For five months, I lived and attended school in central Spain. I’ve recently returned from my exchange program where I was living with a host family and attending a local school. I embarked on my journey in early September, flying from Rockhampton to Madrid by myself. I was met in Madrid by 20 other exchange students where we attended a short orientation program. My four days in Spain’s capital were filled with language lessons and sight-seeing. I finally met my host family, who live in Valladolid, a city two hours North-West of Madrid. In my host family, I lived with my host mum, dad and three younger brothers. My brothers shared their passion and love for football and dinosaurs with me.
I attended the same school as my host brothers, a range of classes from English, philosophy, music and sciences. I helped in some other English classes and was glad to share my culture with the class. Other activities in school included visits to local charity organisations and helping younger kids with fun Christmas activities. My time at school greatly improved my Spanish and I can now understand and speak confidently. School was also a great place to make friends and learn more about the Spanish culture and lifestyle. I spent most of my weekends split between my brother’s soccer games, golf lessons, spending quality time with my family and hanging out with friends. I was very fortunate to be able to travel with my host family, sightseeing in Lisbon, seeing the Christmas lights in Madrid and skiing in Andorra earlier this year.
Even though it was only short, my exchange taught me a lot, not only about the Spanish language, culture and lifestyle but also tolerance, friendship, independence and patience.
I am incredibly grateful to the World Education Program (WEP) for their amazing support and the unforgettable experience. I highly recommend that everyone considers participating in an exchange program!
Catherine
Year 11
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