Portuguese Splendor

Hola!

My time abroad keeps flying by quickly.  Hard to believe there's just over a week left!  This past weekend was my favorite so far.  From Thursday to Monday, my group took a trip from Spain to Portugal. There are many similarities between the two countries, but I might like Portugal more overall.  It was remarkably easy to communicate over there and the Portuguese were really friendly to Americans.

View of Lisbon

The Portugal trip started in Lisbon.  Lisbon definitely has more of an older-town feel with some aspects of a newer city as well. I really enjoyed the view of the city atop one of Lisbon's nicest hotels (we bought drinks on the roof as an excuse to go up)!










One of the highlights of visiting Lisbon was a company visit to Portugal Telecom (PT), an international telecommunications firm with operations in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, and other South American countries.   It was interesting to learn how Portuguese businesses operate; surprisingly, there seemed to be many similarities between PT and American technology companies.  They have a team-focused, relaxed work environment that reminded me of operations at Microsoft or AT&T.  They are also building one of the largest data centers in the world to support cloud computing, so PT seems to be keeping up with the times.  I’m excited to see how the company will fare in the next few years.

One of the most impressive qualities I noticed in the Portuguese was their incredible knowledge of English.  At Portuguese Telecom, for example, company reps said that nearly 100% of new hires (many of whom are just high school grads) can speak fluent English.  I found this to be true throughout the country as nearly everyone in restaurants, hotels, and even on the street spoke almost perfect English.  It would be fantastic if schools in the US could also teach languages that well!

The highlight of the Lisbon trip was watching Portugal win

against Russia in a world cup qualifying soccer game.  It was one of the most exciting sporting events I’ve seen, and I was thrilled when Portugal pulled through 1:0.

Lisbon, Portugal's Soccer (Futbol) Stadium

Part of the group at lunch in Lagos

After Lisbon, my group went to Lagos for a few days.  Lagos is probably my favorite city on the trip so far.  It has a coastal feel with temperate weather and beaches that rival America’s best.  Compared to other tourist beach-towns, Lagos is relatively small and never felt too crowded.  The food was also probably the best of the trip. Lagos is even home to one of the world's top 50 burger joints.

The "End of the World"

Another highlight of the Lagos trip was getting to see Cape St. Vincent in Sagres, Portugal - once considered the "end of the world" before the discovery of the Americas. Hard to believe that people once thought only sea monsters were beyond this point.

My favorite part of Lagos, though, was hiking to the beachside cliff formations and admiring their splendor and uniqueness.  The caves, grottoes, and sea arches formed naturally over millennia.  It was quite possibly the prettiest place I have ever seen in my life.

Part of the Ponta de Piedade cliffs in Lagos

With all the traveling associated with this program, several of my friends have asked if I’m actually “studying” at all, and the answer is yes!  I have class for 3 hours almost every day.  On days that I don’t have class, there’s usually a company visit or another class-organized excursion.  I’ve just had to spend my time more productively and to work together with my team to get our work done.  My professor is teaching the class (Operations Management) in a way that requires lots of teamwork and collaborative learning, and much of the course also incorporates case studies and our company visits.  I’ve learned quite a bit from the class so far.  I just wish that all classes were this enjoyable.  It’ll be tough going back to normal semesters. Heck, it'll be tough going back to real life.