Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

It was hands down the best experience of my life. I loved my classes and the professors and I absolutely loved the Universidad de Alicante and its campus.

On-site administration of your program

Pepa was awesome!! So incredibly helpful and welcoming and available. She was an awesome program director.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

I lived with two different host families. THe reason being that the first one didn't work out as well as I would have liked and Pepa wanted me to get the most out of my living situation so she recommended that I switch for the last month. I didn't want to switch at first but in the end I was definitely glad I did. I don't regret meeting or living with the first family at all. They were a very nice family, a mother and her two children, one boy (11 yrs) and one girl (13 yrs). They were just super busy with school and sports and extracurricular activities and didn't have the time to really be a host family and talk with me/interact with me as much as I wanted them to. The second family I lived with was an older woman whose children were all grown up and moved out of the house. Her mother lived in the same building and would come over and eat lunch with us everyday! I loved living with my second host family because she was always wanting to talk to me, especially at meals, but she also let me have my space and do my own thing. <br /><br /> With a host family in their apartment.

In the end I learned to love the food, although it did take some getting used to. HOwever both host moms were very accomodating in terms of my food allergies/likes/dislikes.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

We took a trip to Granada, saw a flamenco show and it was totally amazing!! I absolutely loved that trip!

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I was sick--possibly food poisoning early on in the program, but the director was very understanding and helpful and I got over it very quickly. My host mom also went to the store and bought me things to help me get better. As in any city, you can't be stupid, like walk around late at night all by yourself--although I did do this and nothing bad ever happened. I felt that Alicante was an extremely safe city and being that it wasn't all that big, it was easy to get from one end to another either via bus or walking.

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

They improved so much, it is unbelievable. I went to Spain afraid to speak the language and returned being able to understand native speakers and comfortably respond using the language skills I have acquired over the years. Although some people spoke a little English, neither of my host families did, so I was forced to practice it there as well as everywhere else, in stores, at restaurants, at the bars etc.

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• Apartment

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• Americans