This Newsletter contains:
Impression of the 8th Western European Regional Congress in March 97; Andijk, NL
" Made in Holland - The Reclamation of Land in the Ijsselmeer Region "
Arriving on Thursday in Andijk, I was welcomed heartfully and friendly.
The Theme of the congress landeclamation has also been an issue in Switzerland in the early 19th century. In that time the Swiss suffered from an economical recession and had to face hunger, unemployment and emigration, due to an instable and insecure agricultural system. As main parts of our agricultural land was in the fertile valleys and plains it was exposed to the danger of floods,caused by melting of snow or weathering. In addition, this muddy, marshy and swampy region was known as the paradise of the ZeZe -Fly. To fight both - inundation and malaria - Swiss government promoted melioration through canalisation, watertunnels and drained landscape. On the other hand, the problems the Dutch had to solve were of other dimensions and kinds. It demands the cooperation of all scientific branches, be it natural or human science, in other words where ever a geographer is needed. Our congress happend to take place inmidst the concerned area and therefore inmidst our congress theme. Het Grootslag , a bungalow and camping site, turned our to be the perfect place for this congress. I had the chance to live together with 5 other people and a member of the organisation - team in one bungalow. We shared the basics of living together, exchanged news, thoughts and had many discussions about the excursion we've made on Friday or we were been told what the others have been doing in their workshops. I may say that I really got fond of some people. There was one thing people with such different lifestyles and backgrounds had in common - apart from the fact studying geography: they all had a real positive aura. I gained inspiration and I got " infected" with the motivation of some geographical "hardliners". They were convinced of what they were doing: studying Geography; and knowing that this means having all the potential for the future. The work we did during the congress and the results we achieved encouraged me to go on with my studies. And I'd like to encourage any student to join the next congress (28.9.- 15.10. 1997 in Bucharest) or an other meeting where people who do the same thing but in different ways come together to exchange and "synthesise".... Last but not least - some words to the organisation-team: I'm impressed by the efforts they undertook and evidently made the congress a success! It takes a long time to prepare it in advance and it is gone over in only a few days. Indeed - it left a mark in our memory! I really want to say "thank you"to all of them who helped to make the congress possible - and to the German group who is about to invite us for the next year to the next regional congress in Berlin (Spring 1998)!Katja, Brundiers, EGEA Zurich
(a report of EGEA in Africa)
After laying down my duties as treasurer of EGEA at the VIIth EGEA Congress in Zierenberg, october 1995, I undertook the great adventure of being an "Erasmus-student" myself; but this time I left Europe all together! Here's my report of an academic year on the southern hemisphere (february - december 1996) in the World Capital of Crime; and of what EGEA had to do with it. Welcome to Jo'burg I arrived in the comfortable (white) hands of some childhood friends of my parents in Krugersdorp, about an hour's travel to the west of "downtown Jo'burg" along the great Witwatersrand gold-deposits. Despite their slightly different approach to "kaffers", I have personally never received such a warm welcome from people I had never met before in my life. After one week I had found myself a room in a "commune" with 5 (mostly white) young South Africans who introduced me to a very different side of the "new South Africa": the vibrant metropolitan area of Yeoville. Most suburban neighbourhoods of Jo'burg are very boring, spread-out and car-oriented, walled in against burglars and "dead" after sunset. On the other hand there still are the townships like Soweto or Alexandra, where it is indeed sometimes (and in particular parts) dangerous (especially for a single white person), overcrowded and lacking facilities and infrastructure. The changes mostly take place in 'grey' areas like Hillbrow and downtown, where since long before the official end of Apartheid blacks have 'illegally' found space to live, and are by now the great majority. In Yeoville -originally a Jewish quarter- the mix is quite balanced, and even seems to have more or less stabilized at that. It's population is, on average, relatively young, lower middle-class and "alternative" and/or "open-minded". There are young black, Indian and even white families, there are lots of students and other singles, often living in "communes" like mine, and many artists. Here (especially at Ba-Pita cafe/restaurant) is where you will always hear first about the next big Rave-party, where you'll find all the latest trends, where the famous black musician Hugh Masekela opened his own Jazz-club, where black and white dance together in Tandoor ata concert of Juluka or Bayete, where young artists/ new bands find their first stage, where there is both the cheapest supermarkets and clothes-sales and also the best Nature Foodstore of Jo'burg (Fruits & Roots), where you can still walk home alone at night and which is the only place where I - very occasionally- have had a friendly comment in the street without people being after my money. Still, this is also an area where there is often noise, domestic violence, drugs (including drug-murders) and drunken bumms (black, white or coloured) who break into cars. It's the whole of the "Rainbow Nation" within one neighbourhood (except for a huge shopping-mall with cinema's, maybe). I've felt very lucky to be staying here, especially with the great friends I made in my lovely house! Geography at WITS At the Geography Department of the University of Witwatersrand (WITS) I found the academic system to be very different from Amsterdam. The first three years (`bachelors' degree) are rather standard and school-like; in my opinion easier than our studies. But after that only those with the best marks are allowed to continue for their 'honours' degree (one year) and after that possibly their 'masters' degree (about one and a half year). Only in the 'masters' phase are students expected to really do a fieldwork/ research project of their own, and write a report on it equal to our thesiswork/ Diplom. But the standards for these 'postgraduate studies' are quite a bit higher than I experienced them for the final stage of the 'drs'-studies in Amsterdam! Yet, I found myself registered as a Masters-student and had to come along with their top 10% students... I can only hope I didn't look too bleak. On the other hand, there were only about 10 masters students and about 15 honours students in the Geography Department, which made it a kind of 'class' with a great and stimulating (though sometimes competing) internal atmosphere and resulting in a rich social life. Many postgrads got scholarships on condition that they assisted in lecturing to the undergrads (thus I also went on a fieldtrip with the preliminary and first year students as an 'assistant'). Overall this made the distance to the staff-members very small: on friday afternoons staff and students went together to the "Blind Pig"; the postgraduate club (or: PG-club; a pig without an eye/I), which was strategically located just behind the Geography building. Also, every postgrad got his/her own desk in the honours or masters room, where a telephone was available for on-campus and incoming calls and we got keys to the geogrpahy building and the (GIS) computer-room in it, including the 'privilege' (not available to undergrads) of e-mail (!!!) (my life-line to home and EGEA)! The 28th "AFROGEA" Congress in Bloemfontein Just about the very same time as you were all gathering in Porto, I had the privilige of visiting the "28th Students' Geography Conference" in Bloemfontein; for all Universities of South Africa! Unfortunately it lasted only three days, but it definitely had that "EGEA-vibe" (AFROGEA?)!! So I left the organizers a bunch of EGEA-leaflets to compare, which they even copied and handed out to the participants! It was organized by and for the students and every year hosted by a different University, but their programme was a bit more official: Sunday 22 September we were welcomed with a "function" (= borrel = drinks and snacks and welcome-speech); Monday 23 September we had a general session with speeches from the chairman of the hosting students' society ("entity"?!), a Bloemfontein professor and a Big-time SA Geography prof (Richard Tomlinson), plus an introduction to the excursion to Botshabelo. After "teatime" there followed eight sessions (four before and four after lunch) with each about five student presentations on more or less related topics, always referring to their own honours or masters research projects. Since one of our students hadn't come after all, I took over her post as chairman of one of these sessions. After another teatime we got the opportunity to do some "claytile sculpting", meaning we were allowed to dirty ourselves with real Free State Clay to create something "geographical" or our "vision of the future": pity it was spoiled by the rain... In the evening they had organized a real South African "Braai" (barbeque) and a G-R-E-A-T P-A-R-T-Y afterwards: Geographers turn out to be party-animals all over the world!! Tuesday 24 September, after a short night's sleep and with aching "dancing-muscles" we all left again at 8:30 for a day of excursion: interesting division between "A) Developmental challenges" and "B) Environmental challenges"... Either way, we all ended up going to Botshabelo, the biggest South African "township" after Soweto, more than 25 kilometers (!) outside of Bloemfontein. We were mostly impressed by the spread out map of the place, without proper planning, a center or an "urban image" and with lots of (informal) activities - individual or collective, private or through NGO's - to make a living in this economic wasteland. Especially an Urban Agriculture Project, selling fruit trees for five Rand (DEM 2.-) to the people and producing vegetables and flowers, and helping with the raising and sales of goats, chickens and rabbits, was very impressive .(Also it was great fun to go "dancing in the rain" with the curiously advancing kids! Unfortunately, we ended up at Naledi Sun, a small version of "Sun City", where we enjoyed a Braai again, but not many students were keen on gambling in the casino... And thus that evening wa ended far too early for a Geographers’ congress... Wednesday 25 September held another eight morning-sessions with student presentations, of which one presentation was made by me. Scary as it was, I presented the results of the PRA-fieldwork in Cornfields, KwaZulu/Natal, introducing myself very PRA-styled in three local languages of which none was my own (Afrikaans, Zulu and English). Before my adrenalin-level had recovered from all this, we were already facing the last general session, in which it was decided that the 29th SA Students' Geography Conference was to be held in the formerly "black" (and thus poor) University of ..... (north): Good luck to them, and, alas, goodbye to all of us... The EGEA-Network across the Oceans From South Africa, I still managed to finish the report of the Regional Congress of Western Europe in America (NL) in 1995, after all the editorial problems with it, for it to be available at the next Congress in Cassel. Also, I finished all the terrible details of the changes in the Statutory Base and the finances for the new BoE-members and managed to sent a letter to the new "editorial board" of the EGEA Scientific Magazine (whatever its name may have become?!?). Through e-mail I held frequent contact with many EGEA-friends, which was a great support, and they even managed, in second attempt, to get me a copy of the very impressive Zierenberg Congress Report: Thank you all so very much for all that!! Yet, it becomes even better. In the middle of my stay I was suddenly confronted with the presence of Christoph from Hamburg, with whom I spent some lovely times in Jo'burg and almost went travelling with (bloody exams...). I also helped him get some information from WITS for his studies. And yet more bizarre than this "deja-vu" of a friend in a different context was the following: I received an e-mail from Stefan from Marburg, saying he had heard a geography-friend of his was going to South Africa too; maybe we could get eachother's adresses? Well, sure, but she was in Umtata in the Eastern Cape (Transkei), about as far as Amsterdam is from Budapest... Still, after some initial e-mail contact, Beate came to visit Johannesburg for a congress... and she happily stayed over in my Yeoville-house for about two weeks! And I really came close to visiting her in Umtata and/or her friends in Lesotho; a real pity I couldn't after all. But of course the real point is that EGEA really does increase your scope and possibilities; even outside of Europe: Yeah EGEA! And even after my return EGEA still managed to get me in touch with a Belgian Geographer from Bonn-University, who is now on her way to do a placement job in Johannesburg... and got herself a room in my good-old house in Yeoville! One day we'll make it our very own "Wow-GeA": The World Wide Geographical Associaltion for students and young geographers!! distance Botshabelo-BLoemfontein location next Students' Conference If you want more informatio on (the experience of..) studying in South Africa, contact... Berend Brock, EGEA-AmsterdamWho's affraid of Livia or the brief story about polish-slovenian exchange
Once upon a time a group of polish geography students appeared in Ljubljana - the capital of Slovenia. It was a lovely spring day, the sun was shining and the birds were singing, happy that the winter was over. Natasa and Uros were already waiting for us. The plans of our journey have been carefully prepared. First: get-together evening. We visited few slovenian pubs and clubs, tasted two main kinds of slovenian beer and (in jolly mood) discussed details of our trip.
The next day it was the beginning of sightseeing excursions - full of visiting interesting places, admiring views and - above all - full of fun. First we visited Bohinj and Bled - two lakes surrounded by Julian Alps and we climbed to the castel of Bled on a bluff rock overlooking the lake with a beautiful island. We saw Savica Waterfall - one of the sources of the Sava River. Impressed by countless numbers of views we returned to Ljubljana to visit some new pubs.
As I was especialy interested in karst processes next few days we assigned for karst regions. We visited Predjamski Grad - fourteenth-century castel, built in the middle of strong steep rock, over the huge cave. Then we saw the unique Cerknica lake which disappears and reappears seasonally. Next day we admired Rakov Skocjan - small area full of karst formations like caves, natural bridges, chasms,canyons, karst polje, valleys and so forth. But the most interesting thing we saw in Slovenia was Skocjan Cave. It is a huge breathtaking underground canyon eroded by foaming Reka river that flows in a rushing torrent through a canyon one hundred meters below the cave's bridges and walkways. The riches of formations like stalagmites, stalactites are unique, so this cave is under UNESCO protection and listed on the Register of the World's Natural Heritage. Next night we spent in Portoroz - touristic resort at the seaside. Unfortunately, when we were going to Portoroz we found small vineyard with winery and we bought 10 liters of young wine. The result was that we organized international song festival which lasted up to deep night hours until the last singer fell asleep.
In the morning we stood up restly and ready to conquer the seaside. We gone to Piran - the pleasent old town built by pirates and after happy time spent there we returned to mountains. Night in Nova Gorica was very untypical, because we gone to the bar where we played table-football to 4 AM. It was international match and I must bring into relief that we won (in spite being disturbed by two local girls). We spent the rest of the night in our bus.
Finally we returned to Ljubljana where we were hosted by Marko and next day we farwelled our slovenian friends and we returned home through Austria, Liehten-stein, Switzerland and Germany.
It was a very interesting trip. In my opinion Slovenia is one of the most beautiful places in the Europe. I really advice you to visit this country of snow-capped Alps, blue Adriatic and dark caves. I want to take an opportunity and thank Natasa, Ursa, Sabina, Uros1, Uros2, Primoz, Marko and other slovenian friends for their hospitality. We often talk about the nice time we had together. Lepa hvala za vaso gostoljubnost!!!
Piotr Kotkowski, EGEA-Warsaw
Regional Conference in Lithuania
Doing a congress like an excursion can be an alternative to doing workshops. The next congress of the Northern and Baltic Region is going to take place in St. Petersburg (Russia). As our correspondent reports from Vilnius the regional congress was a huge success. The twenty participants were seen partiing the night away and exploring the treasures of lithuanian culture and nature at day. The attractions were as famous as the Trakai castle, as traditional as the hill of crosses, as valuable as the amber museum, as sandy as the dunes at Neringa and as modern as the meteorlogical equipment at the airport of Siauliai. The mood of the crowd was always good but it really exploded when Edward proposed to do the next regional congress in St. Petersburg. Spontainiously the masses applauded to this daring and wise decision. This famous city will help to spread the knowledge of EGEA throughout Russia and will attract lots of EGEAns from the other countries of the region. The broad majority of participants immediatly decided to take part in the next congress too. Still breathless reporting from Vilnius: Kay Wahlen - EGEA HamburgStudent Days in Tartu'97 (Polishmen in Estonia)
It was one of these beautiful days in the beginning of May - plus 5 C of temp. and fields full of snow, when we arrive to Estonia. In the beginning of second part of exchange we visited wonderful castle in Narva and 50m. high cliffs on the north coast (Baltic Sea), the baech was full of stones with prehistorical prints of ancient animals. After this day everybody had 7 kilos more in his luggage and strong feelings concerning estonian sauna. Rest of our days we spent in Tartu (including sand-stone fantastic caves and other things) but nobody could imagine what could happened during these days (Tartu Universi ty is the oldest one in the Northern Europe). Whole 100 000 town exploded immidietly with first sounds of Student's Days. We were in real shock seeing what's going on: jumping from and washing monuments with the shampaigne, flying big baloons, ferry trips on the ship with dixiland band (especially for students) besides concerts and all night long partys. There were also big market in the main square of Tartu: you could buy everything - three years old fishes, pieces of Boris Jelcyn broken heart and small parts of Saudi Arabia. After this was a run, connected with competition for the best wearing clothes: monks, generals, cows, Soviet Union Ski Team and sauna people (they losts their only clothes - towels again and again). In the culmination point there were professional boat race between two high schools (like Oxford-Cambridge competition) and crazy drift of more than 40 student's boats. The best was, of course,geografical team which was driftind the longest time with the bigest number of persons and the best clothes and sense of humour. Very big greetings for them!!! All these events were undiscribing because of the atmosphere over there - we didn't meet such things anywhere earlier. I think there is no such student's days anywhere in Europe, am I right?! I think Oxford should be called "the Tartu of the West". Before we set off to our friends to Estonia we had decided to visit one more place - Sankt Petersburg. The city is known as Venice of the North and the long white nights were very tempting, too. Besides it is just a few hours by train from the border, so why not? It soon proved that there are many EGEA friends who can help us in arranging all the accomodation matters. Altough we expected somebody to pick us up from the railway station yet we didn`t guess it would be whole comitee, the very warm welcome in this cold morning and all these atractions which were going to happen to us during this weekend. We all wanted to see as much as possible but it soon turned out that in spite of the great help of our new friends visiting St. Petersburg and its suburbs during just two days is simply imposible. We had to limit our great appetite for a sightseeing only to the city which proved to be extremly beautiful and hudge! In a great hurry we menaged to see: famous Aurora, orthodox church of St.Isaac, Peter and Paul fortress and Ermitege of course. It is said that it takes at least a week to see everything there without a rush. Well, we had abut three hours and thank Goodness the part devated to ancient Greece was just closed so we had some more time for Monet, Manet, van Gogh`s paintings.There was also visit at the Faculty of Geography (Meteo and Hydrology), where we had a unique dinner with our new Friends. Anyway it was a great pleasure to be in Saint Petersburg, meet the group of wonderful people and make friendship with Them. We are very grateful and they can be sure that they are always welcome in Warsaw. So see You in Poland. Beata, Ula, Justyna, Ania, Magda, Roger, Mirek, Piotrek, Robal, Jarek, EGEA-Warsaw