My Erasmus experience
¡Hola! My name is Natalja Mihailova. I’m a4th year student at the BalticInternationalAcademy. My study programme is called Translation and Interpreting. And I’m one of those Erasmus students who went abroad in 2010 to study in a foreign university for one semester.
The country I have chosen to challenge myself was Spain.The country to choose was obvious for me. Last 5 years I was possessed of the idea to study Spanish and Spanish culture. After 2 years of studying Spanish at the BIA and 1 year at the private courses I was sure about going to Spain. The Erasmus Programme made my dreams come true. Several universities of Spain offered to our BIA students an opportunity of student exchange. I decided to go to Spanish southern province Andalusia to the University of Granada (UGR).
Despite my aspiration to go to Spain, I had some doubts before the trip. Nobody of BIA Erasmus students have ever been to the UGR and also anybody were planning to go this semester with me. I was asking myself whether is it worth to go so far, I will be there alone without my family and friends, maybe nobody will speak with me ... it was natural doubts of unknown and unbelievable. Now I’m sure that only challenging ourselves we can achieve something worth.
The UGRwas established in XVI century and is one of the oldest universities of Spain. It’s the third largest university of Spain. Every year it enrolls approximately 80,000 students, 2,000 of them are European students enrolled through the Erasmus programme. The Faculty of Translation and Interpreting has a respectable tradition - it offers the widest language range in Spain. I have chosen 4 lessons to study, 3 of them were dedicated to the translation process of English, Spanish and Russian. The 4th lesson was Portuguese from the beginning. All students there are studying 4-5 languages, and for everybody studies are very interesting. Almost every teacher is a native speaker of a teaching language, and has very elaborated study programme.
Granada and the UGR offer wide entertainment programme for everybody. Granada is situated between mountains and sea coast. It takes 2 hours from the downtown to the Mediterranean Sea coast and 2 hours to the Alpine ski resort Sierra Nevada. In the beginning of my stay I have visited with other students several Mediterranean beaches – Motril, Salobreña and magnificent mountains of Sierra Nevada.
More than 500 years Andalusia has been under the power of Arab rulers (Moors).Due to this fact all Granada is saturated with Moorishculture- in architecture, food, and music. The brightest example is Alhambra- incredibly beautiful palaces with gardens where many centuries ago livedMoorish rulers. Nowadays it’s the proud of Granada andone of the most demanded tourist places of Andalusia.
The UGR offers many different courses and other activities to its students. I liked very much going to Salsa courses (Spanish dance), which are gratis for students. Granadian students are dancingdifferent Spanish dances, such asSalsa, Bachata, Merengue. Talking about music, Andalusia is a part of Spain where loves Flamenco very much. And I started to love it too.The cinema club of the UGR dedicates every month to one famous filmmaker and twice a week students can see his films gratis at the university’s cinema hall. I have watched there very interesting Spanish, Italian and English films.
I am also to mention Granada’s tapas, small plates of food served in bars as gratis snacks to vine and coctails, which are the richest of all Spain (as say Spanish people). And sure Spanish dishes, vine and fruits are very natural and delicious there.
Describing my Erasmus trip I could write a whole book. Granada is a land of treasures for everybody, and I’m very glad that have used this opportunity of student exchange through Erasmus programme. Now, after my trip, I have new friends all over the world, I speak many languages, I know better many cultures, I’m more self-confident and independent person. And I want to encourage those who doubt their wish of going abroad through Erasmus – if you feel it’s really what you want, go for it now!
Thank you Erasmus!Thank you BIA! Thank you Granada!
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