The sound of my voice: The college scout

Ruby Breward continues our feature on finding the hidden voices in Oxford

I grew up in Malaga, in Spain. I’ve got a travel agency there. We prepare package holidays – reserve the flights and the hotels, show them around, for example, Galicia, or the Canaries.

My childhood was hard – my father was always travelling so he had less time to spend with us. But overall, it was good, really good. I was always working. My parents would buy me trainers, but then if I wanted Nikes, I’d have to work to pay for them myself. I started working when I was 13, with my dad at the travel agency.

Two years ago, things in Spain started to go bad. I met my husband, we bought the house I grew up in, and then everything started to go wrong. I couldn’t pay my mortgage, and they were going to take the house off us. And that’s why we’re here, to work, to earn money, so the bank doesn’t take my house.

There are things that I didn’t value when I was in Spain. My family, my friends, I value them a lot more now. But England’s good. I like it a lot. Here I have work, my husband has work, my daughter’s learning English. Because I don’t speak English, I have to work as a cleaner. So at the moment I’m trying to learn more English. I’d like to work in accommodation at the college.

I hadn’t heard much about Oxford, but of the little I’ve heard, it’s all true. Lots of parties, not much studying, and lots of ‘papa y mama’ students. You know, the ones whose parents pay for everything, clothes, college, the parties.

I think here, everyone goes about their own lives, their own things. And this is the same inside and outside the university. Everyone’s quite independent. But I understand that everyone has their stable lives here, and sometimes getting involved in other people’s lives and helping them out can upset the balance.

When I first came, I got a lot of help, but now I’ve been here a while, my problems are my own to sort out. I like it, because I was raised like that, very independent. But I like helping people. Some Italians have moved in next to us and it feels good to help them because they’re in the same situation we were.

You just have to put your mind to it, get involved in the relevant things, study, keep to your principles.

Students here should be more responsible! I’ve realised that for some of the people, at home, their parents are doing everything for them. They’re less independent. Some of the rooms are disgusting, I don’t even know where to put the vacuum between the papers, and the mess.

We always say at home that English people are very untidy. The whole world says it. And working in this college, I have to say its true!

Week 1