I thought today, as a different method of exam revision (I've already washed my bedsheets, gutted my bedroom and made chilli salmon for lunch) I'd write about the administrative stuff I've had to do for my year abroad so far.
Back in October (I think) I chose my top three cities to study in. Number 1 was Alicante (and we all know how that worked out), my second choice was Seville and third was Granada. The more geographically aware of you will note that they are all in the south of Spain where the weather is nice... I lived in Northumberland long enough, I deserve some sunshine. I found out late January that I would be studying in Alicante which surprised me because I thought everyone in my year would pick the Costa Blanca hotspot as their number one. However, I think when our lecturer told everyone not to, it actually scared them off! So lucky me (and my pal Francesca) are the chosen ones and shall be off to the coast in September.
From then, we decided to live together and then started a house search via the internet. It's definitely not the easiest task in the world. However Francesca has friends already in Alicante and they have wonderfully helped us find a lovely two bedroom apartment. We can see the beach from our balcony (I KNOW!) and are a 20 minute bus ride from the university campus. However I think the best part about it is that it's not actually in the resort area but rather the old town, so we should be surrounded by Spanish residents and not holiday makers. That's the idea I have anyway, from comparing Puerto del Carmen and its old town in Lanzarote.
At the beginning of May we could finally properly apply to Alicante rather than going through UEA's study abroad office, which was straight forward enough. This week we finally got to complete the Learning Agreement and more excitingly (or terrifyingly, take your pick) choose the modules we will be studying whilst over there. After a bit of confusion in how many we had to take, for anyone reading this for advice it is 60 ECTS, these are my final choices as well as an intensive Spanish course in the first semester (hopefully).
Contrary to what I had thought, we couldn't just choose any random modules but had to choose from two specific degree programmes, 'translation and interpretation' or 'french studies' (or basically any language). I mainly went for translation modules as that's the main career path I'm thinking of at the minute (that or maybe teaching, I don't know yet). Also I've leaned more towards literature and film as I've missed studying literature since A level and thought this would be a nice opportunity to revisit it. I don't think my Spanish is quite ready to look at Spanish literature but hopefully studying English literature in a Spanish mindset will offer some different viewpoints. The cinema side is more because this year at UEA I took the module that made me apply there, 'Spain through the eye of a lens' which I really really enjoyed. I definitely think I will fare better with literature and cinema than anything like politics or history.
A quite nice point to studying at UEA means that we don't actually have to pass the year abroad to gain the credits, and the marks we get don't count towards our final degree. All we actually have to do is sit in the exam room to prove we were there. However, I am going to try and do well because another option in my head at the minute is to do a master's over in Spain after I graduate from UEA so I don't want to look like a total idiot...
Next in the admin process is having my learning agreement approved by Alicante. After that, I'm not really sure but we have a meeting the day after my Spanish exam so I'll find out then. Or not. Because we're all going out and will probably be so drunk we can't see the next day. Oh well.
Hasta luego, pals.
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