With less than a month awaiting the departure of 26 Park students to Spain, senior Marco Salazar feels more and more nervous about leaving the country for the first time.

Salazar said he hopes to gain knowledge of Spain’s culture and the way the country functions.

“I want to learn how their culture is, because me being Mexican I know Mexican heritage, and just the culture in general — how they do stuff, why they do it,” Salazar said.

Spanish teacher and trip chaperone Jane Hudacek said the trip consists of visits to multiple cities and a host stay with Spanish families. She said students wrote letters to their host families.

“Based on this introductory letter, families read over the letters and then picked a student who they thought would be a good match for their family,” Hudacek said.

Similar to Salazar, junior Siona Kelly has never lived with a host family before. Kelly said she has mixed emotions about it.

“I’m both nervous and excited for staying with my host family because there’s a 13-year-old girl, so I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to relate to her, but that will be really exciting to meet new people,” Kelly said.

Hudacek said the trip will expose students to immersion in Spanish through different activities and their host family stay.

“The main idea is to improve linguistic competence, global awareness and to establish a personal relationship with somebody in a different country,” Hudacek said.

Although Salazar said he is excited to visit Spain, some aspects of the trip make him anxious.

“I’m not really a meeting-new-(people) type of person, so it’s just kind of scary because I’m going to be miles away from home, I’m not going to know anyone in this country and all of my friends are scattered around Spain with their host families,” Salazar said.

According to Hudacek, preparation for the trip has come through meetings, workshops and fundraising.

“Students have been preparing presentations about the different places we are going to be visiting and cultural aspects that we’re going to be learning about,” Hudacek said.

Hudacek said the trip should affect students in multiple ways.

“They should expect to have a lot of fun and to be challenged both linguistically and personally,” Hudacek said. “They’ll learn a lot during their travel portion, but more importantly, they’ll be exposed to new sights, sounds and people during their family stay.”

The Spain trip will take place from June 15 to July 1.