Report: TSU 2011 - Discover Your True Colours 18.7.-1.8.2011

Article posted: 8.09.11

In the last half of July 2011, AEGEE-Helsinki together with AEGEE-St.Petersburg and AEGEE-Tallinn organized the AEGEE Travelling Summer University Discover Your True Colours. This project had been in the planning since autumn 2010 and on 18 July the long-awaited event finally started with 25 participants from all over Europe gathering in summery St.Petersburg. Some brave Finnish organizers also dared to go to St.Petersburg, thus spending the whole duration of the event with the participants. This would mean two weeks of intense socializing and partying.

Activities during the Russian leg of the colourful trip included a comprehensive seven-hour walking city tour of St.Petersburg, visits to the Hermitage and the majestic Peterhof Palace as well as nightly excursions to St. Petersburg’s clubs and bars. During these hot days and long nights the participants and organizers got well acquainted with each other and formed one happy, fun-loving group of crazy AEGEE-people. The participants were lodged in a traditional Soviet style dorm with a beautiful view of the Volga river, but there was not much time for sleeping. So it is no wonder that when the group finally got on the bus that would take them to the lakes and forests of Finland most of them fell asleep immediately.

“Some” hours later the bus was already arriving to the lovely cottage rented by AEGEE-Helsinki for the first part of the Finland leg of the Summer University. There the participants were greeted by the smiling Finnish organizers for whom the Summer University experience was only just beginning. At the cottage the participants got to relax and recuperate after the more hectic schedule in St.Petersburg.

The most anticipated night of any AEGEE-event, the European Night, was scheduled on the second cottage day. For European Night the participants bring typical food and drinks from their home countries for everyone to taste and marvel at. In this Summer University that meant food and drinks from 17 different countries. The participants had the whole day to prepare their offerings, and when the European Night was finally ready to start, the tables were filled with delicious looking dishes and copious amounts of alcohol. Luckily no one passed out too early, and as the last boys and girls standing staggered to sleep around eight in the morning, it was clear that the European Night had lived up to everyone's high expectations. The next day it was time not only for hangover, but also the Finnish Olympics, in which the participants got to compete in traditional Finnish activities such as boot throwing and mämmi-eating.

After three unforgettable days and nights at the idyllic cottage area it was time to head for the concrete jungle of Helsinki. There the participants got to express their creative side in a city rally, run around Suomenlinna and dance their butts off at Helsinki's clubs.

When the participants finally got to Tallinn - the last phase of the intense two week tour - there was a surprise waiting for them. This year's other Nordic Summer University - organized by AEGEE-Tartu, AEGEE-Ogre and AEGEE-Tallinn - was also ending in Tallinn and so there were suddenly 25 more people from all around Europe to make friends with. The whole group of more than 50 AEGEE-crazies were lodged in a gym in the middle of Tallinn's Old Town, which served as a beautiful backdrop to the intense last days of a most memorable two weeks. Let's just say that after this experience it was not easy to return to normality.

Mika Malin
European Activities