The Barcelona Curse

Fellow readers,


Another month has passed, and May flew by like a bliss. I started May with a four day weekend to the beautiful city of Barcelona. What a trip that was! I had a little bit of everything and it felt sooooo good to be in a country where I understood what everyone was saying. Also, I stayed at a hostel for the first time and it was a good experience. The food was absolutely delicious (it beats Italy, France and Germany). I went with 3 of my new friends so I had nice company, I enjoyed the night life in Barcelona as well, and the sightseeing was unbelievable. Barcelona has little alleys like Venice, Italy where you can get lost but find yourself in small yet interesting boutiques. There are many museums, cathedrals and beaches! Everything I wanted to see in just one city. However, not everything was beautiful, smiles and happiness. The title of this post talks about a curse. Well, yes. The curse got the three of my friends and myself included.


The curse started with difficulties in Germany. So, we needed to take a train from Heidelberg to Frankfurt because we were flying from there. Easy enough BUT there has been several strikes by the Deutsch Bahn company. The workers are demanding a higher salary and better work conditions. Unfortunately, to make their point, the trains were being delayed and some even cancelled. My friends and I were very scared about missing our flight because as typical exchange students, we bought the cheapest plane tickets with no refund. The good thing is that we all worked together and thought of ways to make it to the airport on time. We also decided to share a taxi with a super nice senior lady. She is from Australia and though she was old, she was traveling through Europe. The whole ride of 25-30 minutes, she told us about her life and I really enjoyed listening to her. Also, it felt good to be in a car (it has been a long time, since I've been in one). Once we arrived to the airport we all felt relieved and excited! However, one of my friends had a problem with her plain ticket and payment. She couldn't get in the same flight as the rest of us and she had to pay extra. It was unfortunate and I felt bad because she couldn't be with us. This is were the curse starts making its way through all four of us girls. One girl down, three more to go. The second day in Barcelona, another friend felt sick. She still did all the activities we had planned for that day but I could tell she wasn't comfortable and being herself. At this point, none of us had figured out the curse was making its way to me. I, of course, did not see it coming. The third day in Barcelona, my wallet got stolen on the train. I can honestly say that has been the worst experience thus far. People warned me about this but I was honestly so distracted. Pick-pocketers got me real good. All my student IDs, 150 euros, my bank card, gone. Forever. I felt horrible, dumb and extremely mad. At first, all I wanted to do was cry but my super supportive friends helped me calm down and make moves. I had to call my bank in Germany to cancel my bank card. I didn't have a cell phone in Spain, therefore, all I could think about was maybe the police could help. The advantage of being in Spain is that I know how to speak and understand Spanish 100%. So communicating with everyone was never an issue. I filed a police report and I was able to cancel my bank card. My day was ruined but I had to enjoy my last day in Barcelona. I also felt really bad for my friends because their day was ruined too. Though I was still mad and sad, I turned my frown into a smile and decided to move on. We went to Park Guell, a very famous park in Barcelona. I can tell everyone that it was so worth it! The park is located uphill by the mountains in Barcelona, and the view of the city was beautiful. Bad things happen but it's up to you to react to them in a positive or negative way. In addition, to the wallet incident, a bird decided to poop on me at the park.....that day was so not my day. But I've heard that is good luck when birds poop on people. Only an optimistic person would say, and I do describe myself as that.


So yes, the curse sure made its way to the last girl in the group. She got bitten by a spider the night before we left Barcelona. The Barcelona curse will never be forgotten by the fours of us. But, we made it safe and sound to Germany and we absolutely loved the city. The moral of this experience is to take care of your belongings everywhere. I had to learn this the hard way. But now I know. It will not happen again while I'm here in Europe. I can promise that!

The experiences.

Yes, I'm posting twice in one day because April was a very eventful month.


Meanwhile I was dealing with class issues I was also experiencing social and medical experiences.

For starters, there was a fire in the building I live in. Firefighters and the police came to our rescue. It was definitely interesting to see how Germany handles fires. Although it wasn't a big fire, and nobody was injured I noticed many things. For example, the fire alarm in my room did not go off. I heard a weird sound I've never heard before coming from downstairs but it never occurred to me it was a fire alarm. The only reason I was able to hear that weird sound was because my window was open. Though at first I didn't think much of that sound, I looked outside and people were running out of my building. I also started smelling smoke, therefore, I decided to grab my technology devices and run outside. Sure enough, running down the stairs there was smoke filling the air because the kitchen in the first floor was the reason of the fire. I was confused, alarmed and I hoped everyone was fine. But how are people supposed to know there's a fire if the alarms in our rooms don't make a sound?

The firefighters and police arrived soon after I was already outside. They handled everything well. But students were still getting out of the building while they were putting off the fire. I didn't feel safe knowing some students didn't even know what was happening in their building. There could have been someone injured. After that eventful day, I thought to myself how unorganized things are. There was never a fire drill or instructions on how to react if there ever is a fire. Also there are some floors in my building without a fire-hydrant. But definitely, what scares me the most is how the alarms in the rooms do not go off. I can only hope there never is a fire at night and if there is, someone should wake me up.


In addition to that, I'm happy that I purchased the German full cover insurance. Because if anything were to happen, the insurance will cover the expenses. Accidents can happen in a blink of an eye. Also, this month, I experienced a pain in my mouth I've never had before. For that reason, I went to visit a dentist. To my surprise, I should translate things in German better because I chose the wrong type of dentist. A nice lady told me I was at the wrong place. She didn't speak much English but she called her personal dentist for me and she even took me to the location. The people I've met here have all been really nice/polite even when I make mistakes like this.


So yes, I've experienced how dentists work here. The language barrier is a problem. I feel like sometimes I'm not being understood to what I'm trying to say. Also, I can't fully have a conversation with people because their English is as good as my German. Sign language and body language helps me communicate with others. The dentist told me I needed to take out my wisdom teeth and that I should visit a surgeon. Sure enough, the surgeon told me my wisdom teeth need to be taken out. I really wish my mom was here to take care of me but since that is not possible, I'm doing what I've been doing ever since March 1st, 2015. I'm doing things on my own, taking care of myself, and handling situations like an adult. Though it has been hard, I feel like I'm doing a good job. I take care of my needs. Two of my wisdom teeth are out, and I need to take out the other two. But I haven't decided when I will do that, due to classes. So far my study abroad experience has taught me more life lessons than anything else. I've learned that I could be more independent than what I was before. I'm learning how to be an adult and how to handle life situations.

"It's going to get worse before it gets better"

To the people that keep up with my blog (which I know it's probably my teachers back at home :)),


The month of April is finally over. I do mean to say finally because it was a stressful, complicated, and hard month for me. I've been through a lot this passed month and the title of my post reflects what I kept saying to myself. I don't mean to be a debbie downer with all the not-so-great-moments I've had this month; but I'm hoping students who will study abroad in Heidelberg in the upcoming years can learn something from my experiences. So, here we go:


As you may or may not remember, the Summer Semester started April 13th and I was eager to start learning again. Soon the happiness and eagerness banished because out of the four classes that I had picked, only one was right for me. I'm in Heidelberg taking French classes and one German course. On the first day of my ISP French class, I felt uncomfortable but I also had a feeling I could learn a lot from the activities given by the professor. I felt uncomfortable because I could only understand half of what was going on in class. I also didn't speak much because my knowledge in French vocab is not at the same level as the rest of the students. The next day, I attended the Vocabulary Translation class I picked. I don't know what I was thinking by choosing that class because obviously I will be translating from German to French. My German is level 1 and I don't know many words and I definitely don't know all the tenses. So there I am, feeling dumb because I couldn't really participate much in the classes that I had pick.


I knew I had to change classes because I wanted to participate and actually interact with the rest of the class. I spoke to the professors about my issue and both told me there weren't any other classes offered for my level of French in the University. When they told me that, I felt hopeless and thought to myself Why am I here? Why did I go through the whole process of applying and working hard to get to this point, when the school doesn't have what I need?


I was mad, sad, upset and more than anything I just wanted to be home. But, I started thinking realistically and I didn't come all the way here to NOT get what I want and need. Therefore, I started sending e-mails to coordinators here and back home. Sure enough they had to have a better solution to what I should do. I needed answers and someone to guide me to the right place. The coordinator who takes care of my issues here, didn't know my level of French wasn't perfect and right there in her office, I had my first public breakdown. I started crying my eyes out because I was so frustrated with everyone telling me, I don't know what to do. After embarrassing myself infront of my coordinator I apologized for that childish behavior. I asked for more options. I told her that I had taken a French placement exam in the Central Languages building and that class was at my French level and I felt comfortable. She said that I could possibly take another French class in that same building if the professors there allowed it. Sure enough, the professors there didn't know if I could be added to the class because classes were already full. Thankfully, that same day, a professor sent me an e-mail and said there was a spot open in her class (she told me I had luck). Now that I had two classes that were at the right level of French, I felt better. However, my wallet didn't. The classes at the Central Languages are not free and I had to pay 80 euros for each class, plus the books. Though paying that amount of money didn't make me feel happy, I knew I had to do it in order to have the right classes and in order to transfer credits back to Illinois College.


After settling everything down for my French classes, I thought I was set and ready to start learning. However, other issues came my way. My French classes are taught in German (this I can't do anything about and I have to deal with it) and the German class that I had originally signed up for was cancelled. There weren't enough students who were taking that class on that day and time. You would think that a professor or coordinator would e-mail the students about the cancelation. But no, no one was informed. I went to the first day of class not knowing the class had been cancelled and that I was put into a different class on a day and time that conflicted with my other French classes. There I am again, feeling like is this ever going to get better? All I want to do here is go to class, learn and be able to transfer credits back to my homeschool. I just want to learn, why are obstacles getting in my way?


Anyway, April was full of frustrating days. I couldn't believe how unorganized everything was. I thought the experience at the University of Heidelberg would be great. But so far, I just keep bumping into walls. Long story short, three weeks after the semester has started, I am now in three French classes that I enjoy and one German class that works with my schedule. Coordinators helped me find the right classes and led me to the right people. My professors are really nice and I'm thankful they understand my situation. I've also made new friends in those classes. Very nice Germans who I can talk to :)


This post only rants about the school issues I've had in April. The moral is: before going abroad to study a different language, make sure you ask about the level of proficiency of each class. To avoid feeling lost and hopeless in a different country, think of all kinds of questions you should ask before actually deciding on coming to the other side of the world.