Do's 'n Don'ts

Do's 'n don'ts 

Due to the fact that, together with Rigbert, I was part of the first shipment of students to Zaragoza, there was absolutely no one that I could ask for advice. This led to some irritating situations, but also forced me to discover everything; you could consider me as ’that guy that went to Zaragoza that might be able to answer your question’.

That being said, over the past few months I have gathered some points that I would like to share with prospective students planning to stay in Zaragoza:

·         Plan your journey! There are 2 websites that you should bookmark straight away if you are planning to go to Zaragoza, or Spain in that matter: www.alsa.es and www.renfe.com. The first one can be used to book bus tickets from pretty much all the major cities in Spain; the second can be used to book train tickets, in case you want to travel faster.  (and have money from your folks to do so). I have not made use of Renfe, because in all my travel plans I tried to save as much money on transport as possible, because I’d rather sit in a bus for 2 more hours and spend the rest on a nice dinner. Alsa allows you to pay with credit card and Paypal. In the case these payment methods are not accepted (error on webpage?) you can alternatively book you bus tickets via www.movelia.es, but this will cost you a little bit more money. Once arrived in Madrid or Barcelona, it’s not that complicated to go to the correct bus station. The Alsa busses occasionally stop at the airport in Madrid and from Barcelona airport you can take the train or bus to Barcelona Norte/Sants.

·         Get a European Youth Card (Carné Joven). I have probably already mentioned this in my blog somewhere, but I cannot stress this enough: get a European Youth Card! This will get you nice discounts on a lot of museums (if it’s not free already because you’re a student) and it also gives you some discounts on bus tickets. (if you buy them at the physical Alsa points). Furthermore, if you plan on booking a Zaragoza Travelcard (absolutely necessary if you plan on taking the tram or bus to the Uni every day) you get a discount if you show them your Youth Card.

·         Try to find yourself a room or selection of rooms before you arrive. Usually there are dozens of rooms available in the end of August. For students arriving at the end of the first semester (beginning of February), it is wise to put extra effort in your search. The location of your room should depend largely on the location of your Uni. I do not advice students to travel between the different Universities, as this can take a lot of your time. (Most IBMS students will probably go to either Gran Via or Rio Ebro. The study program ‘ADE’ is completely taught in English at Gran Via, this is kind of the Spanish IBMS, with more emphasis on mathematics. (a lot more). You can send me a message on facebook if you need me to invite you into the Erasmus groups. There are, unfortunately, three different groups; whether this has any connection with the Spanish crisis I do not know.

·         Try to gather backup ECs! Due to the fact that a lot of emphasis is put on mathematics (in ADE), it is very wise to have some ECs from extra-curricular activities such as an extra language (Spanish + Chinese) or any other source of ECs. Also, the level of Spanish is higher than what the average IBMS student is used to, so keep in mind that you will need to focus a lot on the things that are being taught in order to fully understand.

·           Get an Erasmus buddy. All the things I’m putting in this blog post are also known by most Erasmus buddies. Usually you can organize the first meeting with your Erasmus buddy on the day of your arrival. That way you do not have to worry about getting lost in the city while trying to find your hostel.

·         Spain has a mobile phone network, which means you can get a subscription to stay in contact with your friends in Spain. (and wherever you’re from) The best choice would probably be the ‘YoiGo’ provider. This company sells a ± € 45 mobile phone subscription which includes 600MB data per month. € 6 is automatically deduced every month from this € 45 until it reaches 0. If you run out of MBs, you have the option to either continue (but with a lower speed) or buy an additional 200MB.

·         Some nice places to visit in Zaragoza are:

-          Bull Mcabes: Irish pub that organizes a Trivia/Quiz night every Thursday from 22:00. There are a lot of very nice people in this pub! For the guys: all Spanish, English and Champions League games are broadcasted on big screens.

-          Puerto Venecia: this is a big shopping mall, just outside of Zaragoza. Not only is there an Ikea, but also a Primark, Apple Store, Hollister Co store and many more places where you can spend your European Union Erasmus grant. Take the tram (or walk) to Goya and find the bus stop to the Puerto Venecia.

-          Museo del Fuego y de los Bomberos: the fire-fighter museum is kind of hidden, but a very nice place to gain some knowledge about the fire-fighters in Zaragoza. The employees are actual fire-fighters and very enthusiastic to give you a tour.

-          Basilica Pilar: the huge church in Zaragoza is called Pilar. You can go inside for free and walk around. Also, if you go to the back of the building you can take an elevator (and some stairs) to enjoy a magnificent view of the city.

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Semana 6

Week 6 is here! And I am currently counting the days till my return to the Netherlands. It's remarkable how fast these 5 months have passed.

Christmas holidays
During the Christmas holidays I did not travel back to the Netherlands. Instead, I made use of the fact that I was off for two weeks and went to Madrid and Toledo! Together with Stefan, a very good friend and old classmate from the Netherlands, we spent a few days in Zaragoza so I could show him the city. Next, we took the bus to Madrid.

The first day was a standard 'see-everything' day on which we pretty much walked and metro-ed through the entire city, quickly snapping pictures till it was dark. The next few days we thoroughly discovered every aspect of Madrid; from the Palace to the Gardens, the shopping streets to the casino. We were, unfortunately, 5 minutes too late to buy ourselves something to cook for Christmas eve. However, there were two girls from the United States that had bought a bottle of wine, but no tools to open the bottle. I remembered watching a show on the Discovery Channel where a wine bottle was opened with a shoe, and so I did. As a thank you, the girls invited us to have Christmas dinner with them: they had prepared a chicken in the oven, including stuffing, mashed potatoes and a chocolate brownie dessert. It was a great dinner and I was glad that I could finally put my innovative wine-opener method to use. The hostel, Mad4You, is a great place if you want to stay in Madrid .The staff is very helpful and there kitchen/dining area is pretty big and constantly kept clean. Unless you use the stove right after Stefan tried to prepare something.

During our stay in Madrid we were not yet sure where to go. After some research and help from Spanish friends, we decided to visit Toledo, a little village south of Madrid. It's a very nice place, with old castle walls around the entire village. In Toledo, we stayed at a hostel called 'Boxes'. And a box it was. Unfortunately we had some problems with the WIFI and were put in a room where smoking was allowed. Not only did we sometimes get a smoke scent in our system, we also had to deal with a Breezer Vanilla Scent system that automatically sprayed the hallway with poisonous gasses.

New years
After three days of knight fights, horseback-riding and failed tapas sessions, I returned to Zaragoza to celebrate new years eve with an anonymous German girl and some friends from the University. It was great to experience the Spanish way of celebrating new years eve: all the boys were wearing suits and ties, except for one Dutch guy that didn't have a clue this was a custom; 12 grapes are eaten to ensure good luck for the next 12 months. Yet again, I did not bring 12 grapes and neither did the German girl, but we still had a great evening/night/morning.

All good things come to an end, and so does this blog entry. Again, my apologies for not updating this blog more often. I will definitely provide you, my dear reader, with an overview of subjects and a do's/dont's list for prospective students who want to go to Zaragoza to study.

The hostel in Madrid, Mad4You

Improvised hot chocolate. Don't mind the spill

Improvised drying rack in Toledo. The hostel did not have a laundry room. There was, however, a bathtub which I could use as washing machine. We set our heater on 30 degrees and went for a walk.

Church got shot

Bye.

Week 5 (actually week 10)

Week 5...or 10

It's been a while since I wrote my last blog! 5 weeks to be precise. I've been very busy with my Spanish course for the last three weeks, so I did not really have a lot of time to write my blog or do any other activities.

The Spanish class included pretty much all the Spanish grammar and some vocabulary that is useful in every-day situations. It was a small group of about 16 students and it gave me the feeling of being in an IBMS classroom because there were about 10 nationalities (if not more) in one class! The classes were held in a Fire Fighter museum, located next to the new fire brigade building.

After the three weeks of intensive Spanish class I am both happy and sad that I do no longer have class. There were a lot of kind people in the class.

(We were required to wave during the picture, sorry for that)

It took me almost 2 months before I had my first 'tapas' experience! Francesca (second from the left), an American girl that was also in the Spanish course) knew a tapas bar in the city where they have 1€ tapas on certain days of the week. For those that are not familiar with tapas; they are (usually) small snacks on a piece of bread. They can contain potato, fish, any kind of meat or vegetables.

The tapas are all presented behind little, glass doors. The customers can take a plate and pick their own tapas. All the tapas contain a little, wooden stick which you put on the side of your plate. At the end of the evening you take all the sticks and your drinks and pay for them at the bar.

I will try to update my blog more regularly! There will be a tour through my university, through the city, and other interesting stories.

Interesting fact #whatever: In Spain, it is common to wear a plastic glove when picking vegetables in the supermarkets. Pollution on one hand, but on the other hand a smart method to lower the chances of getting the flu or someone's booger on your banana.

Week 4

Week 4

This past week was all about Pilar (and a little bit about our new gym)

Pilar is a festival in the Aragon region (in which Zaragoza is located) that is celebrated in honor of the patron saint of Zaragoza. It includes a lot of concerts, street performances, traditional activities and other fun things. For the students, this basically means that we do not have any university obligations and therefore are able to honor this saint guy by going out four days in a row.

And that’s what we did. We went to two concerts of typical Spanish bands. At both venues, there were also other tents with DJs playing different styles of music. I have to admit that I am not very fond of the Spanish music.

On Friday evening, we noticed a message in the Zaragoza Erasmus Facebook group of some Italian students from Lleida (between Zaragoza and Barcelona) asking for a place to stay. We sent them a message telling them they were welcome to stay at our place! That evening we went out till 06:00 (which was, in hindsight, not a smart thing to do) and the next day we went to the city to meet up with the Italians. Alice, Laura, Sara and Francesco joined us during a Zaragoza city tour organized by Erasmus for students from Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona and other cities in Spain. That evening the Italians cooked pasta for us and we played some traditional board drinking games. A few hours later, we went to the city to go out at a small club and the pub street. I had döner kebab, which was nice.

The next day, the Italians left early because they had to take the bus back to Lleida. 

It was a great experience and I was surprised by the fact that we were the only ones that had sent them a message. I encourage other students to open your house to people from other countries/cities, because it was a great experience! Also, we will be visiting them in Lleida very soon!

Pasta, Italian pasta (does Italian thing with hand)

What follows are some pictures from our lovely gym. It's not perfect, but it's something! We have to be a bit creative with our exercises, but it feels good to be working out after some time off.

Tandem area - For real, the cross-trainers are so close to each other that you can hold hands

This area is actually just for illustration purposes. We don't do cross-fit, and neither should you. (if you ain't a girl)

Week 3

Week 3

We had three awesome days in Valencia. After a 4 hour bus trip (during which the bus driver was lost for a few minutes) we finally arrived at the bus station in Valencia where a friend of Rigbert (Carlo) welcomed us. Maria and Clara (Spanish students that visited us in The Netherlands for an exchange semester) welcomed us in the house of Maria’s aunt. Rigbert went to Carlo’s house and I had dinner with Maria, Clara and their friends. I experienced the nightlife in Valencia and the next day we had lunch together. Unfortunately, we already had to say goodbye after lunch, because Rigbert, Carlo and I went to see the football game between Valencia and Atlético Madrid; which was spectacularly won by 3-1 in favour of Valencia.

Valencia is a great city and unfortunately we only had one weekend to visit it. I will definitely visit it again!

Also, we have finally found a gym that ‘accepts’ me. All the other gyms in Zaragoza require a passport number, and I only have an ID card. The only downside of this ‘acceptance’ is that the gym is similar to a ghetto, compared to all the other gyms we have visited. (pictures will follow once I feel confident enough to bring my phone  with me to the gym)