My Year Abroad in Photos

I've been back in England for nearly 2 months now and it's finally hit me what with coursework results, reading lists being released and thoughts of future dissertations that my year abroad is well and truly over...

Skimming through all my hundreds of photos trying to pick my entries for Southampton uni's photo competition it struck me what a truly amazing, life-changing year I've had. I couldn't have been happier with how my year turned out. There were tough times of course, times when I couldn't be bothered with the whole bloody thing, but there were also countless moments when I felt truly happy and proud of myself.

Who knew a year ago that I'd manage to move to another country, find myself a place to live, talk myself into two jobs, take up an instrument, make some truly fantastic friends and travel the length and breadth of Spain all using my second language??! Some of you have been with me through it all, whether via this blog or otherwise, and I want to thank you for helping to make my year abroad in Madrid what it was - absolutely incredible!

The rest of this post is made up of photos of some of the most memorable moments from my time away. Spain is a fantastically varied country with some of the most beautiful buildings, crazy people and gorgeous views I've ever encountered; I hope this comes through in my photos.

My first night - Alone in the dark, peering out of the window at the torrential rain and wondering what on earth was going to happen next...

Getting to know my homestay host Isabel and starting to feel a bit "Spanish"

My first visit to the beautiful Retiro park - One of my favourite places throughout the rest of my time in Madrid

Discovering the Claudio Moyano Bookstalls - Just another little thing that added to the magic of my year away

Running down the escalator to the station platform to meet my boyfriend Chris for the first time since I'd gone away after 7 weeks apart. This photo is actually from a later visit as for those first few days together I forgot all about my camera while we explored the city

Watching the famous Jorge Pardo in Madrid's Cafe Central - From this moment on Jazz really caught my imagination

Moving to my new flat in Embajadores (finally escaping my demon of a flatmate!) and meeting my new year abroad pals.

 Annabel's 21st birthday at Teatro Kapital - A hilarious night of crazy dancing at Madrid's most infamous nightclub

A Trip to Toledo - My first trip out of Madrid, a fairytale castle, and the start of my insatiable need to see more of Spain...

The arrival of spring! - After a cold, dark winter the start of the warm spring days along with the almendro and cerezo flowers made me look forward to the heat of summer for the first time

Being dwarfed by El Acueducto de Segovia - One of the most impressive structures I've seen in Spain

Leaving the museum where I'd worked for the last 6 months and not having a clue what to do next - One of the most stressful times of my year abroad...

Arriving in Granada and seeing that the Spain I'd always dreamed of was real - Women in frills and men on horseback

The Alhambra and the arabic quarter being as spell-binding as I'd hoped

Staring in awe at the incredible floral displays of the fiesta de los patios in Córdoba - My favourite Spanish festival  

 Witnessing the legendary beauty of a royal Andalucían garden in May

Standing in Sevilla's Plaza de España at sunset watching the stone turn gold and the fountains flash silver

Starting work at Casa del Libro in Gran Vía - After about a month I had a moment where I felt exactly "right" and happy. Here I was walking out into the sunshine after my shift, heading home to my flatmates, shouting goodbye to my colleagues after spending the morning working on the customer service desk in a shop on the Spanish equivalent of Oxford Street. I would never have believed how far I've come when I arrived in October.

Looking out over the bay in San Sebastián - Great scenery, great food and great company

Lying in the shade in Retiro park for the last meetup of the chicas before we all started to go our separate ways at the end of our time in Spain

Sitting on the rooftop of the Circulo de Bellas Artes, drink in hand, watching the sun set over the Madrid skyline in the last week before I flew home - what a year it has been!

It sounds cheesy but my time away has made me the person I am today; much more confident in myself and ready for another challenge. Madrid has left me with a craving for jamón, a love of Jazz, a horde of new pals and a strong desire to see more of the world. Not to mention a significant improvement in my Spanish. If you're looking forward a little warily to your year abroad or even umming and aahing over whether to set off on one; just go! It'll certainly be the most interesting, challenging, unpredictable and life-changing year you'll have had so far.

To see more of the photos I took of all the wonderful things I saw and did during my year abroad follow me on instagram @madridadrift (find the link at the top right of the page)

Combined Honours - Keeping Up Your Second Subject Abroad

As a combined honours student I knew right from the start that my third year would be spent abroad and that most of my energy during that time would be devoted to improving my Spanish. I was determined to fully embrace my new life in Spain but, with the prospect of a history dissertation looming on my return, wasn't prepared to just leave my other subject behind. Here's how I managed to keep up my history after I hopped on a plane and flew away to start my new life in sunny Madrid:

 1. Destination - I picked Madrid as my year abroad destination for many reasons; the ease of finding a job and the excitement of living in a capital city among them. Don't let the bright lights and shiny shop fronts of Gran Vía fool you though; Madrid has seen more than its fair share of history. The city is full of monuments to past kings and the battles of long ago - a walk around Retiro park or up through the old/royal quarter is a history lesson in itself. Being the capital also meant that most of Spain's national museums and art galleries were there ready to be plundered on a baking hot summer's afternoon. The bigger the city often the easier it will be to find resources to keep up your other subject.

2. Travel - If you've been placed in a rather out of the way location with British Council or simply couldn't find a job in a capital city - don't despair! A train ride into Paris or Berlin for a day spent sightseeing often isn't an impossibility. Who's to say that history is confined to a country's capital anyway? I was lucky enough to visit the south of Spain and journey through Granada, Córdoba and Sevilla - all places linked to momentous moments in Spanish history. Look at your home city as a base from which to explore the rest of your new country and everything it has to offer in terms of your other subject.

3. Work - I chose to take a break from studying on my year abroad and worked as an intern in a museum and then a leading high street bookshop. I know it's difficult, and you may have to work unpaid as I did, but if you know you don't want to study or teach then it's a good idea to try and get a job/placement linked to your other subject. Whether you study politics, english, film or archaeology there may be an embassy, bookshop, production company or museum out there eager to take you on. You'll never know unless you ask!

4. Study - Although I chose to work in Madrid we all know that a year abroad isn't totally devoid of studying. Most universities set tasks to keep us busy and cement our improving language skills. In my case this took the form of a 6000 word Year Abroad Project to be handed in in May. With free reign when it came to a topic for the essay I decided to tie in the history side of my degree. The resulting project on the Spanish café culture of the 1920s and its links to the avant garde movement had me writing a full length academic essay on a historical topic...in SPANISH. Something that definitely brushed away the cobwebs and required me to utilise all my old history research and analysis skills. If you can, definitely try and tie in your other subject to any work your university sets you while away.

5. Mix it up - Being combined honours students we're used to multi-tasking and bringing various different skills out of the bag at a moment's notice. The year abroad is the perfect setting to make the most of what the first two years of your degree have taught you. Why not subscribe to a philosophy journal in French? Join a historical re-enactment group in Germany, set yourself a goal to read the classics in Spanish or get up to date with politics on Italian TV? Whatever you do to keep up your other subject there's no better feeling than successfully combining your two skill sets, after all, as a combined honours student, it's what you do best.

(This article has just been published on thirdyearabroad.com to see the article on the website click here: http://www.thirdyearabroad.com/home/item/2656-combined-honours-keeping-up-your-second-subject-abroad.html)

Taking Charge of Your Year Abroad

A year abroad is a scary thing. Leaving my home country, my family and my friends behind to start a whole new life abroad entirely from scratch was definitely the most daunting thing I've ever done. Lots of things can happen while you're away that are totally out of your control and can make you feel small, weak and worthless. Maybe your flat-share is a nightmare, you fail an exam, you get your wallet/phone stolen or you get shouted at in a shop for not understanding...

The trick is to grab hold of the things that you can control and mould them to your liking! A year abroad is a fantastic opportunity to try new things, meet new people and explore the world. You're the one who has to live through this year so don't let a few sad/disappointing moments get you down; take charge of your new life!

Your attitude needs to be positive from the start; maybe you're a little disappointed with where you were placed by British Council but I can assure you that every destination has its pros and cons. The first step is to do some research on where you'll be heading and see what takes your fancy. Grab a piece of blank paper and a pen and write down anything that you want to do/experience on your year abroad. This has to be things that it's entirely down to you to achieve - don't write things like "make lots of new friends" or "become totally fluent in Spanish/French etc" as these are either reliant on other people or not easily measured/ticked off.

For example after reading a few guidebooks on Madrid I wrote:

Go salsa dancing
Go to a Jazz club
Practice using my Camera/photography
Start clarinet lessons
Visit Segovia and Toledo
Take up a sport
Keep a year abroad blog
Keep in touch with the other students from my uni

By setting these targets for myself it helped me feel like my time away was worth something - my first couple of months abroad may have been a bit difficult but at least I managed to visit my first ever Jazz club. After my original list was ticked off I started writing a new one every month with all the things I wanted to experience in Madrid before I came home. Not only did this mean that I was filling my free time productively and enjoying myself, it also helped me to keep track of the time I was away and ultimately got rid of my homesickness completely.

It's all very well making lists of fun things to do, I hear you cry, but what about the serious stuff? What if I hate my job, I have no friends, my flatmates are awful, my language isn't improving or I don't understand my lecturers? Well, the same positive attitude needs to be applied to these situations. After about 3 months abroad and a good few sleepless nights and teary Skype calls home I honestly remember sitting down and writing a list that began with

1. Make work less rubbish
2. Find a new flat.

My internship hadn't been advertised and when I actually turned up to the office I found I was being given hardly anything to do. This made me feel so useless and like it had all been a waste of time but I made up my mind to improve things and by making sure that I consistently asked for new tasks everyday I was gradually given more responsibility. Though I was also lucky in that my first internship only lasted 6 months and I managed to find myself a new one working in a huge bookshop on Gran Vía. Likewise, the first flat I moved into had seemed perfect but after a couple of months it was clear I had made a mistake; we all lived in fear of the landlady's daughter who would shout at us like children if we so much as left a bowl in the sink. I made up my mind to move and I did. I'm not saying any of this is easy, the month of flat-searching that followed was the most stressful time of my year abroad, but I'm so much happier now that I took charge of my own situation. I now live in a little flat in a great location with 3 lovely housemates and am loving the rest of my time here in Madrid.

If you're not happy with the way your time abroad is going - change it! I know this is much easier said than done (believe me I do) and sometimes downright impossible. But this article is about what is possible. If you're hating your time away for reasons outside of your control then there's not much that you can do but endure it. If, however, you can make a positive difference to how things turn out then take the plunge! Ask for help from your lecturer, find a new flat, stand up for yourself at work, join that new club or get yourself a fun language exchange partner - you won't regret it! The year abroad is about setting off on your own personal adventure and it's you who charts the course.

(This article has just been published on thirdyearabroad.com, to see the article on the website just follow this link -  http://www.thirdyearabroad.com/home/item/2642-taking-charge-of-your-year-abroad.html)

Sevilla - A Spanish Dream!

Sevilla - the last leg of our Andalucían journey and my favourite city we passed through. There's something in the air in Sevilla; the streets are full of the scent of orange trees and jasmine while the sound of flamenco guitar drifts through the city.

Arriving in the first week of May meant that there was still a hint of feria in the air but that the sheer madness of the fiestas had died down. That didn't mean that there weren't any people about though! On our first night we left our things in the apartment and set off to find dinner through squares crowded with people talking and laughing. Out of all the cities I've visited so far this year Sevilla is the only one apart from Madrid where I felt I could have stayed for the year and been happy - the atmosphere is brilliant.

 

 

Everywhere you looked there were signs for fresh snails or caracoles in garlic oil and people were picking them out of small bowls to suck them from their shells.

 

 

 

 

We found some tapas and went home to discover that our hosts not only had a dog called Rufino but also a tiny hedgehog called Tomás who was allowed to run around the patio at night (he lived in the ensuite bathroom during the day).

 

Next morning we headed to the Real Alcázar de Sevilla (what seemed like our millionth alcázar but Andalucía is full of them!) and spent a couple of hours wandering around the gardens and courtyards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next room with the incredible guilded ceiling was inside the Casa de Contratación where all trade and commerce with the new world was discussed at the time of Isabella and Ferdinand. Christopher Columbus met the royals inside the chapel adjoining this building to present the results of his second voyage to the Americas in the late 1400s (let it out fellow history students, let it out - I won't judge!)

 

 

 

 

Later on when the sun was starting to set and the light turned gold we set off on a quest to find the famous Plaza de España. The city at dusk is just beautiful with tumbling bougainvillea, ornate balconies and the horses stamping in the square - a Spanish dream come true!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It would seem that the Fiesta de Las Cruces was celebrated here too - we returned to this square later in the evening for a delicious meal of crispy grilled sea bream.

 

 

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By following the sound of a pretty bombastic brass band we finally emerged at the edge of the Plaza de España and stood in awe. I have to say that this is without doubt one of the most beautiful spaces I've come across in Spain. The sunset was casting shadows on the rippling water, the stone was turned fiery orange and the silver-grey mist from the fountains floated on the breeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some girls added to the moment by rowing backwards round the lake unawares...

 

 

 

 

The last day of our trip was scorchingly hot with temperatures nudging 40 degrees. We unashamedly did absolutely nothing all day but hop from bar to bar in the shade letting the cooling mist sprayed from the awnings wash over us. An air conditioned taxi ferried us to the train station and after a fairly relaxed two hour journey we arrived back in good old Madrid. That night pizza, a film and sleep were in order - we'd seen so much and had a great time but 3 different cities in 6 days requires a certain amount of energy!

 

In the time it's taken me to post this last section of our Andalucía trip I've actually been lucky enough to go on holiday again. This time I spent a lovely weekend in San Sebastián with Annie and Cat - all our adventures and pictures coming soon!