Abbey Road High School Summer Immersion Program in Cádiz, Spain

It has been 3years now that I came in Cadiz and I’m still keeping in touch with most of the people I met there. I am French and was 14 at the time, I wasn’t really fluent in English and in Spanish either. Being in a Spanish host family and sharing my bedroom with an American helped a lot, I admit the first days were really hard but American teenagers are way more outgoing than the French ones and I had no difficulties to integrate. I had to think in English and in Spanish 24/7 to communicate and it is the best way to learn languages. What’s more, the staff couldn’t be better, we had so much fun with them. This trip was my first time being alone abroad and I could not have imagined a better experience... We surfed, went to pretty beaches, visited museum, and even went to Gibraltar ! The morning lessons in Spanish were really playful, we spent half time inside and halftime outside in Cadiz while making games to speak with people. I will finish by talking about the free times, we had 2 a day, one before eating and one after diner, it was honestly my favorite time of the day, my roommate and I used to adore visiting by ourselves the little streets of Cadiz, the parks... We even had our favorite places ahah, the immersion was real !

This was my first time studying abroad. When I signed up to take AP Spanish I knew that I wanted to improve my Spanish speaking skills and I knew I wanted to go to Spain. I wanted to really be immersed in the culture and learn the language and learn about where I was staying to make everything worthwhile. My friend Mark and I went together and our moms were really involved in the search. They had this convention with all these different summer programs and they got a lot of different information. We wanted to find a program that offered a good balance of independence, learning, excursions, and a homestay. Abbey Road seemed to have everything that we were looking for.



During the program my Spanish has definitely improved. Ever since the 9th grade there hasn’t been any English spoken in my Spanish classes and my experience this summer being so exposed to Spanish has really helped a lot. In the south of Spain they have these tough hard accents and I think exposure to that has really helped.

The classes we had during the program were quite different from what we have been doing back home, and this is another reason why I chose Abbey Road. I was able to spend an hour and a half in the classroom and an hour and a half talking to people and finding things, which was a more engaging way of learning. When you’re actually exposed to what you are learning it’s a totally different experience.

The teachers and the program coordinators were amazing, especially Chris [the program Director]. During summer programs there are always certain situations that happen and I think he handled them really well. The staff always had a positive attitude and was open to hearing suggestions. They taught us that you can have so much fun by learning the language or about the culture. The whole experience was just so personal that anything that I felt I needed people were always there to help out or if I wanted to do a certain thing they would make time to do it. And it wasn’t just during the program that the staff was really great, even before the program started the staff was helpful. I could contact anyone in the program and they were willing to talk to me.



Mark and I were staying with Rosa, an amazing and such a typical Spanish mother. Rosa had three sons and a granddaughter so there was always family around. It was never quiet which was perfect and exactly the experience we were looking for! It was such a great homestay experience. We always had the option to go out to eat, but we always ate at the house because we loved the food and we loved hanging out with the other boys at the house. Rosa mainly made Spanish food, but sometimes she would try to make something more American for us.

Experiential learning is something that Abbey Road really takes pride in. It’s a great thing because even though you sign up for classes you want to take you really just want to be spending time in the city and making friends. When you mix classroom learning with cultural immersion, it just makes the whole thing more enjoyable.

Abbey Road provided my daughter with a top notch summer abroad program in Cadiz, Spain. This group is highly organized and focuses on a safe, enriching experience with lots of chances to soak in the culture. There was a nice balance of academic and free time.

The housing was excellent, day trips very rewarding, and she got to use her Spanish 100% of the time. As an educator and father I would absolutely recommend Abbey Road to anyone!!

The evening activities, trips to Bolonia and Gibraltar, group dinners, beach sports and the liberty we had in the city were great! The balance between activities and down time was just right, as I improved my Spanish skills a lot and also had time to explore the city. Staying with my host family was a pleasure. They were so nice and caring that my host mom taught me how to cook some Spanish delicious meals.

I went to the Cadiz, Spain program last summer and I loved it. I learned so much in the classes as we went really in depth into grammar and speaking exercises. On the first day of classes we took a placement test to determine our level of comprehension in Spanish and from there we were separated into two groups. We did lots of activities in the city where we talked to locals, visited markets, and had scavenger hunts. I also took photography as my minor class which I highly recommend. I just used my iPhone as my camera and that was perfect. The teacher was so amazing and was really knowledgeable about photography and about the history of the city.

The staff were very fun and close to us. They spoke Spanish to us unless absolutely necessary and I believe that was a prominent cause for how much my Spanish improved.

My family was also amazing. I had a mother and a father and they were wonderful. They loved to talk to us about our day and our lives. They owned a small farm from which they were always bringing home fresh fruits and vegetables. They cooked all the meals from scratch and they were amazing. I was 16 turning 17 when I went.

Abbey Road's Cádiz immersion trip gives you unbelievable freedom and puts the opportunity to drastically improve your language skills in your hands. Between the language classes and cultural studies classes, you get the opportunity to walk around the city and find the places you want to go or the things you want to do. My friends and I frequented a café so much in the late afternoon that the waiter started to recognize us. We went surfing, hung around on the beach afterward, then walked the beach walk at night. We talked with some people from Salamanca about travel, then made our way back to our homes to sleep in the classic Spanish fashion (late). The staff was always so helpful and the connections I made I know will last. I can say without a doubt that my Spanish improved after the program, especially more practical applications and colloquialisms. Abbey Road was the perfect summer program for me; for anyone interested in travel, language, and culture, Abbey Road is the right program for you.

This was my first time participating in a study abroad program. I had heard about ten tours before. I chose the study abroad program with Abbey Road to help improve my Spanish.
The teachers were great! They really encouraged us to speak more Spanish and helped us to understand more. We actually get out of the classroom and talk to local people and learn Spanish through living in the city and interacting with native Spanish speakers.
Living in the residence in Barcelona was similar to college life. We did cooking, which was really fun. Learning to cook new recipes and trying new foods was a completely new experience. My favorite was tortilla.
By the end of the program I really learned a lot about how to manage for myself, meet new people and be more confident.

It was truly a life changing experience. Abbey Road made this experience so personal, I felt I was there with my family and friends. The homestay family was so nice to me and kept offering me different foods to taste and sharing their Spanish culture with me. I improved my Spanish. I learned some local Spanish expressions that I never knew from the US.

One of my favorite beaches was La Caleta, because it was in between castles. It was so amazing to sunbathe and look up in see castles.
Our Spanish classes were taught in an interactive fun way so I actually enjoyed practicing my Spanish with local vendors and teenagers, something I never get to do back home. My host mother whom I called Senora, taught me to prepare delicious tapas that I shared with my family when I returned home to the US.

Thank you Abbey Road for the most amazing time!