Transitioning

By Jet de Vries

At two in the afternoon on Wednesday June 12, my boyfriend gave me a ride in the pouring rain to Schiphol airport, where I met the rest of the class of Peace Lab, our lecturer, Anne de Graaf and her husband Erik de Graaf and their helping hand, Nini Pieters. We met 3 hours before the actual departure time because "there's always someone who forgets their passport," Nini said. Luckily our group did not forget anything and we had more than enough time at the airport as our flight was delayed because of the stormy weather. While all the excited students around me were playing card games, reading books, and telling each other stories, I was having a hard time staying awake, I was still transitioning from transition. 

"The Amsterdam University College Student Association is tied to the students of Amsterdam University College. The AUCSA's goal is to represent the interests of the students in the broadest sense of the word." This is part of the oath that I took last weekend when my future board and I were taught how to run the Association by the board of last year. As the new president of the Association, I will be end-responsible for around 900 members, who have organised themselves in 27 committees, and make a turn-over of over two hundred thousand euros a year. 

The transition period falls together perfectly, or rather imperfectly, with Peace Lab, leaving me little to no time to do the readings, to study for the exam, or to go to the classes. So I made sure to do the readings in advance, left on Friday later than my board for the weekend so that I had exactly the maximum number of absences (two and a half classes), and slept very very little to study for the exam. It was not the way I had expected to be present at Peace Lab, because I am really very excited about this class and have been looking forward to it since the moment I heard I was in. But it was the only way I was able to combine the two. 

Luckily for me, I could sleep in the delay time of the airplane to München, the one and a half hours on that airplane, and then two hours more in the airplane from München to Pristina. I think I've caught up enough sleep right now so that I'm ready "to hit the ground running" in Kosovo, as we have a full schedule planned for our first day in Pristina. 

When we arrived to Pristina International airport Adem Jashari, named after one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army, at a quarter past midnight, I got the very first stamp in my passport (pictured above). I think I've never been that excited about a stamp and recognizing the little flag of Kosovo in the right hand corner. After almost all of us got our luggage, two girls and Erik will have to wait until tomorrow for their luggage to arrive, we met Enver and Bardha, our two super friendly guides for this trip. 

During the 15 minute bus ride to the guest families where we'll be staying, I counted 7 petrol stations and a lot more motels. The bus stopped near the house of Enver, were Tara, Maaike, Chaz, Noé, Nada, Ioana, and I will be staying for the next nine days. We divided the two rooms among the 7 of us, made a bathroom schedule for the morning, and then finally went to sleep in a bed at half past 1 at night.

Peace out!