30/01/2014

8 THINGS NEW ERASMUS SHOULD KNOW AND CONSIDER IN COIMBRA

By PPedro Girão, ESN Coimbra, Communication manager


Here is a list of things you must do when you decide to come to Coimbra for a semester of studies:
1 – Do your homework – your Erasmus starts even before your arrival. So if you want the integration to be easier search and get in the groups and follow the most important pages for Erasmus students in Coimbra. Well… if you are reading this you are probably already doing your homework, but we can help with it:
  • Get to know ESN Coimbra, Like the page of ESN Coimbra on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ESNCOIMBRA) to get to know a bit more about Coimbra, the events and Portugal. And if you don’t find the information you need you can always send a private message and this group of volunteers will do the best to help you.
  • Join the Facebook Private group of ESN Coimbra for Erasmus and Exchange students, where you can find other erasmus people and ask all the doubts you have - http://on.fb.me/1kiE1yq.
  • Like the facebook page of Babel Radio Show (https://www.facebook.com/babelruc), a radio show made by Erasmus students which gives you important information about Coimbra and Portugal. You can even join Babel, caus they are looking for new members. Check the info at: http://www.uc.pt/en/driic/babel
    listen at: http://www.mixcloud.com/Babel_RUC/
  • Get a buddy: in University of Coimbra there is the Buddy System, where lots of Portuguese students volunteer to help you in your arrival to the city. You must receive an email from International Relations asking you if you want a buddy, but if you don’t receive the email the best thing to do is to write to them asking for one.
2 – Relax! – it is VERY IMPORTANT that you don’t get panic if you don’t have an apartment before your arrival. Do not transfer money to any landlord or rental company of rooms / apartments without prior visiting the place and checking out the condition sof the room / apartment and the area. If you cannot visit, ask a friend to do it for you. Although, sometimes, many photos are available, there is nothing better than see for yourself or who you trust! The best thing to do is to stay in a hostel for 1 or 2 nights and to look for a room after your arrival. If you want a good hostel you can always choose the new ESN’s partner, Serenata Hostel (http://www.serenatahostel.com/en/), where you can get discounts if you are an Erasmus or Exchange student.
3 – Prepare yourself and your luggage for the best time of your life – well… just two small but important tips: Coimbra is not as hot as most of people think so make sure you bring hot clothes; and prepare your stuff before your goodbye party! (this is an advice of someone who have been in Erasmus twice)
4 – Getting to Coimbra – usually, to come to Coimbra, Erasmus students use one of this three different ways:
  1. Airplane to Lisbon and train or bus from Lisbon to Coimbra – if you want to come by train you can go by Metro from the airport to “Oriente” or taking a taxi to “Gare do Oriente”. To come by bus you can also use the metro to get to “Sete Rios” and get the bus there. To check the schedules of the trains go to http://www.cp.pt; of the bus to http://www.rede-expressos.pt/default.aspx.
  2. Airplane to Porto and train or bus from Porto to Coimbra – to come to Coimbra by train you must go by Metro to “Campanhã” and get the train to Coimbra from there. To come by Bus go to “S. Bento” and look for the bus station, at Rua Alexandre Herculano, in Praça da Batalha. To check the schedules of the trains go to http://www.cp.pt; of the bus to http://www.rede-expressos.pt/default.aspx.
  3. Sharing a car with other Erasmus people – it is a more and more commonly used way to get to Coimbra, especially by Spanish people. To do it, our best advice is to create a profile in Blablacar (link) and look for a ride or to create your own. If you want, later on you can share the link of your travel in the Erasmus Group of ESN Coimbra to be easier to find someone to share the expenses with you.
5 – Arriving to Coimbra – if you have followed our advice you must look for the hostel and get ready to look for a place to stay during your Erasmus. There are a few ways of doing it:
  • First of all you can go to the ESN Office (check the schedule in the Facebook Page or write asking the best moment to go there – because the schedule will depend of the moment of your arrival) in Casa da Lusofonia.
    There will be sour volunteers welcoming you. They also give you a free Portuguese phone card and share with you a list of rooms where last years’ Erasmus were living. Here you can also get an ESN Card that will give you discounts in many partners across the city and also in ESN Parties and organized trips.
  • If you want to do it without help, you can search ads in local newspapers, near the faculties and in the streets. In the windows of the houses, when it is placed a white paper, means that it is available for rent, just ring the bell! It must seem to be weird, but Coimbra is a University City and there is a high short-term house rent market here because even Portuguese students are not born in Coimbra... so they change their apartments almost every year/semester.
  • There are also a few Portuguese sites where you can look for rooms or apartments. Some of them:
6 – Bureaucracies – After finding a place to stay you must go to your University to get everything in order for your studies here. Most of the Erasmus and Exchange students come to University of Coimbra and to go to the International Relations Office. Erasmus – however – have to go to Casa da Lusofonia (the same place of ESN office). Either you are a UC or other university student, check the attending schedule in you university website before going there. You must bring some photos and…all the documents you they gave you at University and, of course, photos of you, the Learning Agreement, the Acceptance Letter and the Passport or ID card! Also 20 euros for insurance, since University likes to keep you safe and sound in case of any accidents or medical problems.
In summary: bring everything you have that can be useful! Because you will need to be patient: lots of foreign students come every semester so you will probably need to wait a long time to get all the bureaucracies in order. And, believe me, you won’t want to know that you will need to get there once again because there is one paper missing! But don’t think you are done: you will probably need to go to the Loja do Cidadão and to the International Relations Division of your Faculty. So, when you go to DRI (International Relations Office) don’t forget to ask which are the next things you need to do!
7 – Join the events, write in the ESN Facebook group and enjoy your time in Coimbra! Get surprised by the Harry Potter capes, by the wonderful Fado singers, by all the tradition… get in love in and with the city and never forget one thing: portuguese people are, generally, very helpful but also not so confident about their English speaking skills. So if you need any help ask them: most of the people will do all they can to help you! But you must take the action: you must ask them for help, otherwise they will be too shy of their English skills to help – even if they want to do it.
8 – To be in Erasmus is also to get integrated in a different culture. There are lots of volunteer associations that you can join and you will still have time to go to parties, to travel and to study. Get involved. And if you have any doubts remember you can always write a private message to https://www.facebook.com/ESNCOIMBRA. Remember that you are in Erasmus. Therefore, this must be the time of your life (so on)!






26/01/2014

THE LEGEND OF SEVEN CITIES (BABEL RIDICULOUS VERSION)




There was once a king who had a small dick but nice smile. He wanted to have children so they could become as ignorant he was. So many nights and years the king and the queen had tried to make babies, but kings penis was too small to hit the cervix and the queen could not get pregnant. Maybe the reason was that the queen was smoking Marlboro cigarettes, or the fact that king hold all the time laptop on his scrotch.

Both of them knew that soon the time will run out, since women could have babies for certain age. King became depressed and started drinking heavily. For his entertainment he executed some black people with big dicks, some fans of Lady Gaga and all the dictators in the middle East.

Even if King was depressed and queen still barren, they continued to try to make the babies. After one hot night, after sex, king went to balcony to catch fresh air. Since he was very bored, he took LSD. LSD made him look like Jim Morisson. He started to be with wild hair, mellow voice, and dark poetic soul. While he was smoking a cigarette, he saw a very bright and beautiful star falling from the sky. Soon this star turned into beautiful woman. She had perfect buttocks and olive-skin body. King knew that this was Sara Sampoio, first portuguese Victorian Secret Top Model. First Sara made few runway walks with her hot underwear, waved to the rich and famous, bold and beautiful, smiled for the cameras and then started to speak with the King.

HEY, MOTHERFUCKER! We, the divine creatures of the beauty, will never forget how you killed those black people with big dicks and Lady Gaga fans! We will never forgive for your egotism and Napoloen complex! However, you will have a daugther. A daugther like a sun, burning hot, beautiful miss!”
How come?” asked the King, who was still Jim Morrison. Still on acid. Still with mellow voice and dark poetic souls.
`cause your queen was asking for the miracle for all those years. Otherwise we would not have answered, but we saw her suffering so much. You have not given her an orgasm for all those years! The only way she would live again, would be with a daugther!”
So the god will give me a daughter cause the queen asked for her?”
"Yes! You´ll have to order the construction of 7 cities with copper walls. Your daughter will be born there, but you can not visit her for 30 years. If you do, you will be punished!“
    What happens if I do not wait for 30 years?”
You will die and your country will be cursed.”

The star vanished into the sky and Sara went to New York - many thousands years to the future to make another runway walk.
In the meantime 28 years passed, King partied, smoked some weed and did some acid. He met Jim Morrison but never Sara Sampaio again. He became restless since he wanted to see his daughter. He decided to call Bernardo, his local squire, and asked him:

Bernando dont you reckon I have suffered enough?“

Yes, but the people have also suffered a lot, my lord!“

I dont care about my people, I care only about myself! Do you reckon that I will die if I go there?

Yes, I do, my king! And then Bernando added:

Be patient because there are only 2 years left, you need to be kind to the people“

For a moment the king felt the same as Bernardo. But next day, he thought fuck that, and wanted to go to the seven cities. When the king and Bernardid wake up, trying to relieve their resaca with morning coffee their horses where already ready for a long and exhaustive journey to the seve cities lagoon.

Every time they moved closer to the cities, the clouds cried blood, Sara stopped her runway walks in New York, the angry sea increased its waves and the clouds trowed lightnings. When they got near the lagoon, the furious sea flooded the seven cities, making 9 islands. The island where the princess lived was transformed into a lagoon made of two parts, a green one, the color of the princess's dress, and a blue one which was the color of the princess's shoes. The king died and all the people in the city died, the princess however remained forever virgin in the island, waiting for Robison Crusoe and reading Jane Eyre´s novels.

THE LEGEND OF ROSES( BABEL RIDICULOUS VERSION)




In Coimbra, Across the river stands the great white convent of Santa Clara, "once the glory of Coimbra and the cloister of Queens," but now used as a factory. Lower down are the ruins of another convent, in which the Porta de Rosa recalls the pretty legend of the miracle of the roses. St. Elizabeth, the wife of King Diniz, spent all her time and money in ministering to the poor, till at length her husband remonstrated with her and forbade her to continue her good works. King Diniz could not stand the poor people, he was like a ancient Paris Hilton, who thought that all the poor people are real pain in the ass. King Diniz did not mind that queen and the people got angry at him. He had built portuguese first university, had written over 100 trobadour songs; also had many sexy university students giving him brain and also had the queen, who only let her do it missionary. So when the king forbade queen her humanitarian activities, Sain Elizabeth hated herself for marrying this asshole, when she was only 10-years old.

The Queen was very unhappy; she was loath to disobey, but her kind heart bled for the hungry women and little children who would look in vain for her coming. Elizabeth did not like Paris Hilton and Dom Dinis at the same time. Since Elizabeth knew that Dom Dinis would not kill her, if she would disobey ( ´cause she had told her parents to start rumours after her death that Dom Dinis was impotent and somehow Dinis knew this threat), she decided to help the poor people again.

One day she sallied out with a basketful of bread on her arm. As she was passing through a doorway, she meet the King. The King wanted to make love, but Elizabeth refused. She was on her period. After that, the king saw that Elizabeth was carrying a basket. The spirit of Paris Hilton took over of D. Diniz.

"What have you there?" cried he in anger.
"Roses," faltered the trembling Queen, not daring to tell the truth.
"Let me see them!" thundered the King, lifting the cover of the basket to the good St. Elizabeth's joy and wonder, it was full of beautiful roses.
So the bread was turned into bread by miracle and Elizabeth could continue to help the poor. D. Diniz continued to be a poet and womanizer. Both spirits – Paris Hilton and D. Diniz – still hate the poor.
 
listen at:
http://www.mixcloud.com/Babel_RUC/portuguese_legends_mythsbabel_ridiculous_version/

THE LEGEND OF NAZARE ( BABEL RADIO SHOW RIDICULOUS VERSION)


 
 
The Legend of Nazaré  has it that on the early morning of September 14, 1182, Dom Fuas Roupinho was out hunting near the coast. Usually Nazare is considered a surfing paradise due to its crazy waves. But at that time surfboards did not exista and anyway Dom Fuas Roupinho hated to be mainstream. He went hunting, cause he wanted to shoot someone. He could not shoot his wife. Soon he saw a deer and he took his horse to chase him. All of a sudden a heavy fog rose up from the sea. The deer ran towards the edge of a cliff and Dom Fuas in the midst of the fog was cut off. But he kept riding his horse, since he was stupid and wanted to shoot someone. He passed a small grotto where a statue of Our Lady with the Enfant was venerated. Then he realized that horse is galloping towards edge of the clip and soon they are going to die. Thus he prayed out loud Our Lady, Help Me. All of a sudden the horse miraculously stopped at the end of a rocky point suspended over the void, the Bico do Milagre (Point of the Miracle), thus saving the rider and his mount from a drop of more than 100 metres, that would certainly caused their death.

 

Since Dom Fuas did not believe that horses have brains themselves and actually do stop on their own, when they see a cliff ahead of them, he went to the same grotto. He prayed there and thanked the god for the miracle. He also built a chapel there, so the people who went there to shoot dears in the fog, while being on the crazy galloping horses, could see miracles and pray to gods before reaching the cliff edges.
 



THE LEGEND OF ROOSTER OF BARCELOS ( BABEL RIDICULOUS VERSION )





According to the legend, silver had been stolen from a landowner in Barcelos, a city in North Portugal, and the inhabitants of that city were looking for the criminal who had committed the crime. Babel Radio show is more than sure that it was actually some gangsta rapper, who wanted to make bling-bling out of it and then disappeared to United States, but since there are no criminal records from that time, we are not sure.

One day, a man from neighboring Galicia turned up and became suspect, despite his pleas of innocence. He looked like Michael Jackson, spoke with Samuel L. Jackson´s voice and was a nymphomaniac. The Galician swore that he was merely passing through Barcelos on a Pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostelato complete a promise. The promise was to steal some nice looking girls from Portugal and become a pimp in Spain.

Nevertheless, the authorities were very angry since Galician did not listen to Babel Radio Show. So they arrested the Galician and condemned him to hang. The man asked them to take him in front of the judge who had condemned him. The authorities honored his request and took him to the house of the magistrate, who was holding a banquet with some friends. There were many prostitutes, and everyone was drunk, having sex and wearing masks that resembled Bill Clinton´s face. Poor Galician had to drink wine, and sleep with one Eastern-European girl to kill time, cause judge was doing cocaine upstairs for 2 hours. When he finally returned, he was very egoistic and narcistic, not giving a fuck about the Galician, who tried to beg and plead for many hours. The judge just did not listen. For some strange reason, somebody had put LSD to Galician wine cup and he found somekind of divine connection with rooster that was chilling in the banquet. As the LSD came on, they both became soulmates, forever connecting souls.

Affirming his innocence, the Galician pointed to a roasted cock on top of the banquet table and exclaimed, "It is as certain that I am innocent as it is certain that this rooster will crow when they hang me." The judge became suprised and cancelled his plan to eat the rooster. Since it was something totally different from wines, prostitutes and cocaine, judge wanted to see some action immediately. He ordered his followers to hang Galician immediately, since time is money. Galician started to cry, ´cause he could not become a pimp in Spain.

However, while the potential pimp was being hanged, the rooster stood up on the table and crowed as the Galician predicted. Understanding his error, the judge – naked and still on cocaine - ran to the gallows, only to discover that the Galician had been saved from hanging thanks to a poorly made knot in the rope. The man was immediately freed and sent off in peace. He went to pilgrimage and became a pimp.


listen the show at:

http://www.mixcloud.com/Babel_RUC/portuguese_legends_mythsbabel_ridiculous_version/