CIEE High School Study Abroad in Spain

This program overall was life changing. It allowed me to have more independce away from my family. I enjoyed the Digital Film Making & Documentary class and what was tought throughout. My overall favourite part would be how I connected with my host family. I really enjoyed when they took me out to enjoy a concert. The things i did not enjoy was the placement for free time. It was during seista so nothing was open while our other free time was during the night with not enough time between dinner and curfew.I also did not enjoy the major focus on the Language & Culture program over us in Global Discovery.

Over all this trip was very fun and I am glad I decided to travel here and participate in this program. I personally took some issue with the lack of organization throughout the trip and found it rather irritating, but that did not completley take away from the personal growth I feel like I acheived while I was here. I also did not have a perfect home stay experience because my host mother was rather difficult and breaking some rules, but I know that the majority my friends loved their host parents and family members. It would have been much much better if we were given more free time durring more convienent parts of the day so that we could explore and learn more about the place we chose to visit on our own.

I loved this trip. I made 13 new friends and made so many memories. My host family was amzing and treated me and my housemate just like their own kids. Going on weekend trips was one of the best parts, we saw so many amzing things and got to relax. My favorite memory was taking our trip to granada, my friends and i really got immersed in the culture by eating native food and going to the authenthic shops there. I loved being in Sevilla and i definietly want to travel more.

I had an amazing time! The program overall was very fun overall and I learned a lot about film. There were some minor setbacks and times of frustration, but nothing major. I would recommend this program! One problem we faced was not having access to editing software or equipment, this made creating the videos we set out to make very difficult.

Overall, this program has been a great experience. The people, the curiculum, the places, and the process was pretty simple and fun. Future participants should have a better understanding about the first few days they arrive to better prepare during travel. The staff did a great job with keeping up with us before we left the united states and after. I loved almost every second of this trip and the parts I didnt love were a result of my close minded and laziness.

Ciee has a great class going on in Seville that I was lucky to be apart of. I never felt like I was unsafe or left out and I really liked that. My host family was a great family and the staff here did a great job of helping our expirience, they rarely messed up. Overall I am happy that I went on this trip. We had great weekend trips to different cities and I felt like my expierience benefitted greatly from that. Also my class was fun and interesting and helped me to learn more about filmaking.

I really enjoyed meeting new people and making friends. The staff is really supportive and nice. I would for sure recommend this program to those who are trying to experience something new and fun. one thing I would change is the organization of the activities because throughout the days some of the times changed and it was no fun having to rush to a meeting point really far from our house. This experience really helped me see the cultures in a different view and particiapting in it first had. this was an overall life changing experience that I will never forget.

When I was 16, I wanted to do something new and exciting, and a semester abroad sounded like the way to do it. I found CIEE online and compared it's prices, services, and opportunities to other programs I found, and CIEE definitely had me captivated from the beginning. I chose to go abroad to Spain, and in preparation to leave I had many questions, and I was quite exceedingly nervous. The staff at CIEE was consistently quick to respond to my emails and were always willing to Skype call with me to ease any fear and answer any question I had. At orientation in Boston, we learned through hands on activities what kinds of challenges we might face while abroad, and learned what made the difference between a successful and unsuccessful experience. Upon our arrival in Spain, we were seamlessly transitioned from CIEE to the Spanish exchange partner, InterHispania. When meeting my host family for the first time and experiencing the rollercoaster of emotions that are associated with homesickness and culture shock, I always had resources to help me cope, and I was not blindsided by how hard the transition would be because of the efficiency and thoroughness of the orientation. My time abroad was the best experience I could have had at my age, and has lead me to come back to Spain three years later. As I write this, I live here in Madrid permanently, and am still very much in touch with the host family I was so lucky to have been paired with three years ago. In fact, I consider them my family, second to my own, and still visit them every other weekend. CIEE provided me with a once in a life time opportunity that shaped my goals for the future. I know I would not be where I am today if it had not been for this program.