Jaydene Elvin - NSW to Spain

Mon 14 May 2007

Jaydene Elvin, from St Mary's Senior High School in NSW, is currently on our Long Program to Spain. Here is her latest news:

Hey everyone at Student Exchange!

Well I have been in Spain now for almost 3 months and am loving the experience. I have learnt so much from it. The family I am staying with is extremely nice and have made me feel a part of the family. We do a lot of things together which is very good.

At Easter, ´Semana Santa´, I had the opportunity to go down south to a place called Mojácar in Almería which is right on the coast so it was nice to go to the beach everyday and relax during easter. Then we have just had the fiesta of Puente De Mayo and so my host family and I went to Salamanca which is beautiful. All the historic buildings are amazing and I particularly enjoyed climbing the tower of the Cathedral - when we got to the top the vista was amazing. Though I did experience walking through the cathedral and over the top of priests who had been buried under the cathedral - I didnt realise this so once I found out it was abit weird. But in Spain this is normal and they have no problem walking over the graves. Then the next day we went to the border between Spain and Portugal which is separated by an amazing river. The mountains there are really interesting and so we spent the day going to different lookouts and then went to this large waterfall. On our last day we went into Portugal and had lunch there in a little town close to the border which had a cute little church and tower that we enjoyed exploring. Then, as we were heading down the border of Portugal and into Spain, we found another old city from the 1600s. I think it was a fortefied city. And the walls of the fort form the shape of a star. I found this place really interesting so I was glad we decided to stop there.

Toledo is another great city that I have been to. I really like all the architecture there and on my first visit we participated in this huge march around the border of the city that was put on by a local high school. About 800 people participated and it was 11 or 12kms and took about 3 hours. Along the way we had the best views of the mountains and city and so it was probably one of the best things I have participated in.

School is going well. I have made some great friends and am enjoying all my subjects and even attempting a couple of tests writing in Spanish which is a little difficult but is fun. So, I am really enjoying this exchange and looking forward to my 3 months summer holidays!

Until next time,

Jaydene