There was, in fact, rain on the plains in Spain

Back in high school, I was always ahead in my Spanish classes. I was in the upper levels and I even graduated college with a minor in Spanish. I found it usually came easy to me. (All except for preterite versus imperfect. If you know what I mean, you know.)

I heard about this program for high school students studying foreign languages that IU put on. The program allowed students to spend the summer in a country that spoke their target language and would immerse them in the language through studying and, well, immersion.

This was by far the most insane thing I ever considered doing growing up. I had never gone on a trip without family before and this would be going to another continent. On my own. With a group of people I had never met before. Living with a host family who spoke little to no English.

If little teen me had the anxiety that 22-year old me has, this never would have happened. But it did.

I spent six weeks in northern Spain in a place most people don’t visit because it’s not the warm and beachy southern part of the country. We were near mountains and had mist and fog almost every day. But the fact that it wasn’t touristy made it even more special.

The immersion in this program came from one rule, really. No English. None. Nada. (See what I did there?)

In order to really learn the language, we had to speak only that language.

Yes, it was incredibly tough, but at the end, I swear we could hardly speak English. In just six short weeks, we could barely speak what we had been speaking for years. Crazy, right?

Yes, we had some rough patches. Not knowing the word in the target language and wanting so bad to explain it in English, accidentally slipping a word of English into a conversation.

I even had to switch host families halfway through thanks to a member of my initial host family having an eye for other’s Euros.

But this ended up being a blessing in disguise because I got a taste of both city and country living there.

The food, the experiences, the sights, just living life in Spain was incredible. And I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t what helped me get into all of the schools I applied to.

*hint hint students*