On Tuesday 22nd October, twenty three boys, lots of parents, and three members of staff met at Stansted airport at the early hour of 5.45am. Excitement was keeping everyone awake though, as we prepared to catch our morning flight to Málaga, where we would be met by a coach to drive us the two hours from there to Granada.
Upon arrival in Málaga airport, the Spanish food journey started early as ‘bocadillos de jamón (o queso)’ were bought to keep us going for the onward journey to Granada. As we passed the scenic views of the hundreds of thousands of olive trees on route, many boys caught up with some well needed rest.
Once we reached Granada, we were met by our host families who we would be staying with for the five days. Boys were in pairs and groups of three and assigned to a Spanish family who they would get to know over their stay. The boys went off to settle in to their temporary homes, before we all met again that evening to get our first glimpse of Granada. We took a walk through the city together, before sitting in a bar at El Paseo de los Tristes to enjoy a nice fanta de naranja. That evening, boys then went home for a rest and a late (typically Spanish) dinner time of around 9pm.
The trip really kicked off the next day when the boys met nice and early at 8.45am ready for their first day of Spanish language lessons. The topic for the day was food, and boys were able to develop their Spanish vocabulary knowledge in the classroom. Later that day, we enjoyed a group lunch at 100 montaditos where boys got to try a selection of typical Spanish sandwiches, including those filled with tortilla Española. After some free time to explore the city some more, we were treated to a walking tour of the Albaicín area of Granada, where we saw the most spectacular views of the Alhambra for the first time from the Mirador de San Nicolás.
The rest of the days followed a similar pattern – language school in the morning, followed by a cultural activity in the city in the afternoon. On the Thursday we were lucky enough to have tickets to the Alhambra where boys learnt about the Moorish influence in Spain and a lot more about the history of the country and city itself. The Alhambra is obviously a stunning piece of architecture with a lot of interesting history and the boys listened well to a Spanish explanation of this, followed by an English summary.
On the Friday, the evening activity was an amazing opportunity to visit the Sacramonte caves, still inhabited today. Here we watched a traditional flamenco show, which for many was their first time seeing this passionate dance. The performance was impressive and enjoyable to see in such a natural environment.
Unfortunately, we had to head home the next day but it was a real pleasure to travel with all the boys on the trip and we hope that they had a wonderful time, and got to truly see the real life impacts and benefits of studying another language.
