In this article I wanted to demonstrate you that you can combine work and Erasmus adventure. As you are able to choose courses that you like, you are actually making your own schedule. This means that you can condense all your classes so they can fit in two or three days and then have the rest of the week free to travel, discover the city, learn Portuguese and so on.
MONDAY
My first class is at 9 am, I chose a drawing course of a first degree year thanks to a Portuguese student that recommended me the teacher and the subject. The Observation Drawing is taught in order to help the student to learn techniques of drawing from portrait to landscape and perspective. The teacher is really nice and has speaks good English, he doesn't care about the quality of your drawings, he doesn't want you to become Picasso, he wants you to improve and to master your pen to be efficient. Every Monday morning I have course from 9 am to 12 am, we are drawing naked model, nice way to wake up students with something... artistic !
Then I have time to come back to my home and prepare my lunch or go to the supermarket because my next class is at 4 pm until 6 pm. This time I choose the Public Relation course from the third year of degree. This is really interesting even if the teacher has difficulties to express himself in English... After few classes he asked us not to come because for him it was too hard. So, he sent us the course by email with a translation in English.
Finally I go home and I have little time to prepare diner because at 9 pm I have an evening class ! From 9 pm to 11 and sometimes midnight, I have to be brave while other Erasmus students are going out. This is a master course about co-creation and co-production, it is a bit more high level than other classes, but as I am the only Erasmus student I have the opportunity to have Portuguese friends and reflect more about the subject than just listening the teacher course as the other classes.
TUESDAY
This morning again I start with the Observation Drawing class. From 8:30 am to 12 am, this practical course : we draw, reproduce paintings, more on different project with the teacher. It goes so fast when you are really focused and interested in.
Afterwards I go back home and stay there until my next course, which starts at 3 pm until 5:30 pm. Every Tuesday afternoon I am with my Audiovisual and Multimedia Productions team (and teacher). We are working on a documentary project, learning how to use Premiere and drafting our communication plan about our future movie. Besides, the teacher has a really good level in English, so we can easily get contact and advice from him.
WEDNESNAY
My Wednesday morning starts with a course which is deeply in the actual economic trend : Entrepreneurship. This time we are working on a project, obviously : creating our own concept and our own company. I was really curious of this notion of entrepreneur, and this is more complex than what I thought. Indeed, this course enables us to understand the all process of creating a firm but also how to adapt to fit to the market thanks to our marketing information. Be careful, the teacher makes half the course in Portuguese half in English...
To finish well the day, the all afternoon from 1 pm to 6 pm, I am in the Audiovisual and Multimedia Productions class. This time, the teacher decided to show us some movie extract and advertising, so we can see the filming techniques and think about it in our storyline, storyboard, etc.
Thursday and Friday are all free for me. So feel free to discover the city, museums, the sea and surf, Portuguese language and traditions... but don't forget your homework !
