Ruti in Portugal

My testimonial about the internship in Portugal

2008-02-15T04:43:00.000-08:00

Mystical Portugal

2008-02-15T03:45:00.000-08:00

Sintra - mystical beauty near Lisbon.

Unseen Portugal

2008-01-30T08:10:00.000-08:00

Cabo da Roca. The westernmost point of mainland of Europe.

The front picture---->

And the backstage---->

WILD CATS LIVE SHORTER.

15-19th weeks - 4 different cities, 4 different spirits

2008-01-30T08:09:00.000-08:00

Ola,

let's take a bicycle and ride it to 4 cities in the north of Portugal*: Braga, Porto, Aveiro, and Coimbra. What kind of spirit and discoveries will meet us there?

Braga - the city of people. The spirit of the place is hidden in the people we meet and we are with: Giedre, AIESEC intern Rosane, her colleagues from work, friends.

Even two most beautiful places there - Bom Jesus and Sameiro churches - would be less colourful and inspiring without picnic or photosessions there.

Finally, cooking night with potatoe cake-kugelis, traditional Brazilian food, and Portuguese wine has crowned the evening.

Let's meet the place STOP BY STOP.

1 STOP. Market in Braga - ideal place to buy fruits, vegetables, chickens, socks, etc.

2 STOP. Where should we go next? This touristic map looks quite complicated...

3 STOP. Let's leave the bicycle and go to Bom Jesus - a famous pilgrimage site with the church upstairs.

4 STOP. All the way up to have a picnic near the artificial lake.

5 STOP. The bicycle still stays down the hill and we go up to another pilgrimage site - Sameiro. Piligrimes really knew the best spots to choose for their destination:) Just look at the view to Braga from above... 6 STOP. Are we hungry or what? Let's make an international cooking night. Yami, yami:)

Good bye Braga, see you soon!

The second destination is Porto - porto wine city, cozy and interesting because of hilly landscape. Let's take a ride...

... to a traditional cafe.

... along the narrow streets.

... nearby the church decorated with azulejos (remember - special ceramics?;)). ... to the square with the highest Christmas tree in Europe (reliable sources tell that it was in Rio de Janeiro few years ago:)).
... enjoying blue sky and the highest tower in Porto.

... to see Ribeira - area of Porto that is the best seen from the other shore of the river.

... to find out about the history of the porto wine that is originally made not in Porto but more to the north; however, the made wine is brought to the wine cellars in tuns by special boats that you can see in the picture.

... to taste fransesinhas - some special cooked sandwich from Porto.

... to see the city lights from the bridge. Good bye Porto, see you next time!

Let's go to Aveiro, also know as Venice of Portugal because of the channels crossing it. Aveiro has the calm spirit that simply forces you to slow down, have a walk along the channels, sit down on the bench in the park, have their traditional fish soup and sweets ''ovos-moles'' in the cafe.

Good bye, Aveiro, I will come back!

Coimbra is a student city with the oldest university in Portugal and melancholic fado songs heard in the old town. It was also cool to meet other interns and AIESECers with whom we walked around the city, went to fado house, enjoyed the night and nice chats.

See you, Coimbra!

A trip has gone to an end. It's time to leave the bicycle and leave the final message: visiting places is all about feeling the spirit of the place and also people with whom you go, whom you meet, and whom you remember.

Kisses

Ruti

* for the sake of truth - those cities were actually visited in 2 times and not by bicycle:)

15-16th weeks - CHRISTMAS and NY in Portuguese way

2007-12-27T06:52:00.000-08:00

Ola,

Believe me or not, everywhere Christmas is the same - Santa Clauses in the shopping centers at the end of October, discounts and comercial spirit around, streets decorated and Jingle Bells sounds touching ears dozen times per day.

Though there are some slight differences when celebrating Christmas Eve (CE) and Christmas in Lithuania and Portugal. First, noone understood when I had asked if they had 12 dishes for CE dinner and I did not understand what's so strange in this question. The thing is that the traditional dish for CE in Portugal is.. guess.. bacalhau:) and for dessert - king's or queen's cake. No herrings, no French salad (this is the name for 'lietuviska misraine' in Portugal), no kuciukai in poppy milk.

Second difference - Christmas trees, in Portugal they almost do not have natural Christmas trees or branches, they use plastic ones. In general, I am against natural Christmas trees as well, but to have a fresh branch gives a totally different smell at home.

Here in Portugal I had 6 chances to celebrate Christmas or Christmas Eve. Let's start from the beginning - you will find some really unusual moments:

1. 6 December - Christmas dinner with AIESEC ISCTE. Nice place, dinner with AIESEC alumni, members, exchanging gifts, playing ping pong, singing caraoke. Rather unusual, isn't it?;)
2. 9 December - Christmas dinner with flatmates. Christmas spirit with 'fire place', Christmas tree, Maroccan food, Portuguese wine, Portuguese TV show that was 'veeery funny' and secret Santa Clauses. Pretty unusual as well..:)

3. 14th December - Christmas lunch with colleagues at work. Going to the north from Lisbon to a very nice place near Tagus river, meating lots of colleagues from all over the country, enjoying sun and mandarines hanging on the trees, eating bacalhau or codfish, some typical Portuguese desserts, drinking really delicious wine, enjoying performance of some toy football coaches from Portugal (Portuguese are really crazy about football), and coming back with a Santa Clause bag of presents.

4. 21st December - Christmas bowling and clubbing with the colleagues of Rosane (intern in Braga). Something strange:)

5. 24th December - Christmas Eve with the family of Portuguese friend and my sister. A very nice evening preparing bacalhau with vegetables, mushrooms' soup, bringing some Lithuanian spirit with 'sakotis' and 'kuciukai', making sangria from champagne, exchanging small, cute gifts, watching Eurotrip till 4 a.m. This is what I really wanted - to experience Christmas Eve in Portuguese way, in a Portuguese family. Many many thanks for Goncalo for giving this chance;)

6. 25th December - Christmas UNO cards evening with friends in my appartment.

And New Year? Well, except spending it with 4 different nationalities (7 Romanians, 2Portuguese, 2 Lithuanians, 1 Brazilian), near the ocean, with the flowers' pot of sangria, eating typical dishes from different countries, dancing pimba, eveything else was pretty much the same as in Lithuania:))

A few learning points:
1. Pimba is a kind of Rytis Cicinas just in Portuguese and more dirty. This was the music that really made us dance during NY Eve:) More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pimba

2. if you expect that cabbage rolls (balandelius) or potatoe salad (lietuviska misraine) you can find only in Lithuania or Romania or some other country and these are typical dishes of your country, you might be surprised...:) Cabbage rolls are the same both in Romania and Lithuania and very common potatoe salad is called both Lithuanian and French salad in different parts of the world.

3. If your do not have a pot to make 10 liters of sangria, the easiest solution is to go to the chinese shop and to buy a plastic pot for planting flowers:)

Warmest greetings with a piece of Portuguese sun and Lithuanian spirit for YOU – Merry Christmas!

I would like to wish you:

THE ray of light that wakes you up every morning even when there is no sun outside,
THE snow flake in the air that makes you smile,
THE cup of coffee with an interesting person in a secret cafe,
THE present that you cannot hold but that brings warmest feelings,
THE song that fills up the mind an makes you dance like there is no tomorrow,
THE dream that you can share with your friends,
THE feeling of fulfilment and maturity inside.

I wish you to LIVE every moment of your life!

Buckiai, beijinhos, kisses:*
Ruti

14th week - have you ever heard about the Great Wall of Portugal?

2007-12-27T06:40:00.000-08:00

Olá,

One more week, one more experience. Portugal keeps surprising me:) Have you ever heard about the big wall of Portugal? About Manueline style in architecture? About big monasteries in small villages? No?! Even if you did hear, this message is for YOU.

International Reception Weekend in Alcobaça. One nice and freezing night after the official dinner, opening of the national conference, and celebration of the 49th anniversary of AIESEC in Portugal a bunch of AIESECers, including interns from all over the Portugal, gathered in Alcobaça for AIESEC National Conference and parallelly - International Reception Weekend.

Alcobaça monastery is one of the main attractions in that small and cute city with narrow streets and very cozy atmosphere. The monastery was founded in 1153 by the first king of Portugal (in 100 year – 1253 the first king of Lithuania was crowned). What is more, it was the first Gothic building in Portugal. The monastery was built for the monks of Cistercian order (lietuviskai ´bernardinu ordinas´- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercians). In the monastery monks were forbidden to speak except one special room. At first it was a quite strict order with strict rules, however with the increase of power all monks got separate cells, the kitchen increased to an amazing size and some unrevealed sources tell that they had a secret tunnel connecting them with the monastery of nuns in a nearby village…

And some inspiring whispers about love story behind these walls:) One of the kings of Portugal Pedro I was in love with Spanish noblewoman Ines. However, she was not accepted by Pedro’s father and was killed. After Pedro I became a king of Portugal, he exhumed Ines’s body and forced the court to swear to it as a queen. Now they are both buried in the monastery in marble coffins and will stay together till the end of the world…

More about the monastery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monastery_of_Alcoba%C3%A7a

In the photos below:
- the bad monk who now suffers a trampling down;

- beautiful gardens - the inside yard;

- a small pool where monks could catch fresh fish.

Ruins of Alcobaça castle. Besides the monastery, Alcobaça once had a castle from which only ruins are left. However, the ruins are high on the hill and the view from there is worth seeing. Some photos from above following.

Aljuborrota. One of the main battles in Portugal happened near this village. Not so many people actually would remember it if not one legend about the woman from the bakery who killed almost the whole army of Spanish (or 8 Castilians soldiers according to other stories:)) with baker's peel (lize):)

The idyll of the village in the photo on the right... right? no, other right:))

Obidos. The Great Wall of Portugal is exactly in this place. The whole village – white fairy-tale houses, narrow winding streets, orange trees with hanging fruits and Christmas fair - surrounded by the wall. The only thing you have to do is to climb up on the wall and start going around the city observing the smallest details in the middle. We were lucky because when we came there, the village was full of people who came to the ´Village of Christmas´.

Other interns. As I always say - it is usually not about the places you visit but about people with whom you visit or you meet there. And the crew for this Reception Weekend was amazing. Check the photos below:

...Venesuela, Brazil, India, Peru, China, Brazil, Australia, Slovakia, Brazil, and Lithuania on the stage...

... on the bridge...

...in the ruins of the castle... who are those monkeys in the shadow?..

...in the tour around bars in Alcobaça...

...hard process preparing caipirinha...

...a tough competition - boat race for THE INTERNS´ team...

...aren´t we nice?..

Offtopic – Manueline architecture style:::
- just in Portugal,
- absolutely typical,
- crawling out in almost all old buildings and monuments.

So, what is it all about?
About incorporating maritime elements and elements from discoveries brought by famous discoverers. The main examples of this style are St. Jeronimos monastery and Tower of Belem in Lisbon. But I found elements of it almost in every church, monastery I have visited all around the Portugal. What I like the most is actually the ceiling:) Check this out…

For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manueline

And a final message of this post is - I found two ways to rediscover and fell in love once again with your country:
1. to go abroad and start discovering another country. By discovering Portugal, I started thinking what I would like to see, find out back in Lithuania. I talked about this with other interns and they feel exactly the same:)
2. to talk or read blogs of people staying in your country. A message from one Portuguese friend ´Sometimes we need a person from outside to show us how beautiful our country is.´

Feeling a bit like Vasco da Gama:)
Ruti

Photo Pedi Paper - let´s have a walk around Lisbon!

2007-12-13T05:38:00.000-08:00

Olá,

One nice Saturday morning half sleepy zombies have gathered for an event called Photo Pedi Paper. The main purpose was to wander around Lisbon scarring people and trying to get ´´bloody´´ photos. 3 teams were created, one of them was called ´´nebeprisikiskiakopusteliaudamas´´:) Let´s see if the goal of zombies´gathering was achieved...

We are ready!!!

Wanna dance with me??..
.. or with me??..

Watch out - we are in metro..

Almost professional in street surfing..

Man - fountain..

Fresco and fofo.. Fresh and cute..:)

Conquerors of Lisbon..

Isn´t it a nice way to know the city better?

Kisses

Ruti

12th, 13th weeks - THE TIME of facilitating abroad

2007-12-09T10:30:00.001-08:00

Olá,

Once from one guy I heard a very typical saying – Erasmus or other experience abroad is THE time of your life. What does ´THE TIME´ mean to me? It means that internship is not holidays:) It is spent not relaxing but rather using and developing yourself, having fun and working to the very limits. And the extreme example of this was at the end of November:)

DISCOVERY1. 30th Nov to 2nd of Dec a national conference in AIESEC Portugal happened.

When I first saw that facilitators’ applications are opened, I immediately related this opportunity with one of my goals for this internship – training experience abroad. And I was selected!! :)

The marathon of challenges and amazing experience started on 27th of November during the pre-meeting and finished on 2nd of December at the late dinner with all facies.

Some glimpses to feel the vividness of life then:
· Getting to know the team and the chair after they had had the team building before :)

· Finding out some common friends (Sami was the president of AIESEC in Egypt on national level, so he knows Ilma, and she also is on internship in Cairo where he lives when he is not in Rotterdam or charing some conferences… and he was in Lithuania some months ago to facilitate EUROCO.. what a small world..:))

· Being the only international faci

· Finding out the sessions I had to lead with other facies: ´Leaders in Action´, ´1 Life, 1 Exchange´, sharing my internship experience in connection time

· Getting the concept and catching up with other facies in the evenings of the pre-meeting (during the day I was working) :)

· Preparing for the sessions during the night and early in the morning :)

· Meeting more than 100 new people from all over Portugal

· Having the most interesting chats with really amazing people

· Enjoying companies´ involvement in the conference - mainly ´developing leaders day´ and ´social´ part · Asking not to put the whole pot of rise for dinner (there was a lot and good food during the conference – that´s Portugal..:))

· Experiencing some logistical misunderstandings (where is that f… room just 15min from the main site?..:))

· Explaining that you can minimize your culture shock to a bacteria size (have I experienced culture shock in Portugal? That´s the question worth Sherlock Holme´s investigation)

· Laughing till death when FBI team (the team for punishments and funny stuff) was on the stage. INVESTIGATE!

· Enjoying prefessional performances of Sami and others... let´s activate randomness!!:)

· Having a really great time - both GIVING and TAKING!! Or better saying - taking by giving:)

CSR discussion. Remember my post about discussion on Poverty. In December my turn came and I decided to lead TALKS! on Corporate Social Responsibility. The short message about the discussion:

´´On 5th December a TALKS! on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was organized with the main objectives- to create a clear understanding about what CSR is,- to discuss what the current reality in companies/organizations (including AIESEC),- and to discuss possible action steps that we can take in our everyday life.The discussion club was pulsing with diversity and exchange spirit as there were participants from Brazil, China, Lithuania, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, who are either ´´experiencing´´ exchange here in Portugal or are going to experience it abroad or in general are passionate about this stage of AIESEC XP:)Not only living diversity but also enjoying participation during the TALKS! people came up with conclusions that AIESEC as an organization is very important in raising CSR ideas and developing people, however, we have to be leaders ´´every day´´ acting socially responsible in the conferences, recycling, giving blood, smoking outdoor, turning off computers for the night, using less plastic bags, keeping the balance between AIESEC and personal life and taking many other steps which are so simple but very important.The final message was ? CSR is a nice concept for companies and it starts from people living it every day.´´

This was and still is THE TIME of my life...

Kisses:*

Ruti

9th, 10th and 11th weeks - State of mind - stil crazy

2007-12-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

Olá,

It´s high time to grab a pen and open a new page of my experience in Portugal. This page will be a little bit different - you will have to find discoveries yourself;)

Three words describing these weeks perfectly - international, cultural, and touristic.

General state of mind - still crazy about this internship, can´t imagine skipping this part of my life:)

Portuguese language+classes+illegal cafe:) My Portuguese language is improving, so if people speak slowly and simply I can get the point. Good improvement for a person who has never learned any Latin language and Portuguese in particular. How do I learn? First of all, Portuguese language classes are organized by one of the LCs here in Lisbon and it really helps a lot. Many thanks for them! Another way - at work I have a colleague who tries to speak Portuguese with me and always helps me to speak myself. And the third thing - well I am practicing with everyone. And the funniest thing that some guys call me ´´convencida´´(pasikelusia) for fun, because most of the time I can say that I understand even though I have a vague clue about the topic of the conversation:)

Offtopic: some of our classes take place in a cafe called ´´crew hassan´´ (the pronouciation is like of that cookie cruasan). It´s a home made cafe in a flat on the second floor where we went few times, just had a class, ordered nothing and noone even asked us why we were there. Weird:)
Oceanario. As Portugal has Atlantic ocean washing its coast, it is natural that it has an oceanario - a place where the life inside and near ocean is presented. The real beauty is that we can see natural environement from the oceans all over the world. The penguins and sharks in one big building. What is more, the educational part is also prepared very well, so groups of children may have for example sleeping with sharks (in the space near the aquarium:)). For more info check: http://www.oceanario.pt/site/ol_home_00.asp?popup=1 And as you can see from photos I found some new friends there.

By the way, Oceanario is next to my work place. As well as another interesting attraction - cable car. The view is really beautiful when you go above river Tejo and on the side are gardens and business area.

Belem. If you visit Lisbon, you have to visit Belem area. And I did this one nice Sunday afternoon together with Mo (Chinese intern from another LC). Belem has a wonderfull monastery - pitty that not all open to visitors. Also 2 monuments: Belem tower and discoveries´ monument. This was the place where Portuguese discoverers were concencrated before leaving for discovering new places.

And the last but not the least -it has Pasteis de Belem - cookies that are known far outside the Portugal. That special cafe (pastelaria) is there for more then 100 years and as they say only in that spot you can try the original taste of the cookies (the recipe is the top secret). Well, after waiting for some 15 minutes in a queue, me and Mo managed to get Pasteis and it was really tasty, however, the whole myth about fantastic taste is abit exagerated. Well, but it´s worth trying anyway:)

Offtopic: it is actually funny when some countries say that they found America, Africa or India as if noone was living there before. We Europeans are quite arrogant, aren´t we?;)

Azulejos museum. Do you remember me writing about special ceramics - azulejos - that Portugal has?? Well, they have also a special museum for that. It was quite nice to see the tecniques how it is made and was made some time ago. What is more, in that museum they have some really interesting peaces of art (especially related with religion), including awesome church shining with gold.

Offtopic: only here in Portugal I again understand how much the history of human beings is connected with religion. It was highly influenced centuries ago and I think it has a lot of impact nowadays as well. E.g. near my place there is a kind of church of sect that has millions of followers in Brazil but in general it is known for having a good technique to decoy money from people. Wanna know more - it is really interesting;)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igreja_Universal_do_Reino_de_Deus

Other interns in Lisbon. In lisbon we have a nice family of interns and a very diverse one as well:) Brazilian, Chinese, Indian, Romanians, Serbian, Lithuanian:) Quite a nice company for having deep discussions, dinners, Portuguese classes, making fun and enjoying life in Portugal. The most interesting discussions are when we speak about our experience in Portugal or discuss such things as education and compare how different it is in our countries (does beating children help for them to be more disciplined? as you can imagine some discussions are quite taugh).

Beja. One of the special occasions to meet interns from all over the Portugal was International Reception Weekend organized by one of the AIESEC Local committees in Lisbon. It was south from Lisbon and we had really fun time getting to know the city, its famous places, typical food, typical people:) It was the second largest city in Alantejo region, however it was strange to see that it was really small when we climbed up to the tower of the castle.

Some special pics:

Taking pictures of people taking pictures:)

Taking pictures of some peaces of art (children under age of 16 are not allowed to look:P).

View from the tallest castle tower in Portugal.

Wanna some oranges?;)

Crew:)

Jazz, concerts and other cultural activities. What I especially like here in Lisbon - cultural part of the life. Almost every week I go to some concerts: on Mondays there are free concerts in casino Lisboa, and the singers are really great there. On Wednesdays there are jazz sessions in one the most famous clubs in Lisbon. So, these are two main spots for weekly doze of culture. Besides that I visited ballet ´´Sleeping beauty´´ with my flatmate - girl from Italy (the home land of ballet). Mmm, I haven´t been to a ballet since my childhood, so it was amazing to watch one performed by theatre from St.Petersburg.

St.Martins day. A very interesting celebration in Portugal is St.Martins day. One nice Saturday me and Marco we went to one of the squares in Lisbon where scouts organized a traditional celebration of St. Martin´s day. They were selling cooked chestnuts (kastonus), very light wine ´´aguape´´ and some Portuguese singers were singing fado (traditional melancholic songs - very typical for Lisbon). Check out the video;)

Involvement into AIESEC. One of parallel eperiences I have here in Portugal is involvement in AIESEC. This, to my mind, is a very important part when you go on an internship. And as I am currently the only intern in my LC, I really try hard to let them feel why they are working and what experiences they can have. Short summary of my activities here: member of exchange team, coacher for matching, a member of organizing committee of local conference (check the last message), facilitator in national conference and organizer of the discussion about CSR (coming soon in next messages:)).

Work. New and valuable experience - after 2 months I really feel that I am into the processes. The main challenge - language. Though I am working with files that are in Portuguese:) Sometimes I experience a very strange feeling - people start speaking Portuguese about some hot topic, are envolved into a really intense discussion and as they speak quite quickly I cannot understand anything. Then the feeling is like I am sitting in the cinema and watching a soap opera with really emotional characters:)
I really like my colleagues in the company- they are fun and friendly guys whom I teach Lithuanian, with whom sometimes I go to the cinema, have serious discussions about environment, Portuguese culture, have funny situations, and fights about the temperature that we want to keep in the office (I am the one who is always hot even with short sleeves:)).

Routine and mastery. Just recently I have read Macy´s blog (Portuguese-Cape Verdian intern straying in India, Jaipur) about change of the routine when you are abroad. And that is true. However, in my case it was more not the change of the routine but lack of the routine. Some of you might argue that that´s a perfect situation. However, routine is highly needed if you want to learn: to reflect about your experience, to gain some news skills, to really live. So, now I feel more or less comfortable with the established routine and at the same time enjoying crazy unplanned moments:)

Warm greetings and kisses:*

Ruti

8th week full of intelectual and motivational things

2007-11-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

Olá guys!

Every week here in Portugal is an exceptional one for me and every day is full of LIFE. Wanna hear what experiences one more week in Portugal brought to me?:)

This was an intelectual and motivational one, intense and unique at the same time.

The DISCOVERIES of the week:

22 - the week started with no particular discoveries;

23 - documentary film festival DOCLISBOA and a movie ´The halfmoon files;

24 - discussion about povery with AIESEC people;

25 - introduction to Portuguese classes - yes, I am studying:) ;

26 - OC and in particular barlady in the conference;

27 - great feeling after the contribution to the conference and team spirit:)

DOCLISBOA. For a few last years a documentary film festival called DocLisboa is taking place in Lisbon and it is getting more and more attention and audience (a kind of similar popularity as Kino pavasaris in LT). So, somehow naturally when I heard about it for the first time, I decided to use this opportunty. Believe me, this was worth it - I really like thought provoking movies:)

The first one I saw was a German movie called ´The Halfmoon files´. Have you ever thought:

- that with the invension of phonograph we can hear dead people talking to us;

- that old people used to tell stories from their memory, stories told by their ancesstors, and now we have access to the first source;

- how many people in concentration camps participated in experiments that helped to create such invensions as phonograph;

- that despite the fact we like this or not, the war had an extremely huge influence towards the development of mankind.

Another movie was made by American director and was called ´Hot house´ (yes, it really sounds a bit dirty:)). And this was extremely interesting one. Have you ever thought that:

- you can sustain the whole network of freedom fighters (including suiside bombers) by putting people in prison for 15,40 years or two life times;

- that Palestians in Israelian prisons have internal elections, have a kind of PR person responsible for communicating with the administration of the prison, a budget that sums the money that each prisoner has.

One of the deepest moments in the movie was a woman telling her story about organizing a suiside bombing, about how she chose the place, about the fact that she did not regret even though she had children. All the time she was smilling. And that smile had something strong - if we forget the fact about what kind of values she had, it was a smile of a person who had very strong identity and stand in life. Hm, it was an interesting perspective towards what is happening in the world.

So, during the internship one should expect not only to represent his/her own culture, not only to find out more about the internship country but also in general broaden one´s view.

Discussion about poverty. Another powerful experience during this week was a discussion about poverty organized by a Brazilian intern. Another perspective and sharing what is happening around this issue in the world.

RIMT OC (organizing committee). RIMT here is a conference for new members (LMS in Lithuania). I was for sure planning to participate there, but it was even nicer to get an invitation to join organizing committe and have a very particular role, to work with very nice and warm people, to make an investment that returned in smiles of delegates, facilitators, and chair, that returned in reached goals of the conference.

Barlady. Have you ever known that one of the biggest dreams of mine was to be a waitress or a barlady for a few months. During the conference I experienced being a barlady for some hours. And it was a really challenging experience to work in DUCK´S TASKA (taska is an old-fashioned bar in Portugal) selling beer, sangria, different cocktails as people were really thirsty:D

Peculiarities of Portuguese conferences:

- on the cost of the ocean

- in the hostel- with a warm shower and bed

- with a food prepared in the restaurant

- almost no AIESEC dances

- elections of ´the most...´girls and guys where the nominations are created on the spot and not announced afterwards

- alcohol is sold but no alcohol is left at the end of the night (typical drinks: beer, sangria, whisky-cola, vodka with juice, some liqueurs:))

- coffee lounge at the end of the night - just to calm down and prepare yourself for a few hours sleep:)

- somehow people spill a lot of alcohol on the floor (just noticed this brushing the floor afterwards:))

A special thank you for a wonderful OC team for a real team spirit, good mood, no stress (duck rule really worked:))

For the end - when we think about going to internship abroad or erasmus or some other experience, we expect to change our life, perspective, we hope that the change of the environment will bring some changes into our lifes as well. However, it is true just to some certain point because to all those experiences abroad you bring together the cause of your worries and of your LIFE - and that cause is YOU:)

Beijinhos:*

Ruti

7th week - retrospective of travelling

2007-10-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

Ola,

This week was full of travelling - either virtual one in presentations of people who were/going abroad or real one when I used the chance to visit the South of Portugal.

The DISCOVERIES of this week:
15. Soviet Union. A lot of people here are very interested in how was the life there in S.Union times, how the empire crashed, etc. This inspired me to get to know about this a bit more and remember some history lessons:)
16. Bureaucracy - 2,5 hours to open a bank account, filling 3 A4 size pages with the most interesting questions - at the end I really missed the question about my hobbies and either I have a pet here or no:)
17. LT presentation in AIESEC, Macy bye bye, tasting codfish for the first time.
18. Ice cream in cafe on the bank of Tejo
19. Zodiac signs - once I had an interesting conversation about this and realized that I have never really tried to find out more about. Well, why not now?:)
20. Albufeira
21. Faro, Tavira

This week I decided to write less and to let photos speak for themselves. So, the retrospective of the week in pictures:)

The retrospective starts here...

And finishes here...

If life was a destination, the story would finish here. However, life is all about the journey full of nice moments...

... getting to know other cultures, as Marco was in CEED in Tajikistan this summer and presented his experience; as Teresa (a.k.a. Macy) is leaving for her internship to India and presented the country she is going to.

... presenting Lithuania once again, this time to AIESEC people.

... leaving a piece of Lithuania to the Local Committee - they are going to have a collection of flags to cover all the walls in the office. During this evening they received 3 flags: Tajik, Cape Verdian, and Lithuanian.

... tasting Tajik vodka. It was really tasty even drinking a pure shot.

... saying ´bye bye´ to Macy who is leaving to India, Jaipur.

... tasting codfish or ´Bacalhau´ for the first time. Portuguese people are the ones who eat the most of this fish in the world even though they import it from Northern countries. They say that there are 1001 recipes to prepare it. This is something you should not miss if you come to Portugal - it is really delicious:)

... finding beautiful beaches and really developed tourism industry in Albufeira - one of the cities in Algarve region in the South of Portugal. The majority of the tourists there are British, so services are really adapted - bars where they could see football games, menus in English, etc.

... finding narrow white streets which look even whiter because of sunny sky there. South of Portugal has a really warm climate, so you can go there and enjoy the beach even in the end of October.

... finding green spots with unusual trees.

... finding rocks in the middle of the ocean and having a swim next to them.

... lieing on the beach and enjoying interesting conversations with interesting people.

... not stopping smiling:)

... trying to find the way out of the beach and finding some dangerous wholes in the rocks.

... realizing that it is not so dangerous, though:)

,,, once more finding the passion for mountains, rocks, and climbing.

... catching some nice views (am I the only one seeing the heart there?:)).

... having Turkish kebabs in Indian cafe with guys from Mozambique, Brasil, and girl from Costa Rica. Could this be called `living diversity´?

... tasting Portuguese Muscatel (a kind of wine) from under the table not to get frozen as the night was quite windy and cold even in the South of Portugal.

... having fun with friends in a disco. Do you know that British girls in the South of Portugal are called ´beefas´as they are white and get a red sun-tan after sunbathing on the beech. And Portuguese guys like eating ´beefas´as they come here to really have `fun´.

... finishing the night really tired but really happy.

... finding the capital of Algarve region - Faro - with some exotic elements for my eyes there.

... visiting the bridge from Middle ages - one the biggest tourist attractions in Tavira city.

... tasting sardines - typical food in the South.

... finding a relaxing athmosphere with the nice environment.

Life is a journey not a destination - this is the quote I once heard and really liked. Life is a journey with the destination - the updated phraze that I like more.

Kisses and a piece of sun from still warm and sunny Lisbon:*

Ruti

6th week - one step aside

2007-10-17T06:03:00.000-07:00

Oi,

The week that I call - one step aside. One day I was deeply thinking - I have a credo for my internship which is ´at least one discovery every day´, however, it is quite hard to achieve. Not everyday I go to unknown places, taste new food, participate in events.

And that day I decided to go on foot to a place which is half an hour from my home. I really did not expect that I would find my neighbourhood in a different way - really realizing what the area I am living in looks like.

So, it really depends on myself. Even living your everyday life in a home country it is easy just to make one step aside from a usual route or routine and experience small new things or see the world around through different glasses.

Discoveries of the week:

8. new office + typical Portuguese food

9. presentation for @ interns in ISCTE

10.discovering the day with no discoveries

11. discovering neighbourhood

12. sleeping for 3 weeks

13. Mouth of Hell and picnic

14. Carcavelos beach - 7 different nationalities in one place

New office. Remember when I was writing about THE TOPIC in our company? So, finally the topic is over as we have moved to a new place. In the same building, with the same railway above, however, it is much more modern and light.

Naturally, the new office had to be baptized. Portuguese wine, olives, typical bread, meat, cheese... We could move more often:)

Mouth of Hell and Cascais. Next to Lisbon there is a small city (or better to say - district of Lisbon) called Cascais. It is a quite expensive area with a lot of hotels, beautiful beaches, rocky cost and a place called Mouth of hell as one of the main attractions of the tourists.

This was one of the destinations for the weekend. And I enjoyed the time a lot. Having a long walk with a friend along the beach, seeing mouth of hell (which to my mind is just one of the beautiful rocky places in that area - see a short film from that place), having a picnic, tasting cooked chestnuts (kastonus) for the first time, finding some intrigueing views (see the photo with 4 legs behind the rocks:)).

Carcavelos beach - 7 different nationalities in one place. Another day of the weekend was not less interesting - with Indian, French, Italian, German, Portuguese and Ukrainian playing volleyball in the beach. Diving into big waves of the Atlantic Ocean afterwards. Seeing beautiful evening sky and coming back home feeling rested and ready for the next week of discoveries:)

And for the end of this message a simple but interesting idea about sleeping. Sometimes we say that we like sleeping or need to sleep a lot; but actually we like not to sleep but to feel rested:)

Beijinhos or kisses:*

Ruti

5th week - dancing like there is no tomorrow

2007-10-12T06:12:00.000-07:00

Ola,

The fifth week here in Portugal was shorter in terms of work because on Friday (5th October) Portuguese people celebrated Republic Day. However, the pace of life was extremely fast, and the phraze ´living or dancing´like there is no tomorrow could be the slogan of this week.

About everything from the very beginning.

DISCOVERIES:

1. Life music in an Irish pub with a glass of Guiness:)

2. Secret cafe with a special spirit inside

3. Discovering the day with no discoveries

4. Finding Portuguese music - The Gift concert

5. Finding North of Portugal, camping

6. First time in Portugal dancing like there is no tomorrow:)

7. 100 km traffic jam

Camping in the north of Portugal. One of my friends invited me for camping and international cinema festival in the North of Portugal, so it was a good opportunity to find Portugal in a different way.

5 people, 2 cars, ~250 km to the place where according to some people it is already too cold to camp - near the place where during the winter they have SNOW:) But who can stop 5 discoverers?

So, on Friday afternoon we were already there, building camps, and heading for the place where the cinema festival was supposed to be. Campings in Portugal are more or less the same as in Lithuania - in the middle between jungle and intelectual tourism:) We were quite civilized ones, as we had a gas oven to cook our meals.

Weird art. The festival was supposed to be a modern cinema festival but we watched different kinds of alternative art - exhibitions, concerts, short movies. It was different and nice, especially when the athmosphere was really international - there were bands from UK, USA, people from other countries.

Dancing like there is no tomorrow. The main part of the festival was for sure at night and we enjoyed this part a lot - first of all going to a concert to some alternative band and afterwards to a disco with DJs. It was weird because most of people there really had to warm up to start dancing, so half of the night everyone was just drinking, chating (remember the culture of communication?:)), and dances started just at ~3 a.m.

One of nights was a recovery for me as I really missed dancing here. I danced a lot and with passion for dance, quoting one of the people who were together: ´dancing like there is no tomorrow´:)

Local cafe. As our weekend was taking place in the North of Portugal, the athmosphere and typical reality there was much more different then in Lisbon. We spent quite much time drinking coffee, beer, eating termoços (next paragraph about his:)) in a local cafe or better saying kiosk with tables around:) At the end of our stay we new the names of some constant local visitors, the saleswoman, and really warmly said bye bye to them.

Termoços. A lot of Portuguese people have tried to explain me what termoços are and the explanation was something like this: yellow things that are very good with beer and typical to Portugal. And actually noone knew where they come from, is it a vegetable, ceed or something else:) I do not know as well but for me it is very similar to boiled yellow beans with salt.

Rice with pasta. But we ate not only termoços. Most of dishes were typical for camping and students: pasta, tuna, rice, canned food, and even rice with pasta. Interesting - I do not say it was not good:)

Traffic jam 100 km. After a nice weekend it was time to go home. Another 250 km on the highway. Usually, when you say highway, one can expect going 110km per hour or more. However, when it was left around 100 km till Lisbon we were stuck in a traffic jam. That´s an experience... Actually, some Portuguese people told that they have less traffic on the highway even during Christmas. 3 days weekend made it´s job:)

Portuguese music. During one week I had a chance to find two most popular Portuguese bands. One evening a band called The Gift made a free concert for students, so it was a good chance to hear them live. They play a kind of pop rock, have a very exceptional vocalist (you can see in the picture). I really loved it as my last years are full of rock concerts:)

Another one - Xutos e Pontopés - is a band already playing for more than 15 years, and they played for us personally in the camp from the laptop.

What is the colour of love? This was one of the discussions we had in the camp in Fundao. Usually, when you tell the word, you can match it with some colour. And it is very strange that love most of the time is associated with red, which to my mind is the colour of passion. Love for me is blue (try to avoid extra thoughts about ´blue´ relationships:P). Because it is connected with harmony and has a lot of small feelings and experiences inside.

Greetings from still warm and sunny Lisbon;)

Ruti

First two weeks at work

2007-09-23T12:15:00.000-07:00

Ola,

I have written so much about my adventures and cultural experience (that is 50% of the internship for sure). But what about work??? A part of this message will be the first week at work and discoveries connected with working experience in Portugal.

Do not be surprised to find a very long message as I have put 2 weeks experiences here:)

Here come the discoveries:

17. Work:)
18. ´Secret´ canteen

19. Azulejos (special ceramics) in metro stations (I will write and upload photos about it in future messages)

20. Gringos - a special day during week where AIESEC people from all 4 Lisbon LCs (Local committees meet and have fun).
21. Tea in the microwave oven

22. Cristo Rei - a big statue of Crist (quite similar to the one in Brasil)

23. St. George castle

24. The nuances of Portuguese music - discussion with colleagues at work what are the popular singers in here

25. Not coffee but `kavyte` with a very interesting Portuguese person:)

26. Portuguese theatre

27. Portuguese student traditions

28. LT presentation in the company - to be an ambasador of Lithuania is a very pleasant feeling

29. International Cooking day

30. Cinema in Portugal - STARDUST:) It was just a little discovery that cinema is the same everywhere:)

Company. I work in company called REFERTELECOM that is a telecommunications company here is Portugal. However, it has nothing to do with operators that provide network services. We work in two main fields:

1. with telecomunications in railway stations and between them. The history about this service comes from the mother company of REFERTELECOM that is REFER - the biggest railway company in Portugal that is owned by the state. As REFERTELECOM is a concession of this big company most of the activities are related with it.
2. with hardware or IT services, such as transmitions, hosting, etc. (I am really not the best person to talk about this:)).

Luckily I have nothing to do with the technical part of my company´s services because I work in planning and control department. Talking in details: first week I have worked on consolidation, from the second week - on budgeting.

Working culture and environment. As you might expect the working culture and environment in Portugal is much different from the one in Lithuania. The main differences I have noticed are:

1. coffee breaks and relaxed culture are very common and sometimes you can go for a coffee and drink water - remember the culture of communication?;) This is my first job where I was asked not to rush, not to be stresses and relax (hm, I cannot really follow this rule, so I try to keep the balance - to adapt to the culture and introduce a little bit of mine as well:)). However, do not think that Portuguese do not work - in my department we have a `seasonal`work - it´s really busy at the end of every month and year.

2. the separation between the executive board and other employees. As I have found out from my colleagues, the local companies have quite a strict hierarchy and I have noticed this from very first day.

3. the separation between men and women:) This is not something typical for Portugal - but in REFERTELECOM they have this funny separation. Guys go to lunch together, girls - separately. Guys have founded a ´secret canteen`to have their lunch there. But again, after I asked if this is something wrong, people told that this happened naturally and it is more funny than serious:)

The funniest part of this story is that I go to lunch to that `secret canteen´and guys even invited me to their traditional lunch at the end of the month. Am I becoming a masculine here in Portugal?:D I hope no...

4. tea in the microwave oven. Another cultural experience happened when one day I had a thought - we have tea packs in the kitchen but where is the kettle for boiling the water? The answer was - pour water into the cup, put the pack into it and let the water boil in the microwave oven... That´s how I make tea.

5. THE TOPIC. Almost everyday of the work brings a new topic. When I tell a topic, I mean THE TOPIC. Imagine myself looking around and seeing people starting to move, going from one place to another, ´argueing´about something and putting a lot of emotions. At the end I find out that THE TOPICS are about prohibition of youtube or arrangement of desks in a new office...:) In general, not understanding the language gives possibility to know another ways of communication - body language, intonation of voice, etc.

Working area. To my mind, I am working in the nicest area of Lisbon. It is called Oriente or Expo area or Parque das nacoes (nations´park). Before 1998 it was an industrial and deserted area with no attractions for people. However, everything changed when it was decided to organise EXPO´98 there - the world exposition called ´The Oceans: A Heritage for the Future`. The area was rebuilt and now it has an oceanário, cable cars, parks, pavilions, and around 17 km long Vasco de Gama bridge which is the longest one in Europe.

You can check for more information here: http://www.parquedasnacoes.pt/inicio.asp?V=4&L=en

Working place and other logistical nuances. To be direct - I am working under the railway:) I am not joking:) the office is situated very nearby the metro station with a railway on it (it is quite symbolic when our mother company is the biggest railway company in Portugal). So, everytime the train passes, we hear a thunderstorm. And the first day I was really thinking that there is the storm outside but when I went out - it was the most beautiful shiny day:D

This is one the three logistical misunderstandings I know in Lisbon. Another is airport in the middle of the city. So, everytime I am in AIESEC office chating with people and the plane passes - it is almost impossible to continue the conversation.

The third one - Lisbon has a very broad rive Tejo. There are different ways to cross it: by car, by train, by ferry. And guess - there is no way to cross it on foot. So, if there is no transport - the easiest way is to swim across:)

No offense to Portuguese civil engeneers;)

Lisbon from above - Cristo Rei and St. George castle.

One nice weekend was devoted to seeing Lisbon from above. Cristo Rei and St. George castle were the sites that were 100% on my checklist:)

Cristo Rei is around 110 metres high statue of Crist that was built in 1959 and is very similar to the one that is in Rio de Janeiro. Just look at the pictures and you will see the beauty and majesty of it and the view around.

And if you interested in knowing more, you can chech this link: http://www.cristo-rei.com/default-uk.htm

Besides this, very nearby there is Costa de Caparica beach where I saw another ´mood´of Atlantic ocean - not calm pond but a real ocean with waves, people surfing or kite surfing and sun setting in it.

St. George castle was the second destination that weekend - the castle is in the middle of the city on a hill and you can see Lisbon under your feet:) The castle was built many centuries ago and was the witness of many periods of Portuguese history: Moorish times, first king, first discoveries (because Vasco da Gama was once invited there by the king) and many other. Now it is a perfect place to see Lisbon from the wall or through a big periscope (a special tool with which you can have a trip around Lisbon:)).

Portuguese theatre. I have experienced some Portuguese cultural life as well. One nice Wednesday together with one friend we went to a theatre, to a performance called SHALL WE DANCE IV. And this was an interesting experience. The part I liked the most was about benches. Yes, about such simple thing on the one hand and quite complicated one on the other. When you sit on it, your time stops but you can see the time of other people passing by - people hurrying to their work, stairing at you and wondering why you are not in a rush... An interesting perspective to a very simple thing.

However, let´s put a little piece of irony to this experience:) We entered the hall, the lights fade away, the man and the woman in official clothes came to the front and told something in Portuguese. Then they went to the back of the stage, took of their clothes (ALL clothes), came to the front and sat on the seats with their backs to the audience... and for half an hour read a story in Portuguese. I had really precious time to reflect about my day and my plans for the next one:)

The second part was about benches and I really liked it, besides, it was in English.

The third part: a woman in T-shirt and panties came on the stage and very expresionally talked smth in Portuguese. I do not know why, but I believed what she talked:)

So, this was my first experience in Portuguese theatre.

Student traditions. Portugal is very rich with student traditions. On 24th September their study year started but the first week was to really celebrate this. There were a lot of big events. One of them - a big party of all universities happened near my work place, in Oriente. And if you have ever been stuck in a traffic jam with a car - that was the situation there, when we were going on foot:) See the photo?:)

Another interesting fact - older students have special black suitsand cloaks with different emblems. And this puts some romanticism to students and their life:)

The third thing - every university has a band called TUNA (as I was told - no association with the fish:)). They make performances during different events, celebrations, they have an event where TUNAS from different universities compete. One of the performances I saw was in the yard of my Local Committee university - ISCTE (see the video).

International cooking day. This was a special event that has happened one nice Saturday evening when it was raining outside. Around 25 people gathered to have an international cooking day (or better to say - night:)). Mmmmmm, this was a very delicious time with food from Italy, Serbia, India, Germany, Poland, Romania, Spain, Cape Verde, Portugal. I prepared Lithuanian food as well. Which one? The potatoe cake or kugelis:) It was an experience to grate all the potatoes manually:)

Another funny remark: I have not found sour-cream in Portugal, so kugelis was with cream (translated into Lithuanian - kugelis su grietinele:D)).

A PROMISE - all the recipes that are not secret ones will be uploaded in this blog.

Different ambasadorships. Here I feel very much like ambasador:) Portuguese ambasador in Lithuania (writing this blog), AIESEC ambasador in the company (doing my best during my internship), Lithuanian ambasador in Portugal.

I have already done my country presentation in company and my suggestion for all Lithuanian and not only interns is - DO IT!!! If you still doubt - just DO IT! People are really interested and especially when Lithuania is quite a small country and there are different prejudices (no, we do not spaek Russian; no, we are not in Scandinavia; yes, we are in EU:)). But this is a great feeling when you can really represent Lithuania and give people the real understanding about country of green nature, basketball and rich cultural heritage (if you want my ppt - just drop an email;)).

I am sure that some of my colleagues will visit me in Lithuania afterwards.

Coffee or `Kavyte` with yourself. Another small theory for you. In all these 3 weeks, there was no day when I spent the entire half a day alone (not talking about sleeping:)). And it was very strange to do so this weekend. But I felt really good - thinking about the time that passed, that will come, creating some new interesting ideas, drinking tea and coffee. And I thought - I really need this. I like to have coffee with myself:) How other people could like having coffee with me if I did not enjoy it myself?..:)

Beijinhos:*

Ruti

Xtreme and international weekend

2007-09-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

Ola,

it was the last weekend before the start of the internship... New discoveries - new exciting moments. How was the preparation going - you could ask:) See the photo on the right:P

What were the discoveries from those two days:

15. Extreme things - climbing up the wall and motorbikes show.

16. First time swimming in the Atlantic Ocean.

Xtreme. The weekend started in Expo event where the youth day was taking place: some modern art expositions, some presentations and stands of companies, different governmental and non-governmental organisations, including AIESEC.

There were 2 things I liked most there - modern art exposition inside the building, however, with a green grass on the floor. This is something I sometimes miss - the smell of the grass after the rain.

The second things was Portuguese army stand or better to say - WALL. And guess - I climbed up this wall for the first time in my life.

A little bit of extreme taste for my internship.

Another extreme thing that has happened was motorbikes show. No, no, do not think that I was doing smth extreme:) This time I was just an observer. And I will not try to describe all the tricks that those crazy guys did with their motorbikes: playing with them, on them, near them, destroying them.

Check the movies;)

International. One of the beauties of AIESEC internship is that you can not only get to know the culture and people of internship coutry but also you can meet people from all over the world doing their internships in that coutry. Here I have already met people from Brasil, Venesuela, India, Poland... The moment when I felt the most internationally was spending the afternoon on the beach with the intern from India and his roommate from Spain, originally from Armenia:)

Language. The biggest challenge for me here is still the language. From totally bird´s language it´s getting more familiar. However, I cannot speak and understant the main point only if people use international words and some known names:)

My name and surname for Portuguese people is a learning point as well (see visitor´s card on the left:)).

Actually, my name in Portuguese language is pronounced with a french `r´in the beginning, so it sounds like ´chuta´:)

Estoril.

The spot near Lisbon that is for sure worth visiting - I spent there a few hours but managed to catch that different atmosphere of a resort - with big green parks, casino, fancy cars, beautiful beaches, paths near the Atlantic Ocean.

Cascais (first time swimming in the Atlantic Ocean). Remember part about spending time with Indian and Spanish guys on the beach. It was in another resort point near Lisbon - Cascais. The first time I really touched the Atlantic ocean and swam there. Well, the fact that I was swimming in the ocean was amazing, but in general - it was a salty lake. Because the sea in that beach was really calm.

Some facts for curious people - there are no sharks in the ocean near Portugal coasts. But there used to be some dolphins even in Delta of river Tejo.

Stay tuned for the next updates about my discoveries in Portugal.

Beijingos (kisses):*

Ruti

4 more days - many more discoveries

2007-09-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

Ola,

First of all - many thanks for your comments and wishes! I really feel closer to Lithuania, USA, Turkey when I get feedback from you:)

So, new days - new discoveries. An interesting remark - in 15-16th centuries Portugal was a very strong empire which eplorers discovered a lot of lands in Africa, South America, Asia, explored oceans and seas over the world. And it´s not strange that my stay here is also full of spirit of discoveries and eagerness to do this.

Discoveries of 4 more days:

11. Old town of Lisbon, Belem district - sighseeing and visiting touristic places... and eating cookies from Belem in the old town:) (Pasteles de Belem are very typical national tasty cookies that you cannot resist)

12. A very strange discovery: Lisbon, 3 a.m. at night, empty streets, open windows in the car, QUEEN concert is on very loudly. Amazing feeling that can be

13. Traditional coffee in a traditional cafe
14. Going in a trunk of a car:)

Coffee or kavyte. This is THE ritual. Here they have one the most delicious coffees in the world (Portuguese people say that it is THE BEST but let´s stay with the phraze ONE OF THE BEST here). And one of the discoveries for me was a small cup of coffee that is the most usual one here. I do not like strong coffee and especially espreso but this one is different, it is strong but has a veeery delicious taste (see the cup in the picture).

Old town. I enjoyed the days of finding the country in a local way but the touristic places are awesome as well. The old town of Lisbon is beautiful - with many statues, squares, St.George castle, little tram going around, their mosaic from ceramic bricks called Azulejo. So far I know their old town only from outside. But one day it will be a huge discovery while finding out the inside of those historic buildings.

Churches. Something from my short sightseeing experience:) I have visited 2 churches here in Lisbon - not enough to make an absolute conclusion but enough to say that they have a pure beauty inside. What I mean by `pure beauty´ is that almost everything is made of stone. Even the colors are got from different kinds of stones.

Belem and it´s cookies... Belem is a district of Lisbon where they have monuments for discoveries, amazing park, Jeronemos Manastery but the most known point in that area of Lisbon is the cafe where special cookies of Belem are made. Even though I tried these cookies in the Old town, local people say that it´s not comparable with the ones in Belem.

The trip in Belem was full of crazy mood: I took many interestin pictures, was walking in water spray, drank a cup of semi-hot coffee in the cafe in modern arts museum and got a nice paper swan from my buddy (person responsible for me from AIESEC).

Mothers. Hm, quite an interesting title for a blog, isn´t it?:) But I could not not to mention it. While my stay, I already know two mothers of AIESECers and they are really great. My buddy´s mother even helps us to fix the legal financial things. That´s when I went to financial institution of Portugal where she worked, was introduced to her colleagues and was treated to the national cookies of Portugal -Pasteles de Belem). Many thanks for that!

Football once more. Oh yeah, this is for sure not the last time I am going to tell about football. This time me a bunch of AIESECers went to watch football Portugal-Serbia. The match finished in draw and during the game were many emotions about the game and the goal (Serbian made it in offside, Portuguese coach wanted to beat Serbian players, the game almost finished in a fight). It is a very strange feeling when you watch a football match in a pub and you know the stadium is soem kilometres away. And the funny remark from the game: `Ruti, do you know that Portuguese wear red and green?` (no offense to the person who told this;)).

My welcome dinner. My welcome dinner took place on 14th, Friday and was together with one girl´s bye bye party. More then 20 people gathered there: delicious food, interesting chats, pool tables, and the slogan `let´s make Ruti drunk´. If I did not know that, maybe the mission would be possible but with a good publicity, the mission turned into almost impossible one and at the end of the day I was almost sober:) For the finish of the dinner we went to Bairro Alto streets and had some great time there (the description of Bairro Alto see in the previous message).

Going in a trunk. During one week I have seen people going in a trunk at least 3 times - something typical for Portuguese people, I thought... The same day, going back home from my`welcome party` there were 6 people who needed a drive. I guess... I was the one to go in a trunk. And I really enjoyed this strange cultural experience - seeing street lights above, hearing people asking if I am alive:)

Toy theory. During this week I kind of formulated one theory about internships and in general working abroad that I called ´Toy theory´. When you come to a new country and meet people there, you are a new and interesting toy for them. Some of ´children´ are keen on this new discovery, some of them are a little bit afraid. However, after 5-7 days you are not a new toy anymore. What happens? (no, shit does not hapen in this case:)) What happens is that after 5-7 days you are left with ´children´ who would like to know even more about you or already feel the beginning of a long term friendship (the feeling from the toy should be the same:)). So far, label `Made in Lithuania` is quite strong:)

For the summary of this message I could say that my life in Lisbon is very diverse - I have lots of crazy experiences, but not less intelectual conversations about poetry, economy, history, civil engeneering, etc. with interesting people. That´s the beauty of diversity:)

Kisses:*

Ruti

First 4 days and discoveries

2007-09-12T03:25:00.000-07:00

Here comes the first report from the special reporter in Portugal - Ruti. The first 4 days passed in the country that is the Europe`s farest point from Lithuania. The country where the land meets the Atlantic ocean....

... and where crazy AIESECers met Ruti at the airport.

My credo for the internship is: EACH DAY - AT LEAST ONE DISCOVERY.

And the first 4 discoveries are:

1. Lisbon - the WHITE city.
2. Meeting the guard - climbing up the rocks to the statue.

3. Bairo Alto - night life in the streets of Lisbon.

4. ´Local party´ with crazy Portuguese people.

People. Here in Porutgal people are really friedly and a bit crazy. Imagine my first hours in this country: singing and dancing people at the airport, a lot of posters around, a glass of local beer in a local bar, lunch. However, the craziest part is that most of the people I know here are guys. I tried to find out what has happened to the feminine part - and as they told this is the kind of the reception they have. They send boys to make the reception for interns-girls.

Other typical things for Portuguese people:
1. they really talk a lot:) much more than an average Lithuanian.
2. because Portuguese people have a culture of really intense communication - they have a lot of rituals for this. Coffee ritual - there are lots of cafes there and people enjoy drinking coffee with friends. Eating - they usually do not eat alone (the food is not that different from other Europian countries).
3. day schedule. If Portuguese do not have to go to work, the usual time to go to sleep is even 7-8 a.m. and then they wake up at 1-4 p.m. So, for me - morning person - it was a kind of shock:) Even after going to sleep at 5 a.m., I woke up at 11 a.m.
4. relaxed. People here are slower and their pace is not that intense as I am used to. Even the economy here is ´relaxed´ - see the bill of the cafe in photo. 5. greeting. Kisses to both cheeks.

Football vs. basketball. Football is called their first religion here. And this is really true. I got a chance to see people arguing about which is the best team in Portugal and they were really emotional (the best three teams here are Benfica, Sporting and Porto). One day I will for sure go to the football match and see what is happening in the middle of the heat.
Basketball is not very popular. Just a few people know that European championship is happening, not mentioning that noone looks the game even though the Portugal team is in another round. However, here I am, the real Lithuanian, crazy about basketball, who informs them about their and Lithuanian results daily:)

Beer. As I already wrote, I found out what Portuguese beer is very quickly. Actually, it is really tasty. Especially, I liked the black beer from their best brewery. However, the most funny story about the beer is that Portuguese people as well as Germans, Czeck people, Lithuanians and many other nations think that their beer is the best in the world:) Well, noone could judge the taste...

Lisbon.

Even when flying over the Lisbon by plane I saw what name I will give for this city – WHITE. And this is true. Here I found a lot less green colour then in Lithuania – most houses, pavements are white. And just after some time I found a connection – the architecture is really similar to the one they have in Arabic countries. This is not strange when you know that in VIII century it was concured by moores.

Sintra - PART 1.
A green spot near the Lisbon. If I wrote that Lisbon is white, so Sintra is for sure a GREEN place. This is the place who takes the second place among the places I am in. 2 out of three first days in Portugal I spent there. To tell the truth, most foreigners find Sintra in a very boring way - going around to some tourist sites, visiting palaces and other ancient buildings (I am going to do this as well).

However, my first acquaintance with Sintra was the following. Firstly, me and few local AIESECers (who know who they are:)) went to a park to one of the palaces. We climbed over the wall and entered the place absolutely `legally´. And we saw a very nice statue of the guard. And then came the proposal to visit that guard and say ´hello´. As you can see from the photos, it took us some time and alpinistic skills to use. At the end it was worth anything - this is what I like - finding out places in a local way.

Beaches and Atlantic ocean. The same day I was in Sintra, we also visited the beach there. And for the first time I touched the Atlantic Ocean. The water there is usually much colder than in the Baltic sea. That day it was 18 degrees Celsius. It was a bit exotic place for me with a really broad beach and rocks nearby.

Night life. There were 4 types of night life I have experienced in Portugal.

The first night we went to the docks of the river that crosses Lisbon - Tejo. We had a calm walk along the shore and had some beer in the pub there.

The second night was a real cultural experience for me as after the dinner and a coffee we went to a part of Lisbon where they have a lot of reaaaaaly small pubs - Bairo Alto. How do they cope with the situation that pubs do not have space even for 15 people? They simply buy drinks in the pub and go to drink and chat outside:) So, in Bairo Alto we had some ´shots´ (stikliukus) of really tasty cocktails (strawberry, peach, and kivi-peach taste, and they have many more that I did not taste). What is interesting in Bairo Alto is that people have a group drink - one person invites a group of people and pay for them. Afterwards, the turn goes to other persons. After drinking and chating in Bairo Alto (at around 5 a.m.) crowds of people either go home or to the discos.
The third night was devoted to know the ´underground´ night life in Lisbon. Me and some guys from Sintra (SINTRA - PART 2) went to one of AIESECers house and had a dinner there. And some Portuguese wine as well. The further part was an experience of night life in Sintra - ´killing´ driving in the narrow streets of Sintra, having some more sangrija, stopping to take a guitar, forgetting the guitar in the yard:), remembering it and coming back to take it, and the evening (or the morning) was finished singing some melancholic songs...

And the fourth one was a calm one - cooking and chats at home with my roommates.

Living place. I live in a flat with 5 bedrooms, living room, bathrooms and a kitchen with another people who rent that flat. In total 6 people (another girl from Spain will come soon). The flat is not big but it is really cozy and comfortable to spend that little part of my time there.

Summing up my first 4 days in Portugal I could say that I feel like being here for 4 months. So far I have many many more discoveries and impressions every day - absolutely ´drunk´ of this culture:) To be continued...

Kisses and regards!