T
he alarm clock goes off. It’s 4 am and I have slept for only two hours, but the excitement of the day that is in front of me beats it all. Today, BBICC officially starts. Last night was so much fun, and I have met the most of my team from Maastricht University, but today two more guys are coming and the fun is about to start.
Bozo, from the international affairs team just called me to check if everything is ok, and if Djole, the guy who is supposed to drive me to the airport is on time. Like always, I assure him that everything is fine, grab my stuff and take off. The whole ride to the airport, I am both nervous and excited. Even though I’ve already done all of this three times, when picking up Chakana, Peter and Margus. Me and Djole stand in the airport and wait and then Marajin comes in. We finally meet in person, and now it’s time to go back to the hotel and join the others.
Since we didn’t have anything planned until the evening, I organize for us to go to the city centre and have a little tour. We took a cab to Terazije and from there went through Knez Mihailova street, up to the Kalemegdan fortress. I have never before been a tour guide, but always the tourist.
It made me so happy to see people from other parts of the world so interested in our culture, so interested in the city that I was born and raised in and proud to call home. Of course I can’t even try to count the number of selfies and other pictures we took.
Since the guys were supposed to go to the Dutch Embassy we wrapped up our little tour and grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. I must say they were very fond of the politeness of our taxi driver. After leaving them at the hotel I raced back home, to eat something and get ready for the opening cocktail and the party that we were supposed to go to after the cocktail.
But, before all of that there was one more member of the team that I had to go pick up at the airport, Steve. Just like the rest of them he was very nice right from the beginning. I can already say that I think that my team is the best one at BBICC, for sure! Go team Maastricht!
Back at the hotel the cocktail was about to start. I showed Steve to his room and waited for him, with the rest of the team to get ready. And then, the magic began. So many people, from all over the world, right there in one place. In Belgrade. The feeling can’t be described. I was now a part of this purple family. The speeches were on, the drinks were flowing and we were getting to know each other. It is such an honour to meet the best of the best when it comes to business schools and share thoughts with them. After the formal cocktail it was time to party, and even though we were still basically strangers, everyone was so excited.
Let’s be real, put 90 people in their twenties in a bar, with good music and drinks, how can it not be great?
After the party was over we all came back to the hotel, to make sure all of the competitors were fine and didn’t need anything else for the night. As I was going home I thought about how the next five days were gonna look like.. Oh how I couldn’t even imagine that it was going to be one of the best weeks of my life…