Caitlin (Sem 2, 2023)

My Exchange at Universidad de Granada

Ever since I started studying Spanish in high school, I knew I wanted to do an exchange. However, I had to wait until university to do it. I began researching when I was 16 and found out about the 360 International exchange programmes, and I’d been planning it ever since!

I had no idea what to expect from Spain: my first impressions were 1) hot, unbelievably hot, Granada was 35º when I first arrived. 2) Quiet because many of the students hadn’t arrived yet and 3) small: but this was only a first impression because while yes Granada is a small city in comparison to a city like Madrid, it’s actually still quite big and there are heaps of things to do. 

I remember feeling absolutely terrified about having to speak in Spanish because I was definitely not confident in my speaking abilities, mostly because I was afraid of making mistakes, which I’ve come to learn that if you make a mistake, the world isn’t going to end, it’s all part of the learning process.

I stayed in a ‘residencia’, (residence), so essentially a halls of residence, except it’s not owned by the University of Granada, it’s owned by a third party company who have residencias all over Spain for pretty much most of the universities in Spain. I chose a room where I had my own bedroom, by own bathroom, but I shared a small kitchen with the other Kiwi which connected our rooms. All in all, I am really glad I chose the residencia, as organising a flat would’ve been really stressful all the way in NZ, and because accommodation and a contract with your accommodation is required for the Spanish student visa, the residencia was the easiest option. However if I were to come back on an exchange to Spain, I would definitely live in a flat.

The orientation was great, the international department welcomed us and went through all of the administration we needed to do. However this mostly pertained to the European Erasmus students, not me who already had a visa and learning agreement signed before leaving NZ. The next day I remember the Faculty did a welcome session with the international students and first year Spanish students which was nice and a little bit random when they sent us off on a DIY orientation where we had to take ourselves around the faculty on a tour. Then the international department with my faculty had a separate chat to us about more specific admin stuff we needed to do: again this was mostly pertaining to the Erasmus students. However something that we did all have to do was fix our timetables. I’d received my timetable before I left NZ, but it had a class clash on it, and UGR doesn’t allow you to have class clashes on your timetable. Basically you need to fix this by changing the course and enrolling into another one that doesn’t clash, but everything worked out for me quite easily as I only had to unenroll myself from the class that clashed.

I really enjoyed my classes too! I took four papers, they were very good, the teaching style was certainly quite different to UoA, and while they could be a bit chaotic at times, I enjoyed them!

I absolutely love Granada. It was my third choice out of the five I presented to 360, but I’m so happy, so happy that I got put here. I’ve had the time of my life, I’ve met amazing people and made lifelong friendships! Granada is definitely a student town, there is always something to do, and international student organisations go above and beyond for letting international students explore Granada, Andalucía and Spain! I would not change my host city for the world: I was able to experience both small town and big city Spanish culture, as well as navigate and laugh at the misunderstandings of intercultural differences between exchange students.

Honestly, the highlights of my exchange are the most random moments. I made a group of friends who I became super close with, and in the end it was every moment I spent with them that because a highlight of my exchange. I went to Portugal with them, I did a secret santa with them, we stood out in the freezing cold for a whole hour waiting for the Christmas lights to be turned on, to then go and seek out ramen, then we went back to someone’s apartment to hang out and chat. These friends truly brought me out of my shell and had my trying new things I never ever thought that I would try, they became my ‘bonfire’ friends – friends who I could go to to vent, to talk about anything. It was honestly all the little moments with them that became the highlights of my exchange.

Well of course there’s the language challenge, constantly flicking between English and Spanish is tiring. On top of that there’s the Andalusian accent which is honestly one of the hardest Spanish accents to understand. And generally just cultural things: Spanish people are very laid back and don’t do anything in a hurry and I am the total opposite. There were moments in the beginning when I felt terribly homesick because of the heat and I hadn’t established my routine yet. And then I got sick after drinking a bad bottle of water after my trip home from Barcelona, and I was sick for a whole week, feeling quite miserable, and scared that a repeat of my trip to México would happen (where I ended up in hospital because of food poisoning). And then saying goodbye to all my friends was also really hard: just as hard as it was saying goodbye to my friends and family before I left NZ.

Do it! If I had to give any advice is that doing a semester exchange will change your life and it will change you for the better. All the challenges I faced have made me stronger, and now I look back on them and laugh. I’m so grateful to all the friends I made along the way because they 100% made my exchange the best exchange ever. I think it’s important that every Kiwi gets out on an exchange and leaves the country and experience other cultures. If you are thinking of going on an exchange: apply and do it! You will have no regrets whatsoever.

Q&A

What were some of the highlights of the academic experience at your host university?

I really enjoyed learning my phonetics and phonology class, it gave me a completely different perspective of the language, and I had fun playing around with transcriptions, but learning in the context of the Andalusian accent was quite a challenge!

Would you recommend any particular activity/activities unique to your host country or university?

I would recommend signing up to either 1) Best Life Experience, 2) Emycet or 3) ESN, because these organisations will help to make the integration process into student life in Granada so much easier.

What are your top 3 tips for future students attending your host university or going on exchange to your host country?

Make sure you have all the correct documentation – visas, insurance, accommodation, plane tickets. Because once you’re in Granada it will make everything so much easier. Be prepared to meet a lot of international students: UGR has one of the biggest international student populations in Spain. And these people will be the ones helping to keep you afloat as you all navigate and figure out your new lives in Granada

How much did you budget for your exchange? Was this enough? Were there any lessons learned that would help future students budget for their own exchange?

I’m in a very very lucky position. I started working in a supermarket when I was in year 13, and when I started university, I was able to keep living at home, free of any expenses and rent. Which meant that 1) I had no student loan and 2) I was able to save more for my exchange. Originally though, I estimated that all in all, I would need $20,000 – to spend on the compulsory fees like tuition fees, accommodation, flights etc… (which would be around $10,000-12,000) and the remaining would be used for spending money in country (both money for living and money to spend on travel and recreation). However, I ended up saving $40,000 which was way more than enough. I know people who went to Spain with roughly $20,000 and they were still able to enjoy themselves and do just as much travelling (and actually even more) as me! If you want to go on an exchange and you feel you’re on a tight budget, there is the option to apply for scholarships through UoA. If you choose to cook for yourself, I recommend writing out a list of all the recipes you want (or think) you’ll make in that week and base your grocery list off of that.

What are your most significant takeaways from your experience abroad?

I learned a lot about other cultures, especially when it comes to other cultures sense of time. Personally, I run on quite a fast time schedule and quite a strict one too. I’m a very organised person, I rely on my calendar to plan out my days, and when I travel I take in things faster than others. Which is really fun when you travel with someone who is the total opposite. In my close friend group, there was 5 nationalities: me, one from Paraguay, one from Vietnam, one from the US and one from Poland. So our sense of time was different across everyone, but in the end we never clashed over it, I just had to learn how to slow down and “take more time to smell the roses”. And at the end of the day, we laugh about it – how punctual I am and how not punctual my other friends are. One of my biggest takeaways is to find friends with whom you can laugh about anything, because the amount of times I laughed with my friends about our cultural differences is too many to count – and also they were all very fascinated by my Kiwi accent.

Do you want to share anything about travels you did outside your host city/country?

I travelled to so many cities in Spain: Córdoba, Sevilla, Alpujarra, Valencia, Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona, Benalmadena and Mijas as well as beaches in Nerja and Málaga. Outside of Spain I went to Lisbon (Portugal), and over the Christmas and New Year break I went to London to stay with my cousin. My favourite trips have to be: Alpujarra and Portugal. Because if I hadn’t gone on those trips, I never would have met my close group of friends who I came to rely on, who helped pushed me out of my shell and out of my comfort zone.

Final Comments

Make the most of every moment while you’re on your exchange. You only live once, and the time you have overseas is so incredibly valuable. Especially when you come all the way to Europe: make sure you travel, make sure you see as much as you can, and make sure you make as many friends and as many memories as you can. Because I can say for certain, that the friends I’ve made on my exchange are lifelong friends who I now give me even more of a reason to travel to more countries: not only can I visit countries like Germany, Italy, Austria, Vietnam, Paraguay, Poland and the US for the tourist destinations, but also to visit my friends, to catch up on life. Because goodbye is never goodbye, it’s only ‘see you later’.