Before you travel to another country, you probably spend a large portion of your time documenting and planning your trip so that nothing catches you by surprise, don’t you?
However, if instead of a leisure trip you are going to study abroad, there are still many more factors to take into account.
That is why at CIS University, in addition to offering you all the information you need to get your student visa for Spain without any problems, we offer our international students a week of orientation in which we take them by the hand so that their process of adaptation to their new University, their new accommodation and the country where they will live for the next months will be as pleasant as possible.
Would you like to know more about CIS University orientation week?
Well, you can pack your bags now because this takes off in 3, 2, 1…
CIS Orientation week program
The day has finally arrived!
You are in the cab on your way to the airport to go to study in Spain and you can’t stop looking at the paper where the Study Abroad office told you the time and meeting point to join the group of students who, just like you, are starting a new adventure today.
You greet each other shyly, although your faces can’t hide the mixture of nervousness and excitement that fills your insides. You are curious to know the story of your companions, but deep down you know that there are many hours of flight ahead and you will have the opportunity to get to know each other better on board.
Between story and story, you suddenly hear the pilot over the public address system saying:
‘Dear passengers, we will shortly be landing in Madrid. The temperature is 20 ºC and the day is sunny’.
When you get off the plane a bus is waiting to take you to your accommodation and once there, after settling in and freshening up, your orientation week will begin.
As you are a bit tired from the trip, today you will only be given a small tour of your student residence facilities and you will be given your Spanish cell phones so that you can start using them.
First day of orientation week is over! Let’s go for the second one.
Today is Wednesday. At 10 am you will be picked up in the lobby of the residence to help you buy your transportation passes and to accompany you to the CIS University facilities by public transportation, so that you can learn your way around.
There, you will meet your professors and all the CIS University staff, who will be waiting for you with open arms and smiles from ear to ear.
This morning will be spent getting to know the center, CIS University’s study platform and receiving some orientation about the country where you have just landed: history, politics, useful information and even how to get your ‘youth card’ to access all kinds of discounts on cultural and leisure activities.
In the afternoon, we will take a walking and bus tour to discover the main attractions of the city where you will be living for the next few months
In Madrid, no matter what day of the week it is, there are always people ready to have a few ‘cañas’ and a good ‘tapeo’ with friends. And today we are going to check it.
Thursday, 10 am.
Today we are meeting directly at CIS University. We have been told that a girl from the US consulate in Madrid will come to give us some recommendations on personal safety and how to live in Spain. Then we will meet Professor Ontoria, who will evaluate our level of Spanish and give us some short lessons in survival Spanish.
In the afternoon we will visit the Royal Palace which, we have been told, is the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world.
I can’t wait to visit its Throne Room and Royal Armory!
Friday
Today we will spend the whole day visiting Segovia, a city almost 43 miles from Madrid that houses one of the largest and best preserved Roman aqueducts in Europe.
Wooooow, it is really impressive to see how such an ancient and amazing construction is still standing….
I can’t think of a better way to end the Orientation week.
But that’s not all, I have been told that during the rest of the semester our friends from the Ambassadors Circle will take us to visit the imposing Alhambra in Granada, the magical city of Seville, the amazing city of Valencia, the charming town of Toledo and the historic ‘Valle de los Caídos’ (now called the Valley of Cuelgamuros) along with El Escorial.
To be honest, I had heard a lot about the hospitality of the Spanish culture, but not even in the best of my dreams could I have imagined something like this.
Would you like to see it for yourself?
Sign up for the CIS University Study Abroad program!
