My name is Denis MIDONE, and I’m a 2nd year student within the “Marketing and Logistics” study programme of the UTM Faculty of Economic Engineering and Business. I am one of the young people who, thanks to the Erasmus+ program, benefited from the beautiful opportunity to experience a semester in Portugal, at the Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, ISCAC faculty.
During my 5 months in Coimbra, I managed to visit plenty of stunning places, discover the culture of this country, learn its language, make friends from all over the world (Italy, Germany, Spain, Poland, Sao Tome and Principe, Cape Verde, Mozambique, and more), and pick up on new things that turned out to be valuable for both my personal and professional development. While away from home, I realized that I would never choose on my own to live very far from the people I love. I appreciated my mother’s work before, but now, living in the student dorms made me treasure her efforts considerably more – all the cleaning, cooking, but most importantly, the sparkle in her eyes, which even there, far from home, warmed my soul…
ERASMUS+ is a great project and a terrific opportunity to travel for students. During the winter vacation, I rented a car and drove 3600 km through Portugal, thus managing to explore this country far and wide. I was impressed by a lot of truly remarkable places: Cabo da Roca – the western extremity of the Eurasia continent; 516 Arouca Bridge – the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world (length – 516 m; height – 175 m), and more. For the first time in my life, I swam in the ocean, I commuted to Gibraltar, and I undertook the challenge of studying in a language absolutely unknown to me – Portuguese. But I succeeded, having the advantage of already knowing Spanish since my high school years, and these two languages are quite similar. Compared to the young people from other countries, I was also given the opportunity to live in the dorms and feel the true student life to the fullest, which I was looking forward to. In the dormitories, most of the people were foreign students, and I am glad that I was able to make friends among them. Also, we organized a very nice Christmas party.
Speaking of entertainment, Coimbra at night is probably one of the liveliest cities I’ve visited. From 11 PM until morning, the city is full of young people who go to clubs or simply hang out together. Although it’s not particularly famous for having a lot of beautiful places, being also quite small, Coimbra is the city in which you’ll be able to fully feel what it means to be a student, as every year, the city is visited by thousands of students from all over the world, who, like me, come to live the ERASMUS+ experience.
Portugal is an extraordinary country, with very good-hearted, kind and educated people. I am very happy that I was lucky enough to go there and I will miss all the moments I lived there. Thanks to the ERASMUS+ program, I experienced moments that I will never forget. I would like to end my story with a phrase that all students bring up when dealing with “rebellious” experiences: “Always remember: What happens at Erasmus, stays at ERASMUS”.
