village, to a boat cruise, to stalactite caves, to a fancy lunch, to see the magnificent cliffs and a lot of other places. They even insisted on buying souvenirs for our relatives, can you believe that friendliness! All in all, I got a very positive picture from all the Maltese people. On Tuesday night we also went for a dinner to the Paparazzi restaurant again.

Wednesday was a shopping day for me and Laura, we took a bus to Sliema area and popped in to nearly all the possible shops and boutiques. In the evening we had a nice dinner with Mika, Pekko and Päivi – in Paparazzi again

St. Julien’s by night, picture taken from Paparazzi restaurant

A “piece” of cake

Thursday was the departure day but we didn’t have to travel alone because many of the people living in Central Europe took the same flight with us until Frankfurt. By the way, in the same plane with us – all the way to Helsinki – was the Maltese Eurovision Song Contest delegation!

Malta from the plane

We were back in Helsinki (and ironically – back at my working place!) late in the evening. I guess some people had been missing us since we were asked to come to social meeting, straight from the airport…