My very first internship in Cambrils, 2014

The beginning of my first internship in Spain starts very simple. I have found Animafest Experience program in the Internet and decided to sign up. The officials of the program offered me to go to sunny Spain. I agreed without any hesitation because the country is very beautiful with unbelievably wonderful nature and stunning historic background. Consequently, the officials sent me to a small town Cambrils which is in Catalonia.

Two months later I went to Barcelona El prat Airport. Unfortunately, I spent a night in the airport because I landed quite late and the bus schedule to Cambrils starts from 07:00 AM. Well, on the next day I quickly arrived to Cambrils. And just after arrival went to my destination place "Best Camrils Hotel". It is a four star Spanish-looking hotel with 200 rooms and a big pool. It is worth noting that "Best Cambrils Hotel" is located nearby the beach. I noticed that many tourists avoid the pool and go to the beach. Sea water and great seashore area make all the difference.

Anyway, I started my internship couple days later. I had been practicing bartending there. The duties were not difficult I have been mixing drinks and serving them. However, the most annoying was the cleaning process but we have been doing it without arguing. Everybody was fair and it was easy to work with them. I was from Ukraine. Apart from me there was a guy from Ukraine, too. And the other guy was from Latvia. Thankfully, all trainees spoke the same language. So, it was quite simple to work with them. And the ordinary Spanish employees spoke in English. Besides, they often were talking to us in Spanish because they wanted us to study their language. There were more trainees but from different fields. One girl was on the reception and the other two were on animation.

Accommodation was at the hotel where we all have been working. You might think we dwelled directly in the rooms of the hotel where tourists do. Unfortunately, none of us dwelled there. The director of the hotel built up a place specifically for the staff of the hotel. Surely, it does not look like a room in the hotel but it was for free. We had been dwelling there with our colleagues. Our colleagues were dwelling there for free, too. Therefore everybody was happy because no one spent a dime on accommodation.

On the first day of my internship we decided to get to know each other and gathered in a bar. That was the English bar which is not far from our hotel. Sometimes our colleagues gather to sit back and relax after a working day. Thus, we met in the English bar and quite soon became friends. There were trainees from Ukraine, Latvia and Poland. Everybody was happy, friendly and cheerful to go out together.  Despite the fact that was the English bar I tired Spanish cuisine there. I randomly tried Gazpacho and Fideuà and realized that I never tasted such delicious food before. After that everybody offered the same dishes that I did. Without doubt, they liked it, too. I think that the Spanish cuisine is one of the best cuisine in the world.

Once, we heard about small town Salou. Straightforwardly, this is the party town. Moreover, it is a neighbor town of Cambrils and for us it was very easy to get there. But we did not go there quite often. As a habit we had been going there on somebody's birthday or festival.

Dealing with the internship we met a cool fellow from Russia. We involved his vacation in our splendid internship. We took him to parties in Salou. We also had been traveling with him. At the end of the day we often had been enjoying our time at the English bar. Later, he left the hotel and said that we have to meet in Moscow one day. Hopefully, we will meet with him someday. You may see him on the photo in the grey T-shirt.

When you have day off you have a great opportunity to travel. Accordingly, we went traveling to Cambrils the town where we had the internship. Our student team is settled at the touristic place which means nothing but hotels, restaurants and bars. But we wanted to see the downtown of the Camrils. So, we went from touristic part to the downtown. Turned out, that there Cambrils does not have a great downtown as we thought. It has huge old town but we still enjoyed our traveling to the different part of Camrils. In general, it was nice-looking old town in a Catalan style. Buildings and churches look very nice and refined. There were tourists but not as many as in our district.

My Polish friend and I had been visiting the most popular places of Cambrils. She knew about Cambrils much more than I did. Therefore, I went with her to see the nicest places of the old town. The old town of Cambrils is really worth to see.

Nevertheless, when we had day off we had been traveling a lot. In fact, our trips were around Catalonia. My friends and I had beed traveling Catalonia to death. Once, we were planning to go to Figures but our trip was cancelled because of obnoxious weather. One says it is worth to see because there is a great backgroud of a famous Catalan painter Salvador Dali. So, one town left behind to visit.

All in all, I was thrilled in Spain. I can tell that my first experience in Spain left very positive opinion. It is always sunny and warm, people are in a good mood and sea water is transparently clean. I learnt Spanish language a little. Additionally, I enjoyed experiencing bartending. It was a pleasure to work with trainees and employees. I also learnt for myself many drinks and familiarized with the hotel business. After all, I am thankful for such a cheerful team and trainees. I should say I will come to Spain again but as a tourist.

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