One week until departure!

Here we go, my first blog post (thanks Lauren and Audrey for suggesting blogger). Well to start, for anyone that doesn’t know, my name is Camille Wyand, I am 17 years old, and I will be spending my second semester of my Junior year in Spain. I will be living in a town called Alpedrete, which is about 40 minutes north of Madrid. I will be living with a spanish speaking family. When people find out I am going to be an exchange student I get several of the same questions, so my first blog post will be dedicated to answering those. 

“What made you want to be an exchange student?”

I have always had an interest in traveling around the world to discover other cultures and the desire to learn new languages. My cousin did an exchange program for a few weeks in France, and then had a French student live with her for a few weeks in the United States. Also, my mom had an exchange student from the Netherlands and Italy that lived with her family when she was in high school. These factors put the idea of being an exchange student in my mind. When I got back from Europe this summer the idea hit me and I began to do some research (I actually put together a huge slideshow of why I should be an exchange student to convince my parents).

“What made you choose Spain?”

When I came home from Europe I fell in love with France and began learning French on my own. I chose France originally, but once my parents started to take the idea of me being an exchange student seriously we began to discuss the idea of other countries. There were several factors that went into choosing Spain but the main reasons were because I am learning Spanish in school, I have never been to Spain, and I believe the culture in Spain will give me the most enjoyable experience as a high school student. 

“Do you even speak Spanish?”

This is my favorite question because several people are very shocked/confused by my answer: Not really. I am in my second year of spanish in high school (I have 1 year of italian too, which actually was pretty helpful for Spanish). So I know the basic phrases and words I need, plus a little more. I also use rosetta stone, watch movies in spanish, and listen to spanish music to help me improve. I am going to Spain partially to become more fluent in Spanish though, and even though several Europeans speak English I will try and use it as little as possible. 

I have one more week in the U.S. so I will be spending my last week packing, cramming in as much Spanish as I can, and hanging out with my friends:)