First two weeks at work

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