Definitely choose ISA, but definitely do not attend USIL Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

Some of my teachers were enjoyable and some were not. Some were organized and engaging and some were not. Some of the material was interesting and some was not. The classes in Spanish were of adequate difficulty but I would strongly advise against the classes in English because the difficulty level is for intermediate English speakers and any Rice student is a VERY VERY advanced English speaker.

On-site administration of your program

The program was very well organized. I came to be very close to the personnel in Lima and felt like I could come to them with a wide range of issues and always felt comfortable with their knowledge of Lima, Peru, and what I was going through. Most of the people working in the office have done semesters or years abroad. The excursions were well planned and allowed for us to be adults and do our own thing and got us great travel deals to places we would never have even known to visit. The program was actually quite large with approximately 40 students all over Lima, but we were organized into smaller groups (10) most of the time according to our university. The group sizes were intimate and allowed for us to branch out into the greater peruvian community.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Mom, Dad, 2 sisters (25 and 13). I had an American roommate also part of ISA and we lived on the floor above the family's residence with individual rooms and shared a bathroom. We lived in the San Borja district. <br /><br /> Housing was arranged through ISA and they found the family for us. The house consists of the 3rd and 4th floor of a building. It is a 20 minute bus ride to USIL and we usually took cheap, 10 minute taxi rides to miraflores or barranco for nightlife.

I ate lunch at the little restaurants across the street from the university on a daily basis. They serve a "menu" every day which is fresh fruit juice, a typical appetizer and a typical second course all for 7 soles. Very cheap and a lot of food and a great way to familiarize yourself with plates like tequeños, papa huancaino, chica morada. There are lots of pizza huts and chilis and TGI Fridays to satisfy a need for american food. But definitely hit up Astrid y Gastón, a gourmet restaurant started by Perú's gourmet chef celebrity Gastón. Can share a bottle of wine, appetizer, main course, and desert and expect to pay around $30.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Nightlife was awesome, the family conversation and relationships were awesome. I really enjoyed having a roommate and the people in my program were great. It was very easy to make peruvian friends because they are a very nice people and want to welcome your into their homes and lives as soon at they meet you. Lima had so much to offer culturally too. We toured all kinds of ruins and congress, etc. Just an hour away is Caral, the first know "civilization", and within bus rides distance are beautiful little villages like Ayacucho, Huaraz, Huancayo, etc where its sunny. Also on the weekends we went to food and music festivals and traveled to the beach towns of trujillo and mancora and arequipa where lake titicaca is.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Lima is not necessarily a safe city but my program and my host family thoroughly prepared me about how to use the transportation system and how to dress properly and react to catcalling and other such treatment. We addressed this in orientation and it was an ongoing process with the program and my host family.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

I learned so much vocabulary and colloquial grammatical structure on a daily basis that speaking became like second nature. Also, I went from being able to understand most of what a slow spanish speaker said to understanding all of a what a fast spanish speaker was saying.

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• Host Family

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• Local Students