An update..

Hey, I haven't blogged for a long time because I had nothing positive to say and didn't want to write a post filled with sadness.

However, I am no longer miserable as I will be returning home for good within the next two weeks - I cannot wait!

For now I will update you on some of the interesting things I have done;

La fiesta de la primavera: The spring party.
This is a massive celebration especially in Granada whereby thousands of youngsters unite to drink in the street and be merry. Here are some photos;

Loads of people

The girls and I

Most people start drinking from 4pm until 9/10pm, go home and get changed and go out for the evening. However, I did not manage this! When I drink in the day I get very tired, so I came home and went straight to sleep.. oops!

Sophia's 21st

To celebrate we went out for a lovely Mexican meal and then went for cocktails. Here are some pics;

Me being Mexican

Complimentary tequilla

In the cocktail bar

That's all for now! See you xxx

The physical pain of heart break

In this post I am going to be very honest with how I feel...

After being at home with my family and boyfriend, seeing friends and generally enjoying being back in my homeland it is safe to say that I did not want to return to my year abroad. I think this is quite understandable given the joke of a uni here, the heavy work load and the homesickness (all explained in previous posts). 

So 4.30am I got up this morning to make the 2hour trip to Gatwick, then to fly for 2hours, to take the bus from Malaga Airport to Malaga Coach Station, to take the coach for 2hours and finally to take the bus from Granada Coach Station back to my flat. That doesn't sound too appetising at the best of times but imagine having to do all that travelling when you really don't want to go. 

I saw many happy holiday makers at the airport excited about their breaks away to hotter countries and was sad that I couldn't feel excited about the prospect of my journey away. I knew something they didn't though, although they would enjoy their holidays of 7 or 14 nights, most of them would probably look forward to returning home again at the end, back to their creature comforts and to where they belong. I don't have that privilege. 

Referring back to the title of this post I want to describe to you how I feel every time I have to say goodbye to my lovely mum, sister, grandad and boyfriend. It hurts so badly it is like a physical pain deep in my chest. It makes my throat swell up as I try to choke back the tears. It is such a deep pain inside that no matter how hard I try to swallow my tears, it is impossible and they come streaming out. 

So that is one of the reasons why I dislike being on the year abroad so much, I hate not being with the ones I love the most.

Exams are over!!!

Finally did my last exam today!!

Glad to have got that out of the way and the 10 page project that went with it!

So I am waiting on the results of this exam and one other. Unfortunately the cabrón of an Italian teacher failed all the erasmus students :@ .. So running total; passed one, failed one, waiting for results of two. Fingers crossed. I have worked so hard over these past 5 weeks, I have barely left my flat!

But great news, I am going home tomorrow!!! :D So so so excited!!!! A little break and time away from here is just what I need.

I am so fed up of studying, this has definitely made me realise that I do not want to do a masters after my degree!
Being here has made me realise a lot of things about life, but I will save those reflections till the very end as I am sure I will have more to add to my list of revelations!

I will leave this post on a quote I liked from the material I studied for my final exam;
"No hay paz entre los países sin paz entre las religiones"
"There is no peace between countries without peace between religions"
Sweet <3
                   

Exams at the University of Granada

My idea of an exam is total silence, invigilators walking up and down, phones switched off and bags at the front. I expect for most U.K students this is what is perceived as an exam.
Well in Spain - no.

My first exam had a very casual feel to it, the teacher left the classroom to speak on her phone whilst we remained writing our exam and trying not to get distracted by listening to her very loud conversation. Whenever anyone asked her a question it wasn't in a hushed tone or in a whisper, it was in a normal voice and a small discussion would follow. After I completed the paper the teacher looked over it and was able to tell me then and there whether I had passed or not (I passed that subject as I found it interesting - the only one of my four subjects that was!).

Another thing I find strange is that the teacher will read the exam paper out to the class before giving it to you. Odd.

There is no worry about phones, in fact in only one of my exams the teacher asked us to put it on silent. I was able to keep my bag with me during this exam as well - something that would never occur in the U.K!

Some people have also informed me that cheating is very common as people have their notes with them and look over them whilst the teacher isn't paying attention or leaves the room. Another girl told me that during one of her exams they had to sign a register, and whilst it was being passed around people would add the answers to some of the questions to the margin of the register so the whole class could cheat.

Invigilators don't exist here, only the teacher remains in the exam room - regardless whether it is a class of 100 or a class of 10. So it is no wonder such cheating takes place.

Another interesting thing is the difference between teachers. For example, I have taken Italian from scratch and my friend has taken Portuguese from scratch. So both beginners level.
However, my exam consisted of a dictation, a lot of grammar, translation, a written exercise and if I pass then I have to do an oral exam.
My friend's exam was 4 question on one side of paper.

Ridiculous! Unfortunately I just seemed to pick badly this semester.

The subjects here (at least the ones I have chosen) are not easy to pass. I have been studying solidly since I have got back at Christmas - a month ago. There is soooo much information to try and learn.

A final remark about the exams here is the timings. Yesterday (Friday) I had an exam at 8.30am which meant I had to get up at 6am to make it there in time. How horrible is that! AND, today (Saturday) I had an exam at 9.30am on a Saturday!!!! What! To make matters worse the university buses don't run on the weekends as supposedly students shouldn't need to go into uni over the weekend, so I had to walk up the huge hill which takes about half an hour.

Not to mention this morning's exam itself, which was pretty hideous. It was a 2hour exam and I left after 45minutes - never have I done that in my life! You would assume that I had done no revision for it, well wrong, I studied my bum off, did all the work and went to all the classes yet still found the exam a joke.

All I can say to the second years who are coming out here next year is good luck! It is so much more shit than you could ever imagine it to be. Come out here with zero expectations and maybe you will enjoy it.

Better go and write my 10 page essay and revise for my next exam now - life of an erasmus my arse!

Exam Season

Hello hello,

Another quick update. It won't be too exciting as I don't have any pics to upload as I haven't done anything!

I am happy to say that I passed my first exam on Thursday after a lot of revision! Three more left to go... Unfortunately they are the worst ones and I am having to double my efforts as some of the material is so awful I don't even understand it... I am hoping that if I study hard enough and learn the material I will be able to pass regardless of whether I actually grasp all the concepts! It is very tough trying to study for a subject that you don't like, don't understand and is in your second language - let me tell you!

12 days until I get to go back home though, so that is keeping me motivated!!

Looking through modules for second semester is not quite as interesting as when I picked my first semester modules as I know now how shit the classes are and I know what to expect from the uni. So I have taken another tactic, I am picking modules based on when the exams are so that I can be home early/mid June for my sister's birthday :D. Hopefully if I pass the modules this semester I won't have to worry so much about second semester and can concentrate on my year abroad project and try to enjoy myself here.

That is all for now, byeeee!

Hello stress!!

Hi chicos, time for a quick update!

So I went home for Christmas and it was AWESOME. After 3months of being away from home, being back was like heaven. I celebrated my 21st birthday there with family and close friends and had a great time. And now I am back. 

Welcome back to Spain with exams, revision, essays.... yawn yawn yawn! Sadly alongside this I am also expected to write my dissertation, do the University of Southampton think I am super woman?! I already spend 98% of my time at university and studying and the other 2% sleeping... Realistically if I want to pass these exams I will have to leave my dissertation at this moment because there is no way I can do both.. ¡Que estrés! 

You can only imagine the pressure! 

On the plus side, I am able to go home for a short while between the end of exams and start of the second semester :D (yes I will still be studying there).

Now this might not sound odd as I am a student, but this certainly doesn't seem like the average blog of an erasmus student to me. They are expected to have fun, travel a lot, be drunk all the time, be happy and not have to worry. Well unfortunately, I can't do this due to the amount of work I have. So when I was home and people asked me, "are you having a great time? Getting to travel around a lot?", my answer is no!

Seeing other people's blogs makes me feel disappointed that I am not able to enjoy my year abroad as much as they seem to be. Oh well such is life and I will be home soon.

Rant over for now, laters xx

21st birthday!

Hola :),

My birthday is on the 21st December and I wanted to celebrate here with my friends before I went home (I go home on the 14th). I thought I was going to celebrate it by doing a few small things with my different groups of friends..

Well, on Tuesday night I was meant to be going for a curry in one of the few Indian restaurants in Granada with Sophia and two other good friends. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well and had taken the day before off uni to try and recover and thus didn't bother to dress up on Tuesday night to go out. I went over to Sophia's to meet up with her and one of the other girls before leaving to meet Christina (who I love dearly but is always late). When I arrived I was surprised by how much effort Sophia had made just to go for a curry, she was wearing a lovely outfit and had her make up done really nicely. I looked like a tramp! She encouraged me to paint my nails or do my hair if I wanted but I wasn't feeling great and decided not to as we were only going for a curry after all. Sophia was acting a little odd by making us watch tv and even offering to make tea. I found this odd as normally she is so keen to go and eat (as am I) and I was absolutely starving and was wondering why we weren't making a move.

Eventually we left and went to meet Christina. When we arrived she said she wasn't ready and buzzed us into her flat. I was so hungry and was trying to encourage her to hurry up. The girls told me to go and wait in the lounge as it was 'warmer'. So eventually I opened the lounge door and was greeted by the opening of a bottle of pink bubbly and the shouting of 'surprise' by some of my bestest girls in Granada. Sophia had managed to plan a whole surprise party without me even knowing! Christina was an amazing host and had prepared lots of food and decorated the lounge for me. I was truly touched.

Girlies <3

Sophia and Christina had gone to soo much effort, there were penis straws, a hello kitty table cover and the gifts they got me...

Penis water pistol

Penis glasses

A gorgeous new dress (you can't really see here and are probably distracted by the penis on my head)

After drinking lots of pink bubbly and a lot of banter (they even made some rules, if any of the following words were said I had to drink) ;

We finally headed out to Mae West for a fun filled night where all the men thought it was my hen do because of the penis on my head, and were surprised it was just my birthday. Caused a lot of interest by all accounts! Although I didn't drink that much, I think the combination of alcohol and all the medication I had been taking left me quite sozzled.. According to my housemate my speech became very slow and slurred...!! 

Chicas en la mae

No pare la fiesta, don't stop the party!

I had a great time and truly had no idea about the surprise party! Thank you Sophia <3 love you lots and Christina <3 and to everyone who made the effort to come! 

The next day I spent on the sofa recovering from the night and feeling under the weather. I made sure I had a big siesta in the day as I had planned to go out with my housemates that night to celebrate my birthday. We had planned to go for a lovely meal and then go out partying.

Before we left my two official housemates and my adopted housemate - María (the best friend of one of my official housemates) came singing feliz cumpleaños (happy birthday) into the lounge where I was sat and brought me some presents;

So cute <3 and all pink, they know me so well!

Then we continued to get ready to go out.

Mis compañeras antes de salir <3 <3

We went to a gorgeous french restaurant and we ate some lovely food. For main we ordered a meat fondue, which you cooked yourself at the table. It was like a normal fondue but with hot oil in which you added the meat on metal sticks (cannot think of the word in English.. lol) and cooked it to your liking. It also came with potatoes, cheese and pate which you could cook. It was great fun!

The fondue

Meat, potato, sauces

The restaurant

Dessert.. mmmmm chocolate!!

After the meal we took a taxi to Camborio, a really famous night club in the mountains which overlooks the Alhambra.

Compañeras <3 <3 <3

As it was so high up in the mountains it was absolutely freezing! Some of the music they played was a bit disappointing and the people inside were mainly erasmus acting drunk and stupid. So we went home a little earlier than expected and decided next time to go to the trusty Mae which is in walking distance from home and always a great night out.

So I had a great time celebrating my birthday here, now I have my actual birthday to look forward to at home :D how exciting! Hopefully I will have recovered from this pesky illness by then as it is really starting to bug me (see the pun there :p).

I better go and move my bum off the lovely warm sofa,

ciao for now! xxxx