Fully Immersed
For my study abroad semester I wanted to fully immerse myself in the Portuguese culture as much as possible; therefore, I decided to live in a homestay. I live with a woman named Ana who is a lawyer and her daughter Ines who attends a university in the next city over from Lisboa. Together we live in a large 19th century apartment in the neighborhood of Marques de Pombal, a busy work and high end fashion district. Living in a homestay I have my own room, with a desk and storage place. I have access to the kitchen, living room and laundry. Breakfast and dinner are provided to me everyday, lunch is at my own expense. However, lunch in Lisbon usually doesn’t cost me more than 5 euros. I usually have a sandwich and soup for lunch at school and it only costs 2 euros. Most restaurants in Lisbon host lunch specials “Pratos do dias” which are usually a full course meal, soup, and desert for around 6 euros. Living with a host family has been a good experience thus far; they recommend places for me to go and things to do, and I get to learn and practice my Portuguese with them.
Meeting up with the other students in my program hasn’t been difficult at all. The only issue we may encounter is when we are trying to make plans by phone without international data plans; and we need Wi-Fi in order to connect. Luckily, there is free Wi-Fi practically everywhere in Lisbon! The metro, parks, restaurants, museums, even bars are few locations where you can find free Wi-Fi! Thus it hasn’t been too difficult to plan anything with the other students in our CIEE program. Also our intensive Portuguese classes are all right next to each other, we go on excursions together, and will be in a lot of the same classes during the semester. Facebook messenger, surprisingly helps us stay connected. We also utilize a Facebook group page, where we post about different events we are interested in going to and our looking for company. Since classes haven’t officially started, I haven’t really met any other students outside of my program. However, I’m hoping that I meet some of the other students that attend NOVA Universidade when classes begin.
