8th week full of intelectual and motivational things

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