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

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

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

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

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