So everybody says the year abroad is meant to be an incredible experience, the best year yet and a whole lot of fun.. I want to analyse this and write my pros and cons about my experience in Spain so far.
The year abroad is amazing because:
1. You can enjoy the culture of another country and get stuck in.
2. It is the best way to improve your language.
3. You can travel the country very cheaply.
4. You deal with everyday situations in the target language. You cannot avoid it, it is everywhere - t.v, in the street, music, at uni, at home etc. Perfect for improving your language.
5. The prices. Food is sooo cheap, so is alcohol, thus a night out is a bargain.
6. I want to write weather here but given that it is chucking it down here and has been raining cats and dogs on and off for a few weeks now, I don't think this point is valid!
Cons of the year abroad:
1. Everybody says "erasmus don't have to do much work".. This is the biggest pile of poo I have ever heard. I get plenty of work from the university here and yes I have to do it because I need to pass the year. Some universities don't require their students to pass but Southampton does. If I have any chance of passing the year I need to do the work set!
2. Year abroad project. Aka dissertation. Yep you all thought I was out here living it up but actually I have to write a serious research project which counts for my mark of this year. It is super important and not easy. Reading, interviewing and writing this bad boy in Spanish is no fun.
3. Being away from home. For me this is the worst part. I hate not being able to jump on a train and go home to see my family. I arrived here in September and won't be going home until December. Doesn't sound long but for a girl who hasn't been away from her family for longer than 3weeks - it is pretty tough.
4. Dealing with the over-relaxed way of life. I mean siestas are great but other than that things happen way too slowly here! For example, our student cards took about 3weeks to arrive and it turns out they are only laminated pieces of card.. We actually thought we would get proper cards like the students do here.. No such luck and it still took ages!
5. Bureaucracy. What a joke! If you have read my post titled "Spanish bureaucracy" you will understand what I mean.
6. Disorganisation. The uni is a joke. Full stop.
Therefore, I think the year abroad is an amazing experience and will be great for my Spanish but it is like any other year work wise apart from I am in a different country and can't see my family.
Adiós!
Friday, 26 October 2012
Un poco de todo
What has been going down in Granada town lately?
Weather
Well it has rained a hell of a lot which is a joke, I can see rain in the U.K I don't want to see it here!! Also it is not good when you don't have any waterproof shoes. My mission of tomorrow is to find some! My poor boots have got soaked through to the point that they have officially died. It is not acceptable to wear shoes any longer that let in whole puddles and drench my socks/feet.
University
Haha, still the biggest joke ever and often result in me and Sophia turning to alcohol at the end of the day! Yesterday I had classes from 11am until 8pm with only a one hour break for lunch! That is sooo painful trust me!
Some teachers here are utter pricks as well - like my Italian teacher who likes to pick on people. If they can't answer his question fast enough he says ''you are boring me'' and moves on to the next person! He also wants us to buy a course book that costs €37... jog on mate! For one semester I don't think so! Instead I decided to get it copied like a lot of people in the class have done. A girl from my class lent me the book so I went off to get it copied on Wednesday... Well like everything out here, it didn't go to plan. I got told that I could only copy a tenth of the book in one shop and that I couldn't copy any of the book in another due to copyright laws. Dejected, I returned home and told my housemate who recommended me a shop on the same street as the others I visited that day and insisted I would be able to get the whole book copied there. So off I went again in look for this shop and low and behold it turned out to be the one that had told me that they couldn't copy books...
I returned home quite annoyed. Luckily my housemate kindly offered to go down to the shop herself as she knew someone that worked there and he would do it for her. Phew! I could have been in big trouble if I couldn't get a copy of the stupid book!
The only good thing about UGR is the food. You can get a 3 course meal including bread for €4.50. Noooom!!!
Weather
Well it has rained a hell of a lot which is a joke, I can see rain in the U.K I don't want to see it here!! Also it is not good when you don't have any waterproof shoes. My mission of tomorrow is to find some! My poor boots have got soaked through to the point that they have officially died. It is not acceptable to wear shoes any longer that let in whole puddles and drench my socks/feet.
University
Haha, still the biggest joke ever and often result in me and Sophia turning to alcohol at the end of the day! Yesterday I had classes from 11am until 8pm with only a one hour break for lunch! That is sooo painful trust me!
Some teachers here are utter pricks as well - like my Italian teacher who likes to pick on people. If they can't answer his question fast enough he says ''you are boring me'' and moves on to the next person! He also wants us to buy a course book that costs €37... jog on mate! For one semester I don't think so! Instead I decided to get it copied like a lot of people in the class have done. A girl from my class lent me the book so I went off to get it copied on Wednesday... Well like everything out here, it didn't go to plan. I got told that I could only copy a tenth of the book in one shop and that I couldn't copy any of the book in another due to copyright laws. Dejected, I returned home and told my housemate who recommended me a shop on the same street as the others I visited that day and insisted I would be able to get the whole book copied there. So off I went again in look for this shop and low and behold it turned out to be the one that had told me that they couldn't copy books...
I returned home quite annoyed. Luckily my housemate kindly offered to go down to the shop herself as she knew someone that worked there and he would do it for her. Phew! I could have been in big trouble if I couldn't get a copy of the stupid book!
The only good thing about UGR is the food. You can get a 3 course meal including bread for €4.50. Noooom!!!
An example of one of the dishes yesterday - squid in a red wine sauce :D
This is definitely not something you would see in Avenue Café!!!
Partying
I went out clubbing sometime last week with Sophia and a group of girls we are friends with and Sophia had the genius idea to draw mustaches onto our faces. However, she got a little over-excited with mine and I ended up looking like Hitler. Needless to say, we had to wipe it off before leaving as I didn't want to get killed! Instead I got cat's whiskers drawn on me - cute!
The crazy ones amongst us with our faces painted!
No crazy stories to report though - other than the strange looks we got as you can imagine!
Things I have noted about Spain
1. The smell of weed. It is everywhere! On the streets, at uni... I really didn't think the Spanish would need to chill out much more! Which leads me onto my next point;
2. The laidbackness (new word lol). The teachers don't really give a toot. You can stroll into class half an hour late, you can wander off to the toilet for twenty minutes - no-one cares! There is no hurry here to do anything.
3. The amount of strikes. I know the students here are annoyed by the cuts in education and the increasing price of university but they aren't getting their monies worth by striking almost every week! Suits me though, less boring classes to attend!
Can't think of any more at the moment but I will continue this list on another post as more come to mind!!
Laters xxx
Wednesday, 17 October 2012
Adventures
I realised I hadn't written about the trips I have been on since I have been here - how disgraceful!
The first place I visited on the 22nd of September was Córdoba. It is a gorgeous little town with plenty to see. We visited some arabic baths, the mosque/cathedral which can I say is INCREDIBLE.. Half of it is mosque and the other half cathedral and as you walk from the lowly lit mosque area into the cathedral the light comes streaming in. The differences in design are very apparent. And it is all the same building, woweee!
We also visited some other ancient buildings with gorgeous gardens. It was sooooo hot that day though, by the time we finished looking around we were parched! Luckily lunch there was very cheap. I definitely recommend a visit to Córdoba to anyone who is interested in looking around lovely historical towns.
Córdoba
Secondly, I went to Sevilla on the 6th October. Wow, what a brilliant place. It is huge and definitely not a day trip location. There is so much to see. We visited the cathedral and some other lovely buildings. Again the arabic influence is apparent there too. Unfortunately we only had about 7hours there as it takes 3hours on the coach to get there from Granada so we didn't see as much as we could have. It was so worthwhile though, even though we were very tired by the end of the day. Not surprising considering the 6hours traveling!!
Sevilla
The week just gone I had my boyfriend to stay with me. It was great playing tour guide and being able to explore places I hadn't seen before. His flight home was early Monday morning so we had to spend the Sunday night in a hotel as there weren't any coaches that would make it to Malaga on time before his flight. We decided that it would be a nice idea to go to Malaga for 2nights so that we could explore the town and go to the beach on Saturday.
Well!!.. Malaga is shocking! Such an ugly town with nothing to do or see. The beach and the port were the only good things about the place. It is honestly the worst place in Spain I have ever been to. There was rubbish all over the streets and the poverty there seemed rife.
In order to get to our hotel from Malaga coach station we took a bus to the airport as our hotel was very close by. We had to take a taxi from the airport as we couldn't walk it due to all the motorway by the airport/hotel. When we pulled up outside the hotel the driver announced that it cost €19 - the minimum charge for an airport pick up even though the journey only lasted 5mins. What a joke. We were furious (I am still not over this!).
In order to not spend more money we tried to walk into town. We managed to get over the motorway via a bridge but then found ourselves in some sort of heath-land that went on forever with no escape. We could see where we wanted to go but couldn't get there. Eventually we found a gap in the fence and climbed though to civilisation. Unfortunately we were still very much on the outskirts of the town and it was an utter s**t hole!
On the plus side we managed to go to the beach on Sunday and got a tan but rest assured I will never be venturing into Malaga again besides making trips to the airport!
Beach!!
I just figured out how to add pictures so I am very excited now!! Hahaha.
To round off, I am off to do some uni work now yawn.. Looking forward to my family visiting me in 12days :D.
Peace out niños!! <3
The first place I visited on the 22nd of September was Córdoba. It is a gorgeous little town with plenty to see. We visited some arabic baths, the mosque/cathedral which can I say is INCREDIBLE.. Half of it is mosque and the other half cathedral and as you walk from the lowly lit mosque area into the cathedral the light comes streaming in. The differences in design are very apparent. And it is all the same building, woweee!
We also visited some other ancient buildings with gorgeous gardens. It was sooooo hot that day though, by the time we finished looking around we were parched! Luckily lunch there was very cheap. I definitely recommend a visit to Córdoba to anyone who is interested in looking around lovely historical towns.
Córdoba
Secondly, I went to Sevilla on the 6th October. Wow, what a brilliant place. It is huge and definitely not a day trip location. There is so much to see. We visited the cathedral and some other lovely buildings. Again the arabic influence is apparent there too. Unfortunately we only had about 7hours there as it takes 3hours on the coach to get there from Granada so we didn't see as much as we could have. It was so worthwhile though, even though we were very tired by the end of the day. Not surprising considering the 6hours traveling!!
Sevilla
The week just gone I had my boyfriend to stay with me. It was great playing tour guide and being able to explore places I hadn't seen before. His flight home was early Monday morning so we had to spend the Sunday night in a hotel as there weren't any coaches that would make it to Malaga on time before his flight. We decided that it would be a nice idea to go to Malaga for 2nights so that we could explore the town and go to the beach on Saturday.
Well!!.. Malaga is shocking! Such an ugly town with nothing to do or see. The beach and the port were the only good things about the place. It is honestly the worst place in Spain I have ever been to. There was rubbish all over the streets and the poverty there seemed rife.
In order to get to our hotel from Malaga coach station we took a bus to the airport as our hotel was very close by. We had to take a taxi from the airport as we couldn't walk it due to all the motorway by the airport/hotel. When we pulled up outside the hotel the driver announced that it cost €19 - the minimum charge for an airport pick up even though the journey only lasted 5mins. What a joke. We were furious (I am still not over this!).
In order to not spend more money we tried to walk into town. We managed to get over the motorway via a bridge but then found ourselves in some sort of heath-land that went on forever with no escape. We could see where we wanted to go but couldn't get there. Eventually we found a gap in the fence and climbed though to civilisation. Unfortunately we were still very much on the outskirts of the town and it was an utter s**t hole!
On the plus side we managed to go to the beach on Sunday and got a tan but rest assured I will never be venturing into Malaga again besides making trips to the airport!
Beach!!
I just figured out how to add pictures so I am very excited now!! Hahaha.
To round off, I am off to do some uni work now yawn.. Looking forward to my family visiting me in 12days :D.
Peace out niños!! <3
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Updates!
Sorry chicos, I haven't updated in a while woops!!
So what has been going on over the last week or so?...
Me and Sophia hit up a club last Tuesday. On the way there we got stopped by a promoter offering really cheap drinks.. so we had to oblige! So 5 tequila shots each and we carried on our merry way to the club. We paid €5 to get in with 4 or 5 shots included - great! It wasn't too busy inside but we enjoyed getting our dance on. There were mainly erasmus students there but we had a laugh. On the way home Sophia was insistent that we found some southern fried chicken! So we stopped somewhere to have a munch, but due to all the shots earlier, we couldn't remember if we had paid or not!! We tried to leave to see if they would stop us.. Turns out we hadn't paid so had to go back in... woopsie!!!
Hahaha this photo sums it up really!!
Hangover the next day was not fun, especially as I was going for lunch with my Spanish friend and his family at their house! Funnily enough my Spanish was pants on that day, obviously the alcohol was taking over my mind.. Haha.
Moving on.. My mum and my family booked their flights out to see me the end of this month. So I did some research on hotels. I decided to go to one of the hotels I had seen online and ask for a price directly. When I arrived there a coach load of people had also arrived so I decided to sit in a pretty little Plaza for 15mins or so, so that the queue for the reception would have died down. Whilst I was sat there minding my business some random guy comes up to me and asks me if we were in Plaza Gran Capitan. I replied that I didn't know but assumed so as Calle Gran Capitan was very close by. He replied quite sarcastically asking me if I couldn't speak Spanish.. I told him that I could but I was new to Granada and therefore didn't know the streets very well yet. This seemed to satisfy him and he proceeded to sit down next to me.. He told about his little corner shop and how long he had lived in Spain etc etc. He asked if I had a boyfriend and I told him yes. I hoped this would put him off... I did not encourage him at all as I could see where it was going. He continued by saying how beautiful I was and what a nice person... I was getting creeped out!
I told him I had to go and he wanted to know where! I said I was meeting a friend right now! He still tried to follow me down the hill and asked me out for a drink. I told him straight NO! He finally got the hint and walked away.. Scary! I made sure he was gone before I went into the hotel to ask about prices - turns out it was ridiculously more expensive than booking online!
University....
We are now in week 3 at UGR. Last week I continued to go to a sociology lesson that I was really keen on taking and the teacher continued to not turn up. I went to the secretary furious and demanded to know what was happening because I was wasting my time! He took me to another office and the man in there informed me that there actually wasn't a teacher for this class and they were looking for a substitute ahhhh!!!
This meant I had to pick another module because I cannot wait around forever and take the risk that they won't find a teacher and may cancel the course.
Luckily Italian fitted into my timetable so I emailed the teacher to ask if it was ok if I joined the class after missing the first 2 weeks. He replied saying it was fine, I just need to catch up.
This is the silver lining because I have wanted to study Italian for a while, so now I have my opportunity and after my first lesson I love it!! I even got up early this morning to do my homework... I know geek right?!!
Even more exciting my boyfriend arrives today to visit me :D. I now have someone I can drag around with me to see all the sights hehe.
For now I bid you all farewell as I have to leave to go to uni in 10mins!!
Ciaoooooo!!!
So what has been going on over the last week or so?...
Me and Sophia hit up a club last Tuesday. On the way there we got stopped by a promoter offering really cheap drinks.. so we had to oblige! So 5 tequila shots each and we carried on our merry way to the club. We paid €5 to get in with 4 or 5 shots included - great! It wasn't too busy inside but we enjoyed getting our dance on. There were mainly erasmus students there but we had a laugh. On the way home Sophia was insistent that we found some southern fried chicken! So we stopped somewhere to have a munch, but due to all the shots earlier, we couldn't remember if we had paid or not!! We tried to leave to see if they would stop us.. Turns out we hadn't paid so had to go back in... woopsie!!!
Hangover the next day was not fun, especially as I was going for lunch with my Spanish friend and his family at their house! Funnily enough my Spanish was pants on that day, obviously the alcohol was taking over my mind.. Haha.
Moving on.. My mum and my family booked their flights out to see me the end of this month. So I did some research on hotels. I decided to go to one of the hotels I had seen online and ask for a price directly. When I arrived there a coach load of people had also arrived so I decided to sit in a pretty little Plaza for 15mins or so, so that the queue for the reception would have died down. Whilst I was sat there minding my business some random guy comes up to me and asks me if we were in Plaza Gran Capitan. I replied that I didn't know but assumed so as Calle Gran Capitan was very close by. He replied quite sarcastically asking me if I couldn't speak Spanish.. I told him that I could but I was new to Granada and therefore didn't know the streets very well yet. This seemed to satisfy him and he proceeded to sit down next to me.. He told about his little corner shop and how long he had lived in Spain etc etc. He asked if I had a boyfriend and I told him yes. I hoped this would put him off... I did not encourage him at all as I could see where it was going. He continued by saying how beautiful I was and what a nice person... I was getting creeped out!
I told him I had to go and he wanted to know where! I said I was meeting a friend right now! He still tried to follow me down the hill and asked me out for a drink. I told him straight NO! He finally got the hint and walked away.. Scary! I made sure he was gone before I went into the hotel to ask about prices - turns out it was ridiculously more expensive than booking online!
University....
We are now in week 3 at UGR. Last week I continued to go to a sociology lesson that I was really keen on taking and the teacher continued to not turn up. I went to the secretary furious and demanded to know what was happening because I was wasting my time! He took me to another office and the man in there informed me that there actually wasn't a teacher for this class and they were looking for a substitute ahhhh!!!
This meant I had to pick another module because I cannot wait around forever and take the risk that they won't find a teacher and may cancel the course.
Luckily Italian fitted into my timetable so I emailed the teacher to ask if it was ok if I joined the class after missing the first 2 weeks. He replied saying it was fine, I just need to catch up.
This is the silver lining because I have wanted to study Italian for a while, so now I have my opportunity and after my first lesson I love it!! I even got up early this morning to do my homework... I know geek right?!!
Even more exciting my boyfriend arrives today to visit me :D. I now have someone I can drag around with me to see all the sights hehe.
For now I bid you all farewell as I have to leave to go to uni in 10mins!!
Ciaoooooo!!!
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