By Béatrice MOURRE
From February 17 to February 22, all La Tour Seconde students take a cultural and linguistic trip to a European country as part of “European Week”. Students studying Spanish in LV2 went on a great trip to Andalucía in which they stayed with host families living in Sevilla. They also took two day trips to Granada and Cordoba. Students discovered one of the culturally richest regions of Spain discovering a new gastronomy, meeting new people, and, of course, improving their Spanish skills.
Even if all of the Spanish students who went to Spain generally thought that the trip was great, they expressed different opinions about the organization and the activities. The first day, they met their host families: “My family was the best, [the mother] was really nice and always talked to us!” stated Camille de Creisquer (2°1). However, Madeleine Prate (2°5) thought that it would have been better had she been staying with a family with children her own age: “We could not really talk with our family, we could have improved our Spanish if there were other students in the families’ homes or if there were other children.”
As far as the activities and the cultural visits were concerned, everybody seemed really happy and thought the teachers organized everything well: “The more serious visits such as museums were always followed by activities that were more relaxing! I really enjoyed the churros tasting, and the bike ride across Sevilla was really fun. It was a great way to discover the city,” says Camille de Creisquer (2°1). In addition to the cultural aspect, Spanish lessons were organized to improve students’ language level.
For a lot of student, staying in families instead of a hotel, really developed more than just the linguistic aspect of the trip, and it forced the students out of their comfort zone. They discovered the Spanish way of life, and some students were surprised by the Spanish schedule, like Anglophone Section student Juliette Guerard (2°3), who said: “I was really surprised because, at eleven o’clock my family was just starting to have dinner even if they had a six-year-old daughter to get to bed.”
To celebrate the end of the trip, the teachers organized a night at a Spanish restaurant so that students could discover Spanish food that they had not had a chance to try in their families’ homes.
This was a great trip during which students got to discover a new culture, new foods, and a new way of life, accompanied by Spanish teachers who always tried to add a special touch to the trip. Everybody came back to Paris with more knowledge of Spain and of Andalucía.
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