Yasmin Breen – Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone in Spain

Hello,

My name is Yaz Breen, and I am from Dublin and a TY student at St. Andrew’s College. I went to Granada with my friend for a four-week learning experience. My family and I chose to go through Tribe because it was highly recommended by other people and spoken about very highly. We booked the trip to help me learn, improve, and understand Spanish better, which it did.

My first impressions of the trip were good. Although I was nervous, I was also very excited. When we landed and arrived at the meeting point in the centre, the vibe of the city seemed really relaxed, and I felt safe. The city was extremely easy to navigate, and the people were really nice.

At home with the family, one of the first things I noticed was that they woke up really early, even at the weekend, which I wasn’t a fan of as I’m not a morning person, but I got used to it. Something else I noticed was that they ate lunch much later and dinner really late; we would sometimes eat at 10 p.m. For school, although they started earlier, they finished earlier as well, which I found strange. I was used to having lunch in school and, in the winter, going home as it was getting dark.

School

The first week, my friend, who I came with, and I were in the Simona Learning Academy. It started at 10 a.m. every day and ended at 2 p.m.  We went over the basics to get a better understanding, and we did learn some key things to help us get around the city, but the rest of the time we were playing games and having fun, which was a nice way to settle into the place.

We joined a gym for the month through the coordinator.

During the first week, we celebrated my 16th birthday. We had lunch as normal, and then the host family got me a cake and a present.

For the first weekend, we went to Grandma’s house as the family had a festival and they didn’t know when they would be back. This gave my friend and me an opportunity to explore the city properly by ourselves.

Life with my Host Family

Life with the family was different from usual, as expected. We did most of our talking during mealtimes. Since both parents worked at the school, they were home at the same time as us most of the time. We had to text them when we were going out, or at least inform them if we weren’t going to be home for a meal or something, which is normal.

The second weekend, we went to the younger daughter’s dance competition, which was nice as it made us feel included in the family and their activities.

Football in Spain

During my month there, I played football with a club for the last three weeks. My dad had gotten help from the coordinator to find me this club to play with for a couple of weeks, and the club was happy to take me on for the three weeks, with training twice a week. It was easy to get to on the tram.

Training with them was so much fun but also challenging, as the Spanish are very good players. The people were nice, and the coaches were really good. During the last training session, I was very upset to leave, as most people had been very welcoming, and I had finally started talking more, making friends, and learning a lot from them.

Our Favourite Spot

During our exploring, we came across a very quiet spot away from the people and the traffic, which we visited loads of times. It had the perfect view of the sunset. We would walk down from the house, or even after being out, and sit on the wall watching the sun set.

Trip to Málaga

My friend and I went on two trips during the month. The first one was a beach trip to Málaga on the second-last Sunday. We went with four other people and a supervisor from the language school.

We woke up at 9 a.m. and got the tram to the bus station, which was the meeting point. We took the 10:30 a.m. bus and arrived at around 12 p.m. We then had to walk around 20–25 minutes to the beach.

We spent the majority of the day on the beach. We loaded up on suncream, and after around half an hour, we went for a swim. Then we brought the ball into the water and messed around. We dried off in the sun for a while, then the boys left, and myself and two friends stayed.

We went to the marina for ice cream and then had to go back to the bus station. We got back to Granada around 9 p.m., and as the trams were busy, we decided to walk home.

Trip to Nerja

During our last week, the school also had German exchange students for the week, and they were going to Nerja, so we went with them.

We got the bus at around 9 a.m. and went to the beach. I noticed that part of Nerja was very touristy. We had an hour and a half to ourselves, so we got breakfast and ice cream and sat on a bench facing the sea.

After we met back up, we walked back to the bus, and then we went to visit the Caves of Nerja. We first did a 10-minute VR experience, then we had a lunch break. Afterwards, we were given audio devices which explained the caves as we went underground.

We then got the bus back and arrived at the school at around 4 p.m.

Language Tips

Over the month, some language tips I would give are to listen carefully. When people are talking to you, listen carefully and try to use key words to help you understand what they’re saying and how to answer.

Ask for help or advice if you need it. It’s better to get someone who speaks the language to help than to try to guess yourself and get it wrong.

Also, don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t understand. Ask people to repeat themselves if needed. Don’t give up on it, because you are there to learn.