Written by Tvisha, Flora, Joy and Ava, Year 9
The Spanish Study tour was an incredibly enjoyable and informative experience. From making Paella to visiting the Cathedral of Jerez, every activity was incredibly fun and unique, whilst also providing us with insight into different aspects of Spain. The trip was a microcosm of the beauty, diversity and culture of Spain and brought all that we had learnt in our Spanish lessons to life.
The first day of our Study Tour mainly consisted of our flight and coach journeys – which all ran very smoothly. Once we had arrived and settled in at Spark Spanish School, we ate our first meal, and began adjusting to speaking and hearing Spanish.
On Saturday morning, we started the day with our first Spanish lesson. After our lesson, we got ready for a walking tour of El Puerto de Santa Maria, which included visiting the market to buy paella ingredients. It was a cool experience to use our spanish skills to buy all the food! We then had our lunch, and afterwards had another walk around the town. We then returned to our accommodation and got ready to go to the beach. When everyone was ready, we took a 15 minute walk to the beach and had the afternoon relaxing with our friends. After we had had a couple of hours on the beach, we returned to Spark. Later that evening, we had dinner on the roof and watched a movie.
On Sunday morning, we packed up our things and walked to the docks to get on a ferry to visit Cádiz! We were given lots of free time, and in groups, were allowed to go around the town and do some shopping. Then we walked to Parque Genovés where we had packed lunches in the sun with the palm trees. ¡Qué rico! We then walked to Torre Tavira with its Camera Oscuro, which showed us a live birds eye view of the whole of Cádiz! The view from the tower over the city was amazing to see.
We were then given some more free time to explore the beautiful city and buy some souvenirs, before stopping for churros con chocolate! We then took the ferry back to Spark and got ready for a tapas meal.
On Monday morning we had a Spanish lesson, followed by a rota of paella cooking, flamenco dancing (where Mr Rugna and Mr Londsdale got involved) and some fun Spanish lessons with the Spark people. We had a Spanish quiz and played some games on the rooftop. We then ended the trip with a celebration assembly run by the staff at Spark.
On the last day we had a tearful breakfast. We were so sad to say bye to the cooks. ¡Qué triste! We got on the coach to Jerez for a quick visit to the Alcázar, and the Cathedral. We then had our last packed lunch and got back on the coach to Gibraltar airport on our way home.
