Sevilla: Learning More Than You Ever Thought You Would Past Review
By Rose F (Management, Providence College) for
CIEE: Seville - Business + Society
The people I met, the culture I came to love and the time away I had for myself made it an unforgettable experience and I would go back in a heartbeat. You learn to think about other people and cultures and this is so important.
Personal Information
| If you took classes at multiple universities, list those universities here: | Universidad de Sevilla |
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 1 month - 6 months |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Sometimes the workload seemed to be a bit much, especially with the language barrier. All our professors were Spanish so sometimes it seemed like they forgot that we were trying to learn the language as well as the subject material |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
Worked well helping us adjust to Spain, would have been helpful if we knew where everyone else was staying in relation to our homes. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
My senora let me come and go as I pleased, but sometimes I wished she would eat with me or have more interaction so I could better use my Spanish. |
| * Food: |
There was a lot of oil used in cooking so sometimes it was hard to eat healthily. There are a lot of great tapas places, however, like 100 montaditos or los coloniales |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Everyone in Sevilla was extremely nice and they always had different festivals and events that were going on |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
Sevilla is very safe for the most part; obviously you have to use common sense, but there were very few times I was uncomfortable. I never got sick when I was there, but if you did it was a somewhat difficult process: you had to pay out of pocket and they're relatively expensive and then you had to submit that claim to your insurance company; definitely not the easiest thing to do in a foreign company. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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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? | Just be aware of the euro/dollar conversion and the fact that you will almost always have a decent size fee on ATM withdrawals. |
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? |
Get to know local Spanish people and try as best you can to speak with the people in your program in Spanish as well |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
Select all that apply |
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A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Be prepared for the fact that you are going to have a lot of time on your hands. For someone who is always busy, that was a huge change for me. But I was able to take the time to think and grow on a personal level, as well as academic. At PC it's very easy to get wrapped up in everything that is going on. Eventually I found that the extra time I had was extremely beneficial to me and did indeed change me as a person. |
