Episode 10: Welcome home!

Hello all,

I can tell you I safely arrived back home! So this last blog will be about the last phase of my exchange period: returning home again.

The last days in Madrid I was thinking about what I would like to do again when I would be back in the Netherlands. Of course, I wanted to see my family and friends! I was looking forward to the ‘ordinary’ things like watching TV with my sister or having a tea with my best friend. I was also curious about seeing my home village again, because it is a very small village compared to a world city like Madrid. Furthermore, I was looking forward to taste some Dutch things, such as dark bread for example.

Of course I also thought about the fact that the chance would be quite high that I would experience reverse culture shock, since I was feeling really at ease in the Spanish culture. But what exactly would I miss from Spain? Probably the whole feeling of living on your own in the city center of this beautiful city. Furthermore, the sunny weather, the nice food and of course the many great people I have met during my exchange period.

I think it may be difficult sometimes to settle back in my old life, but on the other hand: I feel happy to be with my parents and sister again at this moment! The reason for the difficulty is probably the fact that I developed myself and I thus changed a little, while generally speaking my environment did not change at all.

Episode 9: December!

Hola!

I think it is time for a new blog about my life here in Madrid! While people in the Netherlands were busy with the celebration of “Sinterklaas” during the first half of December, I was not bored either. With four exams, some presentations and some final reports to do, it was a period of studying. However, I had enough time to do great things too of course! For example, the 2^nd of December I really liked: first two friends came to my place to eat paella, then we went to a party at a friend-of-a-friend’s place, after which we partied in Club Moondance. Other fun activities were: having dinner at tapas restaurant Lateral, visiting the Christmas markets, going to lounge bars, visiting the zoo of Madrid, eating ice creams at Llao Llao and watching “El Clásico” (Real Madrid – Barcelona) with flat mates.

During the second half of December, I started to realize things were coming to an end: making exams, saying goodbye to people who already went home before Christmas, and of course: Christmas and New Year’s Eve. About the exams I cannot tell a lot: I have the feeling I passed them all, but I don’t know any grades so far.

Saying goodbye is of course not the best part, but it has a positive side too. When people realize their good time in Madrid is almost over, they start to enjoy even more, and I join them! That’s why we: ordered that too big ice-cream at Llao Llao, organized a last Mexican dinner with our “Club of 6”, went to Starbucks more often, had a great Christmas dinner with my team, had a nice birthday party, went to different Christmas markets and partied once again all together at Star Studio. However, one of the most beautiful experiences was the “Inauguración de Navidad”: an amazing light- and firework show on the Palacio de Cibeles (see foto). It might sound strange, but it felt like a symbolic end of our Erasmus time!

And then, finally, I was together with my family again! My parents and sister visited me during Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which I enjoyed a lot!!! Of course I showed them the hotspots, but very ‘usual’ things too, like my room and how I walk to the supermarket. I saw new things too since we went inside the Palacio Real, El Escorial (a big monastery) and the stadium of Atlético Madrid. Furthermore, we celebrated New Year’s Eve like real Spaniards. The idea is that at 12 o’clock you eat a grape on each clock stroke, because that will bring you luck. We tried our best: we have eaten 12 grapes at 12 o’clock, near Puerta del Sol, and drank champagne. Okay, that we were not sure whether it was 12 o’clock, that one of the grapes fell in my jacket (of course I have eaten this one too), and that we used some more time than was allowed: I don’t care. It was an unforgettable moment and we enjoyed it a lot. That’s what it is all about!

Well, the upcoming 11 days are my last days in Madrid. I will do a lot of things for the last time. I will have 2 new flat mates too and I need to write some papers etc. Again, I will not be bored. Oh, and Epiphany is a big celebration here in Madrid, so I will check that out too of course!

Dear readers, my next and last blog will follow in a week or so!

Adios!

November in Spain

Hello!

As promised, this blog will be about my exchange life during November!

First of all, I need to update you regarding my football team: we won for the first time! Next to that, we played an international tournament with other university teams in Valencia, which was a great experience. It was a combination of several things I like: football, fun, a lot of international people and a lot of Spanish to practice. Since the days lasted really long (they started early to play football and ended late since we went out) I practiced my Spanish approximately 18 hours a day. The bad thing is that I got injured the day after the tournament…

November was also great in terms of visitors: I got visitors two times this month! First, one of my best friends came with her dad to see the match Real Madrid – Osasuna. They stayed for a few days and we had a lot of fun. Two weeks later, two other friends came to see me, which was great too.

Now I will to tell you two anecdotes to illustrate how I perceive Spain now and then. I often hear myself saying “that’s typical Spanish” after which I always have to laugh, because I enjoy the unexpectedness of some events here. First, I went to a football training (before I got injured) to find out that the door was locked. I was the only one there, and started to doubt whether there was a training. Fortunately, my trainer and a team mate came too. We decided to wait, since it is quite normal in Spain that someone comes half an hour after the time you had a meeting, so it could be that the “man with the keys” would come late. Then, while waiting there, another girls football team arrived. They told us they had to play against Comillas (us!). We said that match was planned for two days later, but they did not believe us. The man with the keys came, and the other team just got into the building ready to play a match. Our trainer did not pay attention to this, and started the training with us as usual. After many phone calls, the trainer said we had to play a match! Without proper clothing or referees, we played the match eventually… Typical Spanish! Another Spanish experience was going to the hairdresser. Here in Spain, it is very normal to put a price list and promotions outside the shop. One day I saw a nice promotional action: cutting, a special shampoo treatment and a special conditioner treatment for only 10 Euros! So I was dreaming the whole day of a nice hair massage, but when I finally sat in the chair ready to receive this nice treatments, it was horrible! It was so quick and it even hurt me! Typical Spanish? ;)

I think you are pretty much updated now, although I have to mention some other nice things I did to conclude: I found two lounge bars which have become my favorites (“Olé Lola” and “Areia”), I went shopping two times in one week, I cooked “hutspot” for some international friends and I had a drink with a girl I knew from my trip to Morocco.

In short, I enjoyed November a lot! Adios!

Episode 7: October

¡Hola!

I have realized that I am a little bit behind with telling you all my stories and experiences here, so this blog will be about October and next blog will describe my nice month of November! Well, in short October was a very special month because I had a bad experience as well as some “peaks”. Let’s start with the worst and end with the nice things!

One Monday evening I felt very tired, but I thought this was normal because I had a exhausting football training the night before, after which I slept few hours and then I went to school and played another football match. I decided to go to bed early and then everything would be fine the next day. Well, it turned out to be different. I will not go into detail, but I was ill for eight days. I suffered from diarrhea, nausea, fever, abdominal cramps, etc. On Friday morning I decided to see a doctor. It appeared that there was one who had consulting hours at my university! It was a little bit difficult to understand all medical terms in Spanish and therefore the doctor sometimes used gestures to inform me, which was often very funny. After 8 days in total, three different medicines and two more trips to the doctor, I was healthy again and went to Morocco! Read my previous blog if you would like to know more about his travel!

Well, of course the rest of the month was great again! I visited Salamanca, played my first football matches and was quite often not at home during the evenings/nights… What I did? I went to club Pacha for example. And we had another dinner scheduled; with my friends here, we try to have dinners with food from our different cultures every two weeks or so. This time, it was my Swiss friend’s turn to cook. She made three dishes and it was amazingly delicious! I will never forget these dinners with the six of us, I enjoy it very very much!!! Furthermore, I went to the “cocktail street”. Actually it is called Calle de la Reina, but the Spanish came up with this other name, simply because there are so many cocktail bars in this street. Another day, my two Turkish flat mates celebrated the birthday of one of them. It was interesting to experience the way a birthday was celebrated in the Turkish culture. It included Turkish music, Turkish food and even Turkish dances!

The last thing I would like to inform you about is that my sister and best friend visited me from October 25 till October 27. It was absolutely great to see family or friends after 2 months! I showed them my Spanish life and we enjoyed it together.

No anecdote this time, because it is a quite long blog already, but I do share with you a picture of course! It is the façade of the University of Salamanca with a lot of tourists in front of it who try to find “the frog”. The story behind this is that if you are able to find the frog without the help of a guide or anyone, it will bring you luck…

¡Adios!

Episode 6

Dear readers,

One of the possibilities an exchange offers you is travelling! Therefore I would like to post a blog about my travel to Morocco. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I have selected 5 pictures I have made during this travel. Enjoy!

Description of the pictures:

1. Camel ride in Tangier

2. A traditional pharmacy

3. A traditional carpet-weaving factory

4. Chefchaouen

5. Typical landscape of the north of Morocco

Episode 5: Intercultural experience

Hello readers,

This time we were asked to write something about the intercultural experience we had so far. Let’s start with a well-known theory on adjusting to life in a new country. This theory says that many students go through different stages during their exchange period: the honeymoon period, the negotiation phase, the adjustment phase and the mastery phase. In the honeymoon period, everything is exciting and you are enjoying new experiences and are very positive about your new home. My honeymoon period started when I had found a room and lasted approximately one month! Then normally the negotiation phase follows, in which students start to compare their host and home cultures more in depth and this usually leads to anxiety and frustration about the new culture. Students can get irritated by cultural differences and feel disconnected from the new culture. Well, I truly believe that I skipped this phase, because I immediately got accustomed to the new culture after the honeymoon period. 

The Spanish life

Hey all!

It is time to give you an update again! Of course I studied, cleaned the house etc, but I don’t think you are very much interested in that. That’s why I quickly go on with one of my favorite hobbies: football. On Monday September 19 I finally had my first futsal training. Indeed: futsal. In the Netherlands I play ‘normal’ football, but that was not possible this semester at my university. Therefore, I decided to try to be selected for the futsal team. I was very curious about how many girls would come and how well they could play. I enjoyed the training very much, because it was three weeks ago that I played soccer for the last time. The girls played well and were very nice too. After three trainings, the trainer told me I was selected! In the Netherlands, I am very used to the concept of having a drink after matches and trainings. I was wondering whether this was usual in Spain too. Well, yes, the Spanish girls know this element very well! I really enjoy having a drink with this team!

Except for playing football myself, I also enjoy watching football matches. And of course, Real Madrid’s stadium Santiago Bernabéu is one of the best places to do this. I managed to arrange tickets for the match Real Madrid – Ajax (for the Champions League)! Tuesday September 27, I went there with 4 other girls and we had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the tricks of Ronaldo and Kaká…

My third week in Spain

¡Hola a todos!

This time I will share with you my experiences of my third week in Spain, the moment that my classes started.

This third week was so nice, I thought it could only get worse afterwards, but by now I know that this is just how my weeks look like here on exchange! Let’s give you a chronological description, while leaving the study-related things for the next paragraph. During the weekend I enjoyed some drinks on a terrace together with two other girls on Plaza Mayor. It was very nice, the parasols even sprayed a little water, which was really refreshing. Afterwards, we visited Mercado San Miguel. On Saturday night we went to the cinema. The movie was awful, but we had great fun! On Sunday we visited El Rastro, one of the biggest markets of Spain. I bought a nice poster there, to decorate my room with. When I was almost back home, I came across something really fun! I just had to cross the Gran Vía, but….that was not possible! The last stage of the Vuelta a España was there! I am a real fan of sports, so this was a nice surprise for me. As you can understand, I had a good afternoon ;) From Monday till Friday I had to follow some lectures of course, but besides that I also went to the gym a few times, I ate delicious yoghurt ice creams with my flatmates, I met three new flatmates, I ate tapas, I went to an Erasmus party, etc. 

My second week as a Madrileño

Hello!

Last time I told you about my search for a room. Well, let’s reveal how and where I eventually found one! After 4 full days of searching I did not find a room yet. It was Sunday evening, and since I had a Spanish level test the next morning, I decided to stop searching on the Internet for a while and spend the evening learning Spanish. So I opened my books, and within one hour my phone rang. It was Evi, a classmate from Tilburg. She said she found a room in the street of my hostel and that there was another one free, so I could join. One hour later, the contract was signed and I had the keys! Yippee! So now I live in the street Calle Fuencarral, in the middle of the center. Together with 2 Spanish girls, 2 Turkish girls, 2 French girls and Evi. How strange… I crossed the whole center of Madrid, and I found a room just in the street of my hostel!

The first days

Hello everyone!

I am very pleased that you decided to read my blog! Let’s start with a brief introduction of myself. My name is Rachelle Elshout, I’m a 20-year-old Dutch girl and I am in the third year of the study International Business Administration. I love to go out, do sports and have fun with my friends! This semester I am studying at Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid.

My adventure began on Wednesday August 31 when my plane landed at Airport Barajas. Hello Madrid, hello summer! I had booked a hostel for five days, because I needed time to find a room. So the next morning I searched the Internet to look for rooms in the city center with young people for an affordable price. These were basically my criteria. I tried to make appointments with the proprietors, speaking Spanish as fluently as I could, which was actually not fluent at all ;) I really enjoyed the weather, the beautiful city and the relaxed atmosphere during my search. However, the search itself went not very well. Sometimes the people were not young at all, sometimes my Spanish ‘competitors’ spoke faster and could thus sign the contract already before I understood everything, sometimes the rooms had no window, etc. But I was still enjoying this big, lovely city! After 4 full days of searching and having seen 12 rooms, I did not find my room yet. In the next blog, you will find out how and where I eventually found a room…