Multiculturalism, center of Braga, MEET and other fun things!

The first activity in the second semester held by MEET on the 24th of February, 2011, was the “peddy-paper”, which goal was to show the center of Braga to the international students.

The students showed great interest in the activity: there were nearly 35 participants from Brasil, China, Poland, Greece, Holland, Russia, Ukraine and other countries. They came to Braga for one semester to study Portuguese at the University of Minho or as Erasmus students.

All the participants gathered at the University campus and formed groups of about five people each. The students started their journey passing through the route of Rua D. Pedro V where they received the city map and a sheet containing the tip on how to get to their first stop.  

 

When they arrived to the first station a Red Cross volunteer who was awaiting them posed a question and if they answered correctly they received another hint on how to get to the next stop. This form of activity allowed the participants to find out where is the pharmacy, post office, the academic bar, the Portuguese Youth Institute, the Citizen´s shop, hospital, police station, the fire department, Arco da Porta Nova, the Cathedral Sé, the Santa Bárbara garden – and finally- a Praça da República, where all the participants together with the Red Cross Youth volunteers met at the finish line.

It was a very nice and sunny afternoon and the activity turned out to be very entertaining and useful. The students could discover the main places in the city without worrying they would get lost. Additionally, the “peddy-paper” helped integrating people from all over the world. MEET was very pleased with the results of the activity and hopes that the next event, the traditional Portuguese dinner held for the students on Wednesday, the 2nd of March, will also be a success.

Diary: Sara at "Diversity is More"

Hi, 

The most enthousiastic followers of “Sara at Diversity”, behold, I have some news that are not so good: it’s the last diary…Yes, it´s true. Now, that I started getting used to this, it is ending. But that´s life.

The last day was just like all the other days - filled with presentations and evaluations.

In the morning the groups formed the previous day had submitted their proposals for projects to: M. Barroso and Bruno Al-Faiate Mohamed (trainers)!!!

Innovative, creative ideas and projects are just waiting to ´´see the day light´´.

We will soon find out what the future holds: everyone seeks opportunities and joint projects, however, the proposals that will prove to be the most consistent to the existence of climate “conducive” to apply here in Diversity will be chosen.

During the afternoon we had a trip to the city center, because everyone was anxious to see the Castle of Guimarães. There we made the assessment of the activities, which by the reaction of the participants went very, very well. On my part, I agree that this training was successful, the trainers knew how to prepare dynamic and a fantastic work pace.

Also the working group was amazing. It was an extremely positive week!!!

Now, it’s time to analyze everything that has been lived and learnt in order to understand how I can use the acquired tools in practice (which certainly shouldn’t be something difficult) and............. well I will not tell too much, you should expect to see the ideas put to practice!

Finally, I wanted to say it was a great pleasure to share this experience with you and I hope to soon have another chance to here João say: ´´After this training, you should write a diary again´´. A big hug to everyone, especially the twenty new people that during this week made me a better person!

MEET on the day of welcoming the new Erasmus students

    Yesterday was a very important day for the project MEET. For the first time since it was established in September, 2010, MEET, invited by the GRI, had the opportunity to present itself on the day of welcoming the new Erasmus students. It was a pretty busy day for the new international students who arrived to study at the University of Minho. In the morning they attended different presentations by institutional entities as well as the MEET and AAUM presentations. During the afternoon they had the chance to participate in the academic peddy-paper.

    The Project MEET was presented simultaneously in English and Portuguese by Alina Carvalho, the coordinator of the Project, as well as João Gomes, responsible for the international cooperation of the Red Cross Youth in Braga. Other participants on the Red Cross Youth side were Chisoka, Admeier and Birgit, who helped with the activities and interaction with the Erasmus students.

    MEET´s participation on the day of welcoming the Erasmus students was important, especially when facing the following facts:

In the second semester arrived 190 students representing 62 countries, in the first semester there were 500 international students. Summing up, the university accepts 700 international students per year.

  

   Our today´s activity, the peddy-paper at the center of Braga was received very enthusiastically with over 50 people signing up. Surprisingly, even more people signed up (70!) to our next activity-the traditional Portuguese dinner, that will take place on the 2^nd of March. Therefore, we will continue the process of cultural integration in the academic context of Braga.