Erasmus Experience in Barcelona, Spain by Shari May Santiago

Why did you choose to go to Barcelona, Spain?

Because I´m a designer and I needed to learn from Antonio Gaudi.

How long is the scholarship? How much money do you receive to help you with living costs?

I got a 5,000 dollar scholarship from my uni in Australia, Academy of Design (melbourne VIC) that they got from the government which was labour at the time, but i don´t know under which government the whole scholarship was started up from.
Although now I´ve used it all up cos living in Barcelona is expensive what with getting robbed all the time, the expensive prices of food, the very expensive price of doing my work and getting materials for it, etc etc. the scholarship p.s is a once off and i was supposed to have made it last till March. And have some left over to pay that month´s rent in aus plus bills. hahahaha. lol.

What is the student lifestyle like in Barcelona?

Brilliant! The students that go to my uni here in Barcelona, BAU (escola superior de disseny, en poblenou) are all very driven and intelligent. the ones i know anyway. i don´t really know everyone. i know probs some of the best ones in my year and my subject though. but i don´t speak spanish that well and i´d like to make friends with some other people that seem really cool but i still can´t speak spanish that well: (
oh the lifestyle itself is really chill. i think, maybe it´s not supposed to be. i dunno really, (i barely get to class on time or at all some days and this makes me sad because I really do care about my school and I know that what I have to learn from my tutors is important: ( i´m lucky though because i have heaps of great friends that help me: ) even though i´m a total failure sometimes. haha.) Based on my friends who are studying what i am, they seem like they have a lot of homework to do so don´t go out that much. or maybe they do and i don´t know cos i don´t go out that much. haha.

Would you recommend the city and the University of Barcelona to other students?

YES! Of Course! oh right um, hang on a sec, haha.
I´d definitely recommend the city but I can´t recommend the university of barcelona. haha, i lied about that so i can get into this group. lol. i couldn´t find my uni BAU from the lists of unis you guys have. which is a shame cos they´re really great!
but my friend Eva Braithwaite is really smart and studies there and she seems to be really enjoying her course. It sounds really hard though.

What is the food like?

great! there´s this amazing japanese restaurant en raval called, fuck, i can´t remember the name, their business card was stolen along with everything else that was in my wallet. they werenear plaça dels angels though. near Bun Bo the vietnamese restaurant and the indian one which i think is called the veggie garden? Anyway that japanese restaurant was incredible. like the service was just breathtaking, the food was perfect in every way and yeah i really loved everything about it. down to the interior and graphic design. i´ll find out the name later: )