Sarah McCarthy experience: I am on an Exchange in Talavera de la Reina about one hour from Madrid. I have been here for one month now. I was very nervous about coming here at the start, I was thinking to myself “what have I gotten myself into” and “I’ll never last three months “. When I arrived here the host family had a great welcome for me. I was so relieved, It was what I was most nervous about. The family were so nice we sat down and chatted for a while and I knew from then that everything was going to be fine.

Sara, the girl I am doing the exchange with is two years younger than me while hasn’t caused a problem. We are in different classes in school which is good because we are not always together so we get on better.

Everyone in school was so welcoming on my first day showing me around and telling me what I should wear to school etc.. The classes are an hour each. They are quite boring as I’m only really starting to understand now . I bring a dictionary to class and try and learn sentences I will need. My Spanish has only really started to improve in the last two weeks so I think you need to be on exchange for at least three months for your Spanish to really improve.

For the first week I was very homesick, any word about home and I was in tears. The second week I started to cope better but I made the mistake of ringing home which set me back a lot. I would strongly go against ringing home and instead email, letter and texting are better.

Sara is big in to horse riding which is great as I ride at home. We go to weekly lessons and I am also swimming and playing tennis during the week. Some people find the food a problem but I have adjusted quite well.

I am having a fantastic time here and the thought of home doesn’t cross my mind anymore. The family are great, I’ve made many new friends. So I would recommend the exchange.

Sara Arriero experience: My name is Sara, I’m from Spain, I live in Talavera de la Reina in Toledo. We now have a exchange girl for three months. She is from Ireland she came with her family to get to know us and we spent a great weekend all together.

When the time came to say goodbye was very hard Sarah and her mother were crying, but I did everything possible to be kind to her so that she felt that now she had a kind family.

Sarah is two years older than me, at school she has her own friends , and the teachers help her with the language and she is improving her Spanish so much

The first weeks was bit complicated because we tried to speak her in English but she asked we speak always in Spanish and I think that is a good signal it shows that she is very interested and relaxed.

I’m happy to have a older sister at home, I only have two younger brothers and is funny to share my horse riding classes with somebody and go to swimming together.

She has met all my friends we go out and play table tennis and tennis too. I’m looking forward to going to Ireland and to get to know her family too.

Testimonial from Patricia McCarthy:

Transition Spain was indirectly introduced to our family as we searched for possible opportunities for our daughter Sarah to conduct a language exchange with a Spanish student of a similar age. The idea of student exchange was initially proposed by Sarahs Career Guidance Teacher and received enthusiastically by Sarah, not as much by her parents! While we her parents had reservations, we supported her in her challenge and it was at this point we were introduced to Transition Europe. We attended an information day, which answered many of our queries and was followed by a home visit from Jane O Regan, the Irish Representative for Transition Europe. We found Jane to be a practical caring person who stressed that the most important attribute of a host family was the willingness to be enthusiastic about receiving a teenager to ones care. We felt we fitted that criteria. Jane again answered many of our queries but at that stage she felt it would be difficult to find a Spanish family as Transition Europe dealt mostly with France. She did however point out that she was in the process of setting up TY Spain and would possibly be in a position to help us at a later date. We explored many other organisations at this stage but never felt the confidence or reassurance that Jane had bestowed on us. Sarah returned to her school in September to commence Transition Year having almost given up hope of finding a possible exchange. It was good for her to be at home during this time as she celebrated her 16th birthday and received her Junior Cert results. I believe both of these occasions would have been particularly challenging times for her to have
been away. Jane in the meantime had worked tirelessly with her new venture TY Spain, she found a family that through her thorough assessment looked an ideal match. We were delighted. The girls name was Sara. Though she was two years younger than our daughter we were not put off, we felt it would give each the space to explore other friendships and avoid over familiarity. I got to speak with her father who spoke perfect English, I felt he had similar concerns to mine. We both seemed to feel a confidence in each others ability to act as appropriate adoptive parents for our daughters. Jane guided us throughout the whole planning stage, she was always at the end of the phone whenever I needed reassurance. She had such terrific advice that could only have been at hand from someone who had successfully conducted so many exchanges. Sarah has been in Spain for almost one month now, we miss her, she misses home, however she has been fortunate to have the most wonderful, caring host family that we could possibly have managed to find. Sarah is so happy, she is involved in so many activities with the family – she rides, swims, plays tennis, cycles and runs. After four weeks Sarah is now able to relate pretty well with her host family and friends. School however is still very difficult, each class is one hour long, she understands little of what is being said but she accepts this will get easier as time goes on. She has been embraced with enthusiasm to her new school. I got an email from her English teacher on her first day introducing himself as Sarah’s mentor and the only English speaking person on the school staff. He assured me he would look out for her and already felt she seemed happy. We were so happy to get this news, we couldn’t believe any staff member would take the trouble to contact us. We have nightly contact with Sarah, mostly just one text to confirm all’s well. Sarah loves to receive letters most of all and thankfully family and friends have all risen to the occasion! My greatest advice to anyone contemplating a language exchange is not to get too caught up in trivial details. It’s important to trust the ability of the host parents and let them get on with things. It’s also important to trust the professional judgement of TY Spain’s director, Jane O Regan. As our daughter is Jane’s first Spanish placement I think it has shown her extraordinary ability to coordinate suitable family matches.