CHRISTMAS TIME :)

As it is time for Christmas preparations not blogging we would like to wish you all the best :)

Take time with your family and friends, read your favourite book.

Rest from Internet :)

See you next year :) 

Dezembro on the way!

Good morning wonderful people :-)

How do you feel? December is on the way, we are almost arrived at the mid of the month, so the first christmas lights are on, the cold is coming (even if I think that in this city it doesn't exist :D) and Nico is always here, sending smiles to you all :-)

Well, after Beja and family weekends, we come back and work in our amazing spot, just in time for seeing the wonderful Baixa-Chiado full of lights, for start and buy presents (and lots of shopping as well for yourself). It was the chance for hang out with the team, before Paula left, now she is already in Galicia, Paulaaa why did you leave sooo fast? I already miss your brownie cakes... :-) So, you can be sure we are going to come to your spot, and take cakes back :-)

Galicia, wait for us :-)

So we were also in time for take another wonderful picture in Lisbon by night, pictures and memories are never too much :D 

The bombastic team em Lisboa

Sooo, actually not only Paula left, but our president Antonio flied away as well for some days, so right now I am with Olga in the office and we miss everyone; but we are creative, so Olga found out a way to be all together, not only by using skype, but a step more...

Skype meeting, distance is just a detail! :D

So, in the meanwhile I also tried to go and do shopping, I like buying only t-shirts, it could be summer or winter, if I have t-shirts I can go wherever, yeah it is my secret, or maybe the best answer when I ask myself where the money ended up... :-) sooo, actually I didn't find a lot of them, but I wasn't sad, I decided to buy something else, really useful, that also my dear Olga loves, could you imagine what? Just try :-)

Pastel de nata lover!

Yeah, I think it wasn't so hard, try and figure out about my sweets shopping. Pastel de nata, plenty of them :-)

When are you coming with me to go and eat them? Just let me know, they are waiting for us :-)

Lots of abraços,

Nico, Lisboa  08.12.15

FIRST VISITORS IN LISBON

Last week I had great weekend because of my sister visit. She came from rainy London just for a weekend but still we managed to give her a quick tour in Lisbon :)

Rossio train station 

First thing we did on Friday was a quick walk around the city going to my favourite place:

:)

Even that Praca do Comercio is very touristic 'must have to see in Lisbon' I still find it very relaxing. Just sitting on the stairs, watching sunset, listening to some local artist playing music... :)

At night we had a great opportunity to listen some unique stories of Lisbon during the Lisbon story sailors event :) 

On Saturday even that the weather was not the best we decided to go to Cascais just to look at the ocean and breathe:) but because of the rain our visit was short ended drinking hot tea :)

Sunday was pastel de nata day ! We went to Belem to eat the best pastels and enjoy the area, we visited monastery, Belem tower, cultural centre and walk around :)

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

Padrão dos Descobrimentos

As the food was almost the most important key of this weekend we went to the Time Out market to try good seafood :)

Monday as it was departure day was very short, but I managed to show to my sister new part of Lisbon- Oriente, she really enjoyed it :)

Very modern but still connected to Portugal :)

From Lisboa to Beja, and back :D

Olaaa amazing people, how are you? Are you still reading my post or you have already realized that they are just full of chocolate? Ahah J well, here I am for telling you about one of the most amazing experience you can do in your life, taking part in a youth project like the one we did in Beja, Simplifier (maybe you remember, your mind is more powerful than mine J). What can I say? Well everything went perfect, starting since the very beginning. As a member of the great team of organizers, we went one day before the start of the project in Beja, in order to have time for organize and also, why not, enjoy Beja one day more J

Beja, Portugal

Well, what about the project. I want to start to say thank you to Check-IN to allow me to take part in it, I had the chance to work in this field, with open minded people, with lots of competencies and experience, and this is the best for your growth. Sooo, we organize everything there, starting from the first evening/night…what is the best way to welcoming people? Yeah, go to the restaurant and eat, and then come back to the hotel and celebrate one cheers  - saude with Portuguese typical drink J

Olga, Antonio and me, Simplifier ON ;)

I like the schedule of the project, it was so interesting also see from the outside (outside inside, photographer style) the activities and how much all the participants were involved in it ;) I helped our amazing Paula (she doesn’t need any help, but I tried to help her the same) and took care also about coffee break, it is so nice taking care of people, and for doing that, I needed to try before all the food and drinks, for their safety and security, you know… :D

Welcome to Simplifier with ginginja

I also tried the ClinicaBeja in this week. I needed the help of Paula again, because few people were able to speak English, and so try to speak Portuguese and show how do you feel and what are you suffering, well it’s not so easy yet ahah J but everything went good, and now I m writing you from Lisboa, full of sun but sooo cold today (such a cold wind since last Sunday)

Me and Paula

Aaand, I even got a special surprise, as my mother and my sister come and visit me in Lisboa! It was a real surprise, just for two days but still so cool ;) we visited our office spot, and took a picture like we always do J and yes, I was like a guide in Lisboa, for our tour ups and downs in the city J aaa I love my gym, it’s called Lisboa J

Family weekend in Check-IN, me and Olga with parents and sisters :)

And so on, that s my week and I wanted to wish you a great week, with lots of smiles and sun!

Abraçosss Nico

24.11.2015

BEING INSIDE OF A ERASMUSPLUS PROJECT

One of the aim of the CheckIn is to work in international projects of Erasmus Plus program. I had a chance to be part of a team during the SIMPLIFIER seminar in Beja from 12th till 18th of November. It was the second part of a project. First part took place in Orleans, France from 22nd till 30th June. Simplifier was designed for participants who want to learn and practise how to be a facilitator.

Simplifier logo :)

I already had some small experience in being a participant in Erasmus Plus projects but this time I was in a team, helping to prepare a seminar. Seeing the project and being a part of a professional team that have a lot of experience in Erasmus Plus was amazing.

From right: Toninho, Ariane, Patrizia, Nico, Paula, Sergio and me !

As it was a seminar for facilitators I got a chance to facilitate a quick workshop about feedback. It was the first time for me to facilitate workshop for such a big group. I was very stressed and excited in the same time, but I managed and it was great to see positive evaluation after :)

:)

Being next to the group of participants and observing their process of learning was unbelievable. During just few days they accomplished many things: they facilitated by themselves some activities and wrote a guidebook for facilitators. 

This experience helped me to bond even more with my team from CheckIn, i know now we can do anything together :)

With my favourite Italian evs :)

:) :) :)

Nice and cool people, good morning :-)

Well, first of all, bom dia to everyone and how are you? I hope super cool and fine, another week is starting and it is full of sun and light, kind of super. The question is, is it spring or winter? Ahah the first one for sure, and it is also summer in our mind, is not it? :-)

Sooo, I am not able to finish one post, that is already time to write down another one...the time flies, yes too too fast! Well, right now that you are reading this post, our amazing Check-IN team is actually leaving for Beja, where will be go and work in the project Simplifier, from 12th till 18th of November. It will be super and just follow us, instagram, facebook, wherever you want. whenever you need...we are going to tell you all the news and more and more and more about our training, you can be sure :-)

Simplifier, Beja 12-18 November 2015

Laaast week, well it was kind of challenge trying to survive and keep an healthy mode, since everyone started to feel sick...but I did it! Maybe chocolate is really a secret of healthiness? Ahah just try and tell me about the result, maybe it works as well :-) well, this week I discovered a super nice and cool vegetarian restaurant in Baixa-Chiado, it was such a great place that maybe after writing this post I m going to have lunch there ahah ;) so, actually this week I tried different kind of food and new ''pratos'' from Lisboa and Portugal, and I like everything. I am in love with portuguese comida and bebida :-)

Arroz com mariscos...seadfood rice! 

Furthermore, it was the birthday of our special collegue and friend Paula, and we made kind of surprise, in a Polish style (so, even some days before the ''proper'' birthday, we can organize something for her), and the result was so great: cake and beer, what do you need more? :-)

Paula's birthday (we love youuu) 

Ah...let's talk about the weather. Probably you remember the wrong routine (all the week long sunny and at the weekend raining) but this last weekend it was the opposite, from friday afternoon (sexta - feira) the sun started to be less shy and come out from clouds and bright in the sky... +25 degrees in mid November, yeah it sounds cool, and it is :-)

Torre de Belem, 9 november...almost winter or almost summer? :-)

Sooo, let's go and check how it is the weather in Beja, in the Alentejo's region! Tomorrow we are leaving in order to discover another side of Portugal, in the south :-) so, preparation time and checking the last details, I hope to remember everything I need to bring, since I have really bad memory...I need Olga and Paula's help, yesss still them, the angels ahah :)

Wishing you not only a nice week, but a super one...amazing and wonderful, greetings from all the team and thank you for reading that post, I hope it wasn't boring :-) anyway, next time you should read again, maybe I ll write it in portuguese...so it won't be boring, but just funny looking at many mistakes I will do ahah :)

Saude!

Cheers from Lisboa!

Abraços e beijinhos,

10.11.2015

Nico, Lisboa

HOW THINGS HAPPEN...

I am in sunny Lisbon in the beginning of November and on my Fb wall I can see autumn pictures of my polish friends.. It doesn't seem real that the dream of living in a different place from cold Poland came true, but it didn't happen in one minute, it was a process of getting to know the opportunities for people like me and a process of growing up.

As far as I can remember I was feeling a big need to get to know different cultures and different societies, that´s why I chose to study sociology at university and as future researcher (I thought about myself like this then) I decided to travel.

:)

But the question all young people ask themself is how to travel when you study and you are busy, or when you don´t have money ? The best option here is the Erasmus Programme. At that time I thought Erasmus is only exchange between universities so I decided to do it.

StuDYING hard

I chose to study at Erasmus University in Rotterdam Netherlands and I think it was the best option for someone that wanted to combine all the Erasmus pleasures of crazy parting with real studying and improving English. I feel in love with dutch culture very quickly as I thought but after I realized it was something more. I feel in love with living in a different place, with different people, speaking in different language and feeling more comfortable than in my own country that I don´t understand but I still love.

Kingsday; going to Amsterdam

I know that now every pessimist that is reading this may say that moving is expensive and blablabla.. but Erasmus cover you in this field as well. I got scholarship that covered some of my expenses (of course I knew how expensive is in Netherlands but you can always choose different and cheaper destination).

The good things happens when you decide to be yourself. As I read lately doing something that doesn't scare you isn't´brave (Lena Dunham) moving out to different country was scary as shit but I did it, besides problems with my university that did not let me to graduate after, besides that my ´friends´ thought I am crazy..

Beautiful Den Haag

Once Erasmus - always Erasmus. That sentence is very true in my case. After moving back to Poland after my exchange I started to looking for more mobility options and thanks to my friend Mike I went to my first training course where I met many people that inspired me and I got informations about a lot of new opportunities. I met  Check-In Association there and learned what is Erasmus Plus.

After a while I decided I want to do EVS in Check-In Association. I found organisation from my city in database of european voluntary service accredited organisations and Jeden Swiat helped me and applied for the April deadline and in July we got results that the project got approved ! :)


And here I am, admiring the view, breathing slowly, writing a new story:

Praça do Comércio

Lisboa - first steps

Olaaa,
Bom dia!

Here we are, straightly from Lisboa, the city full of sun :-)

As my dear collegue Olga wrote last week, here the time flies, week after week we discover new things about Portugal and its culture. And step by step, we improve our portuguese skills...

Fixeee! (Coooool)

This week was the first week with the work all day long, after the first two ones in which we had portuguese lessons with our great professora Rute :-)

 

Portuguese lesson: mode on!

How become an actor in Lisbon after one week...is it possible? Yes, it is. I was with Paula, Olga and Sergio to watch the show ''The beast theater show - Chapito'' and suddendly I was called on the stage by the crazy and great showman, so I supposed to have one wife and another sweetheart, and we created a story about that...it was so amazing and funny at the same time, so great start as a professional actor :-)

This week started with a ''lanche'', the typical break in the afternoon ;) soo, we enjoyed a lot of foods and specialities from Poland (Olga is a great chef, I am lucky), Spain (and Paula as well, I am sorrounded by people really good at cooking, what a privilege!) and Italy (it was me, and try to guess? Yeah, the main ingredient was nutella, of course) ;)

                 

Time for lanche: from Poland, Spain and Italy with love and nutella

This week we were more deep into work, and I m starting to focus with Antonio, the President of CheckIN Associaçao (facebook), more on the international projects, a field that I love; here you can find everything, people from different culture, new ideas, new motivation, come up with new developments, everything while you are  taking part in training course, seminar really formative, that give you new professional skills... that s super cool! So this week started talking about these tasks. Erasmus plus and Europe gives us lots of opportunities and chance that lots of people may even don't know, so cool, amazing and formative at the same time...so what are you waiting for joining us in the upcoming projects? You won't regret it ;)

On Tuesday (or well - let's start and speak portuguese - on terçeira feira) I met my mentor here in Lisbon, a great guy called Emiliano; what can I say? We love travelling, discover new culture, keep in touch with different world, enjoying all the experience and so...we love this Erasmus Plus live world! It is a great chance to grow, professional and personal sides, at the same time, and we want to share with you lots of information about it!

Erasmus Plus Programme 2014-2020, a world of opportunity

Sooo, Lisbon, this week was so good and I was also able to go and listen the famous fado! It was such an amazing experience, just stay in the restaurant and look at all the magic behind it! Women, men, you are in the local for having dinner or just drinking, when suddenly all the lights turn off, one woman start to play the guitar, another one start to sing...wow, I have no words for describing my first meeting with the ''fado''. Through one song they can show all them feelings, happiness, melancholy, 3,4,5 minutes in which you listen to much more than a simply song, they talk about their own life.

Wednesday evening: peixe, vinho e fado em Lisboa

This week, thanks to the wonderful work of Olga and Paula we created a great blog, developing new subjects and new tools, so if you want to discover our daily work, activities, experience, CheckIN training and program, seeing as well what is happening em Lisboa, just follow us! The weather... some words about the weather? Amazing. This week looked like summer all week long, sun was shining, no clouds, just a t-shirt and you don't need anything more. And, in our coffee/lunch break (cafecinho e almoço, in portuguese), we can enjoy this view so cool and breathtaking close to our office, no jardim do torel (below you can see such a great sun, it is also for you, enjoy it :-)

View from Jardim do Torel, Lisboa

And the weekend in the capital of Portugal are cool as well, a lots of events, activities, and whatever you want or need you can find here, days or nights, week days or weekends, doesn't change! Just, yeah we should change something about the weather...3 weeks here, 3 fins de semana (ao sabado e ao domingo) in which it was raining all days long...so what do you want to do Lisbon?

Stay tuned, and you will discover if we will be able to change this ''wrong'' routine :-)

Desejo-vos uma boa semana,
ate ja!!!

Nico, Lisboa
27.10.2015

First two weeks of my EVS Check-in adventure

These two weeks went by so quickly… I think I still can’t believe that I am here and I will be for the whole year!

Even though I had a lot of time to prepare mentally for this challenge, I still can’t process it because of the amount of things that are going on.

View from our terrace :)

I came to Lisbon on the 4th of October. The next day I already started a Portuguese course and getting to know my new environment and people that I will work with. I was privileged enough to visit Lisbon twice before moving here, but still this time was different, way better.

elevador da lavra

First days were full of bureaucracy, but it went better than I imagined. As I know how hard it is to solve any kind of problem at the offices in Poland, I am very positively surprised with the nice attitude and kind smile of the Portuguese officials. I managed to get the tram card, the fiscal and registration number in the first week. I opened my Portuguese bank account as well :)

More fascinating and less sweaty than fighting with bureaucracy was the Portuguese course. Every day for two weeks I had 4-hour lessons with 3 other students (another evs volunteer, a big fan of chocolate – Nico, our big Spanish helper Paula who is an intern and Marianna- lovely Czech girl that decided to move in Lisbon). I knew way before coming here that the language is gonna be a big challenge for me but our lovely teacher Rute make all hard things a lot easier :)

Learning by doing - Portuguese shopping :)

These two weeks were also a good time to get to know the place I am going to work at, my team and start planning future tasks. I am more than excited for this year and can´t wait for all the future challenges in Check-In!

Dream team: me, Paula, Nico and Toninho :)

Oh and of course finally I can enjoy the proper coffee :)

Café A Brasileira 

Written by Olga