¡Hola! I’m Fraser, and this is my blog which I’ll be keeping about my time at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona.

A wee bit about myself! I’m 19 (although I’ll be 20 when I arrive in Barcelona), I’m from a town called Inverurie in the North East of Scotland, I study Computer Science at Edinburgh and, err… Facebook me if you want to know more!

I’ve finally managed to get some of the important things sorted out…
• After a gazillion emails about prerequisites and ECTS credits (Edinburgh wanted more credits than UPC did), my courses are chosen and I’m now officially accepted.
• I’ve applied for my Número de Identificación de Extranjero at the Spanish Consulate in Edinburgh, which I’ll need to open a bank account and get a mobile SIM card.
• I’ve applied for accommodation in a privately-owned Residence (RESA Pere Felip Monlau). It’s not quite Pollock in terms of size, but I wanted to live with as many other students as possible, and they don’t really “do” university-owned “halls” at UPC.

I went over to Barcelona in Easter to suss the place out. Visited the halls and they seemed nice, quite spacious and in a really good location near La Rambla etc… the only problem is that I’m not guaranteed a place - I’ll find out in August. If I don’t have a place, then I’ll panic!

Visited the uni too, seems more intimate than Edinburgh, but modern, friendly and more Meditteranean-European-ish.

I don’t really know what to expect from this exchange, but I hope that any worries I have now will be quickly alleviated. I’ll hopefully make friends with people from Barcelona and other parts of Spain as well as other international students (I’ll be one of those! weird) and I hope that I’ll quickly “tune in” to Spanish and be able to feel comfortable speaking about most subjects. I’m really looking forward to finding a ‘crew’ to help me discover Barcelona’s infamous nightlife, too.

There are only really two things I’m apprehensive about, apart from passing the exams; coping with the languages, and making friends (and the fact that not coping with the languages could hinder my friend-making!) My Spanish is fairly decent, but when I watch TVE on Sky or listen to Los 40 Principales online, it can be pretty hard to follow – they speak so fast! As for Catalan, I’m working through some online courses and I’ve ordered myself a Teach Yourself Catalan book... but I’m hardly going to be fluent. I will definitely do an intensive Catalan course when I arrive, even if just to meet some of the other no-parlants.

I know it will all come together eventually and I’ll have the most amazing year, but it’s a daunting prospect being in a foreign city with two foreign languages, trying to live and study using those languages, and trying to keep in touch with everyone from home that I’m going to miss so much.

Still… roll on September!