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Malaga
​October '21

Robbie Kelly Morris

11/15/2021

1 Comment

 
Robbie in No Piqui restaurant in Malaga
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Accomodation
This is home for the next 3 weeks, unfortunately no wardrobe but I’m sure I can manage out of my suitcase 🤣 the apartment is so close to the city centre and only a few minutes walk from the beach where I can go and relax or even go for a swim.
Every room is so clean in the apartment and everything we need is here for a long stay such as washing machine and Netflix! Took us a while to figure out how to turn the hob on when we wanted to make mocha coffee but we got there.
We also have a lovely sitting room where we can all relax to play card games or watch movies after a long days work with a nice sized kitchen table where we can all have meals that we cook (if we remember how to turn the hob on)
My travel to work is a simple walk straight down the street for 15 mins and it’s just there I don’t have to get bus which means an extra lie in for me🤣



Work Place
About the Restaurant 
The restaurant is a little burger bar which has 18 tables inside and is very busy between breakfast and lunch the menu offers a lot of vegan and vegetarian meals which attracts a lot of customers, loads come here to work as we have plugs and free wifi while they have a coffee.



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My Role
My role is to make coffees during breakfast and all the smoothies also cleaning tables every time people are finished eating, I also have to serve the food that comes from the kitchen, thankfully a lot of our customers speak a lot of English as it’s a tourist spot for lunch.

Positives
Some positives are a lot of customers speak English and a lot of the staff I work with speak a little bit of English so there is no real language barrier. 

Difficulties
Trying to take orders as it’s all taken on a tablet but everything is in Spanish which is hard but some words are similar in English.

Free Time

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What do you do?
In my free time I like to go around Malaga town and explore all the shops they have to offer and even go to restaurants down at the beach, sit in the sun and have a drink or two while talking to others from Erasmus.
Stand out moments
Stand out moments for me would be the flamenco show it showed me Spanish traditional dancing live, which I thought was very very cool. Also as a group we went on a boat cruise out of Malaga port to see the sunset which was gorgeous.
Nerja, Frigialana and Cordoba
We went all these three places while being here in Malaga and Frigiliana was probably my favourite it was an old white village up in the mountains that had loads of artists living in the town so of course I had to buy an hand painted post card!
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​We also went to cordoba, this was a little bit far away so we had to get up early and be on the bus for 8:30am as it took nearly 2 hours to get there but we’ll worth the bus journey as when we arrived we got a guided tour around the town which was actually very ingesting, once that was finished we all went for food with Ricardo and saraita and then went shopping in souvenir shops
​Nerja was probably one of the nicest beach’s we had been too and we went on a warm day which was good.
when we arrived we all went with Saraita and she brought us to a cool tapas place where you could get any drink and free fish tapas so we all tried one piece and thought it was really nice. After that we had free time and explored the town more and then relaxed on the beach.
 
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1 Comment

Kinga Michalec

11/15/2021

0 Comments

 
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Kinga Michalec (Restaurant & Bar Management)

My Workplace
My workplace is a small but very posh restaurant La Revuelta, located only 3min from the beach. 
Although I have to take a bus to get to my work, it's a very pleasant ride alongside the sea and after work I can always stop by the beach before heading home. I would say that this makes the location perfect!
The restaurant is run by an extremely talented chef Arnold and his wife Marta. He loves to prepare fusion style dishes, wish a strong influence from Asian cuisine, especially Japanese.
My first day was a bit challenging as Suzie who was supposed to show me the ropes couldn't speak any English and I can't speak any Spanish. Luckily both Arno and his cook help Diego were able to help out with any additional explanations in English. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly! Without knowing any Spanish I wasn't able to interact directly with the customers as that could damage the restaurants reputation, but I was able to assist with preparing the tables and drinks, as well as all the cleanup.
My lunches are also absolutely delicious as they're all prepared by the talented owner!
Although not knowing Spanish can be quite stressful and makes me feel less useful, everyone made sure to be welcoming and helpful so overall I still had a good experience.
Looking forward to learning more!
Already managed to pick up some essential Spanish words :)

Culture
I found it very easy to adjust to the culture as it wasn't that different to what I'm used to in general. And any other differences weren't a big obstacle either so I felt very comfortable staying in Malaga and really enjoyed my time. The biggest thing that I found surprising was the type of customer service that they give. At first it gave me a bad impression, like they don't care about their customers at all and having to serve is a bother to them. Compared to what I'm used to it's not a good quality of service but after seeing more of it I got used to it and learned that it's just part of their culture and their personality and not an actual sign of bad service for their standards.
In general people of Malaga are very laid back and don't stress over the details which can be pretty refreshing in a way. They may appear rough at first glance but they are very friendly and wcoming if you respect their culture.

Language
As I have never studied Spanish before my knowledge of the language was pretty much non existent. I did manage to pick up some useful phrases at work but since I didn't know any basics I was unable to pick up anything just from listening and couldn't improve my level of Spanish at all. I hope that next time I have a chance to come I'll pick up some basics first!

Work colleagues 
Most of the time it was just me and the Chef with his assistant so there wasn't much work to do together. I was mostly independent with my work and all I needed was few pointers on what to do after which I had a free hand to work my own way.
​The outcome
​I have definitely learned to solve problems better without being able to communicate using language as there where many situations in which I couldn't speak the native language and the other person couldn't speak English. As I have already travelled a lot before and lived abroad I was already used to adjusting to life in a different culture so that wasn't a challenge and not a new experience but the people of Malaga proved to be quite unique. It was a great experience that let me see their everyday life more than if I came just as a tourist.
Positives: 
Seeing local people more from the perspective of their everyday life, being able to learn about their personality and culture more in depth than as a tourist. Being able to enjoy good weather everyday. Being able to challenge myself in a work environment where I couldn't use native language so had to think outside the box and find new solutions to work around the lack of communication. Everyone was very welcoming and always tried to help out even if I didn't know the language. I was very happy with the hosting organisation as the people in charge of our group were both extremely friendly and helpful.

Negatives:
There weren't any negatives to my stay as I enjoyed all of it and everyone I met was very welcoming and friendly. The only regret I had was not knowing Spanish language which made me miss out on knowing the locals better and communicating more. I felt bad for not knowing any Spanish so I couldn't be as useful at work and I hope that next time I visit I'll learn some basics. 
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