Barcelona

Camp Nou

Park Güel

Sagrada Familia

On Wednesday I visited the famous construction site of Barcelona called Sagrada Familia, Parc Güel and home stadium of FC Barcelona. All these sightseeing places were full of tourists. Entrances to Sagrada Familia were ten euros but we did not visit inside. Tour to Camp Nou included visit to museum and cost 17 euros. It was impressive to see the massive stadium and how dressing rooms and other areas look where you do not have access when you go see a match. Inside you could also pay and take photo with cardboad Messi. To Park Güel entrance was free and it was the most artistic park I have seen.

Tarragona

Tarragona

Rollercoaster in Port aventura

We spent whole Monday in amusement park Port Aventura. We could visit only seven different attractions because lines were long. There was capacity for a lot of longer lines so I guess we did not have to wait that long if you compare for the lines in the summer time. Waiting was too much for us so we did not go to the Port Aventura next day even we had free tickets.

Today we visited Tarragona where we saw old ruins and two royal houses. We went also to big shopping center but I did not find anything. All shops looked quite messy because there were a lot of customers who had thrown clothes everywhere.

Salou

In Salou

East coast

Saturday evening I arrived to Salou. I had difficulties to find the hotel but finally I found it. Hotel room was nice and there was something little to eat. My family arrived in the night and especially dad was really happily surprised that they were able to arrive Salou during the night. Mum have been impressed how well car drivers let us to cross the streets. Tomorrow I am going to Port Aventure with my sister and brother.

Spanish Christmas food

I have had two great Spanish Christmas meals. Chencho invited me yesterday for dinner and today for lunch with his family. I felt really welcome to be a guest in their house. I got a change to taste many new foods moreover everything was really good. I ate big shrimps, grabs, Iberian ham, clams, cheese, fish, pig and more. Only one food was prepared in the same way as in Finnish Christmas table and that was salmon. I brought Finnish mince pie for dessert and they liked it. Actually I enjoyed more Spanish Christmas food than Finnish. Unfortunately I do not have photos of the food.

Tomorrow I am taking bus to Salou which is in the east coast of Spain near Barcelona. Bus ride will take about seven hours and I will spend in Salou one week. Hopefully I will get access to the Internet there.

Christmas holiday

Today started the three week Christmas holiday. In Spain you can not call it really holiday because exams are right after holiday therefore everyone will be studying during the holiday. Most of the erasmus students have returned to their home countries. I am one of the few how is not going to the home country.

There is still one week lessons after the Christmas holiday. One professor was absent three times without announcing it in advance. All the other professors came always and also announced in advance if the lessons were cancelled. Once professor came to the lesson just to announce that it was cancelled. Here they say works and changes in plans at the lesson and this information is not sent to you by email or announced in the Internet therefore if you are absent you can not really know what is happening. Then you have to ask your friends who have attended the lesson.

New year party

Plaza del sol

On Friday we went to Madrid to celebrate new year. In Spain students tend to celebrate the new year also before the actual new year. Lot of people gathered to big square in Madrid where everyone could see the time and count seconds until the day changed and eat twelve peeled grapes. The reason why people celebrate new year too early is just an excuse to have a party.

On sunday we had floorball match in Fuengirola and we lost the match 5-3. Finally we played the match even our opponent wanted to change the match date.

Thoughts about my Spanish

Learning Spanish has been more slow than I thought. I was expecting some way that I would speak and be better in Spanish after spending here almost four months. I expected that I will learn the language by speaking and going to the classes therefore I have not been studying new words or grammar at home. Spanish classes showed me that I know almost all the grammar but of course I could handle the grammar better. I have no problem communicating with one person but listening and participating conversation in group is still difficult.

I use Spanish everyday so my language skills should be improving everyday but how could I improve it more. By reading everyday in Spanish and actually finding the meaning of new words and also writing could be helpful. Now I have not been reading Spanish everyday because I read the news in Finnish. It is definetely good to stay here whole year to learn the language better.

Presentations

Drawings in the class room

When the studies started all the desks were clean. Now before the Christmas break all the desks are full of drawings and look like above. Lets see if desks will be cleaned during the break. We are having now presentations in the subjects. Here is a custom to dress up well for presentations that means that men wear suits. That is a little problem for me because I do not have my suit in Spain. Tomorrow is my first presentation with my group about recruiting staff to company.

Snow

Evidence

When I took a look outside in the morning I was very surprised that I saw snow. There was not snow on the streets but cars and roofs were covered with a light layer of snow. Nice to see snow also in Spain. When I walked through the center I noticed that there was a lot of salt put on the streets. So little snow and they had already poured a lot of salt.

Keys

My keys

Here I need three keys and there is also one key to the letterbox which I share with my flatmates. First key is entering the building, second entering the flat and third one I need to enter my room. In Finland I would be able to do all four things with one key and I would also have access to some little storage with the same key. Locks work here differently and I have had problems opening the doors. Few times I have not been able to open the door of the flat but luckily my flatmates have been at home and helped me to get in. I have improved my lock opening technique but I am still having little problems. These experiences make the products of Finnish lock company Abloy look quality products.

Problems with the bank

My Spanish account is blocked which means that I can not put money to the account. I was able to get money from account but not put more money. Because my Spanish account is now empty now I have to get money with my Finnish Visa Electron and I have to pay provision 2e + 2,5% amount of the cash I get. My Spanish bank Santander do not have any idea why the account is blocked and they can not unblock it. They suggested my to delete current account and open new one. Officer also mentioned maybe opening account to another bank. I wonder do they want me to change the bank.

Portugal

The most western place of Europe

This is how walking streets look in Portugal

Central park Eduardo VII in Lisboa

Five day trip to Portugal with almost one hundred students cost 125 euros including bus, room in hostel and breakfasts. Bus ride from Alcalá to Lisboa took about 10 hours. In Portugal we saw many sightseeing, visited cities Lisboa, Coimbra and Sintra and on way back to Alcalá we took quick look on Cáceres.

Buildings in Portugal were in worse condition than in Spain but Metro in Lisboa looked Brand new. Walking streets were covered with rocks size of a fist and not with asphalt. One member of our travelling crew was thrown this rock to his head in the night and spent one day in hospital but anything serious damage was not done. He was standing next to me when some idiot threw the rock. Lucky me that it did not hit me. I heard that also one camera and one wallet was stolen.

It felt strange not to understand local language even Portuguese has some similarities with Spanish. I just tried to explain in Spanish when I needed to say something for local people. For me Portuguese sounds a bit like Russian.

Trip was great. Atmosphere were in one point so high that everyone were dancing in the corridor of the bus.

International fever

Before even starting my exchange year I already thought about going to exchange second time. Campus Europea exchange program makes it possible but I do not have any specific country in my Mind. If I could finish my bachelor degree next year in one semester I could even think about going to exchange to Sweden for second semester. Well that would be too much because I would like do also internship and why not in some foreign country. I really must have some kind of international fever.

Tonight I am going to trip to Portugal which is organized by ESN (Eramsus Student Network). Trip will take five days therefore there will be a little break in blog updates.

First book in Spanish

Tap

I have read my first book in Spanish. Original version of the book is written in English by Seth Godin and it is called Purple Cow. I read the whole book without using dictionary because I read it in the train when travelling to trainings. There was parts that I did not understand but mostly I understood. I have read also other books of the author and he have made me interested in marketing and even thinking about finding a own company.

I do not like the public taps in Spain because you can not adjust the temperature neither the pressure of the water. There is button which you have to press to get water. Tap gives water about one liter to wash your hands and I think it is too much. Automatic or adjustable tap would be better.

Two matches

The biggest match of Spain was played today between Barcelona and Real Madrid. I was watching the match in a local bar with Spanish friends. Bar was full of people and there was also supporters of Barcelona. People seemed definetely more excited about the match than other la liga matches. People were supporting, insulting and holding their breathe everytime when something happened. In the end Barcelona won the match 1-0.

On Saturday I had Floorball match. Our team won the leader of the league 4-2 and I scored two goals and assisted one. I am having curse of three points or nothing. I have made three points in three league matches and zero points in two friendly matches and in one league matches. Next match will be next year.

Internal competition of football

List

Today we had our last match of the group phase in Internal competition of university of Alcalá in football seven. We had still change to go through to the cup phase. We had won two matches and lost two matches. Unfortunately last match was a tie 3-3 and we are out. In the last match both teams received red card in the end of first half because of pushing and almost starting a fight. Also referee had to listen a lot of whining about his decisions. You can really see the difference in the temperament when playing football.

Yesterday I was last time in my Campus Europea language course which I had everyday three hours during two months. I was able to participate only two times per week because I had floorball trainings and football matches in the same time.

Maps

Maps from Google

I decided to upload picture of the center of Joensuu and Alcalá. As you can streets in the center of Alcalá are going all the possible directions, it is like a maze compared to Joensuu. Most of the streets are one way streets in Alcalá. During the rush hour police is needed to guide the traffic in the traffic circle in the main road. Here are police of Alcalá and police of Spain but I do not know if they have different rights or why it is like that. Now I have experienced in Spain that Police will stop the houseparty and it is not only Finland where this happens like Spanish exchange students made me understand.

Floorball match in Marbella

View from the hotel

On Saturday morning I woke up at 7:15 because our team had match in Marbella and driving there by car takes 6 hours. The whole journey there was two driving lanes so it was easy to go past slower vehicles. We spent one night in hotel and returned next day. Rink in Marbella was smaller than normally and floor was damaged. Bad conditions did not bother us and we won the match 0-12. I scored once and made two assists. Next week we have home match against the leading team of the league.

Walking street

Calle mayor the walking street of Alcalá

In the center of Alcalá is walking street like in the center of Joensuu the city where I study in Finland. How these walking streets are different. In Alcalá there are a lot of restaurants and small shops like clothing, tabacco and shops of small products/gifts. Restaurants serve typical Spanish food and had tables on the street when weather was warmer. The walking street of Joensuu is heated so there is not snow even all the other streets are covered with snow. In Joensuu there are much less restaurants, shops are bigger and the biggest shopping center is on the walking street. In the middle of the walking street of Joensuu are parked a lot of bikes which you can hardly see in Alcalá. Both cities have sitting statue which are popular to pose with.

Pencil

Today in the class we had to write summary of four liberties of European Union. I wrote the summary of our group. When it was time to hand out our summaries professor did not accept the summary of our group because it was written with pencil. I was very surprised because I have always written all my exams with pencil and almost everyone write in the exams with pencil in Finland. The professor said that here you have to always write with pen exams and papers which you hand out. Here permanent mark is necessary and most of students write their notes also with pen. At least now I know that when the exams come I am not allowed to write with pencil. We received more time to finish our summary with pen and we can hand out it on next week.

Spain-Argentina

Stadium

Diego, Jose, Chencho, Me, Chris, David and Alberto

On Saturday National team of Spain played against Argentina and we went to watch this match to the stadium. The match was played at the Vicente Calderón which is the home stadium of Atletico Madrid. Our tickets cost 27 euros. Atmosphere was something what I had not experienced before. People were singing outside of the stadium few hours before the match and during the match at the stadium. People were dressed in the colors of Spain and waving flags of Spain. The Final result of the match was 2-1 for Spain and I still want to see also la liga match live.

Hairy

Proof

It is funny to see that Spanish women have more hair in their arms than I have. I have even seen here Spanish woman who had hair on her shoulders. Arms of Spanish men are even more hairy. If you compare arms of Spanish men to the arms of Spanish women, women do not have that hairy arms but I have seen exceptions.

Parking

Example

It is hard to park your car in Alcalá therefore people have to be creative with parking. Common way to park is parking next to another car then the another car is blocked and cannot leave. Normally they park like this for a moment and put emergency lights on. When the driver comes to the blocked car and does not the see owner of blocking car he starts to hoot. I think that I have woken up few times because of this. Seems like these illegally parked cars do not even receive tickets. I hope Spanish can comment can you get easily parking tickets.

Stick

My floorball stick

Finally I have here own floorball stick. With this stick I can shoot much better than the stick I had borrowed so far. Now we have two times a week two hour training. Here starting training takes much more time than in Finland. Everyone is talking first 15 minutes and after that people start to think about starting.

Today there is a big football match. It is rival match between Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. I will go watch that match to a bar with my Spanish friends.

Lunch time and siesta

In Spain lunch time is between two and three. Here eating at the university costs 4,7 euros so It is double price compared to the price in Finland. Therefore eating at the university is not very popular here. In Finland almost all the students eat at the university and some students just go to the university to eat. Here potatoes are always served as a French fries and In Finland potatoes are always just boiled. I can say that the food served in the student restaurant is more greasy than in Finland.

After the lunch time is siesta. During the siesta most of the places get closed. Supermarkets stay open and we have also lessons during the siesta. Places open again around five.

London

Big Ben

Buckinham Palace

Aurélie, Sophie, Marie and Me

New football stadium of Arsenal

In the Halloween weekend I went to London to visit Aurélie and to see Sophie and Marie who came from Paris to London. We walked around the city to see sightseeing. There is so many things to see that we did not have time to see everything. Therefore there is good reason to go London again. Aurélie helped me to take pictures and showed how to cross the street always with red lights. I guess we crossed the street everytime with the red lights but that is how they do in big cities. Aurélie said that the group spirit among the exchange students was much better in Joensuu than it is in London. Sophie recommended me to visit Granda and the Pyrenees. Aurélie, Sophie and Marie got a lot of attention from the English men and they got in the conversation in different places. London was great and I was really happy to meet the French girls.

Spain is still warm

Picture from my faculty

In the middle of September I wrote that Spain got cold but after for a while it got warm again. Here have been few short colder periods but today it was too hot to wear sweater outside. Weather forecast says that in Finland it is about zero degrees. Here have been only few rainy days on the contrary In Finland sky is cloudy and grey almost all the time in October and it feels that it can start to rain in any moment.

In Spain also professors swear in the classes using same bad words what I have learned by watching Los Serrano. I have also learned many new bad words which are common but were too offensive for the family series Los Serrano. I do not yet have this Spanish habit to respond by saying "joder".

First football match

Football field in the campus

Today our Erasmus football team FC Freekick had first match in the internal competition of football seven. We have 14 players in the team so a bit too many if everyone can come. Today we were 11 and we won the match 6-2. Our team has one star player who scored today four goals. After the first victory spirit is high and we are looking forward to win more matches. Finally I did not find players for volleyball team but I am hoping to make team in the second semester.

First match of the season

Today we had first floorball match of the season against the toughest team Leganés. We had 12 players and goalkeeper. I had played as a defender in two friendly matches before but this time I played as a left winger. We won the match 4-3 and I made one goal and two assists. Our team had lost to Leganés about five years in row which means that we broke about twenty match winning streak. Great to start season with big win.

Crowd was definetely more noisy than any crowd in my match before. I can see the hot Spanish temperament when playing. In every match there have been situation when players have had to calm down another player.

Birthday

Guests

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday and invited friends to celebrate it with me. I served some appetizers, drinks, pizza and pulla. I also showed parts of IDFH episodes and they liked watching them even they could not understand the language. Thanks for the party and gifts.

Octopus

Octopus a la gallega

Today I achieved second goal. I ate octopus. Menú which I ate included two plates, drink, dessert and it cost 17.95. I think this was the most expensive meal I have had in the restaurant. Seeing the suction cups in the pieces of tentacles made octopus look less tasty. The taste of octopus was not strong and it was a bit hard to bite like raw meat of pig. I did not fall in love with the taste of octopus but I do not hate the taste either. I am happy that I tried octopus. I was able to make Ana try the octopus first time in her life.

Hello!

Here greeting is different than in Finland. In Spain always two kisses when meeting women and shaking hands when meeting men. In Finland we just say hello. Therefore I have shaken here in one and half month more hands than in my past 20 years. Kisses and hand shakes are also involved when you are saying good bye. Spanish do not say good bye just once they say at least twice before leaving. Sometimes it feels like it is competition who can say the last word before leaving. Finnish style to greet seems so cold compared to Spanish.

Emos in Spain?

In Spain piercing in a lip seems to be the most popular place to have a piercing like in Finland. But in Spain people who have they lip pierced do not dress up differently like in Finland. Pierced people have same kind of style as people who do not have their lip pierced. In Finland lip pierced people mostly dress up in emo style which means black hair, black eye make-up and black clothes. Here I have seen just a few dressed up in emo style.

Four day holiday ended

Streets were full of people in the middle age market.

Four day holiday is now over. In Alcalá was middle age market from Friday to Monday. Because of this market we had free day on Friday. Market was arranged in the middle age spirit. There were sold many different products and traditional food in the stands. There was also possibility to see performances and theater.

On Monday was the national day of Spain. In Madrid was arranged military parade and I went to see that with David, Aritz who were in erasmus in Finland and Andrés. After parade I went to Museum of queen Sofia with David. There I saw the famous painting of Picasso called Guernica. In the museum I liked the most the paintings of Dali.

Segovia

Roof in the castle Alcazar

Cathedral from the tower of Alcazar castle

Knight inside the castle Alcazar

Aqueduct

On Saturday University of Alcalá arranged free trip to Segovia which is about two hours from Madrid by bus. Most famous sight seeings in Sagevia are aqueduct, Alcazar castle and cathedral. The most I liked castle Alcazar. Especially roof of the castle in every room was impressive. View outside was good and knights looked nice. Castle had about one meter thigh walls. Stairs to the tower of castle were really narrow and people were going up and down with a bit more people it would have been nightmare.

Poor people

Here I can see few people begging money on the streets. Almost everytime when I have travelled by train someone comes to ask money from me. Some beggers share a story why they want money and some show just paper which says help me. Spanish people have said to me that they are drug addicts. I have been curious to see if they would accept food instead of money.

First credits earned

Diploma

Yesterday I got diploma from my Spanish language course. According to this diploma level of my Spanish is B1 with grade 7. Spanish grading system is from one to ten and five is the lowest mark to pass exam.

Finally I have to stay in the current flat because I did not find better. I visited four different flats and one of them was good but I never got change to speak with the flatmates. In the others were living people who had 40 years. Now we are trying to get Internet to our flat but one company who had good offer could not offer internet there even we are living in the center.

Padel

Padel racket

Padel court

Yesterday I played very popular sport in Spain called padel. In the sports center there were players on all the padel courts. Padel resembles a lot of tennis. Padel is played in a cage and ball can touch once ground and then wall before hitting. Padel can be played one vs one but people prefer to play two vs two. One reason for padels popularity is that it is easier to learn than tennis. Because I have played tennis I had no difficulties to play padel. I would say that if you are good in tennis you are good in padel. I enjoyed playing padel like I enjoy playing tennis.

My courses in the first semester

Deadline to choose courses have passed now. All my courses in the first semester are in Spanish. I chose: planning of the strategy, human resource management, allocation of human resources, economy of Europe and environmental economy. I should find the person who has my learning agreement to inform my university about the changes I made.

Buying the food in the supermarket is much slower in Spain than in Finland. the line moves so much slower. There are few reasons for that. People pay here with cash and not with credit card. When paying with cash people always search for a while little coins to get rid of them and that takes time. In the evening cashiers run out of exchange money so they have to go ask exchange money from other cashiers and when they do not have exchange they just give discount. This seems to be problem everyday I wonder why they do not get more money to give exchange.

First goal reached

Atocha the main railway station in Madrid

Now I can say that I have reached my first goal. I joined the Spanish floorball team UHK Madrid. In the the training there have been ten A team players and five women and five B team players. A team is training on the other half and women and B team on the other half. We are training one hour on Mondays and two hours on Fridays. Playing will cost 70e for the first month and 20e for the next months.

Spanish people advised me not to forget my back bag to train because then police will come after me. They said that someone will call to police because they are afraid of the ETAs bomb what exploded in the train in Madrid.

Impressions from the lesson

Now I can tell first impressions from the lessons. In spain students fill class from the front so It is totally different than in Finland. In Finland seats on the back are always taken first. Echo in the class makes listening harder and echo combained with more noisy students and language what I don't understand perfectly makes it even harder. In Finland there is always some panels on the roof to prevent from echo but here I haven't seen anything. I had one lesson where profesor did not arrive and no one who was there did not have any idea why profesor did not arrive. I heard that during first weeks it is normal that profesor does not arrive without announcing his absence.

Studies started

This week started the studies of business. On Monday I had still language studies so I did not go the lessons. Today and yesterday I attended some lessons. I am not sure yet which courses I actually will choose but I will have at least 5 different courses in the first semester. That means about 20 hours of lessons every week. First lessons have been just introduction the subject and classes have ended in an hour.

Yesterday I found players to make team for football and volleyball mixed in universitys internal league. I also started to look for new flat and I hope that I will find something closer to my faculty.

La noche en blanco

Francesc, Laura, Coni, Iñaki and I in La noche en blanco

On Saturday night in Madrid was arranged event called La noche en blanco. Event offered culture in different forms. Museums were open for free, live music, performers on the street and etc. Center was closed for the cars and streets were full of people. Lines to the museums were so long that we decided not to visit them. Building were lightened nicely and looked beautiful in the night. Photos of the buildings were not good because of the darkness.

Bulls

Cows running in the street before the bull

Bull in the arena

Today I went with Jesus and his friends to see bulls in one village. First Cows and bulls ran in the street with people and after running in the street people were teasing bull in the arena. People with most courage were waiting bull to attack in the middle of arena and others were in the sides of arena. When bull attacked people jumped safe over the fence. People in the side stole too much bulls attention. Danger made watching exciting. Any people was not hurt but bull broke its horn. It was interesting to see this Spanish event.

In the evening there is Noche Blanca in Madrid and I will meet Spanish people who I got to know in Joensuu.

Weather changed

Picture from the law faculty

It seems that the weather have changed permanently to cold. First weeks were always hot almost 40 degrees. Suddenly weather changed much colder. Now it is only 20 degrees. I could say that weather changed from too hot to cold. I preferred the hot weather.

Exam period for the Spanish is over so now library is quite empty. Spanish have a habit to reserve their seats when they go take a break from studying. They leave their notes to the table and go have brake of several hours. I could understand reserving seat for 30 minutes but reserving seat to several hours is odd.

Floorball

On Monday evening I went to the first floorball training in Madrid. Going by train from Alcalá to Atocha in Madrid takes 35 minutes. Then I should add also time what takes to walk to the train station of Alcalá and from Atocha to the sports center. Travelling to one way takes then about 50 minutes. I did not take my stick from Finland so I had to borrow stick. Stick was too short but I was happy to be able to play. Level of the floorball was higher than I expected. Playing was much more organized than playing with the university students and skill level was also good. I will have next training on Friday.

Nature in Spain

Marta and the brown nature

River in Alcalá

Park in Alcalá

Yesterday I went for a walk with Marta to see the river Henares. River is in the side of the city so we could see how nature is here. Grass on the ground is brown and trees are green. Therefore landscape is not green like in Finland and water in the river looked quite dirty.

In Spain people are afraid of stealing. For example Spanish do not leave bikes to the steets, you can not take back bag inside the supermarket and there are alarms in the vodka bottles. On the contrary in the bars and restaurants you always drink and eat first before paying. It seems that they are not afraid at all that someone would leave without paying.

Party in a flat

Yesterday we had first party in a flat. There was event created in a facebook but flat was not full of people. I think there was about thirty people so much less people than in the flat parties in Joensuu. I guess we will see bigger parties in the flats later on.

I feel like I need more routines to do here. Especially I am missing doing sports regurarly but that should change soon. On Monday I will finalize my learning agreement and then I will know how my first semester will be. My business studies will start 21st of September. Tonight I will go watch match of Real Madrid to a bar with Spanish guys.

One week in Spain

Statue in the Plaza Cervantes in the center of Alcalá

The wolf of Alcalá

I am writing this blog post in the library which is open 24 hours during the exam period. I will get new flatmate on next saturday. She is Italian girl who my Romanian flatmate have met before. I have met here Spanish people which is great and not only Erasmus students. Tutors have introduced me to their friends who have been really kind for me. Therefore I have not been only with other Erasmus students. Seeing Spanish people really helps me to practice spanish because with other Erasmus students language changes easily to English. I think that I have been speaking here English and Spanish fifty-fifty.