ITS Scouting Tour 2: ITS scouted, ITS presented, ITS was there
February 17, 2003
We flew around Europe, we drove, and we got lost almost everywhere, but we made it!
Thanks to Alitalia this year we flew hundreds meters above most of the motorways we drove over last year. Just like to point out, the ONLY flight we had to take which was not Alitalia was 5 hours late because, well this is what they told us, the pilot turned 60 years old that day and he couldn't fly due to French aviation laws!
We were welcomed in a way we never expected, everywhere, so warmly and so amazingly. From Belgium to Holland, then to the UK, then to France, then to Italy, people had already heard all about us, they waited for us when we were late: imagine having three presentations in one day, driving from one city to another following maporama advice, and yes, discovering how useful is a 4 megapixels digital camera when you don't have a map and you get lost in Maastricht, then you find a lightmap and you can just take a photo of it and have it with you by zooming on the lcd screen of your camera!
We thankfully always accepted the coffee which were offered us as soon as we arrived, showed videos, we showed pictures, articles, winners, we showed everything about ITS and people were just gripped (especially when they saw the label of the Diesel Award collection, with "Einav Zucker"written in big on it), asking for more application forms (but hey, you can download them from this website!), teachers guided us and showed us their schools. We had special star guests like Sophie, Yuliati, Roel, our friends Jim, Erik, Stefanie, Assaf, who reported what their experience at ITS was like, then Diesel PRs who joined our presentations in France and the UK, and we found the press so interested about our project, about what we will do in the future, about who we are and where (the hell) we come from.
Three (then five) girls and one guy wandering around Europe, with a lot of bags full of documents, loudspeakers, a projector, then some litres of Dutch Vla (which our friends strongly recommended us to bring them), some smelly rotten goats cheese from Bruxelles, a one-meter-long polyester bag carrying a black vampire bat, asking to people we encountered directions for some street where we had to go (and you discover that sometimes driving in the centre of Bruxelles makes you feel like a ball on a mini-golf path), driving through snow storms, bombing locals with snow balls, sometimes so tired that we were unable to utter some words in English or in French. Yes, it was not easy to go here and there taking everything with us (and our blond guardian angel was not with us!) but it was definitely worth it.
We would like to say hello to everyone who helped, meeted, supported us during these days. You know who you are and if you don't you'd better believe it!
