On 2nd December, a delegation of our 10 students went with their teacher Ms. Babčáníková to České Budějovice, where the 12th RSC of EYP took place. The following texts describe all of the events.
Team building
Once we arrived at our accommodation, we started waiting for the very first part of the session, which was team building.
The time came and we went outside. We all gathered on a small meadow not far from our accommodation. We were welcomed by the organisers and began with general team building. We played a few games, just to get at least a bit more comfortable with so many new people around. However, then we divided into our committees, and that's when the proper teambuilding began.
We quickly transported into a venue assigned for committer teambuilding and work, which was a local high school, each committee went to their class and started to break the barriers and form new friendships. Each committee did slightly different activities depending on the chairperson, some of them were the same, but they were all designed to teach us the basic principles we would later need for the committee work.
Matěj Vachovec
Opening Ceremony
Having arrived back to our accommodation from the wonderful teambuilding, we quickly dressed ourselves up into formal suits and dresses to, in a few minutes, get going to the auditorium of the local university. We were assigned places and rather soon the opening ceremony began. First, we were introduced to all the wonderful people that made the whole event happen, then we learned a bit more about EYP, its mission and its other events and also the rough idea of what we could expect in the following days was given to us. Formalities aside, we also enjoyed some good old dancing to YMCA and What Makes You Beautiful to get the blood flowing before the long awaiting feast of Eurovillage.
Matyáš Matta
Eurovillage
Another thing that deserves an honourable mention is the food at this event. On Friday night, our dinner consisted of food all the participants brought. Together, we created a Eurovillage, to which every school brought the food of the country they were representing. Our school got Belgium, so we naturally had to bring waffles. There was a great variety of cuisines; Italian, British, Spanish and Croatian. The Swedish delegation brought food from their home country. It is safe to say that everyone had a very nutritious dinner. But, as Mrs Babčaníková said: "Tomorrow night while coming up with resolutions, you are going to need every joule of energy". That turned out to be true. The food overall was good. Every course except breakfast (Swedish table) was vegetarian. For vegans and people with other dietary needs, there were other options. Now is a great time to mention that this event was sponsored by the company Redbull. The caffeine was much needed.
Jana Eisenhammerová
Committee work
Committee work always takes place on the second day of EYP and it consists of each committee working individually on their resolutions, more specifically what are the main problems and then how to adequately solve or mitigate them.
It was Saturday the 3rd and the first part of committee work began at 9:00. We were told to gather into committees and then our chairperson led us to our room where we were to spend the whole day. Our first goal was to put together information we gathered from our Topic Overview and then try to find problems, which we called OCs, regarding the specific topic that should and could be fixed or at least mitigated by the EU.
During the first part of committee work, we had a short coffee break where we could go for a drink and a snack as well as talk to friends and fellow delegates from other committees. Some committees had already been done writing down their OCs while others were still trying to find more issues that they could address. The recommended amount of OCs is 6-8 which most committees had.
The second part of Committee work began after lunch at 13:30. During the second part we had to finish writing our OCs and also come up with a solution for each issue, these solutions were called ICs. Whenever there was a need to gather information and ideas our chairperson would put on the ground three papers, each of them representing something, a cemetery where ideas that everyone in the committee agreed weren’t good enough or not needed went, a hospital where ideas that needed to be discussed further went and then a bank where ideas that the committee agreed on using went.
During this day we had fun debating with our fellow committee members about our ideas while each chairperson was giving us confidence and support to speak up so that the committee as a whole can come to create a solid resolution which would be used at the General Assembly the next day.
Kevin Ulrich
Farewell Party
On Saturday night we had a themed party. We were supposed to be dressed as mafia members. As soon as we walked into the bar close to our accommodation, we started dancing. The party lasted about 2,5 hours. Almost everyone was dancing to the rhythm of well-known songs. We could buy drinks as well (people over 18 even with alcohol). I think most people enjoyed the party and we will have the feeling in our memories for a long time.
Lara Gajdošová
General Assembly
General Assembly, probably the most awaited part of the EYP for many, took place on the 4th of December at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Jihočeská univerzita. All of the participants gathered here to discuss the resolutions that had been created in the previous days.
General Assembly, or as we call it, GA, started with the resolution of the COVI committee that found solutions to the problems of single-use plastics and ended with the resolution of the ENVI committee which successfully found solutions to the problem of rising deaths concerning the use of alcohol. During the anticipated break, all of the participants got to eat a delicious pizza from a local restaurant. And not to forget the Redbulls that helped everybody to overcome the tiredness from the past few days, specifically the lack of sleep caused by the hardcore partying of some participants. Overall, the General Assembly was a great success; everybody got to present their opinions, and all resolutions passed. And not to forget some remarkable speeches made by the students, which definitely spiced up the whole event.
Štěpán Smatana
Closing Ceremony
With the general assembly slowly having come to an end it was now time to listen to some heartbreaking speeches made by all the lovely organisers. First, we watched a short film produced by the EYP Media Team just to see how this event is going to be marked in EYP's history, it was wonderful. Then each and every organiser, one at a time, walked with their head straight to the podium and expressed their great gratitude to everyone, to the people who put their months of sleep into the making, to the ones who made sure everything went as smoothly as possible and without any impasses, to all of us, participants, whose curiosity and bravery makes events like this happen. We all enjoyed some moments of self-praise and some tears were shed as well. Then we all stood up and peacefully listened to the anthems of the Czech Republic and the European Union. We also listened to the anthem of EYP, but rather than listened, we sang, we all made a giant circle and holding hands sang Imagine by John Lennon, we sang from the bottom of our lungs, from the bottom of our hearts, with all the emotions dwelling in us. Ceremony aside it was time to share some hugs, shed some more tears and say the final farewell.
Matyáš Matta
Overview
I find it hard to summarize the whole experience of EYP in words since they cannot truly present an individual's emotions.
As the Opening ceremony took place, we were told EYP is not so much about the hard work and solutions yet mainly about making pleasant memories, connecting to people, staying in touch, and for the most part - enjoying it all.
At first, I didn't think much of it, but as time passed, all of us, strangers, in the beginning, became a group of people efficiently working altogether, while learning to understand others and their opinions.
Even though some days were, let's say, demanding, we supported each other and managed to do everything on time.
Thanks to EYP we had a chance to meet so many interesting people. We talked about our cultures, we formed our opinions, we discussed complicated topics and we did learn a lot.
In the end, we formed bonds and friendships, which I hope will last. We lived through many memorable moments and mainly, we had lots of fun.
Anna Kovaříková
