Following in Saramago’s footsteps in Portugal

"We always end up in the places where we are expected."  - Jose Saramago

I've wanted to go to Portugal since high school, after I started reading Saramago. Until then I was just amused by the Portuguese language, which from a distance sounded like Russian, I knew some things about the Portuguese history and the great Portuguese sailors, I was a fan of pastéis de nata, but I had never visited the country, nor did I think it would ever appeal to me enough to end up living and studying there. 

As books have the wonderful gift of not smoothing your curiosity but of intensifying it even more, I went from Saramago to Pessoa, sought out all the places that appeared in their books and ended up creating an increasingly rich picture of the Lusitanian spirit. Even reading the preface or afterword of a book, written by the translator, I came to discover words like "saudade" and "desassossego" which I found fascinating and which made me want to read my favourite author in his mother tongue.

I didn't get the chance to do this until I found out that the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, where I was a Master's student, had a study mobility partnership with the best Portuguese university, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, so I took the last chance to study there for a semester (because I only had one semester left), from February to June 2022.

I started learning Portuguese immediately after my scholarship confirmation and by the time I started classes three months later I was already fluent in Portuguese and attending classes taught exclusively in Camoes' language.

I liked tremendously the teaching style of the university I went to. Being a group of only 10 Master's students, we were able to connect with the professors and have a very personalized exchange of information and an educational experience that was much more tailored to everyone's needs. I had the great joy of building a very nice academic relationship with Professor Isabel Baptista, who accepted to co-supervise my dissertation and invited me to include presentations of my research in a series of international events and conferences she organised there. 

The Erasmus+ experience has been very intense one, both academically and personally and I feel that I have gained, besides a new language, a different educational perspective, a great mentor and a second home, where I can return anytime to build educational projects and expand my international collaborations.
 

Updated on Mardi, 17/02/2026