Erasmus in Valencia!

...Post continued!

I originally created this blog as a help for future exchange students in Valencia, but it's turned into something for myself and family to primarily read, so here I should give a bit of advice for the Valencia newbies, in the form of what goes on in the Erasmus evenings!

Monday - Bolseria/Radio City/Music Box en el Carmen (City centre)
Tuesday - Fox Congo, then Aquarela (only summer). Usually Tuesday's are classed as the 'day off/rest day' of the Erasmus week!
Wednesday - Cien Mondaditos, Carribeans/The Cube, then MurrayClub or Aquarela.
Thursday - Beach botellon! (or the non-Spring months, a botellon at Tarongers), or less crowded nights in Las Animas or L'umbracle or High Cube.
Friday - Las Animas/L'umbracle
Saturday - Las Animas/L'umbracle
Sunday - Rest day! (Get at least 6-7 hours sleep to re-charge for Monday!)

Of course there are many nice bars around Valencia to spend your evenings too!

Hopefully this'll help a bit - always good to know what's going on every night! If anyone else reading this wants some advice/help about being an Erasmus student in Valencia, don't hesistate to contact me!, Facebook, MSN, whatever! I'll make a new post with all my contact details - It'd be cool to talk to the new students heading to VLC!

Despues 6.5 meses en Espana, Como es mi espanol?
After 6.5 months in Spain, How is my Spanish?

So taking into account travels, I’ve probably spent just under six months in Spain, and learning Spanish has been an amazing experience. I’d for years wanted to learn another language, and I was always curious of how I’d pick it up, what it’d feel like, how it'd be to communicate differently – this was one of, if not my main motivation to study abroad. Knowing the majority of Europe can already speak English, Spanish was to be everyone’s third language. It was only my second.

I remember the first night I arrived in Gandia, went upstairs to introduce myself, and the other guys were all ahead of me with their level of Spanish – everybody had studied it before to some extent. Even talking basic Spanish, I could hardly understand anything. I like to think back to my Spanish then, when I think about my level now.

Tobias (Sweden) made a funny point at the start of the semester about talking Spanish. We were talking about how in conversation, you end up saying something quite indirect and not specific to the conversation, because that’s all you can say in Spanish, to keep the conversation going.

But after 6 months, you do pick up a lot, especially surrounding yourself with other students learning it too – we bounce Spanish phrases off each other and learn together. I feel like the first four months or so can be divided away from my last two months in terms of learning and improving my Spanish. It takes a while to get to a point where you begin to improve easily, and understanding with ease without having to concentrate as much. Recently I’ve been feeling much more confident with the language, and can begin to joke, laugh and enjoy it more. I remember my tutor saying that another exchange student said she struggled to be funny in speaking in another language, which made me think of myself in this siutation. Despite not being overly confident, sarcasm is always an easy way of being funny. And I guess finishing off people's sentences in Spanish shows some sort of improvement, like we would in English! I also made my first phone call in Spanish in the attempt of reparing my camera (Thanks Morocco for killing it), this went okay.

Also around this divided period of time, I had my first dream in Spanish. Even though I was talking normally in Spanish with friends like I would in real life, it excited me and people said that this shows a mark of improvement when you begin to think subconsciously in another language. This has since happened several times...last night too (when I wrote this anyway)...I like this thought!

‘Is my Spanish good enough after my long period in Spain?’- This keeps floating around my head, and even though I can hold up decent conversations, it’s still difficult to understand the natives. They talk so quickly in Valenica, and this hits my confidence! As I mentioned earlier, some days I feel my Spanish is a lot better than other days...apparently this is normal! And actually, the same applies for the nights too...depending if you borracho yourself, because everyone knows that people become radically fluent under the influence of drink, as the mind as at ease and more relaxed. Always the best Spanish is spoken at night!

I still have a guilt that I should be better, and that I should have spent more time around Spanish speaking friendship groups, although it’s easy to get caught up in speaking English, as it’s the language everyone knows in the Erasmus bubble. Towards the end of the semester I did begin meeting new people, some that didn't speak any English (two Italians at mind), and this was great. They always reply back in Spanish when you talk to them, and this is perfect for improving.

Tandom exchanges offered evenings to learn different languages, where groups of tables were set up seperately for each language. It was common place that you’d have a conversation with someone in two languages – You’d speak Spanish, they’d speak English, so both people could improve. This was a really odd concept to begin with, and on occasions I still do reply back in Spanish if people talk to me in English, depending on my mood!

There have been occasions where I think of a word or phrase in Spanish, before I do the English one, and from this I can totally imagine what it feels like for the Europeans learning a third language and mixing them up.

It boosts your confidence when someone says you speak good Spanish, but realistically this compliment is to be pretty much ignored...as I remember in Gandia people used to say the same, when I could just about string two sentences together...It’s just people being nice! I was also told by a few people that I didn't have a strong British accent when speaking Spanish...this was nice to hear, but it didn't stop Mattia from taking the piss!

So being nowhere near fluent, but understanding the majority of what people say, it feels amazing, and to speak another language gives me a huge buzz.. Learning new words and using them for the first time in conversation is really rewarding.

It’ll be interesting to see how quickly my Spanish fades if I don’t practise it or expose myself to it in England. I’ve been back in the country a couple of weeks now – watching TV, listening to radio and talking to friends in Spanish is helping, and I'm still learning.

The last couple of weeks have been really enjoyable, and it proved to be a great decision to change my flight from going home on the 28th July, to the 4th August (costing around 60 euros with EasyJet – which ended up being slightly cheaper than RyanAir, due to weight restrictions). The idea of changing my flight and staying longer was playing on my mind for about a week, so I ended up rolling over in mid-sleep at 4am, and changed it then. I’d be here until the following Wednesday, Yeaa!

It ended up being a great decision because, one, there’d be another fiesta de casa en nuestro piso, and two, because Angelo was due to arrive the next week - I wanted to see him and show him around the city a bit. I collected him at the airport (about 25min metro from Amistad station), and after waiting about an hour, the thought of us misunderstanding each other by the possibility of him actually having a holiday in Valencia, VENEZUELA, brushed through my mind. But off course it was okay, we went back to the flat.

Angelo, being Portuguese and studying Spanish for five years, has a good command of the language, and it was really strange communicating with him in a language other than English, after years of school together. We were having decent conversations, and it was one of the days where I could actually speak Spanish. (As I mentioned above, some days my Spanish is much worse than others!).

Mattia returned from Italy with three of his friends – a really nice group, Giuseppe, a new Italian guy that we’ve been spending nights with, Gunter (German) came for a week holiday, and Angelo and his girlfriend came too. It was quite a coincidence that I saw Angelo was wanting to come to Valencia for a holiday, so I offered my flat, and it saved me having to pay half of August’s rent for the time I’d not be there.

So with around seven of us sleeping in three bedrooms, it was more of a case of ‘sleep where you want’ which epitomises the whole spontaneousness of the Erasmus lifestyle. Our friends made use of sleeping on the sofa which we’d shoved on top of the dining table to make more room for the upcoming house party – it’s now the new chill-out area of the house...until the ends of the table break anyway. Other possible sleeping arrangements were two mattresses brought in from the dustbins at other times during the semester, an inflatable boat in the living room (explorer 200 model!!), and a shopping cart currently on top of the furniture nearly touching ceiling. As everybody individually comes back to flat between 4-9am, I hope I’ve given you a relatively clear vision of our disorganised Erasmus life!

So with our new larger group of friends, the nights were full of funny moments, and it felt like Erasmus again. The clubs were packed with people on vacaciones, and they had a nice atmosphere – especially Carribbeans, a small club that everyone enjoyed on Wednesdays.

Donde vamos esta noche?? Our house party!

I've also realised there is a club called 'Que Pasa' near my home in England

Nuestra fiesta de casa que se llama ‘LIVE FAST. DIE IN PUERTA 13. VOLUME 2.

Actually there were two house parties in our flat, one around the middle of June, and the other on the 31st of August. The first night happened to be a despedida, so I headed down to the playa and missed the majority of our house party, which ended up sounding hilarious from the stories. Reciting what the other guys said about the party, it seemed everyone hid in Myself and Mattia’s bedrooms with knowledge that the Policia were at the door (at only 12.30! – surprisingly early considering you’d expect them to be late in Spain!). Talking of Spanish Time, the way of thinking goes like this: An event starts at 10PM, which means everyone will arrive there at 11PM. Okay, so I'll go at 12PM.

Back to the house party, hiding proved to be a stupid idea, because the Police could see several silhouetted bodies dancing around through the bedroom curtains. A Facebook status from Matic (Slovenia) highlights the situation:

::::epic night with slight fail::::love the part with 50 people hiding in 2 rooms while the police is in the living room::::

Following the disrupted house party, everyone headed to Latres, a club by the puerto. Mattia was able to hire out the top room in the disco (and by 'disco', we mean 'club' in Spain, not some sort of kid's party!). Having control of the room, decent music was played (including Chicane – Popiholla, to which people went crazy for :D), and it was full of Erasmus friends. At around 7am, some of the guys headed to the beach to sleep, but the only thing I was thinking was returning to a shithole of a messy flat and eating an egg baguette. A nice summary for the night, explained in Mattia’s Facebook status:

turn your living room into a club: cables 20e, strobe light 100e, stereo 300e, police fine for peace disturbance 200e. jumping into the sea in the america's cup port at sunrise and get caught by a police motorboat after hiding 50 friends in your room while some other police officers are inspecting your living room and after destroying LA3 sound system on the decks of the electro room in one night only: PRICELESS

So knowing that there’d be another fiesta de casa en nuestra piso en el 31 de agosto, I was looking forward to the night, despite knowing that the flat would be a complete mess again for the remaining days I’d be there. Mattia obtained free entrances to LaTres again for after the party, and because of all other fiestas en Puerta 13, I assumed the policia would be the deciding factor to when we’d have to all get out of our piso and move to a disco. Surprisingly they didn’t turn up this time – probably due to only having around fifty people in this party. Or perhaps another reason the Policia didn’t turn up, was because they saw our thoughtful message written on some paper at the bottom of the building saying ‘Haremos una pequena cenar por compleanos en puerta 14! (We will make a small dinner for a birthday in our neighbours flat).

Chupitoo?! Mari (Estonia), Myself and Mattia

Al principial de la noche - yo y Mattia y sus amigos de Italia, Marco, Giu, Ferego y yo

Angelica (Colombia), Myself, Romain and Guiseppe (Italia)

Due to Matt creating parties throughout the semester, our piso had a notable reputation!
This was highlighted by Matic, saying he will name his daughter 'Puerta 13!', Long live VLC!

LaTres was even better this time. Taking a taxi back at 6am (Which is also an enjoyable part of the night due to the music usually being better than in the discos), we lazed about in the living room talking drunk rubbish, slept for around one or two hours (not helped by the humidity, which proved to be really difficult to sleep at night). We found Gunter in the flat sleeping on the couch, who somehow managed to find himself locked in a church for 45 minutes on the way home from the disco. Another hilarious moment, of the many that come with being an Erasmus student.

La fiesta de La3, mas temprano en la semestre!

Another part in La3, earlier in the semester
Joey, Liefur, Krisjan and Savannah (Australia)

Owen (Ireland), Francisco (Costa Rica) and the usuals! Great night

Inside the disco - Pretty small place but a great atmosphere, as is

the case with most of the smaller places in VLC - I prefer them.

Nuestro grupo! - Nico, Romain, Joey, Myself, Timmy, Savannah,

Krisjan, Moritz, Sean, Hafdis, Tim, Alison and Markus! Erasmusss!

Cien mondoditos! - El lugar por miercoles poruqe las cerveras son solo 1 euro!

It's a place where you can buy 100 different kinds of mini baguettes.

Moritz, Stefan and Nico, disfrutando las cervezas baratas

Michael, Myself and Timmy (currently advertising

special flashing glasses from the flower guy)

Enough beers? Philip, Moritz, Julian, Espen (Noreuga), Nico

La despedida de Steph, en L'umbracle, con unos Italianos, Polacos y Franceses!

A map of our ‘Erasmus Family’, showing where some of our group have come from. There were a few Australians and Americans too, but here's europe. I’m the only British...Yeaa! There has also been a Facebook group created for our Erasmus friends where we’ve all put our skype names and national phone numbers. Facebook and Skype have been perfect tools for communication this semester.

This semester I’ve learnt that with time, you naturally get bored of everything, no matter how good it seems. The whole experience was much more exciting at the start, when everything was new and fresh, and as your mind settles into another place, it slowly becomes dull, although it is a nice feeling once settled in, and it does make enjoying yourself easier. And I say this for living almost a holiday in Valencia, a beach city with great student nightlife. But to enjoy things to the optimum, you have to work and earn some sense of achievement and satisfaction - that’s when it becomes more rewarding. There were times when I asked myself, What am I doing?, as I learnt nothing design-related, missed Universtiy projects at home, and just partied constantly.

'Summer party' - a night of fireworks that we watched sitting down at the beach. This photo was taken off the Internet though...it was similiar to this! "Que pasa con los viejos, es pasado a las 10 por a noche?!" I was saying...Whats up with all the old people, it's past 10PM at night!...to which Teo found really funny.

Corrimos por la manana por lo mas largo dia del ano (We ran in the morning on the

longest day of the year) Sunrise at 6:35PM, Sunset at 9:46PM (approximately!)

Meeting at Plaza Xuguer at 6.30am! Whose crazy idea was this?...Julian's!

Julian, Joey, Nick, Myself and Fez

Ahhh, running along the beach - perfect! Sometimes we'd go to the beach three times

a day if we ran in the mornings too. Beach afternoon, beach botellon at night.

Notice the group suddenly becoming larger...Actually this

photo was taken on another morning. Amazing picture!

Climbing the lifeguard tower. Ahhh!

Left: Worshipping the comfortable heat of the sun. Fez always joked about
me posing like this when I saw a spot of sun. Yes, I'm a sun lover!

Right: Myself and Scott (America)

A few weeks ago, Filipo and I decided to reserve a campo de Padel, a popular Spanish sport, a sort of mix between Tennis an Squash. The court is smaller, with four paredas/walls, and instead of stringed racquets, you play with wooden ones. It was an interesting concept, and I didn’t understand why the game hadn’t caught on in other countries as a major sport. Anyway, the game was pretty fun, but it did somehow feel like it should be played by kids, and it didn’t flow too well. A pesar de que, me gustaria jugar otra vez! (Despite that, I would like to play again!).

A photo of the Padel courts in the Politenica Universidad

Dining at the piso de Angelica! Tapas on the menu...

A picture taken from High Cube, a more up-market disco by the port with nice
lounge areas overlooking the habour. Really great location, attracting an older audience.
Everyone was introduced to this place because it was an anniversary for the
Erasmus Life Valencia organisation. Unfortunately it was another club
without trance music, although they did play an...awful remix of Toca Me!

Inside Fox Congo. Thomas (Austria), Fez, Joey and Myself

Trying on one of the 'Black guy' hats outside Fox Congo!

Otro lugar en el puerto de Valencia. Estrella Damn club esta detras de nosotros

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYX93UJ_5C0&feature=related

This was another huge event of the semester, orgnaised by Xceed. 1500 Erasmus students in Pacha!

This Is Not Another Erasmus Party: Volume 3

With Romain and Guiseppe. right: Love Guiseppe's face on this one, Haha.

Not sure of my reasoning for this...

Enjoying the taxi antics!

Myself and Guiseppe with the chicas de Escocia!

"Tonight's guna be a Gunter"' - He was an Erasmus for the first

semester, and came back to VLC for the week.

The City of Arts and Sciences at night...I love the modern side of VLC

Myself and Chris with a friendly 'cerveza guy'!

Fez decided to take a (horrible!) photo of myself from Gandia, and compare it with one in June. Haha

Catlin- "dear lord"

Hafdis- "looks slightly different :S hahahaha"

Mattia- "i love you eddy"

Steph- "amazing :-) Viva Espana y Valencia!"

Hafdis, Marte (Noruega), Myself and Tobias, Oh, and a

random black guy wanting to join us :D

Well, I clearly don't get any sleep at home...so Why not try in a disco?

Liking how the hands are still enthused.

Inside Fox Congo - Henning and a few others bought
a 60 euro bottle of vodka that night. Locos!

Hafdis, Myself and Joey in Fox Congo

Companeros! Donde esta Carlito?? (probablemente super borracho fuera!)

Aahd (Marrueco), Hafdis and Myself

Hafdis abusing me!

This is a funny one. None of us knew the fat guy

in the middle...and everyone's faces shows it.

Left: A begger asking for money - unfortunately the photo

was taken too early for me to have a picture taken with him :D

Myself and Mattia. Swearing or pointing at me?

rocket man!

A group of us...can't remember where it was. Mojitos on the table!

Myself being a temporary gitano, looking for random crap in a dustbin

(Notice the tactics of placing a box to hold the bin open...I've picked up the techniques well :D)

Not sure what I was trying to achieve by climing this tree...

Romain's cat, avec moi :D

Englanddd!
A night at Carbbeans, a popular Erasmus/international disco.

Our group in Aquarela!

Jens (Alemania) and Myself (Sorry, can't remember your name, on the right!)

Aquarela disco was right on the beach front, so we went to the sea, swam

seeing the sunrise, and went home at 7-8am. I love the freedom of VLC!

Romain, Filipo and myself - the three last Erasmus survivors of Gandia!

Romain and myself...Again!

Another old photo taken in The Cube (I've definitely mentioned it now). Mario (Italy) and

Petr (Czech Republic) being others I hadn't mentioned.

An old photo from the beginning of the semester,

everybody waiting outside Filippo's piso - it was a good fiesta de casa!
Larisa, Myself, Tobias, Michael (America), Teo, Petr, Julian, Romain!

Myself, two Icelandics and an Australian.

Not sure who the one at the front was...!

Ooh, this is an interesting bike. Myself and Matt inspecting...

Laura flashing her tetas, British style! Mattia ~~touching~~ covering them for the camera!

Outside MurrayClub, a popular disco on Blasco Ibanez, which

we all head to after The Cube (I think I mentioned this disco previously)

Two of Lauras friends visited from Wales. It was strange hanging

out with other people from the UK, after a few months, but was fun!

Another tapas bar near Blasco!

Teodora y yo en el centro de la cuidad...caminemos

alredador para sacar fotos antes de regresa a Rumania.

Myself and Teodora in the city centre - We walked
around to take photos before she returned to Romaina.

Myself, Teo y Romain. This was also the moment where Romain decided to

approach some street cleaning workers and say 'VENGA HOLANDA!', because

they had orange work clothes. (Relating to the upcoming World Cup final!)
A french joke apparantly...was really funny.

Myself and Teo in Plaza de Ayuntamiento.
Hay muchos parques y plaza bonitas en VLC.

Myself with the two Romanian gitanas (Teo and Larisa) outside the University of Valencia

Teo me beso' adios!

Fez leading, Myself and Matt behind! Walking down Blasco

1...2...5...7...8..9 people in one car! Driving
(and admittately STUPIDLY drunk) to a club at the port. It was a ridiculous
idea knowing everyone including Mattia driving was drunk. I was kinda annoyed
with myself for getting in the car after saying I wouldn't, but it was funny though.

A gathering in our piso before heading out. Ahh loved these last two weeks..!

No comment. Required souvenirs.

She hates me apparantly! Myself and Vita (Italy). Her last day in Spain.

Another night in Fox Congo!

Being stupid in the ascensor - Myself Guiseppe and Romain

Giving some love to Matt. Last night in VLC!
A few of us gathered on the sand for a few hours.

My last minutes in Valencia before heading to the Metro - saying goodbye!

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Random funny things that don't fit anywhere else!

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I return home from somewhere at 2:45am. Matt says "What are you doing back?", in complete shock that a night out can end so early. It's funny when you think about the lives we are used to, and that normally it'd be an acceptable time to finish a night. Not in VLC!

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Walked past a group of old large blond women in the city centre - "Definitely german!" as we walked past them - didn't expect her to hear or to turn round and say "Err, No. Dutch!" Perhaps not quite as amusing written as when it happened...

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The Spanish don't pronounce 'G's like we do, but instead like an 'H' with some throat action, as if you've got some flem stuck in your throat. So that's unfortunate for anyone called George!

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The American's have so many of their own sayings...

'The head crain'

When you walk past a girl and turn your neck to follow/keep watching her.

'Butterface'

To describe a girl that has a nice body but a bad face. "I'd do everything but-her face". Haha.

The Sprinkler dance
the move of dancing by holding one leg behind you with one hand, and...
I youtubed it to see if I'd misheard what it was...Here

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Showing the unfamiliarity of Erasmus in England:

Ed: "You're familiar with Eramus, yea?
Friend: "Yea, it's the brand right?, Oh no that's the rasmus, haha"

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Getting on the tram for free. Look left and right. No tram controller guards, okay Fine. As soon as guards come in, we go out. This is always amusing as 90% of the tram empties out as soon as guards walk in.

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Within the last couple of weeks, every night seems to have become later and later, and as every week went by, the reasonable time to end a night by going home increased! Coming from England I considered 2am to be fairly late, which is a shared opinion in most of Europe, but living as an Erasmus student in Spain, I now see 5-6am as a reasonable time to end a night! (it happens to be the time now). Crazy...

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Every night getting later, .as every week goes by, the reasonable time to go home increases. Used to think 2am was late, now i see 5-6am as a reasonable time (it happens to be the time now) – sunlight is the line when it becomes late..

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How to meet girls in clubs. Take a friend and ask random girls "Hey, have you met ___ (the friend)". Can be really funny, especially when it provokes awkward reactions. Julian was the main player in this game...:D

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Being labeled as an Erasmus student seems to give us so much protection...and it's become an excuse for everything we did wrong during the semester. "Why did you steal this?, Why did you get kicked out of...? "Erasmus" is the accepted answer. We joked about holding up our Erasmus Student cards like we would a Police badge, in situations where we'd need to defend ourselves. Haha.

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A one-way ticket to Valencia, Spain, Europe. The perfect beach city with constant heat and bath temperature sea, a life-changing semester of living the nights and sleeping the days, partying till sunrise and beyond, refreshing sunsets, exciting botellons and spontaneos night swims, spending time with amazing international like-minded friends, the fascinating experience of learning a new language, the buzz of speaking it, realising the opportunites of Spanglish and learning small phrases in many languages. Exciting trips thanks to ryanair, camel riding and desert camping in morocco, visiting the southern cities in andalucia, seeing the view of two different continents and oceans in gibraltar, a long ski weekend in andorra, celebrating life overlooking the city of barcelona at night, visiting family in the south of france, an unforgetable, (and very educational) trip to la isla blanca, ibiza, una fiesta del barco, three-thousand erasmus students going crazy, bikinis and swim-wear necessities at the fiesta de agua en es paradis, body-shaking house music in pacha, foam party fun, una fiesta de escuela, blasco ibanez, plaza vicente gaos, perfect companeros of mattia and carlos, the jokes, the laughs, the fun, fiestas de casas, puerta 13, transforming our flat into a club with 200 students, dj, strobe light, smoke machine, stereo system, bullshitting the Spanish police, this is not another erasmus party, pacha, skydiving in castellon, cien mondititos, tapas, paella at fraggle rock, jamon y queso, enjoying the incredible atmosfera of espana winning the copa del mundo world cup, plaza honduras, bogega fila and la nina bonita, carribeans and the cube, international parties, murraryclub and black rombo 144, miniclub and aquarela, fox congo and bolseria in barrio del carmen, the cafes of plaza xuguer, watching valencia play at the mestalla stadium, plaza de virgen, ayunamiento y la plaza de la reina, the non-stop partying week of las fallas, kids playing with mascletas and the fantastic afternoon displays, optimistic fireworks, aquarela and soul gandara, discos at the port, l'umbracle and the terrace of las animas, estrella damn club and the lounge club of high cube overlooking the harbour, nine people in one car, la cuidad de las artes y ciencias, the oceanografico and walking the turia at night, fifty-thousand people at the festival of san juan, enjoying the night around bonfires, gandia, the craziness of coco loco, veradero and tiki bar. The list could go on and on...Alors en dance, Riverside motherf, Sexy chick, We no speak Americano, David Guetta's memories, and our own memories!!

So that was a summary of the semester in random keywords! Unless you've lived in VLC, you won't be familiar with the names of places, etc, but after a semester abroad there, you too will have amazing memories!

Erasmus is something special, it's full of optimism and hope. The opportunity gave freedom like no other, and there was never a dull moment being surrounded by so many different nationalities. The life in Valencia was spontaneous, and I learnt a lot about myself by living away from parents for the first time, if not perhaps as much as I'd wanted. It opened my mind, and I think everyone else's too. I think this is what separates Erasmus students from others. Everyone has become more open and positive, or should I say more 'simpatico', a term that flies around to describe people who are generally 'nice and friendly'), especially towards meeting new people.

After graduating I'm sure my experience and new language skills will make me more employable, and the idea of working abroad excites me even more. Living abroad is becoming less of a big deal, as communication and technology improves, and this at times was the reason why I didn't feel out my comfort zone in Valencia. I always felt close to home with instant messaging and Skype.

My Erasmus in Valenica has given me many memories - full of funny moments and stories that I still think about, and as I fly over the city of Valencia on my return to england, I pin-point where all those memories were made. I couldn't believe I was leaving, and that it had all come to an end. This is the only disadvantage to studying abroad as an erasmus student...that it ends!!

That's it! - And so it seems I've spent many more hours writing this blog than doing anything productive this semester. I hope you've enjoyed reading my posts, and that future exchange students will strongly consider studying a semester abroad as an Erasmus student!

Te echo de menos Valencia, Nos vemos pronto!!

La vuelta de Inglaterra...La vida normal...Nooo!

Returning to England and the normal life!

I knew I'd miss Valencia a lot more once I returned for England, and this is what's happened. It's a shame how we don't really miss things until you no longer have them. So I've been back on the island for three weeks (unfortunately it's not an island like ibiza), and I feel like I've stepped back six months and returned to everything normal again, like I hadn't left. It's been strange returning to a town as opposed to a city, to which I found so exciting. Valencia was always moving and changing, and it's made me realise I'd quite like to live in London for a while.

Oh, and here is a nice welcome message back to England, in the form of a car crash!!

left: Adding the Spanish flag to my Ford Fiesta!...

right: ...Unfortunately now though, the car's in a completely different state, in a scrapyard!
Now to look for a new car...!

And as a last word I'd like to express my dislike for Blogger as a blogging platform. Use Wordpress!

Erasmus in Valencia!

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Un poco mas de todos, despedidas & momentos divertidos PARTE 2

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