MY ERASMUS EXPERIENCE IN ITALY Paula Marsal
My name is Paula Marsal and I’m 22 years old. I don’t know how to start this writing, I have so many emotions and feelings. I don’t know how to express myself so I hope you can understand how I can feel.
At the end of September, I arrived in Bergamo with other 3 people that I didn’t know but from the very first moment, we welcomed each other very well. We were fortunate to find a very nice Italian flat owner who offered to help us in any way we needed. Even today we still call him because he lives next to us and takes care of us as if we were his Spanish children.
After a week we started school at Jobs Academy and from the first moment we were treated very well, we were invited for a meal with the school headmaster in a restaurant and they tried to make us feel comfortable at all times. About the classmates and teachers, I can’t say anything bad. Everyone knew that we were the only Spanish people and gave us a hand when we needed it. The school is a very nice old monastery in a village next to Bergamo, easy to reach by bus and very familiar. The inside is very nice, a bar to buy food and drinks and a space with tables, microwaves and sofas if you want to study, eat or be with your classmates. There we were able to meet more people (all Italians) who were studying different courses. They were all very nice and we made some plans together. The school was of great help to make more friends and practice your English.
Talking about the language I have been able to practice and learn more with the Erasmus online course. You also learn a lot during the classes because they are taught in English. All the students in our class have a very high level of English and this helped to improve our level. I also have to say that we have learned to understand a lot of Italian and to start speaking it a little bit. When we moved around the city, to the supermarket, in the clothes shops, many people don’t speak English very well but they can understand a little bit of Spanish. So, we learned how to communicate a little bit in Italian, and I have discovered that it is a very nice language that I would like to learn well in the future.
Here in Italy, I have been able to do many things and visit many cities. I feel that I’ve squeezed the most out of my experience. I don’t regret at all having chosen this course and whenever I talk to my friends, I always recommend it to everyone.
Finally, I would like to say that it has been a very beautiful and fulfilling experience. I took a lot of people from Italy with me, apart from my classmates. The school has allowed me to meet very special people and Bergamo has been a small but charming city that I have fallen in love with. I do not doubt that I will come back. Now I only think about going to the Netherlands and living a new experience like the ones I have lived here. I have very high expectations and I hope that Covid will let us enjoy our stay in this new country.
