My exchange at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid started on the 28th of January 2020. This was a little after the start of the Coronavirus situation in China. Back then I didn’t really think much of the virus and really looked forward to my exchange. I finished my internship on the 24th and was already in Madrid on the 26th, ready and eager to start school and meet new people.
On my first week, I noticed there weren’t many exchange students in my courses, they were mainly Spanish and degree students. I, however, did meet another exchange student who helped me a lot. I managed to change some courses which I really wasn’t interested in. On the second week and with my new courses, I started to meet a lot of new people from all around the world. Classes were fun but quite hard, the teachers expect a lot from the students and ask a lot of questions during classes. A lot of mathematics is used here in every subject.
Not everything was about school and classes though. We started hanging out a lot in a group of exchange students. We went out to parties and did sports together and went hiking. I became close friends with a bunch of new people. We even got the chance to go watch football at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, which was a great experience.
A little over a month and a half after my exchange started, the situation with the Coronavirus was starting to get really bad in Europe. For a week I really thought about it but finally decided it was time to come back to Finland and study online from here. I am still currently enrolled in UAM and hopefully manage to get some credits from there since I am looking forward to graduating in the summer here. It is a pity this had to happen now but that’s what happens sometimes. I enjoyed my month and a half in Madrid and for sure will go back there one day and will definitely meet up with the friends I made there.
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