O que?
Every good thing must come to an end and while writing this, it actually is my last week here in Portugal. Things are getting emotional and even though I try not to think about it, it’s true that I will leave on Sunday. Back to cold and boring Finland, that is how I feel at the moment even though I love my home country and especially my family. 16 weeks isn’t that long time and while having fun the time simply flies. Okay a few days left so lets go back to the enjoying thing and stop being sad.
How has it been for me?
I had an interview today for a local newspaper and even though I was talking about many things, there still are many more things to say.
First of all it is a fact that I was extremely lucky to get into a working community as the Unidade de Ensino a Distância is. Just wonderful bunch of people and like my colleague said: a real family. Like the first two weeks at work were strange for me but as shut down person I am, I still was able to be myself almost from the beginning. We all have worked hard and been polite to each other but still had fun time every day: thousands of laughs and small things to remember. I must say that I like these people very much. Easily the best working community I have ever been in.
Generally I felt a bit of an outsider for the first few weeks here in Leiria because I didn’t meet too many people in the beginning. Meeting the Erasmus people on a welcoming trip though changed that thing and I would like to hope that I have made many friendships that will last forever. Everyone of these people (and also my colleagues) are welcome to my house in Finland at any time and my door is always open for them. For all the student friends of mine: enjoy the rest of the time and I hope that we will meet again.
The language is still hard for me. The grammar has nothing similar compared to Finnish and also compared to English it is highly different. I have done decent job in terms of studying, could have done much better but no point mourning about that. I passed my test on Monday and got a “good” grade. The thing with the language now is that I certainly don’t want to forget it. I still want to improve it. I will keep in touch with people I have meat here and might even take a Portuguese course back in Finland.
I feel that this experience has widened my world view and made me grow an inch or two as a human being (not just gained weight) and I am also now more opened up. They say that the life begins when you leave your comfort zone and I agree. I haven’t faced any proper difficulties here if you don’t count the language barrier as one but still almost every day has been a different one and I have always had to improve myself in those small things. I think that most of the people from my home country should see Portugal on the spot and learn from these people. Portuguese people are almost always on a good mood, are much less self-centered than Finnish ones and the work ethic these people have is brilliant. If I was a boss in a company in Finland: I would employ every single one of my colleagues without a doubt.
Muito obrigado Leiria and whole Portugal. We will meet again!
