Week 1

I’ve now been living in Málaga for one week, so I thought it was about time I updated this blog…

 

My experience started with a very early flight from London Gatwick at 5:45AM, which meant that I got to my new flat before lunchtime. The flat is situated in a suburb of Málaga called Teatinos, and is less than a 10 minute walk from the university campus. There’s a huge variety of restaurants and bars within a five minutes of the flat and plenty of banks and other useful shops nearby. The flat itself is very modern inside and is in much better condition than the house that I lived in in Southampton. We even have a private swimming pool shared between all of the residents! The city centre is only a 20 minute bus ride away so it’s fairly easy to get to.

 

During the day I have been going to a language course for International students, which is put on by the university. It’s a four week course with four hours of classes each day, starting at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The actual language school couldn’t really be much closer to the beach; it is literally less than a two minute walk away, which is quite convenient…  It is also in a slightly less touristy part of Málaga called El Palo, as it’s a good 20 minute bus ride away from the city centre. However, this means it’s pretty unspoilt and definitely very stereotypically Spanish.

Thursday night was the night of the Erasmus beach party. Being my first fiesta in Spain, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it ended up being a lot of fun. During the evening it suddenly occurred to me when speaking to all of the international students in English that this was actually probably the first time I had spoken anything more than a few sentences in English; the rest of the time it’s been more or less in Spanish, which is great for me! I’d definitely recommend living with Spanish people, as you get to practise the language all the time and it’s a great experience.

 On Saturday I also went to the Erasmus welcome party in the city centre. There was quite a lot of people I had met at the beach or at the language school, and many more people who I’d never met. For the first couple of hours there were some good drinks deals, including one litre of beer for 3€ and free cups of Tinto de Verano. We also got free entry to a nightclub afterwards, including quite a significant queue jump, so it turned out to be a great night!

Some of the less exciting things I’ve had to do include setting up a Spanish bank account and phone number. This turned out to be a lot easier than I was expecting, although I did leave my National Insurance card in the flat, which was necessary to set up the account. Luckily the bank is only a 2 minute walk from the flat, but I almost didn’t bother bringing the card abroad at all, so it’s pretty fortunate that I did!

 

Anyway, that’s all for now. Below are some random photos of my time so far... Until next week, ¡adiós!