Greetings once again fellow members,


From Thursday until late Friday me and twenty-four other students from our school visited the European Union's Parliament, located in Strasbourg, France. We didn't go there for sight seeing, we went there for a political debate.


We arrived Thursday, morning. We were a bit too early, so we slept in the bus for a few hours, before we went to the Parliament. Needless to say, the organization wasn't on the top of thing. I believe that the other students from around the European Union that also came, had a good night sleep at a nice hotel. Well, we were here to debate and form our future - sure, sure.


I will Fast forward to the where it actually started, and let all the nasty details out. Every country had a speaker, and those were invited to the hemicycle - the main parliament room. Many things ran through my mind when I walked with all these strangers alongside me, who I am sure were all quite nervous like me, too. I knew, that I had to loosen up, otherwise my speech is going to be a disaster. I talked to a fellow speaker, an interesting fella. He's actually going to play basketball in Atlanta next year - he told that to me quite directly, he wasn't too good at English. Obviously, since he was French - Needless to say, my English wasn't coping with nerves. We sat down in the front row of the hemicycle, the lights were out, it was mysteriously weird. I felt important, and I was determined to not make  a fool out of myself, and my whole country to that effect.


A few minutes after that, the other five hundred or so people joined us. After we were all seated, we greeted by a politician. However, he isn't a member of the parliament, I have no idea who he was. The four politicans, or whoever they were. We started the day in the parliament with them having a few minute speech, which was in English, French, and German - of course we had interpreter's

What followed after that, was the really hard part - I had to present my school in a one minute speech in front of more than five hundred people. Can you imagine? We were asked to go to a room behind the parliament, where we were called upon to the stage in alphabetic order. Imagine that you're waiting to be executed, and you have about ten minutes left, well this was like that. Only that I could have been executed by myself, if the speech have gotten to the best of me. Fortunately, I was actually quite good. I went up there, and was accompanied by a questionable music, that they thought was Slovenian.  The adrenaline was pumping, and I before I started, I was already sitting again. It's a weird feeling, you don't even hear yourself speaking, it's just a blurry motion.


After we ate the, also questionable, chicken, we were ready to head up to a smaller room, where we had the debate. There were five topics, work groups, so there were only about a hundred people in each of the rooms. The topic  that our team from Slovenia had, and of course the other hundred people, was - How to cope with the economic, social and political consequences of globalization.  I did imagine that I would have a few challenges coming my way in the debate, however, people there were intellectually challenged.


We elected a president of a group - two students went for it. I would, too, but we had no idea what was going on. We also voted on who to be the reporter. This was actually good, that I didn't become the president, because now I had the chance to give him and the group hell. The president was blabbing about how to stop immigration, and what not. We didn't touch the topic of Globalization. None of them actually knew what that meant, I actually asked them if any of them knew what it meant - seriously, they were talking crap. They may have been better dress in a political sense, but what does that help you? I am excellent at debating, and I'd crush them if some one actually opposed me. Well, there was that president, he thought he was pretty smart. Talk about ego, eh? In the end, where I expressed some of my opinions, me and my group simply stopped participating. We were always Abstinent on every vote - we had votes for the 'solutions', and 'policies' that we've 'made'.


I went out of the room prior the other horde, I would have left earlier, but I managed to control myself. The president of the debate group came to me later, and said something to me whilst shaking the hand - he was probably saying that we're OK, or something. He was from Malta, and his English wasn't the best, however it was a lot better than of those that also participated. We then, again, sat down in the hemicycle, where the presidents of the groups gave a short speech, and then let the word to reporters. They, then, reported about what we have discussed. This is all boring stuff, so I will not write any of this down.



This was the end of the politically charged day, we then went to the two star hotel, to get drunk. That was real fun. We were all tired like hell, thus we didn't need to drink too much to be hammered.


The next day we went around Strasbourg, followed by the return home. It was surely an experience that I won't forget. I should have done more though, but when your opinion is that different from the opinion of the majority, then you cannot proceed. Not alone.



Thank you for reading,

Domen