After spending a few weeks in hibernation, finally it was time for some real and fun-filled activity at BEST. It could not have been better than a Motivation Weekend (MW). For those of you who are wondering what this MW is, it's a weekend activity at BEST where members from one LBG (Local BEST Group) host the members of another LBG and have some activities and get motivated to work for BEST. It was the weekend from 5th to 7th February and this time it was double the fun since we had 3 LBGs meeting together for the MW. The hosts were LBG Aalborg and the other LBG joining us was Copenhagen. In total we were about 30 crazy BESTies having one hell of a weekend, just the kind of motivation everyone needed.

We started late afternoon on Friday, 5th February. It was a great idea for us from Lund, to travel by a big car since Aalborg was not that far away and it is always more fun to travel by car.So, for us the party started on car itself. We never realized how we arrived at the cabin in Aalborg although it was nearly 5 hours journey. The cabin was outside of Aalborg city. It was a summer house and it would have been heaven if it was summer but still it was a great place, specially when you want to get away from your usual routine. It was typical BEST Friday night party, and it was even more bigger, since it was lot of Danish people and some cheap danish beer and alcohol. Most of us were new, it was a bit difficult to remember all the names. The rest of the night was just partying and more partying.

The next day there were some interesting sessions. The session about "Time Management" was something very useful, there were also other sessions going on in parallel. After this there was a session about "Fund Raising", which was mainly about how to organize activities through which we could raise some funds for BEST activities. In the evening it was time for the theme party, the theme was FASTELAVN which was basically Carnival of Denmark, so everyone had to dress up really funny and crazy. After the dinner it was time for a traditional Danish game. It was Patrick from LBG Lund who won the game and he was crowned the King for the evening and he had the chance to select a Queen and no one knows why he chose a guy to be the Queen :) After this it was yet again time for another party night.

Next day it was soon time to leave, it was so quick, it looked like the weekend was over in just a few seconds. But, it was quite amazing and an awesome weekend. As we were leaving, everyone looked motivated and ready to take part in the activities of BEST. Just as we were leaving, we decided to take a small tour around Aalborg since none of us had ever visited the city. Although the city looked deserted with no one on the streets (since it was a freezing cold Sunday), it was nice to go around the city, a much bigger city than Lund. It was around 10pm on Sunday night by the time we reached Lund. It was a perfect weekend, taking a break from the normal weekend activities.

David and Maria at the preparty at Kåren

 

Patrik and Daniel at Helsingkrona Nation

 

Daniel and Maria at Helsingkrona nation

 

What does summer mean if you are a BESTie?

Well ofcourse your summer can be as normal as everyone elses, or it can be adventurous and crammed with new experiences.

For me the first part of summer was similar to my friends, midsummer party, the archipelaego and some work in between.

When it started. I had applied earlier to a trainshop in recruitment and motivation in Timisoara, Romania.
But, it was really expensive to fly there. But, no worries they had cheap tickets with wizzair to Budapest.

So, early a wednesday I arrived to the city most famous for its baths. Robert was their to meet me up, an old friend I had met the year before at my summercourse in Krakow, Poland. I was going to stay with him. He told me that a big party was planned for the night since this years BEST-course in Krakow just had ended and a big group were travelling back over Budapest. Soon that night we discovered the student nightclubs and hangout spots in Budapest, prices were great.


Sadly the next day LBG Budapest went together to a music festival, a few of our new friends went with them but I decided to stay in the capital since it was my first visit. I, Stanka and Tosche two macedonians I had met the night before decided to take in on a dorm hostel. The class was maybe no the the best, but the location was great.

A couple of days of sightseing and some great nights out was in front of us, especially an outdoor nightclub Rio was worth a visit.

The days went quick and it was soon time to start thinking over the trip to Timisoara. An austrian guy (Andreas) who was going to the same event had mailed me and we decided to take the same train. The train had airconditioning, what a luck. The last days the temperature had been over 40 degrees celsius and not much less during the nights. On the train we got spots next to an hungarian girl who studied art and invited us to visit her town, due to lack of time we sadly had to say no. On the opposite side we also had a professor from Timisoara in mechatronics, and she told us to say hi to a few of the BEST members we were going to visit.

Late in the evening we finally arrived. Timisoara had decided to show its best side with a thunderstorm. The lightnings seemed to never end and storm like this had I only experienced in USA before. Our swedish ones are so calm.




Through rain we had to go before we arrived to our dormitory.
Next day was arrival day and one after another dropped in. I realized that this was going to be a crazy event. During the days we sat down in a classroom and had lessons between 9 am to 9 pm every day, it was no airconditioning.
Nights was party time. During the week we had masquerade, international evening, night city rally and pub crawling.
But let's not go into details, what's happen on a BEST event stays on a BEST event or how people use to say.






When the week was over I had decided to go to Belgrade on before hand. A belgian guy (Fred) was also going there so we decided to travel together. We went btw the cities with a minibus service (thank you LBG Belgrade for the info) that took 3 hours and had airconditioning instead of the train which takes everything between 5-8 hours.

In Belgrade we meet his friend Senka and my old roommate Nemanja. They had decided to take us on a tour. First night we went to a great nightclub called the freestyler, they had a foamparty. We also tried to start a conversation with the cuban volleyball team who was there for world cup, but we gave up after a while since their english wasn't the best. During the week we also met a bunch of other nationalities and serbians, it will take to long time to list them all. But thank you Nemanja and Senka for a wonderful time in Belgrade. And I have to say that the nightlife in Belgrade is the BEST that I have seen so far. But maybe that depends on the insiders we had to guide us.

The summer travelling you can do as a BEST member, when you visits old friends, meet new ones that you never would meet otherwise, and always have a local guide to ask about the BEST travel ways, nightclubs etcetera, and even often decides to personally show you his/her city is a luxury almost only enjoyed by BEST members.
I'm loving it!!!

In the past BEST Lund has been quite good at going on nature trips around Lund and Skåne, so we decided to bring this tradition forward, gathered some people who had nothing else planned for a Saturday in the middle of May and headed north.


In total we were seven people who met at a rainy train station in Lund on Saturday morning. We headed for Kullen or Kullaberg in the north west of Skåne, where we planned to walk around in the beautiful landscape. Our mission was also to find the country of Ladonia, a place that is nowhere on the maps, with no signs, hard to find in an inaccessable terrain, but yet still invaded by tourists.


On our way east, we started the real search for Nimis and Ladonia, and after hours of walking and climbing rocks we finally found it.





On the way back we got a bit lost and for a while we even lost the track of the road, but eventually we found it and arrived at the bus station perfectly on time for the bus! In total we measured our trip to about 17km - a bit more than planned, which our feet constantly reminded us of about afterwards, but overall it was a lovely day and a great trip. :)

Since we did a really great job with the Cultural Exchange and worked a bit more that we where planning, we of-course arranged a thank-you-party for the people who worked. So, after the meeting we planned a barbeque outside the Student Union, but we started up with playing some kubb and doing some after-meeting-work, before we lighted the barbeque.


Then we sat outside and had a good time with barbequed meat, pommes and a lot more. And we ate, drank, talked and held speaches. :)

 

This weekend BEST Lund and BEST Copenhagen met up in a cabin outside the civilization with the goal to learn to know each other a little better and exchange ideas. The Friday evening was set aside for social activities while a tough schedule was planned for Saturday. However, the group did manage to fail the schedule almost immediately, due too oversleeping. But, this was easily fixed by fun games, the years first swim in ¨Dalby Stenbrott¨ and an excellent barbecue in the evening. Now, back again in the civilization we all feel happy but exhausted after a fun weekend. But especially do we look forward too work closer with the BEST group in Copenhagen and all the fun things we already have started to plan together.

To be a BEST member in LBG Lund is not only about work. A few weeks ago, we organized a big party called ¨Wild Huge International Party¨ and this weekend we felt that we needed to treat ourselves. A few BEST members that where unable to attend WHIP decided to cook for the rest of us. After a nice dinner with delicious pork tenderloin, potatoes and ¨kladdkaka¨ the party was on. Some members decided to continue the night at F-huset where the F- and K-sections had a dinner party. We're glad to say that some BEST members stayed until the very end.