Internships in Spain

My name is Madlen Ivanova and I am currently undergoing a study placement in Barcelona. I arrived here in September with my family.

Barcelona is a friendly and warm city, full of tourists and people who are ready to help you. This made my first week more relaxed and I started exploring the beautiful sides of the second biggest city in Spain. Together with my family I visited some of the most popular and world-known places which brought many positive emotions to my experience.

During the first three months of my year abroad I was undergoing a study placement at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. However, I decided to stop studying and to find an internship. In January 2015 I started my work placement. I was really excited as I wanted to have some practical experience.

I had been searching for an internship but I was not able to find one or I had sent many applications but nobody contacted me. When I found spain-intenrhsip website I made an appointment and after a few days I made the interview on skype. It made everything a lot easier and faster. Not more than a week later I received an  email  where I was asked when I am available for an  interview for the company where I am doing the internship at the  moment. Everything happened for one or two weeks. I did the interview and on the next day a received a positive email that I have been selected. After that I continued communicating with Spain internship for a week or two in order to exchange documents and information when I am able to start. Everything was really fast.

I actually did not expect that everything will happen so easy and fast and I was surprised and at the same time I am really happy that I have contacted spain-internship. I would recommend it to every student that needs help with accommodation or work!

Now I am going to share little about my experience in Barcelona. Barcelona is exactly what I expected. I like the food, the people, the weather, everything here. Some institutions are not as organised as I expected them to be but I knew this before coming here. I found the accommodation online. It is a bit expensive as I managed to find an apartment in Barceloneta only.  Finding accommodation was not that hard though all of them were really expensive. I tried to find an apartment close to the beach and to the university at the same time. All the accommodations that the university offered were more expensive than the ones in the city centre and on the beach and were for 5-6 persons. However, I managed to find the perfect apartment for my sister and I and I do not have any problems with it. If I need anything the landlord is always ready to help and is also really kind.

Spanish people are really outgoing and communicative and it is easy to make new friends. At UPF I have many group presentations, almost every week, so I meet many new people and all of them are friendly and open to me.
I am also getting to know the culture and the celebrations of the Spanish people. Almost every week there is a different kind of celebration around the streets of Barcelona. It is really noisy but this is their kind of traditions and I am enjoying all of them. When I came there was three-day celebration for the opening of the Mercé Festival and there were fireworks for half an hour every evening and all the city was gathering next to the sea side to watch them. They were really beautiful and inspiring. I really did not want to be anywhere else at that moment. It can be also very inspiring as there are more people training here next to the seaside than the ones who are going only for a walk. Also there are many facilities which make it easier to practice and to improve over time. I am a sportsperson so I value this.

Fortunately, everything is going well with the job at the moment and I am getting closer with the people from the team. I am happy that I have the chance to communicate a lot with the staff in Spanish. They are really nice and helpful.
I am sharing also a few photos of my experience in Barcelona!