Hello!
Firstly, I'd like to say that I'm sorry for being absent from here for so long. I have been making videos to update people but I forgot about this blog a little bit. I guess I just don't think that my life is that interesting at the moment - or at least not enough to be updating a blog. I see a blog as a serious way of communication what's going on in my life, whereas I just see my video blogs as a bit of fun and a little bit of a challenge I guess. Having said that, the "I Love Study Abroad" website has chosen this blog as one of their top blogs so I will be updating this with a mind to explaining things to future year abroad students but also for my friends who want to know what I've been doing.
I think the main thing to say at the moment is that I'm not enjoying the university life here. If I push aside the fact that I have to be up at 7a.m every Tuesday and Thursday to go to basic French classes; then I can focus on the real issue. This would be that the university here is just a million miles away from what I'm used to in Bangor. In Bangor I get a very nice way of living in my department and I think that my friends would agree that it's more like a college experience for me, in that my class numbers are small, we're a small department where everybody knows everybody and the teachers chase you up when you're not in class - not to mention the fact that we still call our work "homework". With that in mind I expected a similar experience here because I don't know anything else and so I was shocked to find bigger classes, teachers that aren't so bothered whether you're there or not and lectures that last an hour and a half each. I can't say that I've been to a lecture before now that wasn't an English one, with my friend Cazz and she can back me up when I say that I fell asleep in it.
So it's very difficult for me to pay attention in my lectures here. I don't enjoy them. My French lectures are difficult because they're so easy and I rarely learn anything since it's a basic class but Bangor requires that I take the module. The Spanish class is more like linguistics and that's difficult enough to understand as it is without adding the fact that it's all in Spanish, is quick paced and the people at the front love to ask questions. The following class is okay in that it's something I know because it's oral and written Spanish, but it's taught in Catalan. I don't mind it being taught in Catalan because I can vaguely understand what's going on but after the previous lesson I'm always so tired that I can't be my bubbly self in that lesson.
Before I came here; I dissed my university over things but now I can see that compared with the university here, they're really quite alright. We didn't enroll here until our 6th or 7th week. They're very relaxed here when it comes to doing things like that. It would have been easier to do it online but they just don't have that set up here.
Regarding future Bangor students to Girona university; I wouldn't exactly recommend it unless you're willing to put up with learning a language at basic level. Since it's required for all students doing more than one language to study at a university, it's very difficult to escape the fact that you're either going to have to sit in a basic French/Italian lecture twice a week or you're going to have to pay €300 to do an intermediate course - which again is something you probably already know.
With other universities over Europe and the UK; I've come to find that it's very different. We lead a relaxed life in Bangor and so indeed on our year abroad. Other universities like Lancaster are required to do extra things that we're not. There's a dissertation and a project for them. For me it's two sides of questions while I'm here and then an oral exam when I get back.
So this is why I got myself a job. I'm a part time teacher/teaching assistant and work in some of the local schools teaching English to Catalan children. It's a very exciting and rewarding job and I hope to take the experience to France with me and use it there in a positive way and compare how well it goes in both countries.
I'm going to leave this here for now because it's very long but I'll be back soon with more information about things :)
