I had the best time living in the smallest apartment with my friends, doing sports with them almost every day because we had a gym and a swimming pool at the sixth floor.

Especially the mini-market at the basement of our building that was opened until 2am did it’s job during the examination phase, emotional breakdowns and late-night cravings when we needed snacks and a lot of candy. And of course going with my roommates to university, studying together and going back home together were some of the little things that made me happy.

In Germany I wouldn’t grab an uber just because I want to visit my friends from university because it’s either too expensive or my friends live at the opposite side of the city. You are still able to meet them through public services but it would take way longer than in Malaysia: You were able to enjoy every second because you had the opportunity to do a lot more things. Because in this country it was cheaper and everyone you knew lived in the same area.

It felt like there were malls in every corner of the street and they had an offer of leisure activities that was incredible. Cinema, Bowling, ice skating or even a roller coaster in a mall? Malaysia makes it possible. The malls were so big so that you never got bored and even grocery shopping in Tesco (that was also located in a mall) was the highlight of our week. But that may be a personal thing.

Different Culture

The country has a completely different culture compared to the european culture. The population is mainly Muslim- dominated. That’s why there were a few challenges and an anxiety appeared that you could offend somebody in any way. But all of the people I met were very understanding and welcoming so that I didn’t have to worry about the difference between our cultures or religions.

They gave us an insight into how they live. We learnt to eat rice with our hands properly without getting half of the food in our face or how to wear traditional clothes. It’s incredible how nice people can contribute to your time away from home and make it to something special. If I wouldn’t have met them my semester would have been only half as good.

University

Besides of all the fun we had of course we also had to go to university. I wouldn’t say that it was absolutely easy and there wasn’t much work to do but we had great teachers and we definitely learnt a lot we can use in the future. The university itself felt like a big crazy school. It had huge banners of the university’s fashion brand and pictures of awards that looked they were straight given to the university from the Oscar’s jury. Besides all this advertisement stuff you also had a little bit of that „Fame“ atmosphere because it is a really creative university. Nobody would care you would walk around in a crazy costume or if you would stand up and start singing out loud loud. Because in this university it is kind of normal to do something like this. I mean which university has it’s own fashion show every Thursday?

I recommend everyone to choose a country with a completely different culture. Different from any culture you have ever experienced before. Try to be open-minded and to make friends so that you can get a new perception on life and other cultures around you. It was an amazing opportunity and it made me grow into a more mature and open-minded person with unique memories that I will always keep in my heart.

Daniela – WE DID IT!

We can not believe our 6 months exchange is done! Time flies when you are having fun.

In our abroad-time we had the opportunity to get to know a  new culture ( very opposite to the german one as known), visit new incredible places and meet new people. Locals were always nice to us and (at least) tried to communicate in English and although some could pass, many of them did not knew how to properly speak English and we had to try our best with the few Spanish we had learnt so far.

Spain is a lovely country to travel around in your free time and we would encourage everybody that wants to have a good time and try a variety of tapas combined with a different kind of beer to come visit!  We assure you will not regret this opportunity and you will be welcomed with open arms and smiley faces (and of course a lovely weather).

Irina – Summary about my stay I Madrid

About a months ago our semester abroad and stay in Madrid ended. Some of us were really happy to fly home again, and some of us fell so much in love with Spain, that they decided to stay a few more weeks in Spain and travel around.

To be honest, I were really happy to be back in Germany after 4 and a half months. Many of us loved the Spanish mentality, the cheap tapas and wine, the warm and long evenings and Spanish laid-back attitude, but I had problems to adapt to this. I want to show you to thing, that annoyed me most during my stay, and what I loved most.

What I’ve learned

To be a bit more open-minded. I had problems to accept the Spanish mentality because we Germans are way more narrow-minded, a bit less flexible and try to follow rules. Spaniards love there “mañana”, what means something like “Come again tomorrow, maybe (or maybe not) it will be here tomorrow”. So, it is very important, that you, if you want to live and study in Madrid or Spain, to be a bit more open-minded, flexible and relaxed and adapt the Spanish mindset, otherwise you will be bugged 24/7.

What I’ve love most

The weather. I fell so much in love with the weather in Spain. The sun was shining most of the time. I remember that I was pretty hot at the end of October, so that I wore shorts at Halloween. Even in November and December it was about 16 degrees. We almost never had rain. This gave us the possibility, to travel around and explore whole of Spain with a such beautiful and sunny weather.

Benita – I learned many different things during my time in Madrid.

First of all, the things we studied in class of which some might really be useful for me in the future. One of the classes was Spanish class. I’m certain it was the favourite class of everyone interested in languages. For me, that was definitely the case. During the semester I also managed to get my DELE certificate which I’m happy about and which was made possible by the fact that we only had 5 courses and there was some extra time. So, Spanish skills are something, some of us also developed and which will come quite handy.

Also, speaking of skills, independence and flexibility are skills one develops while abroad (I think this applies for everywhere). Just the fact that we needed to get along in a different country, with a different language and different systems etc. made us more adaptable, and in my case, the Spanish way of handling things made me more relaxed.

Of course, experiencing the country itself is something I wouldn’t want to miss and there are many options for traveling. Valencia, Sevilla, Granada, Toledo, Aranjuez and Alcalá de Henares are places that I visited, but there is still much more to see and to do.

Surely the most important part is the people all of us met. New encounters are always enriching and maybe some of us have found friends for life.

We hope we could give you some impressions and you enjoyed reading our posts!