OPINION: Spanish students in Westport on teen life in Ireland

WE are Olivia and Judit, two 15-year-old Spanish girls. We are currently studying in Ireland, in Transition Year in Sacred Heart School, Westport. We are from Madrid and Barcelona, respectively. We decided to come here because we wanted to improve our English, get to know new cultures, meet new people and have the experience of being out of our country and our home for one year.
Before coming here, we had some preparatory talks about how it would be to stay here. But there are some things that no one told us about, and we want to describe our experience and give our point of view for other people who would like to come here in the future, or go to a foreign country.
There are a lot of differences between Spain and Ireland – the people, the timetables, the food, the school and the way they evaluate you, the clothes and the fashion, the weather, etc. We will now explain to you the biggest differences we experienced.
One of the things that we think is most different is the food. The way that Irish people cook and the kind of food they eat is so different from the Mediterranean diet that we are used to. It took some time to get used to it, but we still prefer the food from Spain!
Another very different thing is the timetable. In Spain we have meals, meetings with our friends and nearly everything else, later than here. For example, in Spain we usually have dinner at 9pm or later, and here we usually have dinner at 5 or 6pm. Here our Irish teenager friends normally only have a sandwich for lunch and in Spain we have a big meal. So, for us at the beginning, it was a huge change that took a long time to get used to. At lunch time we were so hungry and at dinner we weren’t! Then, after about 9pm we were hungry again!
Now we are going to talk about the facilities that we have in Spain for young people in their teens and how it is very different from here. Firstly, we have a lot of parks in our towns, so you can meet there with a lot of friends. In our home area we have a big place for teenagers that is called ‘El Cubo’ which is run by our local council. You can go whenever you want and they have a lot of rooms with different games or activities to do, so you can go with your friend or you can go on your own and meet new people. This place also organises some trips when we are off school. They are free. For example, last year in February, we went to the snow for two days and we had so much fun.
At Christmas, in the place where we live, they put a funfair on with a lot of attractions, an ice-skating rink and stalls with cotton candy, sweets, hotdogs etc… and when summer is ending they do the same but they add a tent with a DJ. Again, it is the local council who organise all these for teenagers.
The biggest difference that we see is what teenagers do in their free time. For example, they don’t have a place like ‘El Cubo’ to go, when they want to hang out. Also, they meet very early here in comparison to Spain.
Some of the benefits of being in a different country for a year are that you have the opportunity to meet new people, learn a new language, see what school is like and the activities they do. And, of course, there is the experience of being away from home without your parents and living with a family that is from another country.
We would recommend, to all the teenagers that have the opportunity to be an exchange student, to do it. Don’t be scared of the big challenge that it is, because you will learn a lot of new things that you will never forget, and you will enjoy it so much. You will mature as a person and live a lot of new experiences that will help you in future events or situations.
Our experience until now has been so nice, although at the beginning it was not easy because on a lot of days we missed our families, friends and school. We had to get used to it. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself because not all the experiences are the same, but the most important thing is to enjoy your experience and find the positive side of it.