The Best Three Months of My Life: Sevilla, Spain Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

UIMP was a great study abroad school. It was right near the center of Sevilla. It is combined with the ISA office so that made it easy to adjust knowing you could go and talk to one of the advisors after class. The classes were small with only international students and most of them were American. Classes were held from Monday to Thursday and were either one hour 4 days a week or 2 hours 2 days a week. I went there to learn Spanish, so the Culture class and Spanish language class were really relavent and critical to my success in Sevilla. The classroom policy is different in the USA. The teachers want you to participate and come to class. If you don't, you probably won't get a very good grade and might even fail. If you missed more than 2 classes then you failed the class. Tests and papers are less important although they still count towards your final grade. Homework was never an issue and I feel that I had plenty of time to see Sevilla as well as travel on the weekends while still learning a lot throughout the semester.

On-site administration of your program

The Administration was very nice and helped us so much as we transitioned into the study abroad experience. They encouraged you to speak Spanish, but if you couldn't they helped you with whatever you needed. There were about 4 full-time administrators and over 100 students. The excursions were unorganized and I wish there could have been 1 or 2 more members to help out. Overall, they were very nice and helpful.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived in the Center of town right next to the Cathedral. My host experience was one of the most rewarding of my trip. I lived with one older lady (Carmen) who was the nicest woman in the world. I roomed with a friend from home and she took care of us like we were her children while giving us the space we are used to as college students.The food was great and she was very receptive to our likes/dislikes. My roommate and I shared a room and a bathroom but had a seperate room for studying which was GREAT. We had wi-fi internet in the apartment. We were a 5 to 10 minute walk to almost everything in Sevilla and the location could not have been more perfect. 10 minutes from school (walking). 10 minutes from Calle Betis (bars). 5 mintues from shopping. A very safe and nice part of town (don't walk around alone late at night, but that goes for all parts of Sevilla). We didn't need to bring anything and Carmen even had a hairdryer. She has been doing this for many years.

Carmen cooked us three meals a day, 7 days a week. She cooked traditional Mediterranean food which I really liked. There are many restaurants and bars in Sevilla, most of which serve traditional Spanish food (tortilla, tapas, Paella) but they do have a limited variety of other places to eat. They eat lots of ham in all types of variety in Spain as well as olive oil on most dishes.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Sevilla has many attractions. ISA took us on a tour of La Catedral and Alcazr the first week we were there. Other sights to see are the Plaza de Espana, el Torre de Oro, and the river side. The excursions were great too, becuase they took us to places I probably wouldn't have gone to. ISA took us to Ronda, Arcos de La Frontera, Granada, Cordoba, and Lisbon. We spent our first week in Madrid and Toledo to the north. I especially loved Ronda and Lisbon, but all of the places have there own attractions.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

As far a saftey, Sevilla is one of the best cities. Pick-pocketing is a concern all over Europe, but other than that I never felt threatened or scared. I would never walk alone at night because there is always a greater risk, but taxi's were readily available.

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

The program really helped me with my Spainish. I went from intermediate/advanced to proficient. My conversation skills improved 100%. They say if you can speak Spanish in Andalusia you can speak it anywhere in the world because of the difficult accent. My host mother, my teachers, and locales all were eager to help me learn Spanish. Most people know a little English, but they are shy and won't speak it so therefore I had to speak Spanish which really helped my skills. You will learn Spanish if you go to Sevilla.

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• Host Family

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• Americans
• Host Family