Ok, send me your e-mail, and I will pass you all the information (I have it all up to date because my little brother is also planning on coming over.) Alright, point by point: Navarra isn't all that bad, I mean, you can definitely maneuver around the Opus people, for the most part, but after living in Miami, you will find the change a bit dull. Don't get me wrong, Pamplona is beautiful - in the summer. In the fall, winter, and spring, however, it rains most of the time, or snows, or is windy, and well, that's not altogether fun. What's more, it's fairly small, and it really doesn't have a wide variety of nearby attractions so...yes, it can get a bit boring. BUT, it is an excellent stepping stone, in the sense that you could go there for a year, and then transfer elsewhere - the only problem with this is that if you do as I did, for example, and attend Navarra as a foreigner for a year, then take the Selectividad and transfer out, none of your credits will transfer, so it will essentially be a lost year. Despite all of these matters though, it is a fine school, and one can make one’s own fun in Pamplona, but it really can be a bit dreary sometimes, being a pseudo-remote provincial capital, and Spain is still very 19th century in that the provinces continue to be sleepy and slightly isolated, especially when compared to cities like Miami or Madrid, where something is always going on.
The Selectividad is confusing, but only because Spain tried to follow the Napoleonic example of the départements, screwed up, and totally botched the whole bureaucratic system. Still, it can be done - what you'd need to do is send your transcript to get translated a.s.a.p., and validated, which is complicated, but I can get you that info as well, and then you'd need to sign up for the exam before May 1, I think and take it at the consulate in Miami on the 1st of June. Now the exam is made of 5 sections - 2 are language-based (Spanish language and Foreign language, i.e. English) and for the other three sections you’ve two options: either take the humanities-related subjects, or the math and science ones. If you're doing humanities, I can pass you my notes last year for Art History, Contemporary History, and Philosophy. As long as you review them well and study with a bit of effort, you should be fine. From that point, your score determines which universities you can attend, depending on what you want to study.
I attend the Universidad Complutense, which is really cool / fun because it's a public university, so it's very lively and whatnot and follows the traditions of the great public universities of Europe. There are a bunch in Madrid, but I've a feeling they all require you to take the Selectividad. Navarra does not, but you have to keep in mind that the diploma that you'll get in Navarra will be a special one for foreigners that will only be recognized by certain countries and will not be recognized in Spain - in other words, you probably wouldn't be able to work here, or in Europe in general, if you do that, though I think it is recognized by the United States. If you pass the Selectividad, however, you can get into all the Spanish universities and you graduate with a licensure, which allows you to practice whatever you've studied in Spain and, with the new Treatise of Bologna, all of the European Union. Also: there are American universities here - my friend Claire is studying at the University of St. Louis annex here, at which you can apparently do the whole 4 years. However, you should also totally keep in mind how frustrating it will be to pay U.S. college prices ($22.000) when the students going to college down the street are paying 600 euros for year-round tuition at a Spanish one.
Anyway, send me your e-mail and I'll send you all the Selectividad information; if you decide to do it (which, really, you totally can do - last year, with preparing pseudo-intensely for a month, I did fine) I can put you in touch with my brother so that he can pass you my study-notes from last year.
And yeah, Maura is essentially a loveable bitch, it's GREAT; and thanks, but in all fairness, it has been a remarkably busy week.
but it really can be a bit dreary sometimes, being a pseudo-remote provincial capital, and Spain is still very 19th century in that the provinces continue to be sleepy and slightly isolated, I visited my friend in a town called Bell-Lloc in Catalunya during the winter and it was essentially, what you described. There was no one outside on Sundays, nothing was open and everything closed around 4; but it was cozy nonetheless.
Ok, so the first thing I'm gonna do now is sign up for the Selectividad, I'm going to be taking the humanities-related subjects for sure and your notes would be very much appreciated =) I'm going to look into both of these schools; thank you soso much Aitor
Awesome; I'll send you the info right now and I'll talk to my little brother today so that I can coordinate between you two and you can pass by and pick up the notes.
Oh, and yeah, that's totally what Pamplona is like. The Casco Viejo is absolutely beautiful but, alas, quite small; even having had the enormous good fortune to have lived in the center of it, you basically had to enter the newer parts of the city in order to do basic food-shopping and going to class, and the new parts are absolutely ghastly, pseudo-Stalinesque buildings, so not particularly beautiful stuff. It has some stunning countryside in the vicinity, but being that you would probably not have a car with which to wander about, the weather kind of ruins things - it's sunny more than it snows, but it rains more than it's sunny, so you're indoors alot.
Regardless of where you end up though, it's worth atleast a trip up to see the Basque countryside and mountains - there's this particular village where my family has friends that you really totally have to visit, considering what insanely amazing pictures you would no doubt be able to take...seriously, it's up in these enormously green mountains and - but, ok, no, focus on Selectividad first, and we'll plan random outings to the Basquelands later! ;)
Ok, send me your e-mail, and I will pass you all the information (I have it all up to date because my little brother is also planning on coming over.) Alright, point by point: Navarra isn't all that bad, I mean, you can definitely maneuver around the Opus people, for the most part, but after living in Miami, you will find the change a bit dull. Don't get me wrong, Pamplona is beautiful - in the summer. In the fall, winter, and spring, however, it rains most of the time, or snows, or is windy, and well, that's not altogether fun. What's more, it's fairly small, and it really doesn't have a wide variety of nearby attractions so...yes, it can get a bit boring. BUT, it is an excellent stepping stone, in the sense that you could go there for a year, and then transfer elsewhere - the only problem with this is that if you do as I did, for example, and attend Navarra as a foreigner for a year, then take the Selectividad and transfer out, none of your credits will transfer, so it will essentially be a lost year. Despite all of these matters though, it is a fine school, and one can make one’s own fun in Pamplona, but it really can be a bit dreary sometimes, being a pseudo-remote provincial capital, and Spain is still very 19th century in that the provinces continue to be sleepy and slightly isolated, especially when compared to cities like Miami or Madrid, where something is always going on.
The Selectividad is confusing, but only because Spain tried to follow the Napoleonic example of the départements, screwed up, and totally botched the whole bureaucratic system. Still, it can be done - what you'd need to do is send your transcript to get translated a.s.a.p., and validated, which is complicated, but I can get you that info as well, and then you'd need to sign up for the exam before May 1, I think and take it at the consulate in Miami on the 1st of June. Now the exam is made of 5 sections - 2 are language-based (Spanish language and Foreign language, i.e. English) and for the other three sections you’ve two options: either take the humanities-related subjects, or the math and science ones. If you're doing humanities, I can pass you my notes last year for Art History, Contemporary History, and Philosophy. As long as you review them well and study with a bit of effort, you should be fine. From that point, your score determines which universities you can attend, depending on what you want to study.
I attend the Universidad Complutense, which is really cool / fun because it's a public university, so it's very lively and whatnot and follows the traditions of the great public universities of Europe. There are a bunch in Madrid, but I've a feeling they all require you to take the Selectividad. Navarra does not, but you have to keep in mind that the diploma that you'll get in Navarra will be a special one for foreigners that will only be recognized by certain countries and will not be recognized in Spain - in other words, you probably wouldn't be able to work here, or in Europe in general, if you do that, though I think it is recognized by the United States. If you pass the Selectividad, however, you can get into all the Spanish universities and you graduate with a licensure, which allows you to practice whatever you've studied in Spain and, with the new Treatise of Bologna, all of the European Union. Also: there are American universities here - my friend Claire is studying at the University of St. Louis annex here, at which you can apparently do the whole 4 years. However, you should also totally keep in mind how frustrating it will be to pay U.S. college prices ($22.000) when the students going to college down the street are paying 600 euros for year-round tuition at a Spanish one.
Anyway, send me your e-mail and I'll send you all the Selectividad information; if you decide to do it (which, really, you totally can do - last year, with preparing pseudo-intensely for a month, I did fine) I can put you in touch with my brother so that he can pass you my study-notes from last year.
And yeah, Maura is essentially a loveable bitch, it's GREAT; and thanks, but in all fairness, it has been a remarkably busy week.
;) Here for whatever you need,
ahm
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but it really can be a bit dreary sometimes, being a pseudo-remote provincial capital, and Spain is still very 19th century in that the provinces continue to be sleepy and slightly isolated,
I visited my friend in a town called Bell-Lloc in Catalunya during the winter and it was essentially, what you described. There was no one outside on Sundays, nothing was open and everything closed around 4; but it was cozy nonetheless.
Ok, so the first thing I'm gonna do now is sign up for the Selectividad, I'm going to be taking the humanities-related subjects for sure and your notes would be very much appreciated =)
I'm going to look into both of these schools;
thank you soso much Aitor
Reply
No prob!
ahm
Reply
Regardless of where you end up though, it's worth atleast a trip up to see the Basque countryside and mountains - there's this particular village where my family has friends that you really totally have to visit, considering what insanely amazing pictures you would no doubt be able to take...seriously, it's up in these enormously green mountains and - but, ok, no, focus on Selectividad first, and we'll plan random outings to the Basquelands later! ;)
ahm
Reply
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