Living at a Homestay

For many years, the WIP program has worked closely with the housing provider Europa Plus and their señoras and families. The homestays are carefully selected and reviewed by WIP staff in Madrid, and students are assigned to them based on their specific needs and by paying as close attention as possible to personal preferences. This housing provider can arrange homestays for academic year and semester students.

Students interested in this option will receive information in a separate mailing on how to contact Europa Plus for more details on how to make a reservation. If you choose this option, you will receive information and contact details in an email once the housing selection process has begun.

Home will be an apartment (piso) rather than a house, for almost all Madrileños live in buildings of six to eight floors. In most cases, your homestay will be a señora, usually a widow with or without children. In others, your homestay could be comprised of several different family members with or without children. In a Spanish home, you will be allowed independence but will have to adopt your homestay’s daily schedule, especially mealtimes. The homestay arranged through Europa Plus includes two meals: a light, continental breakfast (coffee and toast) and a full dinner. You will not be allowed to use the kitchen to prepare meals, so you should plan on eating lunch at the university or grabbing a sandwich at the deli. Your clothes will also be washed for you.

The benefits of living in a homestay include gaining insights into Spanish culture and having the opportunity to speak Spanish every day, eat typical Spanish food, live in a comfortable home with a more family feel to it, and develop a relationship with family members. Such a relationship is built on mutual understanding and consideration. Students who are most successful in homestays observe the customs of not bringing friends of the opposite sex to the house, not staying out too late every night, call when they are going to be late for a meal and are conscious of the use of resources like water and electricity.

To live in a homestay, students must have basic Spanish proficiency, although there are a few families that may have a person in the home who understands English.