International Culture Week in Pecs, ICWiP 2007

Addicted to Fun

This year's topic was EdYOUcate, which was really an interesting one when the average age of the participants had been taught. It was easily understood by the number of participants keeping attending to the workshops. And it was a nice idea to put workshops far from the starting days for ice breaking and putting most of them in the afternoon for giving some time to recover from hangovers


By I. ILKER BACAKSIZ
from Ankara, TURKEY


I was feeling peace rather than excitement when my plane took off for its way to Budapest. Well, it is going to be my 5th ICWIP and I knew what is going to be happen on next 10 days in the warmest city of Hungary, the city of Pécs.

When ICWIP first launched on 1996, there was about 30-40 participants with a few hosts/ess and for the last three years the festival welcomed more than 200 young people for each year. A warm, welcoming atmosphere with some drinks were waiting for us while we are proceeding for the registration. People who knew each other before, were doing a hug of love and screaming. Some of the new participants were surprised with this scene but I guess they did understand it at the end of the event.

Although there were less participants than expected - the organizers were a bit disappointed - this lead a group of more integrated people who learned a lot about lots of people from lots of different cultures. Apart from the other years this year there were also participants from Tanzania, Guinea, Vietnam, Singapore and India.

This year's topic was EdYOUcate, which was really an interesting one when the average age of the participants had been taught. It was easily understood by the number of participants keeping attending to the workshops. And it was a nice idea to put workshops far from the starting days for ice breaking and putting most of them in the afternoon for giving some time to recover from hangovers.

This year there was an addition of cheerleading contest to the classic ICWIP Soccer Cup, and Romanian girls took the title. And one of the best activity in ICWIP07 was the 'Mecsextreme Park' it was a nice park full of extreme sports like climbing, mountain biking, horse riding etc. and although getting exhausted the participants joined as many activities as they could. There were great do-it yourself parties but everybody were thankful to what Luca-from Italy- did on the DJ desk in Cyrano. Even the owner of the place couldn't believe that performance. And it was meaningful that Turks and Greeks do the party together to give the message of friendship.

As a classic in this event the country show also took part on 25th with lots of drunk participants just one our after the serving had started. There were plenty of desks serving traditional food and drinks as small portions. And we prepared nice cocktails in our stomach by using our body as a shaker. There were also trips and concerts and a joyful parade from the dormitory to the Barbakan square.

The organizers also made a lot of effort for lectures with important speakers. But I want to point out mostly on Dóra Pásztory - Paralympics World and European champion in swimming, world record holder - from whom we learned about Paralympics and admired her and her colleagues a lot. And inspired for sure by what they are doing.

Although I underlined something on the schedule, I would like to describe ICWIP as a whole event which integrates lots of people from different cultures with a great atmosphere and by using excellent ways. Helps people to have lots of friends from all over the world. Keeps your mood up at least for 10 days and causes some tears at the end.

I think the government or the City Council has to force them to write a warning table saying that "Attention: The fun level that you will live on next 10 days can cause addiction"