Year 9 Trip to Murcia, Spain

At 03:00 on Sunday 9th February, forty excited students and a team of four staff members arrived at school, where nervous parents waved us off into the gloomy prelude to Storm Ciara, praying that our long-awaited flight to the south of Spain would not be cancelled. Thankfully, luck was on our side, as we were able to check in swiftly and board with ease, with only a little turbulence at the beginning of the flight. Upon arrival, we were greeted by our native Spanish “monitora”, who immediately set the tone of language immersion by directing our group to the coach in Spanish, and we set off on our final part of the journey to our home for the next five days – next stop: El centro Arbolar, los Urrutias!

The shock on everyone’s face when we arrived at our destination could be summarised in one word – WOW!

Our residence was a beautiful, white, purpose built activity centre, in a quiet little Spanish village, right on the seafront! After a lovely three course lunch to regain some energy, we met our other “monitores” (hosts and activity leaders) and played some icebreaker games – in Spanish of course – and some beach sports. In the evening, we had a lovely walk before dinner around the area and then got some well needed rest to prepare for the days ahead.

On Monday morning, after sharing some sunrise photos with our not-so-lucky family members and friends, we had breakfast, and students had to quickly tidy up upstairs as it was time for the first of the daily “inspección” of rooms, before the morning Spanish class. During the week, this really helped students learn an array of new adjectives, such as: maravilloso (marvellous), genial (great) and chupi guay (cool!). We had a busy day of cooking traditional “tarta de la abuela” (grandma’s cake), a team photo scavenger hunt and – a highlight of the trip for many – an outdoor Zumba lesson! The monitores were so impressed with the group’s engagement with the activities that they even asked two students to help lead the group in the Zumba routines – muy bien Raymond y Caroline!

Tuesday was our first day trip: to the beautiful harbour town of Cartagena, where we were treated to a guided tour of the streets and local churches and, despite just missing out on attending the local mass, our very own Mr White led us in a wonderful spiritual reflection in one of the city’s churches. After lunch in the park, students completed an information hunt in Spanish before being treated to some highly anticipated free time in the town to purchase souvenirs and enjoy the cultural experience with friends. Some of us – staff and students alike – even tried “churros con chocolate” for the first time in a local café! The afternoon session in Cartagena took us to see a fantastic Roman theatre and we learnt much about the history behind the building and the town itself. We arrived back at our residence, were delighted to see and try the delicious tapas for dinner and we spent the rest of the evening having a lot of fun playing team games – and even discovered many hidden talents!

On Wednesday – the last full day of our trip – we had our Spanish class in the morning and then headed over to a nearby street market – where we were able to buy local products and some final souvenirs for family and friends. We were even able to practise our haggling in Spanish – and Jusnoor showed real skill here! In the afternoon we were finally able to do the star activity of the week: water sports! We geared up and split into two groups – sailing and kayaking. This was an absolutely fantastic experience on the sea, where new skills were learnt, teamwork was required and lots of fun was had by all involved – particularly Mr White and Mr Taylor who caused a lot more mischief than any of the students!

I think it is safe to say many students wanted to stay longer and that they had an experience they will not forget in a hurry. I am extremely proud of our students – we have been talking about this trip since they were in year 7 and they did not only impress us with the level of Spanish and engagement in the activities, but also our hosts, who said “thank you for being such an amazing, dynamic group and we hope you return soon!”