University of Wisconsin–Madison

Portugal: Ella Sabo (Our Global Classroom and Places: Routine and Favorite)

A classroom set up with two rows of tables, with two blue chairs and computers at each table.
One out of 3 of our Lusofona Classrooms

Our Global Classroom

On a day to day basis our classrooms stayed pretty much the same, however the style of the rooms and the sizes were very different from what I’ve experienced here at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In Lisbon the classrooms, or technically lecture halls, were far smaller than what I’m used to. The room style very much reminded me of what a classroom was like when I was in later elementary school and early middle school. They were very different from the modernized lecture halls we have here. Over there the lecture halls, or classrooms, are very much centered around the lecturer or the professor. But here in our more modernized lecture halls, the classroom is very much centered around group activity and we are expected to bring our own method of notetaking. There in each of the rooms there are desktop computers where students are able to log in. We studied at two different Universities while we were there and the set up of the rooms that we were in were very similar, there wasn’t much variation between the set up and the looks of them.

Colorful buildings, slowly getting higher further in the background due to a hill.
A very common view we would have while walking in Lisbon

Places: Routine & Favorite

Every day was very similar yet very different at the same time, we would all get up at roughly the same time as each other to then go and get breakfast in the lobby of the hotel and then we would all leave to go to the University that we were studying at. So we would get up at 8 AM to get down to breakfast by 8:15 so that we had at least 15 minutes to eat so that we could leave at 8:30 to get to the University at 9 AM which was when class would start. Class would go from 9 AM to 12 PM. Dr. Cook was very good about making sure that we would get small breaks here and there so that we weren’t just sitting in the classroom listening to their lecture for 3 hours straight. After class we would have about 2-3 hours for a lunch break, during this time we would all usually break apart into small groups and go and do some smaller things and get food at a place that we would like to try. At around 3 PM we would have a guest lecture at CIEE which is the University that hosted us and was the one that was the closest to us. The lecture would last around 2 hours, sometimes if we had a shorter lunch break we would have a longer guest lecture so that we were done at roughly the same time every day which was usually around 5 PM. One of my favorite things about my routine was when we discovered the Uber Lime scooters and that there was a hub right outside the hotel and the university that was farther away. The scooters were so nice in the morning because they cut down so much time.

 

Ella, wearing a Badger shirt and hat, takes a selfie in front of others wearing Wisconsin apparel.

Ella Sabo

Hometown: Pepin, Wisconsin

Major: Kinesiology

Program Title: UW Movement As Medicine In Portugal

A personal goal I have for this program is to get a different perspective of what it’s really like living in a European country. And to have my own experience of living in a European country.

I chose my program because I found it interesting in how there could be a difference in the views that another country/region has on physical activity and how that affects their willingness to participate in physical activity. I also was very interested in the culture that exists in Portugal and what the health care is like there.