Guayaquil, Ecuador Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I had two courses at the Centro Ecuatoriano Norteamericano (CEN) and two courses at the Instituto Tecnologico Bolivariano (ITB). The CEN classes were really great and helpful, but the classes at ITB were horrible. We were promised by the program that we would have classes with other Ecuadorian students, but only had independent studies with professors and the other students in the program. The business courses are a joke. I don't feel like I learned anything because the professors were constantly ill-prepared. For one course, my original professor never showed up for the first day and was an hour late the second, then failed to show up the rest of the week. The following week, they arranged for another professor to teach me (I was the only student in the class) and he was nice and knowledgeable, but an entire month of education was crammed into two weeks in the same hour of class I was supposed to have the every day for the entire month. For my other class, we never had a stable classroom and were constantly moving around, which was distracting and difficult. Also, he didn't speak any English - which was fine - but failed to meet me on my Spanish-speaking capabilities, meaning that, regardless of how many times I asked him to slow down or told him I didn't understand, he never adjusted or acknowledged my struggle. Even though we were promised English support from the program.

On-site administration of your program

On-site administrators were kind and helpful, but often left information out about trips and the program guidelines.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Living and housing were fine and met all of my needs.

Food was good and well-prepared, but not much opportunity for learning to cook it.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Host family often left me out of events and didn't bother to interact with me much at all even though I attempted conversation with them.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I developed a shrimp allergy while there and my host mom refused to believe it was a shrimp allergy and said that I did not need to go to the doctor. Finally, I went to the doctor and they said it was a good thing I came in and gave me the appropriate treatment. It was easily accessible as Ecuador has universal healthcare and they were nice and I was seen almost immediately. No malaria medicine is needed unless you are living in the mountains for an extended period of time.

Very industrialized city; not very safe at night if you don't pay attention, especially for blonde/blue-eyed/fair-skinned women. Pay attention to your surroundings, don't talk to strangers, and don't be friendly with everyone and you should be fine.

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

We traveled a lot and did a lot of activities, which is the thing to do when you leave Guayaquil because it does not have much to do.

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

Mostly everyone wanted to practice their English with us and it was hard to do when we wanted to speak Spanish. They also to placed us in English tutoring, so it was necessary speak English at those times. Also, my host mom spoke English and would refrain from speaking to me in Spanish regardless of my attempt to converse in Spanish.

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• Host Family

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• Host Family

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• Americans

• Friends in the program

• Professors
• Class scheduling and quality
• Encourage speaking

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