Newbie to Salamanca

Hola! My name is Mária and I come from Slovakia. I’ve been asked to write a few articles for this awesome Tía Tula blog. First of all, I think I feel I should tell you a bit more about myself and so my first post will be about exactly that but don’t worry, I will keep it short. I am still less than a quarter of a century old and in my ‘relatively’ short life I’ve managed to live in Slovakia (big surprise), Thailand and The Netherlands and I’ve visited a few more, mostly across Europe. I love old but vibrant cities such as Prague and that is also one of the reasons why I chose Salamanca as a place to improve (or actually ‘start learning’) my Spanish. Before I arrived I could say ‘¡Hola!’ and now after a few days I can add a bit more to it so it became ‘¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?’. But more on my Spanish language skills later. People say I sound (almost) like an American when I speak English which is probably due to the unimaginable amount of hours I spent listening (and sometime watching) Friends and Two and a Half Men. 

As the title of this post suggests, I am a newbie to Salamanca. I’ve never been to Spain before so I was noticing everything (for example the nice scent of the toilets at Madrid airport – really nice, I am not being sarcastic here). Once I got to Salamanca’s bus station I took out my Google Maps printout and started walking to my apartment. Until I noticed I was supposed to go ‘southeast’ and I had no idea whether that was right or left. So I asked. In English. And I found out I was supposed to go left, in the direction of city centre. As soon as I saw Salamanca’s two Cathedrals (at that point I thought it was just one cathedral), I knew I am going to like it here. But when I saw the buildings in the city centre I fell in love. So once I managed to get my things to my room (which is 2 minutes from the 2 Cathedrals) I decided to get lost in Salamanca (some people prefer to use the word ‘wonder’ or ‘explore’, I say ‘lost’ because that’s how I usually start in a new town). Once I finished my ‘lost in Salamanca’ session I decided to meet up with a friend at McDonald’s at Plaza Mayor which is one of most stunning squares I’ve ever seen. I was surprised by the amount of people everywhere at such a ‘late’ hour. Now I laugh when I realize I thought 11pm is late. I guess I am getting used to the Spanish life style. I can’t say more about it now as I’ve just arrived but if you would like to know more about Salamanca, Spain and Spanish culture from my point of view please stay tuned for more stories! 

To sum it up, my name is Mária, and you will read more posts on this blog authored by…me. My first impressions of Salamanca are positive: it’s full of people, stars some beautiful old buildings, has an awesome garden with an amazing view of the Cathedrals, and there’s always something going on. As I told all my family and friends, you definitely have to come and visit! 

¡Hasta luego! 

¡Hola!

I am Liane and last week I started at Tia Tula as an intern for the administration and marketing department. I will keep you informed, at least for six months, about Tia Tula, Salamanca, the language and different activities during these months.


Why Tia Tula?

After I finished my Master in Science: Strategy and Organization, I thought it would be a great experience for me to apply my knowledge in a small company as an intern. I have been interested in the Spanish language since I was young and this combination of working and learning Spanish was a perfect opportunity for me. After reading numerous reviews, which were all very positive, I decided to apply for this internship at Tia Tula.


Why Salamanca?

Salamanca is a small city with loads of language schools and many students as a consequence. Salamanca has many bars and restaurants, which are full of life and sociability. Due to the small size of the city, every attraction and activity is close and the whole city can be explored by feet.


First impression

My first impression is in line with the expectations I had before I came to Salamanca. Tia Tula is a mid-sized school, and because of that, they provide a very personalized attention. They offer the possibility to get to know many students (even from other levels) by offering daily activities in the evenings.
Tia Tula attracts students of many nationalities. My class consists of students from Germany, Italia, Scotland, China, Korea and the United States. Here groups are kept small (with a maximum of 10 students). There is also a great diversity in ages, this makes the school qualified for everyone. I assume that my time on Tia Tula and in Salamanca will be great and full of new experiences.


Liane, student of Tía Tula

My stay in Salamanca

I have been in Salamanca for a little more than one month and here I am, already halfway through my internship. Time goes by so quickly here! Between work, activities and travel, I do not have time to get bored. 

 

My internship in the office is very interesting and rewarding. My colleagues always take the time necessary to show and explain new things to me and the work matches well what I have to do as part of my studies of personal assistant. What I also appreciate is that there are always things to do, whether ad frequent tasks as welcoming new students, responding to emails or going to send mail or tasks over the long term as marketing tasks ...

 

Regarding activities, Tia Tula offers a variety of activities every week. These are always a good opportunity to spend time with other students and to get to know new ones that have just arrived. During these activities, we speak in Spanish, which allows everyone to practice outside of class; those who have a good level helping those who have more difficulties. 

Last week, I enjoyed climbing to the Clerecia towers. We were eight students of Tia Tula and got to see the whole city from the top of the towers, a gorgeous view! 
 

I also take the weekends to visit this region of Spain: on Saturdays I go visit surrounding cities or villages. As you will see if you search a bit on the internet, there are many places to go by bus. The rest of my free time, I hang out with students of Tia Tula or with other people I've already met. 

 
It is impossible to come to Spain and miss the famous Tapas, which are a very friendly way of eating. There are also regular events in Salamanca which you can attend for example these days there was the FACYL festival, you can also watch film in VO subtitled, or go to listen to concerts in bars ... 

 

For me, Salamanca is a city where you never get bored. As a foreign student, it is very easy to meet people and there is no better way to improve in Spanish!

Claire, Intern

My internship with Tía Tula

My name is Julie and I have been studying General Management Assistant in Belgium. After 3 years of studying it’s obligatory in Belgium to do an internship for this study to practice what you’ve learned in the past few years. 

 

I knew since the beginning that I wanted to do this internship in Spain, and what’s a better place to perfect your Spanish than Salamanca? This city is known all over the world for its pure Spanish.

 

When I first contacted Tía Tula to ask if I could do my internship at the school, they responded immediately, which gave a really great impression to me. They were also very clear in what they explained me, and asked me everything they needed to know about me. They also told me which tasks I could expect during the internship and told me that if I like one task more above another that they would look for more tasks in that direction.

 

When I arrived the team of employees were really nice to me and helped me with everything I needed. They tried to explain everything as good as possible and the longer I worked there the more responsibilities I got.

 

Thanks to this internship I’ve had the chance to learn everything about the administration in a company and I think that when you work in a school the amount of administration tasks is really high, which was great for me.

 

Due to my timetable, I got to know a part of the Spanish culture too, because in Spain it’s normal to work till 9 o’clock! For a Belgian girl like me, those were really long days though, because I’m used to eat dinner around 7 o’clock, so about 2 hours before I finished working, my stomach always started making noises already! In the end I got kind of used to it though, so the sounds stopped!

 

I want to thank everyone at Tía Tula for the patience they had with me when they had to explain something. I especially want to thank Rosa for being so sweet to me always and to make me feel welcome in the Tía Tula-team.

 

Tía Tula was my first really work-experience, and it was an experience that I won’t forget!