ESADE Business School

be patient and picky with appartments - many really bad rooms are for rent for international students.

Join some of the cultural and sports activities as soon as possible. Good for language training, making contacts and finding people to party with. Take initiative and form your own groups, fx a dancing group, food group, health center & aerobics group...etc. Do not choose to live in Sitges, even though the apartment prices during winter are low there. It takes too long to travel into town, you get isolated from social activities. Don´t choose downtown either, the area around Ramblas is too "heavy" and noisy to be able to study in. Fun to visit - bad to live there!

The housing sponsored by ESADE was generally for undergraduate-age students. It is located in a nice area on a hill overlooking the city. I did eat there on several occasions and the food was very good quality considering it is student accomodation.

Get to know Barcelona from the Catalan perspective.

When you arrive, go and find the barcelona housing service. It´s on internet, the university knows about it, as well as any other information point. This service provides housing for students, in international houses. I used it, too. Great experience!

Check out the universities (also others) to find a room, especially if you want to live together with Spanish students. Most still live at home, but they put up a lot of announcements in the universities/intranet.