Erasmus+ Journal (Issue 3) 2014/15
Nicole Zelzer, University of Huelva, Spain, Mobility for Study, PHSt
Huelva
The province of Huelva is situated in the south-west corner of Spain, with Portugal to the west, Seville and Cadiz to the east, Extremadura to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It´s a city not very popular for tourists but maybe this is the special charm. Huelva City is also where Christopher Columbus organised and set sail on his trip to the New World.Today Huelva is a large, sprawling and industrialised city with a population of 141,000.They have a good and mainly cheap public bus system and its just half an hour to the beautif
ul beaches of Punta Umbria. A drive with the bus in the city and into the smaller ones around is between 0,60€ and 2,50€. Much of Huelva’s cuisine incorporates fresh fish and seafood, which can be found in the local city markets.Huelva has a typical Mediterranean climate, with extremely mild winters and long, hot summer days.
University
The University is spread over four sites. The main and newest campus is El Carmen, to the north of the city where the Faculties of Experimental Sciences, Law, Humanities, Education Sciences, Labour Sciences, the School of Nursing and the School of Social Work can be found as well as state of the art computing facilities and the central library. The Faculty of Business Science is housed in a building of architectural merit next to the cathedral in the heart of the city centre and is known as La Merced. The Polytechnic is strategically located to the west at La Rabida, high on a hill overlooking the Tinto estuary and the city’s industrial areas where strong links have been formed with the University. The University General Registry and administrative centre is located in Cantero Cuadrado.
We had all our courses at the campus El Carmen. The organization at the university was rather poor, we were not even registered the first 5 weeks. The main issue was the financial crisis and the degraded jobs at the university. They were overhelmed with all the Erasmus students and the no longer existing courses. Because of that, we had no possibility to officially attend courses, or to load materials. The professors didn´t want to have us in their courses as well, because that would mean that they had to speak in english, what they did not want because the spanish students didn´t understand english. The first few weeks were not easy and finally we had anyway to visit all courses they offered. Fortunately we quickly found friends among the Spanish students who helped us with organizational matters and also with the communication between us and the professors.
school practice
C.E.I.P. El Puntal
Goya s.n.
21110 Bellavista (Aljaraque-Huelva)
The ‘Colegio Público el Puntal’ offers a kindergarten for children from the age of 3 up to the sixth year of primary education. Since 2014 they may be described as a bilingual school.
Unfortunately there was not a possibility to do a official school practice this year. The University don´t offers this course any longer. Fortunately, we found a professor who helped us to find a school.
At the school, ther is an open, friendly environment for children. But of course I see many differences to the schools in Austria. Unfortunately I can´t say anything about the training of teachers, because we got no chance to join any courses. What is really different in practice in Austria is the diversity of methods. I spent 13 days in Bellavista and all I could see was classical frontal teaching. What I really liked at that school was how they deal with kids with special needs. Everyone was really integrated. I also liked the kindergarten. I think they are really forward looking. I think it was a good experience and showed me the good but self-evident things in my own country and school system. I´m really happy that the teachers from the school in Bellavista were so open minded to integrate us totally in the school. They were all very nice and dedicated people and I don´t want to miss the time there.
resume
It was a great pleasure for me to spend the summer semester 2015 in Spain, to gain study and life experience. I extended my knowledge of languages and saw other school systems. A great incentive for a semester abroud was the enrichment for me through another culture, conventions and mindset. Furhermore is Spain well-known for its unique landscape, which I saw and explored. We traveled a lot throughout the country what was indescribably exciting and impressive. The most beautiful side effect – I lived by the sea for half a year. I explored the university got to know fellow students and took part in the Spanish way of study-life as good as possible. We had to organize a lot by ourselves and that wasn´t that easy but maybe thereby we learned even more for our future life. All in all, anyway a great enriching experience – I`ll recommend Erasmus continues!!
There are new chances behind each horizon.
