Kristoffer Julin did his exchange studies at ISEP, Porto

Before the exchange period

Starting off my third year of studies at Novia I applied for exchange studies at ISEP, Porto, even before I starting off my studies at Novia I have been interested about exchange studies, and especially about EPS, since it seemed so convenient, but the question has always been about where to go and how to manage the financial part and the new lifestyle included when moving abroad, eventually I decided to apply to Porto, and roughly a month later I got accepted, which was even more awesome than I could grasp in the beginning.

After the letter of acceptance, the time to find some housing came, the searching of apartments can be done quite easily through housing groups on Facebook, but oftentimes the landlords require you to pay a deposit fee in order to get the contract signed, and the risk of getting scammed exists. Me and Tim posted housing requests on different Facebook groups about our need of a rental apartment, and we then got contacted by a lady renting out a 3-bedroom apartment, which we then chose to move in to.

Arrival

After browsing and looking for the best priced flights we found out that KLM had the cheapest flights from Helsinki to Porto, since there are no direct flights available from Helsinki to Porto, we had to first fly to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, from where we took a connecting flight towards Porto, the flights took a total of 6,5 hours and we arrived late on the night the 11th of february to Porto, after landing in Porto and picking up our luggage we then ordered a cab through the Bolt app, Bolt and Uber is by the way the cheapest way to move around in Portugal, if you don’t want to queue for the metros and the buses which oftentimes are late.

After some misunderstanding with the cab driver we finally arrived to Paranhos where our apartment is located, upon arrival our roommate Fatima then came to meet us and gave us our keys and showed us around the apartment, everything went well and after a long day of traveling we almost immediately fell asleep.

The first week consisted of a lot of wine tastings and exploring around the city where me and Tim got to know each other even better before the school was to start, the first
impression about Porto was super nice and we both quite quickly adapted to the new situation and environment.

During the exchange period

After a week of vacation and a lot of exploring, the school finally started the 17th of February, at the morning I woke up quite excited for the upcoming day and me & Tim had some good breakfast before going to school, after breakfast we walked to the campus area which was a five minute walk from home, the arrival to the campus was a bit overwhelming at first but it turned out to be quite chill at the end of the day, the event overall was planned very well.

Upon arrival to the campus we stood in a long queue to the auditorium where the welcome weeks program was to take place, in the queue we found all the other incoming Erasmus students sitting in the same boat as us, there we stood, shaking hands and having small talk with the other incoming exchange students meanwhile standing in line to the lecture hall.

The schools staff took great care of us, and you immediately felt welcomed.

After entering the auditorium the schools students welcomed us with a music show where we got to hear some local Fado music, the show was awesome, after the show, the schools staff held some speech about the schools rules and more details about the school and Porto overall to help you settle down.

After this event we then proceeded to the next event where all the incoming exchange students made food from their homecountries, and we got to taste it. There in the room where the event took place you could network and get to know the new classmates to come, when the event ended we finally got home, and I was quite exhausted of all the socializing and the first impressions we did there, but the vibes were good and by the end of the day you already realized you had made some new friends already.

The rest of the week consisted of a lot of events and group activities, where you got to know the other students and the way the school system works at ISEP.

Already after a few days I started missing my training routine and therefore went around and asked if someone would be interested in starting training, most of the people were not interested but, after some searching I found two interested guys, Mateusz from Poland, and Martin from Czech Republic, me and Mateusz were training together for the whole Erasmus, and our philosophy was to train hard over the weekdays, and then on the weekends enjoy some Port wine and Superbock.

So with that said, don’t stress about the new situation and the making of new friends, go with the flow, and you will quickly realize that everyone else is in the same boat as you, and you’ll see everything falling into place faster than you could ever expect. Another interesting thing worth mentioning is the fact that the majority of people on the exchange program are quite interested in traveling and experiencing new things as well as meeting new people, which in my case was quite aligned with my own interests also.

Just remember to keep an open mind and try to be yourself in a relaxed way and you will definitely see the puzzle fully assembled before you even realize its construction phase has even started, it’s perfectly normal to feel a bit nervous in the beginning, but just try to say yes to the things outside your comfort zone and you will definitely succeed.

Project

After the first few weeks of introductions and getting to know the new school and classmates, everything started to fall in place, and we eventually got the decision about our project groups, the time came to choose a category for our project. In the beginning of the project our group dynamic was not working very good, due to very mixed opinions and the diversity of our study fields, which oftentimes resulted in unrealistic wishes and the project scope often changing, finally after some brainstorming we came to the conclusion that we wanted to make something eco-friendly, and from there we selected the project category Smartification of Everyday Objects.

Once we had our project category selected, thoughts and ideas started quickly flowing, and we came up with a project scope already on our first project sprint, the scope consisted of a water redirecting system for showers, The idea was to make a product which redirects cold water from a direct heated boiler to a tank instead of the shower in case the temperature was under a certain temperature setting, because in Portugal it is a big problem that you have to wait about 30-40 seconds before the water gets warm, which leads to 7-8 liters of fresh water being wasted per shower.

Quite early on of the studies the courses also started and with the project management & team work course, we applied the principles of agile project management directly to our project, and divided the work between our group members, meanwhile also dividing the project into sprints.

Later into the project’s progression we finally had the schematics and 3d-models done for the project, and now came the time to order parts for the prototype which we had to assemble before our final presentation 18.6.25, the school sponsored up to 100 euros worth of component procurement, and we managed to successfully acquire components within that threshold.

After finally receiving all the components, I started assembling the electronics and the hardware, and my teammate Darius did the programming for the microcontroller.

We managed to successfully assemble the prototype as shown in the picture below.

The finished prototype.

My EPS team.

Free time

After a few weeks the school schedule started having a bit more gaps in it, and we started having more free time in our hands. Since Portugal is located in Southern Europe, it is very easy and cheap to travel to other North African and Southern/Central European countries, which was like a dream for me as a guy who loves traveling, progressing further into the studies we often got quite a lot of days off from school. During our first break me and my roommate Tim, went on a backpacking trip through Morocco, which was one of my favorite trips so far, we flew from Porto to Tangier, and from there we then took a bus to go to Chefchaouen, and from there to Fès, and afterwards to Marrakech, and lastly from there to Agadir, from where we flew back to Porto.

During the trip we got to experience a lot of new stuff, and since it was my first time in a Muslim country, the culture shock was quite big, with five days in Morocco between our flights, we had five cities to explore also, the vacation was very eventful, and I think I have never experienced this much in a short amount of time like this before.

Scooter roadtrip through Douro wine region, from the left, Tim, me, Cecil.

Me and Tim standing above the famous tannery in Fès, Morocco.

Me, Tim, Simon, Till, Jouke, and Pierre enjoying the sunrise at the top of Pico de Arieiro.

The school’s ’juice towers’.

What I’ve learned

When it comes to the wisdom I’ve gained during my Erasmus period, the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that you should always try to keep an open mind in unknown and new situations, and to also begin saying yes to things outside of your comfort zone more often, because that’s the zone where the most wisdom is available to be gained.

Also during my exchange period I have noticed that I have significantly improved my public speaking skills, and have become overall more relaxed in situations like those, these things do not improve without exiting the comfort zone bubble, and Erasmus is a perfect tool for improving this, Also I’ve learned to work in a multicultural environment, where you often may need to have some patience, for example it’s quite usual in Southern Europe, that people live in a way more laid back lifestyle compared to what we are used to, and because of that we can stress ourselves up, in the beginning it was a bit annoying when other people took it easy meanwhile I felt like we had a strict timetable to catch up with, but even I got used to living in the moment after some time passed.

Summary of the exchange

The exchange period went by with the blink of an eye and now I am writing the report already back home, this period abroad has for sure been the best one of the best times of my life so far, and a lot has been learned over these five months. Living abroad and starting over again can for sure in the beginning sound like a big and scary step, but it gives you as a person both professionally and generally a lot of new perspectives, when adapting to the new place and culture you will slowly but surely realize that you’ll implement new everyday things into your life connected to the culture and the people you’re surrounded by, both good and bad ones. There’s just so much to be experienced and learned outside your comfort zone, and a lot of internationally located new friendships waiting for you, so if you’re even slightly thinking about going on a study period abroad, you should definitely do it.

Kristoffer Julin
El- och automationsteknik
Yrkeshögskolan Novia, Vasa