Warning, it's big.....

Hola chicos =)

I haven’t really written a proper entry since arriving in Spain. In Germany I wrote so often, once a week usually, because I had so much more time in which to do so. Here it seems since day one of arrival, that if there hasn’t been work to do, there’s been subjects to hunt out, language barriers to overcome and of course, good old nights out.

Since my arrival nearly four weeks ago (time flies, seriously), I have done quite a lot. I wanted to write an entry to prove to myself that I have done things, because in comparison to my German life I’ve barely seen any of Spain yet! In Germany I was immer unterwegs visiting new places, and different friends, but I can sense Spain is different already.

Stop blabbering, Amelia.

So, University! For any readers (if there are any) that don’t know what the heck I’m doing in Spain, well I’m here in a vain effort to improve my Spanish. It’s getting somewhere, where exactly I don’t know, but I am making minor improvements. Let’s just hope there are many more to come in my remaining three months! I’m studying at the University of Almería, which is in the South of Spain. I have a lovely flat with a balcony, which is but seconds from the beach, and just a short ride on the bus to class. University in Spain feels so much more disorganised than in Edinburgh, I suppose we are spoonfed to a certain degree at home, whereas here everything is a lot more independent. Moreover, there’s more of a focus on participation in class, your grades at the end of the year depend a lot more heavily on participation and extra work done in term time, than the final exam. I suppose this may turn out to be good for me, as I suck at exams…but then again, participating in class is a tricky one, especially when I’m struggling to understand the classes!

I’m taking two history classes and two literature classes, and although at times I am totally confused, I think my brain is slowly adjusting, and I’m beginning to pick stuff up. The workload is all a bit big, I think it’d be fine for a Spanish student, but it’s just a pain trawling through all this reading/doing all these commentaries in another language sometimes. But it’s why I’m here!

University out of the way, now to the fun things!

On my first day I met Jorinde and Tea, two lovely Norwegian girls who study Mathematics. I was shy and retiring, and felt entirely lacking in confidence on my arrival, and they swooped me up and have been helping me out ever since. Soon after meeting Tea and Jorinde I met Marta too, who is also lovely, and from Germany. We all went to Cádiz together for Carneval, which was SO much fun, we all had our disguises ( I was a pirate!) and walked through the streets of Cádiz, meeting international students from everywhere, it was brilliant. I love Cádiz too, I wish we’d had more time to spend walking around and soaking up the culture. But I have to be Spanish Amelia now, and party more, not German Amelia and take photos always =)

In my classes, I luckily met two lovely girls from Manchester, Emma and Viki, who live just up the road from me too, and excellently we have a couple of classes together. They’re really lovely, and out of class we’ve been going for tapas in Tío Tom’s which has thus far been the favourite bar….but we must find more! The great thing about tapas here is that you pay just for your drink, and then choose what tapas you want of a big list for free….tapas and wine for 2.50 is the best thing ever, Edinburgh definitely needs to learn a lesson.

What else have I done? Argh so much but so little. Nothing of great significance. I guess my life here is like my life in Edinburgh, in so far that I’m a student again. I have to do work, and there isn’t as much time (or money, more importantly) to flit off all over Spain. At the moment I’m just enjoying soaking up some Spanish culture, learning about Almería and trying to better my language….and of course, meeting all the wonderful people here. I’m so excited for the weather to improve, we’ve had on and off days since I arrived- mostly quite consistently sunny, but there’s been a chilly wind whipping about.

My life seems mental, and it seems like it won’t get less mental until….May 2012, maybe? I have so much to do and see and read here, as well as visits from my Mum and Stephen, from Sam, from Richie, and then I’m briefly returning home in April to see the family….then soon enough June will be upon us and I’ll be heading home! So it’s been lovely to take 30 minutes out of my otherwise hectic day, to sit with café con leche in the University cafeteria and type type type….even if it is blabbering nonsense! I’ll try take more time to write about things I do as I do them, because I’m sure there are some great things I’ve done, that I’m forgetting to write. Spain is teaching me how to be organised again, something I lost control of in Germany. Speaking of Germany, if any of my German friends are reading, I really miss you all! You were in my thoughts this morning as I walked by the beach, and saw someone had grafittied GFS (the abbreviation of the school….) on a wall. It made me remember you all and all the great things I did whilst I was in Diepholz! I’m missing being German a lot.

Anyway, I best stop typing, I have a class to go to, the hardest of my week, the one I usually don’t understand at all….wish me luck. After the week I’ve already had, I will have definitely earnt myself a glass of red wine by tonight…..