Exchange Report: IE Business School, Madrid, Spain

Transcription

1 Exchange Report: IE Business School, Madrid, Spain Henry Chan (Facebook Name) Year 3 (ACCT & IS)

2 Part 1 Monthly Activity Log January 2015 The school started on 12 January and I arrived Madrid on the day before. Since I have contacted my host family, the mom picked me up at the bus stop near their home. I got sick in the following week because of jet lag. It is advisable to arrive the place earlier because you need some time to get adapted. There was a compulsory orientation session on the first school day, which gave you some basic information about the school. One of the highlight of the orientation events was the Tapas night, in which you will have opportunity to meet other exchange students. You can try some Spanish Tapas and drinks as well! In January, I still haven t started planning my travel. That s why I spend most of my time in Madrid. Also, I joined a tour to Toledo organized by the exchange student society. (You can also go yourself if you want to stay longer because they didn t really walk around.) Since my host family decided to move back to US in February, I also spent quite a lot of time in searching the apartment. Luckily, I got one from the housing agent with reasonable price and it s located near school (2-mins walk). February 2015 Everything got settled in my new apartment! I could start planning my travel. In February. I think it s a good idea to go to some other cities in Spain first. I joined a trip organized by Citylife Madrid to Cadiz, where the craziest carnival took place. In the trip, I made many friends from different places and we still kept in touch after the trip! I think Citylife Madrid is a good place to make friend and I highly recommend all of you to join their activities! Apart from that, some exchange students and I organized a potluck party to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Each of us made some traditional food from our countries and shared. It was a memorable experience. Spain s craziest carnival in Cadiz Potluck Party for Chinese New Year

3 March 2015 Starting from March, I started travelling every weekends. I visited Valencia (I joined the opening ceremony of Las Fallas; Do try the paella!), some nearby cities (Segovia, Avila and Salamanca), southern part of Spain like Cordoba, Granada and Malaga. They were all very beautiful and I met some friends in every places. I enjoyed travelling alone very much Granada is one of my favorite places in Spain! because you can do whatever you want and more importantly, you will meet many great people (from Hostel, Free tour etc.) Also, it was a very good opportunity for me to practice my Spanish because I had to communicate with the locals. Easter break was the longest holiday that we had in IE, so you may want to plan earlier (book everything earlier, otherwise it will be very expensive). During the Easter break, I travelled to Italy (don t miss the Gelato!), Germany and Eastern Europe for around 2 weeks. I did this trip with some other HKUST exchange students from different countries. One piece of advice for long trip is that you shouldn t bring too much stuff! Salamanca trip with friends from Romania and Poland April 2015 I returned to Madrid on 7/4 and one of my Hong Kong friends who exchanged in UK came visit me. We headed to Morocco for 5 days. It was completely different from Europe! I would say it was one of the best trips in my exchange period. We went to Sahara Desert (you can see moving stars every night) and two cities in Morocco (Marrakesh and Tangier). For girls, you may consider to join the trips organized by Citylife Madrid (it will be more safe but they just go to Tangier). The week after, I went to Portugal myself (visited Lisbon, Sintra and

4 Porto). The food was so nice! I think most of the cities in Europe are walkable. I used to walk within the city thought it takes more time from one tourist spots to another. After Portugal trip, I started to prepare for my final exams and presentation. The exams also mark the end of the semester in IE. I also took the final week to farewell with different friends and schoolmates. Torre de Belem, Lisbon Camel ride in Sahara Desert May 2015 In May, it was all about travelling. I joined with some exchange students to Barcelona. I also visited Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, France and UK. Since I wasn t in Madrid for the entire May, I decided to leave my apartment earlier so that I didn t need to pay the rent of May. I stored my luggage in my friend s place. Time flies, I really can t imagine my exchange journey was coming to an end.

5 Part 2 General Exchange Information 1. Visa Application You need to submit the visa application at Spain consulate in Wan Chai. The type of visa you need to apply should be short-term student Visa (it allows you to say in Spain for at least 6 months). Please make sure that you bring all the necessary documents (more than 10 items). The application takes around 3 weeks so do spare enough time for this! For more details, you may visit their website: 2. Orientation Events It is compulsory for every exchange student to attend the orientation, which is usually held in the first school day. There are also some other orientation events like Tapas night etc. If you really want to meet more people, you may approach exchange student society to enquire the upcoming events. 3. International Service and Activities There is an exchange student society to serve the international students. They did organize various events for international students such as conferences and debate competition. 4. Accommodation IE Madrid campus does not provide any dormitory. However, they have some partnerships with local housing agency, which can help you to find a place. I didn t choose the partnered agency as they didn t offer many good choices. Instead, I find an agency called Apartyment. However, if you choose to find agency outside, you need to bear your own risk that the deposits may not be refunded. (I heard some people cannot get back their deposits, depends on landlord; and it usually costs more than the deposit for you to sue the landlord.) It would be safer if you choose the housing agency partnered with school. There is also a Facebook page which is called IE Rental, which helps students to find apartment. It is a good idea to find an apartment that is shared by other students with similar age. Also, it s much easier to hang out with others if you can find a place near school!

6 5. Course Registration Every year, they offer different courses. That s why you really don t know what you are going to study until you actually register. However, they will send you a course list to give you a brief idea of what courses are usually offered in that semester. It is a good practice to send to them to ask for clarification if that course may affect your study path. (Be patient since Spanish people are not very efficient). 6. Teaching and Assessment Method It is actually quite similar to HKUST. If you can survive in HKUST, then I am sure that you can easily get adapted in IE. However, they encourage students to participate more in the class and don t be surprised to see many discussion in class. There are also some courses with projects. You may not want to team up with exchange students as you will find that they are always gone for traveling (difficult to meet). 7. Sports and Recreation Facilities The campus of IE is very small and you won t find and sports and recreation facilities in campus. However, there are two gym rooms which are both quite near school. You have to apply the membership and pay it on your own. There are many IE sports team such as soccer team. They usually have regular practice outside campus and you need to arrange own transportation to attend. 8. Cost and Expenses Living expense in Madrid is not really very high. It costs me around 20K. I usually cook at home and sometimes go out for dinner (twice a week). The apartment has provided you with all necessary things that you need so you don t need to buy any extra stuff. 9. Social Club and Networking opportunities There are always many opportunities for you to network with other students. It really depends on whether you are proactive or not. There is a webpage called IE student life that basically lists out the schedule of the upcoming activities. You can apply through the webpage. Also, there is an organization called Citylfe Madrid. They organized different activities every weeks, for example, dancing night, tapas/wine tasting night, language exchange etc. It doesn t cost a lot since they target for students. You can meet so many students there!

7 10. Health and Safety If you are sick, it is quite inconvenient for you to find a doctor. I felt sick in the first week and I just took some medicine that I brought from Hong Kong. You can also easily find many pharmaceutical shops. For safety, I would say Madrid is not as dangerous as what other said on the internet. You just need to take care of your personal belongings. In these 4 months, I haven t experienced any pickpocketing or robbing. 11. Food There are many good restaurants in Madrid (you may search on TripAdvisor), but they are generally quite expensive. For breakfast, I usually eat cereal and make coffee myself. I will make some very simple food like tortilla, pizza, bread for lunch. For dinner, I will cook spaghetti or rice with some vegetable and meats from supermarket. This really helped me save a lot of money. 12. Transportations If you are living near school, you can just buy a 10 trips metro for daily use (12.5 euros), which is very enough. However, if you live far away, you may want to consider a 30-day travel pass that allows you to take unlimited rides of metro and buses within Zone A. It costs around 30 euros something. In Madrid, I think the most convenient transportation is metro. It can basically bring you to everywhere so make sure that you are familiar with the metro map. 13. Climate In January and February, the weather is very cold in Madrid (around 0-10c, not very cold when compared to other countries). It will be getting warmer in March and April. The temperature between day and night can be very extreme. Winters in Madrid are cold compared to other parts of Spain while summers in Madrid can get very hot. One good thing is that you will always have sunshine in Spain! 14. Communication More than 80% of people in Spain don t speak good English so it is good for you to learn some basic Spanish (e.g. numbers, how much, thank you). I took a basic Spanish course in school and the teacher was very good! Even if you learn the basic, you will still find it very

8 difficult to communicate with locals. Some Google translate and body language will definitely help facilitate the communication. As long as you are willing to speak, Spanish people are always very friendly to you. 15. Cautionary measures Be careful when you are taking Metro since there are many pickpockets. They like targeting Chinese and foreigners. I was lucky that I didn t lose anything for the entire exchange. As long as you pay attention to your belongings and always keep some distance from strangers, they are difficult to steal your stuff.

9 Part 3 Items to bring and contacts - Most important: Passport, Visa, cash, credit card - Adaptors and chargers - Medicine - Sunglasses - Clothes - Shoes - Laptop - Underwear - Spare battery - Hair dryer - Business suit - Bags & small bags - Towels