By Isabel Watts and Charlotte Pedroz

Our trip began at 5am when we set off to Gatwick airport, excited for the week ahead!

We were greeted by bright sunshine at the Maravillas school for languages, where we would spend the next five days learning and meeting new people. Our teacher, Miguel, was amazing, and we really enjoyed our classes with him.  As there were only 4 of us in Year 12 on the trip, we had more opportunities to get to know each other by speaking in Spanish lots at the start of each session, which enhanced our lessons more.

After dropping off our luggage, we were given a tour of Benalmadena Pueblo and its history - it was really interesting and beautiful (especially to see the sea!)  After a long tiring day of travel and a steep walk back to the school, we finally met our host families.

We stayed with a lovely lady, who had 3 dogs and 4 cats - it was brilliant!!  Although she spoke no English, we were still able to connect with her through our Spanish (which really improved by the end of the trip) and we learnt lots about her.  We had a great time staying with her.

Every afternoon, after classes, we were taken on excursions to Malaga, Marbella and Mijas, where we learnt about the history, culture and religious aspects of the places.  Afterwards, we would have free time to explore and buy souvenirs. Our favourite place was Mijas, as it was located in the beautiful mountains and had the best shops for family gifts and ice cream.  Carolina, our tour guide from Maravillas, provided us with some great in-depth detail about the effects of tourism and important religious buildings that will help us in future A level topics.

The school lunch that we were served after lessons was tasty.  The bread just hit different to English bread.  Also, the dinner’s we had at our host family’s home were delicious we were given typical Spanish meals that she herself ate; it really helped us feel immersed in the culture.

Overall, we had an amazing time, it opened our eyes to what life is like living in Costa del Sol, and we got to meet many new people.