When we decided to choose Madrid as our favourite destination for our study abroad, we didn ́t know anything about this city. Of course, we knew the country, some of the traditions, the tapas, Barcelona, the climate and other things. But we neither heard something about the Prado Museum, which is nearly as important in the world ́s art-scene as the Louvre in Paris, nor about the Gran Via, the most spectacular street with the highest buildings of the City, which are absolutely breathtaking and can definitely compete with the New York ́s Sky Line. So we came to the capital of Spain, open-minded, nervous, happy and a bit insecure and we were overtaken by this City.
We spent our first day in the centre. We saw the Plaza Mayor, a quadratic spot, embedded between traditional spanish houses, with little balconies and painted in warm colours. It ́s a centre of attraction for tourists, with many reastaurants and street artists. The first thing we thought was that this was the most beautiful place in Madrid, especially for having dinner. However it didn ́t take long for us to drop this opinion since we saw Chueca the following day. It is a quarter of Madrid, next to the Gran Via. There live many artists, designers and creative people who give this part of the city a colourful touch. Furthermore it is known as a „gay area“ which you will instantly notice as you walk by many men holding hands. Between cute shops that sell individual but also very expensive clothes, you can find cafeterias, where you can drink your daily „Cafe con Leche“, Chocolaterias whith awesome cakes and macarrons, and a lot of restaurants. You get the feeling that you have to try all of them immediately. However that was before we explored Malasana. This neighborhood became at once our favourite one. It is famous for its vintage shops. It is hard work to work through all of them, but it’s worth it because they are all amazing and unique. In those shops you can find Levis shorts out of the 90ies, old basketball-tricots, oversized jeans-jackets, sunglasses, used leatherbags and crazy hippie accesoires. In some shops you can pay per kilo, which makes your shopping trip not only cheaper but also more diversified. Malasaña is not only known for its vintage shops and stained streets, but also for its bars. The Spanish people love barhopping, so to discover their favourite night-time activity this quater is ideal.
After discovering this part of the City, next to the Fuencarral, the best Shopping-Street, we realized, that it is impossible to find the one best place in Madrid, because this city includes so many great places. For hangig out and enjoying the hot weather in September, the Retiro Park and the arrangement arround the Rio are perfect. For having dinner outside in a less touristic area, you should try a restaurant at the Plaza Santa Ana, for some Tapas or Tintos, choose a tour arround La Latina. And no matter where you will spend your evening, one thing will be the same everywhere in Madrid: On a warm late-summer-night, you will meet heaps of people. At 10 o ́clock spanish people usually go out for eating, some Patatas Bravas (you must try those potatoes with a spicy sauce), sea food or a selection of bocadillos. And in this context, all spanish people include children, babies, families, the young generation and old grandparents as well. The ambience is amazing. It ́s loud in the small calles de Madrid, you can smell garlic and Sangria and everybody is happy while they ́re relishing the night.
The next thing we recognized during discovering Madrid was that it ́s not that easy to get to know spanish students and locals as we imagined it before. This may have different reasons. One is definitely the barrier of language. When we came to Madrid, our Spanish level wasn ́t very high. We were able to communicate in daily life situations, like ordering something in a restaurant, but having a conversation with natives wasn ́t possible. Spanish people are very shy, referring to their language abilities. Even if they can speak English, often they don ́t have the heart to do it just for not blaming themselves. What we, as foreigners, have to accept is that we must make concessions in form of learning their language and try to talk to them. We have to approve that it ́s always easier to blame them instead of just saying „hola, qué tal“ to them. In fact the Spanish are very friendly, cooperative and likeable, irespective of the situation, for example when you ask for the right way or when you want to buy a sim-card and you cannot even pronounce the name of the offerer right they will treat you politely at all times.
Before we looked for contacts with spanish people, we wanted to get to know our new classmates from Germany. So we arranged a meeting with all Madrid-Students from the „Emme Atsche Emme Ka“ (MHMK), made an appointment via Facebook to get together in the evening at Sol. This is the meeting point in Madrid ́s city centre for all young people at night where they sit together arround the fountains and drink canned beer. It was our starting point for barhopping. It was a surprising night, because it didn ́t take long and first friendships were built. The next day we met up again for relaxing in the Retiro park. A few bottles of Tinto de Verano and some very tasty pistachioes helped us again to get to know the students from one university but from different German cities better. Those friendships, contacts, conversations und fun times were consistently a great support for a good time and prevented us from getting homesick.
Meanwhile different cliques have been built but we still see each other every day at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria. The campus is very unlike the ones of MHMK. It’s huge with many different buildings, wide grassland and vairous sports fields. There you can play tennis, football, basketball and other sports. Most of the lessons are interesting and fun, since we often do goup work and discussions. Sadly there are some teachers who don’t really know how to create an fulfilling and exciting lesson.
To put everything in a nutshell, this is how we spend our time, in Madrid. We enjoy it. Everyday. New discoveries, new experiences, new friends makes our lives exciting. Crossing of frontiers and accepting different rules, communicate with people from various cultures and to being far away from family and friends. This sometimes brings us out of our comfort zone but it also helps us to maturate and to develop our personalities.
About 50 students from the MHMK have the chance to study for one semester in Dublin, at Griffith College. The first couple of weeks are already over and I believe that all of us are completely arrived here now.
The first impression of Dublin is very positive. The capital of Ireland has about 500.000 citizens from various parts of the world. There are also a lot of Germans. Moreover, Dublin has a lot of sights such as Temple Bar with its pubs and its old buildings. It is a very nice location for trying the famous Irish Guinness. Furthermore, Dublin has many shopping streets, so it will not get boring here. Especially the big O’Connell Street looks very fascinating with its big “Spire” in the middle. It is one of the most famous streets of Ireland.
The Griffith College is located in southern part of Dublin and approximately a 25 minutes walk away from Dublin City Centre. About 6000 Students are studying at Griffith College. It is located on an old military area. But you do not notice that apart from the “Turnstile-Entrance”. After 11 pm you have to enter the college by scanning your hand at a special gate.
The requirements from the college are quite high but we do not have many lectures. Thus, there is enough time that could be spent for assignments or exams. Most of us are writing on the first assignment at the moment. The deadlines for assignments are not only at the end of semester. It is very common to write them during the semester. Consequently, there are much more assignments than in Germany.
Most of us are living in the Griffith Halls of Residence; it is the official student accommodation of Griffith College. Normally, four students are living in one apartment that includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms and one living room with a small kitchen. It was a big surprise that there less kitchen items inclusive. Consequently, most of us received a packet with knifes and stuff like that from Germany during the first two weeks.
It should be mentioned that Dublin is a very expensive city. Therefore, it doesn’t matter where you buy your daily items because it is expensive everywhere. Even Aldi and Lidl are much more expensive than the German shops of them. Especially, Spar and Tesco are not very cheap for the daily shopping tour.
On the other hand you can visit sport events such as football games of the Irish national team for a normal price. Some of us visited the European Qualifiers match against Gibraltar last Saturday. It was a very nice experience to see the big Aviva-Stadium live.
To summarize our first couple of weeks in Dublin it could be said that it was not a false decision to choose this city!
David Hahn
We (76 MHMK students) have the honor to stay in one of the greatest cities in the world: London.
The capital city of the United Kingdom, with its 13 million inhabitants, is an important anchor point in global economics, art, entertainment, tourism, fashion, …
The atmosphere in the city is unique as the life in London is very intense and vivid. The cultural offers range from Harry Potter to great historical museums and buildings. One of the historical, beautiful buildings is the University of Greenwich (or as we call it: Hogwarts).
Incredible impressive is probably the right word to describe such a university building because it reminds more of a palace. Located next to the river Thames it creates a memorable picture. Besides the historical background also the modern cultural significance has to be mentioned. „Sherlock Holmes“, „Pirates of the Caribbean“ and „Les Miserables“ were all here to shoot movie scenes. You never know, maybe we will meet a celebrity one day.
Besides the study building students have a few campus options to stay: Avery Hill, Greenwich, Panda House and Medway. Actually there are some parallels between american college movies and the real campus life: Solidarity, a little bit of chaos, the family feeling and of course parties. Every evening something is going on and it never gets boring (even nightly fire alarms can weld people together).
Our life here started with a lot of freshers events like Neonparty, Mask Ball, paper chase on the University ground, … These events made it possible to get in touch with different societies, with other students and cultures. Cultures here are so diverse like we’ve rarely experienced before. Every student has his own roots and stories to tell which makes the daily life very interesting.
After an exciting orientation week the real student life began. Besides the studies there is still enough time to enjoy the English lifestyle or for example to join one of the society or sport groups of the university. From rugby to Performing Arts almost every interest is met.
To summarize our first weeks on the English island: Life is just great, expensive and there is so much more to explore!
Last night, when we went for a walk down to Manly, two girls stopped us in front of our college asking whether we lived in this `castle`. The two American girls pointed at the building behind us. We turned around and for the first time during the three weeks we already have lived here we realised what a gorgeous home we have.
ICMS, the International College of Management in Sydney, lit up at night, looks beautiful and superior there up at North Head overlooking Manly Beach. Proudly we told the two girls that even the movie `Great Gatsby` with Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed here. Filmed in the rooms we stay for the next three months.
ICMS is a private business school where practical work and theories are combined. The campus is situated in Manly on Sydney Harbour´s North Head. Manly is a district of Sydney in New South Wales with about 15.000 citizens. The building of ICMS with the old central bell tower was originally built in 1885 as St Patrick´s Seminary of the Australian Catholic Church. This historic site now offers classrooms, bed- and living rooms for 1.200 students.
The view out of our bedrooms on campus is stunning. If you are lucky you directly overview the beach or the ocean. The students here live in single, double, triple or quad bedrooms. Each floor shares a bathroom. However, due to the amazing weather (duh, we are in Australia!), the great campus site and just a five minute walk to the beaches, we spend little time in our rooms.
Additionally, ICMS offers different sports activities for about 50 Dollars per term. For example, there is Zumba, Jiu Jitsu, Yoga, Futsal, Boot Camp and Tennis. This semester, even a cheerleading team was founded. On campus, we are allowed to use the soccer, tennis and basketball field at any time. Often, in the evening when the sun is not burning so hot anymore, you can find students up there doing different sports.
Furthermore, during Orientation week, we already got to check out the “Basement” – the student bar where just students are allowed to hang out and have a drink in the evening. Here, you also can find pool and table tennis. At this place, we already had an Australian party with snakes and lizards, a poker tournament and a beer pong competition.
Of course (unfortunately), we do not hang out at the beaches, visit Sydney or play beer pong every day. There still is studying and classes. However, also in this direction, ICMS offers a special experience. In addition to every lecture, we visit a tutorial where we learn the practise of the studied theory. And we do not just do that sitting there in jeans and t-shirt. We wear business attire. Boys in suits and ties, girls in skirts and blazers. Business attire is compulsory at ICMS. Before flying over here, the girls, panic-fuelled, ran into clothing stores looking for business skirts and shoes and the boys bought an additional suit. In the morning, at breakfast, you feel like sitting in the cafeteria of a successful business company or just waiting for a very important interview with a bunch of young people. ICMS wants us to get used to our future work environment. We should feel comfortable and used to our business attire. Furthermore, we really do give a professional impression.
In classes we are graded on the background of different assignments and a final exam that is written in December. As a college year at ICMS is split in trimesters, we have a little less time for our assessment than we do have at home in Germany.
Living costs in Australia are higher than in Germany – that is what we already have realised. Food and bathroom articles are more expensive. Just for a comparison – a bottle of vodka down under costs 45 dollars, which is about 31 Euros. Fortunately on campus-students get three meals a day: Breakfast, hot lunch and hot dinner (be quick for the chocolate cake desert!).
Easily summarized, this is a whole new study experience. Wearing business attire and preparing individual as well as group assignments to be held in front of an international class gives you more self-confidence and professionalism than you might think. Anyway, is there something more exciting about studying than studying under palm trees in the building where Nicole Kidman got married?
I guess not. And now – we are off to the beach!
It is hard to tell you what México is. First of all I would say that México is different. Different from Germany, from Europe and especially from America.
People tend to say that México wants to be like America. They also think about México of being a country where criminals live. And of course every Mexican man is a drug dealer and every Mexican woman is married to one.
To be honest, Mexican stereotypes and prejudices are easy to figure out. Yesterday I read an article about 45 missing students and the presumption that Mexican police had killed them all. A German comment posted below it was “The country reminds me of a civil war. I don’t understand how people can even think about their vacation in Mexico.”
I felt really ashamed and also was I frustrated because of people’s imaginations of this country. However I calmed down, because I started to feel sorry for those who tend to have a narrow-minded, one-sided point of view. The reason why I felt sorry was, because they won’t ever be able to experience such unforgettable moments, see statements of the world’s purest beauty or get to know people of an incredible kindness and self-irony like I had the chance to do it the past two months.
The thing I can tell you by now about México is that it is unique. Starting by the landscape of a country that is six times larger than Germany and contains nearly every variation of climate zones: jungle, beaches, deserts and mountains. There are places where it can snow in the winter whereas at other places you can drink a cocktail lying on the beach. At Yucatán for example. The Mexican Caribbean is a place that is worth to be called “Paradise”. I already spent ten days there travelling around feeling like being in a never-ending dream. Palms, beaches, blue water, coconuts for breakfast- that are not only stereotypes, but the truth about the places where I have been. And it was amazing. It took me only one hour and half to go back to Monterrey by plane. A huge city which is situated in the mountains in the state Nuevo León. Because of its five million inhabitants you can also call Monterrey a metropolis. That is why I had to start thinking in new dimensions.
People call the weather in Monterrey “loco” (=crazy). Summers here are very hot. The first few weeks it had been nearly 40°C. However, we had situations when we still sweated because of the heat when it suddenly started raining like hell. You think that the whole city is going to be flooded then. Sometimes the rain can even change in freezing rain. However, 30 minutes later the sun will shine again as if nothing has happened and you are standing there wearing wet clothes wondering what that was. Now, the autumn (“el ontoño”) makes the sun shine less intense. In December we either have to buy warm clothes or just travel in the south of México, where we can wear our summer clothes. I think it is going to be the second option.
Another thing that I want to tell you about México is praising the people. It took me one day to fall in love with Mexican characteristics. Mexicans help and support you every time, everywhere and in every situation. They just do it and do not want to have anything in regard- quite uncommon for us Germans. Of course you cannot generalize those characteristics, but people tend to be like that. Especially the educated ones. Those who have the opportunity to study or the ability to speak more than only one language. I experienced that they really want to improve the image of their country.
A thing you must not forget is that México has a divided society. More than 60 percent of the population lives in poverty and earns less than 300 Euros a year. That is why Mexicans tend to call Monterrey a “bubble”. Although it also has its poor parts, Monterrey is one of the most prosperous cities in the country. That is why you can compare the living standards here with the ones we have in Europe: an extensive infrastructure, electricity, water and universities. However, a thing that differentiates a lot from Europe is that education is a matter of money here. At our campus are about 20.000 students paying a huge amount of money for their education. Private universities and schools often are the only way to become successful here. If people cannot afford it to send their children there, they will stay being a part of the poor ones.
So far, so good. You see that México is not only a “drug country”. Of course there a several problems the country has to struggle with. In 2009, Monterrey has been one of the most dangerous cities in the world, because the situation of the drug cartels escalated. In this year, even students of our university had been killed or kidnapped. However, nowadays we are able to walk on the streets and feel secure again. I got to know México and Monterrey as very charming and sympathetic places. Places that are in a stage of being in progress of development, but they seem to succeed. I like to get to know the Mexican culture and the Spanish language. More and more I’m starting to feel like being a part of that fascinating country and I appreciate it that it gives me the chance to do so.
