Testemunho | Sandra Nessen

My name is Sandra and I am a Belgian student on Erasmus in Lisbon. I attend the professional bachelor programme in Office Management at Hogeschool - Universiteit Brussel (HUB), in Brussels.

I arrived in Portugal on the 5th February and I will stay until 9th June. Before I left home, I was a little insecure. A new environment, new country and city, new people, new school,… But actually I have adapted really well! Everyone in Lisbon welcomed me and made me feel at ease. Also my roommates were fantastic!

I noticed some differences between the Portuguese and Belgian people. For example, Belgians are colder than the Portuguese, who are more open! Another difference is that Belgians are a lot more stressed: in Brussels, people are running all the time and they don’t take the time to help other people or to have a small talk. I also had to get used to the fact that Portuguese people often have two hot meals a day, whereas in Belgium we only have a sandwich at noon and a hot meal for dinner. Belgian people also eat earlier (+ 18h – 19h).

At Universidade Europeia – Laureate International Universities I have classes with students of the Secretarial Studies and Corporate Communication and, sometimes, Hotel Management Undergraduate Courses.

They all made me feel welcome and I felt I was accepted in the group, although sometimes it is hard for me as some classes are given in Portuguese (and I don’t speak Portuguese). Fortunately, my fellow students help me whenever they can and I try to understand as much as possible! The lecturers are also very nice to the Erasmus students! They are really helpful, always available and they involve us as much as possible!

I am having a great experience here! The school organizes a lot of activities for the students, such as seminars. I was a speaker at one of those seminars in April and I had the possibility of sharing my experience with other students - it was about stereotypes and the speakers talked about their own personal and professional experiences. This seminar was organized by my fellow students of the Secretarial Studies and Corporate Communication course and they did really well!

In May we also visited the Palácio de Belém in the context of our Protocol classes. It was a nice visit and interesting to see the Protocol used in the Presidential house. For me it was also a nice cultural visit.

The Erasmus experience is definitely the time of my life and I won’t regret it! I still have three weeks to go and it makes me sad as I really enjoy my stay in Lisbon. I met a lot of new people, Portuguese and also other Erasmus students.

If you ever get the chance to go on Erasmus, don’t hesitate! And if you have to combine Erasmus with an internship, Brussels could be a nice place for you! It hosts most of the institutions of the European Union and so there are a lot of companies and headquarters in the city. Also Brussels is the place to be for practicing your language skills: it is a bilingual city (Dutch – French) and it has people living there from the 27 EU member countries.

Sandra Nessen (Erasmus student, ano letivo 2013/2013)