Orientation station

About three weeks after arriving in Alicante, it was time to head to the university for orientation. The three other girls from NAU and I boarded the bus for the 25 minute ride from the center of Alicante to San Vicente. The campus was beautiful; palm trees line beautiful walkways, students are often found lounging around the numerous fountains or duck ponds, and the greenery on campus is just gorgeous. We all filed into the Mobility Office, which is where you go if you're an exchange student not from the European Union. We met other students there from Australia, the US and other parts of South America. It was a bit overwhelming to meet so many people at once, but they handed us all a packet of information and told us to come back the next day for Orientation : Part 2. 

A little frustrated that we came all the way to campus just to pick up some papers and be told to come back the next day, nevertheless we made new friends and went out for tapas afterwards. 

I should ALSO mention at this time that we had an absolute garbage trash time trying to obtain our TIE (Tarjeta de Identificación Extranjero, or something of that nature). For anyone wishing to spend a full academic year in Spain, this is a mandatory process, basically confirming that your VISA will last for the whole year and providing you with an official form of identification from the Spanish government. However, the process takes about 3 months, and that's only if you make a scene every time someone tells you they can't help you or you have to wait another month to make an appointment. 

Anyway, moving along. The next day we came back for orientation numero dos, I sat next to an Australian kid who kept falling asleep because he was hungover, then would loudly ask me what was going on because his Spanish was average at best. A couple students from the UA walked us all through some important know-hows and what-to-do's concerning registering for classes and navigating the UA cloud (basically their version of BBLearn). Another note, it is pretty difficult to take classes in different subjects. For example, if you want to come and take a class in the Department of Biology, but also want a class on Spanish History, you will have a very hard time making those two things work well in your schedule. Students here stick to their own department and there isn't any crossover, so make sure you map out your classes as best you can before the first week, and be super flexible if things don't work out, because chances are they won't. After the meeting they told us to come back one more time the next day for the grand finale. 

Orientation Station: Installment 3

I couldn't believe they made us come back to campus AGAIN just to give us a short tour of the campus and remind us not to forget to enroll in classes. Kind of a waste of time but we did find out that the campus has a gym with a fairly cheap membership and also there are many cafeterias on campus that serve cerveza at all hours of the day. Spectacular. 

My recommendations for this post include:

Not drinking cerveza on campus at all hours of the day

Reading very closely the instructions for obtaining a TIE ( https://www.csidiomas.ua.es/en/services/visa/requirements-for-non-eu-students ) 

Have at least 15 different classes you would be interested in taking, and don't be a llorón when things don't work out. 

And have fun!! Attached are some photos of the girls and I; and example of having said "fun" in case you didn't know what it looks like.