Ramona Henrichs at Universitat Jaume I in Castellon, Spain

Castellon is a rather small city near Valencia. Our partner university "Universitat Jaume I" is a little bigger than our university here in Germany, but as it was built in 1991, it also is quite new. Most professors are young and attach importance to small learning groups and practical parts in their lectures. The only big problem for me was to follow the lectures in "Valenciano", this is a rather strong dialect of the official Spanish language "Castellano". Because of that, I had to change my original learning agreement and I exchanged all my chosen lectures in "Valenciano" into those in "Castellano" (you don't know before, which language the professors choose). For all further information concerning the university (such as language course or offered lectures), take a look at www.uji.es

Of course, there is a life along with studying at the university. :=) I think, the biggest advantage is the perfect weather. (There is also rain in Spain, but compared to Germany it's nothing!) I took my mountain bike and my racing bike with me and right at the beginning of my stay in Castellon, I got to know some very kind cyclists. Together with them, I went to bike races almost every weekend and we trained together, too. That's why I had the opportunity to see very much of the Spanish countryside, to get to know areas, which are not typically tourist attractions. As those spanisch cyclists neither talked English nor any other foreign language, I was forced to talk Spanish all the time we were together, which helped me to learn it very fast. Last but not least you have got other possibilities than sports to get in contact with Spanish people. The Spanish are very "open" and friendly, you have got a choice of several "fiestas" every weekend. Not to forget the beautiful beach. :=)