Going home!!

After one week seeing Hamburg, Kiel, Bremen, Cologne and Bonn in Germany, today I am leaving to Frankfurt to take the plane back home!

About the leaving of Ukraine

Yesterday, sadly, I left Ukraine.

I had booked a flight from Kiev to Hamburg and was just waiting for the decision about the job. If I would get hired, I would stay more 3 or 4 months in Lviv. Otherwise, as it turned out to happen, I would just come to germany and would have 1 week to make a decision until the date of my flight to Brazil in August 25.

As I had a new passport, when I went through customs control, they obviously didn´t like the fact thay I didn´t have the stamp stating that I had gone IN Ukraine.

So the Ukrainian police was making phone calls for around 20 minutes to try to find out whether I had bad intentions in that plane or not. Apparently their communication was not that good and they were not able to find anything out. So they just decided to let me go! GOOD!

And I had a very strong sorrow because I had not bought any Ukrainian vodka. Luckily, there was enough time (1 minute 17 seconds ) for me to go to Duty Free and buy it! YEEEES, I am bringing some bottles of Khortytsia to Brasil!!

About Kiev in general

I have a small classification of cities:

1D city: cities in which you usually know where you are just by finding the main street or cities which are made only of one main street. Floripa (except for city center), Joinville, Goianésia, Bom Jesus da Lapa (BA), Ibotirama (BA).

2D city: cities in which you will find interesting spots if you walk in every cardinal direction. Brasília, City center in Floripa, Lisbon, Krakow, Hamburg.

3D city: cities in which you will find interesting spots if you walk in any directions, but also if you go up or down in metro stations, in underground galleries, etc. Barcelona, Berlin, SP, Buenos Aires, Kiev (YEEEEEESSSS!!)

Yes, Kiev is a 3D city!! And I have a certain tendency to be positively surprised by this kind of city the most. It is lively all the time, theres VERY cheap food, theres VERY expensive food, there are lots of foreigners, there is mafia cars going extremely fast in city center, theres all kind of people, and, by the way, a lot of each kind. =)

Officially my favorite city in Ukraine.

About the job interview

I had the job interview in Lviv, but both me and the company didn´t match each other expectations.

- I wanted to work for only 3 or 4 months as a software developer or doing marketing with my portuguese language skills. =)

- They wanted someone with a lot more experience in software development than I have and they are not making any sales to portuguese speaking countries.

As a result, I can not extend my visa in Ukraine and as my previous one was already expired, I decided to leave the country. I will probably also not participate in the Ukranian road-trip in september with Tom and his friends, not learn Ukrainian for now and Tom will also not be willing to stay in Lviv for more months.

On the positive side, it is one less option for me to decide from, which is a very welcome result! =)

About the lost passport

After the trip to Ternopl, I noticed my passport was gone right in the same day that the visa would expire. =/

So I called the Brazilian embassy in Kiev and they told me that I should go there (means 10 hours of train) to get a new one. The good thing is that they would give it to me in the same day.

So I came to Kiev, found the embassy and talked to the staff which gave me the new passport in the same day, as promissed! Bad thing is that the old one was becoming full of stamps and visas and this one is completely empty: must travel more!

But still the best part is yet to come: after having a very short contact with the embassy staff I had one of the BEST ideas of the last years regarding my profession!

Trip to Ternopl

Last weekend me, Tom and our romenian friend Cata from the new group of interns were in Ternopl, a city near Lviv in which there is another group of foreign interns.

We were guests in their house, they took us for a walk around the city and the lake, we went out at night and next day we played volleyball with some ucranian people in the park near the lake! Very nice game by the way. =)

Ternopl is officially recommended now!

Back in Lviv

After Polish trip, we have now in Lviv :

- Our intern friends, which are working daily in school with the kids and always very eager to have trips for the weekend.

- Tom the Dutch friend, which is working in Intelias and always open to any kind of suggestion. ANY! Our next one will be to go to Circus. =)

- Me, waiting for an interview in Intelias next Thursday to try a software developer place in that company, playing football and volleyball sometimes and eager to make more trips in Ukraine.

- Tom´s flat, which is very confortable. Tonight we are having dinner there. =)


We don´t have:

- My camera to take pictures, because the battery was rotten and I had to throw it away.
- Interns from previous group which were living toghether, including loads of brazilians.
- School work for me.
- Regular internet access
- The previous dirty and over-populated flat.

Back from Poland

First there were 4 days of lots of rain and nice trips with Riane in Krakow, including Auschwitz, Salt mine and transportation museum. Lots of McDonalds with her as well. =)

Then there was one day in Katowice and Zabrze with Linda and her family. They were all very friendly, mother, father, brother, dog, cat and Linda of course. They offered me a place in their home and tried hard to communicate, although still my polish language skills are very poor.

Then I went to Warsawa to meet Tom and there we stayed in a hostel, then met Lubass from AIESEC Lviv, which is there having his internship. Later we met a nice girl, Gosia, which took us next day to a day trip in her city Poznan. =)

Next day with Gosia I went to meet one of the AIESEC offices in Warsaw, which by the way looked very cool. =)

Happy birthday little friend!

Hoje é aniversário da Talita amiguinha! Parabéns pra ela e q ela fique cada dia mais espertinha!

Valeu amiguinha!!

Arrival in Poland

After nine (9!) hours to drive 300 km by bus during the night, of which 3 were necessary to go through the border, I arrived this morning in Krakow, Poland.

I am this morning waiting for Riane to arrive and plans are to spend next week visiting Krakow and around with her. =)

After that she goes to Brazil and theres a chance that dutch friend Tom and brazilian friends from Lviv come to Warshaw for weekend, and in such case I would also enjoy another weekend in Poland to finally come back to Ukraine.

(possível) Fim do summer camp

Pessoal,

Nessa última semana tivemos um grupo muito legal de adolescentes na escola, assim como o primeiro grupo do início. Foi feita no último dia uma troca de mensagens escritas que mostrou o quanto uma semaninha em que participamos das vidas desses adolescentes pode mudá-las tanto num futuro de médio prazo.

Eles dizem que querem ir pro Brasil, que adoraram a gente, que querem ser q nem a gente, que querem entrar pra AIESEC! E tudo isso é mto legal. =)

Como semana que vem vai tá todos os internos viajando (quase todos pra Odessa e eu pra Polônia), não vamos continuar agora com esse grupo, mas devemos voltar na semana seguinte do dia 2 de agosto.

De qq forma surgiu uma oportunidade inesperada de fazer um summer camp com um grupo diferente, com crianças com famílias misturadas com outras crianças órfãs, inclusive algumas com deficiência. É um desafio que eu e o Celso queremos encarar pra semana do dia 2, só dependemos de conversar com as pessoas envolvidas. Tomara que dê certo!

Now the cool stuff! A little cultural shock!

First, when we were in our friend Tom´s house with some Ukrainian people and some Ukrainian guys asked girls in general to prepare some sandwiches and food for everybody. The brazilian girls of course took that as a joke and said they were not doing it. Fortunately, some Ukrainian girls took that seriously and started preparing some delicious sandwiches while having fun and laughing with everybody. After that everybody ate them and the girls were really glad that everybody liked them. =)

Later, we were in a cab with an Ukrainian male friend and also a female friend. When it stopped, the girl asked how much it was and this Ukrainian guy pointed to me and another guy and said we would pay a certain amount and also pointed at the girl and said she wouldn´t pay anything.

For these moments its worth all the trouble we have been passing!

At last a house!

Ok, after exactly 2 weeks changing from place to place now we have a possible definitive house! I strongly hope that it will really be and have even put clothes from the luggage to a closet. =)

Now besides Cecilia from Poland, Melissa from Indonesia and two brazilian girls Isa and Pri, we will receive a new girl from Czech Republic today and maybe some more people tomorrow.

Besides that we have had a wave of people leaving their projects.

Two guys we met in the first weekend in Ucraine who were in a camp near lviv left their project after having been going through a routine of only 2 warm showers per week, drunk and cursing camp-owner and non-english-speaking comunication.

Other two brazilian girls left their project in Ivano-Frankivsk yesterday after a week of having nothing to do in the camp and absolutely no contact to globalization. =/

Also me, yesterday after receiving shouts from a person who should be helping us and seeing no progress in our housing condition, wanted to leave the project, but later after some talk, was able to spot better the problem and energy came back for staying.

Pra quem ta vindo - tragam Cachaça

Galera,

Todo mundo q vem pra Ucrânia traz suas bebidas nacionais, portanto tragam cachaça e tragam da boa, porque as vodkas aki são muito boas e é difícil competir, viu?

Na real isso aki é o paraíso da vodka! Tem muitas marcas de qualidade e muito barato, tipo 15 grivnias uma garrafa! Hehehe! Mesmo preço das nossas nacionais q nos dão tanta dor de cabeça no dia seguinte.

Mais sobre o projeto

Pessoal,

O início do projeto Step-by-Step em Lviv foi adiado pro dia 28/junho! Quem ta vindo não vai perder nada dele, praticamente.

Ontem conversamos com a Sabina, que participou do projeto por 3 anos consecutivos como aluna e agora (q ela ta com 17 anos) ela resolveu entrar pra AIESEC por causa do Step-by-Step.

Ela disse q são alunos selecionados de diversas escolas, em duas turmas de 40 cada. Deu pra gente também num papel um cronograma pra duas semanas de "aulas" que devemos dar pra eles, com os títulos delas e com os horários de cada uma mais ou menos.

A Daryna ficou de mandar o cronograma em formato excel e qdo ela mandar eu passo pra vocês os titulos das aulas, mas no geral vao ser os mesmos assuntos sobre os quais já falamos: empreendedorismo, liderança, auto-conhecimento e muitos jogos.

Por enquanto estamos aki eu e mais duas meninas e o resto da galera (pra completar os 20 interns) vai chegar só na semana que vem, lá pelo dia 25.

Pra quem vem pra Lviv - Sobre o projeto

Ae galera,

Informações que consegui com a Daryna, OCP do projeto Step-by-Step:

- Ela é a OCP
- Tem mais 10 OC members daki de Lviv participando do projeto, que durante as apresentações estarão se revezando pra auxiliar na comunicação com o pessoal da Ucrania, tipo profs. e alunos.
- Mais 10 interns de outros países, provavelmente divididos em 2 grupos de 5, que estarão efetivamente fazendo as apresentações pras crianças. Essa galera, a princípio vai morar todo mundo junto numa residencia e está chegando durante essa semana.

O projeto começa semana que vem (dia 21), logo essa semana to livre aki pra passear.

Daki a pouco vamos ter a reunião do OC do Step-by-Step, então espero clarificar mto desse planejamento do projeto, que ainda está bem nebuloso, daí boto aki pra vcs. Além disso, acho que muitas dúvidas, nem a própria Daryna sabe da resposta ainda, então o negócio é ir conversando com ela pra tentar descobrir o máximo possível.

Abraços!

Lviv - Tempo

Pras meninas bem vestidas de plantão, a situação do clima em Lviv:

Nos 3 primeiros dias tava bem calor, daquele tipo insuportável, tanto q adotei o look bermuda com camiseta, às vezes ousando até pra uma havaiana na rua! hehe!

Aí ontem choveu e deu uma esfriada, pra algo do tipo 15 graus de manhã, q vai ficando mais quente durante o dia até o ponto de vc usar uma camiseta normal.

Do dia pra noite dá pra reparar q passa do calor insuportável pra um clima agradável pra dormir, então sugiram que tragam no máximo umas poucas blusas de frio só pra não passar perrengue, mas acredito que na maior parte do tempo vamos ter um clima agradável de camiseta mesmo!

Abraços!

First days in Ucraine - People

Hi friends!

After a 2-day journey between Brasília and Lviv, I arrived safe in Ucraine!

In the first day the guys from the Reception Team in AIESEC Lviv came to take me in the airport, took me to a hostel they had already booked and after that took me to a very nice bar to eat typical dishes and eat typical drink from Ucraine!

Next day I met an Ucranian very nice guy in the hostel and met also my OCP from Step-by-Step project Daryna, which took us for a walk and helped buying Cell-phone card, contact lenses and food! =)

Later, people from reception team arrived in the hostel and brought things so that we could eat and drink some typical dishes and drinks from Ucraine. Also they brought 2 guys which are also interns in a camp near Lviv, and these guys spent the next day with us.

Next day we went for a walk to the highest point in Lviv, with a very beautiful view, with Olena from reception team, and also a new Intern from Indonesia arrived, Melissa.

Next day Daryna took us to eat in a very nice Ucrainian typical restaurant, sponsored by our project, and helped me and Melissa to move from the hostel to our temporary new home, a student´s dormitory. I dont give details about this new home, but I can say that we were not able to take a shower there yet because of lack of infrastructure. =/ We are currently trying to solve this issue! Let´s see what happens!

Tonight we´ll have our LC weekly meeting and meet other people from the Comitee which we didn´t have the chance to meet yet.

Ok, as you can see people from AISEC Lviv are VERY nice and gentle and have been giving us a very good support, besides also being good companions for walks around the city. =) People from Ucraine in general (not from AIESEC), are incredibly nice to foreigners, and even when they are not able to comunicate (which happens very often), they try to help and to be nice, sometimes even making jokes. =)