Feelings of Erasmus Mundus

Baixa-Chiado Metro Station, a remarkable one for Erasmus Students

Week 26

[20/02/2013] - Since we don't have the lectures in Taguspark campus, we don't have to use the IST shuttle anymore. This saves us a lot of time this semester, compared to the last. However, we miss the good times we had at Taguspark, specially the lunch time together. I used to wake up at 5.30 a.m to catch the 7.15 a.m shuttle on Mondays. This semester, I wake up at 7.30 a.m, the earliest. More time to sleep!

6 months

Today we did our Mobile Computing presentation. This was the first team effort of Team XPD (Xiao Chen, Pradeeban Kathiravelu, and Dipesh Dugar Mitthalal). Now, I am having a break with some music, and decided to blog on the feelings of Erasmus Mundus, which was in my to-blog list for quite a long time. Interestingly, today it is exactly 6 months since I left home and my country, for my masters!

Feelings of Erasmus Mundus

My apartment - a usual meeting spot for us!

Erasmus Mundus is surely one of the best (if not the best) decisions that we all have made. We all came to Lisbon as strangers. I had interest in exploring Lisbon, but no real attachment to it.

Eventually!

Things started to change eventually. The support and helping hand of the locals surely made a positive impact on me. In my opinion, Portuguese are very friendly people. We, all the EMDC students became good friends. It felt good to be a student, after a break, as I became a student after spending two years working in a company. As Erasmus Mundus students, we had a huge opportunity to meet other mobility students, who follow Erasmus, Erasmus Mundus, BRAZIL, and similar programs. Meeting points like Bairro Alto and specifically the Erasmus Corner, became regular places of visit. Moreover, the cultural diversity made our relationships more interesting and spicy! ;) 

Fresher Winds

Nightly walks over Lisbon neighbourhoods!

It was like a rebirth, where we started to learn and earn everything fresh - new courses, new friends, new people, and new experiences. We came to Lisbon, almost with an empty hand and mind, with nothing but hope and expectations. We started to earn people and knowledge. Our relationships are interesting and non-trivial. Erasmus Mundus experience has written many new interesting pages in our life.

Level - up

Erasmus Mundus experience was a level-up. We learned about people and culture. Tried different dishes. A few phrases from each language! From what I learned and experienced, I would recommend every student to study abroad, as an exchange student, or as a graduate student abroad, at least once in their life. The aspects of life we learned during the Erasmus Mundus is much richer than the technological knowledge we have gathered so far during our stay. Balancing the social life and studies without getting too distracted, enjoying the new environment without compromising our unique values and believes, accepting different view points and learning from them, broadening the horizon, were a few interesting challenges the students face.

Walking from Santos to Cais do Sodre

World is not that small. :(
A few friends have already left us and returned to their home countries, as they have completed their study. We already miss them. They have surely left a strong foot print in our minds, which will never fade away. I am sure, I will miss Lisbon when I go to Stockholm next semester, as much as I missed my country when I left it last year. Probably, even more! Lisbon has surely become a second home to me, during the stay of the 6 months. The interesting people we met here from different parts of the world - I am not sure how effective we will be in communication or how much will we be in touch, after we departed. The world is still not that small, and I don't think the online or electronic communication is strong enough to express the human feelings, or replace the face-to-face communications. Quoting our P2P professor, once more. "Human nature: It is difficult to understand."

I just wish everyone of you will be with me, forever!