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Spanish Exchange

From 21st October until the 28th October, the Highgate Spanish department took a group of 17 pupils to San Sebastián, in the heart of the Basque-speaking region of Spain. Each Highgate pupil was matched up with a pupil from Axular Lizeoa, our partner school.

The week involved various excursions to places such as the Igeldo Mountain, which offers a fantastic panoramic view of the whole of San Sebastián and the surrounding area; to the cider museum in Astigarraga, where we learnt about the methods used to make cider and sampled it for ourselves; as well as a day trip to Bilbao, which included a guided tour of the extremely impressive Guggenheim Museum.

spanish exchange spanish exchange
spanish exchange spanish exchange

In addition to these excursions, everyone involved in the exchange had the chance to spend a day with their exchange partners in their school classes. This provided a stern test of everyone’s linguistic ability, but at the same time, it proved an enlightening experience.

In contrast to this, the weekend, although more relaxed, gave everyone an opportunity to spend more time with their exchange partners’ families and see at first hand how the family in Spain is much more closely-knit than in England.

By taking part in this exchange, every Highgate pupil was able to sample a completely different culture, be it the vastly different mealtimes (many of the exchange partners ate dinner at ten o’clock in the evening or later), or the different language. Everybody who took part in the exchange adapted extremely well to these different demands and benefitted from practising their Spanish with their exchange partners and their families.

Whilst in Spain, all the Highgate pupils got to sample various pieces of Basque cuisine, known as Pintxos (Tapas), which included cow tongue, as well as plenty of tortilla española. The Basque region of Spain is particularly well-known for its gourmet food- it contains half of all Spain’s Michelin-starred restaurants, and the food certainly lived up to its reputation.

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Overall, the trip was a culturally enlightening experience for everyone involved and proved to be extremely helpful for improving oral fluency. The Spanish party will be coming to London from 4th March until 11th March. On behalf of the whole group, I would like to thank Mr Urreaga and Mrs Arnold for all their hard work in organizing this trip.  Ben Joseph, Year 13

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