This past summer, students were able to take the opportunity to go on a trip to Seville, Spain. The students stayed with hosts for two weeks, and in the morning had three-hour classes. Then in the afternoon they went around Spain to shop and explore, and in the evening they would go back to the host’s house. The overall trip showed students what it was like to live in Spain, where things are very different from here.

“Going to Spain was an incredible experience, I really enjoyed it, helped me feel more connected to the culture, and it gave me better insight into what it’s like to live in other places,” sophomore Whit Watters said. “I would recommend going to many people because it’s a very incredible experience, it was really cool to be embraced in the culture and really understand what it is to live there. I improved my Spanish speaking and writing abilities. Also, talking to the locals helped, so you could practice speaking. The food was very interesting and very cultural. We ate a lot of Spanish food, like pan, which is bread, a lot of dishes over there had pan in it, and potatoes.”

Along with Watters on the trip, junior Emmett Holcombe also experienced this trip. This trip showed them a lot of insight into what it is like to live in Spain with a real Spanish family.

“First of all, it definitely gave us a different perspective on the culture of Spain because we talked about it in class and saw photos going deeper into the culture, but we tried our best to fully immerse ourselves in the culture and learn the ways. I’m not going to be going again on the upcoming 2026 trip, but hopefully one day I will go back to Spain,” Holcombe said. 

With Holcombe’s outside experience in Spain he also had good experiences in his housing in Spain with his roommates also from Darlington.

“The housing experience was interesting, so it was Jay Watters, Will Bowerman, Bank Brown, and I all together with this one mom, she was pretty old and she didn’t speak a lick of English, and Jay and I’s spanish isn’t too good, but luckily Banks and Will were able to translate most of it for us,” Holcombe said.

Along with all of the multiply things Holcombe learned food was a very cultural thing but it is similar to the U.S. food because there is a lot of bread in there dishes too.

“They eat a lot of potatoes in Seville, Spain, but it’s definitely very different from the food we have here. Also, learning Spanish there is interesting because it is not Mexican Spanish, so some of it is different,” Holcombe said.