The first MSE semester is completed!

16 weeks passed since we first began the classes in August.

My life took so many spins and turns between these weeks that I can hardly say anymore that I'm still the same person as I was 10 months ago, but, deep inside I don't think that I've really changed that much, what changed radically was the environment, the people and the challenges. The image that people had from "brito" in the past has changed to "nuno" but underneath the hood I'm still the same person.

The course is tiring but for the first time in a long time I'm really having fun.

Some of things that I enjoyed the most were the long nighters to get assignments done. Working at night in the computer department of Coimbra is simply inspiring, the whole atmosphere brings the right mood for creativity and I'll miss that.

Contrary to what I believed, the first semester focused so much on communication and solving people related issues that we barely talked about anything programming related - it's interesting that when you learn to talk with others, software development becomes so much easier and you can actually start to focus on the things that really matter.

It's not easy to live without a salary but costs are nevertheless balanced to some extent since we're in Coimbra and near to the family, contributing to seriously reduce my monthly expenses. My savings are still short but I'm working to improve them, one step at a time and things are still moving forward.

I still have some free time to enjoy Christmas with my family and then all of our class will fly to Pittsburgh in order to attend the second semester. A house has already been rented and my main worry for the moment is my job situation with my former employer. Somehow I have the feeling that things will get quite complicated within the next months.

But things will work out, all it takes is a bit of faith in the future and ourselves.

:)