Over half term, we went to Santiago de Compostela for the fantastic Lower Sixth Spanish exchange, and had a wonderful time.
Mrs Durán-Oreiro, brilliantly organising the exchange, found us exchanges that we were really able to connect with, who also had generous and friendly families. It was great to be able to feel at home and speak Spanish with them, and the weekend that we spent with them was a true highlight of the trip. Mrs Durán-Oreiro also organised lots of fantastic excursions for us, such as the tour of the distribution plant and headquarters of Galicia-based, globally influential fashion firm Pull&Bear, or the detailed and intriguing tour around the historic centre of Santiago, including the cathedral and the old market, with a knowledgeable History teacher from the exchange school, Colexio Manuel Peleteiro.
Also, great fun were the many lessons in Peleteiro, including Latin American dance and music, Spanish cooking and written expression. It was great to get to spend time completely immersed in Spanish culture and language, and in the evenings we were able to go to a wonderful concert at the Galician Philharmonic, visit the beautiful City of Culture of Galicia, and see the agricultural and viticultural heritage of the region in the surrounding countryside.
It was a brilliant trip that we feel massively improved our fluency and confidence in Spanish, and also removed many preconceptions that we had about the Spanish lifestyle. We would definitely recommend it to anyone studying Spanish in Lower Sixth.
Alex, L6
