My first few days in Spain

 When if first moved to Spain, it was as part of a program called Meddeas to teach English at a private school. Due to this I was originally placed to live with a host family and although, due to my best friend Brexit I wasn't able to work at this school, I was lucky enough that the family allowed me to stay living with them and hosted me for the first few months of my stay in Spain.

Originally I did not live in the city centre of Barcelona but a town around a forty minute drive outside of the city called Caldes de Montbui and the school I was supposed to work at was in this town. As part of this cultural exchange with the school you get given three host families through out the year which is something if you get the opportunity to do I really recommend. This is because when I first moved to Spain I new absolutely nothing about the country, I hadn't even been there on holiday before and so having this support network from the very beginning (basically like having family there) meant I never felt alone and always had someone to ask for help. It is also very good if your language skills aren't so high and although I had been studying Spanish at University, in Barcelona and especially in the smaller towns and cities in Catalonia, Catalan is the prominent language and I really recommend learning at least some basic phrases if you're planning on living in the area.

The host family -

I got very lucky with my host family as they were always so lovely, supportive and welcoming and always helped me so so much with all the problems I had, especially in the beginning of the year. My family was made up of two parents and their two young girls who were 4 and 2 when I moved in. This was so lovely for me as I really love kids, but also it gave me such an insight into what its really like to have kids because they didn't sugarcoat it all. And although I still want to have kids, I think I will wait a few years longer before I decide to have any. 

As well as having a family support network in another country and having the safety this provided, it also helped me to try new foods and really be immersed into the culture and live as someone who is really from Catalonia, something my friends who just went and lived alone didn't have the opportunity to do. Because of this I tried a lot of foods and I am now a very very big fan of 'pan tomaquet' and 'fuet', as well as a lot of  other Catalan dishes which I really enjoyed. In Spain as well they are very big on celebrations and holidays through out the year which we don't really tend to do in the U.K, and because I was living with the family I was able to experience this also, especially around Christmas time but also throughout my whole stay (something I'll talk about later through out my posts). 

However, although I did have a very good experience, I think you should be very careful when doing this; especially if you're going to work as an au pair. This is because, my host family was through a school which was also through a company and so the family was always checked and if anything went wrong at any point I could find support from the school. But if you are coming as an au pair, which I know a lot of my friends did, they didn't have this support network and so a lot of the time they had bad experiences with the families and felt as though they were being taken advantage a lot. So I suggest really doing your research before you move abroad to live with a family that you don't really know.

Overall, living in this smaller town to begin with and with a host family was a very important experience for me, and I think a better way to start my year abroad than just throwing myself in head first alone and is really something I recommend to people to try at least once in their life.

Merciii,

Aimée Marie