Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

Housing is difficult to find. Standards are a lot lower than in Toronto. Most apartments have no heating and many bedrooms have no windows. There is also no standard pricing and very few contracts.

Telephone calls are extremely expensive, in Toronto you can talk on the phone for a flat rate of about 30 $a month, in Spain it's about 30$ a week, without talking alot. I only used my phone to make arrangements to meet people. Never talked more than 5 min with someone. Nightlife, well most clubs are about 15euros to get in , and then alcoholic drinks are about 6 euros each. Ofcourse there are cheap bars, but I'm talking about clubs here... Groceries, with the exception of fruits and vegetables are more expensive. Oranges are really cheap... Accomodation, well I paid 270 euros a month for a room in an apartment which had no heating... That's about 450 canadian dollars...

The amount of trouble it takes to get a student residency card. No one tells you that you have to line up at 5am to 3pm a couple of times, before anyone even looks at your papers... It's rediculous!

I loved it because I met a lot of really nice people from many other countries and parts of spain, but the university itself is a far cry from any I've ever been to. I've studied at Univeristy of Salamanca, University of Toronto and York University and this is the worst organized univeristy with highly unfriendly staff. I think the international experience was good, but you can get that at any other foreign university. Better to go to University of Salamanca, if you want to study in Spain.

Access to professors is difficult, extra help is unheard of, contact via email or phone is a long process. The quality of the courses at my home university is much higher.

Don't come to Barcelona to improve your academics. If you want to party and do lots of cultural things, fine, but the quality of the professors, the resources and the courses is not that great.