Anna Gault Spends Summer in Spain
9/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Sept. 7, 2010
One of the special programs that is offered at the Air Force Academy is the Cadet Summer Language Immersion Program (CSLIP), in which cadets spend four weeks in a foreign country in an attempt to increase their cultural awareness. This summer, junior Anna Gault headed to Nerja, Spain, for the unique experience. Here, Gault shares some of the highlights of her summer in Spain:
This summer I got the opportunity to travel to Spain for an entire month of studying Spanish. I stayed in a small town called Nerja on the Costa del Sol in Andalucia, Spain. I went with 10 other cadets who are also minoring in Spanish. We attended school for four hours every day, having class in a garden outside, and the best part was that we didn't have to bring any military uniforms.
We stayed with host families who only spoke Spanish, so we definitely utilized our language speaking skills. My host family lived five minutes from the school and five minutes from the beach, which my group went to everyday.
We traveled to Granada, Cordoba, Madrid, Sevilla, Almunecar and many other cities and visited the famous nosques, cathedrals, museums and churches. We also went to the famous Plaza Mayor and el Museo del Prado in Madrid.
We met 35 suecos (Swedish students) that also attended our school in Nerja, as well as Irish, Scottish, Japanese, English and Norwegian students. We got the opportunity to learn about their cultures as well as the Spanish culture.
Besides going to the beach every day and the dance clubs at night, we took salsa lessons and learned how to cook Paella.
The biggest highlight of the trip, however, was definitely attending a David Guetta, Rihanna and Shakira concert in Spain with thousands of people. We took the train and stayed up all night hanging with the locals. It was an awesome experience.
