Peace Lab Day 2

By Daria van Duren

On our second day in Kosovo, Peace Lab’s faces were a little bit more rested. A well-rested Peace Lab is a happy Peace Lab, just as a well-fed Peace Lab is a happy Peace Lab, as Anne likes to say. After only getting into our beds around 2 in the night and waking up again at 8 in the morning on our first day in Kosovo, a long nights’ sleep was a good start of the second day in Kosovo.

We started our day at the University of Pristina. There are two Universities that call themselves University of Pristina in Kosovo, of which one is a Serbian language university in Kosovska Mitrovica, and the other is an Albanian language university which is actually in Pristina. For our first visit of the day, we went to the latter university. After having met at Newborn half an hour before, we made our way to the Law and Economics faculty of the University. We were greeted by the vice-dean and about 10 students, most of whom were studying law. We were also greeted by bottles of cold water, which was great as even though it was still early it was already extremely hot. The students and the vice-dean were all very nice, and after telling us about the university in general and asking some questions, there was also time to ask questions to the students individually. I found it very interesting to learn more about the students who also study law as I do but at a different university, and to get to know them and particularly their thoughts about Kosovo a bit better. After the meeting at the University, with a couple of other AUC students I went to have lunch with the vice-dean and some of the students of the University of Pristina. During lunch, we all got to know the students a little bit better in a more personal and informal manner. They were very friendly, and I really liked getting to know them better. They were also very excited about meeting us and we talked, took some pictures together, they added us on Facebook and Instagram, and suddenly we unexpectedly had made some new friends. 

After lunch, our next meeting was at the Kosovar Gender Studies Center. After walking through a narrow corridor and going up a lot of stairs, we arrived at their office. The women who worked there told us everything about the gender studies center. They were very knowledgeable and had a lot of interesting things to say about their work and achievements. One of the women did not speak English, but spoke to us in Albanian, which was translated by one of her colleagues. I really liked hearing how she expressed herself in Albanian and also appreciated the effort and thought that was put into the translating. 

For our third and last meeting of the day, we went to the European Youth Parliament. We talked to one of the heads of the organization, and I was very impressed by what they all had collectively achieved. With Kosovo not being a part of the European Union, it is quite outstanding that they still managed to become a part of the European Youth Parliament.

 

After a busy day full of meetings, we took taxis all the way to a park just outside of the city to have dinner at a nice restaurant with the beautiful surroundings of the park. The food was great, the park made the atmosphere really nice, and it was a good way to end our day with conversations about everything that we had experienced during the day. 

 

For most of us, the day did not end there however. After waving Anne, Erik, Enver and Bardha goodbye, Peace Lab decided to go out, as we were promised that we would have the next morning free. Now who would not take advantage of that? What happens in Pristina stays in Pristina, but I will say that there was dancing, singing, drinks and that some of us even saw the sun come up.