Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT)

At the Athlone AT in Ireland the students can live in rented houses, flats, or there are student villages with independent houses. In the student village where I lived, in each house there are four appartment, for 3 or 4 person. Everyone has own bedroom, bathroom for 2,and a livingroom. Other appartments have double rooms as well. There lived/live a lot of international and Irish student as well, so it was a great place to get to know new people, nationalities, cultures, languages, and of course to practise the English.

It was interesting experience, different kulture and habits. Irish speak a little difficult english couse its a mix of dilects. Univirsity offers a lot of facilities like: socer, rugby, gym, volleyball, basketball etc. Possibility to choose a language course like: german, spanish, french, english. Lots of laboratories: Plastic lab, chemistry, robotic, computer labs. Lots of parties orgenized in University Bar.

Athlone is a typical Irish city in the middle of the island. The atmosphere of any places you go is amazing, you can feel the ancient Irish times in many places any time you enter. Personally I love Irish music and culture. I was also impressed by the fact of how proud the Irish are of their country. One thing I can surely recommend is the oldest pub in Ireland, in my host city Athlone, called Sean's pub.

At first I had problems to speak english and I was quite shy to speak it. And I didn't trust my skills. But after month or two I spoke it quite good and I wasn't nervous any more. And now I know that it's not so important to say right way things, more important thing is that I can communicate and I understand what people are saying to me.

I realized how low is the english level in Spain. At the beginning i had really problems to follow a normal conversation, but with the help of the university (by free english courses) and the social life I have acquired a level to talk fluently and to understand nearly all.

For me it was also a great opportunity of saving money. I started to work in September almost every day after school and the weekends. If somebody wants to finance his/her life there I think it is definetely possible, of course it depends on the effort you put in it.