Cadiz, Spain: Spanish Summer Immersion for HS Students

Victor, Noelia and Sandro were amazing leaders in this very fun and adventurous programs. The kids learned and practice lots of spanish. They took amazing fotos in their photography class. They soaked in the culture and history of Cadiz and Spain. Mostly, they grew as humans and met amazing friends. My daughter could not have loved it more!

This program was terrific and immersive—- not just with language but with the culture itself. Living in the center of the city made me feel like a local. I loved the mix of spontaneous activities like surfing and salsa classes as well as free time like shopping and chilling by the beach. It was the best summer of my life and i could not reccomend it more.

Abbey Road provided my son with the best summer of his life. I was extremely hesitant to send him to Cadiz, as he was just 15 and had only been studying Spanish for a year. He had not traveled much internationally and certainly not alone. When I met the Abbey Road representative at the airport, I felt calmer. Then when I saw the many photos of my smiling son in Spain, I knew I made the right decision. My son raved about the conversational and cultural activities. He loved one particular class and his request to attend another class was accommodated. The weekly activity schedule was dictated by the feedback of the students. I felt like my son was safe, including during periods of free time, as his location was being tracked by the local teachers who were nearby. His host family and the staff at Abbey Road, especially Victor, bent over backward to keep him safe and happy. Upon my son's return, he placed out of 2 levels of Spanish right into IB Spanish and now he is talking about majoring in languages in college. Thank you, Abbey Road, for opening my son's eyes! Parents, take the plunge and give your child the opportunity of a lifetime!

From making paella to dancing tango, I learned so much about not just the Spanish language but also the richness of Spanish culture. I found Abbey Road's Cadiz program during my junior year when I was searching for the perfect opportunity to hone my Spanish language skill. From day one, I was exposed to the native Spanish speakers. It was also at this time that despite my 5 years of education in Spanish, I found that I still had much to study in order to achieve fluency. From this realization came dedication towards improving my skill in this language, an endeavor that was fully supported by the program's staff members. After 4 weeks of living in Spain and interacting with the native Spanish, I was able to reflect back and realize that I was able to speak with more nuanced vocabulary and fluency. Although I still have many more hours of studying to do in order to attain fluency, I believe that Abbey Road's program had provided me with the necessary first step in order to achieve my goal. Furthermore, I know that I would not have gotten the opportunity to become the 2020 Olympics' translator (as a volunteer) at the mere age of 18 without the knowledge that I had gained through my stay in Cadiz. Therefore, I truly believe that this program is an experience that everyone should partake in.

This was an once in a lifetime opportunity that I would forever cherish. For me, not only did my skill in Spanish rapidly increase in just 4 weeks, I was able to determine that I did truly wish to participate in Study Abroad in my college years.

It has been 3years now that I came in Cadiz and I’m still keeping in touch with most of the people I met there. I am French and was 14 at the time, I wasn’t really fluent in English and in Spanish either. Being in a Spanish host family and sharing my bedroom with an American helped a lot, I admit the first days were really hard but American teenagers are way more outgoing than the French ones and I had no difficulties to integrate. I had to think in English and in Spanish 24/7 to communicate and it is the best way to learn languages. What’s more, the staff couldn’t be better, we had so much fun with them. This trip was my first time being alone abroad and I could not have imagined a better experience... We surfed, went to pretty beaches, visited museum, and even went to Gibraltar ! The morning lessons in Spanish were really playful, we spent half time inside and halftime outside in Cadiz while making games to speak with people. I will finish by talking about the free times, we had 2 a day, one before eating and one after diner, it was honestly my favorite time of the day, my roommate and I used to adore visiting by ourselves the little streets of Cadiz, the parks... We even had our favorite places ahah, the immersion was real !

I was very satisfied with the experience. We chose Cadiz over other cities because it is a smaller city and would have more opportunities to practice Spanish. I stayed at a lovely home near the ocean about 20 minutes walk from the school. Some students had to take the bus in to school. The home mom was very friendly. I shared a room with another teen from California and we got along well. The home mom also housed several other younger Italian girls and it all worked out. Everyone was polite and cordial. My roommate and I did not go out with the mom as we were always busy with Abbey road activities. I contacted the instructor in charge and was pleased to have all questions answered before arrival. My roommate and I walked together every morning and back in the afternoon for siesta. After siesta we met out group once again around town within walking distance. I always felt safe. The people in Cadiz were very friendly. The curfew was strict as we all needed to be in by 9:30pm unless there were planned activities for the night. I really enjoyed the weekend excursions. Spain is a lovely country. I wish I could have stayed 4 weeks instead of 3. I flew without the group from Miami and met them in Madrid airport. It was my first time flying alone and first time in Europe.

This was my first time studying abroad. When I signed up to take AP Spanish I knew that I wanted to improve my Spanish speaking skills and I knew I wanted to go to Spain. I wanted to really be immersed in the culture and learn the language and learn about where I was staying to make everything worthwhile. My friend Mark and I went together and our moms were really involved in the search. They had this convention with all these different summer programs and they got a lot of different information. We wanted to find a program that offered a good balance of independence, learning, excursions, and a homestay. Abbey Road seemed to have everything that we were looking for.

 During the program my Spanish has definitely improved. Ever since the 9th grade there hasn’t been any English spoken in my Spanish classes and my experience this summer being so exposed to Spanish has really helped a lot. In the south of Spain they have these tough hard accents and I think exposure to that has really helped.

The classes we had during the program were quite different from what we have been doing back home, and this is another reason why I chose Abbey Road. I was able to spend an hour and a half in the classroom and an hour and a half talking to people and finding things, which was a more engaging way of learning. When you’re actually exposed to what you are learning it’s a totally different experience. The teachers and the program coordinators were amazing, especially Chris [the program Director]. During summer programs there are always certain situations that happen and I think he handled them really well. The staff always had a positive attitude and was open to hearing suggestions. They taught us that you can have so much fun by learning the language or about the culture. The whole experience was just so personal that anything that I felt I needed people were always there to help out or if I wanted to do a certain thing they would make time to do it. And it wasn’t just during the program that the staff was really great, even before the program started the staff was helpful. I could contact anyone in the program and they were willing to talk to me.

 Mark and I were staying with Rosa, an amazing and such a typical Spanish mother. Rosa had three sons and a granddaughter so there was always family around. It was never quiet which was perfect and exactly the experience we were looking for! It was such a great homestay experience. We always had the option to go out to eat, but we always ate at the house because we loved the food and we loved hanging out with the other boys at the house. Rosa mainly made Spanish food, but sometimes she would try to make something more American for us. Experiential learning is something that Abbey Road really takes pride in. It’s a great thing because even though you sign up for classes you want to take you really just want to be spending time in the city and making friends. When you mix classroom learning with cultural immersion, it just makes the whole thing more enjoyable.

My daughter Anna did the Cadiz three week program this summer. She stayed with three other girls in an apartment with a very sweet, single, retired Señora in New Cadiz, near the beach. There were also two other girls in a nearby apartment. She liked being so close to the beach and the girls often went there in the afternoon. She liked the Spanish classes. Before Spain she took four years of Spanish class every day in school. They take a placement test the first day. She did the cultural activities for her free choice. Anna said she finally understood what her Spanish teacher had been working on all year! I think her Spanish has really improved. On the weekends and nights they did a lot of group activities and trips in vans to nearby towns and they went to Gibraltar one day. I have never been to Cadiz but last year another mother told me they visited and she felt like it was very safe. Overall I would say she had a great time. She really liked the other girls and they are even talking about meeting up again this summer.

My daughter Isabella was 16 when she went to Cadiz last summer. It was her first time traveling to a foreign country. First off, I want to say that she had the “best time of her life” and had an incredible trip and all her new friends (one actually was from England) were amazing. Abbey Road is an amazing program that I would recommend to others. After the initial few days of “culture shock” Bella settled into her new home. Her host was an older woman that cooked dinners for them, and had a dog. The group took many excursions on the weekends with their contact, Iraida, who was amazing and very sweet according to the kids. Iraida, the contact for Cadiz who chaperoned from JFK to Cadiz, also had a blog which she shared photos and stories about their excursions. The initial culture shock was most difficult for Isabella but she hung in there and after the first few days….. she soared! She had the most amazing time! They all cried when it was time to go.

My daughter had a great experience! She felt it was a lot of fun and a very worthwhile experience. She had traveled alone in the US but not internationally. We live near Minneapolis MN so she flew to NYC where she met the group and leader and then they traveled to Cadiz as a group. We used the travel agent recommended by Abbey road to book the tickets and that worked out well. Gwen liked many things about the program. They were given a schedule every Monday morning that was all the activities through Sunday night. She loved the Spanish classes in the mornings and many of the activities including surfing, flamenco dancing, the trip to Gibraltar, going to the movies and more. She had a great homestay. The family only knew a few words in English so she really had to use Spanish in the home. I think she did speak English with the other students, but I know some students made a commitment to not speak any English.