¡La Chica Blanca en España!

Preparation For Erasmus

In preparation for this trip I went to Spanish classes in the college along with practicing Spanish in my free time. 

I studied Spanish in secondary school for 5 years which has enabled me to have a basic understanding of the language and speak to the locals. 

Malaga

I’m staying in an apartment with Christina and we’re an 8 minute walk from the main street. We both have a room to ourselves and the flat has two bathrooms. We don’t have an oven so we have been going out for food rather than cooking at home. We also have realised it’s cheaper to eat out than it is to cook at home! For breakfast most mornings i have been getting a sandwich with jamón along with an espresso which costs only around €3.50!

From the food to the drinks it is so much more affordable in Malaga in comparison to Ireland.

My Accommodation 

When we first arrived in Malaga we were given two keys to the apartment. It took a bit of fidgeting to try get the knack of opening the doors but eventually we got it. Turns out you twist the key to the left not the right like how we do it in Ireland. 

Our electricity was always cutting out! One of the days when I was cooking it tripped out 4 times while i tried make a 20min pasta dish. I had to turn off all electricity in the whole flat bar the hob and light above just so I could finish. Another time it went while I was in the shower… of course the power going once wasn’t enough though and so it went twice during my quick shower. I was home alone too and it was dark outside and let’s just say it wasn’t the most fun.

Christina and I did our first shop after two days to get all the necessities for the apartment. Buying sponges and toilet paper was not our favourite thing to be spending our money on when we could have been getting food with it instead, but nevertheless it had to be done.

My Work Placement

 

The day after arriving in Malaga we were shown our workplaces. I was put in La Calle Burger just along the coast in a really beautiful and sunny part of Malaga. I travel to work by bus either taking 3,8 or 11. My working hours are 12-4 so I am able to enjoy a lie in and breakfast before my shift. One day I went to the beach before and after my shift to get a nice tan and relax in the sun which I really enjoyed.

For the first week I was working back of house helping to prepare the burgers and sorting stock. I really like the people I’m working with and they don’t stop feeding me! I’m going to be HUGE when I return back to Ireland! I will say though the food from La Calle Burger is unbelievable. The sauce, the meaty burgers and chips are the best of the best. I’ve never been the biggest fan of burgers however they’ve for sure changed my mind.

After week one I was moved onto front of house where I served food, took some orders and set covers. At the start I was told I would be taking all the food orders which made me nervous since I’m not fluent in Spanish and couldn’t understand half of what customers asked me.  I spoke to Ricard who then asked my manager to leave taking food orders and stick to just drink orders which was already a challenge enough. When I returned to work the following day Mimi (my manager) was way more relaxed and wanted to make sure we enjoyed working with him. 

The some of the staff in La Calle Burger spoke good English while some of the others did not. Communication was hard at times but I didn’t mind as it forced me to use more of my Spanish and get out of my shell. I even asked one of the chefs to only speak in simple Spanish to me to help me build up my confidence in Spanish. 

Diary Entry

15^th Feb

I woke up on our third day around 9:30am. It was my first day in work in La Calle Burger. I wasn’t starting my shift until 12pm so I got a bit of a lie in. My roommate, Christina, and I went to one of our local cafes for breakfast. I ordered a coffee and bocadillo con jamon serrano. We couldn’t get over how cheap it was! Just over €4 for the both of us in total. It worked out cheaper to go out for breakfast than it did to make a nice breakfast at the apartment.

After our breakfast I made my way to work on bus. The bus stop was just an 8-minute walk from my apartment which was really convenient and it took around 15 minutes to get to work from there.
On my first day in work I was at the back of house… I presume this was to get me used to how they operated and familiar with the menu before working front of house. Since I was working in a street food burger place, I was doing food prep. I really enjoyed this shift and got on well with the staff. It was a really nice and relaxed environment and some of the staff didn’t have much English at all so I was pushed to practice my Spanish.

After I finished my shift at 4pm I returned back home and went out food shopping to get the essentials for the apartment.

That night we had the Flamenco show planned for us Erasmus students to go to see. The entry fee was €20 which we felt was overpriced due to the service we were given. The dancers were very entertaining however when you walked into the room it felt like a primary school assembly with the layout and furniture. As well as this, it was hard to order a drink as there was only one person taking orders who wasn’t able to make her way around to everyone easily.

After the show we went out for a nice meal with our Erasmus group to enjoy some Spanish food. I ordered marinated fried fish which tasted beautiful. We then went out for a few more drinks and returned back home around 1am to get some sleep.

17^th Feb

In work I was with Amath and Miguel for the first time. I was helping Amath in the kitchen. His English is very good which made it easy to communicate with him and have fun while working. I tried to teach him some Irish phrases such as “good craic” and “banter”, he thought they sounded funny. I helped Amath chop veg and the burger buns at the back of house. We weren’t too busy until the last hour when the pace picked up however all went well. At the end of my shift I made myself an entrana burger which is one of La Calle Burger’s most popular burgers. BEST BURGER OF MY LIFE.

After work I took the bus back to the centre where I then walked to Alcazaba where we had our next tour. It was a really lovely sunny afternoon so I was happy I had my shorts and a light top on so I didn’t over heat. We walked around Alcazaba on top of the hill and looked out at the view of Malaga. It was such a great tour and I’m so happy we got good weather for it. There were small little courtyards on the land as well as a café they built for tourists.

That evening our group went to Casa Lola a great tapas bar nearby. I ordered the bravas. Iberian chorizo and paprika octopus on bread. The food was incredible. I love the idea of tapas because I can never decide what food I want. Also with the tapas we could all try some of each-others tapas to see what we like and don’t like. This was a really great experience for me and it was also the first time I had tried tapas!

21^st Feb

This was my first day going into work with Christina as she felt her ankle was feeling better. I was put front of house and Christina took my role at the back of house doing food prep. My duties now were to serve food and clear tables as well as cleaning dishes and filling up sauce holders. My manager asked me to shadow him for taking orders so he could then move me onto taking orders myself. I felt this was difficult since I am not fluent in Spanish and could not understand a lot of what the customers were asking for. At the end of my shift Christina were asked to work 12:30-4:30pm instead of 12-4pm. We were a bit annoyed about this as it meant it would interfere with some of our activities with our Erasmus group. I texted Richard when I went back home that day asking if he could talk to my manager about not having me take orders as this put a lot of stress on me being out of my depth. I didn’t enjoy this shift as much as I had been when I started because I felt my manager was putting a lot of pressure on Christina and myself which we also mentioned to Ricard to get help.

In the evening my friends and I went to the Cathedral to tour inside. We were hoping to go to the Picasso museum however the queue was too long so we left it for another day. The entry was €4pp for the downstairs and €7 to include the rooftop. Inside the cathedral was incredible! I was so fascinated by the architecture and the attention to detail in all the statues, art work and the building itself. The cathedral also had an audio guide to access on your phone to tell you the story behind all the sculptures. After we finished touring the downstairs we made our way up to the rooftop. The view was beautiful. We couldn’t access the whole rooftop at once to walk around so instead they operate the rooftop tour by bringing groups up to the different sections of the rooftop.

Later on that day we went to an Italian restaurant and ordered pasta and pizza. Not so Spanish but the food was very tasty!

 

 19^th Feb

On our first Saturday in Malaga we went to Cordoba. I woke up at 8am and went to the bus stop for 8:45 to meet the others and head on our journey. We were over an hour on the bus there and sadly it was overcast. The weather started to pick up and the sun came out after half an hour or so. We were brought on a tour of the town and learned about the town’s ancient history between the Muslims, Jews and Christians. We were brought to a beautiful flower wall building which reminded me of the magical house from the kids Disney movie Encanto.

At the end of our tour we were recommended to try aubergine with honey and flamenquin which is very traditional to Cordoba. My friends and I went to a local restaurant and ordered these dishes to taste them. I loved the deep-fried aubergine and honey which was almost like a treacle. The dish reminded me a bit of Chinese chicken balls that we get in Ireland! Next was the flamenquin… I won’t lie, this wasn’t my favourite. Flamenquin is a mix of meats such as chicken and jamon rolled up with cheese and deep-fried in batter. The first few bites were tasty but quite heavy, I thought this food would have been nicer as a tapas because of the strong flavours of all the meats.

We got the bus back to the centre and arrived home around 4pm.

Later that evening after going home and dressing up, my Erasmus group went to one of the rooftop bars. The bar was fabulous and you could look out over a lot of the city and we had a great view of Alcazaba which is lit up every night. I ordered a mojito which I really enjoyed.

 

1^st March

As per usual I woke up, showered and went to the café with Christina for breakfast. We then went to work and since the weather was really nice that day we were quite busy! I was working taking food and drink orders, serving food, clearing food and taking payments. I enjoyed work this day because my shift went by fast because I was kept busy. 

Christina and I went home after to get changed for our boat trip with our Erasmus group. Most day we had trips on we had little time between work and the activity to go out since we finished at 4:30 which was later than everyone else. After changing our outfits we went out to meet the girls before walking over to the boat. It was such a beautiful evening, the sun was shining and everyone was out along the docks including people playing guitars and dancing flamenco.

While the girls and I waited on everyone we grabbed a quick drink in the skyline bar along the docks which looked out over Malaga. We then boarded the boat and took off to watch the sunset out at sea. The boat had a mini bar on board and so we all bought another drink to enjoy. The view of Malaga and the mountains were stunning from the boat. It was so sunny and warm and the sky was clear giving us the best experience possible.

For dinner that night my friends and I decided to go to a fancy steakhouse. The place was called El Pampa and the steak was to die for! Would highly recommend to anyone looking for a good place out to eat.