The “year abroad” – officially the International Placement Year (IPY) – is the highlight of any languages degree, and when I decided to study French and Spanish at Lancaster University it had always been the year I was most looking forward to. As I study two languages, I was required to split my IPY between two countries; in my case, France and Spain. Thus, I spent the second semester of the 2021-22 academic year studying at a partner institution in Barcelona: the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (International University of Catalonia).

Planning my IPY

Languages students have three options for their IPY: work in a school as a British Council English Language Assistant (ELA); find your own work placement; or study at a partner institution. I decided that studying at a partner institution was the best option for me as I wanted to discover the higher education systems in other European countries and pursue subjects that I had not had the chance to study at Lancaster. Moreover, studying abroad is an easier way to make friends during your IPY: you have plenty of opportunities to meet likeminded people of a similar age, and most universities organise social or extracurricular activities for international students to get involved with.

Having decided to study, I then needed to select a partner institution. The Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster has bilateral agreements with four universities in Spain (the University of Granada, and the University of Córdoba, UIC Barcelona, the University of Deusto in Bilbao) and one university in Mexico. For me, UIC Barcelona was the clear contender: it is located in a buzzing, international city on the sunny Mediterranean coast, with France just over an hour and a half away by high-speed train, and the course on offer at the partner institution appealed to my interests.

Life at Spanish university

I arrived in Barcelona in early February for the beginning of the second semester of classes. UIC Barcelona is a small, private university with no more than six thousand students spread across two campuses. As an international student in the Humanities Department, I studied at the Barcelona city campus, located in the hills on the outskirts of the city, giving it amazing views of the metropolitan area and the Mediterranean Sea. The Humanities Department is one of the smaller departments of the university, meaning that all the staff and students seemed to know each other and there was a genuine feeling of community.

I studied both first and second-year modules taught exclusively in Spanish and had the opportunity to delve into a broad variety of subjects from across the humanities: literature, history, philosophy, art history, and international relations. I found all the modules to be incredibly engaging and I definitely deepened my understanding of human culture and the world we live in.

Because the department was so small, I got to know the Spanish students very well and made some real friends; it was also a true linguistic immersion as I was spending every day speaking to them in Spanish! All the staff and students were really friendly and welcoming, and rather than feeling like a “guest” at the host institution, I found myself feeling like this was actually my own university, almost as if I had been studying here just as long as I had been at Lancaster!

One of the highlights of my semester in Barcelona was learning Catalan. Catalonia is a bilingual region of Spain where both Catalan and Spanish (known to the Catalans as “Castilian”) are spoken, and although most people can understand both languages, I found that Catalan was more dominant outside of Barcelona, with most street signs, adverts, and museum exhibitions being written exclusively in Catalan.

Therefore, I was determined to make the most of this opportunity and learn the language whilst I was living there. I had already taken basic Catalan classes the previous semester at my French university, so I enrolled on intermediate classes and sat official language exams at the end of my residency. Learning Catalan enriched my understanding of the regional culture, and the Catalans were always humbled to hear a foreigner like myself making an effort to speak their minority language; on one occasion I visited a monastery and the cashier gave me the guide book for free because I spoke to her in Catalan!

Living in Barcelona

During the seven months that I spent in Spain, Barcelona really did become the place I called home. Having grown up in the countryside of North East England, moving to a city with a population of over 1.6 million people (with over 3 million people in the surrounding metropolitan area) initially seemed a little daunting, but I thrived in such a vibrant city where everything I needed was readily available on my doorstep. Barcelona is a popular tourist destination thanks to its rich history, stunning architecture, warm climate, and abundance of shops, restaurants, museums, art galleries, and theatres. There was never a dull moment in the city, and I never found myself short of things to do.

Exploring Catalonia, the rest of Spain, and beyond

I was very keen to make the most of my time in Spain to pursue my love for travel and see as much of Catalonia as possible. This part of north-eastern Spain has it all: city, coast, countryside, and mountains. During the summer I travelled the region by train, which is relatively cheaper than it is in the UK, and pretty reliable too. I visited all four provinces of Catalonia – Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona, and Lleida – with my longest journey being a three-hour train ride to the picturesque town of Puigcerdà, nestled on the border with France in the Spanish Pyrenees. In July, I flew from Barcelona to Maó and began a three-week circuit of the Balearic Islands, visiting Menorca, Mallorca, Ibiza, and Formentera, as well as taking some time to relax on their idyllic beaches. I even had the opportunity to visit neighbouring Andorra and cross the border into the south of France. By the end of my time in Spain, I had managed to visit over 50 cities, towns, and villages across Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community.

All in all, my IPY was the best year of my degree – if not of my life – and I would thoroughly encourage anyone considering spending their year in Barcelona to go ahead and do so!

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