Quick introduction
Hello! My name is Sam Boesjes. I am currently 18 years old and I am at the Graphic Lyceum Utrecht, where I follow the Web developer course. I am quite social and can always easily adapt to others. In addition, I am someone who likes to do and discover many new things. That’s why I already knew when I started my education and heard that I could do an internship abroad, that I definitely wanted to do that. Actually, I even wanted to do an internship outside Europe, but unfortunately that was not possible due to corona. Now I’m just glad I’m here. When I told my friends that I was going to leave them for eight months to go on an adventure in Spain, they didn’t like it very much, but they really supported me and motivated me to do it. They all really liked it for me and they would do it themselves if they got the chance.
And then…
Well, then it actually went pretty fast. When my school announced that I could only do an internship in Europe, I immediately went to investigate. At that time I had a few countries on my list that seemed interesting to me. But then suddenly the BBC (company contacts office) of my school came into contact with two companies: one in Spain and one in Berlin. I would have responded quickly to both, of course. And after only two hours I had a response from JongLeren.es that they really liked it and wanted to arrange it for me right away. Of course I went along with full enthusiasm. Soon we had a FaceTime conversation to see who I was, who they were and what exactly I wanted.
It turned out that there was probably already a suitable company for me. Because I was there quite early, I had to wait a while for the company’s response, but when the time came, it was all arranged very quickly. Just like the house where I’m staying now! My internship is located in Fuengirola, a nice place between Málaga and Marbella. My internship period was supposed to start on September 30, but because I couldn’t wait, I left four days earlier, on September 26.
Living situation
I think the house that JongLeren.es has arranged for me is ideal. When I go down a flight of stairs in front of my house, I am at a super large shopping center: Miramar. If I turn right after those stairs and keep walking, I’ll be at the beach in a few minutes. In the house where I live, two women used to live. The landlady, a sweet 51-year-old woman who works as an architect and a super nice 28-year-old girl who is a hairdresser. I immediately got on well with them and often went to do something with them. Now the 51-year-old woman is gone. A pity but not bad, because a Dutch boy of 23 now lives there instead. I get on very well with him and we have already become good friends.
Making connections
When I went here all by myself, several people asked me if I didn’t find it exciting to be here all alone for eight months. I didn’t find it exciting, because I was pretty sure that it would be a great adventure and that I would make some nice friends. I’ve been in Spain for a few weeks now and I can say that I succeeded. I live in a super nice house where I was welcomed with all the love. Of course I had to acclimatize a bit during the first week, but at the end of the week it was time to do something: so I activated my social genes for a while 😉 I often walk along the boulevard and had already had a quite a number of young people in their twenties walking.
After walking back and forth a few times I had found my victims: I saw a group and asked them if I could join because I was new here and didn’t know many people yet. They let me in then, but it was still a bit weird. After a while that group fell apart and then I came to a bar where a lot of young people were sitting. So I tried to connect there and I finally found it with two boys from Denmark and two girls from Argentina. And that’s how I made my first friends here. After that I made some really nice friends during the language course, the JongLeren.es meeting day and the trips I did via MSE (Malaga South Experiences).
Learning the language
If you go to another country for such a long time, you should actually try to learn the language. And Spanish is of course also a world language so that is always nice to be able to speak. I myself use two apps to learn Spanish: the well-known Duolingo and I also found another app: Spanish LinDuo. I still use Duolingo the most, but the other app is also useful. With Duolingo you always have to make the first bit a bit of a good start. I did up to level 3 and then just fast forward to the next things because that’s where you usually learn the most important things. And then of course keep repeating the previous things.
When I was in Spain for about two weeks I also received an email from JongLeren.es asking if I would like to participate in a language course. I thought that was a good idea, of course, and my new roommate also went there. In that week I learned quite a lot of new things that are nice for the basics. There were six people in that language course: all Dutch. And me and my roommate quickly got along with two others from the language course: a boy and a girl. We deal with that a lot in our time in Spain.
The company
I’m doing an internship at a super nice company. In short it is a company that has made a check-in app for hotels, hostels, b&b and much more. It’s a small but nice company. There are a few people in the company who can speak English: the boss, someone from communications and another colleague. The rest either don’t speak English or really a little bit. I actually like that because it helps me learn to speak Spanish faster.
At the company, they didn’t have much to do for me at first because many people who work at the company wanted to stay at home because of corona, because they liked working at home. That was of course less pleasant for me because I would be working on their new website and for that I needed the IT team: those people who are sitting comfortably at home. So I first started translating the website for the other company they have (a kitchen company), because they also have a number of Dutch customers. But when everyone is back at the office from IT, I can start working on the new website for the check-in app. I am looking forward to that!
Fuengirola
Fuengirola is a seaside town on the Costa del Sol in the province of Malaga in southern Spain. It is a fairly touristic place with a long beach and a long boulevard. You can go out: on the boulevard there are many nice tents, pubs, clubs and more. Enough to do so, I’ll have fun here!
