When I was a high school student, some thirty-plus years ago, my Spanish teacher lead a trip to Spain and Morocco. Though I desperately wanted to go and experience all the history, geography and culture that I had been studying in books, I was ultimately not amongst the small group that ventured across the pond.
Once in college, I had another opportunity not only to travel to Spain, but to live there for an entire year as an exchange student, as this was the normal protocol for Spanish language majors. My parents, however, were strongly opposed to this idea of sending their young daughter alone to a foreign country to live amongst strangers and to possibly be snatched by terrorists, never to be seen again. Their deep concerns lead to an extremely uncomfortable meeting with the academic dean, and ultimately resulted in the elimination of my travel requirement to Spain.
Despite these unfortunate beginnings, I have enjoyed plenty of travel experiences throughout my life, including study abroad opportunities in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Italy. Yet, I can’t say why I haven’t made it to Spain, even though I have always been so fond of her long and rich history, quirky customs and unusual language inflections and pronunciations.
In just a few short hours I will be heading to the Iberian Peninsula for the very first time, and I must confess that I am absolutely elated. Just like my former high school Spanish teacher, I will be leading a small group of students through Spain and Morocco. In fact, if it weren’t for my fabulous students, this trip probably wouldn’t be happening.
At the beginning of our last school year, my AP Spanish students begged me to offer a trip to Spain. I had never lead kids abroad before and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to take on this serious responsibility after having heard throughout my teaching career about so many nightmare stories of school trips gone bad.
In addition, my past travel experiences with seventh graders further contributed to my hesitation, as drama found itself on each and every trip. Dealing with turmoil here on US soil is one thing, but to face it in another country would be abysmal.
Reluctantly, I set my fears aside and took into account the size of my group, the character of my students and most importantly, the life-changing opportunity that I would be offering to them. By focusing on these specifics, it was a no-brainer. Next step: Find the perfect trip.
Luckily, this wasn’t very difficult. After browsing through a few different educational travel websites, I settled on Explorica. They offered a great itinerary plus they were pleasant and knowledgeable whenever I needed to speak to them. (By the way, I am not receiving anything from Explorica for writing about them.)
Below is the itinerary of our ten-day adventure that begins in Barcelona and ends in Morocco.
My goal in planning this trip was to give my students a taste of Spain, to expose them to a variety of beautiful and interesting sites that would compel them to return one day. I believe this itinerary will profoundly impact my students and leave an indelible mark on their souls as they discover a new world in the company of good friends.
As their teacher, I also want my students to be proud of their accomplishments during the past four years with regard to learning and polishing their Spanish language skills. This trip is their reward for their hard work and dedication. I look forward to observing them as they put those new skills to work and really build their confidence as the doors to a new world of opportunity open for them.
Since this is my first time leading students abroad, I would love to hear from those of you who already have travel experience. Feel free to share your stories, travel tips and anything else you can think of that would be helpful to newbies like me. Even if you haven’t lead a trip, but you’ve lived in or visited Spain, or any country for that matter, go ahead and leave your best memories and recommendations in the comment section below. Let’s get some chatter going!
Lastly, if you haven’t already, please go to the EnLanguages Facebook page and click the “Like” button so you won’t miss out on my Facebook Live events. And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram and Twitter, as I will be posting regularly on those platforms for the next ten days.
And now my friends…it’s time to go catch a plane! ¡Hasta pronto!
Lindsay tuvell says
Traveling is such a great way to allow students to finally “get” it- they get motivated, learn about the culture, learn SO much more than we could teach them…. so awesome! One of my main reasons I went into teaching was to give kids that same experience I was lucky enough to have.