Learning Spanish in Spain
This time, our student Samantha, a 37-year-old lawyer, originally from Pennsylvania, who is currently in our advanced level B2 courses to continue practicing and improving her Spanish, tells us about her beginnings in learning this language and how her life was in Seville, Spain.
Living in Sevilla
by: Samantha Holbrook
When I was 11 years old, I started studying Spanish. I studied Spanish in high school, high school, and college. Later, when I was in my third year at Penn State University, I spent a semester in Seville. For 7 months I studied Spanish in Spain. It was an amazing experience and I learned a lot.
In Spain, I attended the University of Seville with other Spanish boys.
At university, I studied Cervantes’ book, “Don Quixote de la Mancha”, I had Spanish art courses, geography courses and Spanish history.
One of the things I liked the most was the food. At that time I was not a vegetarian and that is why I ate all kinds of Spanish food. I loved the paella, the potato tortillas, the tapas, and, of course, the sangria.
I lived with a Sevillian family. This family had two children: a girl and a boy, they helped me practice my Spanish, and I helped them practice their English. I was very lucky! because my Sevillian family had a house on the beach in Cádiz and a boat too. We spend a lot of time at the beach during the summer.
When I was there, I learned a lot about Sevillian culture. I loved music, especially flamenco. But, I didn’t like bullfights. There was a bullring in Seville, but I never visited it because I didn’t want to see it. Bullfighting is part of the Spanish tradition, but now it seems that a lot of people don’t like it.
What I did like were the festivals in Seville, such as Holy Week and La Feria de Abril. The April Fair was my favorite because there were many tents of Sevillian families and all the people dressed in bright colors and fantastic dresses. There was a lot of food, drink, music and lots of flowers, it was a great celebration! The Feria de Abril party lasts a week, ending with fireworks on the final night.
I made many friends in Seville, and we spent weekends traveling through many parts of Spain and other countries. We visited Paris, Ibiza, Madrid, Portugal, Barcelona, Toledo, Cadiz, Granada and more. In Granada, I snowboarded with my friends in the Sierra Nevada.
Also, I found my husband in Seville. If I had not studied in Seville, I would not have found my husband. We met one night in a bar in Seville. We spent the whole night together and at the end of the night, he asked me for my phone number, but I didn’t know it, so I couldn’t give it to him at the time.
Two or three weeks passed without my seeing him again, but one day, while I was in a bookstore, my husband came to the store. Well, he asked me for my phone number again, and this time, if I knew it, I gave it to him. So, we went to have a coffee together and we continued to spend time together during my time in Spain.
We still talked after we returned to the US, and he moved to Philadelphia to finish his studies at Temple University. At that time, I was studying at Penn State University, almost three hours from the city of Philadelphia, but we kept going out despite the distance.
After I graduated from Penn State, I moved to Philadelphia too, and we saw each other more often… The rest is history.
My time in Seville has been incredible. Not only did I get to know my Spanish family and my husband, but I was also able to learn another language and get to know another culture.
Now I study at Spoken Learning to continue practicing and improving my Spanish.
