Episode 1: what happened during the past three months???

Here I am in Malaga, let me introduce myself to you:

I'm a 21 years old french student studying in Malaga for the whole year (october 2010 to june 2011) within the Erasmus Programme. I've just started this blog (a little bit late) but I plan to update it quite often (every week) to let you know about la vida espanola. It includes tapas and mojitos galore, the sun, the beach, the fit guys on the beach (if you're lucky). In short, I'll use this blog to let my friends know about how my life is going on here, but also to convince curious visitors to go on an Erasmus trip as well. Because, right now, it's LA FIESTA!

La malagueta, famous beach in Malaga

But before talking about fiesta, let's remember about those past three months here:

I arrived here in good conditions, I took the plane from Mulhouse (dark and gloomy town in Alsace, near Strasbourg, that you generally prefer to leave ASAP once you turn 18) to Malaga. 15 degrees to 38 degrees... what a shock! It hasn't been easy at first (I know you'll hate me for saying this) but I'm not going to complain. I arrived here with a friend, Prescilla, who studies in the same university in France as me. We found our appartment online before coming to Malaga, here's the adress of this fabulous website: www.easypiso.com

Once we subscribed on the website, we received a lot of calls from spanish owners, notably Emmanuelle, a french woman who has lived in Malaga for years and who rents several appartments to students here. In a nutshell, we've been lucky because our appartment is fine compared to other ones I've seen. It is located in the city centre, five minutes walking from the famous Plaza de la Merced, where Picasso was actually born! I like hanging out there, it's really pretty and there are loads of coffee shops and nice bars.

Plaza de la Merced

Previously on Desperate Erasmus...

September: Roughly speaking, I've spent my time messing around, hanging out on the beach with other foreign students, going to Erasmus parties (in clubs, one party every night of the week)... oh and I also went to my spanish courses. 30 euros for three weeks of grammar class and conversation class. 4 hours per day: 2 hours with Carlos, and 2 hours with Antonio (kind, funny and hot) and Montse (boring... she looked like a wale actually). Grammar was not that bad, but the teachers expected us to learn all the spanish tenses possible in a couple of weeks, which is clearly impossible. 

Carlos, grammar teacher and another student from Germany (and I)

In class

Picture of the whole class the last day... good memories!

October: The fun ended... or kind of. Uni started. I was a bit anxious at first but everything turned out fine. The teachers are not that bad, and contrary to what I thought, they expect a little bit more from the students than they do in France. For example, I have homework, something I had forgotten about for years. I study english here (as part of my third year of my english licence in France), I'm sure you find it weird right? Indeed, what's the point of studying english in Spain? Well, I'm actually more clever than you think. What if you have a good level at English, and you're aware that the English level in Spain is lower than in France... what if you want to learn another language such as spanish which is spoken worldwide? What if you want to learn it little by little, without worrying about the exams and the marks you will get? Do you get me now? I don't have anything to stress about, because I'm learning the language every day with the spanish people I met at school, and with my spanish housemate. I follow english courses and I'm evaluated on my english level, which is quite good.

At first, I hung mostly with erasmus people, it was cool and I appreciated spending time with them but I also felt a bit frustrated not to meet spanish people of my age. But since the courses at uni started, I met a lot of spanish people, really nice ones, I won't tell the names yet because I'm waiting to get to know them better. I go out with them from time to time but I also get on really well with my amazing housemates Mel, a dutch girl, and Carmen, a spanish girl (you'rrrrrrreee so cute!)

I've had a trip in Granada earlier this month, I'll tell you more about it in the next article, with pictures. I'll also make a presentation of my best friends here in Spain, and the ones I went there with!!!

See you soon amigos!

Jacques.