Reasons I chose 4 week Immersion

Hey CIEE family,

Im so excited to be taking you along my journey to Spain for the CIEE 4 week immersion program. Ill be showing you the program through my eyes and also giving out some helpful tips along the way! A little bit more about me to start. Im originally from Los Angeles, CA and my background is in Hospitality HR and Recruiting. Needless to say, with being in hospitality ive always been intrigued by other cultures. The different food, music, history and languages all speak to my heart and desire to learn as much as I can. So I decided that 2021 would be the year I finally take the leap to another country and im happy that Madrid will be my new home for a year. 

I hope that choosing the 4 week immersion program helps me adapt to the country easier by having a host family that can give me some native tips and suggestions on where to stay. I also feel a host family is a soft way to practice my spanish as they already know what im there for and not to expect my spanish to be perfect. Im very nervous that we dont recieve our host family information until we arrive but im hopeful that I will be placed with a family that truly cares about my experience. I also believe that because Ill be with a family for a month that'll give me plenty of time to find an apartment and not have to rush after orientation. Exploring the city while casually apartment hunting is definitely much preferred. My school placement is in the Alcala De Henares area so let the hunt begin! Its also really cool that the 4 week immersion comes with spanish lessons which one of the main reasons why I chose to teach in Spain versus other countries. I plan to leave Spain with at least knowing conversational spanish to bring back to my day to day life and the workplace. I feel that the 4 week program will be the best solution for me but will keep you all updated. 

- The Social Swan