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:

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