My placement in Bilbao: shops, activities and spanish language course<

My placement in Bilbao: shops, activities and spanish language course

My name is Stephanie, and I am 18 years old, I am actually in my first year of a BTS AM degree (an Assistant Manager, higher technical diploma) at the university of Jehan de Chelles, France.

During this year a work abroad placement is compulsory for a minimum of 2 months, from the 4th of April to the 4th of June 2011. I chose Bilbao with some classmates because we like Spanish and my Spanish teacher had nothing but good things to say about Bilbao, and had recommended it to former students.
I had never really visited Bilbao before even though I had already been to Spain twice and visited Barcelona. In Bilbao there are a lot og parks, you can go for walks and on top of that it has a pleasant atmosphere but the city is also very lively. It’s a big city with new buildings, industrial areas as well as a lot of transportation available. The people are very welcoming and the weather is agreeable.

There are a lot of shopping centres, and places to visit. My friends and I decided to go to visit San Sebastián, Guernica, the Artxanda, and Pagasarri as a mountain excursion, we tried tapas and pintxos… and thanks to the activities offered by Instituto Hemingway we get to take part in all these activities for free.

I think that the clothes shops’ in Bilbao and France are pretty similar, you can find all the well known brands such as Zara, H&M, Promod, Simply, Carrefour express etc and the prices are essentially the same. Whether it’s France or Bilbao, you can find small local shops selling clothes at great prices. I don’t think there was much difference in pricing.

Meanwhile in France there are large areas to shop, such as Carrefour, Leclerc, Cora… here in Bilbao I only found small “Express” ones, like Rafa, Carrefour Express, Simply, Eroski and the same things cost a little more.

It is true that the people in Bilbao and Spain are generally more friendly and agreeable than in France. The pace of life, and customs are completely different to the french ones. I have to admit that the Spanish way of life is very enjoyable.