Chase the Feeling: study abroad

Learning German in Munich

education 2:00 PM

Summer language programs abroad offer plenty of advantages compared to learning back home. I began my German-learning journey almost two years ago through a summer program offered by the Maximilian Ludwig Universität München (LMU). I joined a second time to do the A2.1 level and had a great time, traveled, made new friends, and of course, improved my German! 🙌

Before getting there 📅

If you are unfamiliar with how it is like to join a summer language program overseas, here is how this one works. You pay a deposit to get your seat reserved and, if interested, a room. I highly suggest to book a room with the university because finding an apartment in Munich is a nightmare. Also it is highly unlikely that someone will rent you a place for just a month. You will end up renting an Air-bnb for 3 weeks and pay 4 times what you would have paid with the university. The dorms are not luxurious but I am highly practical and just need a place to stay. Both times I’ve stayed at the dorms and had no problem as they are located near transport stations and supermarkets.

Depending on your country of origin, you may or may not need a visa for courses of less than 3 months. I suggest that you contact the German embassy at your country to make sure you have all your documentation in order.

Servus, München! 🛫

Lessons

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A post shared by Krystel (@krysxc) on Aug 4, 2018 at 11:05am PDT

Once you arrive, you need to attend a check-in event where you are given class information and keys to your apartment. The next day and for the next three weeks I would have lessons everyday from 9:00 to 13:00. What I love about this type of environment is that you get to learn alongside people from all over the world. It is fast-paced as would be any other intensive course but the total immersion in the language and culture is worth it. With every lesson, I felt more confident in speaking the language and tried to practice it “on the real world” as much as I could. I would try to communicate in German at the supermarket, coffee shop, train stations and stores. I even went to the pharmacy twice and was able to communicate effectively with the technicians. Most locals appreciate your effort in speaking their language so they are willing to speak slower, make a lot of signs or say some words in English.

Free time

My afternoons were mostly focused on studying and living a normal life. However, I was in Munich in summer. Naturally I would constantly visit my favorite park in the world: The Englischer Garten. There I would just lie on the ground, enjoy the good weather and do my homework.

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A post shared by Krystel (@krysxc) on Aug 10, 2018 at 1:52pm PDT

I would also hang around Munich, visit museums, or do something football-related. I ended up attending 3 football matches: a friendly against Manchester United, the Bundesliga opener against Hoffenheim and a testimonial match for no other than Bastian Schweinsteiger. Naturally I attended public trainings, splurged money on FC Bayern merch and a new Trikot and was the happiest in a long time.

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Travel

As part of the class excursions, I went back to the Neuschwanstein Castle in Füssen. I had only visited in the winter so the landscape was completely different. It was a very hot day which wasn’t so fun, but I had the chance to go on Marienbrücke and take the best shot of the castle:

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Winter❄️ or Summer☀️? Swipe ➡️ . . . . . #deutschland #bavaria #bayern #castle #neuschwanstein #winter #summer #travel #wintertravel #alemania #germany #fairytale #winterwonderland #visitbavaria

A post shared by Krystel (@krysxc) on Jan 11, 2019 at 9:04am PST

I visited Augsburg and Regensburg with a Bayern Ticket. I’ll share more details about my visit to those cities but here are some of my favorite shots:

Regensburg

Augsburg

Why I think it's worth it 👍

Language lessons can be amazing in your home country, but the reasons why I would do it again are:

You practice everyday, all day – you not just take a lesson and forget until the next one. You are surrounded by native speakers all around. It could surprise how much you can advance your language skills this way.

You immerse yourself in the culture – as a student there for three weeks, it’s no vacation. You need to run errands, wash your clothes, cook, take the public transport. Even if it’s a short period, you are living like a local and that experience helps you to grasp the language a lot more.

You meet people from all around the world – I find cultural exchange fascinating and it is always exciting to meet new people who share interests with you.

Native-speaker teachers – we don't always have the benefit of learning a language with native speakers back home. This type of courses have local teachers that can enhance your learning experience.

Traveling – does this even requires explanation? 😉

The price is adequate – at least for this course, the tuition is 550 euros and the rent is 390 euros*. I find the price is good considering that in in 3 weeks you get 85 contact hours, worth around half a level or more.

While this time around I was familiar with my surroundings, knew how the program worked and knew my way around the city, there is always something new to explore and new people to meet. I’m ready for the next trip back to lovely Munich.

Want a summer abroad?

If you are interested in knowing more about the summer courses that the LMU offers, you can click here. There is also the Goethe Institut that offers intensive course in different cities and throughout the year. Munich is a very international city, beautiful and, in my opinion, the perfect size to have an abroad experience for the first time. It is small enough to not make you feel overwhelmed, but big enough to still feel like a modern city. You will learn a lot and find plenty of activities to do. It's a win-win.

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*2018 price

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Beyond the degree – 10 benefits of studying abroad

college 12:19 PM

I've finished my master's degree. Actually, I did it two weeks ago but I've been in some sort of trance until now. It's over. Feels like it was yesterday when I was leaving all behind to chase a dream. I wanted to start over. I wanted to grow. I wanted to do better. Here I am, 10 months later with my degree and a heart full of experiences that surpassed my expectations. We often plan and plan, creating mental pictures of everything that will happen, as if we could predict the future. It is precisely the twists of life, the unexpected, that end up being far more important than what we thought would matter.

Studying abroad has been a step that has marked my life deeply. When I look back 10 months ago and reflect over the person that I was, I wonder how I held on for so long. But I’m not here to talk about some dark feelings, I’m here to tell you ten reasons why you should study abroad.

Gaining independence – living miles away from home means nobody is going to do things for you. You have to do it on your own. The “adult life” won’t hit your harder than when you move abroad and must deal with all the bureaucratic procedures such as visa, residence/student permit, bank accounts, health insurance, and apartment search. Then of course there’s paying bills, studying, searching for internships, and working.
Sharpening your decision-making process – if you mess up, there’s nobody to safe you. You have to learn how to manage your budget and evaluate what you really need. My motto? There’s always a smarter way to do something.
Learning to live with less – I was economical before but when I got to Barcelona, I came with a set budget. It was my responsibility to make it last until the end. When you really stick to what's essential, you realize how often you buy things you don’t need.
A new, healthier, happier lifestyle – Living in Barcelona has been the most fulfilling experience ever. I have been genuinely happy for the first time in my life, and I owe it all to this. Among the things that I’ve valued the most are: quality of life, feeling safe, an effective public transport, recycling, having fun, being able to lie on the beach without nobody disturbing me, going to museums for free, being able to walk around without catcalling, traveling on a budget. The little things indeed make the difference. Always focus on changing for the best.
Working on a culturally-different environment – if you study abroad, you need to do an internship. It is such a rich experience that allows you to grow professionally and gives you a perspective of what it is like to work with culturally-different people. I promise you it’s worth the pain of finding a place.
Making friends from around the world 🌍– when you live so far away from home, the friends you make become family. We only had each other so the bond I created with them is life-changing and permanent. There's a sense of trust, of understanding that only people who go through the same things that you do, have. With them you laugh, you cry, you fight. And at the end of the day I can say that my friends made everything worth it.
Traveling 🛪– few things in life help you gain perspective like traveling. I’ve traveled quite a lot -more than I planned to- and immersing myself in other cultures has been amazing. I’ve traveled both with friends and alone and there’s a sense of pride when you manage to organize a trip on your own, figure out the local transport, the best places to eat, see an entire city in a day and even communicate in the local language.
Chasing a dream or two you didn’t know you had – like I said before, life is full of twists and one thing leads to another. I came to Barcelona and spontaneously decided that it was now or never to attend a Bundesliga match in Germany. Fast forward to now, I attended two matches in Munich and those trips made me realize how much I wanted to learn German. So next month I will be pursuing my A1 Deutsch level. Talk about how football has changed my life 😉
Becoming stronger – all the above helps you become a stronger person and makes you realize you’re capable of achieving things you didn’t know you could.
Earning your degree and taking your career forward 🎓– because, after all, that’s why we came here for, right? It’s number 10 not because it’s the least important, but because the truly life-changing are the nine above. A degree? You can also earn it at home. A life-changing experience? You have to go out and chase it.

So that’s my take on what you truly gain from studying abroad, beyond the degree. I encourage you to move out, to seek an experience in a foreign country even if it’s for a couple of weeks or months. Take a course, do an erasmus, participate in an exchange program, do volunteer work. I promise you that you won’t regret it.

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Five things to know about internships

career 9:49 AM

One of the main reasons why I chose to do my master’s degree at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona was the opportunity to do an internship. Yes, I had been working for the past 4 years but I was still lacking the “agency” experience. There’s no secret that Puerto Rico’s communications market is very limited and very hard to get in. Have you seen those memes “Experience: 10 years, Education: Master’s Degree, Salary: $7.25/hour”? Well most comm jobs are usually like that. I used to think that I wasn’t “good enough”, that my résumé was wrong, that I was under-prepared, Blah, blah. But it was a wake-up call when I received a notification to interview for a job in Miami at a worldwide agency. It made me realize that I wasn’t the problem, the limited and unfair market in Puerto Rico was the problem. I didn’t get selected for the job only for one reason: I hadn’t had agency experience. Looking back to the interview, I am glad that I was completely honest and straightforward with my questions. Despite not getting the job, I felt more confident and realized that there was only one way to advance: earn a master’s degree and get agency experience. Fast forward to September 2016, already living in Barcelona -and loving it- I started my internship application process. Little did I know it was not going to be easy.

Curricular vs extra-curricular internships

When internships aren’t curricular, it means that it isn’t a requirement to complete the bachelor’s or master’s degree. I thought that it wouldn’t make a difference, but it did. Why? First, it makes the process of finding a job harder because most places will require the internship to be curricular. If it’s not curricular, the company doesn’t feel obliged to give you the job. There’s not an agreement between the company and the university to place the students in practices. Second, because the paperwork is far more lengthy and bureaucratic. I applied to several offers without success. It was like looking for a job. A real job. I was getting a little discouraged (and desperate) until I decided that I would not back down.

Finding an internship on your own

I sat down one afternoon and googled all the agencies in Barcelona and started applying one by one. I didn’t care if they didn’t have want-ads. I would still send my CV. Some said “yes but we can’t pay”, to which I said “thanks but no”. I had +3 years of experience, I could do most bilingual tasks locals couldn’t. I have bills to pay. I was not going to do free work. That, I had very clear. I say this because often we get desperate and accept the first offer we get when most of the times, we know that it isn’t the right one. My past experiences have taught me to stand firmly by what I believe in. And if I go down, I’ll go down swinging.

But I didn’t go down. Eventually I got the call I wanted.

Big or small agency – which is better?

Choosing a big or small agency to do your internship will depend on your goals. A big agency has a worldwide reputation, it is well-known within the sector. Also, your chance of getting hired or find out opportunities across the globe might be higher. Nonetheless, these agencies often do not delegate a lot of challenging tasks to the intern. If your goal is to learn, you might consider getting into a small agency. Small agencies are well, small. This means that they can offer a personalized attention and are most likely to delegate more meaningful tasks to interns. Having your expectations clear will help you choose the type of agency. Likewise, that will help on the next point: the interview.

The interview

Learn everything that there’s to learn about the company and understand what you are looking for. If you don’t have a clear mind on what it is that you expect, you might end up in a less-than-thrilling intern job. I knew what I wanted and why I wanted it, so communicating that was very important. Interviewers sense your will to do a job and value your confidence and honesty. I got selected for the job and I do believe that it was because of how confident and capable I portrayed myself. My motto has always been, “look like you know what you’re doing, even when you have no idea.” It’s all about confidence. And hey, for the record, it’s better to know what you’re doing.

The paperwork

Once I got the internship position, the paperwork process began. It takes around 2 weeks to be complete. I don’t know how it is in other universities but here in la Autònoma it goes down like this:

Tell the company to contact Treball Campus – The company must fill some forms in the online platform. Treball then will take up to a week to validate the information, approve the agreement, and prepare a contract. There’s also a fee involved that the company has to pay.
Treball Campus will contact you and the agency once the contract is ready to download. – The agency must download the contract and print 3 copies: one for them, one for you, and one for Treball Campus.
Contract signing (on all sides) – the contract needs to be signed by you and the company on each page. Each page. If not, Treball will say it’s not valid and make you go back to the company to get it signed.
Take the contract to Treball Campus to get it signed and validated – this will take up to 2 business days for reasons I am still trying to comprehend. When it’s ready, Treball will notify you and you can go pick it up.
Get registered with the Seguridad Social (social security) to get a number. If your internship is paid, the company needs this number to do the legal process to pay you. The registering process is straightforward:

Go to a Seguridad Social office (usually open Monday thru Friday, 9 AM to 2 PM). Make sure you don’t need an appointment prior to getting there. I didn’t need one but offices in Barcelona city might me different due to the higher volume of people.
Take with you your NIE, passport, the original contract (signed on all pages by you and the company, and approved by Treball Campus) and a copy of the contract.
In the office, they’ll assign you a number that you’ll need to give to the Accounting/Human Resources department at your internship center.

And that’s it. I had to wait around a month until all the paperwork was finally done. It’s not a walk in the park but one of my goals had just been achieved: I got an internship at a communications agency.

So, should you do an internship?

If you don’t have a job, I advise that you try to get into an internship. You will get not only experience, but you will improve your current skills and acquire new ones. Is it easy? No, it’s not. You must organize your time to fulfill your school and work obligations. But internships are a great way to demonstrate your commitment to your career and your determination to take it to the next level.

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Have you ever done an intership? How was it? Do you think it’s worth it? Leave your comments below!

Photo credit: Kaboompics // Karolina

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Should you study abroad?

college 3:10 PM

Traveling always seems like a fantastic idea. Exploring different places and cultures is life-changing. But when we do so, it is difficult to grasp the real lifestyle of other countries when we spend there 1 or 2 weeks as a tourist. Studying abroad is often the solution for people like me, who want to truly experience what is it like to live and get used to a whole new city, people, food and customs while getting a degree. As students, we have so many benefits in terms of mobility. We are young and free. I couldn’t see myself growing roots in a place at such a young age. I couldn’t see myself getting a career job at 20-something years old. What if a best life was out there and I didn’t get to it because of fear and comfort?

If you’ve followed this blog, you know by now the deepest reason why I decided to study abroad. Probably the thought of studying abroad has also crossed your mind but you’re not sure whether you should do it or not.

During nearly 3 months on this journey, I’ve identified the mindset needed and things to acknowledge to make the most out of this experience:

Be humble – have respect towards the country you’ll be living in and its people. You’re the foreigner, you’re the one who must get used to the way things are done there. You can’t have the “we do this better” attitude. Arrogance won’t lead you anywhere. It will only make your stay miserable and reduce your chance of growing.
Keep an open mind and be tolerant – these should be obvious. University is a place where you work with people who see things a different way. Group work is often the norm and if you don’t have the disposition of opening your mind, accepting other cultures and points of view, then an abroad experience isn’t for you.
Be serious about it and work hard – it would be very foolish to invest money on paperwork, study permits, tuition, rent, food, transport, and airfare only to focus on partying 24/7. There’s a time and a place for everything and I promise that you can have fun without neglecting your studies. Once you enroll in your program, there’s no coming back. Understand that it is a serious decision and not a weekend plan that you can drop off in the last minute.
Be patient – oh, patience, the virtue that we all should have but never actually work on. That, until you move out and discover that the world won’t do as you please, that you have no control over most things. You’ll need to have patience if you don’t want to lose your mind.
Learn to live with others – unless you’re super rich and can afford an apartment only for yourself, chances are you’ll share a dorm with someone else. A person you don’t know. It will be inevitable to give up on some privacy. There will be habits you won’t like and frankly just won’t understand. But it’s part of it. The whole experience will make you more tolerant, but you must be willing to it.
Be emotionally independent – when you make the decision of studying abroad, it is a reality that you’ll most likely be apart from the people you love. You must learn how to deal with it. Your happiness and stability can’t depend completely on others. I won’t lie, it is not easy but the more attached we are to things and people, the less we allow ourselves to grow. Relationships are super important, but it’s just as important as learning how to be comfortable just with ourselves.

So are you up to this? Are you ready? Then start (or continue) saving money, evaluate your options and jump in. You won’t regret it.

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A New Beginning

a new beginning 2:36 PM

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Learning German in Munich

Before getting there 📅

Servus, München! 🛫

Free time

Travel

Why I think it's worth it 👍

Want a summer abroad?

Beyond the degree – 10 benefits of studying abroad

Five things to know about internships

Curricular vs extra-curricular internships

Finding an internship on your own

Big or small agency – which is better?

The interview

The paperwork

So, should you do an internship?

Should you study abroad?

A New Beginning

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