Senior, Kaitlyn Van Dame always dreamed of going to Spain since she was a little girl, but she never thought that in her junior year of high school she would be accepted to study abroad for a year. Before she even knew it, she was living her dream in a country thriving with culture, history, and natural beauty.

Her passion for Spanish ignited at Penndale Middle School in room 230, eager and ready to learn about the second most-spoken language, and all of the culture that Spanish has to offer. Van Dame’s biggest inspiration throughout her years of Spanish in North Penn came from former Spanish teacher, Mrs. Hanes. The retired teacher made students excited and enthusiastic about going to class every day.

“She pursued her career throughout her life, and just her interest in it made me interested in it. Just her passion in general,” raved Van Dame.

Van Dame first heard about the Study Abroad Program at the beginning of her Spanish career, but was mostly exposed to it from former Knight Crier editor, Taylor Young.

“When Taylor Young and Nolan Marett first got accepted to Spain, Taylor Young posted something on Instagram in February during her sophomore year. I was like wait, what? That’s so cool! So she was getting ready to leave and I was like Taylor, how are you going to Spain?”

The American exchange student felt a wave of relief handing in her application, but then she remembered interviews were right around the corner. The night of her interview was packed with stress and worries that all of her dreams could be ruined with just one bad response to a question.

“I remember leaving the interview and just feeling like, okay, this is out of my hands, I’m going to hope for the best, but I can’t change anything now.” explained Van Dame.

After months of waiting and an aggravating eight hour flight, Van Dame was tired but couldn’t be more excited to finally meet her host family. Her first conversation with the Spanish speaking family was challenging and a bit frightening.

“I didn’t get the chance to Skype them, I was just emailing with them in English. It was the first opportunity for me to become completely immersed in the language but my brain was just not processing it.” Van Dame reminisced.

The American exchange student stands out from others in her own brave and unique way. Right off the bat, her host mom suggested that no English would be spoken after her first week in Madrid. While this was challenging, it kept Van Dame out of her English comfort zone.

“I know in the past, host families would speak for a month in English, or use that all the time and that doesn’t work out well, but my host family was just so welcoming, and made it easier,” Van Dame stated.

Van Dame formed a bond with all five of the host family members, including her mom and dad, Guillermo, age 18, Barbara, age 13, and Sophia, age 10. The now senior became the most attached to the youngest Spanish daughter, Sophia. The ten year old was able to make Van Dame feel comfortable making mistakes with speaking the foreign language. Lots of Van Dame’s down time easily turned into fun play dates with Sophia.

“We would play video games and I learned a lot through that. It wasn’t like sitting down and doing grammar. She would correct a word I would use. She wouldn’t criticize me, she would just help me in a great way.”

While Spain is full of many beautiful and unique cities, Van Dame was fortunate to explore all of the country during her year abroad. Her favorite place was located just along the North Eastern coast, San Sebastian. Her host aunt and uncle resided in the old, European yet modern town.

“They had mountains on one side and their modern city on the other. We visited in December and it was like 65 degrees out and people were actually surfing. I loved it, I loved how it felt,” marveled Van Dame.

In addition to visiting some of the most beautiful sights, Van Dame was able to start school days on a high note. While most students at North Penn grudgingly slump out of bed at 6:00 A.M., Van Dame in Spain started her day at 8:00 A.M. Instead of having to race from K pod to A pod every day, Van Dame and her classmates stayed in one classroom the whole day, and the teachers came to them. Van Dame’s favorite thing about school was having recess for a half hour in the morning, and then taking a trip back to her house for an hour and a half lunch break.

“We would walk home and eat a nice home-cooked meal, and then go back to school for three more hours!” she explained.

After an amazing year abroad in Madrid, Spain, returning to America for Van Dame was not as easy as she thought it would be. To her surprise, she had adapted the Spanish language so well that English was a bit unfamiliar.

“English became a struggle because I wasn’t using it, so my vocabulary was wiped out. I came back and I was using very basic words. I got confused with sentence structure a lot too, because the sentence structure in Spanish is a lot different.”

Even though speaking English was a small challenge when making her return to Lansdale, Van Dame was overjoyed to reunite with her friends, family, and most importantly, peanut butter.

“I showed them [host family] peanut butter and they thought it was kind of weird. They were like, peanut butter and jelly? What? One night I was putting peanut butter on my apple because it’s really good and they were like, Kaitlyn, that’s disgusting. What are you doing?” she laughed.

Now entering her senior year at North Penn, Kaitlyn Van Dame could not be more excited to be back with her American classmates for a memorable year. Her next big plans include graduating from North Penn, enrolling in either Dartmouth or Colgate University, and majoring in biology to become a doctor and Spanish to relive her favorite moments studying abroad.

For all of the exchange students abroad in Europe currently, Kaitlyn Van Dame has some important and useful advice.

“Don’t stress about it, enjoy your year, and say yes to all of the adventures you can!”