Outgoing (Mauricio Portacio)

Mi nombre es Mauricio Portacio, soy estudiante del programa de administración de empresas de la universidad del atlántico, actualmente cursando el 8vo semestre como estudiante de intercambio en la Universitat Rovira i Virgili en Tarragona-España. 
Como deportista aficionado tuve la oportunidad de viajar un poco cuando era más joven por lo que desde pequeño he estado interactuando con personas de diferentes países y con diferentes costumbres.Cuando comencé la universidad esto cambio un poco ya que no tenía tiempo como antes para el deporte, hasta que la Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales tomo la iniciativa de lanzar un programa llamado "Buddy Program" que consistía principalmente en brindarle acompañamiento a un estudiante extranjero que llegará a la universidad del Atlántico a realizar algún tipo de intercambio.

La idea me llamo mucho la atención por lo que inmediatamente aplique con la ilusión de ser uno de los pioneros en participar en esta nueva idea de la ORI, afortunadamente supere el proceso de selección y me fue asignado un estudiante alemán para brindarle todo mi apoyo y hacerlo sentir como en casa en su estadía en Barranquilla. Mi “Buddy” fue uno de los últimos en llegar, por lo que antes tuve la oportunidad de interactuar con todos los demás estudiantes de intercambio y profesores asistentes de idiomas que llegaban para el semestre 2014-2 a la universidad.

Esta experiencia fue muy importante para mi desarrollo tanto personal como profesional, conocí personas increíbles con los cuales pase muchos momentos agradables, esto me motivo a que así como ellos podían visitar mi ciudad y la universidad del Atlántico, porque yo no podía hacer lo mismo en el extranjero.

Tome la decisión y lo primero que hice fue acercarme a la Oficina de Relaciones Internacionales, tuve la grata sorpresa de que tenemos convenios vigentes con universidades alrededor de todo el mundo, en ciudades que quizás nunca habíamos escuchado antes pero que gracias a la asesoría y el completo apoyo de todo el personal de la oficina, tome la decisión de realizar la movilidad académica en Tarragona, ciudad situada en la Costa Dorada del Mediterráneo al Sur de Cataluña-España.

Si la experiencia como pionero en el Buddy Program fue increíble, lo que ahora estoy viviendo puedo expresarlo como extraordinario, completamente todo lo que vivo a diario en esta universidad siento que me enriquece de una gran manera, desde vivir en una ciudad de España donde irónicamente no se habla mucho español hasta cursar una clase donde de 30 estudiantes solo hay 5 españoles.

He tenido la oportunidad de visitar otras ciudades y también tuve un paso fugaz por Roma, luego de estar una semana en Kuala Lumpur-Malasia donde además de conocer una cultura totalmente diferente como lo es la musulmana, también  pude asistir a la Cumbre Mundial Halal 2015 donde empresarios independientemente de sus procedencias o creencias exponían ideas de negocios relacionados a la alimentación pero que fueran totalmente permisibles por la ley islámica.

Por esta razón no me queda más que invitar a todos los estudiantes de la Universidad del Atlántico a que se arriesguen para emprender una aventura de este tipo, que por supuesto no es fácil, pero que después de que se quiera de verdad, de seguro que se lograra y cuando esto pase se acordaran de mis palabras y les aseguro que una experiencia como esta nunca la olvidaran.

Por ultimo no puedo dejar de expresar mi sincero agradecimiento con todo el personal de la oficina de relaciones internacionales en especial a Diana y Lina que fueron las chicas que más moleste en su momento para poder hacer posible este intercambio y también felicitar a todos los responsables de la oficina: Maralex, Francisco, Diana, Lina.  Porque son ellos los encargados de que día a día los estudiantes Uniatlantico tengan oportunidades globales y sean recibidos con los brazos abiertos en muchos centros educativos alrededor del mundo.

https://www.facebook.com/maoportacio?fref=ts

Local Birthday

Yesterday, August 30, it was my birthday and i must say it was amazing. All this new friends i've met thanks to this great program, they all came to my house and met some of my local friends in here to celebrate my birthday. I'm posting this picture here to thank you all for your presence, for being having a couple drinks and taking the time to meet my family.

I hope you all remember this picture in the future,

Giancarlo

What is Buddy Program?

This project began as an initiative from ORII (Oficina de Relaciones Interinstucionales e Internacionales) (Interinstitutional and International Realations Office) by choosing students to guide and inmerse the incoming foreign students into Uniatlantico's and Barranquilla's life. As requierement, they were looking for students with bilingual capacity that also knew the city very well, to help incoming foreign students and language assistants to establish their lives in Barranquilla, have cultural exchanges, help them in academic purposes and through-out the city as well.

After going through a preselection process, the program, a couple days later, had chosen students who received a call from ORI telling them that the office was needing their presence at Uniatlantico's campus for the interviews. After all this tests different students were selected and among those there were we, Giancarlo Hernandez, Mateo Jimenez and Mauricio Portacio; Students from different majors disposed to guide the incoming students to from different countries.

Incoming!

One by one of the students were arriving in Barranquilla and we helped them out to find a place to stay in, some of them had to do some errands regarding their visas and paperwork and after all of this work. they could set in town and then we could know each other.

The firsts ones arriving were Julian from Germany, Xevi from Spain and Lilian from Brazil, after we spoke for a while, we went to get their Colombian phone numbers so we could communicate and went back to UA for a campus tour, when the tour was over we was informed some others students had arrived to UA, Paula from Argentina, Arina from Germany, Lucie and her visiting friend Charlotte from France. We all gathered at UA's cafeteria, chatting, knowing a bit of each other and out of nowhere, Diana Mazorra & Lina D'onofrio (ORII Members) had told us that we were going to a Cumbia cultural display that included a buffet with traditional food from our Caribbean region at Parque Cultural del Caribe, Luckily this was the best welcome they could've received due to that on their very first day they'd see our traditional Cumbia, eat traditional food at a cultural park, all of that, after going through their first experience with Colombian public transportation!

The group togheter for the frist time

Santa Marta / Rodadero

A couple days later we had taken the people to check out our cathedral which is in front of 'Plaza de la Paz' (Peace Square) and went to grab some drinks, here is where we met 2 more people, Natalie from England and Moritz from Germany we had some pizza as we planned a trip to Santa Marta and El Rodadero for the upcoming weekend, since classes for some of us were about to start and we wanted 'beach energy' for the semester.

Grabbing a couple drinks and eating some pizza

RODADERO

So here we were at El Rodadero, enjoying the beach, the incredible view and the music everywhere because Santa Marta was having 'Las fiestas del Mar' during the weekend and we were there to live it. Most of the foreign students were expecting to see if what they had heard about the beauty of the beaches was true. When we arrived the apartment we all were delighted with the amazing view we had on the 13th floor at the Hotel.

Admiring the view we had and talking, Natalie is just amazed though :)

Our view of Rodadero

The Beach

                   

Getting the tickets for Playa Blanca. Just 10.000 COP

Although we had El Rodadero beach right in front of us, we decided to go a different beach which is a couple minutes away on boat. Playa Blanca (White Beach), in which we spent most of the day on the beach having a good time and learning the technique for traditional Catalonian ‘Castellers’ that Xevi taught us, which consists on human buildings in forms of castles, he explained us the types of Castells and how they’re made, and it was really fun doing it.

PLAYA BLANCA

Learning Castellers

We still gotta work on our skills

Although some of us didn’t master the technique, the ladies did climb onto our backs and succeeded, to what Xevi said ‘Ahora sois Catalanes!’ (Now you are Catalans!) As sign of what we did, totally worth the effort.

Giancarlo, Moritz, Natalie, Mateo and Paula

Leaving Playa Blanca

We were getting out of the beach getting back to El Rodadero, in order to go to ‘Las Fiestas Del Mar’ we decided get some drinks and eat a bit back at the apartment before we left!

So we passed by a ‘Punto Frio’ to buy some beers then an Olimpica for some food and after a while, guess what!? –That’s right; we warmed up for the upcoming party!

This photo speaks for itself

But first we ate some more food, and we left for the party.

Finally, we shared too many experiences, everyone enjoyed the party. Concluding that Santa Marta is an awesome place to be connected with nature and partying as well, on our last day we just went to the beach for a while, after that, we just picked our things up and left this wonderful city.

See you later, Rodadero. Great time

Puerto Colombia / Salgar

We (Giancarlo, Mateo and Mauricio) had decided it was a nice sunday to visit Salgar's castle and Puerto Colombia's Port and have a nice conversation, so we called Arina, Kelly and Kelsey to pick them up and go to this great places, since the rest of the group was visiting Tayrona Natural Park, that day we met Sarah, a friend of our USA girls who also joined us for this little trip. First, we went to Castillo de Salgar and explained them a little bit of its history and how it has been rebuilt during the last few years and of course we explored the area a bit with them.

At the bottom of Castillo de Salgar

After showing the girls the castle, we decided went to Puerto Colombia and went to the very last part of it, to explain what happened with the port and since when it broke apart, it was a great day with a lovely weather.

Halfway there, the missing part is at the end