Saving planet earth

We had a scheduled weeks, and at the weekends we work with an environmental association over here in Pontevedra named Vaipolorio I brought it few time in the last blogs, you can always go back and check them.

Lately there was a cleaning event for the river and surrounding of the area and we were glad to join that movement, we are always happy to help and make the city and the world in general a cleaner place for everyone to live at.

Cleaning isn’t something new for me, but diving in the actual river was, I mean i was actually walking inside the river and collecting trash and it was a first weird interesting experience. One thing I’ll tell you before you do the by yourself is to take off everything valuable with you such as phones wallet, etc… things like that, it just happen that I dived with my phone by thankfully I was wearing the waterproof suit.

My message will be definitely go and save the planet, if you can safe the whole thing that would amazing, if not than just start small and when you see something uncool collect it and be a good person, don’t care what other say you do it for yourself and for the upcoming generation.

STAY GREEN. ALWAYS GREEN

Until next one.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER STORY.

EURAXESS PLATFORM

WHAT IS EURAXESS:

EURAXESS is a unique European Research Portal, which providing access to a complete range of information and support services for researchers who are willing to pursue research careers in Europe.

Its aim is to highlight the career of researchers by providing information on research professions throughout Europe, personalized support for mobility researchers, information on the rights and commitments of researchers and research organizations.

 

EURAXESS portal made it easier for everyone to search for different fields and needs. You will find it divided into four main sectors devoted to four specific initiatives for researchers : 

EURAXESS Jobs:

It is a recruitment tool where researchers can find constantly updated information on job vacancies, funding opportunities through Europe. Companies or research institutes can post vacancies and search for international top-notch researchers. 

Users have also access to EURAXESS portals of the partner countries which contain information on research job and funding opportunities, as well as on personalized services in each country.

EURAXESS Services:

It is a network of more than 500 Service Centers located in 40 European countries. These Centers help researchers and their family to plan and organize their move to a foreign country.

This free personalized assistance helps researchers tackle issues such as:

– Accommodation 

– Visa and work permits

– Language lessons

– Social security

– Medical care

EURAXESS Rights:

This portal provides all information regarding the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, which aim at setting out rules and obligations of researchers, their employers and funders, as well as transparent and fair recruitment procedures through the Human Resources Strategy. 

The Charter sets out the rights and duties of researchers, as well as research and funding. The Code aims at ensuring equal treatment of all researchers in Europe and increases transparency in their recruitment.

EURAXESS Links:

It is a networking tool for European researchers working outside Europe and non-European ones wishing to collaborate and/or pursue a research career in Europe.  

Using this platform will eventually let you discover endless opportunities and it’s all free.

Links: 

https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/

THE PEOPLE

This week, was more about getting to know people from all around, not talking about friends,  i’m talking about randomly people that you had the chance to know them just from meetings or introduced by a friend of yours.

We had a normal co-working meet up in this beautiful city from Galicia called Bueu, a summer destination place as well as a working place, it is small compact and cozy the owners are super nice and creative, everything was well made.

People shows up we got to know each other at first OK OK seems nice at first and then everyone got into his business after they came to work. Few hours later we had  a brief intro and tour in the office when we got to know more about the co-working place as well as the people over there.

All good so far, I was working until the clock ticked for a break, and there were things got interesting, at first when you meet someone you really don’t wanna put a finger on him/her and just wait for the right moment to everything to be clear.

“storytelling time” was so amazing people have a lot to tell and never thought I will learn from them , I was super shocked and happy in the same time knowing that this day gonna be well. So yeah, we exchanged stories and info and emails of things that we were interested by and willing to research.

Day pass, having lunch , going to the beach you know typical stuff after a long day working. At this point I thought the day is finished until we got a call from a person that organizing a presentation about a book of an author from the region so we decided to go there and see.

Place was really nice, it was around 9pm so the weather was super cool and cold ,and what a beautiful sunset. Anyway, the author came everyone sat down for the presentation.

I was ashamed in some point for not knowing what they were saying because of the language, but I tried to just listen and keep up with them.

The author is young and smart, really educated and know a lot, I was so surprised and didn’t know what’s going on at first. There was this part that amazed me the most and the only part that I understood, and I quote:

Dani: what inspired you to write all this 4 books ( yes she had 4 poems so far )

Tamara : Inspired me ? umm I dunno ? what it inspiration ? does it exist ?

at that point I didn’t know what to say and I knew she’s really talented person.

So basically my point here is, don’t judge people and never say no to a new friendship ( beside if you feel bad about that person ) . You never know what is waiting for you and what that person can offer you. Stay positive.

Until next one.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER STORY.

Training in VIC

THIS ONE IS HUGE.

Part of the volunteering there’s training courses that are part of your EVS, which is a formal (non formal) educational program that happen in a different part of your residence country (in my case Spain) with more than 20 other volunteers.

This one will be really a good experience since you’ll probably have no idea about most of the activities or the people participating there.

1st day will be about getting to know the facility and the people around you, you will probably be tired and hungry which is normal, so first day is your day, rest, get to know your surrounding and get ready for the adventure.

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The upcoming days are when the action happen, it’s gonna be 4 full days of activities and learning. I’ll tell you that you’re gonna be active the whole period and working yourself over there (more focus less party), so if you’re willing to visit the city or do some shopping you probably should think twice about it.

Probably most of you now aren’t that excited about this or willing to accept this training.

So, the upcoming days we got to know more about the program and the whole plan basically for this week and BOY it wasn’t fun at all. We had several meetings, workshop and trips to the city center ( Yohoo ).

For this training i’ll tell you that it was about getting to know our EVS, Erasmus+, our rights and over all get to know the country that we are staying at this moment.

The actives were basic and simple for everyone to understand but meaningful and in point.

this one was about TRUST, we had to be blindfolded and trust our partners to find the “egg” without talking as well, and finally take it to the Eggs HQ. Looks easy but if something went wrong everyone could be lost probably or even worst, so team work is a must.

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i’ll not explain to you what happen each day, but will give you few interesting examples and go thru them, just to have a general idea.

This next one was fun all around ( indeed it was really fun ), we had a list with tasks to do and the mission was to finish them before a certain time, and just be creative and enjoy our time.

In those tasks we had to ask local people about fact about that city( the most epic thing happened in the city, the cheapest coffee in the city center, most famous landmarks….) you got the point, so getting contact with people was either success o unlucky to make, especially when they see 5 foreign persons coming running to there faces.

Like this one we had to find locals who actually live in the city and in a certain place we need to take a picture with them, which was hard at first to do, so we had to explain in details what and why all this but we had it at the end.

Too much fun right, well let’s not forget the educational part of this training all this is part of it, and nothing is meaningless each class have something to teach us.

We got to know more about Erasmus+ program in details as well as our EVS and what our plans for the upcoming months which we were creative about it and each one of us had to make a board explaining his vision and everything he/she willing to do in this time. Also rights which is a big deal, since most participants didn’t know much about it or had issue with there host organization, so it was really interesting to understand a bit what’s going on.

To finish this, i’ll tell you that there’s a lot to cover, I tried to be short and just give you a peek of what happened over there and hopefully you’ll get an idea about it.

I’ll be more happy to explain to you and tell you more about this training, you can always contact me or Ticket2Europe anytime to get updated.

To finish this, i’ll tell you that TEAM-WORK always win in any situation, try to get to know your city, the people, make contacts, enjoy your EVS experience.

Until next one.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER STORY.

GET2KNOW ERASMUS+

I hope you’re still following, it’s been 2 months now, I mean we all know that time flies, but “WOW” that’s the only thing that I can say, I’m speechless. I never thought that i’ll reach this point safe and sound ( kidding ).

So the journey still going and new goals are reached, this time we were informed that we gonna be part of Erasmus+ Presentation, for most of you there probably looks easy and not really a big deal, well let me tell you something, you’re right it’s not actually its just a basic non formal presentation showing up some point about the program and just give some knowledge to the attendees, but still the fact that we participate in this is what matter the most and let’s not forget that this was my first time ever standing in-front of people so it was huge step for me, and also get to prepare for this makes you know more about your host organization and about the Erasmus+ program.

Before I stand to present my part, I was actually part of the attendees and  I was getting more information that I thought even though we prepared the whole thing together, what I’m saying is always be open to learn and listen to the others.

If you wanna know more, check Ticket2Europe for more info.

Until next one.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER STORY.

WEEK 02 : Saving Jumanji of Pontevedra.

The days over here go slowly and don’t get me wrong that’s a wonderful thing.

As you may know by now everything is going well I’m surrounded by beautiful people ( the talking part and not being afraid is working well ), we started by getting to know and discover each other a little bit more “the traditional way”.

Now let’s go a little bit deeper and move on to the action part, yeah I know that’s what you all want to know.

So, as I explained to you in the first part there’s lot of work to do and tasks need to be done ( don’t worry still not scary ) , each of the volunteers get some tasks as start nothing huge but more like to see how can you manage work and time. After all, this is preparing you to the “wild world” outside.

I’m trying to get thru some details just incase you got skeptic or worry about what’s waiting for you, but you gotta remember you got to discover all this by yourself.

GET READY.

Ok, let’s skip few working days.

Now let me tell you a little bit about the part which I was happy to hear ( like honestly I was super happy ), like most people I thought this is just an office experience or few time go discover the city or something like that, but we actually have the chance to be part of saving the environment, come with small tasks such as : cleaning of the river, workshops, etc…

 

 

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For most people out there this probably sound pointless or unnecessary in this journey but let me tell you that this kind of activities where you gonna discover and find yourself, you gonna learn how to handle tasks, manage your time, and it’s a way to practice your language too. I mean it’s a beautiful experience and as much as I wanted to say “no gracias” to this I still found the courage to accept it and make it better. Remember that life is a journey so don’t use the break yet.

In this part I wanted to share with it out one thing : DON’T EXPECT ANYTHING.  everyday is a new adventure and lot of thing to learn.

Until next one.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER STORY.

WEEK 01 : Get to know the UNKNOWN

The first challenge that i had to experience is the language, it’s not really a huge issue but you feel isolated at first and you think that you’re alone in all this, but the thing is it’s only in your mind, language was never a problem there’s always a way to communicate and express yourself to others, and Spain is no difference. People are open and helpful whenever you needed them, you just gotta open up and don’t let your shyness control on you.

After meeting the whole TEAM, I really felt different and like everything I knew in life is gonna change, so I gotta make it thru.

Of course everyone is coming with the idea of “we coming here to work and nothing-else than work” , i’m not saying it’s not true, but also you should be free and open to everything cause this is a life experience so you gotta make it special and memorable.

Working as a volunteer was new to me but I got used to it very quickly, as I mentioned “new experience” so I was learning already, and with work come responsibility, don’t be afraid to ask or talk to people. Don’t be afraid of the unknown. Learn from yourself, but mainly, learn from others.

Until next one.

ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER STORY.

THE START OF A NEW JOURNEY

My name is Aymane and I’m from Morocco, after my long period as a student and few years in the work field, I decided to be a volunteer because I wanted to live “a foreign life“, experience something different and unique. I wanted real, independent life experience.

When I found the opportunity to be an EVS volunteer, I didn’t even think about it, I applied at the first sight. The way I saw it is that I would get the chance to do something for myself as well as for others, which is perfect.

Moving abroad is a whole new level, different culture, traditions, away from your family and friends. Scary right?

Well let me tell you that it’s actually not that scary at all, it’s a new everything and it’s your time to shine and show up everything you know, it’s an opportunity to meet new people, travel, experience new traditions, learn a new language that it’s always a plus.