Hopefully this is one of my only posts that doesn’t include a stunning photo of a beautiful city I’ve visited. I always wanted to blog about my experience abroad, and so I might as well get started now and talk about my experience thus far regarding the application process and how you really need to get organized before embarking on a year-long adventure like this one.
So I leave Montreal in 35 days, on August 21st. I’m kicking this trip off with some travelling right off the bat, as I’m going to be visiting Lisbon, Portugal, and Salamanca, Spain before finally making my way over to Madrid and settling into my apartment.
Little tip: when flying to Europe, fly through Portugal. Flying one-way to Lisbon is costing me half of what flying to Madrid one-way would cost.
I already know who my roommates will be: a girl from Germany and a guy from Slovenia (for the first semester) and I have already befriended one of them, so I am definitely looking forward to meeting them both. I am also happy about the apartment’s location and its super cheap price.
I have also set myself up for easy banking while I’m abroad. I have opened a bank account with a bank that has partnerships with banks all across Europe, meaning that there will be no foreign transaction fees when I take money out of those ATMs. Furthermore I have found and received a credit card that also charges no foreign transaction fee, whereas most credit cards charge 2.5% of each transaction.
I have taken care of insurance and I am insured for my trip.
I am ready to go.
But this process was not easy, in fact the entire application process, for me at least, began in about December. And my basic interest and research about exchange began even earlier, say in about October.
Back in December, I started researching, where did I want to go? I knew I wanted to go to Europe, and I originally wanted to go to two different locations within the same year, I was thinking Bologna, Italy, and Barcelona, though this hope of mine was short lived as someone from Concordia International told me that it was nearly impossible to do two exchanges in the same year and that I’d be better off going to one place.
At the time, I was thinking: Italy, Italy Italy! Especially since I’m from Italian background and I speak Italian. The only school offered in Italy was the Universita di Bologna, and as I later found out only three Concordia students get accepted there per year, and that the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid offers many spots to Concordia students.
Long story short, since I couldn’t go to Italy, I really wanted to go to Spain. I already speak Spanish and I would love to learn more about the Spanish culture.
This was only the beginning of the process: choosing a location. Being a journalism student, I then had to make sure that I could take several journalism courses there, and I had to submit a preliminary course selection form for three universities (a first, second and third choice) and I had to get them approved by the journalism department.
Once all this was done, I had to submit an application to Concordia and have them approve me for exchange, which happened. I then had to apply to the university in Spain and get accepted from them, which happened as well.
Stressful times, I guess, because I was worried I wouldn’t get accepted, but luckily I did, and here I am now ready to embark on this fantastic journey, in 35 days…
I must admit, the crazy anticipation for such a trip has caused me troubles at work, since I got a summer job and find myself less motivated to work hard, since I know it’s only for the summer, than I would otherwise, but whatever.
The important for this trip is that I obviously have enough money and I don’t run out. I think I’ve saved up enough and the Quebec government actually gives Quebec residents $1,000 per month to go on exchange, so that money will help a lot.
Some people go on exchange to travel, and others to party. Though I do want to party, I primarily want to travel and I think being in Spain will give me a fantastic opportunity to do a bit of everything!
35 days!
I’ll try to blog once more before leaving and then I will try to do so frequently when I’m away!
Studying Abroad in Madrid!! 