Yes he can: Revealing the secrets of President Hall

Potluck: Tasting European specialities

The universe within: Find out more about cultural shocks and sterotypes

6th National Selection Conference European Youth Parliament Spain

madExperience y Passion

official magazine

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Content / Editorial

First impressions

There and back again

Opening Ceremony

A glimpse at the real world

Eurovillage

Fasion and Fame

Yes he can

The universe within

Don‘t stop the music

Chairs‘ secrets

About teachers

Partners and sponsors

Content Editorial

Dear Readership,

It is now 06:37 and we are almost done editing this issue. While working on this magazine we basically forgot all the important words and advice we wanted to give you.

Remembering the beginning of the day quite well, we believe that it must have been a bit awkward for some of you. We ob-served you lining up, playing games or simply crawling between each other’s legs because your chair told you to beat another committee. All those aspects made you bond and become stronger as a team.

We hope that you enjoyed this first stage of the session, which now is unfortunately over.

Your next stop is called Committee Work. This is the point where you will push the committee to it’s limits and get into heated and stimulating discussions with your fellow delegates. Deba-ting, arguing, exchanging ideas and considering other’s points of view will be the adequate terms to describe these two days. By the end your very own product will be all that counts: your resolution.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this magazine, which will accompany you during the next days.

It is now 07:00 am, time to go to bed. We shall see each other after we got some sleep.

Alex Narayanin & Max Karpf

- Editors -

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> “EYP is about Europe and the different pro-blems – How can the EU solve European is-sues?” - Member of the Committee on EMPL II.

Being Official at this session is not only inte-resting, but also important to determine how much experience a delegate gained during the session. As delegates are going to travel home after only four days, officials want to make sure that no participant will regret his or her atten-dance.

The first day of the session is coming to an end. Before starting Teambuilding and getting to know most of the people, some delegates expressed their first impressions and feelings about this EYP session.

My survey resulted in the following conclusions. Most of the delegates believe, that the core of EYP is being part of the European future. They would like to take this opportunity to be able to achieve more in life. Delegates also think, that EYP is about communicating with dif-ferent people and communities without being afraid of expressing one’s own opinions. Young people are eager to get involved in various pro-jects, which is why it is important to them to

understand and to address current European problems, so they can understand the EU in a better way. However, most of all delegates are very excited about the session and want to enjoy it. Most of us have neither English nor French as our mother tongue, this is why it is important for our delegates to improve their English skills throughout the session to express themselves. Besides improving language skills, delegates also want to improve debating skills during GA and learn more about the EU. Delegates also expect to meet lots of new people and to make new friends that are from different cities and countries. Losing shyness during Teambuilding or dealing with one’s own excitement about the new expe-rience might be exhausting at some point, but experiencing personal challenges while having lots of fun is another essential part of EYP.

Overall it is obvious that delegates participating in this session are motivated to find solutions and figure out new ways to solve complicated situations within the EU, which is why I am very much looking forward to Committee Work. < L.L.

First impressionsLara Lindlahr

Your expectations, hopes and fears while arriving.

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> “As Madrid is the capital of Spain, there are many ways to get there: train, buses, car, planes, subway …etc. And every shipping has its own story”

As you might have already noticed, Madrid is quite European, fairly big and full of life. Getting here is pretty easy and if you’re from Spain it doesn’t take too much time.

There has been two main ways of traveling, as you may guess, by train and by plane.Traveling by train is comfortable, and it can be less frightening that traveling by plane. It’s more relaxing, because you can see real landscape through the window, and it doesn’t shake as it does in planes. Furthermore you can get the big luggage and you don’t have to worry about your packing and the res-trictions you could find while flying. We have the attestation of Ana Fernandez (LIBE) who told us that she got locked in the bathroom of a train because she is not used to travel this way. She first tried to pull the knob, and it didn’t work, then she pressed a big green button that made the bathroom become a tropical storm with water and wind so she became nervous and called a friend from outside that simply slid the door.

Planes are faster and cover bigger distances but it’s also annoying having to remove liquids, to pass controls or to wait hours in airport’s queues. We have the testimony from our fellow journo Susie. She tried to get to Madrid four times until she finally managed and this twelve hours later. Her flight from Larnaca, Cyprus was cancelled, so she had to wait for the next one to Heathrow. In the mean time, she fall asleep and missed the second one and then, finally the third attempt was the right one and she made it to London. From there she still had to get to Madrid. In Heathrow her flight to Madrid got can-celled, so she had to take another one to make it to the session.

So as you have seen, an easy travel could turn into a nightmare, either a short one like Ana’s or a twelve hours disaster, which happened to Susie. < L.A.

There and back again

Luis Algeciras

Opening CeremonySusannah Karatzia

> The atmosphere was tense and het up when all the delegates gathered in the Museo de la ciudad de Madrid for the Opening Ceremony. Not only did this event introduce most impor-tant officials but also welcomed the delegates to the 6th National Selection Conference of EYP Spain.

The first speaker - a member of the Madrid City Council - explained the importance and the at-tractiveness of the city, including the changes it undertook after entering the EU, such as living conditions, business opportunities and infras-tructure. Underlining Madrid’s dynamism and efficiency he referred to Madrid as one of the most important cities of Europe.

Holding a National Session in Madrid was always a dream of EYP Spain and it was down to our head-organisers, Josep Roca i Camps and Aniol Quer Casacoberta to realise it. Along with

some hard work and preparation which made it possible for us all to be here today. They both expressed their hope for all the participants to leave with an amazing experience and a lot of memories as well as the urge to continue their EYP paths further all around Europe.

Finally, our president Chris Hall took the stage for the official opening of the session. Having visited and loved as well as attended EYP ses-sions in Spain before, Chris is truly the person to look up to. Along with his words of wisdom “Everyday do something that scares you”, he gave advice about nervousness. Once a ner-vous delegate himself, he assured our new-comers that nervousness always comes before greatness. His final piece of advice and pro-bably the most important was that all delegates should voice opinions, as this is what you are here for. < S.K.

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Welcome to

Madrid

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A glimpse at the real world

When we turn on the television we see people protesting in the streets, and shou-ting for their freedom in Libya and Egypt. But what is really going on? This revolution, mostly led by young people, grows with the lack of freedom the Libyan people have to suffer of for now more than 40 years, under Colonel Gaddafi reign. These people have a look around and see that in their neighbouring countries people are free to express themselves. They are fighting for what they, and every single person in this world, should have: proper human rights.

The Libyan conflict

The end! As Josep Guardiola said “the FC Barcelona now has an obligation to enjoy retaining La Liga title”, after leaving their rival Real Madrid behind. This victory was preceded by a long period of hard chal-lenges. When Barca won against Levante, they took the lead and mathematically gua-ranteed bringing home the championship. Of course, this motivated them before com-peting in the Champions League final in London. Meanwhile, Real Madrid defeated Getafe massively: 4-0 was the final result on Tuesday.Nuri Sahin, a Turkish midfielder currently playing for Borussia Dortmund signed for “Los Blanquillos”.

Sport - La Primera Division

Recently there has been two earthquakes in Lorca, Murcia, the May, 11th a 5.2 ear-thquake on the Ritcher’s Scale happened at 18:47 and then a 4.4 earthquake was felt too, three minutes later.The earthquakes took 10 human lives, over 290 individuals got injured, and more than 20000 inhabitants have been evicted.“Everyone is out of their homes, people are frightened, and everything is in ruins” said an earthquake’s victim.

Earthquakes in Lorca

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EurovillageSusannah Karatzia

Potluck - Tasting European specialities.

> It was 9:07 pm and as my body had entered in star-vation mode, I decided to hop down to the floor below the press room to check out what the delegates had to offer. Eurovillage is a special EYP presentation of natio-nal traditions and culinary specialties of the different countries. In this session’s case, each school was allo-cated a country to represent. They each brought along food, drinks, flags, postcards and posters, and some even videos.

Upon entering the small room on the 2nd floor, the waft of lovely food creped ups my nostrils and I paid a visit to each table to find out exactly who they were and what they brought. There was a selec-tion of countries but the first that caught my eye was Swit-zerland and it’s cheese fon-due! Alongside their fondue was Milka chocolate but they had a stiff competition with

the opposite table: Belgium had a huge amount of tasty chocolate as well.

Escola Thau Barcalona was representing Ireland and did so very successfully with their Bailey’s drink, traditio-nal cake they bought from an Irish pub, peanuts and garlic bread attracting lots of people and their table was constant-ly crowded. Apart from food, they also dressed the part too with Guinness hats and their greenness brought a new light to the room. The playing video was a traditional Irish music most often linked to Irish tap dancing. There was definitely a true Irish feel and it gets my vote for the best table.

Another table that was well represented with Baked Beans, ham sandwiches, crisps and sausages was the United Kingdom table. Being British, it certainly made me miss my motherland and

its food! Next door to the Brits were the French. They say that every French meal should be accompanied by cheese to make it tasty and so they provided us with camembert. If you were loo-king for a delicious meal, the Greek table was the place to be! With homemade tzatziki, olives and mousaka you were not going to leave hungry. Nuria Adrian Caupbell from the Dutch table also guided me through their selection of cheese, salad, bread and especulos biscuits.

My only disappoint was that for us international officials there was no Spanish table and so therefore we could not taste the real culinary experience of Spain. Never-theless I can sincerely say the Eurovillage was a success as everyone’s appetites were filled with different food from around Europe. < S.K.

> As you know, the 6th National Session of EYPE started and we prepared ourselves for the occasion. We put into practice our detective skills and started a full research on new fashion icons present at the ses-sion.

This morning as we got to ‘’El Museo de la ciudad’’ we gave our best and ended up choosing four fantastic and fashionable delegates to look up to. They agreed to share their incredible style with us, so that we can provide you with some great tips for the GA. We are sure that they will be an excellent source of inspiration for eve-ryone, so feel free to go and ask them for advices!!! Firstly, we have our model Francesc who chose an appropriate look for the Opening Ceremony. We love his waistcoat as well as his white and simple shirt; sometimes it is better to wear a non-risky outfit. Howe-ver, for the General Assembly he should avoid wearing jeans and decide to wear something smarter, as the dress code is different from the Opening Ceremony.

Secondly, for the girls, we chose our brilliant model from Zaragoza, Nuria. We absolutely fell in love with her style. Nuria decided to wear high heels, quite a risky option as we had teambuilding right after the Opening Ceremony. For the General Assembly, we think she will look spectacular in a dress.

We are very eager to meet some other won-derfully dressed delegates, so don’t be shy and take out the smartest clothes that you have in your huge suitcases. We want to be impressed! < A.B. & T.L.

Fashion and FameAnna Borrell & Teresa Lascorz

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As teambuilding comes to a halt during coffee break, we took the chance to harass our presi-dent and ask him some relevant and less relevant questions so that you can get to know him.

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> Firstly, there is a rumour that you are 35 years old?

NO! I know I look older than I am. (20 by the way).

Where and what are you studying?

Politics at the University of Southampton.

What has been your most memorable session?

Last summer session in Frankfurt was 11 ma-gical days as I was editor alongside Katie, one of my best EYP friends.

An embarrassing EYP moment is…

Euroconcert at my first International Session…ask Joss!(Later on we did ask Joss, he said Chris sang opera with a very high-pitched voice from a lyrics sheet!)

What does EYP mean to you?

EYP is about meeting amazing people and seeing things I never thought I would see. The people I have met have become genuine frien-ds not just EYP peers.

What is your role as president of the session?

To inspire all around me and assure if anyone needs advice or help, and also to make sure that my chairs are doing their jobs comfortably and efficiently.

What is your favourite saying?

Well I say ‘Cool beans’ quite a lot, which is annoying, I must stop.A favourite phrase would be “The glory in a man is not how many times he falls but how many times he gets up again”.

Tell us some fun facts about yourself…

Well I’m quite the sportsman, playing hockey and cricket mostly but I have recently found an interest in Ultimate Frisbee.I’m also terrified of nail files…And when I was younger I used to sing.

What is your ambition in life?

To be remembered. < C.K. & S.K.

Yes he can ...Carmen Guzman & Susannah Karatzia

eventually

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> Maybe in your “normal” life you are not used to be with people from outside your region or even your city, but in EYP this is one of the things that make it special. And as for eve-rything there are advantages and drawbacks: it can enrich you or get you into a fight.

We are now in a National Session and you can easily notice that even between regions you can find a “shock of cultures”. We are pleased to have delegations from Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Madrid, Zaragoza, Tarragona, Huesca and Girona, so we can enjoy quite a variety of regional cultures. Just by looking at a random delegate, you might be able to tell where he or she comes from - mostly based on stereotypes.

One would easily say that a delegate from the South of Spain lays on the beach the whole day, listening to and dancing flamenco while eating tapas and drinking “rebujito”. But if you look at someone from Catalonia you will picture him supporting Futbol Club Barcelona, always speaking in catalan and with a bag of money under his arm, keeping always an eye on it, so that no-one steals it while of course always arguing with people from Madrid. The latter always dress incredibly formal (preferably with a pink jumper) and use tons of hair gel, and have a vey posh manner of talking. Last but not least, people from the North. People usually get confused “They are the ones that speak basque, aren’t they?”

No! There are more Spanish people in the North, and yes, maybe you will picture them on a green meadow with cows in it, but we all

know that the most relevant thing about them is that they are amazingly stubborn.

This difference can be better observed at an International Session: for example, if you are Spanish you can find people from Serbia or Russia that see the world in a very different way than you do – may it be in matters of poli-tics, social affairs or even human rights. This is perfectly normal, and it doesn’t have to be negative: hearing other points of view from people all around Europe widens your mind. You don’t have to change your ideas because we all know that the world would be quite bo-ring if everyone was the same! < A.B. & L.A.

The universe withinAnna Borrell & Luis Algeciras

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Don‘t stop the music Clara Otín

> Music is a very important part of everybody‘s life. This article is dedicated to it. Most of us only listen to and sing along commercialised music such as pop, dance or house. In this section we want to introduce you to some different styles.The Press Team interviewed some EYPers. One thing is for sure. Their taste of music is not main-stream. All of them have one thing in common, though: stereotypes need to disappear. < C.O.

SKANuria (ITRE I) is a fan of ska. Ska bands aren‘t popular and it‘s hard for them to take off. For Nuria, Ska is music is very danceable, likable, and simply different. She also stated that commercial songs are good when you go to a party. Nuria‘s approach to making people‘s minds more open: “We should make people listen to other kinds of music for a week, instead of listening to their favourite“

REGGAELuis (ITRE I) loves Bob Marley. He doesn’t smoke and he is not a hippie. Though reggae usually encompasses a certain lifestyle, not every listener fol-lows it. Luis listens to a lot of different styles, but reggae is his favourite. It ma-kes him happy and helps him to relax. He considers commercial music to be mainstream. It sounds good at any time and that‘s why most of the people like it.

METAL“I love metal a lot”, declares the ener-getic Javi (ITRE II). He thinks that peo-ple usually relate metal to alcohol and satanism, but that isn‘t always true. He thinks that we have to break with this stereotype because it doesn’t make sense. He listens to different kinds of metal, from the softest to the hardest one, such as hardcore. One of his favo-urite bands is Deathclock.

INDIEClaudia and Clara (EMPL I) listen to indie music because the lyrics are me-aningful. They have a connotation other styles don’t have. Also, the lyrics and even the names of the bands have two different meanings and convey various messages. Commercial music is good when you go to a party. They say that some people that listen to indie are bo-hemian, but not everybody.

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Chairs’ madnessAli Kerem Araboglu

Patricia Garcia. We’re already like a couple.Laura Mont (ES) - 19

Adriana Diaz (ES) - 20Chris Hall. We’ve known each other for 2 years now. He’s like a teddybear and it would be good in bed.

A revelation about the chairs’ marriage desires.

Marijke Saenen (BE) - 19Probably Chris, the president. He’s just like a teddybear. And he’s from the UK.

Chris, because he is the only one not jud-ging me for wearing flip-flops.

Maria Chalhoub (SE) - 21

Pati Garcia (ES) - 19Laura Mont. She knows why…

Silvia Susach (ES) - 19I think, Chris. He’s so gentle.

Georgina Ansaldo (ES) - 18Alex, there is no stronger love than burgers.

Valeriia Cherednichenko (UA) - 23Obviously Chris Hall. He’s the president and the God of the session!

Lluis Solervicens (ES) - 22Silvia Susach. She really has a dirty mind.

Chris Hall (UK) - 20Lluis, because it’s legal in Spain. After giving it a thought, rather Adriana because she’s the nice-set person

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About teachersCarmen Guzman

You were wondering about the impact of the teachers at EYP sessions? You are hereby provided with an overview on their activities during the session.

What should be avoided: prevent their pupils to attend a session or leaving them alone while the ses-sion is taking place. This could discourage students during the session and make them feel quite uncomfortable.

A model to follow would be being a teacher who is involved with the students, talks to them, helps them with Eurovillage, country presen-tation and deal with any concerns they may have during the session. During this session the help that teachers can offer their students is very important because teachers are going to be their support for the rest of the session.

Those people coming with dele-gates from all over Spain are surely doing their work always carrying a smile on their faces and coopera-ting not only with students but also with every single person involved in the session. < C.G.

> From the very first session of EYP, teachers have accompa-nied delegates and have been there during the whole session, but what is exactly their role in a session?

After doing a short survey, some teachers think that it is very important to motivate students, help them to feel comfortable and encourage them to be talkative during Committee Work, teambuilding and the session in general. On the contrary, some others think they are only here to accompany them and they don’t have a proper role because they cannot be with them during Committee Work or teambuilding.

What makes a good teacher in EYP: be completely involved in the session, for instance the country presentation is a good time for teachers to join their delegation and show their talent as actors or singers, as well as the Eurovillage is great to show their skills as cooks.

Sponsors

Partners

Special thanks to the Organisers of the 6th National Selection Madrid 2011

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