Leandro Mendes

On the first day we made several trips, the first one was very early, I arrived at the airport around 4am, we arrived a little early to check in, we left around 6am, and we arrived in London at 8am, we waited at the airport for 2 hours or a little more, and we took the second plane that went to Vilnius.

I traveled by plane for the second time, I had already traveled when I was little but I didn't remember what it was like, it was a long trip as it was a 2 hour journey, but at the same time very interesting, because when I looked out the plane window I saw a view that was magnificent.

When we arrived it was already dark, so we took an Uber and went to the hotel, and at the end of the day we went out for dinner and went for a walk a little to get to know the city.

It's my first time seeing snow😁

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When we went down to have breakfast we came across this view, then we went to eat and there was a lot of variety of food, when everyone finished eating we went for a walk and got to know the city better since we were only going to stay in Vilnius for just one day so we had to enjoy.

While touring the city, we stopped at a café to have a coffee and warm up a bit🥶. We were very well attended to and the cafe was cozy, we stayed there for about 10 minutes and then returned to our visit to the city.

We visited several places, the teachers were our guides, they took us to the places they thought would be most interesting, as it was snowing at that time it was even more beautiful.

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We took advantage and also had a snowball fight, and it was a lot of fun, but it didn't last long, then we went to eat and finally we caught the bus to Kaunas.

Our new accommodation is The House kaunas and this was the route we took to get there after getting off at the bus stop.

In the afternoon we went to visit more places, but now in Kaunas.

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On the second day in Kaunas we went with the teachers to visit the school, it is a informatic school so there were no regular courses. The teachers were friendly and we had a conversation/presentation about the school and then visited some rooms.

After we finished visiting the school, we went to explore the city a little more, and I noticed this statue that stands on the path between the school and our apartment.

Lithuania has stores that are not found in Portugal, for example the supermarkets there are Iki, Maximas and Silas, these are just some of the most famous, but it also has the most famous stores such as Tiger, Zara, ikea, and lidl, etc.

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On the first day of work, we went to school and the teacher who was in charge of our project had to explain to us what the project was and how we should do it, after which we had to set up the PCs.

When we finished classes we decided to go to the Akroplis shopping mall, and we visited all the stores, there were Christmas decorations in several places, there were even several giant trees

We went for lunch at Baking Mad Hidden Lab, which is a burger restaurant that is close to the school, I chose this burger, it looked delicious.

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With the advice of Professor Sister, we went first thing in the morning to visit the National M. K. Ciurlionis Art.

About the museum:

Founded in 1921, the M. K. Ciurlionis National Art Museum has become one of the oldest and largest art museums in Lithuania. It is the only place in the world with the creative legacy of the most famous Lithuanian artist, composer and public figure M. K. Ciurlionis (1875-1911). The paintings and graphics of this brilliant Lithuanian artist have been on display in the renovated premises since 2003. In the museum's Music Hall, you can listen to his music.

The museum also hosts various cultural events: concerts for children and professional artists, book presentations, lectures, seminars, scientific conferences, guided tours and educational programs aimed specifically at children and young people.

Professors Paulo Ribeiro and Duarte Duarte left around noon, which was the time we were going to have lunch, so we went with an English teacher, and went to eat at a Mexican restaurant, and then she introduced us to the museum devil, we went to visit it and it was very beautiful, the museum was focused on demons but also had other things, we paid 4 euros for the ticket, downstairs we had cassifos and we put our coats there and then we started visiting the museum, the The first part of the building was about demons and things like that.

The teachers returned to Portugal around 11/12 this morning so I took some photos of them.

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Today we started to talk more about the project and we realized that it might be a bit more difficult than we thought. We spent the morning doing the project and then we went to the "casa della pasta" to have some pasta for lunch, it was very good, when we'd finished eating we decided to go back to school and continue doing the project.

When we finished class we were invited by titas to go and see one of the school teachers and some of his friends play board games, and we accepted, they have a "games room" in a building, it wasn't very big or very small, they had snacks and drinks there, when they finished the school teacher, and titas and his wife, asked if we wanted to go to akroplis, which is a mall in lithuania, we went, they showed us that there was an island nearby, and then we went to the mall, we walked around the mall for a while and then they took the bus with us to our restaurant because we had to eat there.

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Today we went to school as usual, and we tried to do a bit of the project but we only had class until 1pm, because Professor Titas dismissed us at that time, so we took the opportunity to go home and have lunch, since we had the day off we thought we'd stay at home and relax a bit, and of course we also had dinner.

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We decided to take the day off to visit akroplis and then we went to Burger King for dinner, and I was sad to see that the burgers in lithuania are smaller, but that's just a detail, we took the opportunity to look around the stores there, including some computer stores.

And then we came home with a new toaster :).

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Today we decided to stay at home and play the card game we had bought yesterday. It was a very fun game, but those with a good memory could easily memorize the cards and then the game lost its fun, but it was good while it lasted.

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Today was an ordinary day, we went to school as usual and did the project, there wasn't much progress but it's always better than nothing, then we went to eat a sandwich at silas, because we need to save money, we stayed at school until 3:00 or so, and then we went home, we stayed at home until 6:40 and then we walked to the restaurant. I didn't like today's food very much, but a person needs to eat so there's no remedy.

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Today I woke up early to go to the laundromat with Lara and Arturo, because the laundromat we go to has a discount if we go early. A little later we went to see a company in Vilnius.

It was the Baltneta company, the largest data center in Lithuania, which was responsible for the wifi throughout Lithuania. The guide who showed us around the DateCenter told us that the servers were on 24/7 and that they only shut down for half an hour all year. She also showed us the protections in place, so that if a fire broke out in the room they had a way of putting it out without damaging the servers, and she also showed us the cooling system in each room.

Today's dinner was better than yesterday's, because yesterday we had spoken to the teacher complaining that there were only potatoes and he spoke to the people at the restaurant to switch to the other menu and have more meat.

Finally😝.

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When we got to school, we started working on the project straight away and we did it until one o'clock and then we decided to go to Silas to buy a sandwich because it was cheap and we wouldn't waste so much time at lunchtime. Then we went back to the classroom and continued working.

Today we went to school by bus, not for the first time, but we decided to take the bus because it's quicker and we don't have to leave the house so early.

The sculpture symbolises the beauty of the man's soul and body and at the same the it welcomes all with open arms to the museum.

We took another bus home, but when we got to the stop instead of going straight home, we decided to visit an anime store and then we decided to go home and stay there for 20 minutes and then we went to the restaurant.

And today's dinner was gooddddd😍.

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Today we took the bus to school again because it's faster, and when we arrived we started doing the project again, (hands on). For lunch we went to eat at the pizza place which is 1 million km away (it's 2 minutes walking) and ate a beautiful PIZZA.

When we finished classes, Santi, Bruno and Lara went to play the game we had gone to see the other time with the teachers, the rest didn't want to go so we went to the "reaver" shopping mall and took the opportunity to go to Lidl which I was nearby to do the weekly shopping.

Today Dinner

Today we ate beetroot soup again, and the main course was meat with fries and salad.

Finally something similar to Portuguese food.

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As Friday we had to go and see the Bluebridge company we had to wake up early, as at 8am we had to leave Kaunas to go to Vilnius, we arrived at around 10am, and when we arrived we took a break to go and eat something , then we went to see the company and asked the man at the company some questions, one of the questions that interested me and that was asked by Santiago was how the company worked, like security and management. And we also asked what it would be more beneficial for us to learn these days.

When we finished the meeting at the company we went to Trakai, we went to see a castle that is located on an island, and the castle was simply beautiful, it was a kind of museum in the castle, as there were several things there, like objects from ancient generations, a kind of cages probably used for torture in medieval times, it also had several pieces of crockery, and even a well full of coins, but all of this was only located in the part where the bourgeoisie possibly lived.

The castle part had 3 floors available for visits, but it had a giant tower but we didn't have access, there were several weapons on display and even a cannon, in addition there were 2 thrones in a kind of church, it was a great option to visit Trakai Castle, if you ever go to Lithuania I recommend it.

When we got home, we waited until nine to make a call with teacher PAULO RIBEIRO so he could find out how we were doing (clearly fine because we are self-employed), and to find out how the project was going (great because we are professionals).

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Today we took advantage of the day to rest a little so we stayed at home all morning and made our lunch, Lara and I made omelets for everyone, we ended up with almost all the eggs in the house😭, but they were delicious.

In the afternoon we decided to go to a place with trampolines, we took the bus to a nearby stop, because it was slightly far away, and halfway through the trip the ticket inspectors appeared and forced us to buy a ticket because we used an app that lets us the ticket had a 50% discount for students, but apparently it was only for Lithuanian students so we had to buy the ticket.

When we arrived, we went to see how to get in and how much it cost, and we noticed that we needed an adult and we weren't with any adults, so we had 3 options, first to leave (of course it wouldn't be this one), the second would be to ask the teachers who are in charge of us to come and help us, or the third would be to ask an adult who was there, and we chose the third and we started asking people and a very cool man accepted and then he said to be careful and have fun.

there were lots of things to do there, we had trampolines, basketball with trampolines, and we also had those sponge pools, (amazingggg), when we got tired we took a break and went to play on the gaming machines that were nearby, we played one or two games and then we return to the trampolines.

When we left the trampolines we went to McDonald's and had dinner there, then we stopped by the bus to do some shopping, we stayed there for about 20 minutes and then caught the bus to go home.

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The 24th, the day before Christmas.

We decided to stay at home since everything would be closed anyway, we decided to stay and socialize a little, we played some games together and also had our lunch and dinner, we also took the opportunity to talk a little with our parents, how we have to manage our money here, we decided to make some panados for lunch and carbonara for dinner, we made the most of the day to rest and talk, and at night we waited until midnight and decided to take some photos in the meantime.

When it hit midnight we wished everyone a happy Christmas, and then we decided to wait until 2am to wish our parents a Merry Christmas, since Lithuania has two more hours than Portugal.

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Today we decided to stay at home again, to update the website, but since we also stayed yesterday we decided to talk and tomorrow we are going to go out to see some places (nothing is planned yet), we decided to order McDonalds for lunch through the bolt app, and after eating we went everyone went to PIFARO's room and we stayed there all afternoon doing the website and playing some games too, for dinner we decided to make stroganoff.

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We decided to stay at home in the morning, and in the afternoon we went to the bus station, we decided to go to Alytus, so we bought a bus ticket and left at 3.15pm, it was a relaxing trip with a good landscape, when we arrived it was already getting at night so we went to see if the museum was open, unfortunately it wasn't so we had to improvise, we decided to take a walk around the city, and as we were hungry because the bus was only at 7pm we decided to go eat at a pizzeria, they had pizzas 36 and 42, for 6 euros and the large one for 8 euros, and they were very good for the price, but after satisfying our monster hunger, we went to see the city park.

The park had several statues, some larger, some smaller, the largest statue in the park had stone tiles with text and others with images.

There were also many trees, some with birdhouses, and there was even one with a half moon.

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Today our Christmas "holidays" are over, so we went back to school, as usual we went there at 10, Professor Titas explained to us better about the project and with that I think everyone or almost everyone now knows what to do, and have an idea of how to do it, we went to have lunch at Silas, which is a store to buy food like Lidl.

On the way back we decided to stop at a store, some members of the group decided to buy some things, others didn't, I personally didn't buy anything, and when we were heading home our friend Bruno lost something and we had to go back to check the location of the lost item. So we split into two groups, me, pifaro, raul and bruno went back and santi, lara and arturo went home. So we went home and waited until 6.40 to go to the restaurant, took advantage of the time we still had before going to the restaurant and went to play a bit of Stardew Valley.

Me, pifaro and raul were all three playing, we played for about an hour together, and then we hurried off to the restaurant.

Today at the restaurant we were treated like VIP customers, we were taken to a separate room with a table and we also ate the most expensive soup in the restaurant, it was mushroom, I don't like mushrooms but the soup was still good. And for the main course it was a beautiful steak with fries. And to end the day, we went to buy some cereal at a nearby store and then went home.

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Today we went to school by bus because some people overslept and woke up a little later than usual, so to get there on time we had to take a bus. When we arrived the door was open but our teacher Titas wasn't there, but that didn't matter because we started working straight away, we stayed until 1am which was when we had our lunch break, we went for lunch to a restaurant nearby called Bistro it had food for a cheap price, so we went to try it, I had a hamburger with potatoes and for drinks we ordered a table water for everyone.

When we finished school me, pifaro and raul came home and went to the launderette afterwards because we already needed to go and as we hadn't managed to go yesterday we arranged to go today, we did a simple half-hour wash, and then we dried for 25 minutes.

We then returned home and waited here for a while, but it didn't take long for us to get to the restaurant, we were well looked after as usual and as usual we had a soup as a starter and the most impressive thing was the dish. And you ask why, and that's easy to answer, it's for the simple fact that the dish today didn't have any POTATOES omgggg!!!!

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Today we took the bus to school again, we caught the bus at 9.45 and arrived at school at almost 10, and by chance we even met Professor Titas who had gone to silas to return to school, we stayed to do the project today I decided to focus more on the front-end. We went to lunch at the bistro again, but today I decided to try the other burger, then we went back to school for another half hour to do the project and Professor Titas told us to leave at 2.30 today I don't know why but we took that chance and went to the war museum.

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Personally, I found the war museum very beautiful and interesting, it had lots of weapons, many more than I was expecting, and we were even able to test some of the ones that were there (without bullets, of course), there were also cannons, swords, spears and even the uniforms of some soldiers, there was a smaller form of a boat to show what boats looked like at the time, there were water grenades, jeeps, cars and even motorcycles used during that time and there was also an airplane hanging from the ceiling and some wreckage from another plane on the second floor.

The second floor was more focused on the war in general, there was a bit of everything, for example paintings of some soldiers and some important figures from history, some lances, cannons, cars, uniforms. There was a mannequin with a uniform that we could put on to take photos, while the second floor was more focused on weapons, to the point that there was literally a section just for weapons, there were also some spears and helmets, but the main focus was on firearms, in this case machine guns, there was another section that told a little about the history of the time, but it was in Lithuanian, so I couldn't understand it, there were mini sculptures and also some larger sculptures.

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So today we had the day off so we decided to take the opportunity to go to Vilnius, our travel plan was to go to 4 museums and the castle, but it changed a little during the trip, we went to the train station at 6:20 in the morning and took the train at 6:30, we arrived in Vilnius around 8am and the museums didn't open until 10am so we took the opportunity to go for a mini walk on the way to the first museum, we saw a few monuments but nothing much, it was a rainy day which we didn't expect but that's it, we went to see the first museum which was the Museum of the occupation and freedom fighters, I didn't really like the second floor and the rest of the floor because it was a bit dry since it was explaining the history and how it happened, and it was a lot of text so I wasn't very interested but the lower part was very interesting since there was a prison down there and we had access to some saddles and other things, there was also an execution room and some photos of the people who were there.

Next we went to the Vilnia Gaon Museum of Jewish History, also called The Green House, a house with an exhibition about the Holocaust, talking about the Nazi invasion and many other things that happened during that time, and at the end, the lady took us to the second floor of the house where there was only a painting and a room where we could sit and watch a video about the Holocaust.

When we'd finished seeing the Holocaust museum, we went to see the third museum, which was further towards the center. It was the Museum of Money in Lithuania. As the name implies, the museum was focused on money, from coins to banknotes, and from various countries, the museum had a VR showing how banknotes are created and how to check if they are real, and there were also games where you had to try to guess which country the currency was from and another where you had to check if you knew how to check if the banknote was real.

We went for a sushi lunch, decided to meet at half past two in front of the museum we had visited before to go to the next museum, the next museum was more of a conspiracy exhibition, it had various things as proof, there were exhibitions of various things many of them a bit random but ready, that was the biggest museum in terms of size, and there was a cafeteria downstairs, where me, raul, pifaro and arturo went to wait for the others, and while we were waiting for the others we saw a man programming and decided to see what he was doing, and a little later we decided to go and talk to him, and we stayed there for a while watching him do the programming course and trying to help with some things, but unfortunately we didn't have much time and we still had to go to the castle, so we had to leave.

Finally we went to the castle, we had to climb some stairs, not many (irony), but the view was worth it, we bought the ticket and then we went to visit the inside of the castle first and then we went to the top of the castle, which was high enough to see the whole city.

To end the day, we went to McDonald's for a quick dinner and then got on the train, and when we arrived in Kaunas we took the bus home.

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Today we all woke up late because the day before was very tiring, we made some pasta for lunch and as today is Raul's birthday we decided to go to the lan house, we stayed there for about 2 hours playing a bit and then me, lara, santi, and bruno went to a store to buy presents for our secret friend because we made a secret friend between us for Christmas/New Year's and pifaro, raul and arturo went to akroplis, we told pifaro to stall raul while we were at home planning the surprise party, and when they were coming back and we still didn't have everything ready, so we sent bruno to go with them somewhere and stall some more, it worked out. We ordered pizza for dinner and then waited until midnight to go and watch the fireworks, playing a bit of gartic, garticphone and maketmeme.

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Today we were still tired from last night because we went to bed a bit late, so we went to eat lamen at a restaurant, it took about 40 minutes to make the lamen, but it was very good, I'd never tried it but I really liked it and I'm going to try it again before we leave, then we went for a walk around the city and found a museum which we decided to visit that day and then we went back home and took a class from Professor Santiago about API.

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Today we went to school to continue working on the project, we went by bus at 9:40, and arrived around 10, I watched a course to learn how to make an API and I watched and did it all morning, then we went to eat to silas, and then we went back to school, in the afternoon we went to an animal museum, one of the ones I liked the most so far, the museum had different species of animals, whether aquatic or flying, they had several types, The ones I personally liked most were the snakes, spiders and alligators/crocodiles, I like these animals they are cute. The museum had 3 floors, there were also fossils of various types of animals, when we left the museum we went home, stayed there for a while and then went to eat at the restaurant, then we went to eat a donut and went to a square, let's say it was there nearby, we had already gone there, and when we got home, Raul remembered that he forgot his secret friend's gift in the square, so we went back there and went to get him, along with the pifaro, and when we came back we went to deliver our friends' gifts. secret.

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Today was our last programming class so we had to finish what we were doing and then we went to eat a Pizza at "casa dela pasta" in the afternoon we came back and put our program on github for evaluation and then we were going to visit the bunker but it wasn't saying anything about timetables and then when we got there it was closed but when we looked to the side there was a building with the name kartlandas and we went to see what it was, and it was nothing more or less than a go-kart track, and of course we went for a ride, it was me, Raul and Arturo, when we finished the track we went to catch the bus to go to the restaurant.

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Today we were supposed to go on a cultural visit with one of the teachers from the KITM school, we were supposed to go to the war museum, but unfortunately we had already gone so the teacher had to change the plans, which was sad, because the teacher had been The last time I went there was 7 years ago, however the museum had some constructions in it around 4 years ago, and then the professor wanted to go there, but as we had already been there he ended up giving up on going.

And then we decided to go to a street art gallery, there were a lot of paintings in the buildings and it was quite abstract, after that we decided to go to the money museum but this time in kaunas and not in vilnius, but unfortunately the museum could only be to enter if we buy the ticket in advance, so we couldn't go, and then we went home to take care of our friend Raul who was a little sick this morning and that's why he didn't come, we decided to bring him food for lunch but first we went to eat something at a cafe, and then we went to get pizzas to take away.

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Today was our last day in Kaunas, so we went to the school to say goodbye to the teachers, but they were busy so we waited there until 10:30. We had to leave the apartment with our belong at 11 and do a little walk, but as soon as we left the teachers had just left and we needed to go to them to pick up the certificates, so me and Raul went to meet the Teacher Irma, and the rest went to the apartment. We stayed until 11:15 until we had everything and then the teacher drove us to the apartment. When we got there, our classmates had already taken everything out, so we just had to go to the train station.

When we got there, we went to buy something to eat and then waited for a while. We took the train at half past one and arrived in Vilnius two hours later. When we got there, we waited for Professor Julio Ribeiro, who is a distant cousin of Professor Paulo Ribeiro, as they share the same surname, and then we went to the hotel where we were staying that night.

Then we paid for our rooms and went to have something to eat, since we hadn't had lunch yet. In the case of Prof. Paulo's cousin, he went to dinner.Then we all went back to the hotel and stayed there doing the site and resting, and around midnight we decided to order a McDonald's because we were hungry. It was enough to satisfy our hunger, and then we went to sleep.

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This was the final day, we woke up at 7:50/8 to go have breakfast, because breakfast was from 8 to 9 and then we took an Uber to the airport, we stayed there from 9 in the morning until 1:30 because we had to get there a little earlier to check in and everything else, we took the first plane that went from Vilnius to France, the flight took around 2 hours but because of the time difference we got there it was still around 3 , and then we had to wait until 6:40 to catch the plane that went to Faro, so during that break we went to have lunch at the airport and when we finished we went to check in again, and then we just had to wait until we got on the plane and we took off for Faro, the flight took around 2 hours but because of the time difference we got there it was still around 8:20, after almost 1 month we finally saw our families again, and after this tiring day, I went home and I slept a little on the trip.

I found Erasmus+ to be an incredible experience, and I recommend everyone to make an effort and try to go at least once, I think it's a great way to improve your knowledge and your way of dealing with other people, it's an internship abroad, so It's less time than the internship in Portugal, but the quality of the internship is much higher, and it also helps a lot with the person's self-confidence, as they will live without their parents and have a short experience of what life will be like after finishing the school.

So if you have the chance, take advantage, don't let an opportunity like this slip by without at least trying.

About Lithuania

Some interesting things about lithuania. It is a beautiful country, there are a lot of beautiful structure and their main language is Lithuanian.

Lithuania gained its independence on February 16, 1918, but because of the 2nd world war they lost their independence again and restored it on March 11, 1990.

The Project

The beginning

At first I had no idea what I was supposed to do for the project, but after a brief explanation and talking to some of my colleagues I realized what was needed and how it should be done, so I tried to look a little about APIs which was the main focus of the project.

The project consists of making a web page that has a text generation, and the same goes for images, and the most difficult part was to make the "fake artificial intelligence" as the user inserts an image, the AI can identify if there are live servers in the inserted image, and create a border around the living being, and to do all this we needed an API, which was the part where everyone had difficulty.

I wasn't able to do much of the project because I was having great difficulties in creating the API, so I started watching some courses on YouTube and researching how to do it, but I was lost so Santi, who was the person who knew how to do one, API gave us a class on APIs and then even gave us a course to follow that explained exactly how to make an API, but we were already short on time until Erasmus+ finished so I couldn't finish the requested project, in fact no one was able to complete the whole project just Santi and Bruno were the ones who managed to do the text generation part.

I intend to continue this project even when I return to Portugal. I don't intend to focus too much on it at the beginning because we'll be in classes etc., but during the holidays I'll try to finish it.

The School KITM

The KTM school has incredible equipment, making teaching students easier, and also helping students have more fun studying.

Programming course students have access to a PC with two monitors, making their work easier.

Design students have access to a PC with a touch monitor, so they can make their drawings.

Network students had access to a server, PCs, and many cables, to do their work and tests on the network.

The hardware course has access to various tools and electronic machines to improve their work.

And the photography course also has access to cameras and objects that help in the process.

Home! the place where i can go!

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Our accommodation has enough space to survive, and it was at a good price so it's more than good, here's a short video.

Here, as everyone can see, this is our accommodation location.

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During our stay in Lithuania, several things happened, such as:

Collide against objects.

Losing things.

Lan House.

Pifaro??

The main characters of the play🤝

First Act

The first event hit Raul, we were in an EPIC snowball fight and when trying to dodge a ball he accidentally hit a pole.🤣🤣

The second event happened to me, when we visited a museum, I knocked on a glass, as I didn't have a visa, causing the museum security guard to interrupt his little game to keep an eye on us.😅