First amazing month in Lisbon

Already a month in Lisbon, unbelievable. My new courses are interesting, I went surfing, saw Benfica-Manchester United, and went to algarve. The whole month was amazing. I want to give you an impression of my erasmuslife in the first month.

University:

According to me, Universidade Catolica Portuguesa is a good university. The courses are really interactive, every week we discuss cases and have scientific roundtables. This is totally different from Tilburg University, but very good for my English and participatian. The courses are mandatory and we have never classes with more than 40 students. In every class there are as much Portuguese as international students. I like the principles during group work. Every time we have to mix international and Portuguese students.

My flat:

My flat is very international. We have a Canadian, Belgians, Brazilians, Spanish people and a girl from Sweden. Erasmus pre-drinking parties every night, which is incredible good for my social life. Every evening new people seems nice but sometimes it's to much. All the night people are coming back from bairro alto so I would recommend people to live in a smaller flat. But I bought earplugs and that improved my night rest a lot.

The City:

after a month I can finally say that I know the city. I know a lot of nice miradouros (viewpoints), never get lost and know some nice not touristic 'secret' bars. All the small squares and the life on the streets is something that I really miss in the Netherlands. And of course the beach nearby. In 20 minutes I can reach the surfers village costa de caparica. That's why I decided to buy my own surfboard.

The people:

The people are really polite. They want to help you, even if they are not able to speak English. Some students from our university think that erasmus people only want to party. But, after our good work and perfect presentation they took their words back.

Highlights this month:

I went on erasmus trip to the algarve. I was the only one from my university because the people of our university went the week before. Because I was the only one I met a bunch of new people. The match Benfica-Manchester United was as a soccerfan very cool. And of course the surfing days with the sun going down were perfect to clean your head.