CLA - Culture and Language Abroad

The summer I spent in Guanajuato will forever be one of my most favorite and memorable experiences. Fabiola was an excellent guide, teacher, mentor and friend through the whole program. The program was highly organized and well planned out. Everyday was an adventure. The classes I took at the University were meaningful and manageable. I especially loved all the extra field trips and classes Fabi planned such as our trip to Mexico City and group cooking class. I highly recommend this program!!!!!

I did a month in Guanajuato and it was so incredible. Fabi is one of the most amazing people I have met and worked so hard to make sure we all had a wonderful time. It was a learning experience and a fun one. The Spanish classes at The University of Guanajuato were very helpful and interesting. The trips the Fabi planned for the program allowed us to go to some of the most vibrant and culture rich areas of Mexico. While there were a lot of activities you could do, there also was time for you to explore the city on your own with other people both in and out of the program. I have made life long contacts with my host mom who was incredible to live with as well as others in the program and of course Fabi. She does an excellent job placing people in host families that will take great care of you. If I could do this program all over again I would be back in heartbeat. Guanajuato was amazing on its own, but Fabi took it to new heights.

Guanajuato is a beautiful city full of colour, vibrancy, and a friendly mix of locals and other international students. It's a great city to wander and find live music, fantastic street food or a little bar/coffee shop to relax in. As long as you make an effort with trying to speak, the citizens of Guanajuato are friendly and receptive and it was overall an extremely pleasant place to live. Fabiola and Samantha were our local program administrators with CLA and it's hard to put into words how incredible they were. From picking us up at the airport to showing us around the city to organizing weekly cultural excursions, we quickly became friends who I still keep in contact with today. My experience was definitely improved with Fabiola & Samantha's guidance and I couldn't have asked for a better study abroad program with them. I stayed with a family who again I cannot fault. I was apprehensive at first because I was joining a very large family coming from a small household, but they immediately treated me like I were one of their own. But when living with a family, it's important to get yourself involved with mealtimes and general family time. They are one of your best resources when learning Spanish and they'll be interested in your life and background too! When choosing a study abroad program, the academic program was important. I wanted to learn more about the language and place I was living but didn't want to spend my whole time inside of a classroom. I found that the academic program at the University of Guanajuato was a perfect match of what I wanted, and all the professors I had were extremely friendly and dedicated to helping us learn. Financially, it's important to budget your money and resist the urge to spend it all in the first few weeks. There are so many restaurants, bars, coffee shops, museums and other attractions that if you're awful at self-control like myself, it's easy to overspend at the beginning of study abroad. Other than that, like any tourist city it has its expensive and cheaper areas. It just takes a little while to figure it out.

I had the opportunity to spend three months studying abroad (of my planned six months) before COVID-19 hit. It was truly the best three months of my life. I was placed with a host family that home-cooked every meal and had two amazing and supportive host parents. The academics were good, but the highlight of university life was meeting other students (both domestic and exchange). There were so many opportunities to meet people (language exchanges were a favorite). The cultural activities that we did the program were also really tailored to our interests and super fun/informative (cooking classes, a traditional tattooing workshop). Once COVID-19 hit, the director had us quarantine in her house with her before we had to leave. It was a great bonding experience and above-and-beyond for her to let us to live there just to assure our safety. Everyone involved in the program truly wants what's best for you and for you to have the best time you possibly can. I cannot recommend this program enough. If there's anything I could change, it would be the timing of the pandemic so I could stay longer.

I am very satisfied with the program. That time was indispensable. Fabiola and Samantha are so kind and showed us many places, and always took care of us. Also, they have good relationships with the host families. I found that living with a host family is very different from living alone in Mexico. You can eat Mexican food, talk in Spanish all the time with people who they live there, and you can learn lots of things by living with them. I enjoyed the time with my host family, and of course Fabiola and Samantha.