Welcome to Palma de Mallorca!!

Yesterday all of our amazing Language & Culture High School Study Abroad students finally arrived to Palma! We have been so excited to meet them all and start our program this summer. Everyone arrived safely and in very high spirits, despite some flight delays, long layovers, and lost luggage. Students got to meet some local CIEE staff, their Program Leaders, and most importantly-- each other! Clara, our lovely Housing Coordinator, then introduced all the students to their new host families, where they'll be living for the next four weeks. Students went home with their assigned families and enjoyed the rest of the evening with them. While most just relaxed, got to know their families, and had their first Spanish dinner, others were more daring-- a few even went for a swim in the Mediterranean Sea already! 

After a well deserved night of rest, we all gathered this morning to start our orientation at the campus we will be having all of our classes in this summer. In the morning we covered a variety of important topics such as Health & Safety Logistics, a program overview, an introduction to Spanish culture and cultural differences, and a workshop on Diversity & Inclusion. Of course we also had to do a few ice breaker activities so students could get to know each other! Then, after having lunch we got to experience our first beach day together! We walked over from our school campus to the local Palma beach, and enjoyed a nice afternoon of swimming, playing, relaxing, and bonding. Hopefully students got just a little taste of what the rest of their summer here will bring! 

Tomorrow we will continue our orientation with a Bystander Intervention training, a scavenger hunt to get to know Palma a little better, and students will get to officially start their Spanish classes-- que emoción! (How exciting!) I don't want to spoil too much else about what the rest of the week (and the month) will bring, but we will be keeping you updated a lot on this blog, so keep following along and don't miss out :)