One of our favourite pastimes as a generation was the weekly trivia night sessions at Knud’s Garage in Kolding. In the first semester, we were just getting to know each other better and adjust to our new lives in a new country and making new friends. The trivia sessions provided an opportunity to bond and do something together as a group outside the class setting. Besides the entertainment we derived from it, we learnt a lot of new things as well, like the fact that a pumpkin is a fruit and not a vegetable. It also gave us a chance to meet and mingle with other international students in Kolding outside of the familiar EMTM circle.
Sadly the effects of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that came with them meant that trivia nights were not feasible in Ljubljana and Girona, at least not as we had known them. So, when the time came to say goodbye as everyone got ready to move to the country they’d be writing their master’s thesis from, we plotted on various ways to stay in touch. After three countries and semester’s together, the thought of being apart from each other was a disheartening prospect. That’s when the idea of the trivia nights came up, we could meet up virtually, every week, giving us a chance to stay in touch and recreate one of our favourite memories of our time in EMTM.
We have one session every week and at least two topics, and afterwards, we take some time to catch up on our theses and our lives. This week we just had our 19th session and it has been a resounding success. Along the way, the younger EMTM generation 2020-2022 joined us and it has given the two generations a chance to “meet up” and engage in a battle of wits and share experiences. Amid the current uncertainty that we live in and the difficulties that we all face as a result, it has been refreshing to have a moment to have fun and of course learn more about our countries, cultures and various other topics in the process. Hopefully, this might be the start of a new EMTM tradition and frankly, I think it’s important that future generations of EMTM should know the pumpkin is a fruit, not a vegetable.
Written by Lemmy Mwalwala, Student of EMTM Generation 2019-2021