First weeks in Castellón!
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Ellen
28 September 2015 | Spanje, Castellón de la Plana
Hola everybody! Yes, it's for sure: I have survived my first weeks in Castellón de la Plana! On 8 September 2015 my mother and I flew to Valencia and after that we traveled by train to Castellón. Because I wasn't able to go in my 'own' apartment, we had to stay in another apartment for a few days.
On 9 September 2015 I had to go to Universitat Jaume I (UJI) for the first time. Because I didn't know anything about what to do and where to go, I had an appointment at the International Students Office (ORI) before I had the welcome meeting at 12h00. And welcome to Spain... The person I had to talk to wasn't even there! So, I just had to wait until the welcome meeting, where I was told about the UJI, the subjects, the city and other 'interesting' stuff. The next day, I had the 'matrícula oficial', in other words: I had to choose my subjects. I had already done this at home, but for some reason the Spanish people like to do things very inefficient. And one of the strangest things was that the classes had already start.. But, the ORI told us that it wasn't a problem that Erasmus students miss the first classes (isn't that weird?). Because two subjects were overlapping, I had to skip one of them. Now, I have two Spanish and two English subjects in my curriculum and in October the language course Spanish will start. Luckily, on Friday I didn't have class, so my mother and I could go to the beach! The rest of the weekend, we just discovered the city, with beautiful small streets and squares, and like a real Dutchie, I have a kind of subscription so I can use any 'BiciCas' bicycle in the city, really awesome! Only one thing, when you go to de new part of the city, in my opinion it looks like you're in the future! It's so futuristic, really strange compared to the old part of the city. Nevertheless also very beautiful!
On Sunday, I finally could go to my own apartment, so it was time to move! I'm living in a very beautiful apartment, with lots of space (90m2 :)) and in a nice neighborhood, near El Corte Inglés (a big shopping centre) and El Parque Ribalta (a beautiful park in the city centre). It was a bit (ahum, extremely) scruffy, so unfortunately we had to clean everything. Maybe cleaning is more in the Dutch genes than in the Spanish ones, because my landlord told me that the apartment was very clean! ;) Luckily my mother was here with me, because otherwise I had to do it all by myself :)
On Monday 14 September I should have had my first class, Dirección de Empresas, but unfortunately, due to a technical problem with the 'BiciCas', I couldn't attend class, because I was too late :( On Tuesday, I had Inglés para la Empresa and Promoción Comercial, the last one was in Spanish. I couldn't understand a word... Spanish is such a difficult language and after living in Paris for five months, I would like to speak French (or English) all the time. Luckily, everybody speaks English here (NOT). In short, talking is still somewhat difficult.
On Wednesday I already had to say goodbye to my mother, so I brought her to the airport in Valencia. We have had a fantastic week with beautiful weather (around 30 degrees!) and we really enjoyed our time together! :)
On Thursday I had another Spanish subject, Marketing Social y Político. Very interesting, but also really hard to understand. Oh, and all the classes are four hours in a row, so quite long! I hope my Spanish will definitely improve when the language course starts! After class, my weekend started! Studying in Spain is soooooo hard... Merel came to Castellón on Sunday, so in the meantime I just enjoyed the nice weather and the city. Not bad at all, a relaxing weekend! Last week wasn't really special, school is just school, of course!
At this moment, I'm almost three weeks here in Castellón and I'm really enjoying my time here. The other Erasmus students are really nice and going out is so much fun (and really cheap, like everything here). Last Thursday we went to an October fest in El Parque Ribalta and after that we went to a club called Moon, amazing night! Last Saterday we went to the October fest again and after that to club One. So, I think I'll have fun here during the coming months :)
Quite a long story, right? These were my experiences so far! I'll keep you updated about the rest of my stay!
Besos de España!
On 9 September 2015 I had to go to Universitat Jaume I (UJI) for the first time. Because I didn't know anything about what to do and where to go, I had an appointment at the International Students Office (ORI) before I had the welcome meeting at 12h00. And welcome to Spain... The person I had to talk to wasn't even there! So, I just had to wait until the welcome meeting, where I was told about the UJI, the subjects, the city and other 'interesting' stuff. The next day, I had the 'matrícula oficial', in other words: I had to choose my subjects. I had already done this at home, but for some reason the Spanish people like to do things very inefficient. And one of the strangest things was that the classes had already start.. But, the ORI told us that it wasn't a problem that Erasmus students miss the first classes (isn't that weird?). Because two subjects were overlapping, I had to skip one of them. Now, I have two Spanish and two English subjects in my curriculum and in October the language course Spanish will start. Luckily, on Friday I didn't have class, so my mother and I could go to the beach! The rest of the weekend, we just discovered the city, with beautiful small streets and squares, and like a real Dutchie, I have a kind of subscription so I can use any 'BiciCas' bicycle in the city, really awesome! Only one thing, when you go to de new part of the city, in my opinion it looks like you're in the future! It's so futuristic, really strange compared to the old part of the city. Nevertheless also very beautiful!
On Sunday, I finally could go to my own apartment, so it was time to move! I'm living in a very beautiful apartment, with lots of space (90m2 :)) and in a nice neighborhood, near El Corte Inglés (a big shopping centre) and El Parque Ribalta (a beautiful park in the city centre). It was a bit (ahum, extremely) scruffy, so unfortunately we had to clean everything. Maybe cleaning is more in the Dutch genes than in the Spanish ones, because my landlord told me that the apartment was very clean! ;) Luckily my mother was here with me, because otherwise I had to do it all by myself :)
On Monday 14 September I should have had my first class, Dirección de Empresas, but unfortunately, due to a technical problem with the 'BiciCas', I couldn't attend class, because I was too late :( On Tuesday, I had Inglés para la Empresa and Promoción Comercial, the last one was in Spanish. I couldn't understand a word... Spanish is such a difficult language and after living in Paris for five months, I would like to speak French (or English) all the time. Luckily, everybody speaks English here (NOT). In short, talking is still somewhat difficult.
On Wednesday I already had to say goodbye to my mother, so I brought her to the airport in Valencia. We have had a fantastic week with beautiful weather (around 30 degrees!) and we really enjoyed our time together! :)
On Thursday I had another Spanish subject, Marketing Social y Político. Very interesting, but also really hard to understand. Oh, and all the classes are four hours in a row, so quite long! I hope my Spanish will definitely improve when the language course starts! After class, my weekend started! Studying in Spain is soooooo hard... Merel came to Castellón on Sunday, so in the meantime I just enjoyed the nice weather and the city. Not bad at all, a relaxing weekend! Last week wasn't really special, school is just school, of course!
At this moment, I'm almost three weeks here in Castellón and I'm really enjoying my time here. The other Erasmus students are really nice and going out is so much fun (and really cheap, like everything here). Last Thursday we went to an October fest in El Parque Ribalta and after that we went to a club called Moon, amazing night! Last Saterday we went to the October fest again and after that to club One. So, I think I'll have fun here during the coming months :)
Quite a long story, right? These were my experiences so far! I'll keep you updated about the rest of my stay!
Besos de España!
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28 September 2015 - 17:37
Sonja Reinders :
Hi Ellen,
Wat een lang verhaal al.
Leuk om je avonturen te lezen.
Geniet de komende maanden en we lezen graag je volgende verslag.
Dikke knuffel van ons alledrie.
Bart, Sonja en Isa -
29 September 2015 - 18:08
Annie Veldhuis:
October fest? its september Ellen.
Spain and the Netherlands are different, but that isn't a problem I think.
Greats from the hole family.
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30 September 2015 - 02:03
T.van Benthem :
Hallo Ellen !
Nice verslag ! Ik kan het allemaal net een beetje volgen .We wensen je veel succes en plezier en wachten vol spanning op het vervolg van je studie en avonturen ! Groeten en een kus van je [oud ] Oom en Tante !
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