18 April 2018
Students from Years 9 and 10 visited Salamanca during the Easter Holidays. We spent a week staying with Spanish host families and had classes at the ISLA Spanish School. Throughout the week we participated in many activities and excursions, while discovering much about Spanish food.
As well as enabling us to use and develop our Spanish, the trip also, of course, gave us an insight into the culture and lifestyle of Spain. Each day we had at least an hour of free time to see some of the city for ourselves. In the heart of the city is the Plaza Mayor, which is always lively and filled with both locals and visitors. Salamanca is a beautiful city and fairly small, so we quickly got to know our way around. We loved its energy and vibrancy – yet it also had a lovely peacefulness about it.
During our week in Salamanca we had breakfast, lunch and dinner with our host families and soon found out that typical Spanish food includes a lot of eggs, ham, cheese and chicken. We were also treated to traditional dishes, including paella, tortillas, soups and flan.
On four days we had four hours of Spanish classes, split into two sessions focused on grammar and one hour of conversation. After lessons finished we took part in lots of activities such as flamenco dancing, a mini theatre performance about zombies, a tour up the cathedral’s towers, a photo competition, a lecture about Christopher Columbus, a Tapas Tour, a tapas cooking lesson, and a tour of Salamanca. We really liked that the day was split between lessons and the more cultural side, as this enabled us to get a balance of both language development and experience of real Spanish culture
On one very cold day, we travelled to Segovia, a beautiful town to the north of Madrid, and visited ‘El Alcázar de Segovia’, which was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s Disneyland Castle. It truly was a beautiful place.
The trip was such a great experience. The food, the city, using our Spanish and gaining an insight into the culture - so much was packed into just one week, but in a relaxed and really enjoyable way. We all hope to visit Salamanca again soon!
Sofia and Grace