My Experience with Lita South Group 2017

I don't even know where to begin to explain my experience on the LITA trip this summer. It was hands-down the best trip and experience of my life. It's now September while I'm writing this review and I still think about the trip everyday. Nothing compares to the people I met, the foods I tried, the improvement of my language skills, and the beautiful places I got to see. I truly believe there is no other program quite like Lita. Lita focuses on staying in rural areas so students can really focus on improving their language skills. The thought of being somewhere where very little English is spoken was terrifying to me at first, but while I was there all my fears vanished because I knew my Spanish was improving each day and the people were so kind and understanding and helped me any time I needed it. We traveled all throughout Spain and I will never forget the beautiful cities and rural pueblos we visited. I stayed with a host family in a medium sized city in Andalucía called Osuna, and nothing can compare to that experience. I talk to my host sister almost everyday and I'm so happy to have a second family in Spain. They were the most kind, genuine people and wanted me to learn and succeed at Spanish as much as I wanted to. We had a daily routine of going to my host mother's churrería, where I had the best churros of my life, for breakfast and then my host sister would walk me to my internship at the local elementary school, where I was a teacher's assistant and got to interact with the cutest children from the ages of 2-4. After my internship, my sister and I would go home for lunch, have a long siesta, and then go to the pool with friends. Even though we had this routine, some days we would do other things. One day, we spent the night in Chipiona, a beautiful beach town, and other days we would go to my host sister's friends' campos to swim and hang out. I could go on and on about my host family and I'm so lucky that I was able to meet them, and I wouldn't have been able to if it wasn't for Lita. I also have made some of my best friends from around the United States through this trip. I now have friends from Tennessee, Rhode Island, New York, California, Florida, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. I talk to these people everyday still and know they will be some of my best friends for the rest of my life. Despite living from all over the country, we were all united through the Lita experience and I honestly can't recommend this trip enough. I had the best summer of my life thanks to Lita, and would go back to Spain with Lita a million times if I could!