“The Greek Dances Workshop was a Highlight”
AEGEE-Ioannina called their Travelling Summer University “The Ionian battle: Gods verSUs Mortals”. Very fitting for a course about Greek culture and history, which took place from 7 to 21 July 2019.
Golden Times: What was your Summer University about?
Eva Kalliakouda: Our SU was about Greek culture and history as you can tell from the name “The Ionian Battle: Gods verSUs Mortals”. Also we cooperated with the Language Interest Group and had some brilliant workshops about language and communication.
GT: How many participants and how many organisers did you have?
Eva: We had 34 participants and the team consisted of 18 people; 6 of them were organizers and the rest helpers.
GT: What were the greatest thematic programme highlights of the SU?
Eva: I think everyone will agree that the highlights were the workshops, for example the Greek Dances Workshop, which took place in the middle of an idyllic landscape in a Greek village. We also had a lot of fun during a theme party about Ancient Greece and during games we called “The Olympic Games”
GT: What were the funniest or most exciting moments?
Eva: The most exciting moments like every year were the rafting day in the deepest gorge in the world, the boat trips in some of the most spectacular beaches of Greece and of course the visit to the famous Shipwreck Beach. The funniest moments for me were the gossip box reading time and the European Night. Participants and Organizers seemed to enjoy them totally!
GT: How was the group of participants? How did you manage to integrate them?
Eva: Our group consisted of female and male participants at about the same rate. We had newbies on equal numbers with experienced members and ages from 18 to 30. Someone can say that we were a diverse group that had formed a friendly environment for everyone. Moreover, because we were aware of the fact that “ghettos” will still appear, we tried to mix up participants during games, workshops, socials or even when it came to where they sleep in each accommodation.
GT: How was the cooperation in the team? Any special moment you would mention here?
Eva: Our SU is a demanding one judging from the hours of sleep to the things we carry and the variety of destinations. You can’t really tell the difference between a helper and an organizer from the outside because every single person was eager to help – even the participants sometimes. So I can say that everyone reached their limits this summer. We cooperated in the best possible way, even if the most of us didn’t know each other before. Furthermore it’s common sense that in a group of 18 people you cannot fit with everyone, but that affected us only the first days.
GT: How was the romance factor of the SU? And what were the highlights from the gossip box?
Eva: Comparing it with other SUs the romantic factor was quite weak I can say – we had four couples. Gossip box of course played its role and pushed sometimes things to happen thanks to our precious gossip writers. But at the end of the day we were mostly a group of friends and most of the people were happy staying that way and had a lot of fun.
GT: How successful was the SU overall?
Eva: I think the SU was very successful even with some misfortunes – like the bad weather some days – that made us change the schedule twice. What matters is that everyone left saying a lot of good words to us and full of emotions and happy memories!
