First impressions of my Erasmus experience in Barcelona!

Hola a todos!

In this blog I will be writing about My Erasmus experience’s first impressions in Barcelona, which lasted 4 incredible and intense months. 

If you’re going on Erasmus, I hope you already know that this will be a lifetime experience! 

Erasmus is a powerful journey and it can change your life’s prospective completely! Living abroad and being out of your comfort zone is something you will never ever forget and the entire experience will boost your self- confidence, mindset and spirit in a very positive way, trust me. 

It is important to be aware of the fact that everything won’t be sunshine and rainbows all the time, I did not fall in love with Barcelona from the very first day, I faced challenges, I found myself really weak and it was difficult to go through ups and downs by myself. 

The very first difficulty I faced was saying bye to my family, even though I was planning everything from months in advance, the realisation of leaving hit me only when I actually was on my way to the airport with my family. The moment I was ready to check in for my flight and leave them, was the exact moment I actually felt the experience beginning and as much as excited, I also was in tears. Yes, this may sound dramatic but for someone who never lived alone in a different country, it is a little bit scary. 

I was that scared that I was thinking to postpone my departure for the next day, which does not make any sense because I would have gone anyway but that was just my brain not accepting leaving at that moment.

Seat belt fastened, the plane took off and after an hour of flight, we did an emergency landing in Paris. This delayed my arrival time, which in consequence delayed my check in time in the accommodation I booked. Once arrived, I struggled to find the location, my phone battery was dying, I was sweaty and carrying two big suitcases around, which wasn’t helping at all. But it was not over, the guy in-charged of the check-in, did not help me at all to find the way to the accommodation and once I met him, he charged me 30euros because of my late arrival. I woke up the day after thinking new day new adventure, I was full of energy and positive, I decided to call the agency where I was supposed to start the internship, and guess what, the location of the place was wrong, they moved to another area of Barcelona and I booked my accommodation according to their previous address. Here I was in tears again, I felt lost and did not know what to do, so I spent my second and beautiful sunny day inside my room, trying to figure out the metro lines and a short way to reach the agency. So this was my very first impression of Barcelona, the people and of my Erasmus experience.

Although, looking back, I am so grateful of all the little mistakes I made, the rough days I experienced, the loneliness and the unpredictable challenges I faced. Thanks to all these difficulties, I got to learn so much about the real world and myself. Today I feel like what actually made me so strong, positive and confident, were putting myself out of the comfort zone, I now realise how much I enjoyed facing different obstacles and getting everything sorted by myself, because it actually was a real satisfaction. So for anybody facing these situations, just take a pause and remind yourself that you’re going to smash it and make beautiful memories, even through your tough time! 

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