This week we (the new students) have all been busy writing our research plan so I’m going to talk about the start of this amazing experience in my new life rather than any more scientific thoughts. I’m not very good at this but let’s see what is going to happen.
6 months ago I remember being in Portugal thinking what could I do to continue my education and progress in my life. I concluded that if I want to do something I had to go out of my Portugal and continue my future outside the country. That idea in the beginning seemed to be exciting, new experiences, a new start! But when I was really accepted here I started to be a little scared. And that fear started to grow and grow, when I realized I was going to be far from my family, my friends and my language…a lot of new things in my life!
Now I am glad I did it because it has been an amazing experience, with an intense beginning (despite being already 7 weeks in) with the all new things, a new language, a new country, a new culture, everything for the first time! But I am learning a lot (repairing leaks from machines between other things :P) and having opportunities that I would not have if I tried to stay in my home country (of course I still miss the good weather with the beaches 😛 ) For example, my project is in mass spectrometry, and I already could learn more about mass spectrometers in these weeks than in two years in Portugal! Moreover I have met fantastic people that welcomed me very well (thanks a lot to everyone, amazing group 🙂 )
PS: see why I miss the beaches, this beach is 20min walk from my house