Photo from Dec 2015, but what I walk past every day to uni…
Moving country and beginning at university can be quite hectic and time consuming, so my blog has been neglected for a while. But now I am quite settled, I am giving some life to my blog by writing about me, myself and I.
HOLA!
I’ve just moved into what should be my flat for the year. It’s cosy! Has everything I need: kitchen (with an orange coloured theme), bathroom (with a funny light that takes a while to brighten and I’m only just short enough for the shower), a lounge with a tiny TV and a cute terrace, and a bedroom with no window. Yep, not sure how the last one will pan out. My room already smells of bananas (from the actual fruit, I don’t have a weird body odour going on) and I have no natural ventilation… But trust me, it was still one of the best choices I had, and not the only one without a bedroom window…
Great thing about it is that it’s very central for Barcelona. I hardly need to use the metro and I can walk to university, and to most bars and places to meet friends.
The city is great! I’m in love with the architecture, from the amazing pieces of Catalonia Modernisme, to the flats with adorable balconies. Weather is still lovely and warm (too warm some days), so walking to university in the morning is no challenge, and neither is walking home from bars at night. Grown men still like to skateboard around, and people are always walking their dogs which I love. It can get pretty crazy with tourists, and pollution is a problem, but I managed London so I’m sure I can handle Barcelona.
University has finally kicked off after a couple of introductory weeks. What seems impressive about my course is that it is very international, even for International Relations. People come from all over the world, and from many different backgrounds. Some like me are still quite recently graduated, whereas others have worked for a while and generally seem a hell of a lot more knowledgeable. I’m excited about my elective modules: this semester I will study the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China), and Social Movements, and next semester I will study International Relations in Latin America, and the Middle East, and Humanitarianism. So hopefully I will get quite a good knowledge of things on an international scale, whilst also shaping myself to possibly working with human rights one day! At least that’s the plan…
The wolf (aka lupus) is behaving at the moment, which I’m really surprised but pleased about. At the start I had A LOT of walking around viewing flats to do, and the sunny weather is one of the reasons my rheumatologist was hesitant about me coming to study here. Although I was expecting me to be flat out exhausted at times (especially this weekend past when I went out twice and with a cold – not advisable!), but I still feel 100% human. Which is great. And although bureaucracy in Spain is a pain and causing some complications I have already seen a rheumatologist here, and can get all my necessary medication which is great. And I still get to gradually reduce my steroid dosage which is a relief because my face still appears huge and moony in photos, which is not great confidence wise for meeting new people. But oh well, it’s not as bad as before…
So I’m still settling into the routine of studying and seeing how horrendous the workload will be, but all seems to be muy bien which is all I can hope for. It feels good to be back in Spain!
Inside a Mind 