Bienvenido a Alcala

Two weeks in Spain and I think the best way to describe them is like a rollercoaster – but definitely with more ups than downs.

Although admittedly not getting off to the best of starts – the taxi driver had difficulty finding my residence halls from the airport which consequently forced me to shell out €50 within the first half an hour of my being in the country – all I can say is bring on the Erasmus grant – it has steadily got better and better.

The city I am staying in for the duration of the year is called Alcala de Henares, and it is beautiful, full of Arabic and medieval buildings on which white storks choose to nest. On entering Alcala from Madrid, visitors are treated to a glimpse of the castle walls which enclose part of the city, and the weddings that seem to take place every Saturday in the centre’s stunning squares and winding cobbled streets only add to its fairytale charm.

Having found my way around with relative ease (surprising as I still get lost in Leeds city centre every so often, despite having lived there for two years), set up a current account (in very broken Spanish), got hold of a Spanish mobile and explored the university buildings, I am very much settled in. Finding a flat in the city centre with three other girls from Leeds has also helped, and despite its various flaws, namely the power cuts that occur if the washing machine and oven are on at the same time (God forbid – and an interesting experience if you happen to be in the shower at the time), the washing machine that leaves all of our clothes soaking wet even once the spin cycle is complete, and the curious decor of the rooms (my bedcovers, curtains and tablecloth were all in matching blue-and-white-picnic-basket-style), we absolutely love it. As soon as I had decorated my room, which involved removing a particularly horrendous clown painting from the wall and locking it in the storage closet with great haste, finding homes for everything I had crammed into my suitcases, replacing the picnic basket decor with some colourful scarves I found in a cheap store next-door and pinning a few bits and bobs up on the walls, I felt right at home.

The nightlife is, quite simply, immense. I realise I should give more (or any, even) words to the culture of the country in my first article, but honestly, as a student I feel I would be a failure not to give priority in my writing to such amazing nights out. The going out process generally follows the same pattern each time: we buy wine for €1.69, pre-drink, leave wherever we are pre-drinking at half-past midnight, party until six in the morning, stagger back home and then get up at three in the afternoon. This style of living I could easily get used to. Another happy aspect of the nights out here is the liberal attitude of the bar staff towards alcohol. Having worked in the Old Bar in LUU before flying out to Alcala, I am used to measuring out spirits and wine in a strict manner, so I was surprised, and may I add, delighted, when on my first trip to a Spanish bar, the sight I beheld was that of staff pouring spirits down the throats of various partygoers and people dancing on the bar itself. I later ordered a vodka and coke and was presented with a glass half full of vodka and a bottle of coke for me to pour in myself. After pouring in what I could fit, the barman then proceeded to pour even more vodka into the leftover coke in the bottle. Great! It goes without saying I had an awesome night and a not so awesome hangover the next day, which I survived with the help of my also-hungover flatmates, ‘Mean Girls’ – or Malas Chicas in Spanish – and good old Dominoes pizza.

It truly feels like I’ve been here for weeks, months even. It doesn’t even feel that different from being at university in Leeds – there are some weird coincidences too – living on the third floor, being three minutes away from a takeaway pizza store and living in a building mapped onto a flight path are the main things that stand out as being the same here as they were in Leeds last year. It just goes to show that despite being hundreds of miles away from home, things really aren’t all that different. Added to which, it is becoming clearer by the year that it is my destiny to eat pizza and do little or no work due to the noise from the planes. Basically, it’s going to be a great year.