How Spain got my last nerve
"no pasa nada" ... right?
Let me start from the beginning
Barcelona, the city you are.
I knew from the start that my semester abroad was meant to be in a big city in the south, and I mean, where else do you find a better combination of parties, beaches, beautiful architecture, history, and multiculturalism than in Barcelona? I was also hoping to level up my Spanish skills and dive into Spanish culture and mentality. Little did I know that a few weeks after my Erasmus had started, I would be all in, stressed about Spanish mentality.
Sit down, take your time and enjoy.
When signing up for classes became a full-time job
My first major problem was enrolling in the modules. I had to take two courses at the communications faculty and two more at another faculty. You might be thinking “What could possibly go wrong with an enrollment?!” - well, everything.
The first enrollment, at the communication department went smoothly, but then came round two…
...When the portal opened again for the remaining courses, we were completely in the dark. No timetable, no campus info, no idea what was even left. It was basically academic roulette, hoping and praying for a course you can take.
But the actual problem: For unknown reasons, I couldn’t access the platform, like it was an exclusive club or something.
I immediately sent an email to the International Office hoping to get a quick response, but since the enrollment started in the middle of the night, I couldn't expect an answer until the next morning at the earliest.
Two days passed and I was getting nervous. For this reason, I decided to go to the International office personally.
Turned out only one person was speaking English fluently, but since I had a technical issue with the platform, she didn’t really understand what was going on either.
So I skipped this part of the mess and started explaining my situation, with the missing courses I needed to take, in which I couldn’t enroll due to the technical issue.
The employee then showed me the courses that were still available and with my luck, the only modules left were advanced-level nightmares in disguise. I told her that I cannot take part in any of these because I won ‘t pass the exams.
They also didn’t know what to do in this situation and advised me to contact the economies department, if I want to know what other classes are potentially open for me, because the communications department don’t have information about all the courses of other faculties.
I spent weeks running from office to office, trying to sign up for modules. After three weeks, I was finally enrolled in courses. After the first lecture, it turned out that one course consisted of only math and the other of advanced math and intense economic praxis. During the next two weeks, both subjects jumped into midterms, and suddenly I realized I had three weeks of massive assignments to catch up on. And by massive, I mean term-paper massive. On topics that were completely new to me.
My problem with logging into the campus platform had still not been resolved at this point, and I had no access to the course materials. I was also unable to sign up for group work, which was necessary to submit assignments or even take part on it. As expected, i scored badly in the Midterm Exams.
But the Spanish “no pasa nada”- vibe also had one benefit:
the professors were just as relaxed as everyone else and that honestly saved me. When I explained my situation, everyone was very understanding. This meant that I had a lot of support before my final exams to help me pass the course, and they understood that I would only be able to submit my assignments after the deadline.
…but if you think that, was it… hold my sangria
Hot water? A luxury. Working air conditioning? A myth. And a water leak? Well... let's just say our kitchen suddenly wanted “sea view.”
The chillness spread throughout the city, even our apartment looked as if someone had turned a blind eye here and there.
When we first arrived, we immediately learned the hard way that hot water was apparently optional. We spent four days without it until the water heater finally got replaced.
After that, we were confronted with new problems every month. Whether it was a power outage, a light in our kitchen that couldn't be turned off, or the air conditioning, which didn't work for three weeks in July. After the devices were replaced several times, they told us that this was NORMAL in Barcelona in the summer. To make things even worse, we had a huge water leak that flooded the entire kitchen and hallway and turned it into a miniature swimming pool.
Adios, Catalunya.
On the day of our departure, we were supposed to hand over the apartment to the property manager at 1:00 p.m. Incidentally, she didn't speak a word of English, which made it even more difficult to communicate the many problems in the apartment. At 11:30 a.m., the doorbell rang, and two young girls were standing at the door, who NOW wanted to view the apartment with the property manager. We didn't know what was going on and explained to them that we would be moving out in 1.5 hours and were just packing our things. So the four of us were standing at the front door, confused and hoping for an explanation. When they called the property manager, she admitted that she simply “forgot” to mention she’d show up later.
Our Uber was booked for around 1:30 p.m., giving us a half-hour buffer, because we were told that handing over the keys would only take five minutes. At 1:15 p.m., no one had arrived yet, so we asked if everything was okay. The property manager replied that she was running late because she had accidentally gotten on the wrong train and would be there in 10 minutes. She then strolled in at 1:30 p.m. as if she had all the time in the world. We rushed to hand over the key and got into our Uber, who was already waiting for us.
Leaving Barcelona was everything but romantic that day. When we arrived at the airport, I was still overwhelmed be feelings of sadness, that the time of my life came to an end.
MY CLOSING THOUGHTS
I hope this post has shown some of you that you might have to prepare for when spending a semester abroad in Spain. Despite all the stress and problems, I learned a lot, and overall my stay abroad was still sooo cool. This post is not supposed to discourage you to go to Barcelona, but more to give you an impression, that not everything was flowers and glitter in Spain. If there's one thing I learned from my experiences, is that even in the most stressful situations, you must keep your nerves, because everything will work out somehow.
I met friends from all over the world who turned these months into something unforgettable, and together we lived our absolute best life in Barcelona. When I think about our adventures and the quality time we had, I am getting emotional and from the bottom of my heart I would recommend everyone to do a semester abroad in Spain.
Kommentare 1
So ein schöner Beitrag du spanische Maus 💃💃💃