Karen Noorda - "I really miss my bike!"

Name: Karen Noorda

Age: 23

Lives and studies: Groningen

 

Why you chose Portugal, Coimbra for study?
We could choose like this big big list of countrys and city's to study, and i decided i wanted to stay in Europe, And than i just checked every country. France doesnt attract me at all, Germany is to close to Holland, Belgium as well, Spain, everybody goes to Spain, So Italy and Portugal left, and than I decided Portugal, because i've never been there before and the weather is nice! in portugal we could only choose Coimbra.
 

What were your expectations before you go to Coimbra?

I expected not so much, i just thought to myself, lets just go there and we will see what happens, and when you have no expectations, you can also not be dissapointed.

Did you have some problems when you arrive?

Not really actually, i found a home after 2 days, and everything went really easy. Portuguese people are very very helpfull!

The classes are in Portuguese. What do you think about that, since you are an exchange student? How can you adopt to that? Did you feel some problems in your evaluation?

That is indeed sometimes a problem, but learning a new language is not very hard when you are already in the country. The teachers tell the other students in portuguese and than they tell me in English what they said, and i choose some very practical subjects, like multicamera direction and fotojournalism, so i can learn by doing it instead of listening to the teacher for 3 hours.

What were the differences between Hanze School and ESEC?

At hanze, things are taken care of much better than at ESEC, but i think thats a typicall difference between portugal and my country. In the beginning I really had to get used to the fact that teachters are very often 15 minutes late and stuff like that. Im not used to being late at classes so in every class im always the first one there. ESEC is very small to me, but that is also because they have different locations for different faculty's. at the hanze its just one big building with a lot of faculty's or institutions inside. ESEC is more cosy in that way. i knew my way around here quite good already after one week.

Did you think the public transports in Coimbra are different from the ones in Groningen? Why?

 For me not so much, but the biggest difference is that in Groningen i always use my bike, and here i walk or take the bus. I really miss my bike!

Did you feel some kind of cultural shock? Why?

 In some ways yes, as i said before, nobody cares about being late, everything is much more easygoing, in that way, maybe Dutch people are kinda uptight. but i got used to this stuff really quick, and for me it was more funny than that it actually bothered me. .

What do you think about the Portuguese people?

Also Portuguese people are always so nice and so polight. They always want to help you and stuff like that, for example when you ask the way in English but that person doesnt speak English (  also kind of a difference by the way, in the Netherlands almost everybody speaks at least some Engllish ) they just walk with you to show you where you have to go!

Imagine that someone offers you a job in Portugal. Did you accept? Why?

 Absolutely!! I feel very much at home here, and I’m definitely coming back to Portugal. I love the food, the people, the attitude and the weather.

If you can exclude 2 thinks in the Portuguese culture and include 2 thinks from the Dutch culture, what were they?

It would be great if Portuguese people were a little bit more punctial, and dutch people were a little bit less uptight about everything. Also, in holland everybody always is wining about everything, and i dont really see that here. people are more lightly about things ( exept for football ofcourse, but in my opinion football is veeeery important;))

What do you miss more in Netherland?

In netherland i miss the nice weather, in Portugal i miss my bike and my footballclub.

Marcelo Chagas