ЛЕТЕН УНИВЕРЗИТЕТ 2007
         
This year AEGEE Skopje traditionally organized the 12th Summer University, also this summer AEGEE Skopje is having its 15th birthday. Therefore this year our programme was even more interesting and gave a challenge to all the participants.
The program contained lectures, sightseeing lectures, workshops, interactive activities, evening socializing and boat cruises. Introducing the participants with the Macedonian culture, history, way of living, overcoming problems of cultural diversity, cultural tolerance, stereotypes and also having fun, were some of our main aims for this summer university. Below, you can find the detailed report of the Summer University 2007 “Balkan in a Heart Beat”, organized by AEGEE Skopje:

DAY 1 - 09. 07. 2007 - SKOPJE

• Arrival of the participants in the capital of Republic of Macedonia and their accommodation in the student’s dormitory;
• Ice-breaking games
• Introducing AEGEE Skopje to the participants by Dragan Sekulovski, The President of AEGEE Skopje
•  introducing AEGEE-Skopje Board members
• Dinner
• Visiting event from Skopje Summer Festival – The open opera event  “Paljachi”
• A fire show for the participant’s arrival has been prepared in the City Park (acrobats, jongleurs, clowns…)                                                                          

DAY 2 - 10. 07. 2007 - SKOPJE

• Breakfast
• Opening Ceremony for the Summer University in Government of the Republic of Macedonia, Secretariat for European Issues
• The participants had the opportunity to attend lectures about Macedonia’s integration process in the European Union. The lecture was interactive, filled with questions coming from different fields and areas of interests of the participants.
• Visit to the Ethnology museum of Macedonia
• The participants had the chance to hear a lecture about the most important moments of the Macedonian history and the creation of Macedonian country by professional historians
• They also had a lecture about the Macedonian national dresses and architecture typical for different parts and periods of the country
• Sightseeing of Skopje, the capital of Macedonia: the Fortress Kale, symbol of resistance, from where the whole city can be seen; the church of St. Spas with its Iconostasis from 18th and 19th centuries (an ancient Macedonian handicraft – wood carved handiwork, with specific icons in the middle) and Frescoes (religious paintings, painted directly on a wall, typical for orthodox religion). Our next stop - the old part of the city, representing the Islamic culture: Skopje’s Old Bazaar.
• Coffee and lunch break in the old part of the city;
• Sightseeing of the Modern part of Skopje: The Stone Bridge, situated on the river Vardar, changing its looks throughout centuries, from Justinian prima to the Ottoman Empire, connecting the modern part (New Skopje) on the left and Old Skopje on the right side. Throughout legends and facts, the participants understood the way of living in Skopje. Its citizens, with more differences then similarities: Orthodox vs. Islam religion, Oriental atmosphere vs. Macedonian folklore, and different languages spoken; City Square - with its new European look; participants heard about the worst tragedy ever happened in this area. The horrible earthquake, that destroyed the city completely, happened in the year of 1963. On the left side of the square, the participants saw the four golden marks, representing Mother Theresa’s house of birth and they were able to hear details about here life in Macedonia and mission in India. Walking along the pedestrian street Macedonia, one can see the monument of Mother Theresa and the Feudal tower. The sightseeing ended with the visit of the Old Railway Station, today a museum of the city of Skopje and a symbol of the big earthquake, where the participants had the opportunity to see a numismatic exhibition;
• Free Time
• Dinnertime;

DAY 3 - 11. 07. 2007 – OHRID

• Breakfast;
• Departure for Ohrid
• Departure from Skopje to Ohrid, (On our way to Skopje, we visited one of the most important religious monuments, the monastery of St. Jovan Bigorski: it contains invaluable engravings and colorful frescoes of St. Jovan Bigorski and other saints; The monastery holds a lot of mysteries, for example, it is believed that the bones from saints, preserved in the monastery through centuries, have a healing power; the Icon room contains very old and important icons; the Macedonian room contains typical handmade wooden furniture, handmade tapestries and carpets and pictures from all archbishops of the Macedonian Orthodox Church);
• Lunch;
• Arriving and lodging in Ohrid;
• Dinner;
• Short lecture about the city of Ohrid (city protected by UNESCO, which through the history, many times has been the center of Macedonian cultural and spiritual life)
• Short presentation about the Ohrid Lake (oldest lake in Europe, rich with unique flora and fauna)
• Short presentation about the religion in Macedonia (Macedonia has specific religion configuration: 60% Orthodox, 30% Muslim, etc.)
• Party in the old part of the city

DAY 4 - 12. 07. 2007 - OHRID 

• Breakfast
• Workshop: “Working in multicultural teams” – introduced by Leon Bakraceski (former president of AEGEE Europe)
• Visiting of Biljana Springs, historical background of city origins
• Socializing games
• Beach time (beach “Park”)
• Dinner in traditional Macedonian restaurant, where they were able to hear traditional Macedonian music, but also, some of their national dances

DAY 5 - 13. 07. 2007 – OHRID 

• Breakfast
• Sightseeing tour I in Ohrid
• The participants had a lecture about the Antique Theatre (from the early antique period, firstly used as a theatre, after used as place for gladiator fight, today for cultural events, such as Ohrid Summer Festival)
• Plaoshnik - a complex of monasteries (the participants learned about St. Kliment, the founder of Plaoshnik and the first Slavic University, protector of the city of Ohrid, and a student of Cyril and Methodius)
• The participants also had a lecture about the Church Bogorodica Perivlepta - one of the 365 churches in Ohrid (one church for each day of the year), introducing Macedonian Fresco Art.
• Lunch
• Free Time in the center of city
• Lecture about the Macedonian language: the participants could hear about the origin, characteristics separating from the other Slavic languages, its geographical use, its dialects. They also had interactive session with reading, writing and pronunciation of some basic phrases.
• Dinner

DAY 6 - 14. 07. 2007 – OHRID

• Breakfast;
• Beach time (Visiting the most popular beach in Ohrid, where the Summer Beach Festival was taking a part. There are three smaller beaches, three different types of music, participants had a chance experience Macedonian way of beach partying)
• Back to the dormitory
• Workshop: “Cultural tolerance” held by Angela Boranieva
• Dinner
• Optional:
• One part of the participants visited the Ohrid Summer Festival event – The ballet “Scherezada” by the Macedonian opera and Ballet, taking place in the Antique Theatre
• One part of the participants stayed in the dormitory watching Macedonian music “Balkankan” 

                                                                               
DAY 7 - 15. 07. 2007 – OHRID

• Breakfast;
• Sightseeing tour II in Ohrid:
•  We visited The House of Robevci museum, as a represent of a typical Ohrid oriental architecture. Something more about the Ohrid’s pearls and fishing.
• The participants visited the Gothenburg’s printing house, where they had a lecture and witnessed a primitive way of making printing paper.
•  One of the best-known historical monuments is the church of St. Sophia, built in the 11th century and St. Jovan Kaneo build in the Byzantine period.
• Lunch;
• Free Time
• Dinnertime;
• Socializing

DAY 8 – 16. 07. 2007 – OHRID

• Breakfast;
• Departure to St. Naum. We travelled by boat for 2 hours to the southern end of the Lake Ohrid in order to see the Monastery of St. Naum. There was a lecture about the monastery - It is built in the 10th century. The frescoes painted inside, inspired by the life of St. Naum, represent monastery’s unique distinction. The monastery mansion contains luxurious quarters designed in old-fashioned style
• Lunch
• Optional:
• Some of the participants went to the beach, other group went to Ohrid Springs with “kajche”
• Back to the dormitory;
• Workshop: “Stereotypes and its possible solutions” held by Viktor Gerasimovski (Interactive method involved, 6 different exercises, “Role game”, ”The Chubchubs” short movie, sharing experiences between participants, gain universal solution that will be acceptable for all)
• Dinnertime

DAY 9 – 17. 07. 2007 – OHRID                                                                            

• Breakfast;
• Beach and barbeque day (We went to a wild beach, where we spent the day, having barbeque, doing socializing games, swimming, having fun.)
• Back to dormitory
• Night Boat Cruising - After dinner, we went for a boat cruise. It was all-nighter.  We enjoyed Ohrid by night;
• Getting back to the dormitory.

DAY 10 – 18. 07. 2007 – SLIVNICA                                                
                                                                          

• Breakfast;
• Departure from Ohrid
• Arrival to Slivnica and accommodation;
• Lunch;
• Beach time (Here the participants had the opportunity to do some sports, like beach volley ball, football etc.);
• Dinner;
• Karaoke show.

         
DAY 11 – 19. 07. 2007 – SLIVNICA                                                                            

• Breakfast;
• Sighting throw the region of Prespa – The participants visited the oldest church in that area, St. Bogorodica (where they were taken by tractors),  this is build in 1607, where they had a lecture from the locals about the church, history and way of life in that area ().
• Lunch
• Beach time;

DAY 12 – 20. 07. 2007 – SLIVNICA                                                                           

• Breakfast;
• Sighting throw the region of Prespa – We visited another village, Kurbinovo, where the participants learnt something about the church St.Georgi, and off course they had the opportunity to feel the village tourism
• Lunch in traditional Macedonian restaurant
• Beach time
• Dinner time;

DAY 13 – 21. 07 2007 – SLIVNICA                                          

• Breakfast;
• Workshop: The participants had the chance to see and learn some of the “Macedonian National dances” The workshop was held by Angela Boranieva and Martin Petrovski
• Traditional lunch;
• Workshop: “European Dialog” held by Jovan Bakardziev
• Free time
• Shopping groceries for European night
• European Night (each country had a presentation of their national food and drinks)                           

DAY 14 – 22. 07. 2007 – BITOLA - SKOPJE                       

• Breakfast;
• Departure to Bitola;
• The sightseeing in Bitola:
• Bitola is second largest city in the country, being a regional, economic and university center of southwestern Macedonia. During Ottoman rule, Bitola was a significant diplomatic, cultural and commercial center on the Balkan Peninsula.
•  We visited a monument from the time of Ottoman rule – The House of the Father of Modern Turkey (had studing military school in Bitola), Kemal Mustafa Ataturk, where we had a lecture about the life and significance of Mustafa Kemal.
• We also visited the archeological  museum and had a lecture by historian about the history of the city and region.
• A great represent of the Islamic architecture in the Ottoman period is the beautiful Shirok Sokak – Typical Old Bazaar Street with a modern touch. Then we visited the city’s Clock Tower;
• Lunch;
• Departure to Skopje;
• Arrival to Skopje; accommodation at the dormitory;
• Presentation of Konrad Adenauer Stiftung
• Evaluation of the SU: The participants got survey and evaluated the project;
• Dinnertime

DAY 15 – 23.07. 2007 - SKOPJE 

• Breakfast time and departure of the participants

- Bellow you can find the list of the participants of the
  Summer University 2007: