Erasmus in Spain – good tapas, tradition and spanish language

Law student Maria from Romania loved languages, culture and law. Speaking languages and studying law brought her to Spain to get new experiences, enjoy life, meet new people and learn many new things.

Present yourself.

Hi. My name is Maria Sabina Bucovineanu. I am from Romania and I am a law student. I study in Ciudad Real (Spain) for a semester. I am 21. I want to say that I love Spain and the Erasmus programme.

How is studying at university there and how it helped you?

What I found most interesting is that here they do not have that many auxiliary sciences just law, sociology, philosophy or psychology. They do not study this that much here which allows students to get into normal law but also the bad side of it is that you do not get that much information inside of the law, I think. It helped me a lot, especially at a personal level because I was not very confident before coming here. I think that has improved a lot.

Do you think that Spanish people are more open-minded than people in Romania?

They are welcoming, they are warm and they helped me in the grade here a lot. I do not know if it is because I am a foreigner and they want to make a good impression but they were very nice

What about your classmates?

It is funny because I met Romanian students but they are not Erasmus students, they live here in Ciudad Real, they decided to studied law here. It was interesting to me.

I know that there are many people from Romania in Ciudad Real. Do you meet with them?

Yes, I know. There are also two Romanian communities, Romanian church.

Why did you decide to study abroad and why Spain and Ciudad Real?

Because I needed a change and it was the best thing to do. My mum was like “just wait for another year, please” but I wanted to do it now. Actually, next year I hope to get an Erasmus scholarship to France. I hope I can manage it. I can do only one semester because I already did one semester in Spain so I can do in a total of 12 months. And why Spain, because I love the Spanish language. I was passionate about it. So I wanted to do this direct experience with the language. Ciudad Real chose me more than I chose Ciudad Real.

How many languages do you speak?

Not that many, I would like to speak more. So, Romanian, English, a bit of French, Spanish, Italian and trying to learn a bit of greek and Portuguese. I studied Latin so it has helped me a lot but you have to be interested in the languages as well.

Are there any differences between Spain and Romania?

They take advantage of the space which was very shocking for me because in Romania streets are very large and here it is so narrow. Also what I like is accessibility in public institutions for wheelchair users because I am one of them and in Romania, it is not that adapted. I would welcome it in Romania, even in the hospital, I can enter in very easily here. In Romania, the ramps are built just for being built not for being used. Spanish people are different in some manners. I think we are more sceptical. It is because we have colder weather so it makes us not that open-minded and welcoming too. Then, the facts that everybody is late, in Romania neither we are punctual but we do not get so late that surprised me. But it seems it is a very important part of Spanish culture. And there is another thing and it is siesta. Honestly, when I was a kid I did not like it during the day but now a nap is not a that bad thing. Shops are closed for a couple of hours what is a bit disturbing.

Imagine you have a meeting with a Spanish friend, do you really mind if you wait some time for your friend?

it depends. I used to get when somebody says let’s meet at nine and it can be at 10 or even at 11. On the beginning, I was a bit upset about it.

When you imagine just one thing about Spain which stays in your mind, what is it?

I like here in Ciudad Real Don Quijote image. There is even the museum of Don Quijote here. Visiting the museum determined me to read the book about Don Quijote because I have not read it. Now I know more things about it.

Did you visit any other places in Spain?

Yes, I did. It was Barcelona, Malaga, Toledo, Cuenca. Barcelona was definitely the best one. I stayed there for only two days. I also enjoyed Malaga because I love Arabic heritage there. I like how Spanish people appreciate their culture.

What did you get here, I mean experiences, love story, satisfaction …?

I learned here to be bolder and give up a prejudice Because we all have prejudices but this experience helps up to give them up. I lived a lot of things here in a very short time what gave me even more experiences than living in Romania. It was surprising for me to see the Romanian image outside of Romania.