The city that meets all my needs

I've been back for two days, I feel weird. Happy to be home with family. Sad that I left the beautiful city Lisbon. Sad that it is more than 20 degrees colder here. Happy to see friends and pickup normal life. I don't know what I should feel. The last weeks in Lisbon were amazing. I finished all my courses with around 15. Transformed to Tilburg University a 15 will be an 8, so I am satisfied. The last weeks I was more on my own, since a lot of friends already left. But that gave me more inner peace. I could visit the districts, museums that I didn't visit before.

Cortes (cuts)

Cuts where the main theme during the holidays here in Portugal. I have not felt the Christmas feeling. Sometimes I saw a Santa Claus or I heard some christmas music but with 18 degrees it was not wat christmas has to be. Furthermore, I surfed with christmas, 'yes' that is possible in Lisbon. To be honest, I can not recommend to stay in Lisbon during christmas. Every erasmus student was flying back and forth. I felt a little bit lonely and that is not what it should be during christmas. Nevertheless I had three christmas dinners: one Polish, one German and a Dutch dinner. We sang christmas songs in different languages which was pretty funny. I liked the Dutch christmas dinner the most. We didn't speak English at all, pretty confident for once. But the Lisbon municipality cutted on the christmas decoration. Last year the city spent 2 million euros, this year 150.000. No christmas trees at all, all the Portuguese were complaining.

Christmas feeling.. uhuh

Almost Christmas! Last few weeks passed very quickly. Maybe because I had an overload of presentations and deadlines for assignments, maybe because of the visitors or because of all the national Portuguese holidays. Before I came here I expected this period, before new year's eve as the most lonely and difficult period. I experience totally the opposite.

The last 2 weeks I had to do 6 presentations. Before I came here I did only 2 presentations in Tilburg. I don't like giving presentations but since I did all the presentations here, I am much more confident while I'm speaking. I don't know why we never have presentations in Tilburg since it is a necessary skill during future work. I got back some assignments and, all graded between 16 and 20 (grades from 0 to 20). The material of the courses is from the same level but in this manner I can get higher grades more easy.

My brother came last weekend and the weekend before five friends came from Nijmegen. We had a great time, they were jealous and I surfed with them on 5 december (sinterklaas)! The weather stays above 15 degrees, still very confident.

During the group works, I came more in contact with the Portuguese people. With strategy, organization leadership I was in a group with four Portuguese girls, what a lucky guy;p It was quiet funny because one of them went on exchange last year to Tilburg. She loves Tilburg, so we decided that she can take my flight back;p I discovered a lot of differences between Dutch and Portuguese people. We are more straight forward. In the group works they are really shy to say what they actually think. When I said that I didn't like some of the work, it was a confrontation for them. The Portuguese are more shy and rules are unwritten.

As a dj, I wanted to play somewhere in a club in Lisbon and Last week it was possible to play with a friend from Amsterdam in club Musicbox in Lisbon!

Last Thursday was a national holiday in Portugal. It was the fourth in 3 weeks. Now I know why it is crisis, they find holidays for every small celebration.

The upcoming weeks are planned as study weeks but this weekend my friends from Tilburg are coming. Perfect brake during the weeks of studying. Furthermore I have a lot of christmas dinners.

It is strange to see a Santa with 18 degrees crossing the streets of Lisbon. No, I don't have the christmasfeeling yet.

'midterms'

After two weeks of 'midterms' I'm back in Lisbon. You will think, what does he mean ''back in Lisbon''. I had only one optional midterm, this means free time for a trip.

Actually I made the optional midterm, bank management, in the first 'midterm' week. The level of the midterm was probably the same as in Holland but there was a big difference. I only had to make 8 out of 9 multiple choice questions and 2 out of 3 open questions. That was more easy because I could skip the most difficult question.

After the midterm I could do some sightseeing. My parents and little brother came, which was really exciting. I could show them how I live in Portugal, of course they where a bit jalous on me. They slept in the hotel upstairs which was comfortable. After two days I went to Porto with them because they spent a week in Lisbon before. I am happy that I am studying in Lisbon and not in Porto. Porto is much more expired, beaches are less nice and the weather was terrible(unlucky)!

Lisboa, Lisbona, Lissabon, Lisbon...

It's holiday in Europe, the tourist level in Lisbon is rising again. I see traveller guides in 10 different languages, I start getting sick of tourists:p. They are always asking me the way, standing in the way and they are not going away. But all the tourists think I'm Portuguese and that pleases me.

Portugal in fire:

Nowadays Portugal is not doing well. Every day when I'm walking downtown I see huge demonstrations. I see a lot of people suffering, pickpockets in my supermarket and huge amount of homeless people. But the country stands also literally in fire.

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.

First 5 days in Lisbon

This monday I flew to lisbon with Bianca and Anouk. Of course the girls had to much luggage with them. Fortunately for them I could take some clothes in my bag. When we arrived we met Jorge, the university buddy of Bianca and Anouk. A buddy can help you with searching a room and things like that. I don't have a budy. This charming Portugese guy brought us to our appartments. We live seperated, but all near Praca Marques de Pombal. Almost all the erasmus students are living in this district, and it's a great area to live in. The city centre is 15 minutes walking, and the metro is nearby. My house looks great, balconies everywhere, including in my room. After we had seen our appartment, we went to bairro alto to eat some fresh salmon. Bairro alto(translated higher neighbourhood) is the place for eating and drinking in the small bars or on the streets. There is a really informal vibe and it's a bit alternative. The influences from Brazil are nice to see. Everybody is drinking caipirinha and other national Brazilian cocktails. They are only two euro's. Everything is really cheap. After diner we went back to our appartments because we where really tired.