Surf and studies
During our interview the internet connection acts up occasionally, but otherwise Niklas Sundell and Jonathan Olsson could just as well be sitting in a student room in Ryd or somewhere else in Linköping. Now they’re online from the living room of the small apartment near the centre of Aveiro, Portugal, on the Atlantic coast. Proximity to the coast was an important reason for their choice of Aveiro.
Photo credit Anna Nilsen
“Today it’s raining, but otherwise we’ve had good weather since we arrived in March. Sun most days, and around 20°. It’s wonderful”, says Jonathan.
“We study, but it feels a bit like holidays – and last week we tried surfing”, Niklas adds.
Wanted to travel
Struck by wanderlust three years into their master’s programme Energy, Environment, Management, they decided to spend the autumn term of 2020 in Valencia, Spain, where LiU has a popular exchange programme. But the pandemic got in the way, and all of LiU’s exchanges were paused during that term.
Autumn came, and they started looking into options for the spring term. They liked the look of the university in Aveiro, a much smaller town of just over 70,000, in Portugal – Spain’s western neighbour. Partly because infection rates were higher in Spain than in Portugal, and partly because it was good to have an alternative to Valencia. In the end it was a tough decision, as the pandemic surged around Christmas and into January.
At the beach.
“Every day I checked the stats for infection rates and deaths, and it just kept going up. It looked really bad then. But in February it started to plateau, and then it started to drop”, says Niklas, adding that the university postponed the course start by a few weeks, from February to early March.
What about the timing of the trip to Portugal?
“Well, I was thinking that maybe we should wait a few weeks, and follow the course remotely. But Niklas wanted to go, and it was good to have a travel partner. And course, we wanted to do something different, and had wanted to do an exchange for a long time”, says Jonathan.
Opens up again
At the time of our interview, in mid April, infection rates have dropped, and slowly but surely Portugal is re-opening, going from ‘almost lockdown’ in early March to a semi-open society with open museums, al fresco dining for small groups, and sports like tennis and padel under way in some of the town’s many parks. Being able to sit outside at restaurants felt like a game changer, and Jonatan and Niklas hope to see further easing in the restrictions as spring proceeds.
However, all teaching is still online, and they have only visited the university once. The University of Aveiro has roughly 11,000 students, including some 150 Erasmus students – mostly from Germany, Poland and Italy. Teaching is in English, and Niklas and Jonathan say the pace is somewhat slower than in Sweden, perhaps because they had time to study a few courses at LiU before they departed for Portugal.
Describe an average day – what do you do?
“We get up at around 10-11, and have breakfast at 11. We normally work out, run or go to an outdoor gym, and then we often go to a park for a snack, to study or to listen to music. The good weather makes it easy to be outdoors. Then during the day we normally have some scheduled teaching, and in the evening we might meet a group of exchange students who we’ve got to know.
Just one mishap
Niklas and Jonathan in one of Averio's many parks.
This far into the spring, the two are happy with their exchange. The risks are hardly higher than in Sweden – infection rates are lower and they’ve got used to wearing a mask – while there is also so much to do and experience. And Aveiro is a positive surprise. Yes, it is smaller and perhaps less cool than Valencia, but it’s friendly, beautiful, and most attractions are within walking distance.
They’ve only had one mishap: when Niklas fell ill and was admitted to hospital. Tired and feverish, he heard the Portuguese nurses talking about ‘appendix’ and ‘operação’ (operation) of a suspected appendicitis. It turned out not to be so serious, and after a double treatment of penicillin for eight days, Niklas made a full recovery.
“It was an experience, you could say. I was in pretty bad shape when I got back from hospital, so Jonathan had to take care of me and do all the cooking. In situations like that, it’s good to be two”, he says.
- This article is also published in LiU Magazine 2/2021
- Read more about Aveiro.
