Four Costa amigos lived “la vida loca” this summer by flying to Spain to experience the culture and to study Spanish.
Seniors Delaney Kluth, Sara James, Trevor Taub and Max Taylor spent 19 days in San Sebastian, Spain. Taylor and Taub stayed with one host family, and James and Kluth with another. With these families, they immersed themselves in the culture and learned about foreign family life, Kluth said.
“I went to Spain with my family in sixth grade, and I loved the experience so much,” James said. “Ever since then, I knew I wanted to come back to explore the language, country, and culture again.”
Kluth, James, Taub and Taylor traveled through an international program called Summer Program International Study Abroad, which sends students all over the world in order to enrich their knowledge of foreign cultures and help them further their foreign language skills, Taub said.
“The language barrier was definitely the hardest part of the trip,” James said. “When you get there, your mind isn’t in Spanish mode, and you have to communicate and make it work with your host family.”
While in Spain, the four students spent eight days in a schooling system, called Tandem, that was organized with SPI Study Abroad. The school days ran from 9:15 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and had a focus on vocal learning. After school, the program organized activities, such as cooking, exploring and dancing classes, with other SPI students.
“I learned so much more in my two weeks there than I have in years of Spanish classes at Costa,” Taub said. “The way we learned was through speaking Spanish every day, which helps more than anything you can do in a class.”
Leave a Reply