Spain: Language, Community, and Social Change

Homestays

“Granada is one of Spain's best kept secrets. The city is all about hidden treasures, treasures that can only be unearthed by really living there among the people. SIT facilitates, even guarantees that their student's experience is not one secluded to other Americans studying abroad, but one of total immersion. For me the best part of this was the homestay. There is no other way to seriously study a language than to live in it and this is what the homestay allows. I feel like I have another family in Granada, whom I can always return to.”

Margaret Murphy, Sarah Lawrence College

Students in this program spend thirteen weeks living with a homestay family in Granada and also have a three-day village stay at a rural house in the Andalusian mountain range of Sierra Nevada. By living in different regions of Spain, students are able to draw contrasts between life in a rural community and in Andalusia's more urban areas.

In Granada, students live with carefully selected homestay families who are employed in a range of working- or middle-class professions. Parents range in age from early 30s to mid-60s and usually have at least one child living at home. Homestay brothers and sisters could be students at the University of Granada or already working. The homestay experience provides students an exceptional window into Spanish daily life and culture. Students often enjoy participating in a range of family activities including going out with their Spanish siblings and their friends, going shopping, and playing sports.

Other accommodations during the program include hostels and hotels.

Each one of the SIT students that has lived with our family has become a part of it. Our gatherings with friends, celebrations, short trips, and chats during and after meals…have been enriched by having an American student with us that we have made feel at home during their time in Spain. They all leave knowing that they can count on an adopted family that will always receive them with joy and affection.
The Reyes Lopez family
SIT host family in Granada