What? Dan’s finally got his arse into gear and is blogging? What cataclysmic cosmic crisis has shifted the bum away from daytime TV and into the hot seat then? NUS reform? Demos in Cardiff? Electioneering? No, it’s ESIB.

ESIB?

ESIB stands for… well actually it doesn’t. It’s the National Unions of Students in Europe (the acronym is a left over from the European Student Information Bureau which ceased to exist in 1992. The name changed but not the acronym – more on that in a later installment) which had its 48th Board Meeting last week in Tallinn, capital of Estonia. What’s this got to do with Dan? Well, little old me was packed off to Estonia knowing slightly less than you do now about ESIB to represent British students (and Irish ones incidentally as USI – Union of Students in Ireland – proxied us their votes).

I know what you’re thinking: “this sounds like a jolly nice little holiday: lady-who-lunches does ‘foreign business trip’ and comes back with black market booze, oil and furs”. To be honest I thought it sounded like a jolly nice little holiday too – Tallinn is one of the world’s top cities at the moment (as in: go now, before scummy tourists like Dan Chilcott spoil it all) – but alas I was sadly mistaken.

I was met at the airport and driven to the hostel by one of our Estonian hosts, I unpacked, showered, and was led by my German roommate to the dinning hall of the Tallinn Technical University (Estonia’s second largest at 17,000 students) where lunch awaited. And there it began, in the queue for lunch, still shaking off the valium from my flight, introductions, questions, counter-questions: your first time? Yes. Ah (knowing smile).

And we were worked like dogs. To cut a long story short, sessions began at 9am, close of business at 11pm. For those of us from organizations who had failed to submit reports there was more work after this. Every night had a party which ended no earlier than 3am, and there were frequent after parties in rooms till 7am. Being the committed public servant that I am, I saw fit to partake in everything, to the fullest of my abilities, as often as possible. I returned to Blighty within an inch of my life and have been convalescing for the last week.

Over the next few blogs I’ll be outlining some of the discussions ESIB had, divulging party contents and gossip, and picking out some of the key areas of interest for the UK post ESIB.

Every blog I’ll share something that I learned and, especially for Jarrold, something that I ate. Given that I am vegetarian I’m afraid my diet was less varied than my learning experience.

Lesson 1: If a drink tastes very much like antifreeze it’ll probably do a similar job. Meal 1: Brown stuff, boiled potatoes and sauce (I can elaborate no further on the sauce).

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