Lara-Li Löfvenius: Universidade de Évora, Portugal

Why did you want to do an exchange?

Most of all, I wanted to get out of my routines and social bubble in Sweden for a while, and to experience an everyday life in another country (not just travel). I’ve always been curious about other cultures, and doing an exchange through Erasmus is the perfect chance for doing exactly that, to meet a new culture and make new contacts.

In 2020-2021, I studied Portuguese for two semesters at Stockholm University. Since then, I’ve always wanted to be able to use and improve my language skills, and, I think the best way to do that is by living in a society where they speak the actual language. Therefore, I only looked at possible exchanges in the lusophone countries, and ended up in the city of Évora in Portugal.

Which courses did you take?

My only option for doing my exchange in the University of Évora was to read at least 50% of my courses within the area of landscape architecture. It’s not my exact area of studies, but it turned out to be more similar than I thought. My perception is that a lot of different academic orientations can meet and work well together, in a pretty natural way, within the field of landscape architecture.

I read a total of 30 ECTS, divided into 5 different courses. In a way it felt like going back to the high school system, since all the courses here were read at the same time, and an intense period of exams came at the end of the semester. Honestly, I prefer the system at my home university where we read one course at a time, but it was fun to try a new strategy too. I think the credits you get for a course and the actual work you put into the courses didn't correspond very well: For me, the 3-credit course and the 9-credit course were pretty equal in terms of time and effort spent.

The 5 courses were:

1. Visual Studies PAO13834M 3 ECTS (Portuguese & English)
This course belonged to the landscape architecture masters programme and aimed to give us students a critical view on aesthetics in the landscape. The content of the course was pretty dependent on the interests of us students, and I could easily come in with a social science perspective. What I liked about the course is that we talked a lot about public and private space, and the issues of the diminishing of public spaces. It was only 3ECTS, but it definitely felt like more. To be honest, I think it’s hard to make a course with valuable content with such a limited amount of credits. Since I was the only international student in this class, the lectures and seminars were held in portuguese, with a little bit of help in english sometimes.

2. Spatial Analysis PAO12331M 6 ECTS (Portuguese & English)
This course belonged to the landscape architecture masters programme, but I read it together with the ones studying a masters in Conservation Biology. The course aimed to give us an understanding of the data of the ArcGIS programme, and to show us the possibilities that exist for spatial analysis using that programme. The lectures were held in both English and Portuguese, and the final assignment could be sent in both languages. The teacher was a real character who was very nice and helpful. We got to sit with the programme on our computers while he held the lecture on the black slate in front of the class. He was an ‘’oldschool’’ man, and thought it is more important for us to understand the structure of the data than to actually use the programme. I liked that philosophy, while some others got frustrated. This course was the one most outside of my earlier area of studies, and I was very confused in the beginning. In the end I was very happy to have a much better insight in this field.

3. Seminar in Landscape Architecture PAO13897M 6 ECTS (Portuguese & Spanish) This was the most hippie course on my exchange. We had one assignment during the whole course, which was to ‘’develop’’ a work based on a field of interests, and to connect it to ‘’landscape’’. This work could then be presented in any written form we would like. This might sound confusing, and it really was. But I do, however, think it was a good way to practice thinking and using the knowledge from my previous studies. Some weeks we met and had seminars where we got to present our development and discuss it with the rest of the group. Since all my classmates in this group were from different Spanish speaking countries, there was a lot of Spanish in the seminars. For me it was pretty fun, since I think it’s very similar to portuguese. It also gave me a good excuse to blame it on the language barrier when I didn’t understand something…;)

I chose to write an essay about the mining conflict in Gállok and the main
actors' different views of nature (natursyn). I was allowed to write it in English, but chose to hand it in in Portuguese. I asked if she could have indulgence with my language level, and she looked happy and said ‘’of course’’. 

4. Political Challenges of Globalization ECN13123L 9 ECTS (Portuguese)
This course did not belong to the landscape architecture programme. All the lectures and assignments were held in portuguese, but a lot of the literature was in english. I got to read some classic sociology literature and broaden my library.

5. Sociology of Peace and Conflicts SOC2298L 6 ECTS (Portuguese)
This course did not belong to the landscape architecture programme, and just like the globalization course → All the lectures and assignments were held in Portuguese, but a lot of the literature was in english. I got to read some classic sociology literature and broaden my library.

What was the student life like outside of courses?

The ESN (Erasmus Student Network) was very active in Évora, and hosted all different sorts of activities almost every second day. That was good for a lot of the Erasmus students' social life! Since I wanted to practice my Portuguese, I tried to stay away from the (english speaking) Erasmus group, and tried instead to interact with the locals and the portuguese speaking people. I was super lucky to meet a few key persons with a big social context that I bonded with, and pretty fast it felt like I had a lot of friends from different contexts. Since it is a pretty small town, you often meet people when you're out in the city and socialize a lot. I played futsal with the university team for a while, but stopped after a while because I wanted to prioritize having a completely free schedule, since a lot of fun activities always came up.

What was your best experience during your exchange?

I met a group of friends that I really enjoy spending time with! So much so that I decided to come back to Évora and write my thesis from here. Now a part of them is coming to Sweden to celebrate midsummer.

Advice for future exchange students:

• Do your exchange in a small town!!! It’s much easier to get to know the personality and the hidden places of a small city, and much easier to feel like you're a part of the city. I applied to go to Lisbon as a first choice, but I’m so glad I ended up in the much smaller town of Évora.
• Things always find a way to be solved, try to not stress too much. There is always someone to help if you’re lost.
• Don’t expect that everything will be served as a perfect package for you. You have to create your own good experience by yourself, and it’s fun!
• Even if you’re tired, say yes to things. Especially in the beginning!
•  Feel free to contact me at llofvenius@gmail.com with any questions