Hola! Bonjour! Hello!I’m Christina and I study French and Spanish at Heriot-Watt University in

Edinburgh.

P.S. I’m also a St. John’s past student.

¡Bienvenido a España!Spain has 17 Autonomous Regions (Comunidades Autonomas). This means that these regions are

self-governed. Like Wales.

I will be studying in Madrid at Universidad

Autonoma de Madrid from September

until January. All of my classes (bar one) will be taught in

Spanish and I have chosen to study translation and grammer along with French and Spanish. I

will also be studying English literature and learning a new language entirely…Portuguese.

Madrid• Madrid is the capital and it is the

largest city in Spain.

• It is the home of the Spanish royal family therefore it is the political

centre of Spain.

• I have never been to Madrid before but I am looking forward to learning

about this beautiful city.

Palacio Real - The Royal Palace

El Parque de Retiro - Retiro Park

El Centro de Madrid (The Centre of

Madrid)

Madrid being the capital means that travelling through

out Spain is VERY easy.

And I have friends staying in multiple places all over

Spain.

Bienvenue en FranceFor Semester two,

I will be studying at the Universite Catholique de l’Ouest in Angers from February to June.

Angers is 3 hours from Paris, the Capital.

During this placement, I must not only study but write my dissertation in

French. The bonus is that I don’t have to sit any exams.

YAY!

I’ve visited France before with St. John’s on the French Exchange (the reason I am now studying languages at University – Start nagging for it to

make a return. I promise you’ll love it!)

AngersAngers is a city in western

France with a population of around 147,305 inhabitants.

Angers is the home of blue chocolate (Bizarre, I know,

but I will try it).

It’s a lot smaller than Madrid but I’m looking forward to the difference in size.

Couffon Pavot residence universitaire –

University Halls named Couffon Pavot

In Angers, I will be living in the town centre (le

centre-ville) in a halls of residence (la residence

universitaire).

Angers has an airport (l’aéroport)

The city is located on the river Maine

(La Maine est une rivière française du

Maine-et-Loire)

Angers is famous for its towering castle (la château) filled with the extraordinary

Apocalypse Tapestry.

As I mentioned, I have classmates and friends already abroad. My year

abroad is going to be full of travels.

Rome

Alicante

Valencia

Lisbon

Barcelona

MalagaSeville

CarcassonneFlorence

Venice

Geneva

MulhouseVienna

Bucharest

Sofia

Budapest

Prague

BerlinAmsterdam

Belgium

Orleans

Paris

Including a three week long Interrail across Europe in

July.

¡ Hasta Luego! Á bientôt!I’m looking forward to sharing my year

abroad experiences with you over the next year. Hopefully, you will experience the same enthusiasm for French that I felt

after attending the year abroad.