Study Abroad in Spain with API!

I had the time of my life. Literally. Everyone who studies abroad says this, but my experience with API and Granada was amazing.

The staff in the U.S. and on site are extremely helpful in every way possible. The API staff in Granada helped us to get adjusted to Spanish life very quickly, and were there with us throughout the entire study abroad experience--we actually became good friends with them!

Granada is the COOLEST city in the world. Hands down. The Andalucian people are sincere and welcoming, even if they speak a mile a minute and their accents take a second to catch onto. Granada has wonderful shopping, nightlife, restuarants, etc. The tapas are amazing, as is the Sangria.. and the gelato! The best part about Granada is the history--the Alhambra is breath-taking, and the other cathedrals and areas of the city give nice glimpses into it's Moorish past.

You're up in the mountains in Granada and can do all sorts of activities outside, such as hiking or paragliding, but the beaches are only a quick bus ride away. Southern Spain's beaches are TO. DIE. FOR. We went almost every weekend that we weren't traveling with API.

API excursions are the best, as well. We went to other interesting cities that weren't too far away, so we got a real glimpse into areas of Andalucia that we might not have had the experience to on other trips.

Traveling within Spain is super cheap, as well as all over Europe once you're there, and there was room in our schedule for trips to other cities and countries, wich was excellent.

Classes were manageable and did not take up too much time. It is understood that the best way to learn the language is to go out and explore and interact with the Andalucian people. Class would take up 3-4 hours out of the day, and the rest was spent taking siestas, shopping, walking in the Garcia de Lorca park, and just enjoying what Granada had to offer.

I was beyond sad to leave and have been itching to return since I boarded the plane back to the U.S. My advice to you is: STUDY ABROAD. GO TO GRANADA. AND DO IT WITH API!!!!

The University of Granada's classes were manageable

API is a wonderful program provider to go with. They are one of the cheapest program providers for Spain, but everything they do is very high quality! We have always stayed in nice accommodations when traveling, the housing they arranged for me with a host mom was perfect, and they really do a great job of taking care of the students. There are several excursions built into the trip, all of them worthwhile, informative, and fun experiences! API makes sure that students get to see the highlights of the cities they visit, arranging tour-guided trips to El Prado and El Palacio Real in Madrid, and El Escorial, and around the city of Toledo rather than just releasing us into foreign cities. I highly recommend studying abroad with API!

Granada is a beautiful city. Though API bills it as a smaller city, there are over 200,000 people and it has a big city feel in the main shopping district (at least, it does to a midwestern suburbian girl like me!). After dark, it is NOT wise for girls to walk alone, and in fact it is not advisable for girls to walk alone in empty streets. One afternoon, I was approached by drug dealers when walking with a girl and a guy in a deserted neighborhood close to the Alhambra. That section of town is a little sketchy.

But on the whole, Granada is really a perfect location. The weather is temperate, the people are reasonably friendly (more so than in other Spanish cities I visited), the scenery is GORGEOUS, and it is a perfect picture of the typical Spanish town. Street vendors display colorful goods, some priced and others for barter; buses, motos, and pedestrians fill the busy streets; and cute little shops line the roads, some very sophisticated and expensive, others selling cheap souvenirs and hand-made goods.

The Alhambra, a great palace and fortress built in the 1300's by Moorish rulers in the area, overlooks Granada, and it is well worth seeing at least once -- ESPECIALLY the gardens!! They are gorgeous. I could have spent hours in the gardens, snapping perfect beautiful photo after perfect beautiful photo. And the views of Granada from the gardens of the Alhambra are hermosa, as well.

The food in Granada is very much like what we are accustomed to in America. Though it is Spain, and some native dishes are foreign to the American tongue, I have found very mainstream food selections everywhere in Granada, from the Burger King on the corner to the dinner my host mom cooks at home! But beware, the Spanish have bread with every meal. At first, it is tempting to load up on the ever-present carbs available at mealtimes, but soon you may notice that your pants don't fit as well, and you'll have to cut back. I certainly did!

API stood out to me as a fantastic program provider from the start. Before deciding to study with API, I was actually planning to study in Australia with AustraLearn, and I spent several months working with AustraLearn. But when they informed me, two months before I was supposed to leave, that the program cost was going to be $3,000 more than the printed price, I started researching other abroad programs and found API Granada and quickly applied and was accepted last-minute.

With API, the prices were exactly what they said they would be. API was candid about EVERYTHING. In contrast to AustraLearn, API had all the questions answered upfront, and they were very honest about the pros and cons of studying in each location, and even about ordering a cell phone through API. They made all of the information very easy to understand, unlike AustraLearn, and were always cordial and helpful over the phone. After comparing my experience with AustraLearn to my experience with API, I am convinced of API's superior quality as a program provider!

Not only is it a more efficient and more user-friendly company, but API really makes an effort to accommodate students. Before taking our Spanish language placement exam to determine which classes we could take, the directors informed us that if we didn't do as well as we needed to do to receive credit, we could appeal the decision and probably get moved up where we needed to be. This was a HUGE relief for me, while taking the test. It's the little things like that, that really distinguish API from other program providers. They want us to have a fantastic experience, and it shows. I HIGHLY recommend API as a fantastic study abroad experience!

I absolutely loved my time in Granada. I've talked about it so much that most of my friends now roll their eyes and sigh anytime the word Spain even comes out of my mouth. I chose that city because it is a college town, so I knew there would be lots of Spaniards in my age group, and because it was smaller I thought it would be easier to get into the habit of speaking Spanish more regularly. Also, the city itself is absolutely beautiful + they have one of the most famous gelato shops in all of the south-Los Italianos- I'm pretty sure it was featured on the Travel Channel, or by Rick Steves. The thing I enjoyed the most was just being outdoors on a regular basis, being from a large city in Texas I spend a good amount of time experiencing my city as I drive, I loved getting to walk around, bike ride, hike and just sit outside with a cool drink. I also got very lucky as I was able to experience Spain during a World Cup year so there was lots of excitement, made even better by the fact that they won for the first time ever! The hardest thing was probably adapting to day-to-day activities. Everyone tells about about the history of Spain, the importance of Catholicism, flamenco, tapas, etc. What I didn't know before arrival was what was difficult to adjust to- bringing my own toilet paper to some bars, not having AC on a regular basis, siesta (its real, and once you get used to it, it's glorious) getting used to literally everything being closed on Sundays, etc. As you get accustomed to those things, they become less of a big deal-but I wish I had known ahead of time. Overall, I loved my experience and I would return in a heartbeat.