What a Champions League player must be

By: Pedro Girao, ESN Coimbra Communication manager


You are entering the field hearing the Champions League hymn. The fans sing “You will never walk alone” to support your team. Looking around you can find two or three people with posters asking you to give them your t-shirt… what a great ambience in this Champions League match!

The match starts and you badly realize that your dream came true: you are now playing the Champions League. You have a team who will fight from the first until the last minute to win the championship!
Well, it’s better to stop dreaming… let me be honest with you: it will not happen during your Erasmus Champions League in Coimbra. There won’t be millions of fans supporting you nor posters asking for your t-shirt. But once you are there you will understand that you already have a team, a group of people who will do the best to enjoy this Champions League from the first match til the final victory!

You will probably understand that some of the players you have on your team would be more successful as singers or dancers than they are as football players – and they don’t even know how to sing or to dance! You can even find that it will be impossible to win the tournament with such a bad group of players …
At the end of the tournament you can have lost all the matches… but you will want to have a team dinner and, which is more, you will have a new group of friends.

And suddenly you realize that all those football players – the good and the bad ones – are already your team. And that they will be there until the end of your Erasmus in Coimbra. 
Ah… do you know your fat goalkeeper? Well… he won’t save any goal during the tournament but he will be the best guy drinking beer, wine and shots. He will be THE MAN in your team-dinner, in your first hang out together and during the ESN parties!
Yes, there will only be one team winning the tournament. But at least you will be able to say, when you come back home, that you have played the Champions League at least once! And that you’ve played with the only (fat) goalkeeper that have never failed a penalty in Coimbra!

Join the Erasmus Champions League here: https://www.facebook.com/events/429277457202762/?fref=ts 

Show Updates!

We updated the podcasts for our last shows on the demonstrations in Turkey and Brazil and the more easy-going chit-chat we had about Erasmus.

Direct access to our Mixcloud page with the cloudcasts here.

Show archive with the links for all shows from this semester and some older ones here.

Our song lists from the past episode is available for one week here.

Portuguese Literature...Get Your Read On!

Let's set this off with our guest's suggestions for Portuguese books that are very recommendable for all kinds of students, young people, old people, Erasmus, non-Erasmus and everyone else who is interested in the Portuguese language:

- Miguel Torga, "Diário": Miguel Torga's diary is available in many volumes, obviously it turned some tradition for students to buy the volume of their birth year.

- José Saramago, "Jamgada de Pecha": a novel.

- Fernando Assis Pacheco, "Trabalhos & Paixões de Benito Prada"

Then, our suggestions for places to read and libraries in Coimbra:

- Biblioteca Geral, University - opposite of FLUC (it has its 500 year anniversary coming up!)

- the libraries of all the faculties, some nice videos to get to know parts of them from our colleagues at UCv:

 

http://ucv.uc.pt/ucv/podcasts/babel/um-bom-sitio-para-estudar-biblioteca-da-feuc

http://ucv.uc.pt/ucv/podcasts/babel/um-bom-sitio-para-estudar-departamento-de-antropol
- Biblioteca Municipal and their webpage:

http://www.cm-coimbra.pt/biblioteca/

- Literature events in Coimbra, announced on Camera Municipal's page:

http://www.cm-coimbra.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=82&Itemid=208

And following (in Portuguese), our links for getting some background information on all the things more or less deep about Lusophone literature:

Very well made site from Instituto Camões, explainig the history of Portuguese literature, main works and authors:
http://cvc.instituto-camoes.pt/conhecer/bases-tematicas/literatura-portuguesa.html

Overview on works, authors, aso, listed by historic context:
http://www.portaldaliteratura.com/literatura.php

Enormous Wikipedia site, way too big if you just want to get a short overview:
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hist%C3%B3ria_da_literatura_em_Portugal

Centre of Portuguese Literature of FLUC:
http://www.uc.pt/fluc/clp

Enormous blog on authors of Portuguese literature, useful for a more specified search and to get to check authors on a more entertaining basis, less scientific:
http://auladeliteraturaportuguesa.blogspot.pt/

Very short text, that sums up the most important on Portuguese Literature:
http://www.portugal-live.net/P/essential/culture-literature.html

That a-f-ing-mazing children's page, we also used for our Santos Populares show, explaining Dia de Camões:
http://www.junior.te.pt/servlets/Rua?ID=209&P=Portugal

Wikipedia explaining Luis de Camões:
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_de_Cam%C3%B5es

Wikipedia explaining Camões Day:
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dia_de_Portugal

Some events on this year's Camões Day:
http://www.ptjornal.com/2013061016663/geral/sociedade/dia-de-portugal-condecoracoes-em-elvas-memorias-de-camoes-homenagem-na-google.html

Speaking of......Santos and Festas Populares.

There are lots of things to discover during this time. Not only some celebrations of their kind here or in Lisbon or Oporto, also the "Feira Medieval" coming up in Coimbra and finally on June, 10th is Camões Day, the day of the Lusophonic Community and Culture.

The three Santos Populares and their respective days are:

- St. Anthony on June 13th
- St. John on June, 24th
- St. Peter on June, 29th

In the Parish of S. António dos Oliveias, where our guest works, they for sure celebrate the day of St. Anthony biggest.

Festas and Santos Populares

This edition we talked to Frei Domingos from Italy and asked him loads of questions about the tradition of Festas and Santos Populares. Below you find some of our preparational links - unfortunately (depends on your point of view - might also be fotunately) they're almost all in Portuguese.

A rather unspecified definition of "Festa Popular": http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festa_popular

A list of all Festas Populares in Portugal, more focused on the regional and local ones: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Lista_das_principais_festas_e_romarias_de_Portugal


Touristic page with all the dates for 2012 and a short description, easy to read: http://www.destinoslusos.com/2012/05/festas-populares-2012-em-portugal.html


Actually a children's page but very nice to read and with all the basic background information: http://www.junior.te.pt/servlets/Bairro?P=Portugal&ID=483


Wikipedia about St. John's celebration and June festivities and their origins:
http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festa_junina

Also a touristic page, can be interesting but won't add much to your already gained knowledge:
http://www.visitportugal.com/NR/exeres/6690B087-AE46-4D01-B780-929EEEF6CC23,frameless.htm?parentGuid={9A6B0608-32E2-4996-9E49-BF4EBA2E8234}