Eco vs Ego, Erasmus+ in Madeira

During September of 2021 I took part in my first Erasmus+ project which was organised by EXP UK. The theme of this project was ‘Eco vs Ego’ which covered topics related to our global impact over the ecosystem and some social activities.

Inspired from a local plant I created a screensaver video and uploaded it on my YouTube channel:

Part 1/2 – Live eco

I want to share with you 3 facts about having an ideal eco-friendly life:

1. Plastic and carton cannot be reused for unlimited cycles.

Those materials can be used up to 3 times to produce other objects from our daily life. Also, only 10% of the recycled plastic can be reused.

The same piece of plastic can only be recycled about 2-3 times before its quality decreases to the point where it can no longer be used.
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2018/04/04/7-things-you-didnt-know-about-plastic-and-recycling/

2. Going vegan for 2 weeks you can save the planet from enormous gas emissions.

In the project were almost 20 vegan friends and Victor (from UK team) did some math and delivered us the news 😁

If you want to try to use the calculator for yourself or for friends you will find it here: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46459714

3. Recycling is a good solution to sustain a healthy environment but there are two alternatives way better…

…and one of them can also help you in different personal areas.

Preventing waste is the preferred option, and sending waste to landfill should be the last resort.
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/topics/waste-and-recycling/waste-framework-directive_en

If you are interested in other topics to help the environment you will find this link helpful: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/index_en

In my way of understanding, by adopting the minimalism practices in your lifestyle leads to the main solution: prevention. And for sure it will have a huge positive impact as you become more disciplined, have the chance to save money and you will enjoy life with less.

Part 2/2 – Erasmus+ in Madeira

For me, as a newcomer, the project started with a very important theme, but in the end it became more about the people. I did not imagine it could be so hard to let friends go back to their countries, to their usual life. It was surprisingly good that I can get so attached.

They are fun-crazy people and we got to share everything. We were accommodated at Youth Hostel “Quinta da Ribeira” in Funchal and they made sure to group us in rooms by putting only one person from each country. Also, with very well organised activities we ended up knowing each other more.

They planned for us a 2h treasure hunt in the area and with the help of Daniela (Portugal team) we interacted more with the locals. They guided us throughout the city and we had to discover multiple parts of Funchal. In the last task we had to search for a very important statue from the city, but we were running out of time and to us all the statues seemed important and we took pictures with so many of them 😆.

Cultural Nights

are a valuable part of the Erasmus+ because each country team has a prepared program for presenting stories, events, places, customs related to their home place. In those nights we bonded, told stories, danced and laughed.

Cyprus guys showed us their beautiful 🧡 island, explained the choice of flag’s colors and let us have a taste from local drinks.

UK team impressed me with their energy and good-vibes music. I still can hear Gerda’s signature shout which can put you in dance mode in 3 seconds 😁

The Portuguese students presented us their university, told us college stories and we listened to their Fado songs.

Latvia was remarkable with their different types of bread, smoked cheese and spirits.

The Turkish group still keeps me safe from the ‘Evil Eye’ with the bracelet they gave us.

New activities

I did not pull an all-nighter but having so many lovely faces around I enjoyed staying up late and dancing all the way to the beach side. And we still got energy for the next day to stand up.

We had lots and lots of exploration moments: from visiting levadas to running wild under the rocks, from dancing in the mountain’s rain to swimming in the ocean. In Madeira I got to do at least 3 new things: first canyoning, first diving, first time having poncha. Each experience was different 🤩.

I embraced the beauty of each place until the last morning on the island. I sat under a palm tree, meditating and still having mixed feelings (joy, peace, ‘saudade’), with headphones plugged-in, for almost one hour listening to Ogun’s music (turkish artist I recently discovered) and very calm focusing on the sunrise over the nearby island formation.