Posted by
Guest Blogger on Mar 30, 2016
Both the Spanish and French departments at Milton offer students the opportunity to participate in exchange programs. Many of my friends who did the French Exchange had tons of fun, a fact that was made obvious by all their pictures from the trip. I went on the Spanish Exchange and it was the best experience I’ve ever had in my time at Milton, maybe even ever.
In order to go on the trip, you have to be a junior or senior at Milton who has, of course, taken Spanish. My junior year, a group of roughly 20 students and three teacher-chaperones flew to Spain and spent the following month living with host families in Madrid. My host family, the Hortelanos, were incredibly nice and very patient with my developing Spanish. I became super close with my correspondent, Pilar, who would be living with me for a month in September when the Spanish students travel to Milton. In fact, we still snapchat each other every week. Pilar’s brother, Javi (short for Javier), has cerebral palsy, so, although he can’t speak or walk, he always smiled and laughed. He taught me the importance of being happy, even in the most difficult of circumstances.
During the weekdays, the group from Milton would meet at El Colegio del Pilar, where our host correspondents went to school, and we would then travel throughout Madrid or near close towns, like Toledo, Segovia, Córdoba and Salamanca. We visited famous cathedrals, museums, monuments and buildings, such as El Prado, El puerto del sol, La plaza de Toros and La reina Sofía.
On the weekends, we spent time with our host families. The first day I arrived in Spain, we traveled to the mountains, where I met the entire extended family and celebrated the grandfather’s 80th birthday. The next weekend, we went to Cádiz, a port in Southern Spain, in order to attend the uncle’s wedding, which lasted from 2 p.m. to 5 a.m.—it was crazy! My last weekend in Spain was spent in Barcelona and we went to the beach and visited La Sagrada Familia, which was the most beautiful cathedral. Saying goodbye to the Hortelanos was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. They truly became my second family, so when I had to leave, I was comforted in the fact that our relationship wouldn’t end when I got on the plane back to Boston. We still stay in contact and I know I’ll never forget what they taught me: how to appreciate life more than I thought possible.
I became super close with everyone from Milton on the exchange, and I now have all sorts of new friends at school. Milton has so many different students, from all around the world, and experiences like the exchange demonstrate how our differences are completely erased because we are all part of the Milton community. Milton has so many activities that bring our school together, allowing students to know one another outside of the classroom and truly develop the Milton identity.
