Before 2020, I didn't know that I was going to be exactly where I'm right now and I have never even considered visiting Portugal. It was a result of many circumstances that led me to study in Portugal. My previous trip was in Turkey for around 5 months, in order to learn Turkish language and simultaneously their culture. But this was serious, I'm going to study a master degree; which means that I had to integrate my “culture thirstiness” into my everyday actions, while succeeding academically.
Let's take a look on the reasons why I came to study in Portugal.
Table of Contents
I wanted to live (another Year) in Europe.
Previously, during 2008-2009 I was living in Germany (yes, I survived!). It was an eye-opening experience to me for many reasons. My life changed a lot because I grew up more (not entirely, but in the right direction), I became more socially conscious, the world seemed a safer place to explore than I initially thought and my curiosity to learn about it just kept growing. Did the “travel bug” bite me? Slowly but surely. However, it took years later to figure it out what I was going to do about it or how to shape it.
Years after returning to my home country, Ecuador, an idea began to formulate in my head. There was a book inside of me and it was related with languages, cultures, fiction, engineering and other topics. To write a great book, it was required contact, real and actual contact, with foreign cultures. That is why the need and urgency to live 1 year in each continent began to germinate. This way, I wanted to repeat one year living in Europe in order to have a different look in culture and how to focus my energy into writing this that I have wanted for so long. Last time I lived in Europe I did not had this objective in mind, therefore I wasn't looking for this fulfilment.
But Europe is just the beginning! More continents are in my sight.
All of my Friends are married or engaged.
Before any criticism or prejudgement crosses your mind, marriage is an objetive in my life someday, just not yet. First, this travel has to conclude before I engage with a woman (or perhaps in the midway?). But most important of all, right now I'm single and during the last 5 years or so, my friends have being getting married and I'm proud of them. However, it changes people's life (specially with babies) and I'm aware of that because they spend now time as couple or with the family of the husband or wife.
However, we spend less time together doing plans or events as group. Some weekends no one even summoned anybody! This acted like an alarm bell for me that pointed towards a clear and loud signal saying:
If you want to accomplish your project, you must start NOW!
My internal psyche “Alarm Bell”.
An important topic is that I know that I am not going to be part of a few events like Christmas, Carnival or local parties in my city or province. I'm not going to be present as my nephews are growing up nor enjoy the last years of life of my parents. My cousins are going to meet at our favourite grill restaurant, while my friends are still going to make plans and they will send me pictures of these meetings; yes, sometimes I will miss them and wish to be present there.
But, on the other side of the coin, there is a lot to gain from travelling, living abroad and having a detour from your everyday life. I'm going to learn a new language and going to experience life in another continent, both socially and professionally. No, it would not impact negatively my resume or CV, but the opposite instead.
In the end, it is most likely that while I'm gone for some years, nothing will change too much. Things, places and people would not shift significantly. Overall, people grow older and usually after 25 years old, we will have the same “plan” of life.
Study in Portugal with an academic Push
On November 26, 2021 there was an exposition of Portuguese universities in a city nearby where I live and my curiosity drove me to see this opportunity. There was an agency called Estudar Portugal that gave a conference about academic offer in Portugal. In a nutshell, they help you find the university according to your interests, advance with bureaucracy and many other complementary services.
All of these sounded VERY appealing.
In previous years, I have tried to apply for scholarships without success. Perhaps this was the push that my life needed. Plus, an experience in a foreign country was what my life was looking for. Therefore, I subscribed to them in order to finally go abroad.
Years after I graduated from my bachelor degree in Electronics Engineering and working for a year in the industry, I was considering to study a master degree. It came for me a surprise since I got sick (figuratively) to study so much. Universities in Portugal didn't ask me to have a minimum TOEFL score. My last test that I took wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, which was below the score required by other universities for its admission. In other words, either I needed to study again 3 o 4 months and apply next year or go this year to study in Portugal, perhaps something related to engineering or management.
For many of the reasons detailed above, Portugal was an opportunity that I had to take.
It is worth mentioning also that I didn't want to study or go abroad during 2020 or 2021 because, well, as you may already know, COVID-19 struck hard on every country in the world and it was in fact a difficult time and certainly bio-hazardous too!
An easy Language for my Study in Portugal
Portuguese is a language similar to my mother tongue, Spanish. Cool, isn't it?
My journey of learning Portuguese started when I got accepted to study in Portugal. Everyday while having a walk with my dogs for 30 minutes, I listened to an audio course from Pimsleur and learned to have conversations in Portuguese of Brazil, which means, no grammar nor writing or whatsoever. This habit was done for about 4 months when the course was finished, I switched to listen podcasts in Portuguese of Portugal, one in particular called “Vamos Todos Morrer” and then I understood almost NOTHING. What happened? It turns out that pronunciation of Portuguese from Portugal is a lot harder that I was expecting and certainly for Portuguese speakers from other parts of the world too. This meant that this part of my journey was going to cost a little more energy than expected.
Road to Citizenship
On 2019 was there first time I heard about Spain and Portugal granting citizenship according to a law that they emitted on that decade. On 2020, an application was offered to me but I hesitated. The cost was high, the waiting time was around 4 years and I wasn't sure if it was worth the investment if I didn't require it often since my travels to Europe were seldom. But after a few conversations with friends and families, a window of opportunities became apparent for me.
Having both Ecuadorian and Portuguese citizenships is better than having just one of them. Since I have already started this blog, I was eager to travel easier to more countries with both passports. Therefore I applied, knowing that it was just a probability that I was getting it.
But if I was going to become Portuguese, I wanted to feel like one. Speaking, hearing, reading and writing this language became a goal, if not a priority. So, why not spending 2 years studying in the country where you will belong to?
Independence, the ultimate goal
My objective to live 1 year in each continent is on its way but above everything else, a sense of independence is what I'm looking for. This is the whole reason of the project or journey. My main goal in Portugal is to learn:
- the core essentials of living anywhere that I want, like detaching myself from a location.
- learning about management, entrepreneurship, banking and other financial skills through my other blog, nomadOso.
- dealing with unspoken social barriers, like making new friends from different cultures!
- to adapt to a new culture. Later on, as a move to another country, this process will repeat itself.
Read Stories of my Study in Portugal
In this blog, new stories about Portugal and its culture will be published. This experiences aim to share a viewpoint that may be different from you. Click in the button below:
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Posts during 2022
Study in Portugal, an exciting journey in this whopping World? - Find reasons to study in Portugal from the perspective of Juditova. Is it appropriate for you too?. Click here to… Posts during 2023
Posts during 2024
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