Exams are upon me!

Yay new blogpost! I’m in the middle of my exam period at the moment, had one last week, guess I’ve passed that one. Next week there are two more and then finally going home! More than 10 months abroad in one year was really special, but it makes you miss the Netherlands..

At the moment there aren’t any cool awesome things to talk about, we still go out now and then, have dinner together sometimes and drinking coffee a lot! Oh yes! We had two earthquakes in the past two weeks.. that was rather strange, but nothing broke or collapsed so we’re fine! I wanted to talk today about the living here in regard to the housing. I already had found my flat before I came to Almeria, through a website from the university where house owners can subscribe their flats. There was a little language barrier back in the day, but luckily the grandchild of the house owner is my contact person now and she speaks English very well.

The prices are way lower than in the Netherlands, I’ve heard stories from others that they just pay 150 for the room a month. Luuk and I are paying around 320 a month since we didn’t have a 3rd person in the flat. If we had, it would be around 220 a month I think. The area we live in is really good and absolutely not criminal. It’s a district 10 minutes walking from the city center and directly at the beach. Supermarket is around the corner, but there are small local shops even closer so if we need just a few things we run down and we’re back in a minute haha.

In my opinion, everything here in Almeria seems cheaper than in the Netherlands. Except the A-brands in the shops, which are more expensive somehow.. We live above a restaurant which is one of the cheapest of Almeria, and the quantity you get for that price is overwhelming! We pay 2,90 euro’s for a beer together with a plate(tapa) which could contain 2 pieces of meat, a bit of salad, French fries and bread with aioli. Absurd! I know a few other places in town which are more expensive but the quality is also a little better than downstairs. But hey, we are students! We live on pizza and beer if we don’t eat downstairs haha. No for real, we eat quite ok. It mostly depends on the day as well.

Cultural differences occur every day. I am getting used to it of course, but sometimes I think ‘hey that’s funny’. An example is that you always great someone by kissing two times(man-woman of course). Even if you don’t know that person, or only via-via. Shaking a hand is not done here haha. I am so used to this, that it would be crazy to give everyone a hand again in NL. With Christmas, when I arrived at the airport, I even gave my mother two kisses and did a move backwards while she went in for the third one! Haha! Crazy! In the university I even saw male professors greeting female students in the cafetaria by giving them all the two famous kisses.

Another difference I noticed was with Christmas and three kings. Three kings is the festive day here which is celebrated more than Christmas. There was a parade in the city center and everyone had a day off. With three kings there were presents and with Christmas it’s less normal to do. Quite different than in NL.

Well I got to get back to my exam preparations! See ya in a bit!