I made the decision to come to Cartagena to have a break from my normal life in the United States. The experience that I have had has been exactly that, and in all good ways. The food, the people, the things to do are all different. However, in my mind a person needs to experience different things in life in order to grow. Cartagena is a unique mix of history, natural beauty and modernity. One of my favorite things to do here is to stroll around the old city and get to know the plazas, squares and churches that are littered throughout it. There is a lot to see in this city both during the day and at night.
In order to learn a culture completely, or at least to try and understand it, you can’t just take classes in the language for a few hours a day and return back to your hotel speaking your native language. For this reason I found it best to live wi a Colombian family here. In the family setting you learn about food, the likes and customs of the people, and you meet new friends as well. And obviously, you are going to use and learn more spanish.
I have now been to three language schools in my life and I can safely say that this has been the best experience for me. Here lots of attention is paid to the levels of the students and to make sure that everyone is in the right class, which is necessary to have useful and productive classes. Even though we don’t receive grades in class I feel like I am pushed to being my best self in class. For this reason, I feel like we have achieved a lot in class. I also took the dance classes here in Nueva Lengua, which was something completely different for me and is part of the culture here. In Colombia, everyone dances, tourists included.
During my time in Cartagena, I took advantage of much of the things that Nueva Lengua and I feel like I have had a very full experience as a result. I now can return home to my life with a new perspective.

This article was originally written in English