Everyone always says that a semester abroad is a life-changing event. After living in Spain for close to two months now, I’m starting to understand why. And I want to share it with you. Here’s a list of things I had never done before living in Spain.
I always thought that the cultural differences between Belgium and Spain were relatively small – and I was right. Nevertheless, living on your own in a foreign country can make you experience things you never thought you’d experience.
I know this list of events might seem trivial or unworthy of receiving any kind of attention, but to me, they’re special things. So, without any further ado, here are the things I did for the first time during my semester in Spain.
I still live at home with my parents, so laundry isn’t really something I usually do. I have to admit, the first time I did laundry here, I Skyped my mom to be sure that I was doing everything correctly. (Mom, if you’re reading this: thank you!)
Extending on the previous item on the list, a couple of weeks ago marked the first time I hung out my clean laundry after a night in the city. You might be thinking “Why would anyone do that instead of just going to bed?”, but I had my reasons.
You see, in that batch of laundry was one of my shirts that I needed the next day. When I came home, I suddenly realized that I would need the shirt, so I started hanging out my laundry, in the hopes that it would be dry by the time I woke up. And it was.
The climate where I’m staying is kind of special. It’s really hot in the summer (all the way through to the beginning of October), but then it gets really cold after that. So, my first month or so here, I experienced the best weather I’d ever experienced. It actually didn’t rain for a whole month. In Belgium, we’re lucky if we get a week without any rain.
In Belgium, I go everywhere by bike or by public transport. Here, things are a little different. Before I arrived in Spain, I was planning on renting a bike for the semester so I could get everywhere faster. Upon my arrival, I quickly realized that there were barely any bicycles going around here, so I decided to hold off on the whole renting a bike thing.
Now, I’m walking literally everywhere. I can get anywhere I need to be within 15 minutes, so I really see no reason for any other mode of transport.
I mean, yes, I have friends in Belgium and I love them with all my heart. It’s just that, here in Spain, everything is different. I don’t go home in the weekend, I have to be 100% independent. I think that’s part of the reason why I meet up with my new friends here more often.
There’s always something to do. An Erasmus organization planning trips to neighbouring cities. A group of friends getting together for dinner. Some promotion at the local movie theatre. I don’t want to miss out on all of this, so it feels like my social life here is way more lively than it was in Belgium.
The stores here are mostly the same as in Belgium, with one big, obvious difference: everything is in Spanish. Asking an employee where I can find red beans, communicating at the checkout, … My Spanish is pretty good, but I don’t feel confident enough to live my entire life speaking it.
Also, there is literally not a single store here that sells sour cream. I need sour cream, people.
This may seem like a stab at the people I know back in Belgium, but I promise, it’s not. I’m intensely happy here. I’m not saying my friends and family in Belgium aren’t good enough to make me happy, but hear me out.
Virtually everyone who has ever gone on a semester abroad says it was the time of their life. I feel like I’ve been in Spain long enough to understand what they’re talking about.
As an exchange students, it’s ridiculously easy to make new friends. After all, you pretty much only hang out with other exchange students, which means that everyone knows how you’re feeling and everyone is in the same boat.
The fact that you’re sharing unforgettable experiences with people you’ve only known for a couple of weeks is honestly mind-blowing to me. It feels as if you’ve been friends for ages, for some reason. It’s difficult to explain.
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I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything on here, and I’m very sorry for that. It’s been incredibly busy here, and I haven’t really had a lot of time to update the blog.
I hope this post can answer some of your questions and maybe even entertain you a little bit. I had a lot of fun writing it, so I’d be a tad disappointed if you didn’t enjoy reading it just a little bit.
There are no pictures in this post for obvious reasons, but the next post will have images again, I promise.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, check out my new video of our trip to Segovia and Ávila!
As always, thanks for reading!
-S
I’m living in Spain now. I’m not going home until Christmas and in this post, I’m going to tell you how I feel about spending the next couple of months in Salamanca.
Disclaimer: I still don’t have a decent camera for pictures and I probably won’t for some time. I’m sorry about the crappy quality pictures, I’m working on it. Also, if anyone knows of any good cameras, feel free to let me know.
I’m just going to jump right into it. I love it here. Salamanca is the city I never knew I’d always dreamed of. On the one hand, the city centre is small enough for it to feel like a tightly-bound city of young, vibrant people. It’s also small enough for me not to need a bicycle, a car or anything else. After 10 minutes of walking, I can be just about anywhere I need to be.
On the other hand, Salamanca is big enough for it to feel like an important city in the landscape of Spain. On that note, there are tonnes of students here. I’ve been told that of its 140.000 inhabitants, 30.000 are students at the University of Salamanca (which was founded 800 years ago, by the way!). That group includes about 7.000 exchange students, so it’s easy to feel at home and make new friends here.
I’ve been here just short of a week, but I can already tell that the urban life in Salamanca is exactly what I’m looking for. To me, it feels like a low-key version of New York City – the city that never sleeps.
No idea if this is only for these first weeks or if it’s always like this, but it seems like there is always something going on. Food trucks, salsa classes, bull fights or pick-nicks in the park. I might not even get to do the things on my Spanish bucket list. Oh well.
To give you some kind of idea of the kind of things that happen here: this is what we came across on our second day in Salamanca.
These people were casually parading through the city centre, playing what I assume to be Spanish music. It was fun.
Oh. My. God. The food. The food is so good. Everything you’ve heard about the Spanish cuisine is true. Unless you’ve heard that it’s bad.
When my parents were still here, we went out to a tapas bar (yes, just tapas for dinner). In case I still haven’t made it clear yet, let me spell it out for you. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.
Here are some pictures of our tapas night out.
The city centre of Salamanca is not only lively and vibrant, but it’s also beautiful. Most buildings are made of some sandstone-ish stone, giving the city a very uniform but soft look.
Sights like this plaza are quite common throughout Salamanca.
Moreover, Salamanca seems to be very much based on its heritage, while it’s also a pretty modern-looking city. By ‘based on its heritage’, I’m referring to the old cathedral, university buildings and monastery (see picture below).
As far as nature goes, I have yet to see anything VERY impressive. I went to a park at about 10 minutes from my new home, there’s a river, and there are quite a lot of small green spots in the actual centre, but other than that, nothing really jumps to mind.
View of the river Tormes from the Puente Romano (Roman bridge)
Salamanca is the city of dreams. I’m incredibly excited to spend the next months here, because a semester abroad is basically like a very long solo trip (but you have to go to school as well).
I think I’ve made you all jealous enough for one blog post, so I’ll just call it a day here. I don’t know when I’ll upload my next blog post, but I’ll be sure to announce it on my Facebook page, so keep an eye on that.
P.S. Check out the travel video I made of my first few days here!
Thanks for reading!
-S
As many of you may or may not know, I’m taking a semester abroad to study in Spain. I’ll be there between September and January, which means I’ll probably end up having some time to explore every corner of Iberia. That being said, let me walk you through the things I want to visit in Spain next year.
As I’m leaving for Spain in less than a month, I think it’s the perfect time to share this post with you guys. This semester abroad is going to be a huge thing and I’m looking forward to it so much. I just can’t wait to start living in Spain by myself!
Of course, not everything I want to see is in Spain itself. However, the majority of my Semester Abroad Bucket List is made up of Spanish locations. With that in mind, I’ll divide this list into two parts: Spain and Not Spain.
Let’s take a look!
Picture by Pedro Jarque
You weren’t expecting the first entry of my bucket list to be anything other than Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia, right? Well, here it is anyway. Admittedly, the chances of you having heard of Gaztelugatxe before are very slim. So, allow me to explain.
Gaztelugatxe is a tiny island along the northern coast of Spain (Basque Country). The only thing connecting it to mainland Spain is a man-made bridge (that looks amazing, by the way).
I saw a picture of this on a Windows login screen background, and the scenery around the island impressed me so much that I made it one of my top priorities to see Gaztelugatxe in real life one day.
I’m probably going to end up combining a visit to the island with a day or two in Bilbao.
Fun fact: HBO used Gaztelugatxe as a filming location for some scenes in season 7 of Game of Thrones.
Here comes another name you’ve never heard in your life, and you’ll probably never hear it again after reading about it here. What is Pozo de los Humos and why the hell do I want to see it?
Well, the primary reason why I want to go to Pozo de los Humos is because it’s relatively close to where I’m going to be studying. Moreover, I’m a sucker for nature reserves and waterfalls, so it seems illogical to live about half an hour away of this waterfall for a semester and not visit it.
Fun fact: Pozo de los Humos translates to the smoking waterfall in English.
Photo by Adrianna Calvo (Pexels)
As the semester abroad is obligatory for my classmates and myself, all of us are going on an adventure next year. Aside from a couple of friends, most of us are going to various locations in Spain. Within that group, the majority of students is going to study at/around the southern coast of Spain (Málaga, Granada, Huelva, Sevilla, …).
It would surprise me if I managed to go half a year without visiting my friends down in the south. And that’s why this entry is on my bucket list.
Photo by Geoffrey Morrison
Last year, we had a course about Spanish cultural history. The professor taught us about the history of Spain – which was interesting, but very irritating to study – and he got me hooked on the beauty of old Spanish buildings.
The one building I was most impressed with was the Alhambra. I would honestly travel halfway across the country to get a glimpse of this magnificent piece of ancient architecture (well, not really ancient, but you catch my drift).
I’ve been waiting to visit Gibraltar for years now, but I’ve never found it to be the right time. If I’m going to do this, I’m going to have to do it now. There’s never going to be a more perfect time to check out the tiny British territory at the end of Spain.
I imagine that Gibraltar would be a perfect place to spend a day and hang out some time.
Photo by Digitalwunder (Pixabay)
Morocco is another country I’ve wanted to visit since I was a little kid. For a typical kid from Belgium, it’s something of a childhood dream. I might get to make that dream come true next year.
I can’t wait to try Moroccan cuisine, ride a camel and stroll through beautiful cities. Another thing I can’t wait to do is try out my very first passport, as I’ve never been outside of Europe.
Picture by Peter Heeling (Skitterphoto)
Seeing as I’m going to be spending half a year living right next to the Spanish-Portuguese border, I might as well hop over into the other side. It would be a pity to let all of that Portuguese beauty go unseen, wouldn’t it?
I’ve been to Portugal before and absolutely loved it, so why wouldn’t I love it again next year?
Have you ever been to any of these destinations? What did you think of them? Let me know in the comments!
As always, thank you very much for reading!
-S
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