Slovenian students' diaries

Here you can read about experience in first LTT in Portugal. Our students were very pleased to attend this LTT and it was most precious experience in their lifetime. Diaries were written by Ines, Ema, Ziga, Jurij Trip to Portugal with Erasmus steam (Ines) Our journey started on 1st of March, early in the morning, when we went to Trieste. The drive was long, but in good company it didn't last long. We arrived to the airport at 6. am, we did the checkin, gave off the luggage and went through the check-in for safety. The only thing that we had to do was, to wait for our flight. The first flight to München lasted for about an hour and the next flight to Lizbon lasted for long three hours. We also had lunch on the plane and we ate it, even though it wasn't that good. The view from the airplane was breath-taking and of course we had to take some pictures of it. The view from the airplane We arrived to Lizbon around 14.00 o’clock and then we had to wait for others to arrive. That lasted for about 4 hours, which I think it was a huge time waste. When we all gathered at the airport we finally went to Montemor-o- Novo, which was 1 hour and a half away from Lizbon. After a long and tiring trip, we arrived to the hotel, where our hosting families were already waiting for us. We all gathered and met them. Everyone was very nice and it was nice meeting our hosting famillies and our students. Our teachers also took some photos of us and then everyone went their own way. Me and my hosting family went home, because I was tired from a long day. Me with my hosting family My hostess was a 16 - year old Margarida Cdireintinho. She was really sweet, friendly and helpfullike her family. They have really good relationship with one another and they are very caring. When we got home I noticed that houses were very similar to one another. They were all white and some houses also had yellow details. I noticed that some houses also had gardens with orange and lemon trees. In their house there were two floors and they didn’t have heating. They had a fireplace in their living room but other than that, I only saw two little heaters. So it was pretty cold in my room and in the bathroom. They also had some budgies outside on the balcony. The ambient in house was really chill. After dinner we were just talking and getting to know each other well. The week past really quickly and I noticed that Margarida was putting a lot of work in school but she still managed to have time for family, friends and also her ballet classes. She liked to hang out with her friends and she didn’t use her phone a lot. So I was surprised how little time they spent on their phones. Portugese people are very open and they kiss you and hug you for welcoming, which was really weird and unusually for me. They also recycle pretty good and I didn’t notice that someone wouldn’t put something in trash. They also eat a variety of food. They usually have dessert after dinner and lunch, which we don’t- at least in my home. I also noticed that almost every house hold has iced tea and they really like it. Somehow life in Montemor-o- Novo is similar to Žiri, but yet so different. It’s a very small town, with very kind people. The day before leaving I gave Margarida and her family a little simbolic gift, which included Slovenian chocolate Gorenjka, homemade honey, a traditional Žirovska lace which I made all by myself and of course a memory card, which I also made. They really liked the gift and they gave me little something to remember them by. The next day we gathered in front of a hotel, where we said goodbye to our Hosting families and actually, new friends. We were hugging eachother and right before we left, they signed our T-shirts in memory of this trip. We couldn’t believe it was over so fast and we went to Lizbon to the airport. We were very tired and some of us fell asleep, right after we got on the plane. Waiting for a flight on the airport After two flights and some waiting on the airport in Germany, we finally arrived to Žiri, our hometown, where we met our families and then we said goodbye to eachother. It was an amazing week. We came back with a lot of great memories and impressions, that we will never forget. Monday, 2nd March (Ziga): The day started like any other, at 7.40. I quickly dressed myself and then I ate my breakfast, that was prepared by my host's mother. We arrived at school Escola Secondaria de Montemor-oNovo at 8.30. We had to wait there for 1 hour because our program started at 9.30. The 1st thing that we did, was visiting the kindergarten and primary school. The students there made us a symbolic gift-book index. After the visit of the kindergarten and primary school, we headed back to the secondary school. There we attended the musical performance of students and then we were welcomed by the headmistress Idalina Bento. After the welcome it was exactly 13.00 – time for lunch. For lunch was cream soup and for the main course spaghetti with chicken. After lunch we had about an hour of free time, but when it was 14.30 we started with project activities. On the schedule that day were »ice-breaking games« (meeting games). When we finished games we went to school's library where we presented results of our questionnaires. The funniest thing was, when Spanish were presenting their presentations, with their horrible Spanish English accent. After we finished presenting, it was finally the time to go back to our hosts. Jurij slept that day at my host's house, because of special circumstances, which I really liked, because I finally had someone by my side who speaks Slovenian. That evening we went to Evora, where we visited the shopping centre. Before that we went up the hill, on which stands a very important church for that city. There we met our schoolmates Maja, Ema and Ines. At that time, it was the golden hour, so we of course made some pictures. After that Mafalda (João's mother – host) took us to the castle's ruins. Then our paths went different ways, because me, Jurij, João and Mafalda went to the Evora. At the shopping centre we didn't buy anything, but we went to Mc'Donalds and had dinner. Mafalda bought me and Jurij Portuguese speciality Pastel de Nata – a desert made of egg yolks. After the dinner we went on a tour of city Evora. The fact, how well did Mafalda knew the narrow streets of Evora, was for me personally, very impressive. Interleave and width of streets can compare to those from middle age. For me personally the best thing were car karaoke, because we were listening to rock music, including Slovenian Zablujena generacija. When we got home, me and Jurij had a good idea. We told João to read some of the Slovenian tongue twisters. Of course we had to film everything he has read. After a long and funny day, we went to bed at exactly 23.40. Differences between Žiri and Montemor-o-Novo: Of course living in Portugal means differences between my and their way of living. My favourite characteristic with the Portuguese is how loosen up and happy they are. No matter the humbleness of the family, I felt happy every day staying at their home, which I really admire. Even in school, we could feel the modesty. The students there came to us without impediment, to make small talk with us or even to exchange Instagram’s. We could describe the city as a mixture of Croatian and Italian cities. Croatian because of middle age looking roads, made of granite cubes and Italian because of wide roads and of the way that traffic functions and the way people park their cars. Regard to heating, we had a small radiator in the living room, but in other rooms (sleeping rooms, bathroom), we had a small heater. Relationship in family was, as I mentioned before, very loosen up. Every time I thought that I would be a witness of a conflict, they always came up with a joke that relieved the atmosphere. Generally, the relationship between son and mother was like the one we have with our best friend. Greetings there weren't any different than ours, except for the handshake, they kiss twice on the cheeks. About food; in our fridge we had 2 frozen burgers, one frozen pizza, ketchup and some fruit yoghurts, but not even a trace of vegetables. The diet there is for our standards very unhealthy, which caused some digestion problems. I personally didn't see any differences about the drinks. The thing that positively surprised me is that teenagers don't drink a lot of alcohol, even though the majority of them were 17. Here in Slovenia we can see 14-yearold teens drinking all sorts of alcohol drinks. In city centre we could see a lot of interesting houses, because the facades were built out of stunning sequins. One of really nice things that I've experienced, was the situation about pets. In my family they had one big cat and 2 chinchillas. The situations with sport facilities was pretty amazing: 3 football courts (2 made of sand and 1 made of artificial grass), 3rd best Portuguese swimming pool, gym bulit in 3 floors and 5 tennis courts. Tuesday, 3rd March (Maja) We woke up at 7.30, got ready and went to school. We waited a little bit so all the foreign students gathered up. Then we went to the mayor of Montemor-o-Novo. She welcomed us, told us some things about the town and gave us some presents which included a water bottle, a notebook and a strap for around the neck. Then we went to the library to discuss how to spend our time properly. Jorge Amorim had a power point about time management. First he told us some things about him (blogger, passionate about learning, comic books, games…) and all of us got to know each other a little better (we had to write 5 things about us, for example what do we do in our free time, what books and movies influenced us greatly...). Then he showed us some quotes and researches about time and time management. At the end of the presentation, all of the foreign students made a poster about time management. Then we had lunch at the school cafeteria. After, not so delicious lunch, we had a volunteer work which was a secret, till the last second. So we had to walk to the castle, where they told us that dangerous plants are taking over the nature in front of the castle. We pulled a lot of the plants out, so we really helped the nature. After that we were on our own with our hosts. We went for some pancakes with Ines and Ema and their hosts. At last we walked home, where my host`s mum made us dinner (rice with meat). We were really tired, we talked for a while and then went to bed soon. Differences between Žiri and Montemor-o-Novo: When we got there we already noticed the first difference between us, namely how we greet one another. When we came to friends and family we always had to greet with two kisses on the cheek, which was pretty unusual and we were always expecting just a hug or a hand shake. I noticed that a lot of people live in flats. We noticed that there are big differences between people in Montemor-o-Novo. Some are very rich and live in a giant houses and some have the smallest apartments possible. Families are small in a lot of cases the parents are divorced, they live in small flat apartments. They didn’t even heat the house, so sometimes it was quite cold. I noticed that people in school divided to different friend groups. They could use phones in school, they used them freely in classes, while in Slovenia they are forbidden. One of the biggest differences was definitely food. They eat a lot of food just with their hands. They eat a lot of rice, the normal chips from the bag they eat for lunch or dinner, a lot of food includes fish and the food in the cafeteria wasn’t really delicious. When we talked about the weather we noticed that it’s different than in Slovenia. For us felt warm and they were almost freezing and that was at 17 degrees. They told us, that they don’t have snow. In general, I think that people are more relaxed and chilled, people normally go out for drinks and get together later at night to eat something, everything was so easy. The music was obviously different cause we have a different language and culture. Wednesday, 4th March 2020 (Jurij) The team of five students and three teachers continues their exchange journey in Portugal. We got to the school at about 8:30 in the morning and left for Lisbon that’s about 1 and a half hour away from Montemor – O – Novo. We drove in the back seats of the bus and patiently waited until bus got to our destination. We got off our transport and quickly scatter the city in different directions. We really needed to use the toilet so we went after the Romanian team that had similar needs. Of course our project was about managing time, so we wanted to make it look like we actually know how to manage it and we quickly left the square where somehow all of the teams were, even though we didn’t see them come there. It was a special square by the river which we thought it was the sea up until the last day when we found out it was actually a river. We left for the old city center. We decided what we want to find out more about so our first destination was lookout tower. We were able to see the whole part of the old city from it. It was quite high, so we just took some pictures and went down the spiral stairs that were, for some reason, very disturbing. After we left the high ground we were deciding where to go next. We said we don’t really want to see the museum but we were kind of hungry so we went to find the Mc’ Donalds. We ate some good hamburgers that really stuffed us. While ordering digitally might be fast for one or two persons, ordering for eight people took some time. We found out that that wasn’t really time saving. So after lunch, we went to look at the old part of the city. In my opinion it was just as beautiful as ugly. The old, rich with different templates covered houses, really gave you the impression of an old but powerful and full of knowledge city from the past. It was filled with people from present but you could still smell the need of adventure and exploration of the brave Portuguese explorers. It was filled with people without homes too and that’s what makes it ugly. The look on the faces of the people passing by, was terrifying in the way how people just ignored them. After that we bought some souvenirs and got back to the bus. It was a bit late and when we got on, our Catalonian friends asked us if this time they could sit at the back end of the bus and we let them. We drove to the new part of the city where we took a look at high, big and magnificent looking statue of Infante Henrique of Portugal, the famous sailor and his crew. Our last visit was monastery of Hieronimy. We took some pictures from the outside but didn’t go inside because we were in a hurry. The bus was already waiting for us and we drove back home. Later that day we went out with our Slovenian team and Portuguese friends. First we went out for a coffee. Surprisingly they only drink expresso coffee. Than we headed to another restaurant and ordered some hamburgers. They were really good. Afterwards we went to play some darts and then headed back to our temporary homes. It was a nice and exciting day. Portugal is in a lot of ways quite alike to Slovenia but they still have a different culture. Food there is not very different but because it’s by the sea there are a lot of different seafood combinations. As how the meals are prepared there isn’t much of a difference. Portugal is actually a very rich country filled with sea and different natural beauties. It is known for their adventuristic spirit. Many great explorers come from Portugal. As much as I found out from this city is that the people living in it are nice and students were kind and we received a warm welcome that probably everyone needed after a long way getting there. The cities are old-style made and the houses have different astonishing templates covering their outside walls. There aren’t a lot of detached houses and are more combined together. It’s interesting how these are built though. The entry is at the ground level but then they are quite thin and there is a staircase that leads to the second floor. So usually there are two floors in a normal house. But there was, at least in my case, a sub floor in the middle of the first and second floor. And from that floor you could go to the back garden. Which means garden in the back was not on the ground level but a bit higher. I found that, somehow, very interesting. Another interesting thing is that they don’t wear slippers. They walk in the house with shoes on or in socks. So it felt very unnatural to shower and then put shoes back on. And since the climate there is hotter than in Slovenia, they don’t use radiators or any other type of heating in their houses. They just use an electric machine to heat the room a bit, when it’s really cold. School life there is a bit different. First as here too, they go to kinder garden and primary school. But after primary school they move to a different building and under the same school they continue to study till 12th grade. Which means they are eighteen or nineteen years old, when they finish their general years of studying. The way they say hello is different there too. They kiss on the cheeks when they meet someone new or just see their friend for the first time that day. They have different type of trees and plants. There is a lot of palms and by sea growth. They play a lot of football and rugby. There is volleyball and basketball too, so the sports are very alike to Slovenia. Just like us they listen to English and American songs and music, but they listen to a lot of Portuguese authors too. My overall experience there was great and I would definitely go again, so I recommend that you sign up to some kind of project, similar to Erasmus or just simply visit the country by yourself. Thursday, 5th March 2020 (Ema) On Thursday at half past ten we visited the studio (Centro Juvenil), where we made an interesting video about How to spend time. In the meantime, we hung out and played various board games, which were very interesting. After the studio master showed us the premises and the course of their work, which differs in the way that clients are taught how to do something with their knowledge, we went to school for lunch. After lunch, we had a guided hike where we visited and learned a lot of new things and, in my opinion, interesting things about certain attractions of the city. We took a lot of pictures and played with our imagination. When we came back to school, exhausted after a long hike, we had to do the surveys of what we think about the organization and implementation of the mobility, and then we happy headed home, as a busy evening awaited us. At about seven o'clock all the participants of the exchange, our hosts and parents, gathered for the closing event. Each brought some food with them or they baked some traditional dessert at home. After a great dinner, which also included a music program, the Headmistress addressed us and gave us all certificates of cooperation. After the dinner, the girls went to another group evening where we had a lot of fun. Each day was just as great, fun, and above all, as the last. We got to know each other well and made new friends and learn about their way of life. I walked in the house in my shoes, which I am not used to, people do not shake hands to greet someone but kiss on the cheek, and this confused me on the first day. I also did not like food excessively, which of course is very different from ours.