Monday, 28th April 2025 Monday was kind of a weird day. We had a nationwide power outage, so no electricity, no internet. So we basically had to get through the whole day offline, which definitely felt strange in the big year of 2025. The power finally came back on later at night, but yeah… not much happened apart from waiting around and trying to stay entertained.
Tuesday, 29th April 2025 Tuesday was much more eventful. We met with Mr. Bavar and my supervisor, Mr. Gierschner, since they came over to visit us. They came by our apartment first, and we gave them a quick tour of the place. Later, we all went out and had Paella with lobster and a couple of beers together.
Wednesday, 30th April 2025 On Wednesday, it was Jimmy’s and my turn to clean the apartment, so we spent part of the day doing that. Afterward, we went out for some groceries. To end the day, we watched Fight Club. I never watched it and now I have. I sure liked it 😀
Monday was honestly one of the craziest days of the trip so far. I woke up to Jimmy yelling that we had no electricity. At first I thought he was exaggerating, but then I noticed my phone had no signal either. Turns out the entire region was affected, no mobile reception, no metro service, nothing. We later found out that Spain, Portugal, and even parts of France were hit by a massive blackout.
We tried to make the best out of the situation. We played some card games and just chilled together. Thankfully, I had a few episodes of Star Wars The Clone Wars downloaded, so we weren’t completely bored. Later, we walked to a small local store and found a line of people outside, clearly preparing for a long power outage. Inside, it was super eerie without any lights, it honestly felt like in The Purge. Luckily, by the evening, the power finally came back on and things slowly returned to normal.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, our supervisors Mr. Gierschner and Mr. Bavar came to visit us. I quickly cleaned up a bit in the morning before they arrived. We sat together and talked about our experiences in Valencia so far, the culture, the language classes, and everyday life here. After the talk, we all went to a restaurant to have some traditional paella. Ruben, Jimmy, Flo, and I decided to walk there, which took us almost an hour. After the paella, some cervezas, and of course Agua de Valencia, we all took separate Ubers back home. On the way back, we also stopped at the Consum near our place to do some grocery shopping.
on our way to the restaurant
Wednesday
Wednesday started off slowly, mostly because I accidentally slept through my alarm. After getting up, I had breakfast while chatting with my girlfriend, who was dress shopping for her high school prom in Berlin. Later in the afternoon, I went for a jog to clear my head. In the evening, or more like late at night, I called a friend back in Berlin to wish him a happy birthday and catch up a bit.
Monday, April 28, 2025 Monday was once again a public holiday here in Valencia so we all had the day off. The cheerful mood didn’t last long though because around noon a power outage hit the entire country. No internet no lights no phones – suddenly everything went quiet. Instead of getting frustrated we decided to make the most of it. We bought the remaining beer from the little corner store and spent the day together in our apartment. Without screens or distractions we played games talked for hours and laughed a lot.
Tuesday, April 29, 2025 On Tuesday work started again It was a special day for us because our supervisors from Germany came to visit Mr Gierschner from Charité and Mr Bavar from the Free University visited Jaqueline and me at the university. They wanted to get an idea of what we are doing and how our daily work looks like We gave them a short tour and explained our tasks. In the evening we went to a small restaurant to have some paella together It was a relaxed and pleasant day with great food and nice conversations
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 Today I went to work alone because Jacky wasn’t feeling well. At the university I continued working with Git and GitHub just like the days before I practiced with some exercises and repeated a few tests to solidify my understanding. The weather was grey and cold which matched my mood.
