Review of courses

Exam week is well behind me and second half courses are already in full swing, so it is perhaps time to fulfill one of the exchange blog requirements Aalto made and write about courses I have taken at Nova. As each course I take is worth 3,5 ECTS, I took four courses in the first half and have another three in the second half to gather the necessary 24 ECTS that are required for the Master's minor. I will write brief comments on the first four courses that I have gotten final grades for and later in December get back to the last three courses that I am doing now. 

Consumer Behavior - Professor Luis Martinez

This was perhaps the most theoretical course I have taken in a few years. Basically it extensively went through the different internal and external factors that effect consumer behavior by covering chapters of a given book. The lectures themselves were not too exciting or engaging, but attendance was also not mandatory. The workload of the course was very do-able - basically it consisted of writing a 5 page group paper on a selected topic, giving an 8 minute group presentation and taking an exam. The topic itself is quite self-explanatory especially if you have taken marketing courses before, but beware of the exam - it was surprisingly detailed and demanding considering how the rest of the course was. Overall I did not learn too many new things, but if you do not want to stress too much about courses on exchange I would recommend taking this one.

E-Commerce - Professor David Bernardo

This was definitely one of the most useful courses that I have taken throughout studies - it was extremely relevant and practical, covering e-commerce from various perspectives and providing actual tools to work with. The professor had impressive experience in the field, really knew his area and gave entertaining, engaging lectures. The overall work load was not too heavy (two homeworks that were done over weekends and one 12-page group paper) but since it was an intensive three week course, it felt like you were working with it all the time. Especially the two homeworks were very practical - we used Google AdWords, calculated Customer Lifetime Value, wrote newsletters etc. There were no books or other materials to study for the course, so succeeding in the exam really depended on how well you knew what was taught in class. If you have any interest in learning about business in the digital environment, or just want to attend interesting lectures, I  would definitely recommend taking this course at Nova! 

History of Globalization - Professor Maria Eugénia Mata

From previous exchange reports and a lack of deep interest in the topic, I did not have too high expectations for this course. The professor was quite enthusiastic about the topic area but the slides and lectures were not always clear or easy to follow.  The workload however was clearly explained and relatively light - it consisted of writing a short individual essay and giving a group presentation about a given academic article. The exam accounted for 60% which is much higher than in the other courses, but I mainly read the conclusion parts of given academic articles when studying for it. Compared to other courses I took, this was also the only one in which the professor actually provided feedback and results on assignments throughout the course - in all other courses we just received a final grade before getting any other feedback. Considering the workload and time this course consumes, it could be considered quite an optimal choice for exchange. 

Venture Creation - Professor Manuel Forjaz

I would not classify myself as a entrepreneurially enthusiastic person so this course was rather out of my comfort zone. However the professor is quite the motivational speaker and was able to make entrepreneurship just a little more appealing to me than it was before. We learned some very practical things about creating business ideas, giving elevator pitches and  writing business plans. The professor's goal was for students to start companies during the course, which would result in a grade 20 immediately (the grading scale is 1-20, but you need 10 to pass). Getting that score by actually doing given assignments was harder, however the professor did guarantee a passing grade for anyone who just attended lectures and the exam. In the end, although the lectures by the professor were inspiring and interesting, the course itself was quite confusing and I'm not sure if any student completely understoof what we were supposed to do. The final exam says quite a lot - no one was told it was open book, although half of the students thought you could bring a laptop and the other half had no clue (but Nova's policy forbids laptops in final exams so we couldn't use them anyway).

Madeira Island

Last week right after exams, I set off for an extended weekend trip together with a group of exchange friends and flew to Madeira, the Portuguese island in the Atlantic Ocean. We rented a big house, drove up and down Madeira's hills and spent a surprisingly active short vacation in beautiful sceneries.

Going to Madeira was a fast and budget friendly trip as EasyJet flies there in less than two hours from Lisbon. My flights were a bit over 100€, but if you book earlier you can get them for a lot cheaper as well. The only slightly uneasy part of the trip is knowing that Madeira's airport is supposedly one of the most dangerous in the world. Usually I'm a little anxious only during take offs, but this time the landing also caused some shaky hands.

For our stay in Madeira, we rented a beautiful, big house that easily fit 20 people for dinners and hanging out (and 13 for sleeping comfortably), had a pool and a view to the ocean. The only tricky part was that we never found out the address of the place so it took us well over three hours of driving in the dark to find it for the first time. After we finally by accident found the house, we had a great time and I would really recommend renting a house instead of hotel rooms for any similar trip. We later also realized that the "no clear address"-thing was quite common around the island and trips often took at least twice as long as we planned for due to small roads, huge hills and many wrong turns. 

Renting a car seems to be a real must if you want to see as much as possible of Madeira since everything is located quite far from each other across the island. Our group did what any budget-conscious students would do and rented the cheapest cars that were available, but it might be wiser to get something a bit stronger and bigger - our Opel Corsa and the other small cars were really not made for driving five people on steep and curvy hills. However driving up with first gear and wondering if the engine would last just made the trip a little more adventurous. 

Driving on steep cliffs...

... and through water falls.

I was quite surprised by how active our group was on the trip. Travelling with so many people was great because everyone was able to do different things - while some went coasteering and diving, others went hiking and sightseeing. Paragliding was also supposed to be scheduled but didn't work out due to bad winds. I joined in for the sightseeing and hiking activities just to get a better view of the island. We did two walks on Levadas of which there are many around the island. They are water systems which are apparently meant to take rain water to farmers in towns, but also provide great paths to walk through mountains. The longer Levada walk we took was really beautiful and exciting, although I wish we had known to bring flashlights since it included walking through a pitch black, 100 meter cave tunnel.

Taking a Levada walk.

My favorite spot in Madeira that we visited was the lava pools at Porto Moniz. Although the ride there took forever and even made some people car sick (blame it on the crazy roads, not the late night before...), the place we reached was beautiful. For the price of 1€ we got to swim in the pools filled with natural sea water and watch crazy waves hit the rocks right next to us. It was really relaxing and had it not been so cold we would have probably spent a much longer time there.

Porto Moniz.

The last night of the trip we spent in Funchal to see a bit of Madeira's capital as well. Maybe it is because of the cloudy, rainy weather we had that day, but Funchal was actually the least interesting place I saw on the trip. Even at the end of October, it was packed with tourists which felt quite hectic compared to other parts of the island. We also did not have time to visit any famous attractions such as the botanical garden or the cable cart (the latter we actually only skipped due to its price) so I can't say that I saw much of it. Although Funchal was pretty and well kept, it is Madeira's nature and other sights that I would go back to.

Road trip to the South

When my boyfriend was here to visit, we decided to spend part of his stay on the road by driving down to Algarve to enjoy some beaches, touristy towns and the former end of the world. We visited the towns of Tavira, Lagos and Sagres, and although the trip was only for one night we managed to do quite a lot and find places that would be great to come back to. 

We rented a car from Lisbon's airport which was an easy place to begin the trip. After having sat in taxis and experienced the traffic within the city, I definitely wanted to avoid having to drive through the center. Instead, we headed straight to the Vasco da Gama bridge that took us to the highway towards Algarve. Renting a car was not expensive, but naturally came with some extra expenses that were not mentioned in the reservation price. However, as my family well knows, I'm a bit obsessive with insurances so I did not mind paying extra for an insurance that let us off the hook if anything happened to the car.  Driving on the highway and in Algarve was really relaxed - roads were in great condition, traffic was light and there was luckily no sign of the hectic, wild driving that you see in the city.

Foggy morning while driving on Europe's longest bridge, Vasco da Gama.

Our first stop on the trip was a small town called Tavira, which is to the east from Algarve's capital Faro. Within the town itself there is not much to see but it is a nice place to stop for eating and walking around. After a great lunch, we headed to the beach and after a little GPS mix-up, found ourselves on a short boat ride that took us to Ilha de Tavira with its long sand beaches.

Great sea food in Tavira.

Ilha de Tavira

After Tavira, we headed towards a hotel that we had booked in Lagos. This city was a lot bigger than the first one and packed with German and British tourists. Still it was a pretty place with a marina, lovely old town and so many restaurants that it was impossible to choose where to eat. The next morning we strolled more around Lagos to see it in day light, and if we would have had more time we would have probably gone on one of the many boat trips to grottos that are being sold on the boulevard.

Old Town of Lagos

The last destination  of our trip was Sagres. We first found a few beautiful beaches to enjoy the sun and clear water. Although Tavira's long sandy beach was great too, I was really amazed by the beaches that were surrounded by high cliffs. Even though beaches were full of people, they still felt somehow isolated and peaceful. These types of beaches seem to be quite common in many places around Algarve.

Local specialty - Grilled sardines

Our last stop before heading back to Lisbon was Cabo de São Vicente, the former end of the world and Europe's most South-Western point. This stop I was most excited  about - I had visited the place on my first abroad trip as a baby almost 25 years ago, and although I naturally have no memory of it, it was quite nostalgic to go. And quite truthfully it was also the most breath taking place I have seen during my whole stay in Portugal so far. The way the ocean looks from there is indescribable, and the view over cliffs are amazing. I can only imagine what sunsets look like there. 

Famour lighthouse at Cabo de São Vicente

Out of all the places we visited, especially Sagres and Cabo de São Vicente I would definitely want to go back to. However having a car in Algarve is great because on a longer stay you can visit any place because everything is so close to each other.

Studying at Nova

For the past week or so, school has kept me surprisingly busy with group works and pressing deadlines. With the last one behind me and four exams approaching next week, I thought it would be a good time to write something about the actual reason I am in Lisbon currently - exchange studies at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, more precisely at Nova School of Business and Economics.  

The business school is located at Nova's Campolide campus, close to the metro station São Sebastião along the red and blue lines. From what I have heard, the building is a former monastery turned military building turned university, but it looks nice from the outside and has all the necessary equipment on the inside. Classrooms are quite ok, cafeterias serve simple and affordable food, wifi is available throughout the building and the print shop offers some very beneficial services. Some classrooms even have AC which is a great plus in the warm weather that Lisbon keeps having.

At NOVA, most Master's level courses last half a semester and are worth 3,5 ECTS while some last the whole semester  being worth 7 ECTS. It seems like quite a lot of school and work each course compared to the 6 ECTS I receive from half-semester courses back at Aalto University, but still I chose to do only half semester courses. The main reason was that none of the topics of whole semester courses really interested me, and as it turns out the workload is very do-able and comparable to the amount of ECTS the courses are worth (at least in the courses that I am taking... I have heard other versions from people taking many economics or finance courses).

The course selection process at NOVA is somewhat different from Aalto - selections are done on two given dates on a "first come, first serve" basis meaning that you have to reserve this specific time to be ready by the computer to rush through selections in order to get a place. Sounds kind of rough, but I actually prefer it compared to Aalto's lottery system in which you have to wait for weeks after which, depending on the amount of students and your luck, you may or may not get a place in the course. At NOVA you just have to be well prepared with a pre-planned schedule when the day of course selections comes. This year's selection was done in September after we had our first info session.

Quite a majestic scene on my walk home from school

In the selection, I got all but one of the courses that I wanted and was able to build a nice Tuesday to Thursday schedule meaning that I have long weekends throughout the semester. The majority of the courses I have had so far have been interesting and at a good level. Lecture attendance is quite often required and you can only skip a few classes but since I have long weekends it hasn't really been a problem. What has been hard to get used to is the late schedule - many of my courses start in the late afternoon and a few times I have left a lecture as late as 10 pm. Each of the courses has had pretty much the same evaluation structure: a groupwork/presentation, an individual assignment/class participation, and a written exam. Some professors seem to put a lot of emphasis on participation, sometimes up to 20%, which can be annoying mainly because local students are seeking good grades and therefore talk in class a lot, sometimes having something relevant to say and sometimes not so much. 

My exams start on Monday and last until Friday. After that I'll be able to write more specifically about each of the courses I took and tell a little more about the workload, lectures and assignments. 

Showing Lisbon

One really enjoyable part about exchange is when you get to show your city to people who come for a visit. It is the time you realize that you have actually gotten to know your new home quite well and have found unique things you want to show others. I had my first visitor here from last Wednesday until Monday when my boyfriend came to Lisbon. He is also doing his Master's exchange at the moment in Rome (you can follow his AS Roma-filled exchange blog "Tutto Totti" here) and we made a deal to visit each other's exchange cities. My turn to travel to Rome is in exactly one month.

The artist at Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcantara, close to my home here. I will  have to buy one of his works before the end of exchange.

During the days we spent in Lisbon together, we did some very touristy sightseeing around town. We went to a few new places but mainly revisited things that I had already experienced and knew were worth seeing. Before hand I had made big plans for us to visit Belem and make a day trip to Cascais, but as we only had a few days to spend in Lisbon it was much nicer to have a relaxed time around the city (I'll have to make sure to visit those places later on though). The week before my boyfriend arrived, Lisbon had been gloomy, foggy and rainy, so we were lucky that it was practically sunny all throughout his stay. The only time it rained was when we were checking out Bairro Alto - instead of bar hopping we were stuck at the door of a crowded place for over an hour waiting for the pouring rain to stop, so that experience fell a bit short. 

One of the places we revisited was Castelo de São Jorge where we managed to stay until sunset. Despite some interfering clouds it was quite amazing to watch the sun descend over Lisbon and see the city's lights turn on slowly. Other than sightseeing around Lisbon we just enjoyed coffees at miradouros, ate out and had drinks on terraces at sunset time. As it turns out that is pretty much my favorite time of the day, and for some reason sunsets feel especially lovely in Lisbon. Sitting outside in summer clothes in October and enjoying the day light turn into night is really quite exceptional and something I haven't gotten to do that much before.

PS. The reason why we only had a few days to spend in Lisbon was because we headed down to Algarve for a two day road trip. That little vacation deserves its own post so I will get back to it later. 

Sea life at Parque das Nações

Two lovely girls from NOVA who organized the Welcome Week for us Master's exchange students have kept organizing different trips and events for everyone to get together every now and then. Since people usually tend to find a smaller group of friends and stick to them quite quickly, it is really nice to have occasions that all exchange students can go to.  We are over a hundred students so you always still keep meeting new faces in these events.

One trip the girls recently organized was for us to go see Parque das Nações and visit the Oceanarium together. The area has a completely different vibe from the rest of the city - it was redesigned and built for the World Exhibition in 1998, and the modern buildings make you feel like you are not really in Lisbon at all. It is located northeast of the city center along the Tejo river and easily reachable with the metro's red line (an interesting fact to know is that this place is the starting point of Europes longest, 17.2 km long bridge, Ponte Vasco da Gama).  Even though in Parque das Nações you are surrounded with concrete pavements and high buildings, I had a really cozy feeling in the area and felt like it was a great place to relax and hang out for a day.

Visiting the Oceanário da Lisboa was pretty much the highlight of that day. A visit costs around 13€ which is rather high, but at least for me it is worth it to see one of the world's biggest aquariums. At the Oceanarium, there are not only different types of fish and water plants, but also birds, penguins and - my new favorite animal - sea otters. They are perhaps the most relatable creatures I have seen, spending their days just calmly laying and floating around in the water. The Oceanarium is built around a huge tank full of fish and other creatures which you can watch from every part of the aquarium, a scene I was completely mesmerized by.

If you feel like spending the day or some hours  in a part of Lisbon where it feels and looks completely different, I would definitely recommend visiting Parque das Nações. Apart from the Oceanarium, the day can be spent hanging around in the area's parks, shopping at the Vasco da Gama center, enjoying the feel of modern architecture or for example taking a ride in the cable cart that crosses the area.

Doctor's visits

Last week wasn't the funnest since it mainly consisted of gaining experience in going to the doctor's in Lisbon. I had an annoyingly persistent infection on my toe which needed medical treatment, and so in hopes of saving time and money I decided to try out a close-by public health care center instead of a private hospital. This not-so-great idea ended up being one of those "I miss home"-situations because back home you would at least know how things work and what you have to do, but hopefully some pictures of pretty Lisbon views will lighten up the mood of this post a little bit.

The view at Largos das Portas do Sol

Just walking into a health care center and getting treatment turned out to be much harder than I thought it would be. I got sent from the first center to a second, and then to a third which was in a completely different part of the city. Every time the answer was the same: "no, you cannot see a doctor and you cannot book an appointment, you have to go to another place". The European Health Insurance Card nor my private insurance card were of any help and mainly caused the ladies at the centers' counters to roll their eyes and shake their heads. Someone wiser could probably explain why the plan did not work, but to me it is still a mystery why I cannot just go to a doctor up the street of my house.

After some frustrating hours and long walks on a soar foot, I gave up and headed to a private hospital where I should have just gone in the first place. As expected, the price of services was very high (insurance should cover it eventually - never travel without insurance!), but what I was not expecting was a wait of more than two hours to see a doctor. However the service at the hospital was very good, friendly and all in English so I can really recommend it. Just be prepared to wait because even with a booked appointment it can take well over an hour before you get called in. As mentioned in an earlier post, waiting is just something to get used to here in Lisbon.

I was back and forth at the doctor's several times after the first visit last week. To top it off, a mixture of antibiotics, another doctor's appointment and lectures on Saturday left me in Lisbon for the weekend while many exchange friends made a road trip down to the shores of Algarve together. In order to not let the entire weekend go down the drain, I dedicated Sunday to sightseeing. I headed to Castelo de São Jorge, wandered around the surrounding Alfama district and took photos of some very picturesque views. In that area I would especially recommend going to Largo das Portas do Sol where you can enjoy drinks at the miradouro. The castle I also plan on revisiting to watch the sun set over Lisbon - with a view over the entire city and the Tejo river I imagine it will be quite amazing!

And by the way, my toe is now luckily almost healed. Lesson learned, but lets hope I don't get another chance prove that I now know where to go and what to do if something similar comes up. :)