Soon the Agora Salerno stage will be full of candidates who want your vote! For sure you have read all about their programmes in the official booklet, so now you want to find out more about them, their hobbies, whether they can cook and which AEGEE member they would take with them on a deserted island. In short: classic first date questions from the Internet! The GT will take you on a date with the candidates. In this edition: Giuseppe Formica from AEGEE-Genova, running for Member of the Summer University Coordination Team. Get ready, your date is starting now!

Golden Times: Are you afraid of your candidature speech on the Agora stage? And how will you prepare for it?
Giuseppe Formica: Yes, to be honest I am a bit afraid, but I don’t think there is a way to prepare for it. I will survive!

GT: Where would you be now if you hadn’t joined AEGEE?
Giuseppe: I think I would have done more or less the same things and in the same places but with one difference: thanks to AEGEE now I consider myself more European.

GT: How did you join AEGEE exactly? How did you find out about it?
Giuseppe: I moved to a new city where I didn’t know anyone so I started looking for events on Facebook and then I found AEGEE-Genova aperitif. I went there, I amazing people and got friends.

GT: How long did it take you from the first moment you heard about it until you signed the membership form and joined AEGEE?
Giuseppe: After the first meeting I got AEGEE friends but I didn’t want to join AEGEE. They were telling me a lot of beautiful stuff about AEGEE that I couldn’t believe, so at the beginning I thought there was something strange behind. I didn’t even apply for an SU. Then I saw them speaking on our Whatsapp group about SUs; then I decided to try. I applied in an open call and went to my first and unforgettable SU in Cyprus.

GT: What’s the typical drink and food you bring to European Nights?
Giuseppe: I always bring limoncello and I always forget food.

GT: At an AEGEE party where will we find you? On the dancefloor? Talking at the bar?
Giuseppe: Dancefloor!

GT: What was your first position in the local board?
Giuseppe: First time I was Fundraiser.

GT: What was your favourite event as organiser – and why is it your favourite?
Giuseppe: It’s hard to answer this question because all of the AEGEE events you organize occupy a place in your heart, but maybe the favourite could be the TSU “Train Your Taste” 2018 in cooperation with AEGEE-Bologna and AEGEE-Bergamo.

GT: What was your first Agora and how did you feel there? Happy, excited, overwhelmed, lost?
Giuseppe: My first Agora was in Enschede 2017 and I felt good. It was also very sunny and warm so it was perfect to be in The Netherlands.

GT: Have you ever hichhiked to an AEGEE event? If yes, what’s your favourite hitchhiking story?
Giuseppe: I have never done it for an AEGEE event but I did it for five years when I was 13-18 years old to come back from school.

GT: There is a classic typology of AEGEE members, dividing them according to the three aspects fun member, career member and idealist – to which percentage are you which of these aspects?
Giuseppe: 60 fun, 20 career, 20 idealist.

GT: What do your parents think about the idea that you are so active in AEGEE?
Giuseppe: I don’t live with them anymore and I don’t speak of AEGEE with them. They just see I never go home to Sicily because I am always somewhere around Europe.

Young Giueppe

GT: What other hobbies do you have aside from AEGEE?
Giuseppe: Playing guitar, learning new languages, running, working out and traveling also without AEGEE.

GT: What was the last book you really got into?
Giuseppe: I don’t really like reading but I sometimes read simple Spanish books in order to keep my Spanish. The last one was “El hombre del pantalon gris”.

GT: What TV series do you keep coming back to and re-watching?
Giuseppe: Any.

GT: What are some obscure things that you are or were really into?
Giuseppe: I think nothing.

GT: What’s your favourite app on your phone?
Giuseppe: I don’t have a favourite.

GT: What nickname do or did you have – and why?
Giuseppe: My friends simply call me Giuseps, because one time a friend of mine called me that way and they liked it.

GT: Do you like cooking and if yes – what’s your favourite dish you like to cook?
Giuseppe: Yes! And I am very good at it! Top dish Carbonara!

GT: What’s never missing in your fridge?
Giuseppe: Carbonara ingredients!

GT: Did you consider joining a political party or maybe want to do it later?
Giuseppe: No and I think I will never do.

GT: What do you study – and why?
Giuseppe: I studied occupational health and safety environment because prevention is the main key for a better life quality.

GT: What’s your dream job?
Giuseppe: I am a simple guy, I don’t need a lot of stuff. My dream is to live in a paradise place because I really would like to have summer every day of my life. In this dream place I could even sell bananas to tourists.

GT: What’s the favourite city or place on this planet you ever visited?
Giuseppe: This summer I went to shipwreck beach in Zakynthos. Amazing!

GT: And where would you really like to go?
Giuseppe: Many places, but for the moment I really want to go to Russia.

GT: If you could take one AEGEE member to a desert island, who would it be? And why?
Giuseppe: I don’t know! Maybe my super “gardas” Kutay from AEGEE-Izmir. He can be able to turn even a desert island crazy.

GT: This Agora is about walls – what was the most difficult wall you had to overcome?
Giuseppe: If you walk around a wall, at some point you will find an entrance. Walls are big because we make them big. As Jack Sparrow says, the problem is not the problem but the problem is your attitude about the problem.

GT: What’s your biggest frustration in AEGEE?
Giuseppe: I don’t have any. If I had some I wouldn’t be a member.

GT: Please complete the sentence: “AEGEE is for me…”
Giuseppe: …life!”

GT: How would you describe yourself in a few keywords?
Giuseppe: Kind, respectful, fun, crazy, open-minded.