A year in Spain - to make my mum proud!

Eliza Chau Start Date: May 8, 2018 - End Date: Sep 4, 2018
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad

My Travel Story

by: Eliza Chau Start Date: May 8, 2018 - End Date: Sep 4, 2018
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Study/Degree Abroad
My mother is from England and my dad is from Vietnam! My mother has instilled in me a passion for traveling and exploring different cultures. I just love Europe having been taken there with my brother a few times. I always wanted to be able to speak Spanish well enough to communicate well on our visits to that part of the world. Plus we live in Califorina and travel to Mexico, so Spanish is a very important language to have. My mother was very excited to find an exchange program in Spain and we decided I would go Junior year of high school. I currently play, coach and ref basketball and Spain has a big basketball contingent! I looked forward to making new friends and organizing a basketball team in my host country. 
Planning was going well until my mother lost her job. She is a single parent and was funding this trip herself. She is devastated that money put aside for my trip now has to be used for necessities - like food! She desperately wants for me to have this experience to be able to immerse myself in Spanish culture and come home fluent! I will hopefully be able to use my newly learned language to help ESL students in my community on my return in Senior year.  She is looking for another job and I decided to try and raise some money to help too. I am offering to do jobs around the neighbourhood and have been tutoring. However, this trip is $10,000!  
To be able to learn Spanish abroad would enhance my life - it is very important to be bilingual in our community and to learn the language properly would be very beneficial to me getting to college and starting a career.  This trip would be very meaningful to me as it would make my mum so happy that I am able to follow in her footsteps and enjoy and embrace European culture.