Spanish Courses School Blog

Blog Instituto Hemingway

Instituto Hemingway launches its photo-a-day advent calendar

Here at Instituto Hemingway, we’re already very excited about Christmas.

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 0 | Laura Whitaker

Invaders from outer space!

Bilbao has been infiltrated by alien scouts! High on the walls, the street corners and even the bridges of the city, we’ve sighted “marcianitos”, or Space Invaders.

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 0 | Laura Whitaker

Living in another country is very, very different to simply going abroad on holiday. On the surface, it might seem similar – for me, at least, life in Spain occasionally does involve a fair amount of sun, sea and sangria – but in time, you realize that you actually have to build a life; you have to find a house, buy food, cope with problems… Even if it’s not your first time living away from home, you suddenly have to deal with all of these things in a foreign language, and that makes them a hundred times scarier.

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 0 | Laura Whitaker

Language: the final frontier?

In today’s globalized world, nationality, as the traditional definition of identity, is becoming increasingly irrrelevant. What, therefore, still separates us?

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 0 | Laura Whitaker

Basque to basics

When I first told people at home that I was going to the Basque country and would be doing a Basque course, the initial response was a lot of jokes about corsets. Because all that most people at home (myself, until a while ago, included) know of the Basque language is that there was maybe once an Ann Summers catalogue of that title.

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 1 | Laura Whitaker

“It’s OK, she’s foreign…”

So, on Thursday/Friday I had a tiny misadventure, in that I accidentally bought theatre tickets for the wrong day. I felt extremely silly, since half the people who wanted to see the show were left out in the cold and it was entirely my fault.

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 0 | Laura Whitaker

But… why do you dress up as vampires?

Halloween is my favourite “fiesta”. I know that it is meaningless silliness, but I love it. Having the excuse to act like a complete child for a day, to dress up as something silly, all the while eating sweets and cakes ceaselessly “because it’s Halloween, and Halloween calories don’t count”… it’s just great. Unfortunately, this year I find myself in a country which not only doesn’t celebrate it, but which doesn’t really know what it is.

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 0 | Laura Whitaker

Kettles and confusion: an English(wo)man abroad

A very civilized day today at the Instituto! By complete chance, on the very same day that I decided to take the office tea situation into my own hands and bring in a box of PG Tips, some Chinese students gave a tea set to their teacher, Javi, as a thank-you present. So we had English tea with matching cups and saucers. All that was missing were scones!

As told by our Spanish school's Becarias| 0 | Laura Whitaker