Work hard and travel July 28, 2025
By Grace M (Art History and Spanish, Bennington College) - abroad from 02/05/2025 to 06/21/2025 with
Middlebury Schools Abroad: Middlebury in Cordoba, Spain
I learned a lot about the way I function, and I learned to adapt to a very different style of education. I would say it was worthwhile, because I got to see so much and meet so many amazing people.
Review Photos
Personal Information
| 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. |
The classes were quite intense in my opinion. The way the university is organized made it so I had almost no homework until the last month, and then I had enough homework for a whole semester on top of studying for finals. This was not the case for the Middlebury directed class, in which the work was much more evenly distributed throughout the semester, which made it much easier to handle. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
In Córdoba there are not any Middlebury administrators onsite, although they were extremely easy to reach via email, and were very very helpful whenever I had an issue. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
My apartment was in a good location and had a fine amount of space, but even though I had asked the rental office to pair me with non english speakers, one of my roommates spoke no Spanish and the other spoke much better English than Spanish, so we just ended up speaking English, no matter how hard I tried to speak Spanish. Also, the fridge in my apartment was broken for a while, and the AC was broken and the rental office spent about two weeks telling us it wasn’t broken and that we just didn’t know how to use it until finally the owners of the building told them it was broken and they never apologized for gaslighting us and letting us live in a six floor apartment with no AC in 105 degree heat. Once they did acknowledge that it was broken they couldn’t get anyone in to fix it for a couple weeks, and a technician didn’t come until the day after I had already moved out of the apartment. |
| * Food: |
Spanish food is great, and I had a good kitchen where I was able to cook for myself, however there is not much variety in the food that is available in Cordoba. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I felt very much ostracized by the local students. Sometimes they would even laugh when I spoke because Spanish is my second language and I speak with a bit of an accent. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
I never had any serious health issues, and was able to get basic supplies at the pharmacy |
| * Safety: |
I felt extremely safe in Córdoba. Even walking home after dark I had no issues. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
No
I did a fall program in Buenos Aires with Abroadia, and I preferred that experience because I learned that I love living in a big city, the people were so kind and welcoming, and I lived with a host mom, so I was really able to improve my Spanish in a casual setting. I would have never known this without doing both programs, but I identify much more with Argentinian culture, and by the end of the fall program I felt so at home in Buenos Aires, but after my time in Córdoba I felt like my time there was complete. |
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) |
Food in Cordoba is very affordable and travel around Spain was not very expensive. |
| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | $75-125 |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | There’s student discounts on some trains and hostel beds are much cheaper in the winter, which is also when there is much less school work. |
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 |
The classes were completely in Spanish and we were encouraged to speak Spanish with each other. |
| 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? | High Intermediate (Spanish 6 at Bennington) |
| How many hours per day did you use the language? | |
| Do you have any tips/advice on the best ways to practice the language for future study abroad participants? | Change your social media into Spanish! It sounds silly, but I learned so many colloquially phrases from watching Spanish tiktoks |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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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? | 0 |
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? | I wish that I understood more about how the classes were organized. I knew they would be difficult, but only having work assigned in the last month of class was very overwhelming for me, and I didn’t perform very well in my classes. I would have chosen a different program if I knew the university functioned in this way. |
