My first week in Salamanca

“We want you to go away!”… That’s the sentence it all started with.

Last year, my school in Belgium organized an information session about going abroad, either to study or to do an internship. As I like travelling very much, I decided to go to this evening and I was immediately convinced! The first difficult decision to make was to decide where to go. As I’m very interested in Spanish culture and the language, I eventually decided to go to Spain. But of course, Spain is a big country and offers a lot of possibilities, so my school recommended Salamanca to me; the best place in Spain to improve your Spanish.

So I started looking on the internet for some information about the city, and it appeared to be a very beautiful city which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988. So far, it looked very nice. But later, I also discovered Salamanca is a student city with a very famous university.  So after reading all this information, I was convinced of the place and I decided to search for an internship in Salamanca. Eventually, I found Tía Tula Colegio de Español, a private language school which offers Spanish and English courses, situated in the historic centre of Salamanca. After being in correspondence with Tía Tula for some time, everything was arranged and my decision was confirmed: from 30^th of January till 18^th of May 2012, I would go to Salamanca to do an internship with Tía Tula!

So last Friday, about one year after making my decision, I finally arrived in Salamanca. My first impressions were positive; Salamanca is very easy to reach. I first flew to Madrid-Barajas and then I caught the coach directly to Salamanca. Tía Tula also arranged my room in a shared apartment with other students, so I didn’t need to look for something myself.

My first weekend in Salamanca was very pleasant. I was a bit worried I would be bored the first few days because I didn’t know anyone or anything, but Salamanca has a lot to offer. So the first two days, I discovered the city. I walked around through the historic centre and took some pictures of the beautiful historic buildings, I went shopping, looked for a supermarket… So my first weekend really passed by very quickly! And besides, the weather was very nice. It was cold, but there were no clouds and there was no wind, so in the sun, it was really nice. What a difference to Belgium!

So my first impressions of Salamanca are very positive. I’m looking forward to discovering more about the city and to learn more about Spanish culture and way of living.