2017 was the second year of our CSS Valencia summer Spanish course for Irish secondary school students. The Blog 2017 aims to give you an overview of what we did that second summer.
Mícheál Duffy, 16, had just completed his Junior Certificate. He went to Valencia in 2016 with CSS and enjoyed it so much that he returned in 2017. Mícheál wrote a daily blog to give an overview of that year’s activities. Andrea, Leena, Conor, Iseult, Ione and Gemma (Mícheál’s sister and the leader of the group), joined Mícheál for the 2017 trip.
Our host families are one of the most important parts of our course. Mícheál returned to the same family as in 2016, and everyone at CSS Valencia was delighted to see Mícheál and Gemma again.
Gemma is a Spanish secondary school teacher in Bush Post Primary School in Carlingford, Co. Louth.
Enjoy our Blog 2017!
Sunday 23rd July #Hometime
We had breakfast with our host families and said our goodbyes. It was sad to leave them but we all…
Saturday 22nd July #TourDeAlbufera
We hopped out of bed this morning and got ready to meet at the Benimaclet metro station for 11:10am for…
Friday 21st July #LaClaseFinal
Today was our final day in the AIP Academy, we had a normal day in classes with a few rounds…
Thursday 20th July #TheFinalSurf
Después de las clases, we got the tranvía out to the University of Valencia where we ate our lunch outside…
Wednesday 19th July #Bonaire
After our classes in AIP and a few rounds of Kahoot, we had the entire evening free. We all headed…
Tuesday 18th July #PuestaDelSol
In class, we played a memory game whereby we had to remember what was behind each card, and then match…
Monday 17th July #CityTour
After our classes, we met up with José outside the academy in Benimaclet to go on an Architecture tour of…
Sunday 16th July #Barancismo!
In my opinion, today was the best day by far on the entire course! Ione, Iseult, Leena, Gemma, and I…
Saturday 15th July #Oceanográfico
My parents had been in another part of Spain on holiday while I was in Valencia and they had always…
Friday 14th July #TiempoLibre
We had the option of going to the ‘Mestalla’, which is the official football stadium of the Valencian Football Club.…
Thursday 13th July #PaddleSurf
Unfortunately, Conor is leaving tomorrow so he got his certificate today. He was a bit camera shy so didn’t want…
Wednesday 12th July #Fallas
Después de las clases, fuimos al museo fallero (after classes we went to the Fallero museum), which is the museum…
Tuesday 11th July #LaLiga
In the AIP Academy, for our last class of the morning we usually have a change of teachers, and our…
Monday 10th July #CiudadDeLosArtesYCiencias
After our AIP Lessons in the morning, we headed for the science museum in Valencia! The City of Arts and…
Sunday 9th July #Peñíscola
We had a bit of a lie in this morning as we didn’t have to meet at AIP until almost…
Saturday 8th July #Splash
We met Alba at the meeting point in Benimaclet (near the AIP academy) at 10am and we made our way…
Friday 7th July #BioParc
In our classes in AIP, we split into two teams, one team watched the start of a short animated film…
Thursday 6th of July #CatchingWaves
After classes in AIP, we had our lunch and headed to the CSS Academy for our speaking classes with Marta,…
Wednesday 5th July #Voleibol
I must say I really enjoy the Spanish classes here! I know it seems mad to ‘enjoy’ being in classes…
Tuesday 4th July #MasterChef
Everyone seems to be settling in very well with their host families, especially Ione and Iseult who have Spanish ‘siblings’…
Monday 3rd of July #DayOne
We woke up early to get to the Language School called AIP where we sat an entrance exam to determine…
Sunday 2nd of July #Here we come
Hello, my name is Mícheál Duffy, I’m 16 and I just did my Junior Cert. I went to Valencia last…
Thanks for reading the blog! We hope you have enjoyed reading and that you have a flavour of what the CSS Valencia Summer course is all about. We try to get a great mix between academic activities, afternoon excursions and cultural experiences. Together with our friendly host families, we think this is a summer course you won’t forget.
The three weeks of the programme flew by – we’ve had a lot of fun, learned and practised lots of Spanish. We also got to know the beautiful city of Valencia very well and are already thinking about doing it all again next year!
If you have any questions about our courses, don’t hesitate to contact us. We would be delighted to answer any questions you have.