Master of Environmental Sciences employed at the Anton Melik Geographical Institute, Scientific Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts / Portuguese

My name is Daniela Alexandra Teixeira da Costa Ribeiro, I come from Portugal and have been living in Slovenia for 8 years. I moved to Slovenia for my sweetheart, whom I met through an Erasmus exchange programme in Slovakia (so I have no difficulty distinguishing Slovenia from Slovakia). I started a family here and Slovenia has become my home country. During this time I worked at several places (with the Institute of Anthropological and Spatial Studies of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Ljubljana and with the University of Nova Gorica), I felt good there and made many friends. Currently I work for the Anton Melik Geographical Institute of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. I was really welcomed by the team and that has made me feel even more at home – except when they make jokes about my grammatical mistakes. At work I have been spoken to in Slovenian, which helped me master the language more quickly and indeed made it easier for me to integrate into society. 

During these years, Slovenia has certainly become more open and welcoming to differences and foreigners.  It seems to me that in comparison with Portugal the advantages of living in Slovenia are health and social care for citizens (maternity leave duration, medical care in hospitals, etc.), the country is safe, and social inequality is not too high. I also enjoy the beauties of the great outdoors.

In Slovenia, the cost of living, services and food prices in stores are extremely high compared to salaries. In Portugal, these expenses are lower. 

It is interesting to observe Slovenia, a country independent for a quarter of a century (a young country), and Portugal, a country with almost 900 years of history.