Flying solo #1

FLYING SOLO THE SML YEAR ABROAD MULTILINGUAL MAGAZINE

No.1 Sept 2012

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FLYING SOLO

Editorial

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his is the first issue of FLYING SOLO, the Year Abroad Multilingual Magazine devoted to the student experience during the Year Abroad. We hope this will be the first of many issues. But, let me stress this from the beginning, we need your crucial collaboration.We are open to suggestions for an exciting and eye-catching title for the magazine.

Please send your suggestions to jorge.catalacarrasco@newcastle.ac.uk and once we have a few options, we will decide which one to choose. Without your participation this magazine means nothing.

With your participation this magazine can achieve everything. Because you are the ones who are going to shape it, write it, picture it, and make it an exciting and rewarding tool for the Year Abroad.

We begin a journey here that will take you to distant places in which each one of you will experience the cultural shock of living immersed in an alien culture.

The Year Abroad is a life changing experience which will help you to increase your resilience and independence whilst developing the ability to understand people from different cultures with the most important tool you will ever have: languages.

This magazine has the sole purpose of providing you with a forum to share your experiences and tell other students about what made your Year Abroad so unforgettable.

We have put a lot of effort into these first steps and I would like to thank colleagues at the School of Modern Languages for their help and support, and also the Faculty Futures Programme for providing the necessary funding for printing the issues you now hold in your hands. We hope this is an enjoyable and interesting read. I would especially like to thank each one of the contributors for this first issue. Thank you for your pictures, your articles, your interest and enthusiasm. And finally let me thank as well the fantastic assistant editor, María Consuelo López Vicente, who has been in charge of the graphic design.

I don’t want to delay your reading much longer. Hope you enjoy it and tell us if you would like to be part of the next issue!

Enjoy!

Jorge L. Catalá Carrasco

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FLYING SOLO

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Contributors Douglas Graham, BA Hons Modern Languages (French and Spanish) Poppy Gardner, BA Combined Honours (Spanish) Aisya Binti Mohd Hisham, BA Combined Honours (Spanish) Evelina Vercinskaja, BA Hons Chinese/Japanese & Cultural Studies Hannah Rea, BA Hons Modern Languages (French and Chinese) Michael Haynes, BA Hons Modern Languages (German and French) Flying Solo was produced with financial support from the Erasmus Programme

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FLYING SOLO

FROM THE CHURCH TO THE COIFFEUR...

A WHOLE WORD OF FRENCH I WASN'T PREPARED FOR

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’ll admit - before heading out on my year abroad I thought my French wasn’t too bad at all. I was getting decent marks, was able to talk about reasonably advanced stuff, including education systems in France, politics, the environment (oh the environment) among other equally down to earth topics... So arriving in France (although still bricking it), I didn’t think I’d have many problems per se in getting on with general life.

I my'lFl admit I bad arench wthough befo t all... asn't t t re I w That oo haird ent t was resse o the rs.

That was before I went to the hairdressers.

«Alors, qu’est-ce que vous voulez, monsieur?»

«Ah, mince»- je pense - dans mes cours de français j’ai appris comment parler de la politique, de la colocation, du tourisme, de la linguistique... mais est-ce que j’ai appris le mot pour «fringe» ou «spiky» ou la phrase «not too thick»?

Non tout simplement jamais, «Euh...» je dis «j’aime bien mon fringe (dans mon meilleur accent français - it kind of worked!) mais en ce moment c’est un peu épais (I think that’s the word!), et je les préfère un peu plus (insert wild hand gesture here)» «D’accord...» dit le coiffeur «alors un peu comme ça?» Il me montre l’image d’une coupe, franchement, terrible, mais quand même je dis «euh...oui» pour éviter la difficulté d’expliquer exactement ce que je veux. And alas, I exit the hairdressers looking more like Justin Bieber than I had ever hoped.

One final incident I’ll mention also occurred in the church. After three whole hours of what can only be described as an energetic Sunday morning service, it was quite hard to keep up with the African lady passionately speaking at 200mph at the front.

The girl sat next to me must have seen my glazed-over expression. «Tu nages?» she asks, a smirk on her face.

Pendant ton année à l’étranger, tu auras sans doute des moments où tu nages un peu aussi, où il y a un malentendu, où tu te sens plutôt bête... mais ces moments-là sont ceux auxquels tu peux repenser en riant. C’est ça le plaisir d’apprendre une nouvelle langue!

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«Euh... maintenant??» I reply stupidly, trying to decide if dates in France often took place in swimming pools, or if she was just making friendly chit chat concerning my aquatic abilities.

«Bah, j’aime bien nager, mais j’ai pas apporté mon maillot de bain aujourd’hui... je savais pas...».

She begins to stifle the giggles from within that my answer apparently produced. Hey what do you know, I’m funny, even in French!

Mais non, it turns out that if you ‘nages’, you’re completely lost and not really following what’s going on.

Looks like I dived into the swimming pool twice that day.

I just hope you swim less than I did!

DOUG GRAHAM 7 months in France

FLYING SOLO

GUIRIS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN

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lthough it’s now hard to believe, when I first arrived in Barcelona in August, I had never heard the word ‘Guiri’ before, and when I did first come across it a few months later, I definitely didn’t know what it meant. So what does it mean? What actually is a ‘Guiri’? Well, strictly speaking, I’m a guiri. And, quite likely, so are you. Allow me to explain.

One particular event, which has remained a favourite anecdote of my English friend and I,happened when we were sitting on Barceloneta beach. Although we were doing nothing outlandish, nothing to mark us out as ‘guiris’, just sitting tranquilamente on the sand, she reading the Catalan paper La Vanguardia and me reading the Saturday supplement of El País, an especially charming Catalan sauntered over with his equally unpleasant friend and sneered at us. ‘Ah, look, look what we have here eh’ (he said, in Spanish) ‘Dos Guiris!!’ At this, he and his amigo collapsed into laughter, and pointed at my friend, who is naturally pale with blue eyes and reddish hair, and continued ‘Hey, you know you should put some cream on. You’re going to burn.’(Still in Spanish.) Then, for no-one in particular, seeing as we had all understood, he felt the need to translate his insult, complete with gesture. ‘CREEEEEAAAM’ He said emphatically, nodding at her as if she was a moron while miming rubbing sunscreen into his arm.

On the plus side, the whole concept of being a guiri is one which I find quite amusing, and it definitely created a kind of ‘guiri solidarity’amongst our friends, say, when we went out for an evening. Plus, the word itself is lendable to a selection of fairly effective puns which we found endless amusement in drumming up, such as ‘Guiri’s on Tour/Guiri, you’ll be a woman soon/Want you to make me feel like I’m the only guiri in the world/Sunday guiri/Who’s that guiri/Who run the world? Guiris’ etc.

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The thing is, I can understand why the locals aren’t especially affectionate towards tourists. I don’t like tourists either. You know what they’re like, always faffing about with maps on street corners and stopping in the middle of the road to take a snap of a road sign, then getting drunk on Sangria in the middle of the day and being sick outside McDonalds on the Rambla at half ten, but just because you might occasionally catch me speaking English, doesn’t mean I’m one of them.

I hate them too, I want to cry. But I also just want to say the following: Hey, don’t judge me, I live here too.

I feel your pain. I study here. I have a social security number. I have a bank account. I speak your language.

Being English doesn’t make a bad person, even though you might think it does. And you know what? Maybe you guys should just cut us a bit of slack and treat us like everyone else, because at the end of the day, we’re people too, and guiri’s just wanna have fun.

POPPY GARDNER 9 months in Spain

e it However, at the saremmeaitim d was hilarious, and ween ne us an ongoing joke be for quite a while.

FLYING SOLO

GUÍA PARA AMAR ZARAGOZA

La ciudad es bastante grande, por lo que hay muchas diversiones culturales, desde exposiciones a

festivales, pero no es tan grande como para sentirse inundado por la vida urbana y los miles de turistas. Si te quedas durante todo el año, puedes aprovechar más la ciudad. Las cosas que nunca pensé hacer durante los primeros cinco meses, las hice en los meses siguientes: Viaje en el día.

La región de Aragón tiene muchísimos sitios interesantes como los recorridos por Alquezar o el pueblo abandonado famoso de Belchite; si empiezas temprano, un día es suficiente.

Para una estancia más larga pero sin los rollos de un viaje demasiado largo, vale la pena irse al popular destino de San Sebastián o Pamplona.

Ve fuera del Casco. El Casco es conocido por sus calles de bares y clubes. Una noche normal suele consistir en una breve visita al Bar La Mina (100 chupitos y cada uno vale un euro) antes de juntarse con otros estudiantes Erasmus en La Cucaracha (donde tienes que probar el tubo de chupito, ‘El Machacao’, al menos una vez), en la Martinica o el Manolo. El Casco también es un paraíso de música comercial lo cual, depende de tu gusto, puede ser un gran premio o el infierno. Después de cinco meses de constante exposición a la canción, ‘Ai Se Eu Te Pego’, no puedo adivinar el alcance del daño en mi cerebro.

Por ello, empezamos a frecuentar el Pub El-Zorro que es excelente por sus jam-sessions todos los jueves.

Además, es el sitio donde bandas locales siempre tocan y sirve como un buen punto de encuentro para saber de otros eventos y gigs. Para noches más tranquilas, visitábamos uno de los varios bares situados alrededor del campus, sobre todo Louisiana Café o Lochness. Si no, preferíamos las discotecas como El Brit o Boulevard. El primero sobre todo es muy generoso con su máquina de Jaggermeister.

La Siesta. Me llevó un tiempo acostumbrarme a las siestas españolas. Sólo cuando el tiempo mejoró, empecé a disfrutar la siesta como siempre había imaginado: bajo el sol con un cigarrillo, una margarita fría y quizás un chico parecido a Fábregas cerca de mí. Mientras sigo esperando lo último, la siesta la paso tomando el sol en el Parque Grande, o disfrutando de cervezas a un euro y comidas baratas cerca del campus. Después de clase, íbamos a una calle cercana a la Universidad y nos relajábamos en La Terraza o en Desafinado, bares pequeños con música buena y menos gente – el perfecto antídoto.

Ahora que se acerca julio, me cuesta aceptar pero empiezo a hacerme a la idea de lo que será el fin de un fantástico affaire, aunque breve, con Zaragoza.

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e Siemprútil es una r e n e t man erta y i b a e t men ontáneo. ser esp ucho las m Mejora cosas.

Quick Tips • Take advantage of the autumn weather to travel or simply spend the day out • Be prepared for the viciously cold northwest wind, Cierzo. It’s the kind of cold wind that pricks your skin and makes you involuntary tear.

• Enrol in the Spanish Intensive Course. Stretching 3 hours a day over 15 days, the course might appear daunting (and expensive) but it is extremely helpful and first-time students are entitled to a discount.

• Do not feel rushed to find a flat; there are many around town going at reasonable prices.

Most flats do not come with a fixed rent-agreement which gives you greater flexibility.

• Santander and Ibercaja both have a n on-campus branch that allows you to easily open a student account.

• The university has a trial week of during which you are allowed to sample lectures before matriculating. Visit fyl.unizar.es to see what modules are offered.

• Add ESN/AEGEE Zaragoza on Facebook. They are extremely helpful - from accommodations to trips you name it they probably have the solution for it.

FLYING SOLO

THE ROUGH GUIDE TO LOVING ZARAGOZA

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he first five months consisted of days and days of fiestas, making many friends, recycling conversations, travelling and going to classes. However, these were also transitional months during which we had to get used to the university, the language and lifestyle. The process was as tiring as it was exciting and Zaragozadid not make iteasier. The people are friendly and the city is fairly safe but it’s no Madrid or Barcelona. As a comparatively laid-back town,you might find yourself getting bored of the city after some time. Even locals respond with mild surprise when we tell them otherwise. I think that’s partly the beauty of Zaragoza. The city is big enough to house plenty of cultural distractions, from exhibitions, plays to events, but not too big such that you feel drowned by the city life and endless throngs of tourists.

Leave or stay, the perks are equally great.

Staying for the entire semester means you get to make the most out of the city. Things that I had never imagined of doing during the first semester, I did them in the following months:

Day trips. Daytrips shouldn’t be underrated for all the obvious reasons: it’s less time-consuming and requires a smaller budget. In my case, it didn’t take much convincing. The areas bordering Zaragoza are dotted with many interesting cities and sites like the nature trails in Alquezar or the famous ghost town, Belchite; and if you start early, a day is all you need.

Slightly further out, but worth every effort, are the popular destinations of San Sebastian and Pamplona.

Explore beyond Casco. The old town is too wellknown for its rows of bars and clubs. A standard night would usually consist of a quick visit to Bar La Mina (100 different chupitos at a euro each) before congregating with other Erasmus students in La Cucharacha (where you have to try the drink, ‘El Machacao’, at least once), Martinica or Manolo. Casco is also a haven for commercial music which, depending on your taste, can be a jackpot or absolute hell. After 5 months of constant exposure to the Portuguese hit-song ‘Ai SeEuTePego’, I can only guess the extent of my cerebral damage.

Now with July fast approaching, I find myself hopelessly struggling to come to terms with what will essentially be the end of a phenomenal, albeit brief affair with the city.

A change of scene was desperately called for so we began frequenting Pub El-Zorro instead which is superb for its Thursday jam-sessions. It’s also home to several local bands and serves as a good point of reference to keep up-to-date with latest events and gigs. For quieter nights, we would head down either to Louisiana Café or Lochness just by the campus.

Otherwise,clubs like El Brit or Boulevard would be the better choice and the former is especially generous with their Jaggermeister dispenser.

Siesta. It took a while to get accustomed to Spanish siestas.The city quietens down for three hours during the day so those hours were spent idling about in the flat until evening when lectures would resume.

Only when the weather got better did siesta, as I’ve always imagined it (sun, cigarettes, chilled margarita and possibly a Fabregas look-a-like lounging nearby), actually become a Siesta. Whilst still hoping and waiting for the latter two to happen, siesta rotated between sunbathing in ‘El Parque Grande’ or enjoying 1-euro beers and cheap meals by the campus. Afterlectures hours would carry us further down the street to La Terraza or Desafinado, small ambient bars with good music and a smaller crowd – the perfect antidote.

However, or wherever, you choose to spend your time, it always helps to keep an open mind and to be spontaneous. They do make all the difference.

AISYA BINTI MOHD HISHAM 9 months in Spain

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FLYING SOLO

WRAPPED IN CHINA’S BLANKET

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nteresting thing is this picture you paint in your imagination of places you have never been to. Just like the one I made about England and its gentlemen wearing Victorian suits and top-hats. And we all know this is not how England looks like. Well, the image I had of China before I went there on my year abroad was that of foggy mountains, dragons, green tea, red color and nice, traditional people. Only when my small, Sichuan airlines plane landed in the capital of Sichuan, the city of Chengdu, I realized that yet again, my imagination is a rather surrealistic painter.

First experiences, first words and first lessons The campus was beautiful. As soon as you walk out of the dormitory, it all just wraps around you like some kind of a warm blanket, this lack of wind, strong fragrance of osmanthus, thundering sound of the cicada's orchestra that lingers even during the night and seems to be an inseparable part of the whole atmosphere, and this relaxed way of life that you see everywhere.

There are elderly people, playing Majiang under the shades of palm trees, kids flying kites, couples sitting by the lotus pond and workers, who sort the rubbish, swipe the streets and ring the bells of rickshaws.

The nuance that I particularly like about studying the language is communicating having a limited resource of words. Then, all parts of your body come to life trying to show the person you are speaking to what you mean, and what I meant, gesticulating and imitating a flying mosquito biting my hand in a local shop, was that I needed a powerful device to repel those flying nightmares in my room. And believe me, Chinese mosquitoes are the fastest, smartest and quietest mosquitoes I have ever experienced. And so, 蚊子(Wenzi- mosquito) was the first word I learned in China. At other times, when gestures did not evoke pictures in people’s imagination, drawing helped.

If you are like me, and think that making a list of

I remember dreamy m ountains covered in milky fog, green tea, nice,traditional p eople,red lanterns in the cities, and warm smell of osmanthus. products and food will help when going for dinner, you are wrong, because all the dishes in China have really imaginative names, like “four season beans”, “fish-fragrant eggplant” or “tiger skin” (which actually is a very tasty green pepper). Before I learned all the dish names, Chinese menu looked like some programming language to me. Moreover, imagine how difficult food ordering is, when out of three of us, Newcastle students, Victoria doesn’t eat fish, I don’t eat meat, and Andy eats neither fish nor meat!

At the beginning we used to point at something in the menu and ask what that was, and once, after spending 10 minutes trying to understand the staff (all of them including the boss) and me asking them to draw the main product, followed by them arguing over their painting skills, one of them brought us a corn cob.

Search for traditional China through untraditional methods When we said we wanted to hitchhike in China during our month of Spring Festival holiday, we were called mad.

Yet, me and my friend Veronika packed our backpacks, put on winter hats, took a taxi early morning to the edge of the city, where the highway started, and raised our thumbs up. Destination: Chengdu- Chongqing- GuiyangKunming- Dali- Chengdu- A little circle covering four provinces to the East and South of Sichuan.Hitchhiking is not as difficult in China as many would think. Even though people might not know what it exactly is, they do stop, and if you explain that you don’t have money and you need a ride to a particular place, they would gladly help. Some of them were excited to take part in something they only saw on TV, some treated us to lunch, and policemen took us on their way to work to another city or even hitchhiked tourist buses for us. We visited Chongqing, then took a train to Kunming, Yunnan province. If you ever travel by train, consider taking the cheapest, yet, the most fun, third level bed- not the most comfortable place on earth, but you won't experience something like that anywhere else. Outside the window, in front of our eyes lay countless green humps of mountains all cocooned with neat rice paddies and occasional small houses. Arrived to rainy Kunming dark early morning, we took a bus further to the mountains to Dali- probably the ‘hippiest’ city in the whole China.

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FLYING SOLO

A city between a snowy mountain and Erhai (洱海)- a huge lake of indigo color (which literary means "Ear Sea"), filled with countless lanterns, local small cafeterias and bars with comfortable seats outside, candles and music. There are painters on the streets, Chinese with dreadlocks, and foreigners who came here and never left.

Whether you are a hard-core hiker or just someone who enjoys trekking, you should never miss Tiger Leaping Gorge- 16km of breathtaking views, walking along the edge of high mountain slopes above Yangtze River, rushing noisily down the gorge. Sometimes you climb up a sandy peak, at other times- walk into coniferous woods. At some point we even had to cross a waterfall tumbling right onto our little path!

Our little adventurous journey was finished by getting stranded in the snow by the Lugu Lake. The scenery around the lake was amazing even in winter. As we were practically the only tourists there, we got to meet local Mosuo(摩梭) minority people, who sang songs for us all evening and told us a curious fact. As it happens, there are no marriages among Mosuo group. Whenever a man fancies a woman, he goes under her balcony at night and sings to her. If a woman agrees, he can climb to her room and sneak out again in the morning. There is no responsibility attached whatsoever. If a woman gets pregnant, the child stays with her and the father does not have to take care of the family if he does not wish to.

Back The spring of that year flew unbelievably fast, and yet again I had to board the plane to fly back home.

There was something about China that changed me.

I not only started putting 辣椒 (lajiao, chilli) in almost every dish and drinking green tea like some non-stop action just like breathing, but I came back much more relaxed and worriless. As they say there are two rules in Sichuan: 1. don’t buy an expensive bike- it will be stolen, 2. never ring Sichuanese between 1-3pm- he is sleeping.This simplicity and tranquility grew into me.

Interesting, but when I recall China now, it does, to some extent, match the picture once painted by my imagination.

I don’t remember it as overpopulated, polluted, loud country. Instead, I remember dreamy mountains covered in milky fog, green tea, nice traditional people, red lanterns in the cities, and warm smell of osmanthus.

EVELINA VERCINSKAJA 10 months in China

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FLYING SOLO

沉醉在中国的毯子 我们的想象力是个很奇怪的事。对我们没去过的地方想像的图景总是和现实不一样。我去中 国之前，我想象的中国有大概这样的样子：雾山，龙，到处红色，绿茶，还有传统的友好的 人。只到四川飞机场才明白了我的想象力是超现实的画家。 我有一本小书，里面是写的我在中国的经历。第一个想说的事："哎呀呀! 这么多人！这个国 家怎么能把他们所有包括？！"忽然恍然大悟了，我像一个在海中的外国人，在中国人的海洋 中，而且，他们都在看着我！可能是因为在飞机场的人其中只有三个外国人，但是我对我的 黑头发感到很开心。如果我的头发白色，这会引起更多的注意。之后的一年，我都不知道那 为什么人们都要看着我，指着我，谈着我。对于这个事情唯一的方法是要习惯。 温室效应的感觉你知道吗？就是夏天的四川。那时候空调是你的最好的朋友。可是，呆在家 里这一个想法我受不了，所以来到中国，就开始探索。大学的校园太美丽的！一出宿舍去外 面，所有的气氛就好像一个温暖的毯子环绕了你。这个毯子缺乏微风，有桂花的香味，蝉的 声音夜晚也不停。这个毯子有放松的气氛，随处能看得到打麻将的老人，放风筝的孩子，荷 花池旁便座的爱侣。 我最喜欢学语言的方面是怎么能用有限的词语进行沟通。那时候你的整个身体活起来表示解 释你说的是什么意思。我第一次想要买一个驱蚊，不知道这叫什么名字，就挥起手来模仿飞 行的蚊子咬我的手。这样的，我再中国学到的第一个字就是"蚊子"。 如果你跟我一样，觉得在中国去吃饭之前需要写出一些蔬菜的名字（比如：胡萝卜，黄瓜， 沙拉）你是错的。为什么？因为中国菜有特别具有想象力的名字：虎皮青椒，四季豆，或者 鱼香茄子。我学到这些名字之前四川菜单对我是好像个程序设计语言一样难懂。再说，我们 三个纽卡斯尔的学生其中Victoria 不吃鱼，我不吃肉，而Andy 不吃鱼也不吃肉，这让订菜太 麻烦了！有一次，我们花了大概十分钟试试明白服务员们（所有的服务员和老板）来介绍我 们在菜单上指出的菜。然后，我请他们画那一个菜，他们还花了五分钟决定谁能最好得画。 最终，厨师去厨房带来了一个玉米芯说："就是这一个"。这小故事的道理是，如果你非常饿 ，你不要在菜单上指出你不知道的菜来问服务员这是什么，这太花时间。最好是环顾四周， 看看别的人在吃什么，选择你喜欢的，指出哪个菜向服务员说你想吃这个菜。喜欢的话，才 能问这个菜叫什么名字。 我在中国的时候，去过很多地方：峨眉山，乐山，北京的长城；几个星期搭车旅游去重庆， 贵州，云南；交了很多朋友，经历中国的传统，像四川人一样吃辣辣的菜，像四川人一样吃 饭了以后睡觉几个小时，像四川人一样不停地喝茶，骑自行车到所有的地方，每天像四川人 一样，不知不觉我也改变了。回欧洲之后觉得欧洲人一点也不放松，什么都在乎，到底是什 么都让他们紧张，吵架，抱怨。我呢？我完全不一样，觉得有些问题并不是世界末日，最重 要是天上有太阳，我有朋友们，能跟他们在一起喝茶！我知道，除了我上面写的中国好的方 面，也有坏的：人口太多，公交车有时候进不上，交通制度好像没有，因为路上车从四面八 方来，我有时候想在成都骑自行车跟自杀差不多，街上过于吵闹。但是我现在回想起四川的 时候把所有坏的方面好像记不住了。反而，我想起的中国随处有红灯笼，包裹山的乳白色的 雾，蝉的乐团，友好的老百姓，好喝的茶和桂花香味，它像一个毯子一样包裹住我。

EVELINA VERCINSKAJA 10 months in China

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FLYING SOLO

HOT FOOD, HOT WEATHER, HOT WOMEN! FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND LASTING MEMORIES OF CHONGQING

C

hongqing is China’s largest city; a huge, sprawling, urban municipality, developing rapidly and boasting a population size bigger than that of Peru. It was also the destination for my Year Abroad. I was to spend ten months there, with just one other person I knew and with only two years of Mandarin classes behind me.

I was excited, curious and filled with the spirit of adventure, but underneath all that I was absolutely terrified.

We arrived at about 4pm on September 1st 2010. The air was hot and heavy, the sky overcast. I was immediately overwhelmed, not only by the complete foreignness of the place, but also by the friendliness of everybody I had encountered so far. After a seven hour wait in Hong Kong airport my friend and I had been approached by a class of high school students returning to Chongqing on the same flight as us. They were so eager to get to know us, to find out what we were up to and to see if they could be of any assistance. I was shocked; coming from London my initial attitude towards anyone I don’t know is to ignore them and get on with my own life. These students gave us their phone numbers, the teacher gave us his card in case our airport pickup did not arrive and we needed his help, and from then on I knew I’d be OK in China.

We moved into our accommodation; an old hotel now being used for foreign students, met some new people, and got on with induction week, the highlight of which was definitely the trip to the hospital for the medical exam. I visited hospitals a number of times in China for various reasons, and never ever got used to them. There was absolutely no sense of privacy; some of us were examined all together in batches, and at

on o s g ,I n i q g ome p n o Ch like h n-sto felt the noity and d he c the e v lo of t y of vibeenergle. the peop

times other patients would walk in mid-consultation and wait beside me until I was done. I was shocked at the cavalier attitude to smoking in the corridors, and could not understand the endless admin that had to be done before you even got near to a doctor. But that is China all over; nothing is official until it’s been stamped by three different people and signed by someone else. It was frustrating and time consuming, but it delighted me purely because it was an aspect of the culture that I had not been warned about and had not expected. These kinds of tiny discoveries made my year abroad, the kind of differences between cultures that can only really be understood by other people who have also experienced them. China is full of them.

The first week passed in a blur of jet lag, making friends and sorting things out. I had to set up internet in my room, but couldn’t until I had a student card. We had to register at the police station, but no one knew where it was. I needed a phone, but the Chinese sim card I’d bought didn’t work in my English handset. I relied heavily on my Chinese friends. Most of them were student volunteers, with an astonishing level of English fluency even if they weren’t majoring in it.

There is so much more to say about China, Chongqing and my year abroad, but I just wanted to give you an idea of my first impressions, and lasting memories. Overcoming obstacles at the start of my year not only helped me gain an insight into how China works but made me some amazing friends.

I cannot wait to go back to China after I graduate, and will definitely be going back to Chongqing.

HANNAH REA 10 months in China

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FLYING SOLO

PATATAS BRAVAS RECIPE

P

atatas Bravas are definitely my favourite tapas and one of the things which I will miss most about Barcelona! Almost everyone loves them, so impress your Catalan friends and your family at home with this simple and delicious dish.

Ingredients: 3 tbsp olive oil 1 Small onion, chopped 2 Garlic cloves, chopped 227g can chopped tomatoes 1 tbsp tomato purée 2 tsp sweet paprika (Pimentón) A pinch of sugar and salt

Receta para las Patatas Bravas

Las patatas bravas son sin duda mi tapa favorita, y una de las cosas que más echaré de menos de Barcelona. A casi todos les encantan, así que impresiona a tus amigos catalanes y a tu familia también con este plato sencillo y delicioso.

Ingredientes: 3 cucharadasde aceite de oliva 1 cebollita, picada 2 dientes de ajo, picados Una lata de 227 gramos de tomate triturado 1 cucharón de puré de tomate 2 cucharaditas de pimentón Una pizca de sal y azúcar 1. Empieza preparando la salsa para el plato con antelación, calentando el aceite de oliva en una cacerola. Añade la cebolla y fríe durante 5 minutos a fuego medio hasta que esté blanda.

1. Start by preparing the sauce ahead of time, by heating the oil in a frying pan. Add the onion and fry for about 5 minutes on a medium heat until softened.

2. Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato purée, pimentón, sugar and salt and bring to the boil while stirring. Simmer for 20 minutes until pulpy, then set aside for 24 hours.

3. To complete the dish and serve, preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6/Fan oven 180C. 4. Wash the potatoes, then cut into small cubes and pat dry with kitchen paper. Spread evenly over a roasting tin and toss in the oil, then season. Roast for 40-50 minutes, until the potatoes are crisp and golden.

2. Añade el ajo, los tomates, el puré de tomate, pimentón, azúcar y sal y caliéntalo a punto de ebullición mientras remueves. Déjalo cocer durante veinte minutos hasta que la mezcla esté como una pulpa, y aparta durante 24 horas.

3.

Para acabar el plato y servir precalienta el horno hasta 200º/Gas 6, horno de convección 180º.

4. Lava las patatas, y luego córtalas en cubitos y sécalas con papel de cocina. Repártelas uniformemente sobre una bandeja de horno y mezcla bien con el aceite, y luego sazónalas.

Calienta durante 40-50 minutos en el horno, hasta que las patatas estén crujientes y doradas.

5. Mientras las patatas se están cocinando, recalienta la salsa en una cacerola en los hornillos. Cuando las patatas estén cocinadas, sácalas del horno y ponlas en platos junto con la salsa recalentada. Sirve con palillos.

6. İQue aproveche!

5. While the potatoes are cooking, reheat the sauce briefly in a pan on the hob. When the potatoes are done, remove from the oven and tip the potatoes into dishes, spooning over the reheated sauce. Serve with cocktail sticks.

6. Enjoy!

POPPY GARDNER 9 months in Spain

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FLYING SOLO

I

NEWCASTLE - UPON TYNE

am writing to you not as part of the editorial staff of this magazine, but as an eternal international student. Eternal in the conviction that only by discovering and learning we satisfy the ambition to learn more and better ourselves; international because thanks to my time spent abroad I have realized that borders serve only to make a difference to that which disappears with a smile and a friendly hand.

The word that best sums up my experience (and that of all the collaborators who participated in this magazine), could be the word “bittersweet.” From here we will not lie to you: going solo, flying the coop, it is a growth that is not without its difficulties. But I personally can assure you, and the articles you’ll find in this edition also attest to my point of view, that the obstacles you are presented with strengthen you in surprising and unexpected ways. At the end of your experience you will notice how everything is relative, and that the mere fact of a smile from someone with whom your path crosses, however briefly, is something so priceless that it will be worth some sacrifices.

If at the end of your stay you do a balance of positive and negative experiences, you will find that until the problems have been resolved have become memories that surprisingly make you smile. You, only you, could deal with that situation. And at the same time, you would learn to be humble and to recognize that however much you earn your independence and autonomy, you have people, friends, family, to say “thank you”. Being away from home means new relationships, but it also causes you to revisit your old ones. Being abroad changes you, you acquire a sense of looking at the world in a way that occosionally, amidst the hustle and bustle of daily life goes under the radar.

So we can only tell you be brave and dive right in, because this year will really make a big difference in your life. And remember that no matter how scared and lost you can feel sometimes, at the end of your stay, as the poet Konstantin Kavafis reflected, you will definitely recognize yourself “Bigger in wisdom”.

MARIA CONSUELO LÓPEZ VICENTE 10 months in Newcastle

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M

e dirijo a ti no como parte del equipo editorial de esta revista, sino como eterna estudiante internacional. Eterna por convicción de que sólo descubriendo y aprendiendo se puede calmar la ambición por conocer más y mejor; internacional porque gracias a mi estancia en el extranjero me he dado cuenta de que las fronteras sirven sólo para marcar diferencias que desaparecen tras una sonrisa y una mano que se tiende amiga.

La palabra que mejor resume mi experiencia, y la de todos los compañeros que han participado en esta revista, bien podría ser el adjetivo “agridulce”.

Desde aquí no queremos mentirte: irte solo, volar del nido, supone un crecimiento que no está exento de dificultades. Pero te puedo asegurar, y el testimonio de los artículos que encontrarás en esta edición también lo atestiguan, que los obstáculos te fortalecerán hasta límites que nunca hubieras creído posibles. Al final de tu experiencia notarás cómo todo se relativiza, que valoras cosas que antes no te parecían tan importantes, y que el simple hecho de una sonrisa de alguien que se ha cruzado, fugazmente pero quizás para siempre, por tu camino, supone un bien inmaterial tan valioso que merecerá la pena ciertos sacrificios.

Si al final de tu estancia haces un balance de experiencias positivas y negativas, hallarás que hasta los problemas que has ido resolviendo se han convertido en recuerdos que, sorprendentemente, te harán sonreír. Tú, solo tú, pudiste con esa situación.

Y, al mismo tiempo, aprenderás a tener humildad y a reconocer que, por mucho que ganes en independencia y autonomía, vas a tener a personas, amigos, familia, a los que decir “gracias”. Estar fuera de casa supone entablar nuevas relaciones, que pueden llegar a ser muy sólidas. Pero también supone re-conocer antiguas. Porque estando fuera te re-construyes, y adquieres otro punto de vista que, en medio de la rutina diaria, a veces se nos pasa desapercibido.

Así pues sólo podemos decirte que ánimo, que disfrutes al máximo la experiencia, porque de verdad que va a marcar una gran diferencia en tu vida. Y recuerda que, por muy asustado y perdido que te puedas encontrar en algún momento, al final de tu estancia, tal y como señala el poeta Konstantin Kavafis, sin duda te reconocerás más “Grande en saberes”.

Picture: Douglas Graham