Residencia Reina de la Pau - Barcelona, Spain - Review

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I stayed at this residence for the 2016-2017 academic year. I am simply writing this review to clear up any ambiguities, especially in relation to North American standards and expectations, and some things did not go as expected. I’m not saying that this residence is bad. All I am saying is that it is not for everyone. The following points are issues that I had to deal with throughout my stay.

The main reason that I am writing this blog is that the website of the residence is extremely misleading and that none of the points I made below are mentioned anywhere on the website. This is why I feel as if I have made a huge mistake by coming to this residence - it just isn't what it's advertised to be. Upon my arrival to this residence, I felt lied to, and mislead. And because I am a good person, and I trusted this residence and their faulty claims, I also paid 8 months of rent (8 x 803 Euros = 6, 424 Euros) and the deposit (610 Euros), therefore, I could not leave without losing a massive sum of money of 7, 034 Euros ($10, 276CAD).

• The residence ­­­­­has “freedom of schedule” and “come and go as you please” plastered all over their website, as well as on the main door of the residence. This claim is not entirely true. First of all, if you want to go out at night, you must leave the residence by 22:00 at the latest. One time, I tried to leave at 22:05, and had to beg to be let out. On top of this, you always had to tell the nuns when you would be back home. This was a nuisance to me since I never know when I would come home. If the night is boring, I come home earlier. If the night is fun, I stay out. Typically, they do not appreciate when you come home before you said you would. If you plan on staying out later than you had told them, you must text them to let them know. And for those who are not aware of the Barcelona time-schedule - bars and clubs only really open at 00:00, and only become busy by 2:00. Therefore, if you have to leave by 22:00, you basically have to find a way to kill at least two hours. Luckily, I had the key to a friend's place. However, other girls had to sit in the McDonald's or the KFC on Carrer Ferran, just to kill time because they had nowhere else to go. Of all things that bothered me about this residence, this was definitely the most annoying. At this residence, you literally have to plan your entire day out in the morning. You have to tell the nuns in the afternoon if you will be absent for dinner at 21:00. At this residence, spontaneous plans are impossible. Your days have to be planned and stuctured, or you will run into problems.

• You, as a resident, do not have a key or any sort of access to enter the residence. Upon exiting, you must leave your room key at the lobby. Upon return, you must ring the doorbell. At first, this seemed tolerable, but when I was traveling and had a million things to do, it got rather annoying that I couldn't just let myself in without bothering anyone else. On the weekends, mostly on Sundays, but also sometimes on Saturdays, they lock the inside of the main door. So you have to ring the bell, so one of the nuns can come and open the door for you to leave and go out during the day on the weekend. This always made me a bit uncomfortable, as I would go and explore Barcelona everyday, and would leave in the morning, and come back in the evening. The nuns would always be suspicious, or make comments.

• Forget the idea of having any visitors (that are not family) who plan on staying over with you at the residence. If you invite someone over to work on a project, for example, the both of you will have to work in a supervised room, and your guest will have to show a form of ID to get in. So sleepovers, parties, etc. are not an option. Even though their wesbite says "life at your own pace, " they still limit another aspect of your life.

• There is an absurd amount of noise depending on the season and in which direction your room faces. If you are comfortable with noise at night, then this won't bother you as much. However, since I come from a quiet city in Canada, I couldn't sleep with the considerable amount of noise. The residence faces a bar on the same street. During the warmer months, people are outside talking, yelling, breaking bottles, etc. until 2:00-3:00. Sometimes I was woken up by a drunk person yelling at 5:00-6:00. Many times a few other girls and I had to get their attention from our windows, asking them to be quiet, without any success. From March until June, this was constantly a problem. Not just during the weekend, but during week nights as well. The problem with this is that the nuns know the owner of the bar. So, even if you do complain about the noise, they won't do anything. Also note that if you do ask to switch rooms, you will be charged a hefty 300 Euros ($437CAD) - even if there is an empty room.

• More on the rooms: I was in room 301, on the 3rd floor of the residence. On this floor as well as all bedrooms in the entire residence (except for the nuns' rooms, obviously), none of the rooms had A/C. This was obviously a problem in September, and then in May and June. Barcelona can get very hot and incredibly humid. Temperatures reached +35C when I was there in June. So, it became difficult to sleep and focus given the heat. Along with the lack of A/C, you are not allowed to have your own fan or any other type of cooling device because it “uses too much energy”. It got to the point where I, as well as other girls on my floor, had to sit in our rooms with our windows and doors wide open in an attempt to create a draft from the open windows in the hallway. Quite a few times, we even had to sleep with our doors open. The nuns expressed their discontent with us sleeping with our doors open, but they never offered us any other options. What would happen if someone with a medical condition or a heart condition which prevents them for tolerating heat came to this residence? What would be done to accomodate this person?

• The rooms are not at all as big as they are advertised to be. I, as an overseas student with 1 year's worth of belongings, was put into one of, if not the smallest rooms in the residence, meanwhile girls who went home every single weekend, and whose rooms were practically empty, were put into huge rooms that were barely ever occupied. The room assignment is random, and there isn't much logic behind it. The size of the room also caused many very uncalled for, and unnecessary comments from the nuns regarding the "state of my room. " They kept on comparing my "messy" room to the "clean" rooms of girls that went home every weekend, or once or twice a month. Those girls would have enough to last them one week, or one month. And whenever they went home, they would bring stuff home according to the seasons. That being said, they had everything they needed for that given season. I had everything - bikinis, shorts, shoes, boots, winter coats, hats, mitts, scarves all in my room. So naturally, considering I was in a tiny room, it was hard to keep everything organized at all times. They would use this tiny room and my amount of stuff against me during heated discussions that I will mention later. Considering that "nuns" run this residence, their behaviour was quite un-Christian.

• Weekly cleaning is included in the monthly rent. In North America, the cleaning lady cleans your house/apartment, regardless of how messy it is, because, well… That's the point of being a cleaning lady. Well here, unless your room is basically spotless, the cleaning lady will not clean it. I found this counterintuitive and almost a waste of money. If I pay to have my room cleaned, and I have to clean it before the cleaning lady cleans it, then what's the point of paying for a cleaning lady? Other cleaning ladies in Barcelona clean everything - including dishes, regardless of how dirty the place is - I witnessed this, as I was at a friend's place for the apartment cleaning while she was away. I had a very unpleasant, and rather unwelcoming and shocking experience regarding the "cleanliness" of my room. It occured during my first few days in Barcelona. I was coming back from Belgrade to Barcelona, and I had a connection in Zurich. I barely made my connection, and my massive checked suitcase did not. It took 2 days to get my suitcase to Barcelona. I got my suitcase back, and dumped all its contents onto my bed, so I could properly organize and put everything into the armoire. As I had a lot of stuff, it took a while to pack everything. I then realized I had to leave for class, so I left everything there. I was still unaware of the pre-cleaning for the cleaning, as I haven't even been in Barcelona the full week. I came back with a note on my door stating that my room was not cleaned, as it was "too dirty. " Should this "happen again" I would have been kicked out of the residence. I found this way too harsh for a girl, who was in Barcelona completely alone, who's luggage got lost, and is already fearing residence expulsion - and it hasn't even been a full week. What ever happened to those Christian values of "patience, " "teaching, " and "sympathy"? I would always be nervous on Wednesdays, as I was paranoid of getting the paper on the door.

• As for what`s included in the room: I paid 803 Euros ($1, 200CAD) per month, and my room did not include bed sheets, blankets or towels. You have to bring or buy them yourself. I was not made aware of this added expense prior to arriving in Spain. Considering that my friend was renting an entire apartment in El Raval, which I slept in nearly every single week, for the same price, I found this residence to be absurdly overpriced.

• The price of 803 Euros per month included breakfast and dinner and did not include lunch. The breakfast is the exact same meal, every single day, from the beginning of September until the end of June. From Monday to Friday, breakfast is from 7:00 - 9:00. On Saturday and Sunday, breakfast is from 9; 00 - 11:00. The dinner itself is decent, except it’s at 21:00 every night, Monday to Friday. So, if you're already out and not planning on being home by 21:00, you have to tell them that you won't be there. This goes back to my first point of your days always having to be fully planned out. Be careful, with this, as you must tell them in the afternoon if you will not be there for dinner in the evening, If you're going out after having dinner, you basically have to speed-eat with your makeup and hair done so you can leave by 22:00. I did this a lot, and they nuns made comments about "how abnormally fast I eat. " As if it weren't obvious, these comments were not at all appreciated.

• If you do sign up for lunch, dinner or both, be aware that lunch and dinner are NOT served on weekends and religious holidays. And they are served at set times, and that the nuns are not at all flexible. If you miss a meal, you will not be reimbursed. That being said, if you plan to travel a lot like I did, not opting in for a meal plan may be your best option. Do note that if you sign up for a meal plan, but change your mind about it later, they will charge you 100 Euros ($145CAD) just to cancel it.

• The kitchen at the residence has neither a stove nor a blender, and you cannot bring your own blender to use. So if you're a smoothie addict like I am, tough luck.

• As for the storage space in the kitchen, you get one freezer drawer, half a shelf in the fridge, and half a pantry drawer to store your food. If you buy too much food at once, you won't have anywhere to put it.

• Laundry: washing costs 3 Euros ($4, 50CAD), and drying costs 3 Euros. I usually just hand-washed my clothes, since I just didn't want to pay 3 Euros every time I needed to wash something. Drying can get tricky depending on the season and the size of your room. The rooftop terrace has clothes lines to dry clothes, however, if it’s raining like it usually is from December to March, you either have to dry them in the dryer or hang them up in your room, if your room is big enough.

• There is a computer room with a printer available. The computers are slow, though. As for the printer, you must purchase your own paper, and the price for one page is 0. 19 Euros ($0. 30CAD), which is very expensive considering how at my university in Canada a page costs $0. 06CAD. Another thing to make you aware of: the wifi in the residence, as well as in Barcelona, is not the greatest. It would come on and off, and a lot of the time Facebook calls were impossible due to lag, cutting out, losing signal, etc.

• Since it is a Christian residence, they are not open year-round. They are closed for the entire month of August, 2 weeks during the Christmas and New Year's period, and half a week during Semana Santa. If you decide to stay here, I suggest that you travel somewhere or find a friend who will let you crash at their place while the residence is closed. The nuns may or may not make this clear, so I figured I would write it here, just in case. It is possible to pay for the residence by day. For example, if your exams finish in May, and you want to go travel until your make recuperation exams at the end of June, you do not have to pay the full month. I was only made aware of this in May, when it was much too late to change anything, as I have already paid my last two months in full. This is very useful to know if you plan on traveling a lot like I did.

• If you are paying your rent through wire transfer, expect to pay even more when you get to the residence, since money is always lost with a wire transfer, and the rate from Dollar to Euro changes daily. So for example, even though you sent 803 Euros, you will need to pay the difference lost in transfer in cash when you get there. If you can pay your rent in cash, I strongly recommend that you do so. Do not make the same mistake as I did, and pay for several months' rent at a time. By doing this, you are locked in, and you cannot leave without losing not only your deposit, but also everything that you paid for rent. My best friend in Barcelona actually left the residence in November, and offered me to move in with her. I would have done so in a heart beat, have I not paid the deposit, and rent for September through April.

• The residence has a 610 Euro ($890CAD) deposit. If you leave the residence before the end of the school year or before you said you would, you lose that entire deposit. It’s not a small amount of money to lose, so definitely make sure that you will stay there until the end. Part of this deposit is a 310 Euro ($451CAD) tuition fee, which makes no sense, and was very unclear.

• The real issue happened during my last few days of my stay abroad, which was extremely unpleasant. Even though I had indicated in April 2016 that my return flight to Canada is July 1, 2017, I was told to leave the residence on June 30 and was effectively forced out of the residence an entire day early. This came as a shock to me at the end of April when I told the nuns which day I was leaving. When I reminded them that I would leave the residence on July 1, 2017 at 10:00, I was told that I would have to pay 44 Euros ($70CAD) for an “extra day”. This confused me and almost felt unfair. I had spent a year in this residence, where they claim that you’ll feel at home. “Feeling at home” does not entail being basically kicked out early. I found this inappropriate because I paid for the ENTIRE month of June, which meant I would leave on July 1. However, I was told to leave the residence on June 30, by 18:00 the latest. My mother tried speaking to them about it and they gave us some twisted response that made no sense. Given my circumstances, I found it ironic that “Christian” nuns, who pride themselves on the teachings of Christ, would either kick out a girl from overseas, who is in Spain all alone, the day before her departure flight, with massive suitcases or make me pay for another full day, even though I would have left before their standard “check-out” time for the rentable apartment on the 4th floor, which is 11:00. It should have been made very clear to me in April 2016 that I would have to check-out on the evening of the very last day of the last month of my stay, with no exceptions or consideration.

• Lastly, the day before I left, we had a huge issue with the deposit. I washed one of their blankets just to be nice, and naturally, some colour faded. I hand-washed this blanket because it was big, and I knew the colour would bleed. Well, even though the blanket had been used before me, I still had to end up paying 15 Euros ($22CAD) for this blanket, straight out of my deposit. Moreover, the real issue was with the mattress. Yes, mattresses get stained and dirty, hence why we use mattress covers. I had spilled tea on the mattress a few months prior, and I have washed the stain several times. The stain was not even noticeable afterward - it was just a mere outline if you were to actually focus in on where it was. Moreover, what these Nuns do not understand is that a residence is not a museum. Items and objects that are being used will show signs of wear, and that is a fact. If you wear a white shirt once, it is no longer white. Sure, it's clean, and you didn't stain it, but it's not longer pure white. The same goes for your favourite pair of shoes that you wear once a year, and the same goes for a mattress. But, with a mattress cover, I don't see what the issue is. In addition to this, I found it absolutely ludicrous that they would expect an object that is used as much as a mattress to be like brand new. Something that is used the most in their tiny rooms. Apparently, according to them, the mattress was “dirty beyond words” and was “no longer usable”, meaning that I would be charged 165 Euros ($240CAD) to cover a brand new mattress. The nuns even accused me of sleeping without a mattress cover, which is, in my opinion, something disgusting and a terrible thing to accuse someone of. On top of that, I was barely even at the residence that year. In the span of 10 months, I visited 17 countries. This means that I spent more time sleeping outside of the residence than inside when you add all the time traveling, sleeping at my friend`s place, and sleeping at my partner's place. Therefore, their arguments were completely invalid. I had to call my dad, on the other side of the Atlantic in order to discuss this with them. After a lengthy chat, they said I would not be charged for the mattress. Instead of getting the original 610 Euros back, I only received 547 Euros ($796CAD) back. The reduction included the blanket, an association fee (no idea what that is), and a nearly 40 Euro ($59CAD) cleaning fee, which was supposedly included in the deposit, but evidently was not. Let's say for example that the mattress was compeltely black with dirt - I spent so much time away, that all the money saved on me could have easily covered the mattress. I spent a total of 60 nights outside of the residence, solely by travel - this does not include sleeping over with friends and my partner. This amounts to 2, 904 Euros ($4, 232CAD). This amount could have covered 17 brand new mattresses. Therefore, their behavior was completely unjustified. A few days after my return to Canada, I, as well as my parents, received an email from the nuns explaining their ­supposed “sadness” over my “behaviour” about the “pocket change” of $240CAD - even though they could have bought 17 new mattresses with all the money saved by me traveling. First of all, I found the email after my return to be inappropriate. But to email my parents, even though I was 20 at the time (the age of majority in Spain is 18) is beyond ridiculous and unacceptable. They even nicely ended off that email with “May God bless you, He who knows everything”.

  To summarize, I am still confused as to how these women can call themselves "nuns, " or even remotely "religious, " as all they live and breathe for is money. These women will do anything to get a mere Euro out of you. One thing I want to put into perspective for you, is the crazy amount of money these women make, and how this makes their actions even more greedy. For calculation purposes, let us assume that all 16 residence pay for the cheapest package, which is 693 Euros ($1, 010CAD), which includes only breakfast. That means the nuns would get a total of 11, 088 Euros ($16, 153CAD) per month from all the residents. Whether you're from North America, or from Europe, this sum of money is massive - and this is just the basic package that includes literally nothing. And when you think that very few, if none of the girls paid for the most basic package, then imagine how much they make every single month, then multiply that amount by 10 months. To be making such a huge amount of money, and charging me, out of my deposit, for a blanket I washed, to be respectful, and make their cleaning easier, is appalling, and shameful.

  These nuns like to play the victim. They are nice to your face. Don't fall for any of it.

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In short, if you are used to being fully independent, and having lots of freedom, then I strongly recommend that you look elsewhere. Prior to this post and my reviews on both Google abd Facebook, there were virtually 0 reviews by real students about this residence. Hence why I made this mistake. Please do note, that the Nuns give themselves 5-star ratings with 0 reviews to balance out other ratings below 5 stars. Thusfar, my reviews are the only legitimate reviews about this residence, as none of the other ratings and reviews come from residents - they come from the nuns.

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