Meetings can be fun. ESIB's board meetings are among the funniest. They're also more detrimental to health than a three-day binge in Trøndelag.

ESIB stands for The National Unions of Students in Europe. It started out as the Western European Student Information Bureau (WESIB), but as its members became more numerous (45 national unions today), agreeing on a new and more logical abbreviated name became impossible.

Until next Sunday, I'll be sitting in a meeting room or wandering around in the Parisian night, arguing a bit, listening a bit more and make a few humble contributions to the greater discussions. The debates tend to last long and are never finished on time, which in practice means that we are lucky to get out of the room before ten PM.

After the meeting closes for the day, a few members of the board get drunk. After all, this pan-European general assembly only takes place twice a year, so it's important to catch the debates as well as the parties.

And so the story goes for the week that the board meeting lasts. We meet interesting people, learn a lot about each other's countries and we also like to believe that we are one of the actors that are shaping Europe's future.