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Today is my last day in Spain. I handed in my books and said goodbye to all the people I’ve met. Which isn’t a great thing to do. I’m satisfied that the time is there to go back home, but it also feels weird to again say goodbye to everyone who came into my new life, especially my host family. They’ve really become my own family and supported me as good as possible. I’m really happy I got into this family and will definitely miss them the first few days in the Nl’s. But I also like to see my own family in the Netherlands again.

           This week on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday school was off, so my host family showed me some beautiful places and wanted me to experience some last typical Spanish things. On Tuesday we went to Valero, which is the village Pascual grew up. And we took a 2 hours hike to a waterfall up in the mountains. On Thursday, I wanted to do some last thing I really liked in El Encinar. We for example went to the Fronton pitch, took a walk in the forest, and Pascual learned me to cook Paella (which is a typical Spanish dish with rise). For the rest of this week I made some last preparations for my departure to the Netherlands.

Tomorrow morning we leave at 8:30 a.m to the airport in Madrid, and the plane leaves at 1 0’clock. After a flight of approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes, I can finally see my family again.

I really had a great experience in this project. The first few day were very difficult and sometimes frustrating, but when I eventually got used to my new life in El Encinar, I enjoyed, learned, and experienced Spain and the Spanish culture. I would definitely recommend this experience to anyone else.
 I hope you all liked to follow this blog with all my experiences in the Erasmus project. And I hope to write a new blog similar to this one in future.

Today it’s Friday, which means the start of the weekend! But before I could enjoy my last weekend in Spain I had to make two tests, which both were pretty difficult. The first hour a mathematics test, and after that a french test about a book we had to read at home. Further more in my own time at school I’ve made some homework from the Netherlands, which are all almost finished now. Next week on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday school is off, so I don’t have a lot of time on school to work on the dutch tasks. On Saturday and Sunday it will be raining, but the days after, the weather will get better. So my host family and I are going to do some sightseeing in the area.

I now also am glad my departure to the NL’s is getting closer. I’ve now got on the point that I prefer my own home in The Netherlands rather than my home in El Encinar because the closer my departure to the Nl’s gets, the more I prefer my own town. And I’m after all almost 3 months in El Encinar, which is pretty a long time. But I definitely enjoyed my stay in Spain, and I’m satisfied that I made the choice to go here. I would also immediately agree when I will get a similar chance in future.

This weekend I went to Valencia with my father. He has been working in Barcelona previous week. So it was the perfect time to combine work with a weekend being with me. He flew to Madrid at app. 3 o’clock and arrived at half past 5. I went to Madrid by bus after school at 4 o’clock and we met each other at 6:30 p.m at the airport. It was weird, but also very nice to see each other after almost 2,5 months, even though I speak with my family regularly. After my father picked me up at the terminal, we went to the railway station by bus. And from there we went to Valencia by a high-speed train. The drive only took us about 1,5 hours until we arrived in the sunny climate. The difference in weather is huge in such a great country. In Valencia it for example was 25 degrees celsius, while in Madrid people are staying home because it was raining. We arrived pretty late in Valencia, so we also immediately went to our hotel, which was located near the beach. The days after that we’ve seen the whole city by bicycle, which was the best and fastest way to travel through the city. And there was a lot to see, but in a weekend you’ve passed all the highlights of the city. So we didn’t need more than 3 days to see whole Valencia. My father and I really loved this place because city and beach are very close to each other. In Valencia there are very old but also impressive, new buildings. The coast also is very big and has great beaches, boulevards, and harbors. On sunday at 14;10 p.m we left Valencia and at 5 o’clock we arrived at the airport. My father went home by airplane and I went to Salamanca by bus. After all it was a little difficult to say goodbye again, but when I just started my daily life in Salamanca, this feeling already was gone.

Tomorrow, I have a French-test on the quercus school, but it isn’t very difficult. I also still have to to a lot for my school in The Netherlands because the deadlines from the dutch teachers all finish in the last week I’m here. But I’m really good at schedule and I think I’ll definitely will succeed to finish all tasks the teacher gave me.

The past three weeks were three regular weeks. At school I’ve now already made 4 tests, which went very well. Even though all the tests were completely in Spanish, I understood much of it and received great marks. I really feel like I’m a real student on this school, because everyone talks Spanish to me. Sometimes I do have some struggles remembering and recognizing people in El Encinar because a lot of them know me, but I forgot their names. I met a lot of people and I have seen very nice places. The weather is getting worse every week. This means that my host family and I aren’t able to do a lot in the weekends. That’s also why I didn’t do anything in weekends the past three weeks. Jaime, Pascual, and I didn’t do more than playing fronton, walking and waiting for sun. Two weeks ago it was very
beautiful weather so we took our chance and went to a weir 45 min from El Encinar.  At the weir there wasn’t enough water to over flood it, but I really like this place.

Because my village is so small, I know all places by hard. It’s very simple and it only consists of 5 streets and some sport applies. But I still really like the village, because it’s located near the beautiful city of Salamanca. This weekend, on Saturday Jaime, his friends and I went to Salamanca just before lunch to watch a soccer match. The weather again sucked, but I really enjoyed Salamanca. We took the bus at 9 o’clock in the evening and it took 20 min until we arrived in EL Encinar. On Sunday I practiced a lot of sports. I woke up early and just after that Pascual and I went for a 2,5 hours walk trough the forest. We arrived home at 12;00 o’clock and had lunch at half past two. After lunch we went to fronton, and played matches against each other for about 2 hours. And after that we again went for a walk near El Encinar. I’m practicing a lot of sports in El Encinar. In The Netherlands I play hockey, but in Spain they only play soccer and fronton. But I have to keep in shape when I come back in my own hockey team, so I run twice a week 5 kilometers.

Already 9 weeks ago I left the Netherlands. Time goes very fast, 3 months sounds more than it actually comes to be.  We already made some plans for the coming 2 weeks. This week my father works in Barcelona, so when he’s finished working we both get to Madrid airport and probably will go to Valencia by train. We’ll stay a weekend in Valencia and Sunday evening will go home again. In two weeks my host family and I are going to go to Pascual’s old village to say goodbye to the family. Because than it only takes 2 weeks more until I leave to The Netherlands.

It’s almost 4 weeks ago I left the Netherlands. The time goes so fast when a lot of new things happen in such a short time. I had a lot of fun these 4 weeks, but it sometimes also was a difficult time for me. A lot of new people who don’t understand you, living in such a small village, following Spanish lessons which you don’t understand etc. But it every week gets better and better. The nice thing is that me and my host family do a lot of things in the surroundings of Salamanca. My Spanish also gets better and better. Ria (my host mother), Jaime, and I also started with Spanish lessons every Monday and Thursday to improve Jaime’s Dutch and my Spanish.  I every day understand more of the lessons, especially mathematics. This is the easiest for me because it’s all about numbers (an international language). But the rest of the subjects are still pretty difficult for me since nobody speaks english.

The school is is a very small but nice high-school. It is pretty new and has a lot of space. They also have a lot of space for sports, which I like a lot. But in the Netherlands the school gives much more responsibility to the students than here on the Quercus high-school in El Encinar. For example: the teachers always give homework for the next day and then also check if the students made it, while in the Netherlands a lot of teachers plan homework for the next week and don’t even check a lot of times if the students made their homework. Another example is that at school times the school also closes the gates. This means that from 08:45 am until 14:40 pm, you aren’t aloud to leave the school terrain. The nice thing is that because of the fact the school is so small and only has 80 students, it is very cosy. Everybody knows each other and is nice to one another.