Brian Adams had his 69 Summer, so to speak. Me, and a bunch of other pretty cool Europeans, had our very own version of it, in Luxembourg, it was the Summer of 97. 
We were there for a traineeship in the European Parliament (except you, I know…) and we had a great time. Loads of fun, not much work to do, new people to meet, mingle with, spend time with.
Some of us kept in touch for a while, life got in the middle, and the majority of us lost contact. Or kept in touch with just one special friend.
My case, with Louise, from the UK.
I lived abroad ages after Lux, but kept the same Portuguese mobile phone number, the first and only Portuguese number I’ve ever had.
So did my dear friend Jutta.
And all of a sudden, on Saturday, I got a notification she had joined Signal. Could not believe it could be her. But it was. We started chatting right away and Markus, with whom I was in contact with as well, suggested a 25th anniversary party, next summer.
We’ve created this watsapp group for that purpose. There’s 6 of us there.
It is private, obviously, and it has this picture of Scott’s.
I found it inspiring, as unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of us all, the good old gang.
I was just talking to Jutta about her visiting Lisbon and associated one thing to another. Since the majority of them never came here.
The girls in the group were OK with it, the boys did not reply.
We have a saying in Portuguese: Quem cala, consente. Which means: if you keep silent, that means consent.
So, I believe the boys consent…
Anyway, if you are reading this, and would like to come over to Lisbon for a get together, please contact me with your name and country, to: contacto@isabelduartesoares.com.
Unfortunately, I deleted all my social media accounts, so I am no longer in touch with Linda Katz (Sweden), the only contact I had from Lux, as I don’t remember the majority of the surnames, sorry about that.
But I remember names… Toby, from the UK, Eva, from Spain, Mila, from Holland, Andrea and Connie, from Germany, Anders, from Sweden…
Anyway, I hope you search for Luxembourg 1997 European Parliament Traineeship/Stage and this shows up.
Please reach out.
