IM big mess!

Four languages at a time... a whole new sensation!

Skype, spanish...
Gtalk, galician and portuguese ("galaico-portuguese" language actually, "portuñol" or something like that)
Facebook chat, english...

I'm not definitely good at english. I'm as good as you can see within this blog. But it was easier for me to change from english to anyone of the other languages than changing among them. The more similar they are, the more difficult it becomes. Specially between galician and my "kind of portuguese". It should be also difficult between spanish and galician, but I'm used to that. I'm also used to change from portuguese to english, specially when I can't manage to be understood because of the meaning of just a single word. Then I say it in english and the problem is over.

But when it comes to write in both galician and portuguese at a time, there are a lot of little things to take into account... and it's not so easy. But it's fun! It's even funnier when people you're talking to, do enjoy your own mistakes and they mess with you, they make jokes and so on... I'm not becoming a portuguese guys! I've always had a portuguese inside me! :D  

Next step, multiple chat conversation with those four languages involved. That will be a real mess indeed!

See you!

A deeper look into ESTG

More photos and videos. No text this time, I'm too tired...

IPL Campus 2

ESTG "D Building"

And this time you can see the classrooms from inside:

Btw, today was wednesday, so I went to learn some portuguese and, as promised, I bring this to you:

See you!

Happy man!

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away... I mean, yesterday was saturday...

I went to watch the Real Madrid - Atlético de Madrid. Well, I got late actually (Skype's fault!) and didn't see much of it, none of it to be accurate... But anyway, I don't mind soccer... kind of weird for a spanish guy, it seems... But it was the starting point for a night of "Licor café" and "Sagres minis". I met new people, including the other galician erasmus here in Leiria (and we are three!) and I had the opportunity to use my poooooooor spoken english (I need to improve it, it's a must).

I promised to share a picture here (also by Facebook, but I don't like Facebook privacy policies, you already know about that), so here it is:

Hey "happy man"!

The guy on the left hand side is Alphonse, from Belgium, who is studying something like Industrial Engineering. I call him "Happy man" because he's always smiling, no matter if it rains outside... I barely know him, but I'll do: He wants to improve his spanish, I want to improve my english... it seems we have a deal! :D

The one on the right hand side is Fernando, from Cantabria, maybe the best public relations partner you can find in Leiria. He knows everybody, everybody knows him. He was a good starting point when I arrived here and I appreciate it.

So... if yesterday was saturday, today is sunday... I hope it to be a real sun-day, because I'm going to take a deeper look at Leiria, take some photos and, well, you know, spend some time living the touristic side of Erasmus program...

See you! (with more pictures, for those of you who don't like to read too much)

Communications

It's something important when you're outside your country. You need to talk to your family (I'm actually calling my parents more frequently than when I was studying in Spain), you need to talk to your girlfriend (well, it's actually she who needs to talk to you to be sure about your penis being still under the pants...) No, seriously, I was kidding. You need to talk to her. It's a must if you want to keep the relation alive... And you need to talk with friends also... So I'm going to talk a little about how I solve the communications problem when you're outside.

If you need to talk to your family, who doesn't know about Internet, you need to make a traditional phone call to their landlines. I knew about that, so I took a look at some VoIP services. I found voipbuster.com and lots of similar sites, with almost same conditions. It seemed to be a good alternative, as I could also use their services with my Android powered cellphone by using Sipdroid (over WiFi or 3G). But it's not so free as they claim it to be, so, if I have to pay I prefer to use Skype: 5€ + VAT a month and you can call to spanish landlines using a proved service wich works really fine, I must say. There is a limit of 50 different dialing numbers a day and you can be talking for around 6 hours everyday (enough for your girlfriend? :D)

You can also use Skype between computers, at no cost and also including videoconference, so it was a way to centralize communications and avoid having to use a different system for each person you have to call. And Skype has its own Android version available too...

So, great, with Skype you should have almost everything covered! I'm still using Google Talk to keep me in touch with some friends, as not all of them use Skype (and it's fine, I do also prefer to use GTalk with Android, better than Skype for chatting)

But you also have to communicate with people in Portugal. So I bought an Optimus simcard and got my 3G conection at a fair price by choosing Optimus Livre (with a separate Internet offer). But if you don't need Internet on your phone (or if you don't mind to pay a little more to get a little less), you must know that the most popular alternative here is to use Vodafone Extravaganza (with no cost calls, no cost SMS... my erasmus mates seem to spend the whole day on phone :D)

And... well, that's all. I hope you find this interesting if you come to this blog looking for some info about communications in Portugal. Btw, prices are about the same than Spain, maybe a little bit cheaper... you can take a look by yourselves.

IPL Campus 2 - Quick shot

This is it:

Main entrance (I like those shadows caused by sun over letters)

I'll be posting more photos and videos asap... but I'm still feeling a little bit uncomfortable taking photos like a tourist inside those buildings... hope you understand...

But there is something you need to see... It's about the famous "calçada portuguesa"... inside the buildings! Most exactly, inside the ESECS building (Escola Superior de Educação e Ciências Sociais), where I'll be going every wednesday in the evening to learn a little bit of portuguese and get my A2 degree (4ECTS worth)... But you'll have to wait until next wednesday, as I took no photos yet.

See you!

"Vai un frío de carallo..."

A couple of "carallos" here, a couple of "carallos" there... and some kind of typical erasmus night.

It's been a long time since I went to a pub, but old traditions never die. And with "minis" ("quintos" of beer, 0,20 litre) costing just half an euro... "mini" goes, "mini" comes (mini va, mini viene :D  "fromlosttotheriverismo")

Now, seriously, thank you guys for receiving me like that. It's been my pleasure. I hope we can repeat with some previous "licor café"... I'm afraid I'm gonna need to bring tons of it with me as soon as I come back to Galicia.

Now I'm going to sleep. It's been a hard day and I need to wake up early tomorrow... see you!

(I apologize for my poor english tonight. I have only one neuron working inside my brain right now. I don't know where the rest of them have gone.)

Erasmus Welcome Session

14:30 was the time. IPL central facilities was the place:

IPL central services

I had some trouble finding a place to park my car, so I arrived at the same time than IPL bus which transported students from Caldas da Rainha, where another campus is located.

So not much time to listen to people trying to find some spanish accent until we were driven to a building with some kind of auditorium inside. But there was a surprise waiting for us outside the building:

I was introduced to Gabriel (from Madrid), who also introduced me to Marta (basque, from Pamplona), both studying at Caldas da Rainha. The very first two of many spanish (and not spanish, of course) people to be introduced today. Then it would come Fernando (from Cantabria), Rosa (from Andorra), Álvaro, Ángel... and lots of other guys and girls whose names can't remember... It was a completely overdose of names and locations today, sorry...

So we got into the auditorium and saw some videos about the erasmus experience, looked trough the eyes of previous erasmus students. The spanish guys in the video seemed to have been scratching their belly the whole semester, I must say... They didn't help so much with their comments, but it was the funniest of all videos. 

And after that introduction, a nice time drinking some beer:

Some erasmus mates

More beer will come... tonight. I'm gonna know the famous Anubis, where all the erasmus students seem to enjoy here.

See you!