Barcelona:The best experience of your life Past Review
By Chris T (Marketing., Providence College) for
CIEE: Barcelona - Business & Culture
very worthwhile; learned many things I could never learn without experiencing them. Wish I could go back again, (just not with CIEE)
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 0-2 weeks |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
I did not care for the grading system |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
My experience was great but my experience with the CIEE directors was very negative and had a detrimental impact on my academic experience |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
I loved my family! They were so nice and caring and helped me learn spanish. They cooked amazing meals every night and were more than helpful whenever I needed them. Cannot express enough how happy I was with my family. |
| * Food: |
Great spanish dishes |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Other than academically which was very negative experience with the lack of respect given by the director, everything was amazing. I visited 7 countries as well as many parts of Spain. Too many memorable trips to count, the trips the program provided were also fun; really learned alot about many cultures |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
there is not much violence, everything is pretty safe. The violence they tell you about is overblown; you just cannot be stupid. Many people I know got pickpocketed because they were not smart about where they kept their wallets, ect. but even with that you just lost your stuff it was never violent and most of the time you didnt know what happened. never had an experience with healthcare |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | travel costs alot |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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| Language acquisition improvement? |
I practiced with my family so I needed to use spanish all the time. Most of the people spoke Catalan. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | do it! but avoid CIEE if you can. Everyone should go somewhere; might not be able to travel later on |
