In May 2003 I will be setting off to Spain for two months. There I hope to learn a little of the country's language, through a month long intensive course, and culture, by travelling about for a month. I thought it might be useful to set up a webpage so I can keep in contact with people at home and share any useful hints and tips discovered whilst planning and carrying out this little endeavor.
Click on the bookmarks below to go to the relevant section.
There can be few better ways of learning a foreign language than studying it in the country of its birth. Well that is what I am hoping. To this end we have applied to spend a month in Seville with CESA languages. They offer courses across Europe and in Spain itself have schemes operating in Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Malaga, and Nerja. I will provide some idea of the course's quality when I find out for myself!
In the meantime I am attempting to learn a few phrases with a Teach Yourself Spanish course. Unfortunately it requires lots of free time and a high degree of personal motivation. Neither are currently running in high supply so progress is a little on the slow side!
Am actually studying Spanish at the CLIC language school in Seville. It has a good reputation and deservedly so. The lessons are well taught with large quantities of information slowly being assimilated!
Links:
http://www.cesalanguages.co.uk/
The simplest, and possibly cheapest, way to reach Spain is to fly. A large number of European and International airlines run numerous flights between London and major Spanish cities. The least expensive route is usually to Madrid. The capital city is also the centre of the Spanish rail network facilitating travel to your next destination. After trawling the internet the best flight economy flight offers appear to be available either through Easyjet or Opodo. Easyjet tends to offer the lowest possible prices but the flights disappear quickly and tend to be either very early or late in the day. In addition though the outbound flight can be very cheap the return often appears to be a lot more expensive. Flights through Opodo with British Airways, Iberia, British Midland or Air Europe are slightly more expensive but probably a little more reliable, comfortable, and at times of the day which won't rob you of quite so much sleep. For students it might be worth checking out the STA travel website as they do have some special offers available.
We have ended up booking the flights through Monarch airlines. They were very good value, even if we are going to have to spend the night at Gatwick in order to catch the 07:15 flights!
Our flight turned out to be at 9:30...grrr. So two extra hours spent sitting at Gatwick after having only two hours sleep! Lots of shops to pass the time in though. The flights themselves were pretty good, the plane was on the old side and the free food pretty basic but all told not bad for the money.
Links:
For all those out there with an interest in weather related things (i.e. my Dad) here is a quick summary of what's happening in some of Spain's cities.
I´ve so far discovered that the weather in Seville is supurb. We´ve enjoyed many days of seemingly endless sunshine. The average temperature has been about 29 degrees and it´s getting hotter!