How to Be a Native Spaniard in One Month

I’ve been studying here a little over a month and I’ve been told that I’ve adapted extremely well considering it’s my first time in Europe. But to be a Spaniard on top of being European came even more as a challenge considering it’s a more “traditional” state. Below are some issues I’ve encountered and integrated into my lifestyle since living abroad.

• Use Cash Everywhere
  • You would definitely look like a foreigner if you used your credit or debit card everywhere, especially for anything under €20. In America, it’s super typical for me to use my card for everything, I hardly carry cash on me. It’s normally for Americans to never use their coins and even stash a jar of collected coins to later turn in for bigger bills because they are so unused. But here, you use down to every last cent.

• Use a Bus Pass and Walk Everywhere
  • Normally the public bus costs €1.05 if you don’t have any sort of pass. But being a student, I get one of the biggest discounts per trip and only have to pay €0.77 every time I use it. I have a card that I load money on, usually about 20 to 30 trips and that will last me about 3 weeks. But don’t get too comfortable with the bus system because the best way to learn the map of a city is by walking. When I first got here I didn’t know the roads at all so I just took the bus everywhere no matter how close or far. It wasn’t until I started walking to get to places that I really came to know every turn of the city. It took me a solid 3 weeks to feel like I knew the city rather well. I only use the bus to go to and from school campuses because I’m on a strict timeline. If not, I’m fine with walking to the center of city to meet with some friends that take around 25 minutes (if the weather is bearable).

 

• Don’t Buy More Groceries Than You Can Carry
  • This is a big one. In America we drive to the supermarket and have this huge rolling cart to fit enough food to last too long for my taste. But here the food is very fresh and has much less preservatives so you only buy for what you need the next couple days to a week. The Alimerka store is only a 2-3 minute walking distance from my apartment but coming back from the grocery it’s uphill. I always bring my school backpack and upon checkout fill it up so I have to carry less. Also, it’s extremely uncommon to spend €50 or more in one trip. Whereas in America, it’s easy to spend anywhere between $150 to $300 in one shopping trip.

• Actually Relax on Sundays
  • Spain is a very traditional country but it did surprise me when I first arrived here that everything is closed on Sundays. Yes, even the groceries, sorry mom. So I am basically forced to rest on Sundays and catch up on whatever work I have. I love it but at the same time it can be frustrating. Oh, on top of that most stores here are closed between 2:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. So make sure you actually use “siesta” time to your advantage.

• Stay out Late on Weekends
  • They eat dinner late here and party until even later. Dinner is between 9 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The outting here are ridiculously late compared to America. Clubs in America close by 3 a.m. and usually no one is partying after that point. But here, bars and “Discos” are open all hours of the night or until most the people have gone home. Apparently here in Oviedo there is a disco that doesn’t even open until 5 a.m. because it’s the after party place. But most nights that I am out, no one even considers going home until 3 a.m. and usually we are home and in bed by 4:30 or 5 a.m. But for those reading this freaking out that I am out all hours and how dangerous. Tranquilla, because Oviedo is one of the safest cities in all of Spain. And actually the cleanest, every time I walk home late at night there are workers spraying down the streets with water. Every night.

So now, if you ever have an extended stay in Spain, you know what to expect and how to semi blend in with the locals. It’s so much more fun to be a local of a foreign community than the typical tourist. Enjoy the culture and embrace it to it’s fullest!

Foreign Friends with Common Interest: Amigos Extraños con Intereses Similar

I came to this country not knowing a single person, besides my native flatmate I talked to virtually. I was most worried about not doing any of the things I wanted because I wouldn’t find good friends to go out with. The first two weeks I was a little bummed because I was staying home with no plans on the weekends. But it was just a matter of time before no friends became a sea of familiar faces when I went to Tapas Tuesday this week.

It all stared because of this beautiful oxymoron we call social media. Many today believe social media is actually making people antisocial but depending on how you use it, it could be the only way to begin being social in a foreign place.

Someone posted on the ESN (Eurasum Student Network) Facebook page that they wanted to go hiking on the weekend. An great response of people suggested we meet up the day before to prepare the details of the trip. I decided to meet with this group of strangers whose only common interest established was hiking. And it was the best decision I’ve made. I met ten people, none of which were from America, and we planned out the trip to Mieres, a city 25 minutes south of Oviedo. Afterward a gentleman made small talk with me about school here as an international student. Somehow this led to an invite of a party he was attending that night. Now, yes we all know not to ‘go out with random strangers’ but I feel in this situation it was quite different. He was a fellow international student who I would be hiking with the following day so it made sense that I would accept my first night out to this party. We met up and he introduced me to some others that he’s met, which was a girl from Portugal and the other from China. We went to this party where I met more students from Ireland and the UK. It was a great beginning to my week of new friendships.

My hike up the asturian mountain!

The following day at hiking, the 12 of us made the most gorgeous hike I’ve ever endured. It was a six hour hike on the Vegalafonte trail and although my foot’s blister worsen, it was beyond worth it. I mingled with students from Germany, Whales, Czech Republic, and of course Ireland. We packed a lunch and sat at this small meadow that overlooked the asturian mountain range. The pictures don’t even give justice to the view that I saw for hours. I would highly recommend this trail to anyone planning to visit Asturias, Spain.

Aside from hiking, the past weekend still commenced the festivities of San Mateo. There were fireworks Saturday evening down at Parque Inviernes (where I took that breaktaking hike I mentioned in a previous blog). Sunday the girl I met from Portugal invited me out and it was one of the last days of the festival. I was so excited to realize that someone wanted to hang out with me. That night we met up for drinks and she introduced me to some friends she met that are from Turkey! How incredible is it that there are so many foreign students and yet we all become such great friends and find so many common interests.

Through ESN, I signed up to go surfing Monday at San Juan de Nievas. We had school off that day because it was the official Day of San Mateo. I went there already seeing a few familiar faces, even though when I signed up I didn’t plan on knowing anyone. One girl was from the UK that I met at the first party I attended and two German girls that are in my project group for one of my classes! From connections they have made, I continued to meet new friends from Italy, Belgium and another Irish girl. I can’t believe I can say that I’ve been surfing in Spain, how cool is that! It was extremely difficult, rained the entire time and was pretty cold. But weather aside, it was such a fun and exhausting experience. I can see why people have such a passion for it.

All of these events lead me to the Tapas Tuesday night where I saw I little bit of everyone from who I’ve encountered over my past few excursions. Never had I imagined that I would be out so often (and so late) with people who are all over the world, yet all so similar to myself. The coolest feeling ever was being with a group of people and conversations were held in four different languages in the same sitting. And the beautiful thing is the majority of students know more than one of these languages so no one is left out. Sometimes people don’t even realize they started talking to me in a language that I don’t know!

Really and truly I never imagined to meet and befriend so many people so quickly. I can’t believe this is just week three of school and already so many events have happened. Let the festivities of studying abroad official begin!

My surfing buddies, Kimberly from Belgium and Jenny from Ireland.

Adjusting to a Spanish World & Culture: Ajustando al Mundo Española.

What an adventure these past two weeks have been! After coming as a tourist for a week visiting Barcelona, Oviedo, Gijón and Madrid I have finally been knocked in the face by reality as an exchange student.

Enjoying the abundant amounts of Sangria found here.

After waving goodbye to my family as they rushed away in a taxi my whole world came crashing in the realization that I’m alone. 100% truly alone in another country across “The Pond” called the Atlantic. Anxiety put my heart through my chest traveling back to Oviedo from Madrid by a five hour train ride. Once getting back I mapped out my schedule for the semester since class started the next day. It was a hard pill to swallow when finding out all three of my classes were at different campuses and one was even outside of the city! I had no idea that Marketing would be in Gijón and I couldn’t find a way to justify going all the way out there while having other classes in the same day.

That’s when I met my first angel (besides María, my amazingly helpful roommate). Alan Wall, the director who handles the exchange students of economics, calmed my fears when he told me there was another Marketing class that was in the close campus, in Oviedo. Only this class is in Spanish and hadn’t been approved by my director at home. I quickly got in contact with my Director at home and got my class approved by the department head and my academic advisor. I had no clue I would encounter so many difficulties upon arriving.

So two of my classes are in Spanish: Marketing and Español Normativo. My third class, Business Management, is in English. But things just couldn’t be that easy for me, now could it? After my first day of class I was working on my computer when it died. I plugged it into my converter (that a friend so generously lent to me) and it wouldn’t charge. The converter works fine for my phone and ipad but my computer was utterly useless, extremely strange.

My gorgeous view from the walk I went on in Parque Invierno

So week one went by rather slow and I encountered some difficulties, academic and personally. I’m not accustomed to being in solitude for large quantities of time. But the weekend was the most painful because I had no plans and finished the entire second half of a book. Looking at the map, I had seen a huge park that I wanted to walk through. Oviedo is in the mountains and nothing makes me feel God’s presence like when I see mountains. I spend 3.5 hours just walking this seemingly endless trail that winds through the mountains and streams. I just put my headphone in a praised God the entire time. I spent time self reflecting on my weaknesses and what I really want to get out of this trip abroad.

Parade from the San Mateo Festival

The other highlight of my time here has been the wonderful festival happening called San Mateo that lasts for ten days. Last weekend was the beginning of it so Saturday my roommate, her boyfriend and I headed down to the central park “Parque de San Fransisco” where rows of booths are set up selling authentic food and wine of different Spanish dishes. The amount of pedestrians here, and Spain in general, is dumbfounding. I have never walked so much in my entire life. The festivities continue into this weekend and oddly enough today was the “Día de America en Asturias” and there was a fantastic parade that marched down the central shopping street, Calle Uría. It was so neat to see how they celebrate my country and the different floats that interpreted their idea of our culture.

Parade from the San Mateo Festival

When the parade concluded I met with a group of Erasmus Students (name for exchange students within Europe) to make hiking plans for tomorrow. My favorite part was that there were ten of us and no one else is from the US. People from Poland, Germany, Whales, Ireland, and even Czech Republic were there! I’m so blessed that the ESN Organization (Erasmus Student Network) has helped me find people with the same interests and going through the same thing I am. It was because of that meeting that a new friend helped me find a working adapter that, praise the Lord Jesus, works!

And that, my friends, is how I came to be where I am at this very moment. I’m still getting settled but nonetheless better every day. Below are some pictures of my highlights so far. I can’t wait to keep you posted on the next crazy adventure! Hiking tomorrow and maybe surfing Monday. Also I’m official signed up for a trip to León next weekend. I can’t wait to travel and meet as many new people as I possibly can in my short four months here.

Read about the major differences I found between Europe and America.

Madrid, Spain. Inside the Royal Palace

Grandest Church in the world, inside of La Sagrada Familia

The most amazing site of Barcelona Skyline is at La Iglesia Tibidabo!

Making Connections: Estilo Español

I have met a few amazing people who have helped me tremendously on my preparation journey for Spain. The director of exchange students at USF gave my email to two girls currently in the same program that I will be attending in the fall. Both of them have recently emailed me, and I must say, I would be quite lost without them!

One of the girls has been emailing back and forth with me from Spain about all the problems she ran into in preparing for her departure and what I should be doing at this point in time. She told me that she had researched about 20 different apartments in Oviedo and is currently living at one that she highly recommends I live at considering it’s only 5 minutes from school, 10 minutes from nightlife and right around the corner from the bus and train station. How perfect! Que perfecto!

She also helped me a TON with the process of attaining my visa. I am preparing to book my appointment to the Spanish Embassy in Miami, FL for the end of June. She said I should do it 8 weeks prior to my departure so I have plenty of time to get it before I leave. She said she almost couldn’t go because of having troubles with her visa.

Aside from advancing in my preparations, one of my friends from a mutual club mentioned to me that she knows a guy studying here at USF, who comes from Uni Ovi (Universidad de Oviedo) where I’ll be studying. Tell me, what are the odds?!? So crazy! She connected us in a Facebook chat and we made plans for lunch to talk all about life in Oviedo. He was born and raised there, a good portion of his family is there and he even went to school for undergrad at UniOvi. We met up for lunch today and spent an hour and a half switching off from Spanish and English about all of Spain. He showed me where the girl’s currently in Oviedo are staying at and how the apartment was right across the street from the main inner city of Oviedo. Looking at a map of it now, I am so much more comfortable about the city since I actually can tell where things are located. I still can’t get over how you can walk everywhere in Europe cities and there is public transportation to take you near, far, here or there.

Making these connections have only made me more confident and more excited about my travels to Spain and that I will do well there. It’s a scary thought that I will be doing this all alone over there, but my heart is overwhelmed with the opportunities God has blessed me with. This will be the most memorable and note-worthy experience I’ve had in my life and I can’t wait to get it started!

Until next time! Chao 🙂

Como se dice “Countdown to Spain”

Now that my finals are over, I have lots to tell you about the update on my study abroad program. Last week I got my final class approved for Spain. So the four classes I have approved are Basic Management, Intro to Marketing, Expository Writing (Spanish) and Advanced Grammar/Composition (Spanish). I had to go to each of the department heads to get their approval. One of them was so funny, I went to get Management approved and the guy had been to over 50 countries so we sat for a half hour talking about everything Europe. I went to my academic adviser last week to get her to sign off that they count toward my degree and now it’s in the hands of my exchange program director.

I’ve been to two sessions the past couple of weeks: Financial Aid and Well

ness. Both were very informative and make me want to leave abroad sooner than August. My director, Rene Sanchez, is amazing! He sent off my application to Spain but apparently I won’t get my acceptance letter until June. I just about freaked out when he told me that. My parents and some of my extended family wants to come up with me a week early to travel and get me settled in. But my mom was suppose to ask off her days for the year in January. I can’t wait until June to tell her. So today I emailed UniOvi (Universidad de Oviedo) to see if anyone could give me the internationals orientation date to give me an idea of when we need to book our tickets.

Speaking of, one of my friends knows the guy who is ambassador of UniOvi and studying abroad here at USF! She connected us on facebook and we are going to meet up so he can tell me all about the college and city there. He’ll even be back in his home country when I am studying there so I may actually know someone while abroad! It’s very comforting to know so many people are willing to help me as I freak out in preparation for my trip.

Also, there are two girls from USF that are studying abroad there now so my director gave me their email and hopefully they can give me the low down of everything since they are going through everything I will be in the fall.

I’m so excited for whatever comes next in this process and I will keep you more updated, now that final exams are over for the semester. Every advancement in my preparation process takes me one step closer to Spain. I can’t wait! Four more months untill I leave, let the countdown begin!

 

Spain exchange prep: course approvals, money, and forms ‘oh my’

Estoy abrumada, “I’m overwhelmed” would be an understatement for how stressful this week has been. But I feel satisfied by the amount I managed to accomplish in one week. Monday and Tuesday were the worst because I went to drop off a copy of my passport and the application to the university in Oviedo at the Education Abroad office. Even though I’ve been accepted into the program, I still have to apply for the school there. I found out I need to fill out a course approval form for classes abroad and pay a $500 deposit by the end of the week. Aye Carumba!

This is how the course approval form works, so you can understand my stress: From the host institutes site, I must look through all the courses and translate its syllabus to English and compare it to the syllabus a class it can potentially replace. Once I’ve found a class abroad that I think can be a transfer credit to a class at USF (and counts toward my degree) I must go to the department head of each class and get it approved. Once each class has been individually approved, I go to my academic adviser who will sign off on the whole paper thus completing my semesters coursework abroad!

Talk about time consuming! So the first two days of the week I spent hours looking up classes, translating them and comparing them to USF courses. It got overwhelming at an exponential pace but I finally picked out four classes that will count toward my degree. My program director said I should take no more or less then 12 credit hours so that’s what my plan is.

Today I went to the Department of World Languages today and gave the women two syllabi to approve. It’s going to take a couple weeks to get them approved so those are on standby. As for my business classes I have to go to the Department of Marketing and the Department of Management to get my other two classes approved.

I’m happy to say I officially have one course approved and have a meeting with the Marketing Head tomorrow. I’m glad this process is moving along though or else I would be stressing more than I already am. Lastly, I turned in my $500 deposit today and yes, my bank account is very sad and empty right now but well worth it.

I started a funding site for any of those who would like to donate to my trip. I’m hoping to raise some of the funds, get a scholarship and pay the rest with what money I’ve saved up in the past year. It’s hard to believe I only have 5 months left before I go. I just realized I’ll be celebrating my 20th birthday the first week I’m in Spain, what an awesome gift!

Preparations for Spain, un trabajo en progreso

I’m one step closer to my dream! Did you ever wonder what preparations go into studying abroad?

Now that I’ve been accepted into the program I must apply to the actual university and get into the school. I turned in my official transcripts and am in the works of completing the form to turn into the director of exchange programs so he can send them overseas.

I have two information sessions I will be attending in next month: Finance & Financial Aid and Health & Wellness. I’m sure both will be very informative and will answer many questions I will be able to relay to you readers.

The first week in April my registration date for summer and fall classes open up. This summer I will be taking Advanced Conversation, which is a class taught in Spanish to increase my fluidity in the language. Currently I’m in Spanish IV and have an A so I’m not too worried about the class. As for the fall courses I’m going to have to look through the catalog that Oviedo will offer. Once I find a course that I am interested in there, I have to find a class with a similar syllabus here at USF and get it approved by that specific department head. Once all my classes have been individually approved I have to get my academic adviser to sign off on my curriculum as a whole.

It’s a long process but well worth it. I will keep you updated on the process! I’m still in shock that I’m actually going to Spain, it hasn’t fully sinked in yet but I’m so excited for the journey!

I’m going to Spain! España, aquí vendré

This is my first of many blog post of
my trip to Spain as a foreign exchange student. As a student at the University of South Florida I recently applied to the semester exchange program for Fall 2014 and was accepted. I’m starting this journey now in case any of you guys are thinking about studying abroad and are wondering about the process.

In order to get in a competitive GPA is 2.75 so I was already in good standing at a 3.51. It was also required to take four semesters of Spanish in college. Lastly, all the classes will be taught in Spanish so I must test my fluency.

It seems scary but the excitement of what kind of experience this could be overpowers all the doubts I had about going. Now that I am in the program I have to apply to the actual University of Oviedo and get accepted by it’s administration.

I’m on the right path to my dream so far! I’ll keep you updated with what’s to come.