Universidad de Alcalá (UAH)

If you have the money and the time, it is well worth visiting Madrid for a night out, as it has a variety of clubs and bars. Alcalá has a surprising number of rock-orientated bars (no clubs), for example Paranoid or the Panadería, as well as more commercially-orientated places such as Gabanna or Can-Can. It is a surprisingly active place for such a small town, when it comes to night-life.

There was a lot on offer, with lists of housing published all around the university. The halls of residence were very far out from the town centre, and were only really useful for accessing the campus. I did not manage to share with any Spaniards, but doing so would have been a huge advantage.

I believe my written skills, vocabulary, grammar and listening skills were all improved drastically by my stay in Spain, but due to the limited interest of local students in socialising with Erasmus students, I found that my conversational skills were improved only to a slight degree. This is why I heartily recommend finding a house/room to share with a local individual, preferably a student.

I recommend keeping an eye on your bank balance online, since it is not possible to do so at the cash machines. Monitor roughly how much you spend every month and make sure this quantity doesn't increase significantly without any warning. If using an English cash card, take money out in large amounts (but always be careful), as a certain fee will be charged to your account every time you take money out. Opening a local bank account is quite complicated, so only do so if you really can't afford paying the fees charged on withdrawals from your home account.

Alcalá is very easy to get to from Madrid by bus, so transport problems are not an issue. It is easy to hop on a bus to Madrid for the odd night out as well. However, Alcalá is a very self-contained town, so you will not find yourself needing to venture outside of it very often. Do not forget to take all the appropriate medical forms, as in my experience, once you have them it is very easy to make appointments with doctors, etc. I have heard that other people have had problems even with the forms, but on average the medical staff are quite understanding.