Important facts for students who want to go on exchange to Zaragoza

Time for a new post! This time we thought we should give you some facts about studying and living here!

General things about Zaragoza

Pronunciation:

It's called [θaɾaˈɣoθa], something like "Tha-ra---gó-tha" (third syllable is stressed). Spaniards will easily identify foreigners by the wrong pronunciation (with an 'hard' S).

Map:

Here you can find a small map of Zaragoza with the most important places indicated.

Click on the picture to get a better resolution or open the picture in a new tab!

We highly recommend to live in the blue area! It’s near Campus San Francisco, as well as near to Campus Gran Vía. We both live in this region; read on if you want to know why! ;)

Prices:
The prices for food here are similar to those ones in the Netherlands and sometimes even less. However, in most of the stores (e.g. Simply, Mercadona etc.) you will find maaaaaany discounts, for instance two Bocadillas (baguettes) for the price of one, or three packages of tuna for the price of two and so on. It’s definitely worth to have a proper look! Regarding soft drinks and beer, it's also very similar. Hard liquor (vodka, rum, ...) is definitely way cheaper (you can get it for €5), as well as wine (including sangria).

Metro:
The metro here is amazing! It costs around €1.35 for one ride and you can go as far as you want. Additionally, there is only one metro line, meaning you can't get lost, the only problem would be choosing the wrong direction ;). 

Walking distance & taxis:
When you live in the blue area we spoke about before everything can be reached by walking (Dawe usually walks everywhere, except when we have to go to Campus Rio Ebro). Coming from the club, we usually take a taxi, which is way, way cheaper here compared to the Netherlands (starts by €2.20 and costs around €5, meaning with 4 people you won't pay more than €2 each!).

Internationality and multi-culture:
Here, you will find a lot of - surprise! - Spanish people coming from all over Spain to study here. Moreover, we have the feeling that the Italians are taking over, same with French people (in Marie's apartment live 4 Italians and 2 French!!) Dawe found some Polish people but very few. There are almost no Germans, only a handful of Dutch students and almost no Chinese ones. We think that's great because you are forced to speak Spanish (check also the section below).

Water:
It's possible to drink the water but we would not recommend it! It's enriched with chlorine! You will immediately smell it (smells like you would be in a swimming pool). Therefore, buy the little more expensive shower gels to try to counteract the chlorine (the Spaniards are using the very cheap ones, which will dry out your skin). Attention chicas: Unfortunately, your hair will definitely get strawy and fuzzy! (SO ANNOYING!)

Universidad de Zaragoza

Finally speaking about the university! As the entire blog is somehow connected to our university life, we want to cover one very important aspect, namely the subjects! Some of them are really easy for the ones who studied at Stenden; those ones are usually connected to marketing, research, and other subjects that require discussions, argumentations and writing reports. You will easily dominate in the class, as you are used to take statements from others, analyse them and argument in favour of them or come up with counterarguments! However, the classes that require mathematics, such as macro- and microeconomics, statistics and financial valuations will give you a hard time! The students here are used to calculate all the time. Mental math seems easy for them, as well as written math. For instance, we both took statistics (even in Spanish) and it's hard to follow formulas and so on. Additionally, these subjects take an in-depth approach. For us, this means that we will have to study a lot at home to catch up. Besides that, all subjects are on a very theoretical and abstract level. However, usually you have one lecture about the theory and one practical class per subject per week.

Cierzo

Cierzo, oh cierzo! You wonder what's meant with that? The WIND!!! Yes, it's freaking windy here! And yes, the wind has its own name!! The wind comes over the mountains and reaches top speed in the valleys, meaning Zaragoza. For instance, Dawe had never problems with his skin but after two/three weeks, his face suddenly dried out and he had to go to the pharmacy to buy a facial creme to, first, treat it and, secondly, prevent it from happening again! Continuing, el cierzo exists here all the year, no matter if winter or summer, spring or autumn! Be prepared!

Clothing

As already mentioned, the wind here was very strong in February. The first days in March were very sunny and the wind settled a bit; however, we still think that it will get a little bit worse. Therefore, you will definitely need some pair of jeans, a jacket, and it would be even wise to bring gloves and a scarf if you get cold easily.

Learning Spanish

We have a friend living in Barcelona, who also started studying in February. We compared our Spanish level to hers and we can definitely say that if you want to learn Spanish, go to Zaragoza! Of course, here you will find a lot of Erasmus students, too, but most of them (meaning the French and Italian people) do not speak English or, if they do, then they do it very poorly! Moreover, we highly recommend to live with Spaniards; you will quickly pick up the language (as you are forced to) without putting much effort into it. Shop owners, people in the supermarkets and other people you will encounter in the streets usually do NOT speak English (not like Barcelona where they usually speak English/German etc.) ! However, most of them are very, very friendly and will take the time to listen to you (Dawe remembers a situation where he wanted to buy an envelope and stamps but had no clue how to translate it. Of course, it took some time (correos (letters) was the only word related to this situation he knew) but he got help from several people he just approached on the street). In Barcelona, the people seemed to be more stressed and like they didn't want to help you. We think that is because of the many tourists in the city, they are very annoyed and unlike here where only a few tourists exists; everyone is friendly and helpful. In general, you can ask them if they could repeat their sentence in a slower way ("Puedes repertir pero ahora más despacio?") and they will. We also are convinced that in other cities (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia) we would not speak as much Spanish as we are doing right now!

Flat hunting

Our coordinator from Stenden, Mrs Sanchez Carrascal, recommended to book a hostel for the first days and to just go out and search for a flat when we arrive in Zaragoza. Following her advice, we guess it was the best thing to do! The prices for the rooms are usually in the same range of €200 to €250 (Of course, you will also find flats for €180 or €300) and do not differ very much! Therefore: check out your flatmates!!!! Both of us are living with people who speak the entire day Spanish, which helps us a lot to improve our language skills! And we want to stress that this is the most important aspect! We also encountered some flats where the people were already working (meaning never at home) or all of them chilled in their room - a no-go for both of us! For instance, while writing this post Dawe chilled all the time in the living room, where one of his flatmates was eating, another one was watching TV and surfing the web and the third one was doing homework. It's all about the atmosphere! You need to feel welcomed and you want to be able to speak Spanish during the day, these are the most important aspects.

Fun facts

• Red lights: It's common here to go over the street with just looking left/right/left, no matter what the traffic lights are showing!
• Botellones y fiestas: Pre-drinking starts at 10/11 at a flat, you go to the club at 1/2 and you won't come back earlier than 4/5 (or even 7.30 am like Marie's flatmates) ! Will take some time for Dutch people to get used to it ;)

If you want to know more, just let us know in the comment section below!