Muchos saludos desde Barcelona

As Kaja has shared already some first expressions of Barcelona with you, it is now time for me to do so.

The first time I came to my new university (of time) I was overwhelmed: It is all so big, so many students and buildings. At first it was difficult to find your way around. As Kaja already mentioned there are three bus lines on our campus to get around. About the classes, it took us almost two weeks to sort out our final schedule, as a lot of courses are not running this semester and the others are overlapping. Now my Spanish intensive course is over and I can now attend the regular courses and have some more time.

The classes are different here. Compared to Denmark, there is much less to read but more mandatory classes and homework to do. Furthermore the classes are louder and the test are more multiple choice.
There are so many Erasmus students in our university. Alone in the tourism faculty are between 30-40 students. Because of us some courses are taught in English and Spanish. However, the majority of local students did not like having classes in Spanish, they prefer Catalan and still use it whenever they ask questions during the classes.
Talking about Catalan people, they are really proud of their language and you need to get warm with them first. Then they are saying hello to you by giving two kisses (like it is in France) and like working in a group project with foreigners. However, still some language barriers exist. What I like about the Catalans is that they are very laid back and relaxed.
However, the local student seem not so interested in foreign Erasmus students, so we do a lot with the other Erasmus students and there are so many, especially from Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. I even met another girl studying in Denmark.


And Barcelona is a great city with a lot of places and sights still to explore after living there for two month. But it is not only the city, also the smaller cities around, like Sitges and Castelldelfels are worth to discover. I especially like my schedule, with having off every Friday. This leads to experience the practical way of tourism by travelling through Spain.

However the climate in Barcelona is awesome. It is now the end of October and it is still quite warm. Two weeks ago I have been swimming in the ocean and lying on the beach with Kaja in Sitges. But it is not only Barcelona, last weekend I have been visiting Inga in San Sebastian and it was so sunny that we went to the beach, okay, swimming was quiet cold but lying on the beach not.

Besos y abrozos
Anna

The relativity of punctuality

Five years ago I went to Ireland for the first time, praised for its laid-back attitide and its chatty inhabitants. If every person, or at least every second person you'll meet, engages you in a small talk, sure my English would improve quickly. An ounce of practice is still worth a pound of theory!

Quickly, I did not only practice my small-talk skills about west-winds, liquid sunshine and other weather conditions, but also my "laid-backness".
In other words, out the window with my well-trained punctuality. 15 minutes was the maximum duration I would wait and then label anybody as late. Now I had to make sure to be at least 30 minutes "late" or rather add 30 minutes to the agreed time. The more remote the location the more time you had to add. I still remember being greeted even coldly, when I arrived at a party on time...
 

The good part about Ireland is that you can stop a bus in the middle of nowhere and they wouldn't mind. Backpacking is so very easy and if you were at a bus stop at 10.10 am and the bus was due at 10 am, well, you would still get it, for sure. (What a change from Berlin with people getting frustrated with their underground train being late for 2 minutes. With a line at a 5-minute-frequency!)

The Inishowen Peninsula is so remote, that even the national carrier would not operate there and private companies do not have bus stops. And when I still missed the bus, with the next one departing 2,5 hours later, my new host family told me to enjoy the city and they will drive into the village later to pick me up.

I embraced the Irish attitude towards time management and part of me keep that for good.

But that was then. After six months I returned to continental Europe. And even though I returned to Ireland a year later and again two years later, I was time-pressured (by either a return flight or the policy of a German company) and consequently missed "the Irish way".

Five years on, Ireland has changed. Two bus companies compete for the fastest and most punctual connections to the west coast and the number of motorways incresed from one to seven. An underground was supposed to be built to connect Dublin Airport with the city centre and train connections on the west coast are reopened to increase the number of connections.
In order to compete with continental business destinations, Ireland had to improve reliability and punctuality. Or in other words: continental European standards will soon reach the last corner of Irish laid-backness.

Before I continue I have to admit, I am spoilt: communication and punctuality work so perfectly at my home university, that's hard to beat. But in an academic environment you expect high standards, don't you?

Thus, all of my fellow exchange students are shocked when a lecturer is 20 minutes late. Or they don't show up at all. And apparently, communication is overrated, too...

And even though it might be frustating after a while, I am amused. It resembles a part of Ireland that I became attached to five years ago and thought it had disappeared.
So, once more I will embrace it, lay back and do as the Irish do!

Slaínte from Galway, Ireland,

Doreen
 

Hola Chicos y Chicas…

First of all, I am sorry that it took me so long to write an article, but Spain is simply too exciting, here is too much to do and the weather is too nice to sit inside in front of the computer ;-)

The time is passing by so quickly... I arrived in San Sebastian already 6 weeks ago! 

My entrance into my new Spanish life was a bit chaotic (but I guess that was foreseeable hehe). Summarized in some words: totally exhausted from my summer job, luggage lost by the airline, almost no Spanish language knowledge, only a tiny google-map, not exactly sure about the address of my apartment, and no contact telephone number... but I made it to my new family, and after a nice Spanish siesta I was able to realize that I actually arrived.

I live in an apartment with four other people, a mix of German, Italian and British... which doesn’t really help us improve our Spanish skills, but we are giving our best ;-) Therefore I feel like I live in an 5*-restaurant... maybe you can imagine why???

Before the actual uni started, I took a Spanish intensive course lasting for 2 weeks. During that time I/we had time to get to know the beautiful city, the beach and the amazing local food... pintxos, pintxos, pintxos... and of course the Txakoli! Even though the city was still packed with tourists in the beginning of our stay, we were able to experience a bit of the actual Basque way of life. We shall not forget that we are not in Spain, we are in the Basque country (I hope I make certain people proud with this sentence ;-).

Back to the actual reason of our stay here... studying... hehe. It took us about two whole weeks to figure out our final schedule. Accept from the Spanish and finance course which we chose from Denmark, our whole plan changed and it was very hard to meet the restrictions from both, our home and the Spanish university. The result is that we are taking three courses in Spain and 3 courses from Denmark. But I am sure, it is sooo worth the effort. Why?

Because whenever I walk up the hill to my university and have a nice view over the city or when I sit at the beach and look over the ocean I am happy that I took the chance to be here!! We love it!!

Hasta luego... over and out ;-)