Winners of the first Cultural event of the week!
My “Spark Spanish” Experience!
I have just completed the first day of my General Spanish course at Spark and wanted to share my experience with the world! At first I was slightly apprehensive, but I am now positive that I made the right choice to come to over Spain to learn a new language.
I arrived at Spark as a complete beginner, attempting to find my way from the airport with “Hola” and “¿Dónde…está…Spark?”, using a lot of hand gestures and of course my trusty “Spanish for beginners” pocket book to find my way to “Sparkville”. I decided not to take Spark´s “Free pick-up service” in order to challenge myself and see if I can really get by and guess what. I can! Anyone can! So here I was, I had made it El Puerto de Santa Maria just fine! On the night, all of the students staying in the residence went for “welcome drinks” organized by the staff -we even got a free drink at the bar on arrival! “When in Rome” seemed to be the theme of the night; we ate plenty of “tapas”, drank a few “Sherry´s” and practiced our basic Spanish…. “la cuenta por favor!” (The bill please!) I really couldn´t wait for the Spanish lessons to begin!
This morning soon came around and thanks to the welcome drinks last night, I already felt very at home and well acquainted with the other students here. We had a presentation from Inge (Director of Studies) at 9.15. She went over the weekly timetable and told us what the social and cultural activities were for this week. They all sounded great! I was particularly looking forward to the “Sherry tasting” night on Wednesday. They call the Wednesday event: “Español en Acción” (Complete Spanish) because you can only speak Spanish during the event! Sounds like fun!
After the presentation I went off to my classroom to meet my new teacher – Luciá. It definitely felt strange to be a student again after many years- I certainly had a case of “first day blues”. Luciá was very patient which helped to calm my nerves and would often respond enthusiastically with “Muy bien Gertjan!” At the break I discovered that we had students from all over the world, staying for 2 or 3 weeks…and often much longer! I spoke to one girl who was studying as an Au-pair and is staying with a Spanish family for a whole year. She said really enjoys living with the family and explained how it has really enhanced her learning experience!
The afternoon was even better, we got to practice some of the vocabulary we learnt before the break and use it in conversation group activities. It was amazing what I could remember! The hours soon flew past and it was 2 o´clock before I could say “Hasta mañana!” After a few hours, seeing the “Plaza de Toros” and some of the local amenities I went back to “Sparkville” with the rest of the students. This was our meeting point for the cultural activity and we congregated in the reception, ready for the off! We were put in to two teams by Lucia, Anish and Charlotte who led the Cultural activity. We had to ask locals for the answers to certain questions about El Puerto de Santa Maria. Each question took us to a new location and the team who finished back at Spark was the winner. It was a very fun activity and a great way of forcing ourselves to speak the language. Speak Spanish, or lose the game! It was very close and we definitely struggled with certain questions, but we made it back first to Spark. Success! Olé! A great end to a great day.
I had loved my first jam packed, yet fun filled day in Spain! I hope that every day is as exciting as this and I am enthusiastic about all of the new challenges which lie ahead of me. My first day? Perfecto!
Hasta Luego,
Gertjan
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