Spain – Postcards from GW

SPRING BREAK

AdminMarch 21, 2019June 4, 2019

For spring break I went back home (home is Madrid for those of you who don't know!) because my grandpa was sick and since my family is mostly abroad we try to go visit as much as we can. Apart of making my grandparents really happy I was able to see my friends and fly for a couple
days to Morocco (Fact: the shortest border between Europe and Africa is the Gibraltar Strait that separates Spain and Morocco by 14 kilometers and where both the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet).

Madrid is a really beautiful city located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal are. With around 6 million inhabitants, Madrid is one of the most important European
cities and an really welcoming hub for immigrants from Latin America and North and Sub- Saharan African countries, as well as Eastern Europeans. This has enriched Madrid, turning it into a multicultural, diverse and unique spot loved by tourists from all around the world.

What I loved the most about going back for the break was definitely the weather. Since the moment I landed I was able to get rid of my coat and my scarf, enjoy the early spring, make a barbecue with my friends and just lay down in my yard with my bunny pet. (Who doesn't want a
picture of a bunny?!)

Also, even though I didn't know about it when I bought the plane tickets, I was able to attend my Masters graduation that was scheduled for the same day I arrived! As some of you might know, this is my second BA program and during my junior and sophomore years I studied a MA in
Madrid, for which I just graduated. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to bring much luggage and my mom decided to be my stylist. This was the result.

Another great thing I was able to do was to lecture in my home university. A professor requested me to lecture his two hours course in “Security Models” on Monday and so I did. I prepared a lecture about the differences between Spain and the US when talking about prisons, gun control and incarceration. (I highly recommend a documentary in Netflix called 13th about mass incarceration in the US and slavery). I had 62 students and I had so much fun. Here you can see me faking it until I make it.

After this exhausting vacation I went to Fes, in Morocco to visit Amine, a friend I actually met at GW during the fall semester. Although I barely had two days there we drove (just him, to be honest I shit my pants just by thinking about driving in Morocco) 1,000 kilometers! We went to Ifrane, where his university is, and then we went to Rabat, which is by the coast since I'm a sea lover. There I was able to lie in the sand and nap while just relaxing which is something I miss so much when in DC. Then we came back to Fes, one of the oldest cities in Morocco, from where I flew back to Madrid before heading back to DC. Here are some pictures.

SOME DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GWU AND UAM

AdminFebruary 25, 2019June 4, 2019

By recueroraquel.

Even though I’ve been studying at GWU for around six months now, there are several thinks that keep shocking me. Education in Spain is way different than in the US and that determines a lot how we are and how we understand the world. Here are some of the things that shocked me the most:

University is SO EXPENSIVE: Most universities in my country are public, meaning that around 80% of the cost of tuition fees is covered by the state through taxes. For this reason, many people independently of their background can access university. To enter a university in Spain you have to take a public exam during your senior year of high school, and the highest the grade you get, the greater number of degrees you have access too. Private universities don’t require people to take this exam and accept people that got a bad grade or failed, and because of that private universities are generally considered bad quality, while public ones seem to be more competitive and have a higher prestige. For me, the fact that people take loans that they are going to be paying for years just to go to school scares me and makes me think that education is only accessible to those who are privileged enough.

Living so far from home: In Spain, as in many other places in Europe college education is a natural extension of high school, so most people live with their parents and attend the closest university. In the US, a lot of people leave their parents’ home as soon as the finish high school and they study really far away. I’m so jealous of that!

Masters program: Generally in Europe we get our Masters degree straight after our degree, and only then we start working. I guess since university is so expensive people need to find a job before going to college again.

“Hiring all majors”: That’s something I love from the US. One of my business professors got a Bachelors in Electronic Engineering and after a few years she started working for the World Bank. Then she got an MBA and now she’s lecturing at GWU. In Europe, it’s really hard to find a job out of what is considered your area of study.

Courses: When you study a Bachelors degree in Spain, all courses are fixed until the spring semester of senior year, and everybody is supposed to graduate at the end of their fourth year. This means that everybody has a fixed schedule, let's say Monday to Thursday from 9 am to 2 pm, and the same people you start the first day with is the people you are going to be with for the next four years. In the US it is completely different and for me it was really shocking when I had to create my own schedule and I realized that I saw my classmates just once or twice a week!

Majors and minors: They don’t exist in Spain, just “Bachelor in…” and to be honest I still don’t know how many credits are each or how they exactly work.

Internships: In Spain, an internship is a compulsory course in every degree. Every Bachelor program has agreements with different companies or public organisms that take interns during the spring semester of senior year. Internships are unpaid in almost every case. During the rest of our degree, we don’t intern. I never questioned myself why, because we had the chance but however nobody does it. I loved the idea, and that’s why I’m interning now in DC!

Police presence: This one is what shocked me the most. While GW has its own university, the Police in Spain needs the written permission of a judge to even enter the campus! There’s no way you can spot a policeman in a university campus. This law exists to protect freedom of speech, discourse and the right of reunion of students and professors since Spain was a dictatorship during 40 years and university students and professors suffered constant censorship and persecution.

Cafeterias and beers: In Spanish universities every building has its own cafeteria. These places are so cheap because they are supposed to be student-friendly and they offer lots of different food. Since the legal drinking age there is 18, usually before, after or in gaps between classes students go grab some beers and play cards or just chill in the open areas of the campus. Yeah, you can buy beers in a university cafeteria at 9 AM and everyone is okay with it. Now I see how weird it is.

Anyways, even though there are some things that I miss from my home institution and the university environment in Europe, I feel like college in the US is way more enriching and a more holistic experience. If I had to choose a system I would definitely prefer to study in the US for the remaining time until I graduate!

A new beginning.

AdminAugust 28, 2017

By evavilloslada

Hi everyone, this is my first post on this blog and I'm glad I can share this new journey with all of you.

Well, I'm going to start introducing myself so you can understand me better. My name is Eva , I'm 19 years old and I'm from a little town in Spain, but I've been studying law and politics for two years in Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.One of my hobbies is traveling, so I take every chance I get for doing so.

Although I want to visit every place I can, Unites States have always had a special place in my heart. I've always dreamed of studying in the Unites States, maybe the fact that most of the stories of the books I've read and the films I've watched unfold on the United States has something to do with it. My dream became real when my older sister's friend studied a year in Boston and told me everything about her experience, and how to achieve that. Therefore one of the first things I plan on doing is visiting every place I can before returning to Spain, and America is much bigger than Spain so I can't imagine how many places I need to visit.

As I've said I study politics so when the opportunity came I thought, what a better place to study politics than in Washington D.C.? When I found out that I had been chosen I even cried with joy. But I think I didn't believe it until a few days left before I arrived.

I've never been in the US before, so my expectations are pretty big. What I want the most is meeting new people and making friends from different countries, also learning to speak a perfect and fluid English. When I think about this year I think about all the things I'm going to learn starting with a new culture, visiting new places and learning everything I can about how politics work here. This is not the first time I experience the university life in its fullest because when I moved to Madrid two years ago it was also a pretty big change for me, though I do think this time the change will be way bigger. I will be living in 1959 E Street Residence Hall so I hope it helps me to meet more people than I would living on my own.

I'm also eager to go through the orientation week, this kind of things don't exist in Madrid that it's not a good thing because when you arrive to a new place the thing you need the most are friends so you don't feel alone.

I've been reading this blog for a while now so I could learn everything about what other students were living. This is the main reason why I really wanted to write on this blog so other students could know what means living in Washington DC, also because this way the people I know from Spain will be able to read everything I experience and maybe next year they decide to start their own journey in the United States.

I hope that telling here this journey helps you in any way posible, and that you tell me your experiences too so I learn more things and benefit from this experience as much as I can. See you soon!!