Follow the jump links to learn more about Spain:
Lifestyle and Family Living
Teen Life
Dress and Appearance
Diet and Meals
Educational System
Geography and Climate
Population
Language
Government
Religion
Spending Money
Safety and Support
Fun Facts
Lifestyle and Family Living
Spanish families are typically open and welcoming, eager to make a good impression. Spanish families—including the extended family—tend to be close-knit, visiting each other frequently and sharing in large weekend gatherings.
Family roles are modernizing in Spain, as they are around the world, and more and more women have jobs outside the home; but traditionally, the mother manages the household while the father works outside the home.
Because homes and apartments in Spain tend to be small, you can expect to share a room with a host sibling. Parents will want to know when you go out and may give you a curfew.
Spaniards are more inclined to identify with their particular region than with the country as a whole, and AFS participants often come to share this regional enthusiasm.
AFSers are placed anywhere within Spain, including Cueta, Melilla, the Canary Islands or the Balearic Islands. While you will always speak formal Spanish in school, you will have the advantage of learning the regional dialect or language of your host family.
If you are thinking of going to Spain only because you want to speak Spanish, you may be surprised to learn that you will be speaking other languages quite often instead.
Spanish host families, like all AFS host families worldwide, are volunteers and are not paid. They open their homes to students in order to share their community and culture as well as to enrich their own family lives.
Teen Life
Spanish schools focus primarily on academics. After school, Spanish teens often attend lectures, concerts and sporting events. Soccer (or futbol) is easily the most popular sport.
Volunteering for a local community organization is another great way to learn more and make new friends.
Perhaps because of the climate and long daylight hours, Spaniards begin socializing later in the day and end later at night than their European neighbors. On weekends, teens often stay out late, going to movies, parties or hanging out together at the local café or town square.<
Dress and Appearance
Spaniards tend to have fewer clothes than people from other countries, but they still value appearance; their clothes are always neat, clean and crisply pressed.
AFSers should bring casual, warm clothing for winter and lightweight clothing for spring and summer.
Students are also encouraged to bring one or two nice outfits (dress shirts and ties for men, dresses or skirts and blouses for women) for special occasions.
Diet and Meals
In keeping with European tradition, lunch is the main meal of the day and is served around 2 or 3 p.m. Dinner is at 9 p.m. or later, and most families eat together.
While each region of Spain has its own food specialties, Spanish cuisine reflects the country’s many historical influences. Generally speaking, Spanish cooking is Mediterranean in style with liberal use of olive oil, garlic, onions, tomatoes and peppers.
Fish and seafood are abundant, but Spanish cooking emphasizes red meat and pork which are eaten nearly every day. For this reason, AFS Spain cannot accept vegetarians or students who do not eat meat or pork.
Local table manners may include: no elbows on the table when eating but keep your hands in plain sight, don’t dip your bread in your soup but do use it as an extra piece of cutlery.
Also, you may discover that foods you expect to be familiar are something new and exciting. Hot chocolate, for example, is served very thick, almost like warm pudding, and tortillas in Spain are not corn or flour, but a popular egg and potato dish.
Educational System
Most AFS students in Spain attend public schools as seniors with classmates 17 to 18 years old.
Students may choose from three areas of study: science, humanities and technology. Science includes math, physics, biology and chemistry. Subjects in the humanities include Spanish, literature, history, foreign language, philosophy and Latin. Technology includes industrial and engineering classes.
Although you may be able to obtain academic credit for the coursework you successfully complete while abroad, AFS cannot guarantee this. Please discuss your plans with your local high school before your departure.
Geography and Climate
Spain is a located on the Iberian Peninsula southwest of France. It is bordered by Portugal to the west.
Madrid, Spain’s capital city, is located near the exact center of the country.
Spain is situated in the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere. It is nearly as large as the American states of Nevada and Utah combined.
Much of the terrain is hilly or mountainous. It has an extensive coastline along the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Spanish territory includes Ceuta and Melilla, enclaves on the north coast of Africa, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary.
The north coast enjoys a moderate climate year-round. The southern and eastern coasts enjoy a Mediterranean climate with long, hot, dry summers. The central regions have greater temperature extremes with cold icy winters and hot summers. The Canary Islands have year-round mild weather.
Population
Spain’s population is 40 million. Madrid, the capital city, has a population of 3 million.
Language
While the language of instruction in most schools is Spanish, Spain has three other official languages: Catalan, Galician and Basque. In fact, it is likely that you will placed in a community where Spanish is not the primary language.
Government
Spain is a parliamentary monarchy. The Cortes, or Parliament, consists of a Chamber of Deputies with 350 members and a Senate with 208, all elected by popular vote.
Religion
At least 75% of Spanish people are Roman Catholic. However, most of them do not attend religious services on a regular basis.
Spending Money
The Euro is the official currency in Spain.
Your program and country information packet (provided in the months prior to your departure) will give you an idea of how much spending money is appropriate and whether you should arrive with any amount of the local currency in hand.
Host families pay only for ordinary family events in which you are expected to participate. When you do such things as shopping for yourself or going out with friends, the expenses are your responsibility. Depending on the cost of living in your host country, we recommend you budget about $100-$300 per month.
Remember: never travel with large amounts of cash. Instead, bring travelers checks or follow the advice in the country and program information packet. Another option for obtaining money while overseas is to use a debit card linked to a checking account back home (but try not to use a debit card for daily purchases since there are ATM and currency exchange fees). Or, you can transfer money using wiring services such as Western Union.
You and your parents should determine a budget and preferred money transfer plan before you depart so that you are not caught without spending money while abroad.
Be conscientious of your spending since conspicuous consumption may not be viewed favorably and spending more than your peers and family may create a distance between you and them.
Safety and Support
AFS has the utmost concern for the welfare, safety, and security of our participants. We’ve been exchanging participants throughout the world for 60 years—that’s six decades of history and experience in international education with an exemplary record of safety, security, and service.
AFS maintains a network of experienced staff and trained volunteers who provide support in each country. In the event of an emergency, 24-hour assistance is available to students, their parents, and the host families. Furthermore, your AFS tuition includes comprehensive medical insurance coverage to ensure that medical care is available to our participants anywhere in the world and at all times.
While we have the above support structures in place, we also encourage you to take responsibility for your own safety and we give you the guidance to do so. Many of the AFS orientation activities, both at home and abroad, are intended to give you the tools to stay safe. We also provide country-specific safety tips to each participant prior to departure.
Learn more about the AFS safety and support network.
Fun Facts
- Every year, Spain hosts the world’s biggest food fight, the Tomatina. On the last Wednesday of August, some 30,000 people descend on the Spanish town of Bunol to throw more than 240,000 pounds of tomatoes at each other.
- Spain holds more than 3,000 fiestas (festivals) a year, the most famous being the running of the bulls in Pamplona, which lasts for seven days in July.
- The word “Spain” means “land of rabbits.”
- A 5,917 foot sausage, the longest of its kind, was cooked in Spain on September 22, 1986 in Barcelona.
- Spaniards eat one grape for each of the last 12 seconds of every year for good luck.
- Despite the beret being associated with France, the Basques in northeast Spain invented it.
- Spain did not participate in the First or Second World War.
