Fiesta Politica

So I just returned from the spring convention of the youth division of the major Dutch political party of which I'm a member.

It was AWESOME. I did not expect to have so much fun.

The event was in a hotel called Kontakt der Kontinenten which is a former monastery, and I had a large room all to myself! I made many new contacts, but it was also particularly cool to see so many people I already knew.

The first event was a debate about different planks of our youth division's platform. A panel of three MPs from various parties got to give their opinions on those planks and then members of the audience could go to the front and ask questions or give commentary. The fun part was that the event was conducted "English parliament style." We would start clapping if one of the panelists said something we liked or, of course, boo if they said something we didn't.

At one point, one of the panelists said in a critical tone, "I must say that this platform of yours is rather conservative." We all started shouting "yeah!" and applauding.

Then there a couple different workshops. I picked one on rhetoric. First there was a lecture by a professsor then volunteers could come forward to give a short speech to try to persuade an assigned specific "audience" to do something.

One guy gave a speech to "students" to persuade them to limit their weed smoking to the weekends to better focus on their studies. Then this other guy gave a speech to "nursing home residents" to persuade them to spice up their lives a bit, saying "On Monday evenings, we always play bingo. Let's try playing bridge next week. And on Tuesday evenings, we always knit. Next week let's...crochet!"

Maybe it was a "you had to be there" moment, but I laughed so hard I cried.

After the workshop was the keynote address from the head of the Department of Defense. It was quite interesting. He talked about what lessons our party should learn from recent history.

Then there was what Dutch people call a "borrel" (alcohol consumption+socializing). I actually stuck around talking to people till 2am. I just kept on talking and laughing. I was on a roll.

So then of course I couldn't sleep. I was watching the news at 6am. That was a bummer. I took it easy in the morning. Drank coffee, voted for new board members in the plenary session and then made my exit.

I've spent most of the afternoon chilling. I went to the cathedral garden nearby to read. I'll probably still be "in recovery" tomorrow, but, man, was it worth it.