← Learn Spanish a lo Boricua
Learn Spanish a lo Boricua
APPLICATIONS OPEN- Spanish Immersion Retreat in Ponce, Puerto Rico 2027
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Okay, let's get the earrings set here. Big news. Stop what you're doing. Because applications for our third annual Spanish Immersion Retreat in Ponce, Puerto Rico are open. This video will give you an overview of the retreat itinerary as well as what you need to know for the application process. Know that you can also head to our website and check out our retreat page for additional information. I don't need to sell you on the retreat because my students do that for me. So we're going to start with some reviews from our twenty twenty six particip. Then we'll overview the retreat itinerary, talk about important application details and go over our retreat. Mission and values. Here's what the students from our second annual Spanish Immersion Retreat are saying. The retreat was an incredibly thoughtful and well designed experience. The balance of meaningful excursions, classes and intentional downtime made it possible to stay energized and fully engaged. Even with the challenges of speaking a second language all day. Transformative I cannot emphasize how much of a transformative experience this was. I feel more confident in my Spanish and have a better understanding of Puerto Rican culture. This was a wonderful retreat and I highly recommend it to everyone who wants to learn more about the Puerto Rican dialect and culture. Surpassed expectations. My intention for doing this retreat was to learn more about my culture, speak Spanish and gain confidence to travel to Puerto Rico on my own. All of my intentions were met by a landslide. Carrie and Annette, please sit with this. You are creating safe and brave spaces for Boricua people to feel seen, heard and loved. Thank you for all that you do. And speaking of Carrie and Annette, let's meet our team. My name is Carrie Brennan. I am the owner and lead instructor of Spanish with Carrie. I have my bachelor's degree in Spanish. I'm in my sixth year of living in Puerto Rico and I represent those students who start from scratch and have still managed to become fully bil. And Annette Toro is the other half of this business. She is the communications manager and she is Boricua. Her first language was Spanish. Both of her parents are from the island. She grew up in Florida and spent summers in Puerto Rico. She, like many Boricua students, is on her own Spanish journey and is continuing to nurture, her connection to the island. She loves so much. Let's take a look at our twenty twenty seven itinerary details. Most importantly where and when is the retreat. The retreat will be happening Saturday March thirteenth until Saturday, March twentieth. Twenty twenty seven. And students will be staying in el Hotel Bélgica in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Here are some pictures of el Hotel Bélgica as you can see. Has a lot of character, a lot of personality. We're not staying at like your average Holiday Inn type of thing. Hotel Belica is in downtown Ponce. We're just walking distance away from Plaza Las Delicias. Here's a snapshot of my beautiful Ponce. And I say it that way because I have spent all six years of living in Puerto Rico living in Ponce and the last four years living in downtown Ponce. It has a very special place in my heart and I always love to share this city that I love so much with people who haven't experienced it yet. ¿Now, how is our time spent during the retreat? Well, number one, we have daily small group conversation classes. Students participate in small group conversation classes. According to level, we have students that are kind of beginner to advance speaking wise. And since many of our activities are listening heavy, these classes ensure that students get structured, consistent speaking practice. Throughout the week, we also do a yoga class because speaking a foreign language can be scary stuff. We get nervous, we feel frustrated. We replay our mistakes over and over again in our heads. So this class at the start of the week is to help set an attention of being present, mindful and compassionate towards ourselves throughout the experience. We take a trip to the grocery store so that students can have their kind of comfort foods, snacks, drinks, anything they want for their hotel room. And we do a cooking class. Remember, all of our activities are in Spanish. The following day, we start with a historic walking tour of Ponce with Isla Caribe. And definitely, a highlight for many students is our class with cheila from dialecto Boricua. That evening, we also do una clase de bomba. We learn a little bit about the history of bomba, the different rhythms. We play some music and we dance. The following day, we take a trip to Adjuntas to take a tour of Casa Pueblo. We tour their center as well as El Bosque Escuela. Get a little feel for what it looks like when we're out in El Bosque. A little bit of time to connect con la naturaleza. Viene el campo de Puerto Rico and breathe that amazing fresh air in the mountains.
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And that evening, when we're back in Ponce, Annette facilitates a Boricua affinity group because throughout the week a lot comes up for those students who have Puerto Rican heritage. Maybe some painful feelings like shame or feelings of a lack of belonging or concern for Puerto Rico, as well as joyful feelings like feeling truly at home here or building new connections to the island and finding a deeper understanding of yourself. So when planning the retreat, we wanted to create a supportive, loving and honest space for participants from the diaspora to talk through those feelings together without judgment and to share the specific joy and pain of being borigas from the Diaspora.
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Together. And our final day of the retreat, we take a trip to Playa Santa in Guanica. We have a beach day. We start with a beach cleanup. We pick up trash along the beach and then the students get to enjoy their beach day and we close off the week with our goodbye dinner at Panorama Ciento Cinta in Ponce, which has a beautiful view out to the ocean. You can see almost the length of the southern coast. Breakfast and dinner are included in the cost of the retreat. And every day of the retreat, students get a midday break offering valuable time to rest regroup or do independent activities. Lunch, therefore, is on your own transportation for all activities including going to and from the San Juan Airport to Ponce is included in the retreat. You don't have to coordinate your own transportation unless you want to plan your own independent activities outside of the ones that we have on the itinerary. Participants are responsible for their travel to and from the island. As we mentioned, we take care of all transportation that's needed for the activities that we include in our itinerary for the week, but you are responsible for getting yourself to and from the island. This part is important. Application details. Applicants must be twenty one years or older to apply and that's not because we're doing any drinking activities and in fact, the drinking age in Puerto Rico is eighteen and that's part of it. We don't want there to be any issues with somebody who's nineteen and come with the mentality of I can drink anything I want in Puerto Rico even though I can't the United States and problems with parents and etcetera plus, we just really value like a mainly developed prefrontal cortex. We want people to act responsibly and be safe. Applicants must also be at an intermediate or really upper intermediate level of comprehension of Puerto Rican Spanish. We are trying to reach Puerto Ricans in the diaspora, so we understand that some of our participants in the retreat may have heard Spanish growing up in their family, but always responded in English. This retreat is ideal for that kind of a participant because all of our activities are in Spanish. If you're not at an intermediate or upper intermediate of Puerto Rican Spanish which is spoken more quickly than Mexican Spanish or a lot of Central American Spanish, etcetera. And it's a different way of pronouncing. It's a different dialect, it's different vocab, then you're really not going to get much out of the retreat because all of our activities are in Spanish. We have conversation classes, so that students can make serious progress with their speaking. So you don't have to be at an intermediate level of speaking per se, but you have to be at that level of comprehension. Remember, the retreat will be Saturday March Thirteenth to March twentieth. We have daily small group conversation classes, as I've said a million times. Now, all activities are in Spanish. We do community projects, we have cultural experiences and there is movement involved. Okay. We have a yoga class. We have our bomba class. We do a little bit of hiking when we are in El Bosque Escuela. In those are all things that you should keep in mind if you're interested in attending how to apply. Follow the link in the description of this video. It's the first thing you'll see when you click on the details below this video applicants will be selected based on meeting the basic requirements being twenty one years older having an intermediate or upper intermediate level of comprehension of Puerto Rican Spanish, also looking for a connection to Puerto Rico. We especially want to reach students who have a connection to the island as well as your overall strength of application. Students who put minimal effort into their application will not rank as highly as those who demonstrate that this would be a meaningful opportunity to them friends. Last year we had eighty applicants and we were able to bring fourteen students to Puerto Rico. From eighty to fourteen, we have a lot of people who have some level of Spanish who have some connection to Puerto Rico. But if you want your application to stand out, then put a little bit of time and effort and heart into it again. This is important. So, atención. This is the timeline of our application process. They open on May eighteenth applications open May eighteenth and the deadline for submitting is June fifth. From June eighth to twelfth, we are reviewing applications. And from June fifteenth to twenty six are applicant interviews. If you are serious about wanting to come, and if we are seriously considering you, you will be asked to schedule an interview. If you don't schedule an interview, you will no longer be considered for the retreat. We need to get a feel for the energy you're going to bring to this retreat. These past two years, the students have reiterated that the reason why this experience has been so meaningful, so incredible, so impactful to them has largely been because of the group itself. How kind support and connected they feel to the group. How much they're able to practice their Spanish within the group and feel that it's a safe space to do. So it is of utmost importance to us to continue, to create an environment that is kind, supportive, welcoming and safe for all participants. There's a chance that we have never interacted with you. The interviews give us a chance to get a sense of who you are. The vibe check is required so be sure to be checking your email after you apply. If you get an email about scheduling, an interview schedule, the interview put it on your calendar, show up, and you're one step closer to being part of the retreat magic. Our next big important date, July first, applicants will receive their acceptance, waitlist or rejection email definitely by July first and deposits will be due July fifteenth in order to secure your spot. If you're wait listed, don't give up hope yet. If we don't receive a deposit from somebody, they have not secured their spot and we will be reaching out to the waitlist to bring you on. And finally, we want to share our mission and values for this retreat. And instead of me just reading it out to you, I'm going to put
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our mission statement for the retreat up here on the screen. Feel free to pause, read through it. And same thing here with our values. Feel free to pause and read through. Although I do want to say something particularly about community engagement.
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We believe in giving back to Puerto Rico through impactful community projects and fostering long term ties with the island. And I wanted to share with you guys some of the ways that we've been able to give back because of this retreat. In the past two years that we have visited Casapuero. During the retreat, we've been able to donate fifteen hundred dollars to their organization and the incredible projects that they have going on. And I'm really proud to share that. This year we use some of our retreat budget to buy a dryer for the organization Amorkesana. Amorkesana is a nonprofit organization here in downtown Ponce that serves unhoused individuals as well as people struggling with addiction. For many years they use the second floor of their building to dry the clothes bedding towels that they use to serve their community because there was an open space up there and a clothesline. And it worked since then. Another organization has taken up that second floor and they had to use a setup like this to try to dry things in their center. So again, some of our retreat budget this year went to buying them a dryer. So this says Project Amorkesana wants to thank misses Kerry Brennan and her organization Spanish with Kerry for the donation of a dryer for our home Casano Medina. This will be much help. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. God bless you abundantly. It feels very good to give back and that's part of our mission with this retreat. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out via email spanishwithcarriemail Dot com. We can't wait to see your applications. And remember, last year we got eighty applicants and can only take fourteen students. So if you don't get accepted this year, please apply again next year. It's not that we don't want you. It's just that we're a bit limited because of the reality of coordinating transportation events on the island. Everything gets very expensive, the bigger the group. Thanks so much for watching till the end.