Hola, WLANcia – things are getting afib

Hi. It’s me. The main character of your favorite low-budget Erasmus film. Spoiler alert: I survive the first episode. Probably.

My name is Jacqueline, 27 years young (insert existential crisis here), and I’m doing my apprenticeship as an IT specialist for system integration at the afib group. Yep, that means IT, cable spaghetti, and constantly Googling things I should probably already know – the full experience.

Thanks to Erasmus, I was catapulted straight into the Valencia sun with a plane ticket, an overpacked suitcase (RIP my spine), and an internal monologue screaming “Why am I doing this to myself?” Valencia – the city of oranges, tapas, palm trees… and the constant risk of accidentally offending someone when trying to speak Spanish.

After checking in, we entered full-on survival mode: get water (because the tap water here smells more like chlorine than a Berlin public pool in July), hunt for food (thank you, Aldi – the international best friend of all broke students), and most importantly: get settled. Which basically means unpacking, panicking, repacking, reorganizing, and then giving up.

This week we’re starting a Spanish language course with our teacher Jesús. Yep. That’s his actual name. And while his English isn’t exactly Olympic-level, he teaches us with so much humor, hand gestures, drawings, and wild enthusiasm that you kind of start understanding things through sheer emotional osmosis. It’s weirdly effective.

Then: Culture overload. We headed to the center of Valencia – with the Metro, by the way. The stations here are huge, clean, organized and – bless – air-conditioned. A true gift from the Spanish gods in 28°C heat. Sure, it’s sometimes so full you feel like a canned sardine on a school trip, but hey – at least you’re not sweating to death.

In the city, we saw all the classic landmarks:
Torres dels Serrans (old, pretty, dramatic), Real Colegio del Corpus Christi (sounds like Hogwarts, looks even holier), Plaza de Manises, admired the stunning architecture of La Seu, and of course the iconic Plaza de la Virgen with the Valencia Cathedral and the basilica next door – so much holy architecture, I almost lit a candle for my router issues.

Oh, and then – BAM – the trees. Not just any trees. Giant fig trees with roots straight out of a fantasy novel. In Berlin, we’re lucky if a tree isn’t killed by an SUV. Here, they grow like nature’s skyscrapers. I was officially impressed.

Grand finale? An evening at Las Horas Café – so colorful, so loud, so “please shoot an indie film here”. And yes, I tried Agua de Valencia. A mix of orange juice and alcohol that tastes sweeter than my sarcasm – dangerously good.

From now on, I’ll post here twice a week – sharing the good, the bad, the awkward, and the unfiltered truth about this sunny, chaotic adventure. For your entertainment, emotional support, or pure confusion. (Yes, I’m real. No, I don’t have superpowers.)