1. Preparation
I’m studying “International Social Work,” and a mandatory internship abroad is scheduled for my third semester. One of my native languages is Spanish, and since I had already spent a semester studying in Spain as part of my bachelor’s degree in Social Work, I knew I would like to complete my international internship in a Spanish-speaking country again.
1.1. Search for an Internship Position
My degree program does not have any partner organizations for the semester abroad, so I sent out only unsolicited applications. So far, I have focused my academic work on women’s rights and reproductive rights, so I looked for opportunities in those areas. The exact location of the internship didn’t matter to me; what was important was the field of work and the working language (Spanish). Through a fellow student, I learned about the organization “Asociación Por Ti Mujer” in Valencia, applied there, and was offered the position after an online interview.
1.2. Housing
Since I had already spent a semester abroad in Spain, I knew which websites to use to find housing. I wanted to live in a shared apartment with women, which you can usually specify in the search filters. I searched on idealista and badi, where I created a profile and was able to message landlords about listings that interested me. However, the process of finding a shared apartment in Spain is a bit different than in Germany.
There, it’s more common for landlords or property management companies to look for new tenants for a vacant room and post the listings themselves, rather than the current roommates. As a result, you sometimes get little to no information about who you’ll be living with, and you tend to communicate mainly with the landlords. In addition, there are many apartments that specifically offer Erasmus shared living arrangements, but on the other hand, there are also a great many listings that explicitly do NOT want Erasmus students.
In the end, I found my apartment through badi. I didn’t live in a student shared apartment, but instead shared a small, renovated apartment with my 54-year-old, very laid-back, and fun-loving roommate—and I would make the same choice again in a heartbeat. I lived in the Ayora neighborhood, which I highly recommend because both the beach and downtown are easily accessible and well-connected from there. My rent was €450 per month; my room was only 7 or 8 square meters, but we had a living room where I spent most of my time.
Other neighborhoods that were recommended to me are Blasco Ibañez (a very long street with many apartment buildings) and Benimaclet.
1.3. Erasmus Application
Since I didn’t receive confirmation of my internship until June and my internship started as early as September, I was barely able to meet the two-month application deadline. Since I’m a student in Erfurt, I applied through the Technical University of Ilmenau. The staff there were always available to answer questions and responded quickly to emails. Since this is a mandatory internship as part of my degree program, I didn’t have to worry about anything like special course credit and had already received all the necessary documents from my university.
2. Internship
2.1. Responsibilities
The organization is divided into four thematic areas, which are also present at all other locations in the city. I completed my internship in the area of “(Re)integration into the Labor Market.” There are also departments for psychology, law, and socio-administrative affairs. As the name suggests, “Por Ti Mujer” (For You, Woman) works exclusively with women, most of whom have immigrated to Spain from Latin America. All work is conducted exclusively in Spanish, and you have to be prepared to encounter many different dialects. For me, this wasn’t really a problem, since I speak a Latin American variety of Spanish as my native language and am used to the peculiarities of other dialects.
My role primarily involved helping women find jobs. We offered different services depending on whether the woman already had a legal residence permit in Spain or not. There were group sessions for women in an irregular residency situation, where they were not only informed about their options for job searching, continuing education, and recognition of their qualifications, but also about their options for regularizing their status. To do this, I had to acquire a broad understanding of the Spanish immigration system. Since many of the women were in precarious living situations and, in most cases, had families to support, they were working off the books; therefore, we educated them about the risks and options in these situations.
For women with legal residency status and, consequently, a work permit, we had additional, more specific services. Through one-on-one counseling sessions and workshops, we explained the mechanics of job searching and continuing education in Spain. We assessed the women’s profiles and were able to provide them with personalized suggestions for job applications; however, the organization does not have its own job board. We do, however, have several partnerships with foundations that, in turn, collaborate with companies and referred job opportunities to us.
In addition, we worked with the women—regardless of their residency status—to help them create their resumes, a process that can have different requirements depending on the country and which many of the women had never done before.
The women’s situations varied greatly, as did their reasons for coming to Spain. Some of them were highly qualified but had not (yet) had their degrees recognized, while others had no academic or professional qualifications at all. Consequently, the interventions required and the clients’ needs varied significantly. Since the organization also had the other three departments (psychology, law, and socio-administrative services), any potential needs in these areas were always assessed during the intake interview so that the women could be referred to appropriate internal or external resources. This, too, required knowledge of available support services and the scope of each service.
My responsibilities included compiling a weekly list of job openings, conducting intake interviews and follow-up meetings, working with the women to draft their résumés, documenting conversations, attending events and lectures, and performing various administrative tasks.
2.2. Personal Experiences
I learned a great deal during my internship, especially about counseling situations in a one-on-one context. However, the organization as a whole—with its four departments—did not seem very well coordinated in its communication, which often led to confusion or unclear instructions during cross-departmental events. In addition, there was no set internship handbook when I started, which is why I had to ask colleagues for a lot of important information or look it up online. I then took the initiative to create an internship handbook myself, which was immediately put to use by my successor. Neither I nor my fellow intern were allowed to attend regular team meetings, and as a result, we unfortunately either missed out on important information or only heard about it in passing, which I found very unfortunate. Since I am already a social worker and had been entrusted with caring for my own clients there, I would have liked to see more transparency. Supervision meetings also did not take place (even when requested) or were postponed and then canceled. As a result, I was not informed about many important changes within the organization. My impression was that my supervisors handled the internship much more casually than I am used to. Although I was always able to ask questions from time to time—and received very well-informed, professional answers—there was no truly structured guidance. Therefore, I would say that it’s important to be able to work independently if you’re considering this position, though I can only speak for my department. It’s worth noting that bureaucracy in Spain is structured differently than in Germany; for example, many more administrative matters are handled entirely online using personalized identification codes. If you’re unfamiliar with this system because you’re from another country, you’ll have to ask a lot of questions, since your colleagues take certain information for granted. There was a major staff turnover at the start of the new year, which had a significant impact on the entire organization—though hopefully things will have settled back down in the months following the end of my internship.
Overall, my experience was different than I expected, but I was still able to gain some consulting experience and learned to remain adaptable in challenging situations.
3. Daily Life
3.1. Life in Spain
One thing I had to get used to again was the difference in daily routines between Germany and Spain. At my office, work started between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m., but the lunch break wasn’t until 2:00 p.m. Instead, there’s the “almuerzo” in the morning—a sort of late, light breakfast—to keep blood sugar levels up. At first, this change meant that I was very tired after lunch (which was very late for me), but after a while my body clock adjusted to it. Dinner plans before 8:00 p.m. (at the very earliest!) were rare, and many bars and restaurants don’t even open their kitchens before then. Although Valencia is a large city, many shops and establishments are closed during the “siesta”—roughly between 2 and 5 p.m.—which makes for a surprisingly empty cityscape (except for the city center, where there’s still quite a bit going on even at that time, partly because of the many tourists).
Generally speaking, groceries and dining out tend to be a bit cheaper than in Germany. I was in Valencia during the winter, and it was cooler than expected (“that’s because of the high humidity,” as the Valencians would say), and I definitely recommend a windproof jacket, as it can get very stormy. Very few homes have heating; if you’re lucky, you can set the air conditioning to warm. Many apartments have tile floors, and I actually got pretty cold at home at times—it was usually much warmer outside than inside.
In Valencia, people speak not only Spanish but also the regional language, Valencian, which is why you’ll usually see and hear bilingual signs and announcements.
3.2. Salsa
I started dancing salsa in Valencia, and there’s a very lively salsa scene in the city. Cuban salsa, in particular, is very popular, but there are also many events where people dance bachata, for example. There are several dance schools, as well as free options and multiple opportunities to go dancing every week. Here are a few recommendations
:- Dame Casino Dance School (regular dance classes)
- Loco Salsa Dance School (regular dance classes)
- Miky House (flexible dance classes every Thursday evening and free dancing on the beach Sunday evenings)
- Carribean’s Avenue (bar with regular dance nights every week featuring salsa, bachata, and sevillana)
- SO:KU (cultural center in Benimaclet with concerts and salsa once a month)
3.3. Cultural Activities and Tips in the City
For public transportation, you can buy a monthly pass, though I didn’t know that at first. Applying for and getting it issued would have taken too long for me to make it worth it. Maybe you can do that in advance from Germany, but I’m not exactly sure. Instead, I bought a “suma 10” card for the bus, tram, and metro, which you can top up with ten rides for €5.40 within the city limits. In hindsight, the monthly pass would have been much more affordable. For navigation, I used Google Maps or the Metro Valencia website; unfortunately, the EMT bus app only worked sporadically and often crashed. Although Valencia is a large city, public transportation service isn’t very good in the evenings or at night during the week. If nothing’s running, you can rent a bike from Valenbisi; an annual subscription costs about €30 and is managed through the app. Valencia has many well-developed bike paths and is, for the most part, a very bike-friendly city. Valencia is a
great base for day trips to other cities; however, I only took the high-speed train to Madrid a few times, which takes about 2.5 hours and always worked well. I booked my trains through Renfe.
Here are a few more recommendations for the city itself:
- Turia Park: The dried-up riverbed of a diverted river, which has now been transformed into a beautiful park that runs right through the heart of Valencia. There’s a jogging trail that runs through the entire park, and many groups use it for birthday parties, yoga sessions, dance and music events, and much more. At its end lies the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, which is definitely worth a visit
.- La Fabrica de Hielo: A bar with food near the beach, often featuring cultural events and live music in the evenings.
- Burning House: A bar with a great selection of live music.
- Mercabanyal: A small market with a delicious selection of street food.
- Off Valencia: A small theater and musical theater school that puts on performances from time to time. For example, I went to see their production of *The Rocky Horror Picture Show*
.- IVAM: A museum that offers art workshops in the afternoons, some of which are free.
For information on events, I recommend the Valencia Secreta website. Unfortunately, I missed the famous Fallas.
4. Conclusion
I had a great time in Valencia and, especially through dancing, got to know a lot of people, both from Valencia and from all sorts of other corners of the world. Valencia is a very international city and offers a wide range of cultural activities. Despite its challenges, the internship was very educational.
