Day 26 (6th of Feb)
I have been in the country for almost a month now and am still finding it difficult to settle in due to a number of reasons.
The first is the language barrier, the level of Spanish we were taught back home is nothing compared to the level we are expected to understand in uni classes here and so it makes getting round and conversing with local people extremely difficult. Classes... well the ones we did attend in the first week become boring very quickly when you have absolutely no idea what is being said and no way of attempting to understand as the Professor speaks so fast.
The second barrier has been the university itself, we are here for a year to attend classes at our host university as well as attending our home universities in Australia by correspondence essentially ( no face to face classes but lots of assessments). The classes in spain must be attended in spanish and for the first semester at least we must take language classes. unfortunately we had to pick our 2 other subjects for semester 1 before we knew the schedule for our language classes and so this caused a few problems come week 2 when every class ended up clashing, so for the last two weeks I haven't been able to attend any classes at all.
While some might see this as great and an excellent opportunity to travel, sight see etc. its been more of a hassle than a blessing.
My hopefully last barrier and possibly the biggest is sharing a flat with 12 other international students who are really enjoying the nightlife madrid has to offer well into the early hours of the mornings. As such most days I feel like I did the first few days of my arrival, extremely tired from lack of sleep. unfortunately this lack of sleep isnt self inflicted its more as a result of the constant noise in the apartment from about 11pm until 5am.
My room and the location of the flat is right in the center of the city making it really accesible to go out and get to places especially uni which is a big bonus. I've had a few cooking adventures, making meals for just one person is quite difficult but I try my best, when I am able to get a space in the kitchen to work with that is.
On Saturday (3rd) I went to toledo with a small tour group, it was a great day out in the old city and I even worked up the courage to ride on the zip line over the river that surrounds the city.
It also snowed right outside my window on sunday and monday! It was the first time I had seen snow actually falling, it melted before it could settle on the ground though.
Words of wisdom: websites like ABC iview and SBS on demand are geolocked to Australia so that means no Australian television for me, also no news from Australia really.
The first is the language barrier, the level of Spanish we were taught back home is nothing compared to the level we are expected to understand in uni classes here and so it makes getting round and conversing with local people extremely difficult. Classes... well the ones we did attend in the first week become boring very quickly when you have absolutely no idea what is being said and no way of attempting to understand as the Professor speaks so fast.
The second barrier has been the university itself, we are here for a year to attend classes at our host university as well as attending our home universities in Australia by correspondence essentially ( no face to face classes but lots of assessments). The classes in spain must be attended in spanish and for the first semester at least we must take language classes. unfortunately we had to pick our 2 other subjects for semester 1 before we knew the schedule for our language classes and so this caused a few problems come week 2 when every class ended up clashing, so for the last two weeks I haven't been able to attend any classes at all.
While some might see this as great and an excellent opportunity to travel, sight see etc. its been more of a hassle than a blessing.
My hopefully last barrier and possibly the biggest is sharing a flat with 12 other international students who are really enjoying the nightlife madrid has to offer well into the early hours of the mornings. As such most days I feel like I did the first few days of my arrival, extremely tired from lack of sleep. unfortunately this lack of sleep isnt self inflicted its more as a result of the constant noise in the apartment from about 11pm until 5am.
My room and the location of the flat is right in the center of the city making it really accesible to go out and get to places especially uni which is a big bonus. I've had a few cooking adventures, making meals for just one person is quite difficult but I try my best, when I am able to get a space in the kitchen to work with that is.
On Saturday (3rd) I went to toledo with a small tour group, it was a great day out in the old city and I even worked up the courage to ride on the zip line over the river that surrounds the city.
It also snowed right outside my window on sunday and monday! It was the first time I had seen snow actually falling, it melted before it could settle on the ground though.
Pictures from Toledo
My bedroom
A video of the snow outside my balcony
Words of wisdom: websites like ABC iview and SBS on demand are geolocked to Australia so that means no Australian television for me, also no news from Australia really.
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