Hi everyone!

 My name’s Alicja and I’m gonna write the blog about my Erasmus experience in Salamanca this year. Yuppie!

 About myself… I’m 21 and study Maths & Stats at Edinburgh Uni. I’m originally from Silesia, the most industrial and kind of autonomic region in Poland. I lived in Silesia long enough, moved to Edinburgh (oh I’m going to miss it!) and now awaiting the next challenge… finding my feet in Spain!

 It’s not easy to describe how I feel about my 10-month stay in Salamanca. Excited. Happy. Curious. But also worried, not really sure what I should expect. Anyway, I keep thinking that everything’s gonna be (at least!) alright.

 How has it all started?

 I applied for the exchange and got the place. Seems simple and actually wasn’t too difficult. After investigating possible countries and their languages I picked Spain. So I took Spanish 1A course in Edinburgh in my first year which was a great choice! During the summer I went to Madrid and was surprised to see myself speaking and understanding Spanish after only one year of learning the language. The course was a bit tough but now when I’m looking back I can say it was worth it!

 Okay my ‘sorted and still to be sorted out’ list for the time being…

 On the debit side:

–         Subjects. I know more or less which courses I want to take. The only problem is that I’m taking courses from three different degrees (!). To make it simple, I need to pick courses from ‘Old Maths’, ‘New Maths’ (they are changing the structure of the degree), ‘Stats’ (separate degree). Maths classes are from 9 to 2pm and Stats 4pm to 9pm. Oh yeah it’s gonna be fun… I just hope I won’t have too many clashes. We’ll see. I’ll let you know.

–         Packing. What to take, what not to take, that’s the question. But not yet.

–         Uni things. I still don’t know where and when I should turn up but it’s going to be sorted out. Soon.

–         Language. I need to brush my Spanish up.

 On the credit side:

–         I’ve got the coach ticket bought from my Silesian home-town to Madrid for 2 Sep. Don’t look at me if I was nuts. It is a long journey but I can take 30kgs with me + excess luggage is pretty cheap = good deal for £100. If I flew from Cracow to Madrid with Iberia it would cost me £250 for the flight ticket itself and would arrive in Madrid at midnight which isn’t really convenient. I promise I’ll survive my couch journey! (I mean I hope so)

–         I’ve got the accommodation!!! A friend of a friend of mine from Edinburgh lives in Valladolid which is pretty close to Salamanca and she found a place for me to live. It’s a room in the flat shared with other students, in the city centre, 10min walk to Uni. Seems perfect!

 So that’s the part 1, the beginning of the beginning. To be continued.