Aoife Wilkins – Trip to Elche, Spain

3 MONTHS IN ELCHE

My name’s Aoife and I’m a TY student from Cork. I was fortunate enough to spend the last 3 months in Elche. I was paired with the Cabeza Alvarez family; Miguel, Encarni and Irene who where amazing and took great care of me. I attended IES Montserrat Roig, a local Spanish school, where the only other fluent English speaker was the teacher for English. This gave me the chance to immerse myself fully into the language. I also made friends for life who introduced me to the school gossip and ensured I felt included. As well as learning in a classroom, I learnt just as much from becoming familiar with the city and exploring various places on the Costa Blanca.

GREAT ADVENTURES WITH MY HOST FAMILY & FRIENDS

I had many great adventures with my family and friends but one of my favourite would have to be when we hiked to the Pantano de Elche. It is a waterfall about an hour and a half outside the city and a trail alongside the river leads you straight to it. My friends and I decided to go for it because ‘por que no’, bare in mind these friends aren’t very sporty so when they turned up in jeans I knew I was in for an interesting few hours. As well as this, the day before it had rained a lot so once we were on the dirt track the ground had turned into a slip and slide. The mud was sticking in big clumps to the bottom of our shoes. No worries though, we blasted Spanish music and sang along to keep our high spirits. It was a challenge but as we talked the whole time (in Spanish) it was very rewarding, especially the picnic at the top with an amazing view. In my opinion it was the chaotic imperfections that made this day so special. I won’t mention the part where we got a little lost.

TIPS ON HOW TO PREPARE YOURSELF FOR YOUR TRIP TO SPAIN

There are many things I wish I knew before going on the exchange, so here are my top 3 tips. Firstly, don’t put a lot of pressure on yourself to learn the language. In my first few weeks, I wanted to make the most of it by learning as much Spanish as I could however I was making myself stressed for no reason. It is natural to find something hard when you first start it. So once I relaxed and started enjoying the process I was learning no problem. Next, try not to get in the habit of nodding your head and saying ‘si’ to everything. This lead to some confused looks when I answered yes to a person asking where I’m from, for example. Finally, don’t be afraid to get out and be productive. I was always worried about going into shops because of the ‘embarrassment’ of not knowing what they asked me or how to respond but at the end of the day they where always understanding.

I’m very sad my time in Spain has come to an end. It was one of the best and most beneficial experiences of my life. The independence I gained from this trip has been just as rewarding as the Spanish I’ve learnt!