Great city and friends with bad living conditions Past Review
By Anna Butler (Trinity University) - abroad from 01/03/2016 to 05/20/2016 with
ISA Study Abroad in Granada, Spain
It was the best experience of my life. I came back to the US a completely different person than I had left.
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. |
The classes were pretty easy, but I took all my classes in spanish and I learned a lot still. My teachers were very nice and overall I had a good experience with my classes. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
In general, the program administration in Granada was eager to help you. I had a bad experience with the host family I was placed with in the beginning of my study abroad and my roommate and I had to be moved out of our host family. The administration in Granada could have made this experience a little better for us. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
After being moved out of a bad host family, I was placed in a "residencia", which was a hostel where students could also live for a semester. There were constantly people coming in and out of the residencia that we didn't recognize and I was always worried about my stuff getting stolen since I had no idea who the people were. There were issues with cleanliness in the residencia (the bathrooms, our laundry still coming back to us dirty, no soap ever in the bathrooms, and unsafe food handling when they cooked our meals) and there was absolutely no wifi for 4/5 of the semester, until we complained to our program for about the 4th time. The food was almost inedible it was so bad and the 2 men who owned the residencia were very rude and sometimes creepy towards the girls. The only reason i give the experience 1 star is because I had my own room (it was the tiniest room ever, but it was still my own room) and I had friends from my program who were in the residencia with me and made it a little better. Overall, the housing situation was awful though. |
| * Food: |
The food that was cooked for me in the residencia was so bad that it was pretty much inedible, but there was good food at tapas bars and restaurants out in Granada. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
The locals aren't very friendly to foreigners, but if you make an effort you can have a conversation with someone. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
If you ever got sick you could go to the hospital with one of the program admistrators. |
| * Safety: |
Granada is usually a super safe city, but two of my good friends were robbed during the semester, one at knife point while she was alone at night. However, this is usually very rare. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
My program was fine overall, I think I just got unlucky with my living conditions. |
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) |
Granada is a VERY cheap city. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | 10-15 euro |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
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How much did the program encourage you to use the language?
0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language |
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| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Intermediate |
| How would you rate your language skills at the end of the program? | Advanced |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | Upper division spanish |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? |
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?
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| About how many local friends did you make that you will likely keep in touch with? |
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? | There was never an easy moment. I was always homesick or something was difficult. It was a struggle but it made me such a better person. I wish I had known it was going to be that easy when I went in. |
Reasons For Studying Abroad
| To help future students find programs attended by like-minded individuals, please choose the profile that most closely represents you. |
The Outright UrbaniteA social butterfly, you're happiest in bustling cities with hip people, and took advantage of all it had to offer. You enjoyed the nightlife, and had fun going out dancing, and socializing with friends. Fun-loving and dressed to the nines, you enjoyed discovering new restaurants, shops, cafes, and bars in your host country. |
