Life in Spain as an Exchange Student

So this is nearly my second month in Spain. It has gone so quickly! I have done so many things and made so many new friends and now I am almost half way through my exchange.

With my language skills improving a little more every day I am really loving Spain. Though there are times when I don’t really understand any of the Spanish that is going on around me, I feel that my Spanish has improved so much since when I first arrived.

I feel like now have adjusted to the cultural differences and the Spanish way of life. For example, kissing people on the cheek to greet them is no longer strange for me, neither is eating dinner at 9:30pm every night instead of 6:30pm.

The food in Spain is so fantastic and I have tried classic dishes and specialty foods eg, paella, tortilla de patatas, arroz, chorizo, jamón, bocadillo de calamares, migas, flan, churros with chocolate and much more.

Another thing that is so great about Spain- Madrid especially is transport. The public transport here is fantastic and the metro is so easy to understand and use. The public transport in Sydney compared to Madrid is not nearly as punctual and easy to navigate. Also the distance that you can travel in Spain in only a few hours is really surprising.

For instance, in Spain if you were to travel maybe four or five hours north-east and you could be in France. Because Australia is such a vast place it can take up to five hours from Moruya (my town) to travel to Sydney. If you look on the map, this seems like a tiny distance for such travel compared to Spain.

It feels like I haven’t wasted a day on my exchange and I am so happy for that. Every week I am doing something, meeting up with friends, travelling to places with my host family, exploring Madrid…

Last weekend my family and I travelled to Granada and my host mum and I visited the Alhambra. I had never seen anything like it before and I could not get over how beautiful it was. The attention to detail from tiles, ceilings and fountains to gardens and statues was mind blowing. Two hundred photos of the Alhambra later, I have so many things to share with my family in Australia.

Overall I am loving my exchange and I can’t wait to experience more of the Spanish culture!