Goda Buivydytė and Agnė Svitojūtė, second-year students of the Fashion technology and business study programme are studying at Leiria Polytechnic Institute in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal, following the Erasmus + exchange programme.
At the Faculty of Arts and Design, the girls initially chose to study industrial design, but within two weeks they had the opportunity to change lectures. Since one subject of industrial design had to be kept, the girls were left to work on a project that required the creation of a door handle, something different from the usual, more convenient for people. During the project, the teachers posed the same requirements for the girls as for the Portuguese students, in the lectures they had to make their own decisions about their further activities, which caused some anxiety and stress to the students.
Well, but after choosing other more interesting lectures, the girls are happy with their studies in Portugal. One of the lectures is screen printing, and the girls also learn to work with the new programme Adobe InDesign and improve their knowledge in photography.
Agnė likes the institute because everyone here is willing to help. Erasmus+ study programme coordinators, students and teachers answer all the questions, but they will not come first. Everyone is relaxed, doesn’t take things too seriously and doesn’t worry about assignments, but gets everything done on time. Agnė’s favorite lecture is photography.
Goda is happy with all the opportunities, different lectures and new acquaintances. However, it can be said that studies are different here, so it took time to get used to it. In Portugal, students work independently and the teacher is only there to ask questions when it is not clear, while in Lithuania the teachers are just ready for the lectures and explain the topic. After all, the Portuguese are very relaxed people and are not in a hurry, sometimes teachers and students are late for 30 minutes and that is considered to be normal. The girls are happy to have come to study in Portugal. For Goda it is a dreamland where you can see a different culture and learn more about science.
Agnė enjoys the amazingly beautiful nature, new acquaintances and the study process.
We wish the students success!
