Portugal
– a country of astonishing beauty and diversity
The
main thing about living in Europe is being able to travel all over.
It's not necessary to go thousands of kilometres just to see
something you've never seen or experienced before. Each country has
something that can amaze. Portugal sure does. That's where me and my
classmate have been to. Some people say that USA is the land of
opportunity. But people change so countries do. And we were happy
having such a great chance for
two months to live and work in Portugal.
Thanks to the European Union's vocational training
programme «Leonardo da Vinci». Living without parents and
girlfriends for a long period of time – the first challenge that
comes to mind leaving your homeland. But not for us. We were longing
for work. Work in other country? Even better!
Despite
all the worries concerning our trip, we managed to get used to living
in Portugal, its people, the language they speak. In their way of
life, we adapted more easily we had expected. After first three days
being there we knew the streets around our apartment. Having map we
explored some area within the city of Lisbon. And, surely, good
knowledge in english played a great part in everything from living to
working. No doubt, portugese language is one of the most used
languages in the World. And, I must say, it is fast to learn.
Offcourse, we didn't have much time to learn it good enough. But
speaking portugese was vital in some cases. In cases when we didn't
have any chance to find someone who speaks english. Imagine an old
portugese man fishing at the ocean bank. Do you think he might speak
english? I think not. Having that idea I always carried a small book
with common portugese words and expressions I was using a lot.
Portugese
people are very friendly and optimistic. Besides, they are united in
one thing – football. Moreover, they are obsessed with it. You say
one magic word «football» and they are interested in
talking to you. It is a coincidence that our practice took place at
the same time as the World Cup 2006. Alas, portugal team didn't win
the championship. But if you could see the crowd of excited fans, you
wouldn't say they had lost. Because even though their team had lost
they were proud of them. Me and my classmate were astonished by the
united spirit of football in Portugal. It was something we didn't
have in Estonia.
On
weekends our explorative thirst was fully filled. We went to the
ocean beaches at least fifteen times. We went to Sintra once. Without
any guide. Everybody in Portugal knows about Sintra. One man told us
that even for them Sintra is the most beautiful place they can't stop
wonder at. See for yourselves. These pictures speak for themselves.
Diverse houses, streets with stone pavement, small shops for tourists
filled with souvenirs, endless hills, not to mention the blue sky
staying blue many, many days.
Offcourse,
we didn't spend days having fun and taking sunbaths. We worked hard
and in some days we stayed at home after work learning new features
and thinking about the projects we had. One of the projects we were
working on, a small internet shop selling cheap jewellery for young
people. The other one, a website for gym. It was more like an engine
designed with simplicity to rapidly make any small changes in and
sell to several gyms interested in having their own website. Although
our mentor wasn't really interested in helping us in most things,
eventually, we managed to finish two of these websites. I have gained
a lot of experience. So does my classmate who was working with
design.
This
trip taught us more than anything else we have ever done. It was some
kind of a life lesson. After getting home we have very good picture
of what we should aspire to do in our future career to achieve a
success. It is one of the main reasons other students who are going
to do a practical work should bear in mind. And who knows, maybe it's
their chance to change their way of looking at their life.